Previous post
Next post
Anyone else remember when we didn’t have to know what our favorite soda, snack chip, or shoe brand thought about social justice? Those were the days.
Now, we get constantly “enlightened” about the wokeness of our razors, our ice cream, and popular movie franchises. This time, the official Star Wars account needed to do a social justice genuflection in honor of Martin Luther King Day.
Today, we honor Dr. King and celebrate his legacy. The Lucasfilm family is committed to the fight for justice and equality in every corner of the galaxy. Each of us keeps the dream alive! (Photo by Reg Lancaster/Express/Getty Images)
— Star Wars (@starwars) January 18, 2021
On the surface, this seems to be relatively harmless virtue signaling. Though why the Rev. King’s words would matter “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away” where multiple species of aliens exist and interspecies relationships are a thing is beyond me. And certainly, this was meant to be nothing more than a regularly-scheduled acknowledgment on a federal holiday of the reason the federal holiday exists. (As a side note, this federal holiday may be a lot more controversial in six or seven years, but that’s a completely different post.)
But as we know, even the most milquetoast of virtue signaling can bring down the wrath of social justice Twitter if they think there is a fight to be had.
This you? pic.twitter.com/pUWO06HdUN
— Tom Reakes (@Tomz0rr) January 18, 2021
Yes, that would be a social justice hornet’s nest being kicked over by fans, and really, Star Wars, Lucasfilm, and Disney deserve every single fan complaint that they are getting about this. You see, the Star Wars sequel trilogy, produced by J.J. Abrams, was designed to be a politically-correct panderfest of epic proportions. The first movie in the trilogy, “The Force Awakens”, was a sort-of-promising set up that had interesting character motivations, but completely trashed audience expectations of the classic characters that everyone knew and loved.
“The Last Jedi”, the most controversial film in the trilogy, has one of the largest disconnects between fan popularity and film critic approval ratings. A few elements were fixed in “The Rise of Skywalker” but it wasn’t enough to save the fans from feeling that the franchise had collapsed in on itself with a nuclear-level thud. No one walked away from the sequel trilogy with any sense of satisfaction, no matter what your political or social leanings. And naturally, the fact that the actors have bad-mouthed Star Wars fans, Lucasfilm, and Disney after the fact has only incensed the social justice warrior contingent that lives within the science fiction genre. Actor John Boyega, who played Finn in the sequel trilogy, has especially been outspoken about he felt about how Star Wars and Disney treated his character.
How does he reflect on his involvement and the way the newest trilogy was concluded?”
“It’s so difficult to manoeuvre,” he says, exhaling deeply, visibly calibrating the level of professional diplomacy to display. “You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything. [But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.” He is talking about himself here – about the character of Finn, the former Stormtrooper who wielded a lightsaber in the first film before being somewhat nudged to the periphery. But he is also talking about other people of colour in the cast – Naomi Ackie and Kelly Marie Tran and even Oscar Isaac (“a brother from Guatemala”) – who he feels suffered the same treatment; he is acknowledging that some people will say he’s “crazy” or “making it up”, but the reordered character hierarchy of The Last Jedi was particularly hard to take.”
So, blame director Rian Johnson? Yes. Blame Disney for thinking they could have a racially diverse cast and they didn’t need an actual plot, just special effects and intersectionality? Yes. The problem is that John Boyega apparently feels like he was “owed” something, but what he thinks he was owed isn’t what he was REALLY owed as an actor.
He thinks that he was owed more screen time because Star Wars is supposed to be so accepting and diverse. Nope. What he WAS owed was a decent, planned out series of scripts that allowed for real character development, instead of yanking all the plot threads and characters around in support of “girl power” over an actual STORY. “The Last Jedi”‘s script is proof that no one knew what they were doing with the script, and fan reaction proves that. (Also, Finn should have been allowed to sacrifice himself in that film – it would have been a much more meaningful character arc.)
What is also proof that Disney and Lucasfilm gambled that a diverse cast and the name “Star Wars” would be enough to keep fans happy – and failed miserably – is the raging success of the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.” But social justice warriors have tried to complain about that, too. Everything from female representation to the presence of Gina Carano (who DARES to not march in lockstep with the Hollywood Left – gasp!) has set off the usual complainers. But you know what Star Wars and Lucasfilm and Disney have seen? If you have a strong plot, then the fans tell the social justice warriors to get lost, because they are enjoying themselves. And sometimes, the actors say the same thing.
Subtle https://t.co/9ElMMUz6SY
— I got your #Unity right here (@jtLOL) January 19, 2021
Star Wars is going to have to make a decision, and right quick. Is it going to tell good stories that the fans like watching, or is it going to keep on the politically correct social justice track that ended up making no one happy?
Now, at this point you might be wondering why an entire post has been written about Star Wars on this blog. Well, remember what Andrew Breitbart used to say? “Politics is downstream from culture.” Star Wars might not mean anything to you, but it means a whole lot to others. If we don’t have anything culturally in common any more, then we can’t come together on anything. One of the rare unifying things during this period of time has been media – whether people were binge-watching “Tiger King” or gushing over the cuteness of Baby Yoda. We need good cultural offerings to share. A less politically correct Star Wars franchise that tells good stories would be the best place to start.
Also, more Baby Yoda.
