Rosario Dawson in Ahsoka / Nancy Pelosi and Transparency

"Disney: Rosario Dawson will play Ahsoka
Me: nice
Disney: there will be no tube top. We put those puppies on lockdown
Me:"

Resist the Mainstream @ResisttheMS: "Nancy Pelosi on the Affordable Care Act in 2010: "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy.""
Resist the Mainstream @ResisttheMS: "Nancy Pelosi on the Big Beautiful Bill in 2025: "Republicans are rushing their bill because they don't want Americans to know what it really does.""

Netflix’s “Adolescence”

Netflix’s “Adolescence” | The Illustrated Empathy Gap

The Netflix series “Adolescence” was irresponsible in promoting a distorted perspective on knife crime in the UK. In every respect the series was grossly misleading as regards the empirical evidence on knife crime. The creators were Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and it was directed by Philip Barantini. It centres on a 13-year-old schoolboy named Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) who is arrested after the murder of a girl in his school. Graham plays his father in the production.

The production companies behind Adolescence were Plan B Entertainment, Warp Films and Matriarch Productions. Plan B Entertainment is Brad Pitt’s production company, founded in 2001 by a team including Jennifer Aniston. Brad Pitt is reported to be in discussion with the film makers over producing a second series. I dread to think where that might take us.

The principal character, Jamie, was a white boy who was doing well at school and had not been in trouble with the police previously. He was from a stable two-parent family, living in a decent neighbourhood. The parents were portrayed as an average, decent, working-class couple with the father in regular self-employment as a plumber. There was no indication that Jamie was other than well-adjusted, with no sign of mental ill-health. He appears to have had a reasonably good relationship with his parents and sister. In short, the killing came from the least expected quarter. Indeed, this is probably the cause of the hysterical reaction to the drama. If this lad could suddenly become a killer, it could be your son next. This is why its so pernicious.

UK official stats tell us little or nothing about offenders in knife crime cases, and nothing at all about whether the offenders against female victims tend to be male or female.

Care must be taken when interpreting knife crime statistics because merely carrying a non-folding knife or a knife with a blade longer than 3 inches is a crime, and most of the knife crime statistics will not distinguish between carrying a knife and using it to stab someone. The majority of knife crimes do not involve the knife having been used.

Further care must be taken when interpreting knife crime because the statistics generally refer to “non-domestic” knife crime, i.e., excluding domestic stabbings within the home. That is rather important because female perpetrators typically account for a larger proportion of homicidal stabbings within the home than they do outside the home (though generally the minority in both cases). Moreover, female perpetrators of domestic homicide are far more likely than male perpetrators of domestic homicide to use a knife (see Brown et al (2022) and references therein).

Let me emphasize that the rest of this article, and the data quoted herein, refers to non-domestic knife crime only, but it should not be forgotten that this is only half the story.

In the first Appendix, below, I include what stats I could find, the key points being as follows. 

About 8.7% of stabbing victims are female, about 13.1% of knife crime offenders are female. Like other forms of non-domestic violence, knife crime tends to be male-on-male.

Non-whites are about 5 times more likely to be knife crime offenders than whites (though whites account for most knife crimes due to weight of numbers). Non-whites are also more likely to the victims of knife crime, by a similar factor.

Only about 4.5% of knife crime victims are under 16, so the story of “Adolescence” which associates this age range with the problem is misleading. 

In short: white male adolescent offender and young white female victim is the least common combination in knife crime. The probability of the plot of Adolescence diminishes rapidly still further when the personal and familial characteristics of Jamie are taken into account.

Of course, there are individual cases of males stabbing young girls, that of Rudakubana being the most nasty recent example.

But I’ve not seen anything to link “the manosphere” to knife crime, this being arguably one of the propaganda targets of Adolescence. Rudakubana was arguably influenced by online sites, but Islamist in nature, not the “manosphere”.

My initial suspicion, before watching the series, was that the motivation behind this rather nasty series was to propagandize the UK public into support for even more draconian censorship laws – with “the manosphere” being particularly targeted. The recent Online Safety Act was not draconian enough for many of the usual suspects. However, after watching the series I see that “the manosphere” theme was not presented very forcibly and was only one of several potential motivations for the killing. Another theme was the father’s explosive temper, which the scene with the female psychologist revealed was shared by the boy, Jamie. But that is actually even worse because it centres Jamie’s motivation on masculinity itself, the same narrative that has been poisoning our culture for decades. Either way it can only be seen de facto as the blackest propaganda, whatever the writers intended.

Lamentably, the public lapped up Adolescence and have fallen 100% for the propaganda. One despairs.

Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, in a revealing Freudian slip, referred to the series in Parliament as “a documentary”. Consistent with that false perspective he has concluded that there must be a need to tackle the “emerging and growing problem” raised by the drama. That its narrative aligns with the ideological prejudices of the Labour Party is rather convenient. Starmer has even hosted a meeting with the film makers in Downing Street. At his suggestion, the series has been made free to all secondary schools….as if it were a public service broadcast. 

No, it is a deeply divisive public disservice broadcast.

Whatever the writers intended, the controllers of the popular narrative are insisting that the drama shines a light on the corrosive impact of social media and misogynist influencers on teenage boys. Some even claim that it motivates a need for a reform of parenting or a reform of schools. All this is based on a fictional story which is wildly empirically unlikely to the point that – as far as I have yet seen – no one has identified a single case quite like it, and certainly not one motivated by “the manosphere”.

As far as I am aware, the film makers have only suggested one case might be similar to that depicted in the drama, the stabbing to death of Brianna Ghey. Why have none of the sources which refer to this case not mentioned that Ghey was killed by two people, one of whom was a girl: Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe. The judge, Mrs Justice Yip, said in her summing up that Scarlett Jenkinson had a fantasy to kill, that she had lured Brianna to the park, and that it was acknowledged that Scarlett Jenkinson had been the driving force behind the plan to kill Ghey. And yet this case is being quoted as motivating Adolescence and the resulting hysterical targeting of the “manosphere” and/or masculinity itself – motivating, that is, a fictional character in a fictional and grossly atypical scenario.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, whilst the country has been obsessing over this dramatic misdirection there was a very disturbing event at Elm Park School in east London on 22 March 2025. This was an attack on a private 16th birthday party by a gang of 50 youths, high on nitrous oxide, who were wielding knives and at least one machete. Reports do not specify the ethnicity, but here is a video. Two males, aged 16 and 19, were stabbed and rushed to hospital.12 people were arrested and the police are looking for more.

The nearest real case to that of Adolescence that I’ve found was the stabbing to death of 15 year old Holly Newton by her ex-boyfriend Logan MacPhail, then 16. Another boy intervened and pulled MacPhail away but was himself badly injured. MacPhail is reported to be of low intelligence, autistic and with a speech impediment. He had a history of self-harming with a knife, had previously taken an overdose and on another occasion had been “found on a bridge”. He was apparently from a violent home in which the social services were involved. So, not really very like Adolescence, then.

The deeply pernicious aspect of Adolescence is that it creates a worry in parents that their son, despite perhaps being apparently a paragon of good behaviour, could be turned into a murderous monster at any moment by the influence of the “manosphere”, or perhaps just due to his intrinsically toxic masculinity. That there is no evidence for any of this is not the message being promoted, and the usual culprits are enthusiastically whipping up the hysteria aided and abetted by senior politicians and (real) influencers. Could there perhaps be ideological or political motives behind this reaction, irrespective of the film makers intentions?

What this reaction to the drama implies is a willingness to further partisan (and corrosive) sociopolitical objectives by burdening every boy in our society with a guilt he does not deserve. It is obscene.

Interestingly, that “Adolescence” is anti-male propaganda is evident even to AI engines. Tom Golden has already blogged on this. We have rerun chatGPT ourselves, and also Grok-3. The results are fascinating and spot-on so I attach them in the second Appendix. 

I conclude that the public are distressingly gullible but that the AI engines are not. AI emerges with credit, in this case at least, but only rotten tomatoes for the public.

Links - 10th June 2025 (1 - General Wokeness [including Adolescence in the UK])

Politics UK on X - "🚨 NEW: The creators of Netflix series "Adolescence" have said they want it to be shown in Parliament and schools so it "causes discussion and makes change" The show shines a light on social media's toxic influence and misogynist influencers on teenage boys [@BBCNews]"

Adolescence Is Not a Documentary! - Nicholas de Santo - YouTube - "Thankfully Netflix has been open to the criticism. They have announced a sequel: Adolescence 2. The protagonist will be a bunch of white English 13-year-old girls and they get together and rape thousands of Pakistani men in Rotheram, in Telford, in Derby, in Oxford, in Luton, all across the country. Keir Starmer is already on it. He has read this screenplay with his kids. He's legislating to tackle the problem of uh voiceless Pakistani men being assaulted by little English girls. What a prime minister huh?...
Are you familiar  the green agenda? Let's phase out oil and  gas. What a great idea.  Let's phase out oil and gas. Let's take  away from Arabs  their only source of income and  prosperity. Nothing can go wrong with  that  plan. It's all part of a grand scheme to  make Arabs a bit more angry...
What  does a vibrant neighborhood mean?  It means  when you go to the supermarket all  products are locked  up. Except  books. And sun  cream"

Adam Wren on X - "Black teenager stabs a girl, media makes a series about it using a white working class boy, government wants it spread so they can drum up support for legislating against free speech. The core dysfunction of the UK visible all at once"

Politics UK on X - "🚨 NEW: Keir Starmer says he has backed Netflix's plan to show "Adolescence" for free in all schools across the country "so as many young people as possible can see it""
John Carter on X - "A few years before I started high school the Montreal massacre at École Polytechnique took the lives of 14 women. Every year on the anniversary the female teachers would spend the whole day hectoring us about "violence against women", insinuating that every boy in the class was a potential mass shooter held back only by their fearless nagging.  The shooter's name was Marc Lépine. Supposedly. Implication: just another white man driven mad by misogyny!   I didn't find out he'd been born Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi until I was in my 30s. Guy wasn't French-Canadian. He was Algerian. But they let us all think he was white, because they wanted to weaponize his crimes against the consciences of teenage white boys.  This is exactly the same shit."

Showing Adolescence in schools could be 'catastrophic': Victim support organisation warns that 'knee-jerk' plan backed by Keir Starmer could encourage children to seek out violent content and become radicalised

Martin Daubney 🇬🇧 on X - "DOES THE MEDIA HATE WHITE BOYS?
Adolescence once again sells the toxic lie that British men & boys are poisonous misogynists, rapists-in-waiting, all due to porn & Andrew Tate
NEVER do these cowards address cultural misogyny
NEVER poisonous Islamism
FACTS: Afghans are 22X more likely to be sex offenders v Brits
Foreign nationals = 71% more likely to be sex offenders
There are FIFTY nationalities more likely to sex offend v Brits
WHERE IS THE NETFLIX DOC ABOUT THIS? THE MEDIA & POLITICAL OUTRAGE? THE POLICY OR ACTION TO PROTECT BRITISH WOMEN & GIRLS?"

Sophie Corcoran on X - "The fact that the PM wants a fictional show where a white boy is used to portray a misogynistic murderer - inspired by a murder committed by a black man, in parliament/schools Yet refused to commit to an inquiry about Asian grooming gangs Tells you everything you need to know"

Matt Goodwin on X - "Am I the only person who finds it absolutely baffling that just 2 months ago Keir Starmer refused to hold a national inquiry into the rape gangs —despite evidence from thousands of girls—but yet is now falling over himself to reshape policy on “toxic masculinity” based on nothing more than a tv show?"
Tina on X - "O'Brien has been prattling on about Kemi Badenoch not having watched it. When she said it was "based on a real story, but my understanding is that the boy who committed that crime was not white” he went to great lengths to point out that it's not based on a true story. So, on the one hand he presents it as some form of documentary that she should watch, and on the other, says it's purely fiction."

Starmer claims Adolescence is a documentary – again | The Spectator - "Does Prime Minister Keir Starmer understand the difference between fact and fiction? Mr S isn’t so sure – after the Labour leader referred to the new Netflix series Adolescence as a documentary for the, er, second time. Either Sir Keir is ignorant about what exactly the show is – which, given he has referred to it multiple times before, would be rather baffling – or the PM has missed the point that the series is not actually real. It’s hardly a good look…"

Samo Burja on X - "The reasons for this are easy to explain, difficult to accept. The political architecture of the United Kingdom today is not that of a democracy, and I mean this in a political science observation not as moral invective."

