Links - 15th August 2026 (2 - Nolan's The Odyssey)

Rex Churchill on X - "Repeat after me: "The Odyssey is fiction, not history.""
The Medieval Scholar on X - "Lord of the rings is fiction and look at the exceptional armor WETA Workshop made. The odyssey takes place within an age of human history that is very much real. Trying to refute the criticism of bad looking costumes by just saying it’s fictional falls flat"
Mark Howard on X - "The costumes in Nolan's film aren't just aesthetically displeasing, but they also look cheap and anachronistic even within the film's setting."

Aɴᴛ on X - "Christopher Nolan has built such a strong reputation that, if he wanted to, he could have given Greece and its people not only an epic masterpiece, but also one that showcased Greek acting talent by hiring several actors who aren't internationally known, adding a huge degree of authenticity while celebrating Greek culture.  He wouldn't have had to bow to studio pressure to make it "woke." He's one of the few directors in Hollywood who could pretty much do whatever he wanted, and the movie still would have received all the funding it needed.  Instead, he chose the coward's route by capitulating to the Hollywood hive mind. It also comes across as a calculated move to maximise the film's chances of picking up multiple Oscar nominations.  Yes, The Odyssey is a work of fiction, but it's built on the foundations of Greek history, mythology and culture. It's something Greeks hold close to their hearts, something they're immensely proud of and fiercely protective of.  Instead, Nolan chose casting decisions that many Greeks see as insulting, forcing a modern ideological narrative onto one of the most important stories in Greek culture."

Jon Root on X - "John Leguizamo complains about the lack of Latino representation in Hollywood, while on the red carpet for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey where he stole the role from a Greek/European actor… What a hypocrite."
Josh Innes on X - "He stole that one role from mustachioed Italian plumbers…"

Meme - "VISION. LEADERSHIP. LEGACY. HISTORY tS WRITTEN BY THOSE WHO DARE TO DREAM
ELLIOT PAGE as MICHELLE OBAMA
ZENDAYA as BARACK OBAMA
WHOOPI GOLDBERG as JOE BIDEN
A CHRISTOPHER NOLAN FILM
OBAMA. THE MAN. THE PRESIDENT. THE LEGEND"

Nolan’s Odyssey cast angers Greek film fans - "Over the course of The Odyssey’s production, Greek and Greek Cypriot media platforms wrote open letters to Sir Christopher’s team and Hollywood, stating that Greek people “did not vanish” and were “still here” as “a living people whose story has never stopped being written”.  “We are not asking for exclusion or limitation,” wrote one such letter in Greek City Times. “We are not arguing against diversity, nor against reinterpretation. Greek culture itself has always been shaped by exchange, migration, and encounter across centuries.  “What we are asking is something simpler and more human. That, when Greek stories are retold on a global stage, Greek people are not rendered invisible within them.”  There is one Greek actor, Yannis Kokiasmenos, listed among the cast. He plays a coastal villager. Yannis Smaragdis, a filmmaker, said it would be “despicable” if Sir Christopher made the decision to cast Nyong’o to meet Academy Award diversity requirements... Lina Mendoni, the Greek culture minister, was forced to address calls for state intervention during production after it was revealed that the ministry of culture had granted The Odyssey a reported €6.5m (£5.6m) in subsidies.  She maintained that the Greek government’s approach since 2019 had been to treat culture as a strategic national investment and that “art cannot be censored”... After July 6, The Odyssey will be screened for critics only, in a move by Universal and Sir Christopher that bucks the trend of studios inviting fan-site bloggers and influencers to post enthusiastic reviews on social media in advance of a film’s general release in an attempt to pre-empt bad reviews."
Representation is not for white people
Apparently if you subsidise something and have conditions for your money, that's "censorship"

Meme - "Progressive Director *Christopher Nolan*
- Makes a film set in Ancient Greece
- Doesnt cast a single Greek
- The cast is as diverse as downtown L.A.
Racist Director *Mel Gibosn*
- Makes a film set in pre-colonial Mexico
- Only hires indigenous actors
- has them all speak Mayan"

Eren Bali on X - "Lupita Nyong’o role as Helen of Troy in Odyssey has already started a war, so in a way she has been a very historically accurate pick."

Fandom Pulse on X - "Christopher Nolan says his version of The Odyssey is for modern audiences: “When you look at the ancient world… there’s a lot of cultural prejudice….I want to make it feel very fresh for modern audiences.” Is this the final blow for the movie?"
Brandon Morse on X - "Let me translate this for you.   When they say "modern audience" they don't actually mean they're making this for those with modern sentiments. There aren't that many people with those sentiments to keep a movie studio afloat. Box office numbers have crashed and burned for films.   The point isn't to make films for you, or those small groups of people who like the message (and often still don't see it anyway), the "modern audience" is the youth. Teenagers and children.   The point is to redefine and restructure a story so that it loses it's intent and the value it serves to larger concepts like reinforcing Western civilization's values. The chief virtues it wants to push to replacement are things you often see repeated ad nauseum. "Inclusion" and "found family" are often held over actual family. You see a lot of moral ambiguity and nihilism as wisdom ("He sees the good in people, I see the truth" - James Gunn's Supergirl) and incredible amount of identity-based hierarchies.   So these "remakes" that continue to fail aren't cash grabs. The dice roll on them comes up snake eyes way too often, but the point isn't to make money, it's to take a story or characters that helped define the attitudes, morality, and virtues of the Western world and corrupt them so that they become the "updated" version for young sponges to consume and be influenced by."

Roman Helmet Guy on X - "It might seem hypocritical that Variety praises Moana for respecting Polynesian culture while attacking you for wanting Nolan’s Odyssey to respect Greek culture. But there’s actually a consistent moral through-line: They just hate White people."

Meme - "LOOK AT ME. I AM THE HELEN OF TROY NOW" *Lupita Nyong'o to Diane Kruger in Somali ship hijacking meme*

Fandom Pulse | Facebook - "Lupita Nyong'o, in a separate interview with DC Film Girl ahead of The Odyssey's July 17 release, on why she believes Homer's original epic needed correcting: "When you read The Iliad and The Odyssey, very little time is spent on the female perspective. The story is told from a very masculine point of view. But this film takes the time to really look at things from the women's point of view." Penelope holds Ithaca together for twenty years. Athena drives the entire plot. Circe turns men into pigs. Is Nyong'o describing Homer's Odyssey or a different book entirely?"

Austin Petersen | Facebook - "There's only one Greek cast member in the Odyssey. When Black Panther was made, Lupita Nyong'o praised it for drawing carefully from real African cultures and avoiding cultural misrepresentation.  Then they asked her to defend playing Helen of Troy and her answer was that it was a mythological story.  So was Wakanda.  When it came time to build that fictional space of Wakanda, fidelity was sacred. But when the myth was Greek suddenly we should all relax.  There are two rulebooks the left plays by. One for their protected cultures which are holy, and one for European civilization which should be considered open source."
Comment: "Unlike Wakanda, Troy was real."
Of course, left wingers are continuing to claim the Odyssey is fiction, so anything goes.

Nicholas Piff Peterson | Facebook - "It’s genuinely terrifying that Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey trailer has more dislikes than the Snow White trailer did, and a lot of people did not like the Snow White movie with Rachel Zegler. It’s concerning that so many Christopher Nolan fans seem to be turning on him just based on a few characters being cast that are literally great actors in what is a massive ensemble. Nolan has put together a stacked cast of talented performers, and the backlash feels way overblown for a mythic story like The Odyssey. Fans are acting like one or two casting choices are going to ruin everything, ignoring that he has a proven track record of elevating actors and delivering incredible movies regardless of initial skepticism. I honestly believe that when the movie comes out, if the reviews are great similar to Oppenheimer — which was widely praised and a huge success — people are gonna go out regardless of what they think of his casting decisions. The story, visuals, and Nolan’s signature style are what ultimately drive audiences to theaters. All of the nonsense over the casting is actually so ridiculous to me. Nolan isn’t trying to troll anyone; he’s making an ambitious epic with the actors he believes will serve the vision best. Let’s wait for the actual film instead of judging a masterpiece in the making based on trailer reactions. Here’s hoping the positive word of mouth wins out like it has for so many of his previous projects. Nolan deserves better than this premature pile-on."
This guy is "terrified" by everything

Nolan's Odyssey Review: Beautiful but Dreary - "What is missing from Nolan’s film is the “rare excitement” that “stirs your spirit and your body.” The Odyssey is, to put it bluntly, a three-hour downer. In Nolan’s screenplay, Odysseus (Matt Damon), is not “the man of many tropes”, as Homer described him (andra...polytropon)—the wily king of Ithaca who leads his men in and out of trouble as they sail around the Mediterranean for years after Troy’s fall. Rather, he is a man of only one trope: guilt... After that confession, Odysseus’ rout of the suitors, drawn out and overproduced, feels like an anticlimax. We next see him abdicating his throne as a self-imposed punishment, leaving son Telemachus (Tom Holland) to rule over Ithaca while he sails off into mysterious exile with a veiled Penelope at his side. I had to ask: “What did she do to deserve this fate?” In Homer’s epic, by contrast, the ever-helpful Athena, goddess of wisdom, prolongs the night and signals rosy-fingered Dawn to take her time arriving so that Penelope and Odysseus can enjoy hours of love-making and he can regale her with the tales of his adventures. Watching the couple’s decidedly un-erotic exit in Nolan’s movie, I wondered if Odysseus would ever forgive himself long enough to realise that Penelope might be in the same room (or boat). This is not to say that The Odyssey doesn’t have admirable aspects, mostly in regard to its special effects... Nolan used next to no CGI... The effect is of a satisfyingly tangible reality that computer generation simply cannot produce.  Still, the sets are mostly dreary. The fall of Troy, if it occurred historically, took place around 1190 B.C., at the height of Greece’s Late Bronze Age civilisation. But the structures in Nolan’s movie, modelled after the Palace of Mycenae on the Peloponnesus and similar ruins, look already faded and decrepit. Nolan is notorious for his greyed-out cinematic palettes, and here the brilliantly sunny Mediterranean beach-scapes that enthral visitors to modern Greece and its islands look more like the fog-beset English Channel in his Dunkirk (2017). Odysseus and his men dress almost entirely in Batman black in this film, with dingy leather armour that has been criticised for bearing little resemblance to the colourful and brightly polished battle-wear of archaic Greeks. It’s supposed to be the Bronze Age, we’re told again and again, but where’s the bronze?... Lupita Nyong’o works out fine as Helen. Her beauty does not rise to the level of immortal perfection imagined by Homer. (What woman’s does?) But she is a skilled enough actress to convey Helen’s arresting glamour in her very brief scene. (She is less successful playing Helen’s half-sister, Clytemnestra, who, as she is murdering her husband, Agamemnon, glares in the banal fashion of a mother hectoring her children about housework.) The real diversity flop in Nolan’s movie is Elliot Page as Sinon, a character from Virgil’s Aeneid who has somehow wandered into Homer’s world. The 5’1” Sinon is supposed to be a warrior, yet cannot hit voice notes lower than what Tom Wolfe called the 'King Sano croak' of chain-smoking Upper East Side society ladies... The main problem is lacklustre acting in general"

