Star Wars and Story Telling: Why Everyone is Now an Expert Writer

Have people lost their minds? One really has to wonder when skimming through social media these days. And it’s not just in Facebook groups – the cesspool of hate extends into X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and beyond. 

Is it just that there are more people on social media these days who voice their opinions in the camp of hating the genre they once loved for apparently no reason?

Has the world suddenly seen a tsunami of new, professional storytellers who know exactly what makes up an excellent script for a television series or movie in the Star Wars universe?

Or is it that people just take it way too personally when someone other than George Lucas messes with the world-building in a universe they have bonded to so profoundly over their years in Star Wars fandom?

The truth may be more complicated than that, or it may be something else entirely. Let’s explore these three above mentioned points and see if we can get a handle on this strange phenomenon and why it is so prevalent in our day.

Sheer Numbers

“Is it just that there are more people on social media these days who voice their opinions in the camp of hating the genre they once loved for apparently no reason?”

Let’s take Facebook for example. According to Statista.com¹, Meta aka Facebook has grown from 100 users in 2008 to over 3.59 billion in 2023 (Meta products include Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus). From a hard numbers standpoint, it certainly is a factor, but percentage-wise, this also means that the non-haters have also increased in numbers alongside those that seem to spit venom at every opportunity and with every new project Lucasfilm and Disney+ puts out (more on the unique influence Disney+ has here later).

And as with anything discussed by groups with opposing points of view – online or off, you have both sides of the coin. Just drop in on any pop culture discussion, sports team or religious discussion and one finds quickly enough that people’s opinions vary from the “whatever” camp to those who are fanatical in their hatred of the topic in discussion.

And just as with real life, even many people on Facebook and other social media are unaware of the phenomenon of hatred and their attitude of, “I know good storytelling and they don’t”, yet it is so prevalent it has been given the moniker of “toxic fandom”.

Everyone is an Expert Storyteller Now?

“Has the world suddenly seen a tsunami of new, professional storytellers who know exactly what makes up an excellent script for a television series or movie in the Star Wars universe?”

I think any sane, thinking person would agree that while more schools and classes have opened up over the past decades to teach the art of script writing and storytelling, it has not increased the innate talent in the art of writing in the human race as a whole. In fact, because there is so much more competition because of this fact, one would really have to be a brilliant writer and shine even more than before in order to even be noticed and acknowledged. And those who are truly talented writers are more often spending time not on social media adding their two cents into these vehement discussions, but are actually off writing and plying their trade. In fact, a simple response to many of the worst of these haters on social media would be to simply say, “Prove it. Are you a professional or even an aspiring writer that has submitted your work(s) for consideration by the entertainment industry?” and sit back and enjoy the lack of credible, qualified responses.

Poking People’s Childhood Dreams with a Stick

“Or is it that people just take it way too personally when someone other than George Lucas messes with the world-building in a universe they have bonded to so profoundly over their years in Star Wars fandom?”

To this point my husband Dennis and I can speak with the experience of seeing the entire Star Wars phenomenon from before it became a thing all the way up to the present day. We both saw the original Star Wars: A New Hope movie even before it was called “A New Hope” in the theaters in its original first run. Back then in 1977, there were a few detractors, some were even film critics with a substantial number of followers. Imagine their surprise when so many people completely ignored their advice that Star Wars was a bad film and went and saw it anyway, many becoming true fans. Yes, there were probably many on the other side of the coin who did not go see it or did not like it, but their voices were drowned out in a sea of overwhelmingly positive response to something so unique it had never been seen before in theaters presented in the way George Lucas had crafted it.

This sea of new fans were more hyped when its sequels, “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” came out. People were still in the Golden Age of romance over something so new and unique that was constantly improving and evolving as fast as George Lucas could push the technology. The love and fandom for the Star Wars Universe seemed an unstoppable train of positivity with each new project.

Then the Star Wars holiday special came out.

It almost sank fandom for many of us, pandering to fans love of this new genre with a “television special” the network executives insisted go beyond an hour to an hour and a half, then, unbelievably, to an unbearable TWO HOURS – all because their greed, production deadlines and lack of common sense pushed them to crank out what was in many ways an unwatchable piece of garbage. Almost lost in the cesspool of bad writing and acting were a couple of gems; a sneak peek at the character of bounty hunter Boba Fett and an animation called Star Wars – droids. 