Has something really gone wrong with men? - "“The root cause of the current version of the masculinity crisis is, more than anything, inequality,” says Adam Jukes, psychotherapist, author and former director of The Men’s Centre for 35 years. “Inequality puts more pressure on men’s perception of what their role is in society. Many men feel they are no longer ‘providers’. You can’t blame the present generation for that. You can say we shouldn’t have much sympathy for men, but economically and educationally deprived young men are now the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable. It makes sense they are turning to extremism.” We know negative or traumatic experiences in early years have lifelong implications, including in terms of being unemployed, in terms of depression and other health problems."
Of course, according to this article, it has nothing to do with how men are demonized and one solution is... more of the left wing agenda

Netflix's Adolescence inspired by three tragic real-life murder cases - "Speaking about the catalysts for the show, Graham recounted to Radio Times: "There was an incident in Liverpool, a young girl, and she was stabbed to death by a young boy. I just thought, why? Then there was another young girl in south London who was stabbed to death at a bus stop.  "And there was this thing up North, where that young girl Brianna Ghey was lured into the park by two teenagers, and they stabbed her. I just thought, what's going on? What is this that's happening?".  While Graham specifically mentions the murder of Brianna Ghey in 2023, he does not specify the other two cases. However, they may relate to the tragic killing of 12 year old Ava White in Liverpool by a 15-year-old after a dispute over a social media video in 2021, and the death of 15 year old Elianne Andam, who was attacked at a Croydon bus stop by a 17-year-old in September 2023"
For some reason, some people are claiming Adolescence was inspired by  Axel Rudakubana, but it was filmed between July and October 2024, and the Southport attack was on July 29 2024 and the identity of the attacker was only revealed in August.
Hassan Sentamu's murder of Elianne Andam, Ava White's murder and Brianna Ghey's murder all seem to have had nothing to do with incel ideology

Why ethnic-minority boys are more drawn to Andrew Tate - "Although the story is entirely fictional, the writer and actor in the series, Stephen Graham, recently revealed that Adolescence was inspired by the fatal stabbing of Elianne Andam by Hassan Sentamu, among other real-life cases. The show does make some significant departures from the Andam case, however. Andam’s murder took place in Croydon in south London, and both the perpetrator and victim were black. Sentamu also came from a troubled home life, and was reportedly physically abused while attending a boarding school in Uganda. Meanwhile, Adolescence is set in Yorkshire and is centred on a white family, the Millers, which includes teenage murder suspect Jamie. Jamie’s family is a stable and traditionally structured one, having both a father (played by Graham) and a mother who are married to one another.   The show draws attention to the toxic impact of misogynistic online influencers like Andrew Tate. (Tate is explicitly mentioned in the second episode.) In this way, it has fed into the long-standing discourse about Tate and his supposedly broad-sweeping influence over Britain’s young men. Apparently, British schools are filled with hordes of Very Online kids under the spell of either alpha-male Tate-ism or resentful inceldom. In this light, it is worth looking more closely at Tate’s fanbase. While data on this are relatively scarce, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has carried out some relevant research. Back in 2023, the ISD found that one in five young people between the ages of 16 and 24 had a positive view of Tate, with this increasing for ethnic minorities. Those from a racial-minority background were more likely to view Tate positively – 41 per cent of black respondents and 31 per cent of Asian respondents, dropping down to 15 per cent for white respondents... Young black males are a group disproportionately impacted by fatherlessness. Based on data from the Office for National Statistics, young black people – especially those of Caribbean heritage – are significantly more likely to live in lone-parent households. These will overwhelmingly be families headed by single mothers. This means young black men are the least likely group of young men to have a positive male role model living with them at home – a world away from Jamie’s nuclear family, as depicted in Adolescence, in which the boy is ‘radicalised’ by online influencers."

Adolescence reveals a terrifying truth: smartphones are poison for boys’ minds
Clearly fiction is reality. Ironically they affect girls more

Liza Rosen on X - "Ireland: The political establishment, the media and the Muslim community are outraged by what they perceive to be an Islamophobic display of patriotism by Irish people singing the national anthem."
We're still told that left wingers don't hate their countries

Libs of TikTok on X - "NEW: WA State Governor Bob Ferguson has signed a new homeownership bill which offers certain first-time homebuyers increased down payment grants in order to "reduce racial disparities." How is this legal?"

Team AOC on X - "Do not let them trick you into thinking we are enemies. Do not let them trick you into thinking that we can be separated into rural and urban, Black and white and Latino. We are one."
Christian Heiens 🏛 on X - "“Do not let them trick you into thinking we are enemies.”
>Capitalizes everything but White.
Why are Democrats so bad at this?"
Christian Heiens 🏛 on X - ">Spends a decade cynically stoking racial divisions.
>Loses one election and immediately tries to sweep the friend-enemy distinction under the rug.
>Can’t even bring themselves to capitalize White.
You people are pathetic."

Kashmir: Hope and fear as tourists trickle back to Pahalgam after attack - "One week after a devastating militant attack near the mountain resort of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir killed 26 people, the town wears a look of quiet desolation, although tourists have begun trickling back in small numbers.  The main high street, abandoned by visitors last week - with shops shuttered and hotels completely emptied out - is seeing fleeting signs of life again.  Last Tuesday, militants opened fire on people, mostly tourists, who were visiting Baisaran, a mountain-top meadow three miles (5 km) from Pahalgam, often described as the "Switzerland of India"... In the days since, tensions between India and Pakistan, which both claim Kashmir in full but administer it only in part, have significantly risen, with each side announcing retaliatory measures against the other."

Meme - "Pakistan famously a place where religious minorities are treated well."
Zaid Jilani: "No dude you don't get it. Pakistan is like Israel. It was founded as a homeland for people but without a state religion. The white stripe in the Pakistani flag is there to represent minorities. The BJP does not believe in any of that."
Sensei Kraken Zero @YearOfTheKraken: "Pakistan Army Chief literally spells out what he thinks about Hindus and posits Islam as the foundation of Pakistan and the proof of your argument is, what exactly, "Trust Me Bro"?"

Meme - Imtiaz Mahmood @ImtiazMadmood: "They killed 26 Hindus after checking their ID in Pahalgam. But it has nothing to do with Islam."
Moderate Muslim in suit to man about to be killed by Jihadi in Arab garb: "BEFORE HE SLAUGHTERS YOU, LET ME REMIND YOU THAT HE DOES NOT REPRESENT ISLAM"

Meme - Drew Paviou @DrewPavlou: "A bunch of terrorists separated tourists based on religion and slaughtered all the non-Muslims. If you think that's bad, Palestine flag accounts will call you "Hindutva.""
Harold Wilson Hater @Shin....: "Drew Pavlou's Hindutva turn was very expected lol."
Drew Pavlou @DrewP...: "Islamist terrorists in Kashmir forced tourists to hand over their IDs and then massacred all the non-Muslims."
Subha Nair @Subha_Nair01: "That's how the Indian left behaves too"

Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ on X - "SCOOP: The Department of Education has terminated $1 billion in grants that were intended to support "school-based mental health programs," but were being used to advance left-wing racialism and discrimination. No more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health."
Left wingers pretend that how the programs were advertised was what they really did and then accuse those who disagree with them of lacking "empathy" and that "the cruelty is the point" (though on other occasions they support the true aims of the programs, so they get it both ways)

inqilāb on X - "ONLY CARING ABOUT YOUR OWN RIGHTS IS EXACTLY HOW YOU LOSE THEM"
Ironic. Left wingers claim "Trans people Existing Does Nothing Negative To Your Life You Cry Baby Bitch" because empathy for those affected by the TRA agenda is bad. More broadly, they hate opposition to heterophobia, anti-white racism, misandry etc. Meanwhile, left wing anti-Semitism uses the same rhetoric as left wing anti-white racism

Meme - Itachi: "Peter Dinklage says movies shouldn't hire actors with dwarfism to play dwarves in fantasy films, even though the only major franchises in the last 20 years to cast small actors as dwarves have hired Peter Dinklage. This is a reference to the fact that, in folklore, dwarves are greedy."

Meme - 9mmSMG @9mm_smg: "At 40, liberal men start their metamorphosis into looking like nearsighted lesbians. It's a phenomenon that needs to be researched. Much like Gregor Samsa morphed into a roach. Kafka would be proud. A new generation of bugmen."

Meme - Daddy's Girl wearing "Bilbo was queer" tee: "I just don't understand why so many Tolkien fans are upset with me. I just wanna take something they love the way it is, and change it to better suit my political views. Maybe that's disrespectful of me?  No. They are all just a bunch of nazi incels."

Calls to ban Labour Party from Pride: ‘If you won’t stand with us, you can’t march with us’ : r/unitedkingdom - "Bloody right. Pride is a protest.  The ones being protested don't get to have a nice rainbow photo-op while they drive the knife in our backs."
Clearly, there's nothing wrong with bringing kids to (left wing) protests and that's not politicising them

Meme - Jae (She/Her) *Trans flag*: "A reminder for all of my White followers that the word spooky is based off a slur for Black individuals. This Halloween lets try and remove that word from our vocabulary."

War of words: Scrabble players are being censored | The Spectator - "For some of us, world war has already broken out. Since 1 January, when a decision to ban 419 ‘offensive’ Scrabble words became ‘law’ on the orders of game owners Hasbro and Mattel, the previously genteel world of competitive Scrabble has become riven with hostility.  The conflict started three years ago when the North American Scrabble Players Association polled its members about the issue. After more than 1,000 ‘passionate responses’, it decided to inflict a word cull. According to the association’s head John Chew, the 91-year-old game needed to be ‘more inclusive’... the ban on hundreds of words has left many players – particularly my fellow travellers in the London Scrabble league – seething. There have been bitter spats, ruptured friendships and high-profile resignations. Author Darryl Francis quit the World English-Language Scrabble Players’ Association in protest, saying: ‘Words in dictionaries and Scrabble lists are not slurs. They only become slurs if used with a derogatory purpose or intent or used with a particular tone and context. Words in our Scrabble lists should not be removed for PR purposes disguised as promoting some kind of social betterment.’  Those who aren’t resigning or arguing are moaning incessantly. And not just because the diktat has robbed them of some useful high-scoring words such as bufty, gammat and lubra. All three have now been deemed capable of causing offence, even though most people have no idea what they mean. Because that is competitive Scrabble’s no. 1 trade secret: to succeed, you often use words whose meaning you don’t know...   It’s hard to find anyone in the Scrabble community in favour of the ban. That doesn’t mean that we approve of any of the banned words, mind you. Among them are some vile racial slurs. But the words can’t be un-invented: they are part of our sometimes shameful history. And playing them in a private word game is very different from using them in any other context. As my friend Vernon, a seventysomething Glaswegian who regularly thrashes me during our weekly London League fixtures, says: ‘I will accept the new rules because I have no option. But I am doing it under duress. It’s madness.’      Vernon’s question is this: who, exactly, is at risk of being offended? Certainly not the eightysomething grannies with whom he and I regularly compete and who often play swear words and then cackle with delight at the naughtiness.  Then there’s the illogicality of it all. The useful, high-scoring word Jesuit, for example, is now banned. As is Jesuitic, which could net you 200 points in one go. ‘Jesuit’ is defined as ‘a member of an order of priests founded by St Ignatius Loyola in 1534 to do missionary work’. Why is this offensive? In some quarters, the word is used to describe attitudes perceived to be straitlaced, or – ironic considering the ban – censorious. What right have people to decide that a word used to denote a deeply held religious belief should be banned? But while Jesuit is banned, religious words such as Methodist and Pharisee (which can be offensive when used pejoratively about rabbis) are not. The list goes on: poof is outlawed. Has anyone told the members of Four Poofs and a Piano, ‘Britain’s most popular covers band’ and one-time house band on the Jonathan Ross Show? Or my gay theatre director friend who is always telling me, usually mid-argument: ‘Jonny. Come on, I know I’m your favourite poof. And you’re my favourite Jew.’... I only mention this because the word Jew has also been banned. As has jewed – meaning to ‘bargain shrewdly or unfairly with’. Nancy, dyke and wooftah are also banned – all capable of causing offence if used wrongly, but all of which I have heard countless people use happily to describe themselves.  I agree in essence with Craig Beevers, the 2014 World Scrabble Champion, who says: ‘The woke brigade are running our game.’ He believes the ban will be ‘the final nail in the coffin for a lot of competitive players’.    How to end the war? A Scrabble Truth and Reconciliation Commission-type event perhaps? We need to do something. Friendships are being ruptured; world-class talent is being lost from the game, perhaps for ever. But no peace settlement is in sight. Vernon didn’t even want me to use his real name in this article as he was worried about a social media backlash.  What, I wonder, would Alfred Mosher Butts make of it all? He was the kindly New York architect who invented the game in 1931 and lived comfortably off the royalties until he was 93. Wise man that he was, he would surely be asking: where will it end? What word will they come for next? His own surname, perhaps?"