Homeric Society - "The values of this society are quite different from those which many modern readers bring to the poem, as is evidenced by the tendency of today's students to dismiss Homer's heroes, especially Achilles, as childish, selfish, arrogant, testosterone-driven brats... The Iliad, like Beowulf and the other poems cited above, celebrates the achievements of the aristocratic warrior class who earn their privileged position in this society through their prowess in battle. The focus is on the adult male hero, whose martial exploits are celebrated as the acme of human achievement... The heroes of these poems display an overriding concern for personal glory and its external trappings, with relatively little concern for the common good or other moral issues... In describing societies such as that portrayed in the Iliad, anthropologists employ the term *Shame Culture (in contrast to the *Guilt Culture found in most of today's western societies). Individuals in a guilt culture tend to hold themselves up to a set of personal moral standards.... In a shame culture, by contrast, the focus is not on a set of personal standards but on one's public standing. The overriding concern is to save face... As in war, success is everything in such a society: good intentions, high moral standards, fairness, a peaceful conscience — none of these count in the face of public disgrace. The competition for public honors is often intense and takes the form of what is known as a zero-sum game: that is, honor is won only at someone else's expense. Thus the notion that winning or losing might be less important than how one plays the game is utterly foreign to such a culture. Winning is everything: results are much more important than means. The crucial thing is to prove one's superiority and to have that superiority publicly acknowledged by one's peers. This intense competition inevitably leads to factionalism. The Greeks divide the world very clearly into "friends" and "enemies," with the understanding that one should do everything in one's power to aid one's friends and to harm one's enemies; failure to do so results in disgrace. Thus the Greek equivalent of the Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.") is, "Help your friends, harm your enemies." The contrast between these two aphorisms nicely captures the gulf that separates a guilt culture, with its cooperative values, from the competitive values of a shame culture. In Greek, the innate quality that renders one superior to others is called *aretê; (often translated "excellence" or, less happily, "virtue." The masculine, aggressive connotations of the word can be seen in its etymological connection to the name Ares; compare the English "virtue," which derives from the Latin vir ["man"] and originally meant "courage" or "manliness.") For the Homeric hero, war provides the occasion for the display of aretê; and the winning of glory (or *kleos). In a shame culture, however, mere success is not sufficient (it is not enough, for example, to know in your own mind that you are the best); public acknowledgment of one's superiority is essential. The Greek term for such acknowledgment is *timê. Timê refers to the public, concrete acknowledgment of aretê by means of prizes. In a pre-monetary society like that of the Iliad, such prizes are not financial in nature but symbolic: they represent, not income, but honor. As such, they have a strong emotional significance that is difficult for the modern reader to appreciate. (Students often think of the contract disputes of professional athletes.) You must remember: the hero's position in society is based upon his aretê; the surest sign of that aretê is the timê offered to the hero. Modern readers would prefer a hero who was "above" such concerns, but it is clear that the Greeks did not. Even as late as the 4th century (when cooperative values have sprung to greater prominence in Greek society) the philosopher Aristotle is able to describe the megalopsychos or "great-spirited man" as one who is innately superior to others and demands to be treated accordingly. For Aristotle, humility on the part of such an individual is a character flaw, a sign of some defect in his (note the masculine pronoun) personality."
Someone suggested that Achilles and Odysseus were anti-heroes. But that's because modern ideas of heroism have changed and Christian morality is not the same as Classical. Ergo why Nolan's portrayal of Odysseus as wracked with guilt is anachronistic. An imperfect hero is not a anti-hero

On the Iliad and Excellence - "Much of the Iliad celebrates the competitive, toxic pursuit of excellence and perfection. Heroes strive for glory over survival, with the risk of being a detriment to their family legacy... Achilles is later pushed into battle by the death of Patroclus, and ultimately fulfills his destiny and kills Hector, solidifying his legacy. To the ancient Greeks, these events proved that no one was able to escape destiny, and portrayed the glory of their predecessors... It wasn’t until I analyzed the Iliad in an academic setting that I began to realize that the ancient Greek ideal of a hero should not be idolized. It was in the analysis of the aristeiai that I learned of the flaws of both Achilles and the Homeric concept of heroism. The aristeia was the climax of the ancient hero’s greatness, when he demonstrated his power in battle and destroyed his enemy, and was often what solidified his legacy. Achilles’ aristeia, for example, was him killing Hector. However, these feats of greatness were often war crimes in disguise. Achilles’ aristeia continued after the death of Hector, when he proceeded to mutilate the body of the hero, dragging him behind his chariot around the walls of Troy. These demonstrations of so-called greatness show an alternative side to perfection, demonstrating the toxic nature of the expectation of excellence."

Odysseus vs. Achilles: The Two Faces of Ancient Greek Heroism - "Achilles is the kind of hero who charges into battle, sword in hand, ready to face any foe. His entire existence revolves around kleos, the Greek concept of glory that ensures his name will live on forever. He is nearly invincible, and his physical prowess is unmatched. In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles is described as “the greatest warrior of the Greeks,” a title he earns through sheer force and bravery. His mother, Thetis, tells him that he faces two fates: a short, glorious life or a long, obscure one... In ancient Greece, Achilles was the hero everyone admired. His physical prowess and relentless pursuit of glory made him the ideal warrior. Cities like Sparta revered Achilles for his martial excellence, which aligned with their values of military might. The Iliad was a staple in Greek education, and Achilles’ heroism was something every young Greek boy was taught to emulate. His valor and tragic death became the gold standard for heroism in a society that prized martial prowess... Odysseus, while respected, was viewed differently. In Athens, a city that valued intelligence and strategy, Odysseus was admired for his cunning and adaptability. The Odyssey was cherished not just for its adventure but for its portrayal of human resilience. However, Odysseus’s reliance on deception made his heroism more complex and, at times, controversial. Some city-states preferred Achilles’ straightforward heroism, while others appreciated Odysseus’s more nuanced, cerebral qualities."

Odysseus and the Genus ‘Hero’ - "The presence of 'unheroic' features in the character of Homeric Odysseus was noticed long ago, and since the time of the ancient commentators it has become habitual to gloss those features by predicating them on Odysseus' metis, 'cunning', as opposed to the bie, 'might', of other Homeric heroes, first and foremost Achilles... The last labour of Odysseus is remarkable in that it is regarded as a crowning achievement in his life, an achievement which, in accordance with the view of labours outlined above, will guarantee him the approporiate reward. Indeed, according to the prophecy of Teiresias, only upon accomplishing this mission will Odysseus be able to return home, where he will live happily and die of old age: 'And from the sea shall thine own death come, the gentlest death that may be, which shall end thee foredone with smooth old age, and the folk shall dwell happily around thee.' This promise seems to be a clear indication of the fact that the Odyssey is not only aware of the popular notion of heroism as outlined above but also deliberately models its hero to fit into this notion... In full conformity with popular Greek ethics, Odysseus is represented as contented with his lot and preferring to immortality his own life even if it is a life of toil and suffering. In this, he proves as exemplary a hero as only a Greek hero can be... To sum up, either Homeric poem offers its own version of heroism. In the Iliad being a hero amounts to readiness to meet death on the battlefield: the sense in which the words 'heroism' and 'hero' are used today ultimately descends from this concept. According to the Odyssey a hero is one who is prepared to go through life enduring toil and suffering. Whatever the reasons for this difference, there can be no doubt that it is the Odyssey's version of heroism that conforms to the popular Greek attitude to the phenomenon of hero-worship."

Links - 15th August 2026 (1 - Star Wars)

Meme - *Hutt*
Ahsoka: "STINKY? MY GOODNESS, YOU'VE GROWN!"
Hutt: "SO HAVE YOU. GROWN MORE BEAUTIFUL. FOR A JEDI, I MEAN."
Ahsoka: "STINKY, YOU'LL ALWAYS BE THAT LITTLE WORM I DROPPED OFF ON TATOOINE."

Meme - "Luke Skywalker. Anakin Skywalker. Rey
Overpowered - no, yes, yes
Unexplained power level - no, no, yes
Perfectly good - yes, no, yes
No personality - yes, no, yes
Instantly liked - no, kinda, yes
Feels like wish fulfillment - no, no, yes
Not embarrassed / fails - no, no, yes"
MaRey Sue strikes again. Of course if you think Rey is a Mary Sue you're a misogynist

Meme - "KNOW THE WORK RULES
APPROPRIATE
Princess Leia: I'm leading a rebellion & fight against a corrupt government.
You're a hero.
INAPPROPRIATE
General Grievous: I'm leading a rebellion & fight against a corrupt government.
Monster! War criminal!"

Meme - "Disney's creative decisions with Star Wars will never cease to baffle me. Choosing from the beginning to have the sequel trilogy swap each movie with the intention of having them all do completely separate things. Creating a release schedule to have a Star Wars film out every holiday season then abandoning it after 3 years to for some reason release a movie 5 months after the last one which also happens to be the same month as what will easily be the biggest film of the year. Then abandon making movies after that one flops, and instead of thinking that audiences might be getting tired of Star Wars they decide to start pumping out constant live action series. Then deciding to rework a movie that's essentially Star Wars Episode 3.5 into a series but take what's essentially a filler episode of their longest running series that's already lost steam and release it as a movie. These mistakes are so obvious it's insane."

