So, I just finished watching the latest Star Wars series “The Acolyte” and I have to say that it was pretty good. It wasn’t perfect but it was a lot better than what audiences were saying about it. It follows the story of two sisters; one good, aligned with the Jedi and the other more evil, aligning herself with the Sith.
The series takes place about 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace and the series has come under scrutiny for adding black characters and having a same-sex couple parent the twins and a lot of fans have claimed that Disney is using more identity politics to make their stories look more diverse and to appease the DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion).
Normally, I’m not a huge fan of using diversity to try and further a certain political or racial agenda but I think the hatred might be going a little too far and not just for “The Acolyte” but also for the entire franchise.
People give Reva from the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series and a lot of the characters from “The Acolyte” a lot of flack for their “characterizations”, but are the characters really that poorly written? Nobody said a word when Samuel Jackson played Mace Windu in the prequel series and he was one of the most badass characters in the franchise and nobody said anything about Lando Calrissian, even though as we look back, Lando is not the best character in the franchise and only serves as Han Solo’s sidekick.
Ever since Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton were running for President of the United States, the country has been socially, politically and ideologically divided. It’s come down between the woke vs. the based. Even as I write this article I realize that both sides make up words and stories just so they can either win arguments and/or look smarter than how they really are. You might be asking what this has to do with ‘Star Wars’ and its fan base. Let me explain.
After Disney bought Star Wars in 2012, they quickly began to produce more films and tv shows beginning with “The Force Awakens”, where audiences were introduced to the newest character Rey (Not Skywalker) Palpatine. Most people considered her a Mary Sue, which is something of a new term in the mid-2010s and especially new when used to describe a Star Wars character.
I am not a fan of the sequel movies but some of the hate seems unjustified, especially for the tv shows that Disney produced when adding minority characters. Popular shows and movies have had minority characters before like “Lost” and “Oz” and nobody complained about the characters. One could argue that the characters are poorly written, but after watching “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and “The Acolyte”, it seems that it’s more identity politics when criticizing the characters. That’s right. Even the “based” side of life can quickly use identity politics to make their point.
The woke and based are two sides of the same coin and they don’t even realize it. It’s petty and annoying to add minority characters to appease a few people, but it’s also annoying to tear down a character simply because they are a minority and you think that they are only there to push an agenda.