'Christians Are The Same As The Taliban!' Says Actress Who Would Be Stoned To Death By Taliban | Babylon Bee - "Watchers of the popular daytime talk program The View were treated to more insightful commentary on global issues this week, as guest Patti LuPone informed the show's audience that there is no difference between Christians and the Taliban, despite the fact that she would have been silenced, prevented from receiving an education, not allowed to uncover her face, and in all likelihood, already executed by the oppressive Islamic regime in Afghanistan.  "I don't see any difference," said the still-living and free-speaking actress. "Those Christians with their religious fanaticism and morality! I'm tired of the Christian Right in this country not allowing women in the United States to vote or drive cars or dress in anything other than a burqa! It's so totalitarian and intolerant!"... "Yeah, she wouldn't stop talking about how horrible Christians are," the chauffeur said. "On and on about how they behead people they disagree with and everything. Crazy!""

Meme - Connor Nordstrom: "maybe I'm the wrong person to be commenting this but why tear down an entrepreneur for wanting her product to be accessible for more people?"
Lexa Chan: "YT ppl are not to be heard in this space."
Connor Nordstrom: "my apologies. enjoy your echo chamber"

Meme - Merry: 'That black rider was looking for something......or someone. Frodo?'
Frodo: 'Why not just say rider you racist bastard?!'

Meme - i/o @eyeslasho: "The left wins culture war battles because they care more and are willing to devote more time to them. Conservatives have their families and religion, centrists are mostly apathetic, but, for leftists, winning these battles is their religion (and often their “family”)."
"Public life is now dense with people desperate to man the barricades long after the revolution is over. Either because they mistake the barricades for home, or because they have no other home to go to. - Douglas Murray"

i/o research on X - "In a study involving 155,191 students from 41 American colleges and universities, SAT scores predicted academic performance even after socioeconomic status was controlled. Socioeconomic status added negligible additional predictive power."

Crémieux on X - "SAT scores predict people's grades. SAT scores predict grades controlling for socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status barely predicts grades controlling for SAT scores. Source:"

Sarah Stock ✟ on X - "The 🏳️‍🌈 community HATES when you bring up fecal incontinence stats!"

Meme - "Think my ethnic studies professor has caught on to the fact that I'm using my experience as a racist to contribute to all of the discussions so I'm glad this semester is almost over"
"gotta explain this"
"I'm more familiar with the stuff being discussed in class than most of the people taking it so I usually have more insight on the issues than most people"

The reality of Asian french living in France : r/aznidentity - "Looks like many of you don't know what it's like living in France as asians. You downvote me when I try to tell you how it is. No, it's not the white french who attack us. It's the african french and the maghrebi french.  Racism against asians among white french, you can find in the white left/liberal. (ubisoft and french media are the biggest example)  The white right actually respect asians  Here you can see africans and maghrebi calling on their community to attack asians  Twitter. Des appels à la haine anti-asiatiques - Licra - Antiraciste depuis 1927  Here you can see some asian french and white right french opinions  LES ASIATIQUES DE DROITE S'ORGANISENT"
When you just want to hate white people regardless of the facts

Joel Berry on X - "“Waaaaaa why can’t whites celebrate their own heritage? We get in trouble if we celebrate our own heritage, we’re literally not allowed” 😭😭😭"
Brian Sauvé on X - "In 2021, my local university launched a police investigation because someone posted signs on a community bulletin board that said “It’s ok to be white.”"

Nemesis 2025 on X - "A lot of leftists operate in a purely normative rhetorical space. They really struggle to think and speak descriptively. Even when ostensibly describing a problem they want to address, they often describe it as they wish it were rather than how it actually is."
i/o on X - "This is my core political value: To make progress, you must start with the descriptive (what actually is) rather than the normative (what ought to be).  This is why data is central to my politics. Progressives eschew data because they believe moral imperatives and principles (e.g. equality, antiracism) should drive politics. The problem is that the best data often shows these moral imperatives to be detached from statistical and scientific reality."

Links - 29th April 2025 (2 - Star Wars: Skeleton Crew/The Acolyte)

Star Wars fans don’t know good TV even if it slaps them in the face
She calls The Acolyte "the strongest Star Wars offering in years" and claimed "It didn’t cater to fan-service". Lol
Comment (elsewhere): "For all those that went out of their way to comment, repeatedly, telling us not to watch it because 'it's just for kids': you're welcome"

Skeleton Crew is Star Wars' Greatest Failure, Record Low Ratings Could Mean Star Wars is a Dead Brand - "unlike the larger Disney company, which seems at least somewhat willing once in a while to explore options outside of identity politics and found some success with Inside Out 2, Moana 2, and Deadpool & Wolverine over at Marvel, Star Wars under Kennedy’s leadership seems utterly rooted in political messaging and won’t deviate, literally to save its life.   Even Skeleton Crew delves into the muddy waters of identity politics and divisive non-traditional relationships with same-sex parents, evil white men, and girlboss characters who are good at everything.   But Kennedy and her staff of so-called creatives, the people who have a photo of Luke Skywalker on the wall at Lucasfilm with a red X through his face, are either oblivious to their failures or stubbornly unwilling to make any kind of change. Their choices on shows like Obi Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka, and The Acolyte have incensed fans, leading to passionate backlash.   But Skeleton Crew tells a far different story with these ratings. Because there’s no backlash anymore. There’s no rage. There’s simply…nothing.   Fans aren’t just critical anymore—they’re indifferent. The days of heated debates over The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker have given way to a collective shrug. Apathy has replaced anger, which may be the greatest threat to any entertainment brand... Has Kathleen Kennedy taken what was arguably the most evergreen entertainment property on earth and tarnished it beyond repair? Star Wars, a brand once synonymous with blockbuster storytelling and devoted fan engagement, now seems unable to capture the imagination of audiences.  High-profile misses like The Acolyte point to a franchise that has not only lost its way but may also be losing relevance. And the Skeleton Crew ratings are a sign of major rot within Lucasfilm.  Critics argue that under Kennedy’s stewardship, Star Wars has pivoted away from the timeless appeal of its original trilogy, leaning into divisive storytelling and questionable creative decisions. From the polarizing sequel trilogy to the scattershot performance of several Disney+ series, fans have seen diminishing returns in quality, coherence, and passion... No one who works at any level in any industry could fail to the extent of Kathleen Kennedy and keep their job.   No one… except apparently Kathleen Kennedy."

'Skeleton Crew' Has Worst Star Wars Ratings On Disney+: Lower Than 'The Acolyte' - "The Nielsen ratings for the first two episodes of Skeleton Crew are in, revealing that they are worse than The Acolyte, worse than Andor, and seemingly the worst Star Wars ratings on Disney+.  Skeleton Crew is also the first Star Wars show not to have its premiere make the Nielsen ratings which are automatically turned on in your Disney+ accounts. Samba TV has also again refused to publish numbers. Samba TV hasn’t published ratings for a majority of the recent Star Wars or Marvel shows, likely at the request of Disney who is an investor in the company as obviously the ratings are in the gutter.  Particularly alarming is that Skeleton Crew premiered its first two episodes on the same night, yet still failed to appear in the Nielsen ratings despite having an entire week to qualify."
Clearly, the brand is not damaged by the rubbish they've been churning out, and this is just "toxic" "fanboys" brainwashing the audience into not watching

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episodes 1-2 Ratings Set New Franchise Low (Gamerant)
Even mainstream sites aren't trying to whitewash the failure

Meme - NPC: "IT'S A SHOW FOR KIDS YOU DON'T HAVE TO WATCH IT!"
Normal person: "OK"
"FANS NO LONGER CARE ABOUT STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW SUFFERS WORST RATINGS ON DISNEY+"
NPC: *upset*

RIP Star Wars: Entire Season Of 'Skeleton Crew' No Shows Nielsen Ratings - "Skeleton Crew actually isn’t all that bad of a series. It’s fun, and it’s light years better than The Acolyte. However, let’s be honest, Disney and Lucasfilm haven’t done a good job with Star Wars.  As I’ve gone over, Disney+ automatically enables Nielsen tracking in user accounts, which is the industry standard for ratings. Samba TV also hasn’t once reported on the numbers, again, which I am guessing is at the request of Disney because the ratings are so bad, as Disney is an investor in Samba TV... Coming in at #10, the bottom of the Nielsen charts for the week Episode 8 of Skeleton Crew was released is Apple TV’s Silo with 396 million minutes. As Skeleton Crew missing from the chart, the final episode is obviously less than 396.  Nielsen also measures ALL the episodes viewed within a given week’s timeframe, so again, that means no one binge-watched Skeleton Crew with all the episodes released.  For comparison, the last episode of The Mandalorian Season 2 was watched for 1336 million minutes (1.336 billion minutes!) — and that is with half as much time measured. That means more than 70% of fans have stopped watching Star Wars on Disney+!   For Disney+, Andor Season 2 gets released on April 22, 2025 which ends the series. Likewise, Ahsoka Season 2 is also in the works but that now that is thought to be getting canceled after its second season. Disney also hasn’t announced any new live-action Star Wars TV shows for Disney+. The Mandalorian also looks to be done as Season 4 has apparently been scrapped in favor of The Mandalorian & Grogu movie.   On the big screen, all that is confirmed is The Mandalorian & Grogu out on May 22, 2026. While the new Daisy Ridley Star Wars: New Jedi Order movie is said to be happening, it’s on its fourth writer and has no release date. The other Star Wars movies also have no release dates, which is said to include the James Mangold origins of The Force flick, and the new Simon Kinberg trilogy."

Meme - Heel vs Babyface @heelvsbabyface: "The only Skeleton Crew is the audience for Disney "Star Wars"."
Echo Base Network | Beep/bop/boop @network_echo: "On sale.  Not even over yet.  Speaks volumes. #starwars  #skeletoncrew #disney #hasbro"
"Star Wars Skeleton Crew. Jod Na Nawood. Save $5.09. You pay $11.88"

Meme - "PERHAPS THE REAL SKELETON CREW IS THE AUDIENCE WE LOST ALONG THE WAY! *Judd Law in Skeleton Crew as Pirate with Parrot*"

Exclusive: Star Wars "The Acolyte" Real Costs Exploded to $230 Million According to New Tax Documents - "In an interview with Vanity Fair, The Acolyte series creator Leslye Headland publicly claimed the show cost “180 million,” which was assumed by several to be stated in US dollars. It is evident that if Headland had knowledge of the series financials that she was more likely referring the the amount in Great British Pounds. Accounting for exchange rates at the time of this article, this means that The Acolyte cost almost $230 million US dollars. With 8 episodes in the series, this means that Lucasfilm under Kathleen Kennedy allowed the budget of the now-cancelled show to balloon to $28.75 million per episode, also while failing to attract an audience. UK tax filings for The Acolyte only account for what was spent on the series before September 24, 2023, so it is possible that this figure might be adjusted as additional tax filings surface... Kathleen Kennedy championed The Acolyte and Leslye Headland in the same New York Times piece that obfuscated the astronomical spending Kennedy approved for the Star Wars flop. Kennedy said, “My belief is that storytelling does need to be representative of all people. That’s an easy decision for me.”... Outside of Star Wars, Kathleen Kennedy spent almost $170 million making a Willow reboot for Disney+, only for Bob Iger to wipe the show from existence and take the expense as a complete loss for tax purpose."