Meme - Anakin Skywalker: "You can't! He must stand trial!"
Mace Windu: "Nute Gunray was once tried. He remained Viceroy of the Trade Federation and organized, probably together with this bastard, the assassination attempt on Senator Amidala. Any other objections?"

Meme - ""open minded freedom fighter" *Padme*
her friends: *Qui-Gon Jinn* human *Anakin Skywalker* human *Obi-Wan Kenobi* human *Captain Panaka* human *Bail Organa* human
"racist humanocentrist" *Count Dooku*
his friends: *General Grievous* kaleesh *Nute Gunray* neimoidian *Wat Tambor* skakoan *Admiral Trench* harch *Poggle the Lesser* geonosian *Shu Mai* gossam  *Passel Argente?* koorivar"

RUMOR: Disney to Remove Star Wars Sequel Trilogy From Timeline to Resume Focus on Original Characters - "The future of Star Wars may be heading toward a massive course correction—and if a new insider report is accurate, Disney could be preparing to split the controversial Star Wars Sequel Trilogy off into its own isolated timeline and remove it from the mainline Star Wars storyline.  According to an exclusive report from That Park Place’s WDW Pro, a source close to Lucasfilm claims internal discussions are underway to “branch off” the Star Wars sequel trilogy to effectively remove it from the primary continuity and allow future storytelling to pivot back toward legacy characters from the original films.  If true, this would be one of the most dramatic franchise shifts in modern Hollywood history. A recent focus group conducted by Matthew Belloni of Puck News paints a bleak picture of where younger audiences stand with Star Wars. When teens were asked about the franchise, the response wasn’t passionate debate or excitement. It wasn't even hate or anger.  It was indifference.  “I like the old stuff, but the new stuff… nah. I’m not too excited for The Mandalorian. I never watched it, personally,” one teen said. Another claimed: “Anything that came out after I was born isn’t that great.”   The only bright spot mentioned was Andor—and even that came with a shrug before the conversation moved on.  That’s the nightmare scenario for Disney.  The sequel trilogy wasn’t just meant to revive Star Wars. It was supposed to create a new generation of fans. Instead, that generation appears largely disconnected from it.  And the box office outlook isn’t helping. The Mandalorian and Grogu is currently tracking for around an $80 million domestic opening over Memorial Day weekend—a number that would make it the lowest debut in Star Wars theatrical history. Even accounting for a reportedly smaller budget, that’s a glaring warning sign for a franchise that once defined blockbuster dominance... At Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge, cast members portraying Ahsoka have reportedly been giving a very specific, very consistent explanation when guests ask why characters from different eras are appearing together.  The answer? The “World Between Worlds” has been "shattered" and disrupted. That concept, introduced in Star Wars Rebels, is essentially a dimension that connects all points in time and space—making it a perfect narrative tool for timeline manipulation.  Disney Parks performers don’t improvise lore like this... Even beyond the parks, there are signs Disney has been slowly backing away from the sequel era.  Recent merchandising campaigns for May the 4th heavily favored the original trilogy. The Fortnite crossover event leaned in the same direction. Galaxy’s Edge itself has begun shifting its in-universe timeline, allowing characters like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia to appear more prominently.  Meanwhile, sequel-era elements have been noticeably reduced. Rey—once positioned as the future face of the franchise—is increasingly absent from major promotional pushes. Her long-announced standalone film remains stalled, with little visible progress since its reveal.  And then there’s the Galactic Starcruiser.  The now-defunct hotel was built entirely around the sequel trilogy timeline. It lasted barely a year before shutting down, becoming one of the most high-profile misfires in Disney Parks history... For years, talk of resetting the sequel trilogy has been dismissed as wishful thinking from frustrated fans.  But the situation has changed.  Between declining engagement, weak box office projections, stalled projects, and failed investments tied directly to the sequel era, the financial incentive to pivot is stronger than ever. This isn’t just about fan complaints anymore. It’s about viability.  Disney doesn’t need to erase the sequel trilogy to move on from it. They just need to make it… optional."
Damn toxic entitled incel fanboys! Star Wars needs to be further feminised to own the chuds!

Aakash Gupta on X - "Disney is about to delete five years of canon because Rey doesn't move toys.  The sequel trilogy did $4.47B at the box office. Force Awakens $2.07B, Last Jedi $1.33B, Rise of Skywalker $1.07B. The merchandise tells a different story.  Star Wars merchandise peaked at $700M in 2015 when Force Awakens launched. By 2019, the year Rise of Skywalker shipped with a billion-dollar marketing push as the supposed finale of the Skywalker Saga, Hasbro's Star Wars line was doing roughly $150M. A 70%+ collapse during the trilogy's own theatrical run.  Then 2020 happened. No new movies. A streaming show legally unavailable in most international markets. Hasbro's Star Wars revenue grew 70% year-over-year. One character named Grogu outsold three years of sequel-trilogy merchandise.  The sequel cast specifically can't move inventory at any price point. Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose, Holdo: Walmart clearance for years. Diamond Select's president said sales on TFA and TLJ products "were not too strong." Hasbro silently stopped producing Rise of Skywalker figures mid-line. There is no mass-market action figure for Poe, Finn, Lando, unmasked Kylo, Palpatine, or Leia from that movie. The licensees gave up before the trilogy finished releasing.  The Lucasfilm acquisition was a $4.05B bet on the merchandise flywheel that built modern Hollywood toy licensing. Kenner's best year selling Original Trilogy toys, adjusted for inflation, outperformed the entire Disney era combined. That's the asset Disney bought.  Galaxy's Edge runs the same play. Over $1B per park to build a Star Wars land set on a sequel-era planet nobody cared about. Both parks underperformed projections. The Mandalorian-themed expansion now under construction is the admission.  If the rumor lands, this is the most expensive retcon in entertainment history. Five years of IP development written off because the licensees voted with their order books. Luke, Han, Leia, Vader, Boba, Mando, Grogu, Ahsoka generate revenue. The sequel cast generates returns."
Left wingers still insist that the sequel trilogy was a massive success, because they ignore George Lucas's key insight: it's not about the movie revenue, but the toy sales

Bizlet on X - "What’s hilarious about this whole fiasco is that Disney specifically bought Star Wars because they lacked a brand that appealed to boys. They had tons of merch sales to girls but had almost nothing for boys. So they bought it for billions and the creative dept feminized it defeating the entire purpose of buying it to begin with."

Zcure1 on X - "New footage The Mandalorian and Grogu promo spot . #TheMandalorianandGrogu #StarWars"
Duchess of Darksaber Light on X - ""The Empire will keep coming for us" is a brain-dead line. Just like with the sequel trilogy, the writers can't imagine a world where characters are anything other than Rebels against the Empire. An Empire that has been gone for more than 5 years."

'It's felt like homework': Why Star Wars went so wrong - "The Mandalorian & Grogu is released this week and is set for the lowest opening weekend of any Star Wars film ever. With the TV shows also struggling, here's why interest is waning.  It's been seven years since the Star Wars franchise visited a galaxy far, far away on the big screen. In December 2019, The Rise of Skywalker, the third and final film in the franchise's sequel trilogy, was released, earning $1.077bn (£806m) worldwide. It pulled in only around half what the first film in the trilogy, 2015's The Force Awakens had made. This disappointing amount reflected the increasingly poor audience and critical response to the three films. A year earlier, in 2018, the standalone film Solo: A Star Wars Story had also bombed hard, earning just $393m (£294m) globally. Since then, the film series has been on a lengthy hiatus, while Lucasfilm, bought by Disney for $4.05bn (£3.03bn) in 2012, has been busy expanding the Star Wars universe on TV with a whole host of live-action shows, starting with hit The Mandalorian. However, interest in these has declined as they have proliferated: the most recent new series, 2025's Skeleton Crew, recorded the lowest opening ratings for a Star Wars show yet, while 2024's The Acolyte was cancelled after one season... Prerelease tracking suggests it will score just $80 million domestically during its opening weekend – the lowest opening for a Star Wars film ever. So what exactly has gone wrong with the Star Wars universe?... Clarisse Loughrey, chief film critic for The Independent, agrees, pointing by contrast to Tony Gilroy's critically-acclaimed series Andor, which consistently grew its viewership through its two season run, as a standalone Star Wars show you could enjoy on its own: "That could be your first piece of Star Wars that you've ever seen, and you're not going to feel like you've been thrown in the deep end."   Andor also stood out from the other series as a defiantly prescient critique of authoritarianism, offered "in terms you could legibly graft on to the world right outside your door", wrote Vulture's Nicholas Quah. It was a Star Wars saga that didn't require a single lightsaber, Jedi-Sith battle, or an abundance of fan service to entice viewers but instead wielded characters that "felt like flesh-and-blood beings whose lives extended beyond their service to the story", as he put it. Yet where Andor succeeded, others have failed to capture its rejuvenating appeal. The Book of Boba Fett was criticised for being too much of a Mandalorian-linked mini-series, and reducing the beloved eponymous bounty hunter, who appeared in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, from a mysterious antagonist to what critics have described as a "superfluous bystander" in his own story. Meanwhile, critics suggested that Ahsoka, while visually appealing, relied too much on backstory from the two animated series Clone Wars and Rebels, in which its ex-Jedi lead character was a firm fixture.   The female-centric Acolyte series, set approximately 100 years before The Phantom Menace and costing $187m (£140m) to make, earned generally favourable reviews from critics, comparing it to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and calling it "bold," "fun", and a "breath of fresh air".  However, it was cancelled due to low viewership, according to Lucasfilm, while actress Amandla Stenberg publicly called out the "intolerable racism" she said she'd been subject to in the wake of starring in the show. "Had it been given more time and resource, maybe it would have been more successful," says Harrison. "If it wasn't part of this huge glut of other shows that you're somehow meant to keep up with."  Then there was Obi-Wan Kenobi's solo series which was an enjoyable enough return for Ewan McGregor's Jedi Knight. But also one that was indicative of post-George Lucas Star Wars, wrote The Guardian's Stuart Heritage, which "exists almost exclusively to bulk out thin gruel, joining various dots that didn’t need to be joined, for the delight of a quickly ageing fanbase."... the film cost approximately $165m (£123m) to make – the smallest amount spent on any big-screen Star Wars instalment, which certainly puts its box-office prediction in a healthier light. Lucasfilm managed to keep costs low by shooting entirely in California rather than the far-flung locations used on previous, very expensive Star Wars films."