Welcome Instapundit Readers!
Featured image courtesy of Deanna Fisher, personal photo, all rights reserved
As an audience member, I am really annoyed at how Rose & Finn were treated. They could have been a great team, a mechanic and a former stormtrooper sneaking onto the First Empire’s flagship and disabling it covertly could have been a tense, exciting movie.
Instead, they got sent to Planet Vegas on a wild goose chase, lost their ship to parking violation, and ended up bringing a traitor back with them. In a film full of amazingly stupid characters, they stood out as being even dumber than everyone else.
GWB says: instead of yanking all the plot threads and characters around in support of “girl power”
So, the issue is really one of which intersectionality should prevail over the other intersectionalities?
The SJZs are all sitting on petards and flicking lit matches about. Heh,
A less politically correct Star Wars franchise that tells good stories would be the best place to start.
ANY franchise. ANY show. Morality plays for the Progressive religion are really not enjoyable (mainly because the Progressive religion is unenjoyable).
Quentin Q Quill says: I’ve only seen two Star Wars movies. They were okay but I wasn’t interested in seeing more. In response to all the emotion in this article I’d like to quote Melania and say, “I really don’t care, do U?”
GWB says: And yet, you continue to hang out here. I think you care more than you like to admit.
Fred Barnes says: Totally agree. I wasn’t looking forward to Finn because he was black, I was looking forward to Finn because Boyega is a really fun actor to watch (Attack the Block) and would have brought a real spark to the franchise….had he actually had a chance to.
Russ Mitchell says: And it’s pretty clear that he got royally screwed in the movies, too. Girl Power Star LITERALLY just shuts him down ON SCREEN when he’s coming up with one of the most important reveals of the sequal trilogy (that he’s actually force-sensitive). If that’s not getting “screwed by Disney,” I don’t know what is.
Evil Otto says: Quentin, from the article:
“Now, at this point you might be wondering why an entire post has been written about Star Wars on this blog. Well, remember what Andrew Breitbart used to say? “Politics is downstream from culture.” Star Wars might not mean anything to you, but it means a whole lot to others.”
One of the reasons conservatives have been struggling is that we’ve ceded control of popular culture to the left. Star Wars is modern mythology, and the left is using that mythology to try and brainwash people into buying their woke intersectional politics.
HenryCameron says: Lucas did such a good job disguising his politics in the original Star Wars trilogy that most people didn’t realize that he imagined the Rebels and Ewoks as the Viet Cong “freedom fighters” battling the evil American Empire under Emperor Richard Nixon. As a teenager, I didn’t know that, so I viewed it from my own historical perspective more like the American rebels with guerilla leaders like Francis Marion battling the British Empire, or the WWII resistance fighting the Nazis, given the Empire’s uniforms and the WWII dogfight footage used for the space battles. In other words, Star Wars had a generic universal appeal regardless of your politics. Unfortunately, the SJWs running things now have zero imagination or subtlety, so instead of creating timeless classics, they create shrill tracts that are dated before they even premier.
J Lee says: Gender appears to have trumped race in “The Last Jedi”, in that Kathleen Kennedy, though Rian Johnson, was so intent on pushing her “Force is Female” messaging, that anything that didn’t fit that narrative had to be sidelined.
The fact that Boyega was male was more important that his race in the end to how his character was treated — female empowerment and denigrating the competence of males was the whole point of the script for “The Last Jedi” — but given how much potential there was in the original idea of a storm trooper turning away from his training to join t he rebels, it make Johnson’s turning Finn into essentially a comedy relief by the end of Episode VIII (Rose has to save him from his own ‘bumbling’ attempt to sacrifice himself for the others) even more annoying … though not as annoying as what Johnson and Kennedy did to Luke in Episode VIII. The difference is that Boyega has the ability to throw the race card back at Lucasfilm where Hamil did not, which given their obsession with identity politics, falls into the getting a taste of their own medicine category.
Del Varner says: If you go to other various YouTube channels which discuss the state of Video Games, Comics, and other pop franchises, you find that there is really a “civil war” going on inside o Disney. It’s the show runners of The Mandalorean vs the Kathleen Kennedy cabal. The Mandaloeran while not outstanding TV at least respects the viewers. It isn’t stuffed ful of intersectional feminism and wokeness.
Brian says: Same thing happened to Man in the High Castle where in the final season, they thrust in a black liberation movement that completely ruined the story and shoved out characters we’d been following for seasons. If you’re going to do social justice propaganda, at least start with it from the beginning so we can stop watching in the first 15 minutes.
HenryCameron says: Lucas did such a good job disguising his politics in the original Star Wars trilogy that most people didn’t realize that he imagined the Rebels and Ewoks as the Viet Cong battling the evil American Empire under Emperor Richard Nixon. As a teenager, I didn’t know that, so I viewed it from my own historical perspective more like the American rebels with guerilla leaders like Francis Marion battling the British Empire, or the WWII resistance fighting the Nazis (obvious given the Empire’s uniforms and the WWII dogfight footage used for the space battles). In other words, Star Wars had a generic universal appeal regardless of your politics. Unfortunately, the SJWs running things now have zero imagination or subtlety, so instead of creating timeless classics, they create shrill tracts that are dated before they even premier.
12 Comments