Is there a technical term or trope for the problem with how Acolyte and Last Jedi are written? : r/saltierthancrait - "People in fandom really should read Tolkien's essay on the "secondary world" as he calls it -- what it is, how to establish it, what makes it work or fail.  The success in the realm of sci-fi and fantasy is dependent on the writer's adroitness with precisely this, the secondary world. Most people aren't terribly interested in it, that's why fandom used to be small.  The problem with Hollywood today is that fandom began to make tremendous amounts of money, and so fandom movies are being written and directed by people who would be far happier making a New York Jewish comedy or a whodunnit or what have you.  It's not politics. We're just nerds and these people don't get it."

Is there a technical term or trope for the problem with how Acolyte and Last Jedi are written? : r/saltierthancrait - "kmCarter has an excellent video where she breaks this down. The tl;dr is that Leslie Hedland' mind is extremely diffuse and she tends to write that way to. Her stories are often lacking basic elements like rising and falling action, which leads to them being timeless, formless, non-sequitur tableaus.  This worked for Russian Doll, but it does NOT work for Star Wars."

Is there a technical term or trope for the problem with how Acolyte and Last Jedi are written? : r/saltierthancrait - "I think it just a case of people bringing in their own idea into an already establish universe. They don't get the fundamentals of Star Wars and instead want to inject their own into it. If I were to label it, it is "Clashing", what they want clashes with what is already been told.  Think of it like a vegan trying to prepare a hamburger. Instead of being creative and adding eggplant and mushrooms to get an earthy flavor into it, they use strawberries because they like strawberries. Even though those strawberries will clash with everything around them."

Meme - "The Victims
Leslye Headland: "180m therapy session"
Jodie Turner-Smith Claims: "Star Wars is Patriarchal YES, YES"
Rebecca Henderson: "Disney should be Ashamed catering To the worst fans"
Amandla Stenberg: "I made a "diss track""

Meme - "ALL LIVING THINGS ARE CONNECTED BY THE SAME THREAD. A THREAD WOVEN THROUGH ALL OF EXISTENCE. SOME CALL IT A FORCE AND CLAIM TO USE IT."
STAR FANS: "DO NOT CITE THE FORCE TO ME, WITCH."

Meme - Epicstream Fantasy and Sci-Fi Rock: "The Acolyte star isn't happy with Disney Find out. The Acolyte Star Calls Out Disney for Not Defending Cast from Toxic Fans"
Les A Kembler: "Who's going to defend fans from toxic stars? I have never criticized casting POCs or females, yet any criticism given, I and others are called toxic, racist, misogynistic, etc. The truth is, the so called "toxic fans" are only giving back what they have been given by these egotistical progressive losers in the cast."

Meme - "The failure of one *Kathleen Kennedy*
The failure of two *Rian Johnson, Leslye Headland*
The failure of manyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy *Disney*"

Meme - "AMANDLA EFFECT. SHIT ON YOUR FANS, SHOW GETS CANCELLED" *unflattering photo of Amandla Stenberg from diss track*

Meme - "LOOKING FOR WORK *Amandla Stenberg from diss track*"

Meme - "THE MANY EMOTIONS OF AMANDLA STENBERG
HAPPY SCARED TIRED SAD PRIDEFUL ANGRY JEALOUS OFFENDED *identical look in all scenarios*"

Meme - "THE MANY EMOTIONS OF AMANDLA STENBERG
HAPPY SCARED TIRED SAD PRIDEFUL ANGRY JEALOUS *goat with similar look in all scenarios*
OFFENDED *goat in negative*"

Meme - "In an age of light. We get this shit! *Acolyte poster with piece of shit and shit streaks*"

Meme - *Woman yelling at a cat*
"We don't care if you don't like the Acolyte! It's not for you!" af
"Why aren't you watching The Acolyte! This fanbase is so toxic!"

Canadian-Owned Publication Collider Spews Racist Hate And Blames White Male Star Wars Fans For Lucasfilm's Crappy TV Shows Like 'The Acolyte' - "Collider, an online website owned by Canadian corporation Valnet that runs other left-wing entertainment websites such as MovieWeb, ScreenRant, and CBR, published an article blaming Star Wars fans for Lucasfilm creating crappy television shows such as The Acolyte. The article titled “Star Wars’ Biggest Problem Is The Fans” written by Cameryn Barnett dismisses legitimate criticisms of shows like The Acolyte...   To no surprise, Barnett follows the three laws of a Social Justice Warrior as defined by Vox Day in SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police: SJWs Always Lie, SJWs Always Double Down, and SJWs Always Project... He goes on to claim, “The narrative quality of Disney’s Sequel trilogy aside, the movies’ progressive decision to hire Daisy Ridley as Rey and John Boyega as Finn marked important firsts for the franchise’s leads. Yet, these casting decisions also resulted in constant online harassment for both actors in the aftermath of their performances, with many detractors trying to drag Star Wars back to a less inclusive past.”   Daisy Ridley rejected this narrative during an appearance on Today earlier this year. She was asked, “I just have to ask because there are some of the, I’d say extreme Star Wars fans who have made this a conversation on the internet about how they don’t want a female director, which seems bizarre because episodes of The Mandalorian were directed by females, Kathleen Kennedy has been overseeing all of this. So what is your take?”  She responded, “I think my take is things get blown out of proportion and the interactions I’ve ever had with people have been nothing but wonderful and supportive. And honestly the day we announced I was coming back at celebration last year, you cannot imagine the joy and good will in that room.”  She added, “So I’ve only ever been embraced. And I think we’re going to make a great film and people will love it.” Barnett continued to lie by pointing to the now debunked access media claim that actress Kelly Marie Tran quit Instagram due to Star Wars fans. He wrote, “Kelly Marie Tran’s heartwarming performance as Rose Tico drew the ire of a racist internet horde, causing Tran to quit Instagram in order to look out for her mental health.”  In an op-ed in The New York Times Kelly Marie Tran explained why she left social media. The op-ed makes absolutely no mention that her decision had anything to do with Star Wars fans. In fact, the only mention of Star Wars is at the end of the op-ed where she declares, “I am the first woman of color to have a leading role in a Star Wars movie.”...   It’s ironic that he spends the entire article condemning white males while revealing that he’s a racist and misandrist, but then has the gall to claim Star Wars is a place that anyone belongs. But his true purpose is clearly not to have Star Wars be for anyone, it’s only for anyone that enslaves themselves to these woke, hateful ideologies as Barnett has...   Fortunately, many people are no longer unsuspecting and have completely tuned out of Star Wars altogether or at the very least have tuned out of watching the actual shows and now watch shows lampooning what Star Wars has become.  And this is what Barnett is really mad about. He’s lost the opportunity to brainwash people and degenerate them. Star Wars is no longer as powerful a vehicle to inject the woke messaging as it once was. And this is in large part due to more and more people saying, ‘No.’"
Daisy Ridley rejects being SJWs' shield, and as usual SJWs have very poor comprehension skills (similarly, Ahmed Best blamed the media for harassing him, but left wingers somehow pivot to blaming "toxic" fans)

'The Acolyte' Stans Meltdown And Blame "Racist, Sexist People" After The Show Is Reportedly Scrapped, Viewership Data Was Abysmal - "While many of these individuals are blaming so-called incels, racists, and sexists, showrunner Leslye Headland made it clear who should get the blame if the show fails. She told The New York Times, “If it doesn’t succeed, it’s because of me. That’s really scary to think about.”"
Great compilation of cope

Meme - "i'm so sick of star wars fans u all will di3 and go to hell"
"the acolyte cancelled bc of racist fucking misogynistic jerks im gonna kill all the men on this fucking planet"
"racist star wars fans all gotta die man like no other way around it"
"@starwars fun fact i'll KILL YOU if you don't retract the news about the acolyte. you gave it one fucking month #RenewTheAcolyte"
Clearly, the "toxic fans" cannot be allowed to win, and love will triumph in the end

Meme - "The Acolyte was cancelled due to low viewership. That means general audiences didn't watch it. So why are we blaming toxic fans? Unless we're saying that this segment of the fandom is so large that their absense alone is enough to tank a film or TV show. If that's the case, it would mean that they are the target demographic because they're the largest demographic. And that begs to question... why does @lucasfilm keep making things that their largest demographic does not want to see?"

Meme - "A show made by and for people who love cancelling others, is itself cancelled."
Palpatine: "Ironic."

Meme - *The Acolyte*
"Sexist racists got our show canceled because they can't handle a female lead and diverse cast!"
"Fallout. 17 EMMY NOMINATIONS"

Meme - Cara Dune (Gina Carano) sipping from cup: "ACOLYTE IS CANCELED."

Meme - "Acolyte actors and directors: anti-woke warriors & "hyper- conservative bigotry" helped get 'The Acolyte' canceled.
Meanwhile those same "anti-woke warriors" and "conservatives":
Star Wars Ahsoka
WOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Meme - "A LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK
Everyone Who Doesn't Like My Show Is A Bigot
A child's guide to audience reviews *Leslye Headland*"

Leslye Headland Admits She's Using Star Wars And 'The Acolyte' To Push Discussion On Gender Norms: "It's So Wildly Intentional" - "Lovitt asks, “Speaking about costumes and symbolism, I love how this ship plays with gender norms. You have this flowy outfit that Qimir has on and Osha is a Mek. I see people starting to pick up on that a little because he’s so femme-coded, and his clothes and the fact that he’s cooking for her, and he’s very soft-spoken. And then you have her wearing the pants and being like, ‘I’m gonna kill you. I’m gonna shank you.'”  Headland responds, “It’s so wildly intentional that I don’t know what to say.” She would then go on to elaborate, “It’s so clear what’s going on. So anybody that’s picking up on it, congrats, awesome. But again, the dynamics had to be what they are after what he did in [Episode] 5. He cannot seem like an alpha male-y, intimidating — we know he’s capable of that from 5 — but that cannot be his dynamic with her. It wouldn’t make sense!”  “We have to see this other side of him, and we have to see specifically the way he is with her. He never let Mae see his face, and he let her see him naked. You know what I mean? The character design was very, very intentional,” she added."

Star Wars: 'The Acolyte' Canceled Because No One Watched, Disney Exec Confirms - "Alan Bergman, who serves as a co-chair of Disney Entertainment which includes overseeing Disney streaming, recently spoke with Vulture. Hilariously, the writer of the article tries to make it sounds as if The Acolyte is a big success, however, Bergman’s response quickly shuts down that fake narrative. His carefully crafted statement is obvious PR spin to soften the blow"
When you make a piece of fan fiction as therapy and to push propaganda.

Spoofing content farms

A spoof of articles about nothing from content farms churning, specifically Why Sabine Wren Is Weaker Than Shin In Ahsoka:

"Why Sabine's hairstyle is different from Shin's in Ahsoka

Fans have noticed that the character of Sabine appears to have a different haircut than her mysterious adversary, Shin-Hati.

Given that both characters come from different backgrounds, it is not surprising that they express their personal style differently through their 'dos.

Although we know much of Sabine's history on the show Rebels, we don't know exactly why she chose to grow out her hair after the final season of Rebels concluded. We know even less about the motivations of the dark force user Shin Hati, but given that she sports aggressive bangs she might be a lil crazy.

It is possible that Sabine and Shin visit different hairstylists, or even that Shin had her bangs done by her companion Baylan Skoll."

Agatha All Along and Loki and Wokeness

Someone mocked the "Get Woke, Go Broke" slogan, claiming that Agatha All Along and Loki got 82% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Ignoring the problems with RT scores, how they aren't the same things as ratings, the myriad of counter-examples (e.g. Bud Light) and the issue of straw stereotypes (which, of course, are never applied to claims like "racism stops black people from getting ahead"), we can look at empirical evidence about whether Agatha All Along and Loki are considered woke.

Cosmic Book News is a website that often critiques wokeness in the media.

Google has 28 pages of search results for "site:cosmicbook.news woke", with similar results omitted.