Meme - "FUCK ICE"
"The SW Geek Hub
Love Star Wars? Want News but sick of Clickbait and Ragebait? Don't look in Alderaan places. Welcome to The SW Geek Hub, successor to The Star Wars Hub. Your go to place for Daily Star Wars News. A Star Wars Page for Star Wars Fans that want News & Memes"
The SW Geek Hub: "The World's a Stage..."
"The attempt on my life has left me in need of a ballroom"
Obi-Wan Kenobi: "You have become the very thing you swore to destroy"

Meme - Cara Dune: "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? DOES THAT HELMET HAVE X-RAY VISION?"
Din Djarin: "UMM. UHH. OF COURSE NOT"
Cara Dune: "OK MANDO. I FEEL I CAN TRUST YOU." *X-ray view of guns behind walls and Cara Dune with nipple stickers and frilly underwear*

Hail the Empire | Facebook - "The Hosnian system getting wiped out in The Force Awakens is a good example of how bigger stakes don’t always hit harder. In A New Hope, Alderaan’s destruction worked because the story made it personal. Tarkin didn’t just blow up a planet; he forced Leia to watch her home disappear, with around two billion people gone in one brutal display of Imperial power. Decades later, Starkiller Base tried to top that by destroying five New Republic planets at once, with the death toll pushed to an almost impossible scale of about 155 billion lives. The problem is that the larger number somehow made the moment feel smaller. Alderaan had Leia as the emotional anchor, so the audience understood the loss through someone who actually belonged to that world. Hosnian Prime and the other planets barely had that kind of connection. We mostly see strangers looking up as the red beam tears through the sky, which is horrifying in concept but strangely distant on screen. As some critics pointed out, the sequel trilogy looked at the original planet-destruction scene and “decided to multiply it by five,” turning what should have been devastating into something more like “distressing stuff.” That’s the trap of trying to raise the stakes by simply making the disaster bigger. When a whole capital system can vanish in seconds but the story barely stops to feel it, the tragedy becomes harder to process, not more powerful. Instead of landing like Alderaan, the Hosnian Cataclysm ends up feeling more like a massive plot button being pressed. By PDA01"

Box Office: 'Backrooms' $81M U.S, $118MWW Opening Is An A24 Record - "Disney/Lucasfilm’s Mandalorian and Grogu is taking a big fall, -69%, maybe steeper, with $25M in weekend 2. That’s a bigger crash than Solo: A Star Wars Story which -65% in weekend 2, likely the worst drop for a Star Wars movie. The argument per distribution sources is that the Jon Favreau movie didn’t lose audiences to Backrooms and Obsession, it’s just that the core Star Wars subset fandom for this IP is finite. One distribution source says, “Six weeks from now, it will be interesting to see the following: Mandalorian and Grogu will be at $180M, and Obsession and Backrooms not too far behind, if not ahead.”...   Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, despite the force of Imax, is eyeing third with a second weekend of $24M after a $6.5M Friday at 4,300. If those numbers stick, that’s a 69% second-weekend drop, steeper than Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s second weekend, which was down by 65% with $29.3M."
One cope is people don't watch movies anymore, but that is contradicted by data

Kevin Winslow's answer to Why have the Star Wars prequels aged well and the sequels aged worse? - Quora - "Well, the Prequels had a lot going for them and a ton of great ideas, it just could have used a little more editing. The “Sequel” trilogy is made by an entirely different group of people with no coherent vision: it’s mostly bad ideas strung together. Even though the Prequel trilogy didn’t measure up well against the Original Trilogy when they came out, they look like Rembrandts compared to the incoherent, depressing, pointless mess that is the “Fan Fiction Trilogy” Disney put together.
The Prequel Trilogy continued George Lucas’ tradition of making each Star Wars entry a slightly different type of film. Star Wars (A New Hope) was a throwback to serials he grew up with. The Empire Strikes Back is more of a space opera. The Return of the Jedi is a heroic war movie.  So the Prequel Trilogy starts with The Phantom Menace, which is basically one long prologue in a big novel. The Attack of the Clones is an attempt at a political thriller, and The Revenge of the Sith is basically a Greek tragedy where the hero is given a prediction of a horrible event and becomes the mechanism that fulfills it through his lack of patience and character. Each movie actually has a great set of bones in terms of plot, setting, and character. The problem was the pacing and the direction: Lucas made some bold choices that ended up hurting the overall work. He overexplained the Force (midichlorians), he tried to foreshadow with a prophecy that only muddied up the story, and he chose to cast Anakin as a really young boy which created production issues.  Still: the Phantom Menace (with some cleanup) is a solid prologue that hits a lot of the right plot beats but needed a central protagonist and a better character arc for that protagonist. The Attack of the Clones needed less heavy handed direction and better dialogue. The Revenge of the Sith is the best of the three, but could have used some clean up with the acting direction and story.
The “Sequel Trilogy”, (and I use that term loosely), is visually stunning, but has zero heart and terrible, terrible bones: “Plot, setting, and character” are our tripod of a good story. The people putting these films together didn’t really know where they wanted the story to go even in a loose outline (so the plot is a mess), they didn’t care about the older characters and didn’t make firm decisions on character relationships, (so there goes character), and ran rampant over all aspects of the setting in favor of meeting immediate plot needs, so it has no consistency with Lucas’ work.
I’ve written a lot about these films, but what it really boils down to is…
1) There was no plan
2) There was no united vision
Say what you will about Lucas, but he has a plan and a vision. Whether you agree with it or not is usually up for debate, but there’s no question he had big goals in mind and had at least worked out some of the major story beats in advance. Not all of them… but some of them. Enough that “Return of the Jedi” is a damn-fine trilogy conclusion and “Revenge of the Sith” does manage to bring the prequels to about the right spot to set up the Original Trilogy.  The “Sequel Trilogy” is more of loose collection of competing ideas. The Force Awakens shows our old heroes broken and tries to introduce new, inferior replacements. The Last Jedi tries to further piss on EVERYTHING: the old characters like Luke and Yoda are torn apart completely and the new characters like Finn and Poe get hit with the reset button or changed completely. The plot went nowhere, and things were in such bad shape by “The Rise of Skywalker”, villains were resurrected with no warning and the entire film is basically, “get the _______ to get to the _______” over and over again.
What does this all mean?  Well, the Disney Trilogy is pretty much a, “I watched it once and never felt like watching it again” type of film. The Prequel Trilogy, even if you didn’t love it like the Original Trilogy, still had stand out music, fights, visuals, and plot elements that make it worth coming back to. Watching this fight with this music in trailers and the big screen? It’s a highlight of my Star Wars fandom. I loved this soundtrack and I used to work out and run to “Duel of the Fates” and “Across the Stars”. I still have those plus all the entire prequel and sequel soundtracks on my phone, and “Sail Barge Assault” (renamed “Return of the Jedi” in later album versions on streaming platforms), is still my favorite Star Wars track of all time and I’ve listened to it more times than I’ll ever be able to count.  THAT is the power Lucas’ work. The attention to detail, the emotional punch of what we’re watching, the investment into the characters, and even if his direction of the actors and his written dialogue weren’t always on point, he had a unified story that was cohesive and very enjoyable.  The Sequel Trilogy, even with John Williams doing the score again, is completely lifeless because nothing is really happening on screen. There is no romance. There is no true tension. There are no true stakes. There are no true consequences. That’s why the “Sequel Trilogy” soundtrack doesn’t have nearly the impact of tracks like, “The Asteroid Field”, “Princess Leia’s Theme”, “Yoda’s Theme”, or “The Imperial March”. Even if a piece is good, (like, “The March of the Resistance” or “Rey’s Theme”) it doesn’t hit nearly as hard because we don’t really care about the Resistance and Rey is poorly written. We’ve been given no real reason to care about what happens to these characters because they’re floating through the story. The Sequels have already aged terribly because they’re not really re-watchable. You don’t go in and feel tingly when you leave. You don’t hum the tunes, imagine being those characters, you don’t daydream about fighting alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi as a stand-in brother or friend, or kissing Padme, and you don’t imagine yourself as a Jedi Knight in the Clone Wars or as a dashing pilot.  The Sequels were very lifeless and even their heroes didn’t really get a chance to do, (or be) very much. And with that… what’s really the point of rewatching them?  Visually, they look great, but they’ve aged like bad milk: they leave a terribly sour after taste and it’s not something anyone really enjoys in the moment or wants to think about going back to."

Jake Lloyd's Personal Saga: New Focus Is Helping Determine His Current Reality - "Jake Lloyd wants his fans to know something.  Years into dealing with a schizophrenia diagnosis that has largely hijacked his post-Star Wars acting life— he’s finally feeling “pretty good”."
Mother of 'Star Wars' child actor details his mental health struggles - "his mother, Lisa Lloyd, provided a glimpse into Jake’s personal saga in the years since appearing in that galaxy far, far away — sharing her son’s turbulent struggle with mental illness, family tragedy and the reasons she’s more hopeful today than she’s been in years.  She also wanted to set the record straight about what her son really thinks about "Star Wars."  Lisa noted that her son is aware that she is speaking out to tell his story.    “Jake started having some trouble in high school,” Lisa said, recalling the time she first noticed her son’s personality changing. “He started talking about ‘realities.’ He didn't know if he was in this reality, or a different reality. I didn't really know exactly what to say to that.”... Lisa is also eager to dispel what she says is a common misconception: that an avalanche of negative reaction to "The Phantom Menace" drove Jake to quit acting and contributed to his mental illness.  “It would have happened anyway,” Lisa insists, pointing to a history of schizophrenia on his biological father’s side of the family. “I believe that it was genetic. And his psychiatrist also agrees that Jake was going to become schizophrenic.” She also insists that in 1999, Jake was largely shielded from the toxic vitriol swirling around the prequel film.  “I protected him from the backlash. He was just riding his bike outside, playing with his friends. He didn't know. He didn't care,” Lisa said. “Everybody makes such a big deal about that. And it's rather annoying to me because Jake was a little kid when that came out, and he didn't really feel all that stuff because I didn't let him online.”"
Damn toxic fans bullying him! The cope is going to be that the bullying caused the schizophrenia, even though it's highly heritable

Links - 3rd August 2026 (1 - Get Woke, Go Broke: Supergirl)

The Washington Times on X - ""Supergirl" star on character being seen as queer icon: "I'm honored that that's happening, but I think because she doesn't live inside the binary of what we think a woman should be, that is what makes it so special and so exciting and so new.""

