Posted in: Disney+, Movies, Opinion, Star Wars, TV, TV | Tagged: disney plus, lucasfilm, opinion, star trek, star wars, The Acolyte

The Acolyte: Some "Star Wars" Fans Are Making the Case for "Star Trek"

Here's how "Star Wars" trolls attacking Lucasfilm and Leslye Headland's The Acolyte continue to make the case for being a "Star Trek" fan.

While I have a whole mess load of respect for both franchises and what they've brought to the pop culture landscape over the decades, I don't really consider myself a diehard "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" fan – thought that it was important to put out on the table right up front. That said, I do get paid to cover what comes out from both franchises series-wise because those are the shows that you want to know about – and that includes checking out social media reactions. To put it bluntly? If I had to decide whether to check out "Star Wars" or "Star Trek" based on social media reactions alone, it's pretty safe to say that I would be living long and prospering my days away.

Just to be clear, the "Star Trek" fandom has its own steaming pile of close-minded haters, just like any fandom – I'm not writing this on a rose-colored laptop. But when a new episode of "Picard" Season 3 or "Lower Decks" or "Strange New Worlds" drops, most of what I've been seeing has been positive – and if there have been negatives, most of it is built around a question involving some aspect of the episode as it relates to overall canon. Add to that the love and devotion they have for their shows – look no further than what "Prodigy" fans did to help get the animated series a new home on Netflix and how quickly "Lower Decks" fans have rallied to see what they can do to save their series.

And then there's the "Star Wars" fandom. I'm not convinced that George Lucas's baby has any more toxic fans than "Star Trek" does, but for some reason, they seem to be the ones controlling the social media narrative. They're not interested in having an open and honest conversation about how to expand the franchise to attract a new generation – their vision is the only vision that matters. Instead of giving a series a chance, they're too busy whining about diversity like it's a bad thing, throwing around "woke" like they have an understanding of what it means, and review-bombing online sites that do nothing more than expose them for the hate mongers that they are.

That brings us to Leslye Headland's Amandla Stenberg & Lee Jung-jae-starring The Acolyte, the latest in a long line of targets for those whose "Star Wars" world starts and ends with Luke Skywalker to take shots at. I've seen everything from folks doing a headcount on the demographic breakdown of the cast – some even going so far as to say that the series itself was built to make white guys look bad. As a white guy? We don't need a "Star Wars" series to make us look collectively bad – we've been doing a pretty good job of it on our own in this country for nearly three hundred years. And the most recent episode's "Lesbian Space Witches" scene (as it's being referred to online) only made their brains bleed further. So the response becomes social media bashing/harassing and review-bombing – and too many times, it works.

You know what? Think of it in terms of Snowpiercer – the film or the series. In the front of the train are those "Star Wars" fans who condescendingly dismiss some amazing work because it doesn't fit their narrow vision of what the franchise should be. To be blunt, they're soft, protected, and privileged – lacking a basic appreciation for how good they've had it. At the back of the train are the "Star Trek " fans, who appreciate what they get while still being objectively critical in ways meant to grow the franchise. It seems like an easy call…

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