When you search for "site:cosmicbook.news woke loki", only one item in the first two pages of search results is an article about Loki being woke, "Loki Now Gender Fluid In The MCU".

Interestingly, when you search for "site:cosmicbook.news woke agatha", nothing in the first two pages of search results is an article about Agatha being woke.

As a control, let us see what Cosmic Book News says about She-Hulk.

When you search for "site:cosmicbook.news woke "she hulk"", in contrast *seven* items in the *first* page of search results are articles talking about how woke She-Hulk is.

So we can see that complaints about Loki and Agatha being woke are/were minimal.

Links - 10th October 2024 (1 - Star Wars: The Acolyte)

Thread by @sawyeurism on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "I broke down crying about The Acolyte tonight. I've been grieving privately for days and I needed to let it all out.  This show means more to me than words can say. It made me feel seen as a female Star Wars fan, and as a woman who is taught by society to hide her rage. I grieve for the show, for not knowing if I will ever know what happens next, for the characters, and for the cast and crew who put their heart and soul into it. I grieve for Leslye Headland, who was brave and bold enough to tell a different kind of Star Wars story. I grieve for my friends and peers who felt represented by this show in ways they've never felt represented by Star Wars before. I fear that the fandom will cease to exist, that this show will be forgotten, and my sincerest hope is that we will rage on as proud fans of The Acolyte for many years to come.  I love The Acolyte. I always will, no matter if we get a continuation of the story or not. I'm completely gutted that this decision was made, and I hope that whatever executive made this decision sees that it was the wrong one.  And no, I do not care to hear that you think I'm a crybaby. This is my truth. These are my feelings. #RenewTheAcolyte #SaveTheAcolyte"
These are the same people who go on about "white fragility"
Weird. When people who care about good writing and canon point out how shit Disney Star Wars is, they're told that it's for kids and they're idiots for caring so much about it

Leslye Headland Claims That The Head Witch Turning Into An Ashy Dementor Was Actually Her "Transforming Into The Force" - "Not only does Aniseya transform into this wraith, but she begins transforming Mae as well. Later in the episode, Koril, another one of the witches, is able to use this ability as well... This is just another corruption of Star Wars and more proof that George Lucas was 100% right that the current people running the Star Wars ship at Lucasfilm do not understand Star Wars and certainly do not understand the Force. Lucas stated at the Cannes Film Festival, “I was the one who really knew what Star Wars was … who actually knew this world, because there’s a lot to it. The Force, for example, nobody understood the Force.” He added, “When they started other ones after I sold the company, a lot of the ideas that were in [the original] sort of got lost. But that’s the way it is. You give it up, you give it up.” As for how he defined the Force, Lucas explained during a writers meeting for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, “The only way to overcome the Dark Side is through discipline. The Dark Side is pleasure, biological, and temporary, and easy to achieve.” “The Light Side is joy, everlasting, and difficult to achieve. A great challenge. Must overcome laziness, give up quick pleasures, and overcome fear which leads to hate.”"

'Bone Tomahawk' Producer Claims 'The Acolyte' Showrunner Leslye Headland Used To Be Based And "Would Have S**T All Over The Acolyte For Its Stupid Gender Motives And Dumb Physics" - "Sonnier, who also produced Run Hide Fight and Terror on the Prairie posted, “The Acolyte makes me sad on many levels. Star Wars is awesome. Was awesome.” He continued, “I discovered Leslye in a 15 seat theatre on Santa Monica Blvd back in 2007. Like Greta [Gerwig], I locked arms with this woman and forced Hollywood to pay attention to her. Leslye was so frickin’ based back then.” She would have s**t all over The Acolyte for its stupid gender motives and dumb physics like fire in outer space,” he added. Sonnier then stated, “Last saw her in 2017. And she was still her old self. But her reboot of Heathers (co-starring an even younger Brett Cooper !!!) soon got cancelled. Very publicly for all the wrong dumb reasons. And it really shook her spirits. I saw her lean into modern victim mentality more with Russian Doll on Netflix, and really no turning back from there…” He then speculates she got woke in order to be accepted by Hollywood, “Hey look, we all get older, we all gotta pay the bills, and the world cracked. I get it.” “But it is just sad to see someone I managed for over 8 years, and cared so much about become the very thing she and I would mock mercilessly for a decade,” Sonnier concluded. Headland made it clear she is indeed a proponent of woke ideology now and claimed she felt sad that people reject queer ideology... She then added that she was the one who was indeed sad because her show was being dismantled, “It makes me feel sad that a bunch of people on the internet would somehow dismantle what I consider to be the most important piece of art that I’ve ever made.”... She also addressed critics of the show describing the lesbian space witches she introduced in the show’s third episode as lesbian space witches. She said, “They’re in a matriarchal society. As a gay woman, I knew it would read that their sexuality is queer, but there also aren’t any men in their community. So a closeness between the two of them would be natural. It seemed plot-driven.”"

Showrunner Leslye Headland Claims Osha Killed Sol In 'The Acolyte' Because He Was Imposing "Benign Sexism" On Her - "In an interview with Collider, Maggie Lovitt asked Headland, “What’s so interesting about that moment, where Osha kills Sol, is how much is conveyed even while he’s choking on his words. Also, and maybe this was my impression of it, but my first thought was, ‘He doesn’t even give her the agency to make this choice herself because he’s accepting his fate.’ It just adds so much more insult to injury. You can’t even let her get a satisfactory kill because you’re like, ‘It’s okay.’ It’s so good!”...   “The daughter has to surpass him in some way,” she explained. “She cannot stay a little girl or an adolescent or young adult. She has to, at some point, say, ‘I reject what you have told me I need to do to make you proud, to follow in your footsteps.’ She has to do that.”... Headland appears to be confirming that the entire show is about her own personal experiences rather than any kind of universal experience between fathers and daughters.  She’s actually affirmed this in the past. In an interview with The New York Times, Headland stated, “I have a very strained relationship with my youngest sister, and I feel like one of the reasons it is strained is that we both see each other as the bad guy.”  “And if I was going to tell a story about bad guys, it seemed to me that the place to start should be a familial relationship where one person is adamantly convinced of her correctness and the other person is also adamantly convinced of her correctness,” she continued. “We don’t speak. I think this will be a surprise to her.” Interestingly, later in the Collider interview, Headland provided more evidence to this theory. Lovitt commented, “I think that’s what makes villains so compelling because there is that little piece of every writer in the villains, kind of pushing an idea that they have harbored within them. The villain is a great proxy for getting those feelings out.”  Headland responded, “Absolutely. I very rarely put myself into the protagonist because I think the protagonist has to be the protagonist. They might have a sprinkling of me, certainly Osha and Mae, the family conflict, the switching of sides, being really certain that you know one thing, the betrayal of the father, the rejection of the fraternal protectionism, and saying, ‘I am now my own person.’ That stuff I definitely relate with, but The Stranger is my shadow self, for sure.” In a previous interview with Collider, Headland also revealed that Qimir is an avatar for her."
More of feminism's puerile contrarianism

'The Acolyte' Showrunner Leslye Headland Explains Why She Views The Sith Villain As An Avatar For Herself - "what Headland is referring to is what Qimir tells Master Sol in the show’s fifth episode when Sol asks him what he wants.  Qimir responds, “Freedom. The freedom to wield my power the way I like. Without having to answer to Jedi like you. I want a pupil, an Acolyte. But this one went back on our deal. She exposed me. So, now I have to kill every single last one of you. I don’t make the rules. The Jedi do. And the Jedi say I can’t exist. They see my face, they all die.” This moment in the show was one of the few compelling moments that felt true to Star Wars. It’s because the idea of freedom she is talking about is in reality slavery to passion something the Sith do indeed engage in, and it is indeed wrong to do.  Author Patrick Deneen notes this idea is found in liberalism. He explains, “The basic presupposition of liberalism, as I understand it and I think as the tradition of political philosophy and theology would understand this, is that liberalism is ideally about the completely and truly free human being. Freedom in the modern sense. Freedom from any kind of obstacle or that which prevents us from achieving what it is we wish, what our will would desire.” Deneen then details how this idea contrasts with virtue, “Of course, this is in contrast to the classical and the Christian understanding of liberty, as you know well. … And that for much of American history, certainly for much of, of course, Western history, even if that modern view wasn’t predominant there was a kind of practice that came alongside its more ancient understanding,” he detailed. “And those practices were basically practices we would think of as the practices of virtue. In other words, the capacity to be self-limiting and learning to be self-limiting, which, of course, is very deeply in the Aristotelian tradition, very deeply in the Christian tradition.”  He continued, “But when your definition of liberty becomes the freedom from or the freedom to do as one wishes then those older practices and even institutions that taught us a kind of self-limitation, those now have to be either eliminated or changed, redefined.”   This idea of freedom that is contrary to virtue is perfect for a villain, and it’s not the first time we’ve ever seen it (think Brave New World). However, given Headland sees Qimir as an avatar for herself, she tries to twist this objectively evil ideology to make it somehow good or at the very least “morally grey.”"

YouTube Personality Grace Randolph Turns On Lucasfilm's 'The Acolyte,' Says Episode 7 "Was Awful" After Claiming Criticism Of Show Was Hate Speech - "Randolph’s about face on the show is quite dramatic. Back in June after the first two episodes premiered, Randolph was calling the majority of people criticizing the show “grifters.”  She wrote on June 6th, “I think it’s funny that anti #TheAcolyte people are yelling ‘SHILL’ at anyone who likes it. Yet the hate is largely being driven by people who are making money off of it  – aka ‘GRIFTERS.'”...   Randolph was still singing the show’s praises in the lead up to the fourth episode... In fact, in her Episode 6 breakdown, Randolph was continuing to sing the show’s praises"

'The Acolyte' Finale Viewership Is 41% Below 'Ahsoka's' Finale And Over 50% Below 'Andor's' Finale - "Data from Nielsen reveals that The Acolyte’s finale viewership was 41% worse than Ahsoka’s finale and over 50% less than Andor’s finale... Of note, the show’s two episode premiere had 488 million minutes watched according to Nielsen. That means that total minutes watched between the two-episode premiere and the season finale declined by over 30%.   And remember, Nielsen does not just factor in individuals who watched the finale, it factors in all episodes watched for the entire week. That means it factors in individuals who binge watch the entire season. So, even with individuals binging the entire eight episodes the show still had less viewership than the two-episode premiere. One can only conclude that the show saw people rapidly abandon this show after watching the first or second episode...   When comparing the show to more recent Star Wars releases, one can see just how poorly this show performed. As noted by X user NowItsKnown, the show’s finale performed worse than every single live-action Star Wars show released on Disney+ before it including Ahsoka, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, and The Mandalorian...   As pointed out by NowItsKnown, these piss poor viewership numbers for The Acolyte explain why showrunner Leslye Headland was begging people to watch the show and take part in social media campaigns in order to get a second season greenlit."
Obviously it's sexism that Andor got renewed but not The Acolyte

New Viewership Data For 'The Acolyte' Confirms Star Wars Fans Are Abandoning The Franchise - "On top of this, X user NowItsKnown also points out that Andor released on a Wednesday while The Acolyte released on a Tuesday. That means that The Acolyte had an extra day of data collection during its premiere week compared to Andor... It’s abundantly clear that viewership for Disney Star Wars shows on Disney+ have fallen off a cliff over the last year."

'The Acolyte' Has Big Discrepancies in Rotten Tomatoes Score & Viewership Data - Here's Why - "Screenrant’s analysis, albeit on a small sample, suggests that a significant portion of those reviews are AI-generated, essentially bogus, and not genuine critiques.  Moreover, the sheer volume of reviews surpasses that of all seasons of ‘The Mandalorian’ combined. Does this imply that ‘The Acolyte’ has more viewership than ‘The Mandalorian’ overall?"