Daniel Friedman on X - "There are two times a woman-led superhero movie has been a box-office hit:
1. Wonder Woman. The character was established in “Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice” and her solo movie released ahead of the “Justice League” crossover movie.
2. Captain Marvel. The movie was teased in the post-credits scene for “Avengers: Infinity War” and her movie came between that and “Avengers: Endgame.”
The sequels to Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, which were not propped up by major crossover films, did poorly. And the small, disappointing audiences for both of those sequels were 65 percent male.    Every superhero movie, including female-led ones, has a predominantly male audience. The movie must be marketed to men to overcome the presumption that the film isn’t for them.  Because men might bring their girlfriends to the female superhero movie, but women aren’t going to show up to this without men.  And just about the worst thing you could say while promoting a girlboss superhero movie that has to appeal to a skeptical male audience is: “This is the gayest superhero movie ever.” Nobody is going to see this."
Harrison Casper on X - "The only two superhero movies to have a majority female audience were Wonder Woman and Aquaman. These movies actually had romance and sex appeal. It's difficult to get more women than men to show up for an action movie, all of Marvel's female-led movies had a majority male crowd."

Gazz on X - "The new Supergirl movie is dropping in 2 days and it's already cooked. Mostly because of Milly Alcock and her nonstop weird comments.  This girl keeps saying she's getting backlash just for "simply existing as a woman" in the franchise. Then she hits us with "we've become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies. I can’t really stop them."  When people called her out she doubled down like "i didn’t even say men i said people and y’all are proving my point 😂"  She even laughs about critics being anonymous burner accounts or "Dad of four, Christian" profiles and says if you're pissing them off you're doing something right.  Brother... if your entire press tour is basically "anyone who doesn't love this is a weird misogynist who owns women's bodies" before the movie even comes out, what do you expect? Tracking is already in the toilet.  This one's gonna flop so hard.  Anyone else think the comments killed it before it even dropped?  #Supergirl #MillyAlcock"

Gazz on X - "‘SUPERGIRL’ just dropped on Rotten Tomatoes at 59% 🔥 Lowest score for any DCU movie so far. Even the big outlets that usually bend over backwards for controversial shit didn’t like it. Daily Telegraph gave it 2/5 and called it an endless Mad Max/Star Wars rehash.  Associated Press said it struggles to match Supergirl’s energy. San Francisco Chronicle only went 3/5. The reviews are rough.  Box office tracking is already collapsing too — now sitting at $45-55 million opening weekend. That’s weak as hell for this level of movie.  it’s happening.  Anyone else think this is about to be one of the bigger DC bombs?  #Supergirl"
Time to blame the chuds for brainwashing the people into not watching it. Apparently they are so toxic they've brainwashed professional reviewers as well

CinemaCopa on X - "There needs to be an understanding that the marketing campaign is the audience's first introduction to the movie, and nothing about Supergirl says, "Family of four, please invite me into your life and spend over $100 on me."  Supergirl herself looks disgusting, like she's some desert lot lizard on her 3rd hangover in 2 days. Girls don't want to imagine themselves looking like trash, boys don't find this look mixed with her cynically aloofness personality attractive, and parents don't want their daughters thinking this what you aspire to be.  Furthermore, the plot and look seems to be a cheap Guardians of the Galaxy reskin. How many times can you spend $100+ on a movie you've already seen in four different variations over the last 12 years?  Then you have Milly Alcock actively alienating the audience by claiming Christian dads are "the right people to piss off" and announcing that Supergirl "swings both ways."
Audience: "How does this sell movie tickets?"
Marketing/ Alcock: "Movie tickets?"
Sure, you can make the case that there is a social media dogpile happening here. You could even argue that rival studios are actively amplifying the backlash. But the biggest indicator that Supergirl is in trouble is its own introduction. Blame marketing, blame Gunn, blame Alcock, but don’t blame the audience who announces that they refuse to spend their hard-earned money on something that practically screams it's made of garbage juice."
Left wingers always blame the audience. They hate the people whose money they feel entitled to

Meme - Soyjak: "SupergirI failed because people aren't ready for a female led Superhero movie."
Soyjak bound by Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth: "I have been trained like a seal to defend all corpo slop with identity politics."

ETHAN VAN SCIVER on X - "I just got back from SUPERGIRL.  Women shouldn't be allowed to write this stuff because all they do is recycle from the kewl unisex SCI FI shit they've already seen.  This movie is filled with cliches and characters straight up ripped from Disney STAR WARS, GAME OF THRONES, and MAD MAX.  LOBO doesn't even need to be in this.  We're introduced to him as a violent, murderous god who shouldn't be approached, but the Arya Stark clone isn't afraid of him.  And so...he respects her.  Lobo spends the whole movie doing nothing but respecting and admiring Arya Stark and Supergirl.  Because that's what female creators in these spaces do with these popular bad ass masculine characters.  They siphon their clout onto their female characters like vampires.  Still, I wasn't bored.  I was very interested in Kara and I am interested in seeing more of her story.  I hope she gets herself together and finds purpose and family on Earth.  BTW, @JonMalin 's theory about Brainiac and Jor-El's message was debunked completely in this film.  I give it a C.  Mediocre, with an EXCELLENT performance from Milly Alcock, a very talented actress who should have been given better material."

︎ ︎venom on X - "Superhero for men like Spiderman, Batman and Superman struggle, fail, learn, face heartbreak, lose everything, and despite everything keep saving people.  While female superheroes get drunk, do hookups, one-night stands, are messy, hate men and always show how superior they are to men.  Most of the audience for superhero movies are men.  Why would men watch movies that mock and hate them constantly?  No wonder She-Hulk failed and now Supergirl is a flop."

Mr Melancholy on X - "Supergirl's failure like every other female led movie failure will be blamed on misogyny but I am here to tell you the real reason female led movies don't succeed at the box office because they're made with the idea that the movie is not for men. They go far as to uglyfy the female lead so she doesn't appeal to the male gaze.  Whenever a movie of any genre is made with the word "female led" attached to it everything else fades away in the favour of "female" take supergirl for example the story on which is based on is completely stripped of anything interesting the hot character, the plot, the colours the side characters everything.  All that remains is the girl boss bad ass female who is there to beat up men and prove her gender superiority and that is just not an interesting plot to follow. It doesn't help that you kinda alienated the biggest market for superhero movies "men"."

GeroDoc on X - "🙄Stop. Making. Shltty. Movies.  This post, below, in the first picture, is yet another example of "fan baiting" (or just fan-blaming) - it's a strategy now honed and perfected for the modern era and executed in decentralized fashion via social media. It's a way to blame fans and critics for studios, actors, and marketers for making a movie that suck ass.   Let me tell you about a movie that came out in 2022 - during the pandemic era no less, called "Everything Everywhere all at Once."  While not a superhero film per se, it featured a strong female (and Chinese American) lead who travelled through time, fought and kicked ass with martial arts action, and was heroic.   It is a science fiction, action, and adventure film. It was kinetic, inventive, & I personally greatly enjoyed it. It featured a female led cast and protagonist, the Mom who was the lead was a business owner and had a lesbian daughter who also was the major supporting character (excellent character development).  Despite it being released during the pandemic era of 2022, it nearly 6x'd its modest production budget of 20 million and is one of the most profitable independent films of the modern era.   Rotten Tomatoes has it at 95% average rating amongst viewers, and critics universally loved it.   Supergirl is a shltty movie.   I'M SICK TO DEATH OF CORPORATES AND THEIR TOADIES BLAMING THE POOR PERFORMANCE OF THEIR MEDIA PROJECTS ON "SEXISM" OR "RACISM" OR "MISOGYNY." I LIVED THROUGH THE 80s AND 90S. AMERICA DOESN'T CARE. YOU FUCKERS ARE MAKING THIS SHIT UP. FUCK YOU.  The American public is more than happy to accept strong female leads in action films. They just can't be shltty, and they need to stop treating half of their audience like they hate them and condescending the other half, and then lazily just cutting and pasting women into male roles and then calling that "feminist," because that's disinteresting and a turnoff to basically everyone."

TG✨🇯🇲 on X - "I’m extremely exhausted by the James Gunn comic book movie formula. It’s played out. It’s like the same thing repackaged countless times, even with the DC films he hasn’t directed like Supergirl.
Animal companion to emotionally manipulate the audience✅
Excessive and cringeworthy needle drops✅
Forced humour✅
Space adventure with weird creatures✅
Action scenes shot to look like one take, often accompanied by a needle drop✅
I’m tired. If James Gunn is going to mould all the films in his DCU to feel like his own films, even the ones he doesn’t write and direct then I’m out."

Matt Jarbo on X - "Ana Nogueira is about to become the scapegoat for SUPERGIRL.  The movie has debuted rotten, the screenplay is one of the biggest targets in the reviews, and people are already calling for her to be removed from WONDER WOMAN and TEEN TITANS.  That was always going to happen.  James Gunn spent years telling everyone DC Studios would not greenlight a movie until the script was finished and strong enough to shoot. Then he publicly praised SUPERGIRL’s screenplay as being “so fucking good off the bat.”  So when the movie lands and critics complain about thin storytelling, weak character arcs and safe writing, somebody has to absorb that failure.  It probably will not be Gunn.  It will be the first-time feature screenwriter whose name is on the script.  Never mind that executives approved it. Never mind that Gunn praised it. Never mind that scripts change during production, reshoots and editing.  Her name is still on the finished movie, and Hollywood loves a convenient person to blame when an expensive project misses.  Nogueira may have earned the trust to write three DC films, but SUPERGIRL could easily become the reason she only gets to make one.  Will DC Studios stand behind Ana Nogueira, or quietly let her take the fall?"

