Cognition Dissemination: The Discourse Around The Rise of Skywalker Will Be Insufferably Bad

The excitement was expectedly high with the long-awaited reveal of Star Wars: Episode IX at the Star Wars Celebration over the weekend. The first two-minute teaser revealed the title to be Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (eh), and confirmed returning characters like Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo Ren. It also showed Lando Calrissian, with Billy Dee Williams reprising the role. But the biggest surprise was saved until the end of the trailer, with a laugh that sounded eerily similar to Emperor Palpatine’s. His reemergence was confirmed with actor Ian McDiarmid’s appearance at the event, which might mean he survived the long fall at the end of Return of the Jedi.

That’s also the kind of twist I was hoping they’d save for the actual movie, but this will likely be a big selling point for the biggest Star Wars fans. They have to sell those new Palpatine figures.

In addition to the several Star Wars announcements (including a semi-reveal for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order), fan reactions have also been a focal point of the weekend. Most fans are excited for the movie that will reportedly conclude the Skywalker Saga, hence its name. But there’s been plenty of discussion about the overall path Star Wars is taking, the tolerability of which has depended on the subject matter being discussed and the audience it’s coming from.

The Force Awakens, the first movie from this new trilogy, was well liked; but it was criticized for its story hewing too close to A New Hope, though with new characters and modern production values. There were fierce debates between the audience that preferred this film or Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But none of that compared to debates that surrounded The Last Jedi, thanks to how it went into a vastly different direction than expected compared to the previous film and overall franchise. Big changes are bound to be divisive, but debate around TLJ has led to some of the worst discussions on the internet in the last few years thanks to precisely what it does different. Most fans enjoyed it, but the more vocal types that didn’t are extremely vocal and extremely online, a dreadful combination.

There’s nothing wrong with having criticism for the movie, and there’s nothing wrong with preferring the previous direction compared to the new path TLJ carved (or tried to). But we’re on the internet, so of course some fans have taken this too far, to the point of harassing the director and several actors — especially the women. It’s one thing to have criticism for the characterization in the movie or its pacing, but it’s another to think the movie turned out how it did due to the director and actors being “Social Justice Warriors.” It’s a derogatory phrase meant to criticize people who actually care about social justice issues in the world, which is coming from the Men’s Rights types and those aligned with them.

This is due to how parts of the movie semi-overtly criticize toxic masculinity and provide a pro-feminism stance, which outraged the audience that genuinely believes the latter will lead to the downfall of modern society. They thought inserting those kinds of themes into a Star Wars film ruined the original vision George Lucas wanted for the series, an argument from those who really need to watch the older movies again and seriously pay attention to them. The similarities between the Galactic Empire and the Nazis (and other fascist groups) is pretty overt, no surprise considering Lucas was hardly known for subtlety. Tackling political themes is nothing new for Star Wars, but TLJ’s topical themes touched a nerve for several fans.

This is why the discourse surrounding both TLJ and discussion of overall Star Wars works has been downright insufferable in some corners of the internet — especially on social media. Director Rian Johnson weathered it, but the abuse drove Daisy Ridley off Instagram, and Kelly Marie Tran off everything. Again, there’s nothing wrong with disliking TLJ and criticizing its themes, but at least be sane about it.

This also isn’t helped when the Star Wars account themselves made a dumb poll on Twitter, asking whether the audience wants to be a chill galactic fascist or not. They thankfully deleted it, but it sure is great that no one stopped them and said “Hey, maybe this tweet is bad” before it went up.

The potential changes The Rise of Skywalker could have will make those debates even more intense. J.J. Abrams returned to direct this film after previously directing TFA, and there’s a chance he could downplay or outright retcon more divisive elements from TLJ. Johnson claimed he wouldn’t mind it if Abrams retconned a few things, notably. There’s also one hint at a big change from the title alone, regarding who the “Skywalker” could be referring to. We’ll see if some fan theories turn out true in the movie itself.

But holy hell will the ride to the movie be an absolute shitshow, and it will be difficult to avoid for anyone who frequents nerd corners. My title is somewhat of a lie, because this bad discourse will be around well after this movie arrives. The Star Wars franchise will be taking a break from theaters, but when the MRA audience isn’t busying themselves with whining about movies like Captain Marvel thanks to Brie Larson’s comments about white men (which definitely hurt the movie), they’ll come back to this. If they don’t return for the two upcoming live-action TV shows, they’ll absolutely return when Rian Johnson’s movie trilogy starts. May the force help us all.