Are Male Fans Responsible for 'The Acolyte's 14% Rotten Tomatoes Score? Kathleen Kennedy was Prepared for It - "‘Andor’ stands out as one of the best ‘Star Wars’ shows, currently boasting a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 86% audience score. Despite featuring strong female characters, ‘Andor’ presents them in a more nuanced and developed manner compared to ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte.’  There’s also the recent release of the ‘Fallout’ adaptation. Despite being primarily female-led, it’s been widely praised as a successful video game adaptation and one of the best in the genre’s history. The show currently holds a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score and an 89% Audience score. The demographics don’t explain this success, as the Fallout franchise traditionally has a much larger male fanbase compared to female fans. Similarly, ‘Furiosa,’ a recent ‘Mad Max’ spinoff starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, has garnered high ratings from both critics and audiences. While not as financially successful as hoped, it has been well-received, particularly by the predominantly male fanbase... its initial viewership numbers were notably lower compared to ‘Ahsoka,’ another female-led project with respectable scores. Perhaps next time, PR teams should study the marketing strategies of successful projects like ‘Furiosa’ and ‘Fallout.’ It might be wise not to alienate your core audience while attempting to deflect criticism onto them for weak storytelling and mediocre plots."

MAC on X - "Each #DisneyPlus #StarWars show season finale draws lower viewership than the one before. Not including #TheMandalorian S3 finale, but resuming with Ahsoka's. #BookOfBobaFett-885 Feb 22 #ObiWan-860 June 22 #Andor-674 Nov 22 #Ahsoka-575 Oct 23 @wdwpro1 @ValliantRenegad @KinelRyan"

Meme - Loyalists of the Galactic Empire: Somehow returned: "'Our enemies are small, insignificant, and utterly incompetent. But also extremely powerful and dangerous'
NPC: *upset*
NPC: 'You're a worthless, vocal minority, and SW doesn't need you' *chip being removed*
NPC: 'The Acolyte got cancelled and it's all your fault!' *click* *chip being replaced*
NPC: *upset*"

Meme - *James Franco First Time*
*Acolyte Fans upset by the cancellation*
EU Fans: "First time?"

Meme - *Soyjak with "I *heart* science" t-shirt* "YOU TOXIC HATEFUL BIGOT, ITS YOUR FAULT THEY CANCELED THE ACOLYTE YOU PIECE OF SHIT, I HOPE YOU FUCKING DIE YOU TOXIC FASCIST FUCKHEAD I HATE YOU PEOPLE SO MUCH I HOPE YOU ALL DIE VIOLENTLY, HATEFUL PRICKS!"

The Acolyte: Amandla Stenberg Says Cancellation Not a 'Shock’ After Fan ‘Vitriol’ - "“I’m going to be transparent and say it’s not a huge shock for me,” Stenberg continued. “There has been a rampage of vitriol that we have faced since the show was even announced, when it was still just a concept and no one had even seen it. That’s when we started experiencing a rampage of, I would say, hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred, and hateful language towards us.”... writer CT Jones addressed the “backlash of racism, sexism, and online abuse” that “seems consistent across all Star Wars projects — most heavily targeted at leads of color.”"
The usual excuses. Weird how the modern audience never shows up, when you'd expect that they would want to piss the "bigots" off

Stenberg: "That’s when we started experiencing a rampage of, I would say, hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred and hateful language towards us.” 🙄 : r/saltierthancrait - "Disney Star Wars to its audience:
Disney: "You're haters!"
The fans: "We're not, it's the way the show is written. There are lots of plot holes. Maybe you could..."
Disney: "Nah, you're haters."
The fans: "We're not, we just think the show could be better. Perhaps if the characters..."
Disney: "And, you're definitely racists."
The fans: "Really, the plot makes no sense. She wouldn't do that because it contradicts..."
Disney: "Sexists too."
The fans: "Oh for ***** sake, why don't you listen, you IDIOTS! PERHAPS YOUR **** SHOWS COULD BE BETTER IF YOU JUST OPENED YOUR EARS! "
Disney: "Well, that just proves our point. You're all angry, rude and aggressive, We need to call out this behaviour. BIGOTS.""
"Disney: *commissions another shitty show. "This one is for the fans!""
"Using the exact same formula as the last, and the exact same excuses after it inevitably fails."
"Dear Disney,  We really like the show where the lead character is Mexican, and another major character is a Puerto Rican woman. But for some reason you pump out garbage while we sit and wait years for season 2.  And if you wouldn't have taken the show we also REALLY liked, where we had an Emmy winning, internet daddy, Peruvian protagonist and an Emmy nominated black antagonist, and instead focused on some BS cult and an adhd yoda, then maybe we wouldn't be so salty."
"everyone loves Rogue 1 (female lead) and Andor (Mexican lead, lesbian couple). And fucking Saw Gerrera, everyone loves Saw."

Is there a technical term or trope for the problem with how Acolyte and Last Jedi are written? : r/saltierthancrait - "  "badly" or "crap" aren't wrong per se, but they're not exactly specific and it's not exactly conducive to discussion. Anyone can just call anything crap.  The main problem I can see are that they will not commit to an internal reality. Because it's NOT real, it doesn't have to pretend that it IS real. Doubly so because there are fantasy and science fiction elements. It's very post modern (not that that term is very specific) in not admitting a larger picture. Whatever is happening now is happening now and that's the only thing that matters.  Under normal or even bad writing for example Chewie is loyal to han. It's as much a part of him as his fur. If Chewie is betraying han you know its a set up. But under this style of writing, there is no reality, so if someone thinks it would be cool for chewie to betray han, in it goes. It's entirely plot driven with no other interplay or consideration.  The writing extends to ignoring real world physics (the rocks are on fire... in spaaace) , made up physics (The holdo manuever. Forgetting hyper space trackers are a thing. While pointing out the hyperspace tracker someone is wearing)  post modern? a complete lack of verisimilitude? Plot driven/top down writing? Is there something I can point to and say "this is the problem" without copy pasting a rant?"
"I don't know if there's a full, technical term for it, but I felt the Acolyte suffered from what we called it in film school as "and then" writing.   This thing happens, then then happens, then this happens, then this happens.....  And so on until the end of the film.   Things just happen because they're needed to in order to advance the plot."
Is there a technical term or trope for the problem with how Acolyte and Last Jedi are written? : r/saltierthancrait - "Yeah, I’d say it’s just a style that places the writer’s point of view and perhaps agenda over any overall plot logic and internal universe logic.  The writer’s ideas take precedence over everything bc disney Star Wars is about everyone’s story matters (even if it isn’t widely interesting or compelling) and deserves to be told.  In such an ‘all ideas are equal world,’ we ignore the reality that some ideas are more compelling to most than others. Everyone deserves $180 million dollars to tell their story just like headland.  Such thinking is absurd and perhaps why headland should have just bought some action figures and mashed them together at home instead"

Is there a technical term or trope for the problem with how Acolyte and Last Jedi are written? : r/saltierthancrait - "The Last Jedi suffers from a lack of sincerity. Not taking itself seriously almost as a defence against criticism, and taking the piss out of the audience for wanting to take it seriously. Moments of genuine emotion, be it love, terror, suspense, whatever, are undermined by a joke that referenced what just happened. "well that just happened!" being the sort of lazy punch line we are becoming used to. "They fly now?" springs to mind. There was a great video on this topic on YouTube recently. Can't bloody remember who.  Acolyte has a huge problem with just unbelievable writing. Characters doing uncharacteristic things because the writer can't think of a better way to move the plot along. Characters being awful at communicating the most basic things, And leaving out key details, just so there can be a misunderstanding and the plot can move along. This happened in sitcoms all the time as it is ridiculous and laughable. There's got to be a word for this other than lazy writing. Something that explains the constant unbelievable actions of established characters that make no sense in their given context to move the plot forward."

Is there a technical term or trope for the problem with how Acolyte and Last Jedi are written? : r/saltierthancrait - "In sitcoms, TV Tropes refer to it as catching “the idiot ball” when a character has to act stupid and out of character for a plot to happen. An “idiot plot” is when a plot can only happen if every single character acts like an imbecile."
"Yeah now that I've read up on that, it fits the idiot plot 100%. None of this would happen if they weren't all making idiotic and sometimes even completely random choices.  The writers are unable to make the plot happen with intelligent characters so they have to be idiots otherwise it gets stuck.  A character is at most, only as smart as the writer after all."
Is there a technical term or trope for the problem with how Acolyte and Last Jedi are written? : r/saltierthancrait - "It suffers from an “idiot plot” in that the plot can only move forward because the characters are idiots. As the movie pitch series so aptly pointed out this plot can’t happen unless every character has a misunderstanding  It also suffers from “and then” story telling and not “because of”. For example: OSHA is arrested, and then her ship crashes, and then she meets Sol and then he suddenly believes her  it’s a murder mystery that is solved by the end of the first episode so there is no mystery  The mystery of who burned down the stone monastery wasn’t a mystery it was still Mae  Character motivations are poorly flushed out and Mae changes her mind like a model changes clothes  Smilo Ren is not nearly developed enough as a character for us to actually care about his tragic past  Darth Plagueis is a pointless key jangling cameo that does nothing to serve the plot, same with Yoda  The whole thesis of the show is that the Jedi are not good but the plot and motivations are so poorly written that the execution makes them sympathetic. What would you do if a giant smoke monster started dissolving a child."

Is there a technical term or trope for the problem with how Acolyte and Last Jedi are written? : r/saltierthancrait - "There are people who profess to love it. They didn't get the memo and have no problem suspending belief and feel it's great. I think these are people who just want to be entertained. They're not worried about connections or consistency.  The writing was on the level of GoT S8. Rush to get it done ASAP. It's one of the most expensive shows of all time, yet it looks like a similar budget and quality to that of BSG and SG-1. However, with that budget we could have had 4 - 12 episode (43 minute) seasons along with 4 2-hour specials. We got 1 season and about 270 minutes of show.  If everything else was perfect, that kind of flaw almost draws more attention to itself. Like when I say TLJ Mary Poppins was a massive WTF moment for me. It really broke the dam. It wasn't perfect to that point, but that moment really broke everything."

Is there a technical term or trope for the problem with how Acolyte and Last Jedi are written? : r/saltierthancrait - "What your looking for is called the suspension of disbelief, link at the bottom.  Basically the idea is that every story is going to have areas where things aren’t real or realistic.  A most basic example is time, in real life major events can happen over months to years, a reader doesn’t want to spend a ton of time just waiting, as such a writer will condense the story telling into an unreal time frame.  And in fantasy and sci-fi settings, there’s going to be large sections of unreal items like faster then light travel.  So what makes it okay and not?  Consistency.  Basically as a writer you have to have a consistent story, if you stay consistent readers are usually willing to suspend disbelief for the story.  The issue is that for every time you do something inconsistent or deus ex machina, it risks a reader stopping the suspension of disbelief, and once disbelief is no longer suspend its bad  A.  It means they’ll go back and judge you much harsher on things they already read B.  It means they won’t suspend disbelief in the future C.  They generally feel lied to and misled, as if you were trying to steal from them.  So an example of this in Star Wars would be TLJ when they use a ship going into hyper speed as a weapon.  The issue is that was massively inconsistent as it invalidates about  40ish years of established logic.  And this was the moment most people, rather they realize it or not, got pulled out of the magic  from that moment onward, nothing previous made sense and many in the audience would feel they had been deceived.  Everything previous in the movie would come under much heavier scrutiny, and everything after would be as well.  For the acolyte it’s a bit harder, because a large chunk of the audience has already suspended their disbelief and they’ll need to be convinced to re-suspend it(which is possible look at Andor).  I’ll give a quick example, the fire in space really wasn’t a big deal.  Star Wars has shown fire in space before and you could logically give it a reason, did it look bad? Yes.  Was it horrible? No. But the issue is many in the audience were already suspending disbelief, and the earlier scene was  kinda weird, combine that with further in the episode where they accuse the main character(who 100% had witness she was on a ship on the other side of the galaxy) of murdering a Jedi in a super bizarre fashion and yeah disbelief is suspend and a previously minor issue like the fire gets elevated"
"The fire in space wasn't a problem because it wasn't load bearing for the plot.  The ROCKS being on fire on the other hand...."
"Not only were the rocks on fire, later everything seemed okay. For example, the power source/station that blew up was working well enough for the elevator. Like, did y'all forget what happened? I mean maybe that's not what actually happened, but due to the shitty writing, lack of detail, and super short episodes/overall runtime, that sure seemed like it happened."
"So… I was talking about the space fire rocks, but The point here is just going straight over heads.  Yes there was a logical inconsistency there.  But if everything else had been done perfectly it probably wouldn’t have mattered.  Imagine everything else was even Andor level, it wouldn’t have mattered.  But because they had consistent logical issues that broke the suspension of disbelief which meant every single issue became worse, which is what was being asked. That the term of his is the suspension of disbelief  So yes I noticed all of that, I’m not a fan of the show, but the issue is the writing, which was bad enough to cause the audience to stop suspending belief, so that the audience would notice how illogical both the space fire and rock temple fire was"

Links - 6th September 2024 (1 - Star Wars: The Acolyte)

The Acolyte cost a staggering $670k per minute of footage and garnered over a billion less minutes watched than every other Star Wars show. How is anyone surprised it was cancelled? : r/StarWars - "Come on. Don't insult ChatGPT like that. This program can do miles better than whatever hell the Acolyte writers crawled out of."