Threads - "We won’t green light a film until we have a finished script we’re happy with and, in general, we won’t cast a film until the script is finished. This is why some projects are moving faster than anticipated and others more slowly. It’s always gonna be quality first no matter what."
Gabe Hernandez | Urban Fantasy Author on X - "This post will forever haunt James Gunn if Supergirl flops. Why?... . . Because this post is what's called a pace setter. He's telling you why things are the way they are.   More importantly, he's establishing himself as the boss in full control.  He's positioning himself as the leader  that has a plan and is executing it per  his grand design. There are no mistakes. You "just don't understand" the plan.  Now, we have reality.  Superman was good but underperformed due to avoidable flaws.  Supergirl early reviews are mixed to poor and could be a major flop.  Lanterns is up next, and the early buzz suffers from the same drab, dreary edge lord tone as Supergirl (w/ a first season written by Tom King, the son of a longtime WB executive)  Then, Clayface arrives. A b-list Batman villain film without Batman in it. Sony did the same with their Spider-Man villains, and all failed except Venom.  Next year, Superman 2, which is too early to tell, and The Batman 2, which was started from a saga before Gunn took charge.   When you put them all together, you get a leader who says he has a plan, who tells you everything is working as designed, who tells you everything is under control.  Reality paints a different picture.  What do you think? Do you feel reassured that James Gunn is a leader with a plan that's working?"

ComicBook Clique | Facebook - "🗣 Has "Not Attractive Enough" become a death sentence for genuinely good movies, or do "fans" have a problem with women?
It is hard not to feel completely cynical about comic book movies lately, and it has nothing to do with the actual films. It is the exhausting, permissible cruelty that we just accept as part of the internet culture surrounding them. Every single time a woman takes on one of these major roles, it feels like we are just counting down the days until the internet tries to tear her apart. Look at what is happening right now with Milly Alcock. *Supergirl* just hit theaters, but the actual movie has been completely swallowed by bad-faith actors and culture-war grifters. She gave interviews where she pointed out the very real, uncomfortable truth that people feel a weird sense of ownership over women's bodies online. In response, the internet did exactly what it always does. It proved her point by twisting her words, running sensationalized headlines, and framing her as some villain who is attacking the fans. But if you dig beneath the manufactured outrage, the real driving force is even more shallow and pathetic. There is a massive, incredibly loud subsection of the online community targeting her simply because they do not find her attractive enough.  Apparently, failing to cater to the narrow visual preferences of a bunch of basement dwellers is a punishable offense when it comes to a leading lady. Her fitness, her look, and her face all get hyper-analyzed and picked apart by people who act like a female superhero exists solely to be their personal eye candy. To be absolutely clear, I am not simping for a billion-dollar corporation, nor am I coming to the defense of a wealthy celebrity. The studio and the stars will be fine. I am just deeply saddened by how toxic, yet completely predictable, the entire discourse has become. We have seen this script play out so many times before that it is practically a formula. Rachel Zegler, Brie Larson, Kelly Marie Tran, Daisy Ridley, Moses Ingram, Ava DuVernay... the list just keeps growing.  These women are mercilessly bullied for having opinions, for how they look, or simply for existing in spaces that a vocal minority feels entitled to control.  The most disturbing part is how any perceived career speedbump or box office failure for these women is celebrated as a massive victory. It is treated as a win for a subsection of society that wants to feel like they have the power to punish and humble women they do not like or agree with. Look, I am not telling anyone that they have to like the Supergirl film or even watch it. Everyone is free to pass on a movie. But can we go back to judging these films on merit, or has that ship sailed into 4chan territory completely? The most depressing part is that a genuinely good, enjoyable film is going to die on the vine because of this. Instead of talking about the story, the performance, or the world-building, the entire conversation is poisoned. A young actress gets cast, she experiences an onslaught of scrutiny, she speaks up about how toxic it is, and then she gets labeled as difficult or ungrateful while the internet review-bombs the project. It is a race to the bottom where faceless burner accounts and media outlets extract maximum outrage for clicks, and we all just shrug and say it comes with the territory. They'll say I'm being disingenuous but actors like The Rock have been putting out slop for years with nowhere near the level of scrutiny that someone like Brie Larson has although she has a better filmography. We are building these massive, multi-billion dollar universes, but the human cost for the women leading them is becoming entirely too high. It makes you wonder why any actress would ever want to put on a cape when the reward is just being turned into a psychological punching bag for the internet. Then again, serves them right I guess?😔 (Please be kind to the chuds in the comments. They truly don't know any better. Pity them)"
It's weird how they recognize that the chuds make up the majority of their market but still insist on spiting them, then get upset when their products bomb. Of course, OP in comments is repeating the cope about the chuds brainwashing normies into not watching it

Nicholas Piff Peterson | Facebook - "It genuinely terrifies me that Supergirl only made $3.6 million domestically at the box office on Friday, July 3 — just a week after opening. That kind of brutal second-weekend drop after a soft $37–38 million debut is absolutely scary and shows how quickly audience interest faded. For a big-budget DC movie like this, those numbers are alarming and raise serious questions about the long-term health of the franchise. It’s terrifying to think we might not get a Supergirl 2 or any real continuation for Millie Alcock’s version because the studio could see this as too risky moving forward. Superhero fatigue is real, and when even promising new entries struggle this much this fast, it makes you worry about the future of these characters on the big screen. Here’s hoping the full run and word-of-mouth can salvage something, but right now the outlook feels pretty bleak."
These are the people who go on about white fragility. It seemed like in every other post, he was saying he was "terrified" by some trivial nonsense like this

LInks - 9th July 2026 (2 - Migrants: Europe - Germany [including Citizen Vigilante])

The migrant-killing vigilante film that’s been banned in Germany - "Citizen Vigilante was inspired by a notorious case in Hamburg in 2016, when a group of teenagers gang-raped a 14-year-old girl and left her for dead, only for the perpetrators to walk free with suspended sentences. Parallels between this and the recent case in Britain when three teenage boys walked free after raping two teenage girls are obvious, and for Boll, it’s important that his pictures respond angrily to what he sees as social injustices.  “If you look at what happened in Hamburg, where the rapists walked free without any penalty, the coverage in the media was like ‘oh, the poor perpetrators’,” says Boll. “It’s as if we’re living in a completely insane and absurd political environment, especially in Europe, where people have completely lost track. There is a huge difference between so-called ‘hate speech’ and stabbing people in the neck. But facts don’t matter any more.”... The film is implicitly critical of Boll’s native Germany, despite being set in the United States (and filmed, for budgetary reasons, in Croatia), and he has been rewarded with its being effectively banned in his home country. “The rating system refused to give us a rating, so now you can only watch it if you bring in a Blu-ray from Austria or Switzerland. And I think they did that on purpose. It was a deliberate censorship decision. I hired a lawyer to complain about it, but we lost in a six-two vote, as I was told that the film was inciting violence against migrants.” Boll is used to considerable opposition to his films, which also include the widely derided House of the Dead and Postal. The director’s robust, two-fisted approach to his critics – quite literally, in 2006, when he fought and beat five of his most vehement detractors in 10-round boxing matches – has seen him become a pariah in Hollywood and the European film industry, but he continues to obtain funding from a variety of sources. His low-budget pictures, often starring actors who have either passed their prime or faced difficulties in the profession, usually turn a profit thanks to foreign sales and a public appetite for sensational, often violent, content on screen... “It’s absurd how I feel politically,” Boll tells me. “Now you’re being told that if you’re a conservative about anything – social, sexual, political – that you’re a Nazi. But this is how things stand at the moment. If you question anything – such as the hundreds of billions being pumped into Ukraine – then you’re either a friend of Putin or a Nazi or both.” Is he? Boll laughs, like a man who has been asked this question several times before. “I am not a Nazi!”  Boll, in fact, would not even regard himself as a conservative. “I grew up a Social Democrat, as did the rest of my family, and we voted for leaders like [former German chancellor] Gerhard Schröder. Now, of course, he’d be persona non grata as well, despite having done the only economic reform in Germany that worked. These days, Social Democrats want leaders like Mamdani in New York: literal communists who just want to tax the rich to death and have the government take over the economy so we can all follow socialist rules.”...   Boll expresses a desire to have an Expendables-esque lineup of other great thespians who have fallen foul of the system in his pictures. “Take Kevin Spacey, for instance. One of the best actors working today. I’d love to cast him in a strong male lead in one of my pictures, but by doing so, I can guarantee that the film would not get an American distributor. To me, that’s unfair. He won all the lawsuits and legal cases, and now he’s stuck in these very cheap exotic movies he’s making now. I think he should come back and get another shot.” Boll has never been in the mainstream of the film industry, despite having, at various times, cast actors as respected as Jason Statham, Ben Kingsley, JK Simmons and, now, Hammer in his pictures. He dismisses Hollywood entirely: “they schmooze up to Trump but most of them hate him, and with the possible exception of Paramount, none of them are conservative…all the decision-makers, from Netflix and Apple to Amazon, are all on the left, and they’re so politically correct that they won’t greenlight anything that is politically critical.”... Boll wants Citizen Vigilante to be taken seriously, and our interview ends on a sombre note. “I’m not surprised about the rioting that I saw in Belfast the other day. In the end, this is what you get when you ignore people, and that’s the same as in my movie. I’m not condoning violence of any kind – it’s unacceptable and I’m against it in any form – but I think people are just saying ‘Enough is enough’ now.”"