Then the real test came when Star Wars – The Phantom Menace arrived on the scene. Some fans of the original series carried their butthurt over this new project so far as to not even acknowledge the amazing leap in the special effects and the arrival of the first of what was to be the next trilogy in the Star Wars universe. For them, the magical ride was over. Someone had taken away their childhood toy and dared to change it, to improve upon it and expand on it, and for whatever reason, emotional or otherwise, they just could not handle it.

Strangely enough, it took one or two decades, but we are now seeing an about-face of some small percentage of those original prequel trilogy haters who are now mumbling an apologetic, professed admiration or like for that trilogy movies (just like what began to happen with the prequels beginning about 10 years after their premiere).

And yet again, bring on the acquisition of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars Universe by the Disney Company, who put out their own sequel trilogy, and the cycle of peculiar human reaction is threatening to repeat yet again. While it still may be too early for many of the haters to admit the sequels weren’t that bad, in the meantime they are often turning their toxic attention to the new Star Wars projects that have come out in recent years. Star Wars: Visions, Asoka, the last season of The Mandalorian and now The Acolyte are getting the brunt of a noticeably deeper toxic reaction that quite frankly eclipses prior pessimistic attitudes in its sheer toxicity.

And this sad underbelly of Star Wars fandom’s “dark side” shows no sign of stopping.

The Disney Connection

If all of this wasn’t enough of a defining statement on the immaturity of many of those in fandom, the acquisition of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars Universe by the Walt Disney Company seems to be the straw that broke the Mouse’s back – or in this case Mouse that broke the Bantha’s back. 

There may be many reasons why there’s so much hatred in toxic fandom against George Lucas selling his vision to the House of Mouse and it does not all have to do with the fact that they feel he’s a sellout and that he betrayed their dreams. And I can promise you none of these reasons will have to do with their talent as writers. If we were to start a running list of them, it would look like this;

• The aforementioned lack of maturity by some of the fandom and the ability of them to “let go” and/or “move on” with their lives.
• Lucasfilm’s puzzling hiring and firing of writers and directors, ie storytellers, for a simple film is quite frankly not only baffling, but heavily damaging to fandom’s faith that they can deliver and actually come through with their promises.
• An equally baffling and almost irrational hatred of the President of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy when she has delivered on successful films, series and genres both within and outside of the Star Wars universe. More often than not, comments abound in social media (including YouTube) from people who merely see her name attached to a project and are not even open-minded enough to actually give the series a try.
• The Walt Disney company’s deterioration of the moral core of their company’s original mission. What once was their strong, family values-centered ethics compass in the 1950s and 60s has turned into pandering to the LGBTQ+ community in a bid to not give the impression that they are alienating any of their audience. This has generated much of the worst hatred among toxic fans, hurling accusations of being, “Woke” to creating all-female productions in their latest projects – this latter accusation being profoundly puzzling because the series The Acolyte is by no means lacking in male characters!

So Are They or Aren’t They?

If you’ve gotten this far and hung on with me through this post, it’s pretty obvious I believe 99% of toxic fandom are not storytellers, but are also being worthy of blocking on social media just so they don’t waste our time. Throughout my years of being on Facebook, X and YouTube, this article is the first useful thing I’ve done in conjunction with being exposed to such negative people. 

At least I can give them credit for that.Kristine Cherry, guest blogger

¹ Source for Facebook stats: https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

221th blog completed.

First Steampunk novel:  76,718 words.  <– Past 76,000.  Goal:  80,000.

Second Steampunk novel: 783 words. 

Second Steampunk screenplay:  157 pages.

First Steampunk screenplay:  Need to update with notes from the novelization.

Third Steampunk screenplay:  38 pages.

ONE THING I WANT TO ADD ABOUT THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL:

Aside from the artsy-fartsy dance numbers and too little story spread over two hours, there was something else that sank my sandcrawler in quicksand.  There was that animation segment that introduced us to Boba Fett.  Boba Fett met Luke and appeared to be helping him out of this ocean of sludge.  That was the first half of the story, but they never went back for the second half.  That was an interesting bit, but where was the rest?  Don’t give me half a story if you don’t intend to give me the second half.