The Acolyte cost a staggering $670k per minute of footage and garnered over a billion less minutes watched than every other Star Wars show. How is anyone surprised it was cancelled? : r/StarWars - "As the Acolyte has shown us, it's very obvious that Headland's contribution to the writing and directing of that show is null compared Lyonne's and/or Poehler's, without them, her quality control falls off a fucking cliff.  Unless if she had an aneurysm between the production of Russian Doll and the Acolyt, it's quite obvious that Disney (Kathleen Kennedy if we're being honest) failed to properly vet her true talent before giving her a blank cheque."
"Just like her decision making in bringing on greenlighting Rian Johnson's plans for Episode 8 that turned into a dumpster fire that left JJ with nothing but a husk to try to salvage for Episode 9."

The Acolyte cost a staggering $670k per minute of footage and garnered over a billion less minutes watched than every other Star Wars show. How is anyone surprised it was cancelled? : r/StarWars - "'wrote movies, tv shows, had an emmy nomination,'
She participated in the writing of movies (which were average at best), and had her hand in one successful show, which was really the passion project of the main actress.  Star Wars is a multi-billion dollar IP, when vetting I would expect that you hire someone with at minimum's Tony Gilroy's credentials (Cutting Edge, Devil's Advocate, Bourne Series, Michael Clayton, etc).  I expect industry juggernauts like Jonathan Nolan, Peter Gould, Frank Darabont, Aaron Sorkin, Hawk Ostby, etc.  Headland is not worth giving a blank cheque to for one of the biggest IPs in Hollywood, even with her current "qualifications"."
"Not sure why you think Leslie got a "blank check", there are 17 credited producers (with six being executive producers, two co-executive producers and two consulting producers)"
"Sounds like they spent too much by having 17 producers"
An insight here is that when left wingers talk about "qualifications", they are talking about positions held (which can be due to nepotism, affirmative action etc) rather than achievements. Which is why they keep claiming Kamala Harris is qualified, and that DEI hires are qualified (since the DEI hires were DEI hire-d for previous roles as well)

The Acolyte cost a staggering $670k per minute of footage and garnered over a billion less minutes watched than every other Star Wars show. How is anyone surprised it was cancelled? : r/StarWars - "'Not sure why you think Leslie got a "blank check", there are 17 credited producers (with six being executive producers, two co-executive producers and two consulting producers), seems like there was a lot oversight by Disney to me, without inside knowledge it's hard to fully know what actual power she had in the production in regards to budget alocations, having the power to say no to producers notes and that jazz. There are many reasons a tv show fails and it's not always on the showrunner, of course she signed her name on it and deserves the brunt of the criticism.'
We can infer this through multiple comments made by Headland and Kennedy. As well as certain production choices.  Headland being able to hire her wife despite her lack of acting credentials and poor performance.  Here  Her immediately accepting Headland's pitch after a simple rough outline through an unsolicited meetup at Star Celebration that was allegedly booked through a cold email... Her saying that this Headland's personal story...  In addition, we can look to Kathleen Kennedy's process in general, both Gilroy and Favreau described her involvement as hands-off/subservient throughout the first season of their respective shows.  For Andor  I would post a source on the Mandolorian but it's mostly relegated to rumours.  If you're trying to claim that Kennedy micromanaged Headland's show, and/or Headland's creative process was hampered in any way, then you'll have to show me the evidence, because as far as I'm concerned, the Acolyte was her passion project, and Kennedy did nothing to suppress that. In other words, she gave her a blank cheque...  But that's the neat part, they actually did have available, highly talented producers.  See...  McCarthy's TV Show credentials: John Adams, House of Cards, and Ballers.  Disney promptly proceeded to drop her contract for no reason, and was sued as a result.  In addition, you're seriously making the claim Disney is incapable of hiring talented and prolific writers and producers?... No one should get their chance with Star Wars, no. I fail to see how this is controversial, not wanting unproven amateurs to work on one of the biggest entertainment IPs of all time is perfectly acceptable.
'Craig Mazin never worked on a 100+ million dollar production before and worked on a bunch of average productions prior to his big hit in Chernobyl, by your hiring logic he was an absurd pick for The Last of Us tv show.'
Chernobyl is arguably the best miniseries of all time, heads and shoulders above a show like the Russian Doll lmao.  Yeah, I think we should make exceptions for generational talents.  If you want to make the argument that Leslie is a generational talent, have it.
Edit: lmao he blocked me"

The Acolyte cost a staggering $670k per minute of footage and garnered over a billion less minutes watched than every other Star Wars show. How is anyone surprised it was cancelled? : r/StarWars - "I don't know. When people make excuses for a show with a lot of CGI, they say, "CGI is crazy expensive!". Then when people make excuses for a show with little CGI, they say, "Practical effects are crazy expensive!". Okayyyyyy.  The fact is that they shot some scenes in an old abandoned industrial plant, a couple scenes in a cool seaside cave, and some scenes in a forest that could have been anywhere. I mean seriously, go on YouTube and nearly every "lightsaber fight" fan film is shot in a forest.  I don't think "shooting on location" really explains $180 million in this case. Also throw in the fact that there was no top-dollar Hollywood A-listers to pay, so I don't think the money went to actor or director fees.  I think they just... hired too many rookies, and didn't give them oversight. 🤷‍♂️ Either that, or there's just some straight up money laundering or tax fraud in the mix."

The worst merchandising opportunity “character” in Star Wars : r/saltierthancrait - "According to Headland she had him disable the ship to give him a 'hero moment'. In fact, listening/reading/watching her interviews has only made the experience of this series worse.  Update, I didn't want to subject everyone to a full interview, but here is a snippet ."
The worst merchandising opportunity “character” in Star Wars : r/saltierthancrait - "The interviews each week felt like a justification and explanation of all the things that didn't make sense within an episode. Additionally, it felt like headland was making it up along the interview.
interviewer: [...] they moved there, and then decided to create the girls, or they moved to Brendok specifically to create the girls?
headland: It’s a really good question. It’s also a backwards question because we haven’t confirmed that the witches created them. [laughs]
interviewer: [...] What can you tell us specifically about the nature of the vergence on Brendok?
headland:[...] The girls themselves are not a vergence in the Force. They needed…again, however they got here…the act of creating them was going to need amplification. [...]
interviewer:[...] Why would that make them stronger, a.k.a, “the power of two,” and not weaker if they’re two halves of one whole?
headland: The girls are guinea pigs. They’re patient zero for this sort of power. It didn’t work perfectly. [...] Aniseya could only do so much. She’s not powerful enough to create one person. The twins split, Aniseya’s power split, [...]"

The worst merchandising opportunity “character” in Star Wars : r/saltierthancrait - "The fact she explains every single aspect of her show in interviews is very off. You'll notice most writers, when asked something like "Did X character kill Y character because they hated them, or took pity on them?" They'll respond without giving a direct answer because they want the work to speak for itself. Shows a lack of confidence or a lack of how seriously she takes her work."
"It was the same thing with the Halo series, every interview turning into some long winded explanation of everything, and it gave the impression that even they didn’t understand it. People aren’t asking you to explain something because it’s fascinating, people wanna know why you would write it like that because it makes no sense."
"  Halo, while flawed, is 100x better than Acolyte - and most of the SW material Disney has produced.  At least the characters don't talk and act like mindless automatons."

The worst merchandising opportunity “character” in Star Wars : r/saltierthancrait - "Isn’t it crazy how much Headland has to explain to the audience outside of the show… I don’t know if she realizes if you write the script and story well, we will all understand it inside the show."
The worst merchandising opportunity “character” in Star Wars : r/saltierthancrait - "So saving a serial killer from your own boss is a « hero moment » when he hired you specifically to sniff her and find her…"

The worst merchandising opportunity “character” in Star Wars : r/saltierthancrait - "Explain how this is a “ hero moment”? By stopping Sol from capturing or killing the psychopathic murderer?"
The worst merchandising opportunity “character” in Star Wars : r/saltierthancrait - "That’s hilarious. She thinks we should consider this little rat a hero? He actively contributed to the death of Sol and allowed the Sith to continue. He is a villain. But that just goes to summarize the Headland’s twisted logic."
"It's pretty clear the perspective of the show is that the Jedi are the baddies. Still don't understand how that got approved but is been fucking hysterical watching Disney in real time realizing how colossal of a fuck up this was."
"Headland: From my point of view the Sith are the heroes!"

Meme - SirSnipeyy @SirSnipeyy: "The Acolyte apparently got cancelled due to backlash from racism and bigotry, so I ask the question.  Then why is House of the Dragon still going pretty strong?  Diverse cast. Non-binary lead playing a female surrounded in a male dominated political landscape…  Because it’s good"

The Acolyte Is Proof That Star Wars Needs Fewer Fans At The Helm - "The problem with Star Wars is incredibly easy to pinpoint—Dave Filoni. He’s a diehard fan above all else, enamoured not only with George Lucas’ work but his own contributions, constantly finding ways to bring back fan favourite characters even if it doesn’t fit the story being told... Having nothing but fans at the helm has ripped away the core message of Star Wars as we watch a man play with his action figures instead. This is why The Acolyte’s controversial approach is so refreshing. Last month, showrunner Leslye Headland told AV Club that she wanted to hire people who “are not necessarily the die-hard, cutthroat fan” that she is to bring in a new perspective. Filoni and the other Star Wars shows could learn a lot from this approach, even if the idea of outsiders stepping into this world is seen as an invasion by a fandom who hoards their love of this franchise like it’s going out of print."
This aged well

'The Acolyte' Fans Refuse to Accept Show's Cancellation While Forgetting Its Huge Budget - "The comparison to other Star Wars series is stark. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s production costs were half at $90 million, while Ahsoka and The Book of Boba Fett had budgets of over $100 million and $15 million per episode, respectively. The Mandalorian and Andor, both highly rated, also had substantial budgets but evidently managed to pull in the numbers needed."

rachelrobinsonsupernova on X - "Reminder that people hated the first two seasons of the clone wars, yet it got 7 seasons and is beloved because of those later seasons. People didn’t like rebels season 1 and now it has 4 seasons. Y’all don’t give shows time to find their footing anymore"
The first season of The Clone Wars wasn't great, but it wasn't The Acolyte levels of bad.

The Most Expensive Animated Series In TV History - "George Lucas wasn't shy about how much he wanted "The Clone Wars" TV series to succeed. In an interview he gave during the early days of the series' first season, he ballparked that each episode's production cost around $1 million. In 2008, this type of budget per animated episode was probably unprecedented.    Fans have speculated that over the course of the series, as the creators learned how to make the show more efficiently, the "Clone Wars" budget decreased"
$1 in 2008 was $1.40 in 2024, so the Clone Wars had a budget of about $1.4 million an episode in 2024 dollars, vs almost $23 million for The Acolyte. And it almost surely got a lot more views too

We never had an issue with diversity. : r/CriticalDrinker - "Their failures are blamed on the fans not accepting what they produce.  Good show/movie/game = good reviews. Bad media = bad reviews.  Don’t let them gaslight you.  We liked Iden Versio. Gina Carano. Oscar Isaac. Danny Trejo. Temuera Morrison. The list goes on."
"Greef Karga, Moff Gideon, Cara Dune, Fennec Shand, Boba Fett and Din Djarin are all "diverse" characters by Hollywood's definition, and they were all immediately accepted by fans in The Mandalorian.  If your show is well made, in good faith, and not designed to push an agenda, fans will clearly accept any race or demographic of actor."

