unserious.exe

The absolutely pervasive mentality that unwanted criticism or critique shouldn't be given and should be ignored is why fans of color don't stay in fan spaces.

And I am not going to mince words here:

A lot of you are racist. A lot of your fan works are racist.

That might have been difficult to hear. And if it was, you should probably reflect on why that was.

"Fandom etiquette" has created a space where fans of color either bite our tongues and eventually leave or say something, get dogged on, and then eventually leave.

If I say "I am uncomfortable with fandom's tendency to write trans men as feminine and submissive" I do not mean "I think every person who writes feminine submissive trans men should be chased with pitchforks". I don't even mean "any cis-person who writes feminine or submissive trans men should be chased with pitchforks". I mean "I would like writers to seriously think about why this is so common, why they write that, and if it fairly and genuinely engages with what it means to be a trans man, or if they just think it's hot when submissive people have vaginas and didn't want to write omegaverse of m/f".

Similarly, when people say "fandom is systemically less interested in black characters, less willing to give flat black characters rich fanon than flat white characters, and less interested in black characters in ships", the response is not to explain why you, personally, just happen to like popular white guy in that fanon. Your job is to look at yourself and ask if you tend to "just happen to be more interested" in the popular white guy across fandoms, be honest, and start unpacking that. Sometimes it's easier to love the flat character who's already getting 10,000 fics with headcanons and art and meta.

If somebody says "I wish there were more gluten free options at the potluck. I hate always showing up and not finding anything I can eat*", they are not asking you to throw your cake in the trash and weep. They do not want to hear your long speech about how actually this is your grandmother's recipe, and you've tried it with rice flour actually, but it just didn't work. You think about what you can do, and you listen to how they feel.

Basically Filoni wanted Ahsoka to be a serious commentary on war and child soldiers and her lack of preparation because she's not trained for it

But then George basically told him:

George: It's a movie for kids, it's a fun and entertaining modern-day fairy tale, the themes are surface-level and easy to grasp-- Filoni/others: -- no! There needs to be a second and third layer to ALL of it! This is dark, gritty, mature, nuanced, for grown-ups!

George: Ahsoka is a Padawan, she can handle this. Filoni/others: Ahsoka isn't just a Padawan, she's a child soldier in a warzone, because that's how corrupt the Jedi have become by joining the war and becoming warriors instead of peacekeepers! They'll use children as soldiers!

George: Anakin falls to the Dark Side because his lack of discipline, caused his ambition to flourish, his emotions to run unchecked and his attachment to grow until it reached greedy levels. Filoni/others: Anakin turns to the dark side within days but it's actually a frustration that had been building for a decade, and when he kills the Jedi, it's because they've never really sided with him and slighted him constantly.

George: Yoda's line about Jedi arrogance is a thinly veiled dig at Obi-Wan to intimate that the latter is being a bit too hard on Anakin because he can be arrogant too, somtimes. Filoni/others: Yoda's line about some of the wiser Jedi becoming arrogant is a commentary about how all Jedi have now become too political and have thus lost their way and lessened their connection to the Force.

George: Qui-Gon, as a Jedi, is a bit of a rebel. Filoni/others: But actually, if you really think about it, Qui-Gon is the only Jedi who's ahead of the curb in terms of his understanding of the Force, and he's the father figure Anakin needed.

Jar Jar Binks is fundamentally a silly kindhearted character, he is in this franchise that is for kids to entertain children and also to show the power of kindness and friendship (the heroes would not have been able to save the day without his help)

But the crux of "Darth Jar Jar" is a rejection of these themes and what Star Wars is, it warps this fundamentally good person into a twisted image because it's born out of hatred for SW's inherent silliness, whimsy, and belief in the power of goodness, "no fun allowed"

another part of the story that often stumbles into the territory filoni takes with ahsoka/padawans/the jedi in general is padmé, and the position of queen of naboo. fans tend to give that character and her position the same consideration of: she was too young, and it was too damaging - when on-screen in anything lucas was a part of, there wasn't actually anything to indicate that padmé and naboo royalty couldn't handle their roles. she and others like her throughout the galaxy train for that, are given resources by their own cultures, with no suggestion that they're manipulated into it in any way. in fact, under lucas's canon, characters like her and satine are often fit into a similar narrative as the jedi are: they choose duty, follow it through (generally), and find the most fulfillment from it.

This is very stupid but it’s genuinely what I think about every time I consider skipping dinner after work