Anthology of Interest - A Star Wars Tale(s)
Since Disney took over the Star Wars IP it’s been a series of peaks and troughs for the die-hards, and in some cases even the casual fan-base. But there might be a solution to working through your disdain for one thing and love for another, and it might be right under your nose.
Follow us on this first step into a larger world…
When Star Wars: The Acolyte released, this writer was late to the party by roughly a week. The thing is, in the world of die-hard Star Wars fans, the Internet and anyone even mildly geek-aligned, a week is akin to several parsecs, and then some.
So, naturally, being a person who works on the Internet, I was exposed to sentiment and spoiler alike. The number one thing that jumped out at me, however, was this idea that The Acolyte was somehow ‘woke’ -- a spurious term that many might want to actually research before adopting its modern, appropriated take (for the record, we here are not ‘woke’, we just enjoy common sense thought and, you know, a society of progression and inclusion -- much like sci-fi).
LGBTQI+ representation, diversity in skin colour and cultures (let’s all never forget that the Jedi Council and the Sith -- plus the rest of the place, sans clones -- are made up of many, many backgrounds), positive political messaging, a bit more of that common sense from above when we contextualise everything -- I mean, if this is a “Galaxy Far, Far Away….” then, you know, surely a “galaxy” denotes a certain grandeur. And surely within that, myriad ideologies, relationships and interests among its many, many, many residents. To have piled on the series as “woke feminism” (plus the rest) belies the concept of sci-fi in the first place and does a disservice to the fictionalised diversity of the Star Wars universe that has existed since 1977.
Go on and count the many ‘alien’ races in the very first Mos Eisley Cantina scene in Episode IV and tell us Star Wars isn’t about representation or diversity. We’re not joking, either.
So maybe, just maybe, those elements so many are up in arms about, speak to and for others… maybe they have roots in ancient storytelling, and maybe they just, you know, work when you “galaxy” a thing, it’s also 2024, gang.
And yet here we are, finding ourselves on the tail-end of news that the show has been overlooked for a Season 2. The (minor) masses have (out)spoken and enough Force disruption has now cancelled another creator’s vision that, in reality, hurt no one and actually made many pretty happy. That “creator’s vision” line, by the way, is why we’re here today and we implore Star Wars die-hards to keep reading. Because there is a point to this and no, we’re not attempting to ruffle feathers, if you genuinely don’t like something, maybe just don’t watch it.