Don't like it? Don't watch it! : r/GeeksGamersCommunity - "I can honestly say just hearing news headlines about how the actress released a dance video "clapping back" at the "haters" is all I'll ever need to know about the show. That's all anyone needs to know you can literally extrapolate EVERYTHING ELSE from just that one fact."
"Clapping back has gotta be the absolute dumbest word created lol  I'd love to hear her logic about how dancing like a clown is letting the "haters" know.  I saw it n was like "oh look, she's even dumber than I thought" and moved on"

Don't like it? Don't watch it! : r/GeeksGamersCommunity - "We wrote star wars for people that aren't star wars fans.... Why is this failing?"
"Also see rings of power"

Breaking News : r/saltierthancrait - "Tonight on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire:
Why was the "hit show" The Acolyte cancelled after season 1?
A: The fans are toxic. B: It is too avant-garde for the feeble-mindedness of Star Wars fans. C: It was way ahead of it's time. D: The premise is ridiculous, it looks like a low-quality fan film (minus the passion), it disrespects the source material and Disney doesn't want it to be discovered as a money laundering scheme."
"The review bombing excuse is my all-time favorite. If Star Wars YouTubers and reviews on rotten tomatoes, etc. moved the need at all then Andor would be the most watched show in television history based on the love it got on YouTube and review sites. Guess what? Didn’t make a difference for Andor and doesn’t make a difference for acolyte. Those nerfs may have a few million subscribers but it’s irrelevant."

Breaking News : r/saltierthancrait - "Want to know why I didn’t watch it? Pretty simple. Because Kenobi, Ahsoka, Boba, and Mando. Failure after failure after failure and they’re all hyped up the same way.  I’m not sorry, Disney, that you lost so many fans as you bungled your way to the bottom. Not many perpetual fuckups get 10th chances in this world, even the extremely wealthy ones. You have fucking failed."
"Yep. This is it (at least for me.) Mando started out great, but has lost a step. Boba Fett had potential, but man did they drop the ball. Ahsoka was “meh.” Should have just called it “Rebels” and went from there. Terrible implementation of Thrawn unfortunately. Kenobi was boring - yes that was that one scene toward the end, but it didn’t make up for all the other issues.  I REALLY WANTED to like all of these after the first few season of Mando were good. I watched them all, and they all let me down. When the Acolyte came around, I was just done. Mediocre fatigue.  Andor had been the only really good SW lately."
"I think people didn't like how the marketing gaslit and deceived. People just stopped trusting disney to make a good product and didn't trust anything telling them it was good because saturating media with false praise has become the status quo."
"Your first paragraph really nailed it. Every show IS exactly the same. A month or so before release is when they start with the “Toxic fans ALREADY hate this and are sending racist DMs to the actors!” which is followed by the “You’re not watching it the right way if you hate it, shame on you” articles. And ultimately the mean fans are still responsible for the show being canceled"
"Mando is a depressing case because the first two seasons were good and then they supremely fucked it up"

Breaking News : r/saltierthancrait - "I love this mentality.
   Bro, did you watch [Enter Name of the Series]
   Um yeah, but after episode six I kind of lost interest and stopped watching.
   Whaaat? Tf are you talking about? It's the greatest thing since [Enter Super Popular and Succesful Series Name]. Come on, give it a chance. It gets better!
   Geez... Okay, if you say it, I might try again. Where does it get better?
   Around season 3. But season 4 is absolute masterpiece!
   Are you out of your mind??? I'm not wasting 25 hours of some shitty writing to wait till series hits off! GTFO of here, man...
Screw you bro, you don't know what you just lost, fucking hater!"
"That's the same as the people who say, "Oh, you have to give this comic series until issue #10 to see if it gets good..." Um, what? I don't owe you a year to get your ideas together and get your crap going. If it's not compelling reading pretty much from issue #1, then I stop buying. Where does all of this entitlement belief come from??"

Breaking News : r/saltierthancrait - "You know the show is absolute garbage when we all forgot Mae’s opening lines to the show were “attack me with all your power!! And does a stupid wannabe kung fu stance, all table side where a waiter would stand and take your order….so fucking cringe. And stupid writing."
Breaking News : r/saltierthancrait - "And no matter your opinion on inclusivity, it’s a niche market that wants to watch a lesbian sci-fi witch collective’s mama drama. I’m not saying people shouldn’t be challenged with new and interesting characters and storylines. I am saying that if you focus on just that and shout it at people, while also forgetting to include some cool stuff that appeals to EVERYONE, yeah they may peace out and grumble.  And that’s before you fuck up by ignoring and rewriting canon."
"It’s not as though lesbian space witches were not already a thing in Star Wars - we have the Night Sisters of Dathomir.  No, these were different lesbian space witches with their own poorly-explained but apparently much-maligned ideas about the Force."

Breaking News : r/saltierthancrait - "I didn't even realize she had feelings for the padawan girl until the villain pointed it out after killing her.  Like.. good job with that onscreen chemistry.  The other same sex couple, might as well have been divorced, kinda shitty co parents?  The only person that had actual emotions... was Sol. Who was the one person you're like "hey buddy, you're supposed to be like a serene pool of emotional control. You keep making Anakin faces though"  And then you have this Master Jedi who apparently exists in a perpetual state of indestructible meditation because he has such control over the force. Yet, apparently he's still in emotional 15 years later because the defeated some witches actively trying to kill them?  Tried so hard to like this. It's so gd bad"

Breaking News : r/saltierthancrait - "Why is Disney shitting the bed so often?"
"Well when you have an almost monopoly on the industry, why bother trying"
"If they keep shitting the bed this much that monopoly won’t hold for much longer."
"I’m just amazed when people, including grown ass writers, haven’t seen Star Wars in 2024."
"They're the kind of people who still spat on the 'nerds' for liking anything while mainstream culture got past that 10-15 years ago. No wonder they can't connect with a modern audience - they are uncurious and backwards."
"To be honest it seems like the comment you responded to would work as a direct answer to this question. Actively choosing to have people work on Star Wars who avoided ever watching it - and telling them to keep avoiding it - is exactly how you shit the bed on a Star Wars project."
"This is a very simple answer. In the 80s, the industry simply pursued whatever was popular. Top gun spawned a million "iron eagle" style knockoffs. Terminator spawned a million alien robot knockoffs. ET spawned Mac and me. Indiana Jones spawned a hundred indy wanna-bes. Die hard spawned the phrase "die hard on a.....". Studio execs simply followed the money to what was popular. But not today. John wick was massively successful. Maverick is one of the biggest movies ever. Where on the John wick knockoffs? Where are the maverick style reboots? Crickets. Why? Because the 2020s execs don't follow the money. They only want THE RIGHT MONEY. from THE RIGHT PEOPLE. they literally would rather the movie fail then have to "pander" to the people they hate. Kathleen Kennedy doesn't make content for millions of people. She makes content for an audience of about 200: her peers that she meets at parties and events. No one claps you on the back and tells you how virtuous and brave you are for making John wick. Disney content isn't about the audience. It's about the people MAKING THE CONTENT. The actual story is irrelevant. It's about how brave and pure and virtuous the creators are. Because look at this show they made, isn't it brave? Same with the audience. The acolyte super fans, all 57 of them, don't care about the content. They care about themselves, and what good people they must be for watching such a virtuous show. If I watch this show, I MUST be a good person, right?......right?"
"This is the point exactly. Leslie H was like “the acolyte is my story.” That’s great for her, but LGBT (insert appropriate pronoun) make up less than 10% of the US population. I think a lot of people are reaching the point where it’s getting really old when almost every single movie has to have a non-Caucasian female actress in the lead role in a country that is still 60% Caucasian. Snow White isn’t even white in the new movie. Like for fuck sake it’s that horrible to be white? Disney is radicalizing people that were previously not invested in this issue at all."

Meme - "DON'T LIKE? DON'T WATCH IT!"
Normal person: "OK"
"THE ACOLYTE DEAD: SEASON 2 NOT HAPPENING CONFIRMS VARIETY"
NPC: *upset*

They’ve officially reached “Godwin’s Law” levels of cope and mad. : r/MauLer
'The Acolyte's Amandla Stenberg Got Thrown to the Wolves - "Well, I’ll tell you what Lucasfilm isn’t doing. Backing up their creatives when it matters most. Here’s the nitty-gritty: Andor, which is an absolute masterpiece, did not have stellar numbers and cost more than The Acolyte. I’m even old enough to remember that Star Wars fans called Andor “boring.” However, it had a second season baked in from the jump. The Acolyte did not have that courtesy, and it was forced to sink or swim as everyone ignored that the water was full of Nazi sharks that hate women... There’s a reason why actual TV critics have been lamenting the cancellation of The Acolyte. It finally pushed the franchise in a new direction by speaking directly and authentically to female fans for the first time... it needs to give new perspectives a chance to grow instead of retreating to the same rote pew-pew-pew bullsh*t every time some nerds get scared of cooties or put on a Klan hood"
Clearly Disney needs to burn money to speak to "female fans" (of which there are very few)

Disney just killed The Acolyte - what went wrong? - "  It's been fascinating to watch. Not the show itself, which proved to be car-crash viewing, but rather the entire discourse surrounding the show.  Everyone involved was only ever on the attack. Before the show aired its creators and stars came out guns blazing. After it aired its critics and haters retaliated in kind. There was no common ground. Only new fronts to battle on week after week after week. The show's star even fired off a rap diss track at the show's detractors halfway through the season. This amateurish effort can be considered less of a clapback and more of a war crime against music... what went wrong? It's almost a case of pick your poison - which, in one of the show's more ill-advised plot points, a Jedi does when he commits suicide. As one of many New Zealanders impacted by suicide, I'm not convinced that needed to be depicted in the same show as space wizards and a walking gopher in overalls.  The Acolyte was at pains to be the 'dark' and 'edgy' Star Wars show for 'cool' adults, but its attempts at being bad-ass only ever ended up looking try hard at best, or laughably cringe at worst; à la the third episode's chanting witches.  In theory, a Star Wars series told from the villain's perspective is an interesting idea. One successfully pulled off in various Star Wars novels, comics and video games. But The Acolyte was poorly executed at every conceivable level. From the bewildering, borderline nonsensical scripting to the show's weird pacing, average acting and lousy costume design. There are very few things you can point to as good about The Acolyte, bar its fight choreography. Disney spent an eye-watering NZ$292 million on the eight episodes of the show's first season, ending on a double whammy cliffhanger that introduced a beloved character and a long-awaited villain in its closing moments. This grand finale, which was a spectacle of ridiculousness and irrational character choices, was the lowest-watched closing episode of any of Disney's Star Wars shows. People turned off The Acolyte in droves during its run and not even the pull of Yoda could bring them back.  Under Disney's stewardship Star Wars, once a pop culture juggernaut, has been pulled into a black hole of public disinterest. It desperately needs a momentum boost to escape the gravitational force that's reeling it in... Facing this trend of dwindling audiences, Lucasfilm needs to course correct. And quickly. It will be interesting to see if they can. The bigger question is whether the cancellation of the show signifies a period of self-reflection and refocus at Lucasfilm or if it was an unemotional, purely financially-driven decision and it remains business as usual.  That answer won't become clear for a while. But it's a perverse irony that it took the death of The Acolyte to finally offer Star Wars fans that faint glimmer of a new hope."

Kaguya’s Top Gal on X - "Took 300 million dollars for Disney to discover space lesbians don’t sell"

Meme - "What do these people have in common?
Q: What do these people have in common?
A: Even with all of the unfair hatred, extreme ridicule and public shaming for an acting role they played in a fictional story...they never released a diss track!...
*Macaulay Culkin, Margaret Hamilton, Billy Zane, Lena Headey, Jack Gleeson, Ryan Reynolds
Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Robert Pattinson, Ahmed Best, Tom Felton, Hayden Christensen
William Atherton, January Jones, Tony Goldwyn, Anna Gunn, Paul Johansson, Jake Lloyd*