How two violent gang rapes of teenage girls by migrants in Germany inspired a 'banned' movie now being watched by millions around the world - to the horror of the liberal establishment - "We have discovered details for the first time about its links to that night in September 2020 in Hamburg’s City Park (called Stadtpark) when the nine young migrants dragged the drunk teenager into some bushes, raping her for almost three hours while filming the horror on their mobile phones. Only one of her attackers, an adult Iranian, was imprisoned, and in 2023 he received a pathetic sentence of less than three years.  The remaining eight were exonerated by the judge on the premise that their sickening attack, after which the gang stole the girl’s wallet and mobile phone, was a ‘means of releasing frustration and anger’ stemming from their experience of migrating to Europe and their resulting ‘cultural homelessness’. Controversially, the trial – at a youth court because the perpetrators were aged under 21 at the time – was held in secret. It ran for 68 days and took evidence from 96 people including sympathetic ‘migration experts’ and social workers. An outcry over the non-custodial sentences, later upheld by an appeals court, followed the landmark case. Shockingly, there were even calls on social media for attacks on the presiding judge, a move condemned by the city judiciary as ‘utterly intolerable’.  In a further twist, a 20-year-old Hamburg woman named only as ‘Maja R’ sent one of the migrant attackers a WhatsApp message, calling him a ‘disgraceful racist pig and freak’ who should feel ashamed. Horrifyingly, Maja herself was sent to a youth prison for a weekend in June 2024 as punishment for ‘insulting’ the rapist.  Hamburg, a liberal city, was already reeling from an earlier high-profile case in the working-class suburb of Harburg in February 2016. Several young migrants from Balkan countries had gang-raped a teenage girl at a birthday party, using bottles and other objects during their assault and filming it on their phones. The half-naked victim was left ‘like a piece of meat’ in the freezing cold which resulted in her being rushed to hospital with hypothermia. This attack also sparked a row over lenient sentencing when three of the perpetrators, aged between 14 and 17, received suspended terms of under two years because they had ‘shown remorse’.  Tens of thousands of Germans signed a petition demanding longer jail terms for the rapists, and a retrial ordered by Germany’s highest criminal court eventually resulted in tougher penalties for the culprits.  Such are the febrile conditions in which Citizen Vigilante was created... Citizen Vigilante sets out to show that the West’s criminal justice system has been hijacked by a Left-wing establishment that protects migrant criminals at the expense of native Europeans... Sanders goes on to confront the family of a young rapist, asking his father why his son had attacked a girl, apparently because she was wearing a miniskirt. The father responds: ‘I teach him the values of the Koran and this family,’ which shockingly earns him a bullet in the head... ‘If five neo-Nazis raped a 15-year-old migrant girl, they would get 15 years in prison,’ he insists. Yet when a migrant commits the same crime, ‘these people always get off the hook. We’re told they’re under 18, or “traumatised”, or they are getting “psychological evaluation”. Law enforcement, the judges, the media, have become almost crazy.’  He says that Citizen Vigilante represents all those people who have been let down by the system. ‘It doesn’t help them to hear things like the rapists were “traumatised migrants”. I mean, what would you feel if you are the father of that girl [in Hamburg’s Stadtpark], or if you’re the raped girl herself?’ Boll says after the 2020 park-rape case, a seasoned newspaper commentator went on German TV to say the migrant attackers were victims of failed integration: they needed more money, more teachers, more social services and a better environment in Germany.  ‘That is where I draw the line. It sends out a view that the victim doesn’t matter at all.’ In the graphic opening scene of his film, in which, as he puts it, a ‘mother gets stabbed and bleeds out in front of her little son’, he says: ‘This was deliberate, as a way of dealing with these random acts of violence, that get sugar-coated in the media. I have had discussions with people here in Germany, and they pointed out there are way more rapes and stabbings inside marriages.  ‘My point is that the random violence of being pushed in front of a Tube train, or stabbed from behind in the neck, or being raped because you wear a bikini to the public swimming pool, is way more dangerous.  ‘It’s terrible, of course, if a wife gets raped inside a marriage, but that’s not a security risk for anybody else. But if you have daughters or, as a woman, you go on your own to the lake to swim – and then you get grabbed and raped randomly – that’s a huge security risk because you basically cannot go to the pool because you are scared.’... ‘The German subsidised [state] system only produces the films where migrants look good, where migrants are successful, where migrants are fully integrated. Not one movie is done in Germany at all where migrants commit a real crime.’ His movie, thanks in part to the notoriety secured by its being banned, was on the way to huge success even before Elon Musk provided a platform for it. As it reaps millions of dollars for Boll, he tells us unemotionally that ‘when I was going around with the script, every streaming service told me I was a Nazi. They despise this idea even of shooting the movie like this. And it’s already topping Apple TV in America.’  At the end of Citizen Vigilante, a controversial statement appears in large letters. It says: ‘This film is dedicated to the thousands of rape and murder victims in Europe who were betrayed by our legal system.’  As things stand today, that is a stark message that German authorities, and perhaps those of other European countries mired in the growing problems wrought by mass migration, would prefer no one sees."
Left wingers love to promote "banned" media. Ironic.

Nate Fischer on X - "Watched Citizen Vigilante thanks to the endorsement by the German government.  They are right to recognize the danger of its message.  Nothing delegitimizes a regime more than refusal to protect its citizens—an intentional failure to fulfill the most fundamental and timeless function of government.  And nothing more instinctively draws citizens to a prospective replacement than filling this gap."

Germany’s Intelligence Chief Warns of Islamist Infiltration of Political Institutions - "Islamist groups in general and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular were exerting targeted influence on state and political structures in Germany with a view to transforming the state and society, Selen told the secret meeting. The ultimate goal of these infiltration attempts was the establishment of an Islamic society. The Muslim Brotherhood does not act violently, but it is no less dangerous, because it pursues its objectives in an extremely strategic manner with long-term goals, the intelligence head noted. The Islamists respect German laws—but only insofar as these laws are compatible with Sharia. The Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy involves establishing contacts with political figures and inviting them to events through a complex network of organizations. The goal is to build long-term relationships and influence public officials in line with the movement’s agenda. For example, officials should oppose criticism of political Islam or turn a blind eye to Islamism, Selen said... In a follow-up interview with BILD published on June 4, Güner Balci, the Integration Commissioner for Berlin-Neukölln, confirmed that Islamist infiltration was so widespread in Germany that there are “still police projects nationwide in which Islamists participate.”  “Women and girls are forced to enter marriage as virgins or at least to pretend to be,” Balci warned. Because many people in Muslim communities “despise, abhor, and even want to punish” homosexuality, “we have a very high number of homophobic attacks and crimes in Neukölln, but also in other districts of Berlin.”... It is noteworthy that both Germany’s domestic intelligence chief Sinan Selen, born in Istanbul and raised in a secular Turkish family that immigrated to Cologne, and Berlin-Neukölln Integration Commissioner Güner Balcı, the daughter of Turkish Alevi guest workers, have emerged as particularly clear-eyed voices on the Islamist threat. Their backgrounds underscore the critical distinction between Islam as a faith and Islamism as a political ideology. Those with intimate knowledge of Muslim-majority societies and communities often best appreciate this divide—and recognize that effectively countering Islamist infiltration requires supporting anti-Islamist Muslims and secular voices rather than blurring the lines between the religion and its totalitarian perversion... “Aha! Officially, they say the threat comes from the right—but behind closed doors, they say something completely different,” the computer scientist and political commentator Hadmut Danish remarked. “What only select guests in the Bundestag were allowed to hear behind closed doors should be known to all of Germany.”  “The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Greens, and the Left Party can be considered to have been taken over by Islamists. In the case of the Greens, this is quite clear, and in the case of the Left Party, it’s practically blatant,” Danish wrote. “I know the Greens are strongly Islamist, and the entire left-wing bloc is infiltrated by Islam.”  Exploring the links between leftist ideologies such as feminism, immigration, and Islamism, Danish asked: “Could it be, if one thinks this through further, that feminism serves this goal simply to prevent Germans from having children so that Islam can gain a majority more quickly?”  He added, “First feminism, then migration due to declining birth rates? A plan? Systematic extermination? At least feminism and Islamic immigration both emerged at roughly the same time, in the seventies.”... Writing on X, the German political scientist Nina Scholz said she was “naturally delighted when security agencies share the analysis from our book.” Scholz’s book, Political Islam—A Hybrid Threat to Europe: The Muslim Brotherhood’s “Civilization Jihad,” was published in April. According to Scholz’s findings, the Muslim Brotherhood attempts to delegitimize the state and its institutions by infiltrating state institutions, influencing legislation, and exploiting the state’s weakness caused by external and internal crises to shift norms. “A central element of their strategy is citizenship, which grants civic rights to activists in the network,” she writes, explaining that Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the chief ideologue of the Brotherhood, explicitly recommends that Muslims accept the citizenship of their host countries in his book on the interpretation of Islamic norms for Muslims in non-Muslim countries... Ultimately, the “strategic goal of the Muslim Brotherhood is the complete elimination of equal partnerships,” which are “replaced by a model of asymmetrical alliances in which potential partners are subordinate to the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.”"

