It's been announced now that Lucasfilm is going to be working with Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich and some Daily Show writer or other to make an animated Star Wars sitcom for either Cartoon Network or Comedy Central. And this news has been met with the typical Star Wars fan reaction: total skepticism in anything having to do with George Lucas.
This is the problem with this particular fandom. They're never excited by something new having to do with Star Wars: instead, they have to wait to judge whether or not it's worthy of their idea of Star Wars. It's like a lot of Star Wars fans--particularly your more obnoxious online ones--are just pissed that George Lucas isn't doing exactly what they want with Star Wars, and is instead doing what he wants with his own creation.
The online reaction is predictable. It pretty much amounts to an unspoken wave of 'Gee, I'd better wait and see how this fits into the Star Wars Universe as a whole before I have some kind of opinion on it."
How about just ignoring what you don't like and enjoying what you do? I don't give two whits about the Rogue Squadron stuff, but other people love them, and it's no skin off my nose. For me, Marvel Comics characters like Jaxxon and Plif the Hoojib are parts of the Universe to cherish; others think anything to do with Marvel Comics is anathema to the precious canon. Well, fine; my enjoyment isn't dependent on whether or not others approve of it. Some of us love Jar Jar and the Ewoks; others have spent their whole lives in childish tears because the Ewoks even exist. I actually don't even like the process of giving Hammerhead and Walrus Man names and back stories; to others, those are essential bits of info to the portrait of the larger Star Wars world.
What I'm getting at is this: the Star Wars Universe is a vast place that can accommodate characters I love (Ahsoka Tano, Tera Sinube, Grand Admiral Thrawn) and characters I don't (Dash Rendar, Tag and Bink, Luminara Unduli). Much too large to keep focusing and obsessing on the ones I don't.
It reminds me of something I saw on Tumblr the other day about the new series of Doctor Who: if you can't get over David Tennant, stick with the David Tennant seasons and stop just bitching about how Matt Smith isn't David Tennant.
That's how I feel about anything to do with Star Wars. Stick with the stuff you like, ignore the stuff you don't.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
This Is Why I Don't Hang Around with Other Star Wars Fans, Part 402
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4 comments:
I was going to say this sounds so much like Doctor Fandom, before the new series there used to be raging flame wars online (usually on the usenet and IRC)over continuity in the books,comics,stage plays etc etc. And before the Paul McGann "amercian" movie was made you'd have thought it was sacrilige for it to be made. But a new nastiness has crept into Who fandom since the new series and has run off oldtime fans.
Like Star Wars, you can like it all, only like some of it but there is something there to like.
The point for me is to enjoy the show and not think to hard over it.
In the EXCELLENT book "Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale," Russell T. Davies says this: "Creating something is not a democracy. The people have no say. The artist does. It doesn't matter what the people witter on about: they and their response come after. They're not there for the creation."
Or, as some god supposedly put it: "Where were you when I made the world?"
I loathe most of what passes for Star Wars 'fandom' anymore. I try to avoid interacting with most at all costs. I'm sick of the anger directed at George Lucas for [insert fanboy grievance here], I'm sick of every mention of Star Wars on any website in general leading to a pissing contest in which everyone tries to come up with the cleverest way to say "The Prequels suck! George sucks! And he's fat!"
Good-natured Star Wars fans are damned hard to find.
Amen.
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