Obi-Wan Kenobi the TV series is halfway done. I am eagerly anticipating the next episode. Along with many fans I waited for months for the show to cone out. But then (possible) leaks about the supposed role of the new inquisitor character Reva and how she would eclipse Obi-Wan in his show ended up upsetting fans. They feared a bait and switch would be pulled. Another classical character wasted, just as happened with Luke and Han in the sequel trilogy.
I shared these concerns, yet so far it really has been Obi-Wan’s show, his reunion with Vader was fantastic and so is Ewan McGregor’s performance. Now I just hope they keep building to a proper conclusion with Obi-Wan facing Vader again, trying to redeem him but failing miserably, which would give clarity to Vader’s words to Luke in Return of the Jedi when he tried to turn Vader back to the light, that Obi-Wan once thought as Luke did, as some fans have speculated will happen. I am just curious what the low origins of the third sister are exactly. Is she the only one who isn’t a former Jedi?
But this isn’t a review, there are more than enough of those already, the quality of the show is high and it is not undermined by bad political messages.
And so, the Third Sister doesn’t undermine the show at all. That fans were afraid she would, based on leaks and past decisions by Disney is understandable. That some of them would be abusive on twitter is toxic fans being toxic, which is bad obviously.
But since the fears based on leaks don’t seem to have come true (so far) why have fans continued to attack Ingram anyways? Her performance and character have been heavily criticised but why? The acting can be debated but nobody can argue that it is exceptionally bad. Her character doesn’t have bad motivations or undermine continuity. So why the continuing severe hatred?
It seems that once fans decided the character sucked, they stuck to that. Fanatically.
Is this an example of the boy who cried wolf? Star Wars fans assume female and coloured characters will lack development, be overpowered, unlikeable and steal the spotlight from beloved characters, because that has happened several times in a row and because Disney has previously used (ridiculous) accusations of racism and sexism to reject legitimate criticism.
Have they become racist because accusations of racism are wielded as a shield against fan backlash, and racial politics used as a sword to gut the old lore?
The Star Wars fandom has not traditionally been known for either being racist, sexist or alt right. Star Wars had Leia kicking butt when that was still a new thing. Mace Windu and Lando Calrissian were both fan favourites. Ashoka became one after initially being hated, the reverse of Rey as a great Youtube analysist going by the name Thor Skywalker has pointed out.
Then fans ended up losing interest in both Rey and Finn as their backstories and character arcs went nowhere in The Last Jedi and of course that meant they were sexist and racist. Just as they were sexist for disliking how purple haired Admiral Holdo got to berate that pilot guy (wasn’t memorable enough to remember) even though under her leadership nearly the entire rebel alliance was wiped out. Disney and its hired hands appear to have worked under the assumption that bad writing (and sometimes acting) don’t count if your characters aren’t straight, white males along with the no
Does a new black female character elicit suspicions of SJW propaganda undermining the franchise simply because of Disney Star Wars’ track record? Are such prejudices by the fans racist? It isn’t simply about a female character of colour but it being such a character in a franchise Disney has ruined through identity politics. You could say the fans just decided to not wait for Disney to play the race card this time. They were tired of being fooled.
While I like to pretend none of the sequel trilogy films happened (it is very easy), I fell in love with Rogue One (much to my surprise) and I know few fans who have hated on that film, even though it also has a female lead and a cast largely made up of racial minorities.
But that was before the Last Jedi, the Captain Marvel PR disaster and so on. Maybe racial and sex politics in films, their marketing campaigns and responses by the makers had led to a backlash amongst fans and while, Ingram did comment in an interview on how much more diverse this show would be, but that has nothing to do with her acting.
Politics has made race a factor in films again, when for a long time most fans seemed genuinely colour-blind and sex-blind.
But whether the fan backlash truly has taken on a racist tone or is mainly just anti-racial politics, the accusation that fans showed they were racist because they found young bratty Leia annoying is just laughable.
I didn’t mind it. It just a less subtle version of Leia in a New Hope (she is younger after all) and the interactions between her and Obi-Wan were actually very endearing and sometimes tense.
But fans complaining about characters being annoying… did they forget how much fans attacked Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker (which I always found odd since Luke was exactly the same, they were intentionally similar)?
Fans hating on annoying (child) characters isn’t suddenly sexist.
But there you have it, another Disney product, another identity politics related controversy I guess… soft drugs are legal where I live…
Altmann Beten