Germany: Government report reveals astronomical crime rates for young foreigners compared to German youth - "  The suspect burden figure (TVBZ) has been compiled by the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) and published in the Police Crime Statistics (PKS) starting this year. This ratio shows the total number of identified suspects over the age of eight, and is calculated per 100,000 inhabitants per population group. It examines all crimes except for immigration law violations, and the data presents a concerning trend.  For German suspects across all age groups, the TVBZ is 1,878.  In contrast, Syrian suspects have a TVBZ of 8,236, and Afghan suspects are at 8,753 — more than four times higher.   New German federal government statistics indicate that young foreigners are disproportionately represented as suspects in numerous crimes, with particularly significant differences in street crime and shoplifting.  The suspect burden figure (TVBZ) has been compiled by the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) and published in the Police Crime Statistics (PKS) starting this year. This ratio shows the total number of identified suspects over the age of eight, and is calculated per 100,000 inhabitants per population group. It examines all crimes except for immigration law violations, and the data presents a concerning trend.  For German suspects across all age groups, the TVBZ is 1,878.  In contrast, Syrian suspects have a TVBZ of 8,236, and Afghan suspects are at 8,753 — more than four times higher.  However, when the data is compared among young people, the disparity is even more pronounced. Syrians between 14 and 18 years old are five times more likely to commit a crime than Germans in the same age bracket.  However, in regard to other groups of young people from North Africa, the difference is even more astronomical. Algerian youth feature a TVBZ rate that is a tremendous 56 times higher than Germans.  For Moroccans, it is 19 times higher.  Differences are also notable across specific offense categories. In street crime, which includes offenses like bodily harm, robbery, sexual harassment, and pickpocketing, the TVBZ for German suspects is 168. For Syrians, this figure jumps to 1,291, and for Afghans, it’s 1,218—nearly eight times as high... Many of these German citizen suspects have a foreign background; however, there is often no way of knowing how many of these suspects have a foreign background because Germany does not record this information.  There are some ways around this. As data from North Rhine-Westphalia showed, when the first names of gang rape suspects are analyzed, it shows that at least half of the German citizens clearly had names from a foreign background, such as Mohammad.  During the Berlin riots on New Year’s, a list of the names of suspects was leaked to the press, which showed a huge number of the “German” suspects actually had foreign names.    New German federal government statistics indicate that young foreigners are disproportionately represented as suspects in numerous crimes, with particularly significant differences in street crime and shoplifting.  The suspect burden figure (TVBZ) has been compiled by the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) and published in the Police Crime Statistics (PKS) starting this year. This ratio shows the total number of identified suspects over the age of eight, and is calculated per 100,000 inhabitants per population group. It examines all crimes except for immigration law violations, and the data presents a concerning trend.  For German suspects across all age groups, the TVBZ is 1,878.  In contrast, Syrian suspects have a TVBZ of 8,236, and Afghan suspects are at 8,753 — more than four times higher.  However, when the data is compared among young people, the disparity is even more pronounced. Syrians between 14 and 18 years old are five times more likely to commit a crime than Germans in the same age bracket.  However, in regard to other groups of young people from North Africa, the difference is even more astronomical. Algerian youth feature a TVBZ rate that is a tremendous 56 times higher than Germans.  For Moroccans, it is 19 times higher.  Differences are also notable across specific offense categories. In street crime, which includes offenses like bodily harm, robbery, sexual harassment, and pickpocketing, the TVBZ for German suspects is 168. For Syrians, this figure jumps to 1,291, and for Afghans, it’s 1,218—nearly eight times as high.  The data was released after a parliamentary inquiry from AfD domestic policy spokesperson Martin Hess, who criticized the findings, stating, “This is the predictable result of a migration policy that has been completely failed for decades and has given up all control since 2015 at the latest.”  Hess had previously requested detailed data on crime rates among foreigners, broken down by nationality and age group, in a small inquiry in June.  This data also needs to be considered from another perspective. Many of these German citizen suspects have a foreign background; however, there is often no way of knowing how many of these suspects have a foreign background because Germany does not record this information.  There are some ways around this. As data from North Rhine-Westphalia showed, when the first names of gang rape suspects are analyzed, it shows that at least half of the German citizens clearly had names from a foreign background, such as Mohammad.  During the Berlin riots on New Year’s, a list of the names of suspects was leaked to the press, which showed a huge number of the “German” suspects actually had foreign names.  A top Berlin prosecutor has indicated that up to three out of four clan members have German citizenship.  Any time any of these suspects commit a crime, it is recorded as a German suspect. If Germany kept data on the crime rate of German citizens with a foreign background, as Denmark does, it would likely reveal an incredibly high crime rate among this group of German citizens. This policy has been promoted by the AfD, also to help measure the integration rates of foreigners even after generations have resided in Germany. The new TVBZ data will also pop a myth from the left, which is that foreigners are committing such high rates of violence because they are mostly young men. However, as the data shows, German suspects, when compared to foreign suspects from the same exact age group, often feature dramatically lower crime rates. Germany also has an extremely strong welfare state, which means these foreign youths have access to food, shelter, and consumer goods.  This data comes after crime data showed that German men actually feature lower violence rates than women from a number of different foreign groups."

Are men really behind the crime problem? German statistics show foreign women are more violent - "The constant refrain is that men in general are behind Germany’s crime problem and that foreign origin is secondary. However, current data shows the opposite is true.  Last year, Syrian women had higher rates, per 100,000 people suspected of violence, than German men.  The data shows that for 100,000 German men, 272 were suspected of a violent offense. For Syrian women, this figure per 100,00 was 336. Clearly, Syrian women were more violent than German men.  However, they are not the only group. Afghan women are also more violent, with a rate of 359, even more violent than Syrian women.  Iraqi women have an incredible rate of 394, which is considerably more than German men. Even Serbian women are more violent than German men, with a rate of 371.  Bulgarian women are at 359.  For German women, only 60 are suspected of a violent crime per 100,000.  All of this data makes the left’s generalized argument about the “violent male” questionable at best. Although, German police, in the name of the left’s precious mantra of gender equality, did somehow manage to confiscate knives from elderly German women at Christmas markets."

'We have imported knife violence' – Wave of knife attacks shakes Germany once again - "Another wave of knife attacks has hit Germany, showing that not much has changed despite the many lost lives and Germans maimed in knife attacks. In fact, the statistics show that these crimes are even getting worse, with 79 knife attacks per day now recorded. A German criminal lawyer warns that Germany has “imported knife violence,” in response to growing blade crimes.  In the last few days, headlines include Kosovar man arrested after knife attack in Germany injures three, including 12-year-old girl” “Man stabbed half to death on basketball court,” “Manhunt continues after Syrian asylum seeker stabs 5 outside student bar in Bielefeld,” and “Rioter injures police officer with knife.”  However, thousands of such headlines have run in the German press in recent years, with Remix News reporting on many of them. The overwhelming number of perpetrators are foreigners or those with a foreign background, yet despite promises to crack down and enact deportations of migrant criminals, the bloodshed not only continues but appears to be getting worse.   “We have imported knife violence. In other cultures, the knife is a kind of status symbol. This is changing the social climate here in the country,” stated criminal attorney Udo Vetter. He further notes that “knives have become an everyday companion for many people. And the barrier to using them is low.”  Notably, he warns that due to the rise of knives and knife crimes, it is creating a problem that is expected to only grow exponentially, with more and more people arming themselves with knives out of fear."

Spider-man: No Way Home, Crime and Victim Culture

Students For Liberty | Facebook

Peter Parker creates the entire crisis through one selfish wish.

 

His secret identity is exposed and the fallout damages his friends' college applications. Instead of accepting the consequences, he asks Doctor Strange to cast a memory-wipe spell on the entire world.

 

He keeps interrupting Strange's containment with new conditions until the spell fractures and five villains from other universes are pulled into his timeline because he could not accept a setback.

 

Aunt May Delivers the Philosophical Core of the Film

 

She tells Peter directly: "They need help. People who get this much power, they get sick. They lose their way. They could be saved."

 

The line describes villains as patients in need of treatment. The script frames their crimes as symptoms of an illness their home universes never bothered to cure.

 

Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius Are Treated as Possessed, Not Guilty

 

Norman shows up at May's homeless shelter clutching the broken Goblin mask. He weeps that the experimental serum gave him a second personality that has taken control, and that he cannot remember what the Goblin does in his body.

 

Otto's mechanical arms carry an artificial intelligence that overrides his will. The instant Peter rewrites the inhibitor chip, Otto returns to being the kind scientist he was before the accident. Two villains, two pieces of technology named as the actual perpetrator.

 

Flint Marko and Curt Connors Are Treated as Victims of Their Own Pursuits

 

Flint Marko was a man trying to provide for a sick daughter when a particle accelerator turned him into Sandman. He killed Uncle Ben when his stolen pistol fired by accident, and his only request throughout the film is to be sent back to that daughter.

 

Curt Connors was an amputee testing a lizard serum to regenerate his own arm and help other amputees. The serum transformed him against his will. Two villains, two accidents named as the actual perpetrator.

 

Max Dillon Is Treated as a Product of Invisibility

 

Max repeats one line to Peter throughout his arc: "You didn't see me." He describes himself as a nobody the world ignored until an electric accident finally gave him the power to demand attention.

 

The script positions his villainy as the predictable output of a community that refused to notice him. The accident gave Electro the powers. The neglect gave him the motive.

 

In the third act, Peter can send the villains back to their universes, where they will die fighting their respective Spider-Men. Or he can keep them in his timeline and try to "cure" them while they are actively trying to kill the people around him.

 

He chooses the cure. Aunt May dies because of that choice. The script presents her death as the price of his moral growth, not as the consequence of a category error.

 

Thomas Sowell Named This Worldview in 1987

 

In A Conflict of Visions, he called it the unconstrained vision. Its central claim is that human beings are essentially good and infinitely improvable.

 

Crime, violence, and cruelty come from defective institutions and damaged circumstances, never from human nature itself. Fix the institutions, treat the illness, and the behavior corrects itself.

 

Sowell Traced This Vision to William Godwin

 

Godwin was an English philosopher writing in 1793. In Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, he argued that man is not originally vicious.

 

The evils of political society, he wrote, "are to be ascribed to public institutions." In his framework, the criminal is a structural output of a corrupted environment.

 

Godwin Pushed the Logic Further Than Most Readers Expect

 

He wrote that "the assassin cannot help the murder he commits any more than the dagger” and that "punishment is an evil accumulated upon another evil."

 

The criminal becomes a tool moved by circumstance, and the real culprit is whatever shaped him. Moral responsibility evaporates by design, punishment becomes irrational, and cure becomes the only humane response.

 

Adam Smith Saw This Trade Coming in 1759

 

In Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith wrote that "mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent." He was naming a permanent moral trade. The constrained vision of human nature says that particular compassion for the criminal is paid for in the suffering of mankind at large.

 

When the film treats Norman Osborn as a sick patient, the people the Goblin killed in his original timeline disappear from the moral ledger. The film performs two erasures at once. It dissolves the agency of the villains, and it disappears the people those villains hurt.

 

Entertainment Carries Philosophy Whether the Writers Intend It or Not

 

A generation raised on stories where every villain is a misunderstood patient and every hero is the proximate cause of the harm learns to look past moral responsibility on contact.

 

The worldview has a name, a history, and a 230-year-old English author who would have been delighted to see his thesis turned into the highest-grossing solo superhero film of all time.