And how the geek community failed her.

Since our inception in 2014, The Geekiverse has always strived to keep things as lighthearted as possible. Sure, we take our passions very seriously, whether it’s gaming or books or movies. But one reason I wanted to start this company was because my social media feeds were filled with depressing things. Garbage, really. I don’t care about political opinions or why you’re subtweeting your friend. We wanted to be a fun, passionate group that could bring open, non-judgmental discussions to the internet about our favorite geeky properties.

“Don’t you guys put a numeric value on your reviews?” Yeah, we do. In fact, I encourage our staff to write how they truly feel about any of the multitude of topics we cover, even if that means scoring a new game or movie or book pretty low on the scale. People can pour days, months, and years into working on the latest releases, yet we can go and write a review within an hour that tells people to go buy something or to pass on it. And that’s okay. As long as we do things in a professional, respectable manner, I do not see any issues with it and we will continue to operate that way for the foreseeable future.

So when we as fans don’t like a given performance or a plot of a movie or the way that character did this instead of that in the comics, we get mad. Debate can be a good thing. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Despite all of this, isn’t there a line somewhere? Surely, we can say what we want, when we want. Social media couldn’t possibly matter. Those actors and actresses that make millions of dollars doing what they love should have thick skin, they can take criticism. I couldn’t possibly be hurting their feelings, they’ll never read my comments.

That’s funny – every word I just said there is wrong.

There is a line. Social media matters. Those actors and actresses take more criticism than you could possibly imagine. That actor, that director, that producer – guess what? They’re people too. Just like us. They read those comments. Trust me.

This week, news broke that Star Wars actress Kelly Marie Tran had deleted her Instagram account after months of derogatory comments were directed at her due to her character, Rose Tico’s existence in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The movie released a week before Christmas. It’s June. Depending on which side of the fandom you ask, Tran’s character has been the target of scrutiny for a number of reasons. Some simply felt Rose was unnecessary to the plot, while others downright hated her inclusion.

Going into a new Star Wars movie, I am always skeptical of a new character addition, especially a prominent one. Star Wars, if you didn’t know, is my favorite film franchise ever. It’s the reason this website exists. Long story short, I found Rose’s character to be delightful. Kelly Marie Tran is a well documented Star Wars fan. I think that showed in her performance – the extra care, the passion, the general joy and life that was brimming in Rose’s character. But my opinion of Rose Tico as a character in the Star Wars universe is neither here nor there. It was like watching a Star Wars fan and uber nerd who got to live out their dream. Do you know what’s unfortunate about that?

As of right now, at this moment, that dream isn’t what Kelly probably thought it would be.

In all likelihood, it probably sucks really bad, to put it bluntly. It wasn’t enough for a portion of the fanbase to deride The Last Jedi (the wide ranging opinions on the movie still has me baffled). It wasn’t enough for those fans to start petitions to remove The Last Jedi from Star Wars canon. It wasn’t enough for them to dislike Rose Tico. They had to go after a well respected, relatively popular individual in the Star Wars community with inappropriate behavior and downright nasty, mean-hearted comments. Look how much she loved being apart of the premiere of The Last Jedi. She couldn’t believe it was happening:

I don’t think there are many people on the planet who enjoy Star Wars or care about it as much as I do. If I despised a character such as Rose anywhere near as much as some of these internet trolls did, do you know what I’d do? I’ll tell you. I’d keep my mouth shut. I was taught at an early age to love my neighbor as myself. There’s no caveat to that anywhere that says “this is null and void if you don’t like the person, don’t agree with their beliefs, etc.”

The world lost Kate Spade to suicide today. I don’t know much about Kate aside from the fact that my wife loves her merchandise. Imagine a person who seemingly has it all being in a such a spot where they decided to end it all, to have so much pain that nothing could seem to make it better. Every day, life’s challenges throw so much at us. Here we are, flinging even more of it at Kelly. Words matter. Choose them carefully. Your influence is much greater than you realize. There’s extreme power in your words.

Where am I going with this?

Well, for one, I believe it is our responsibility in the geek community to be better, to rise above such needless hate and ridicule. We should set the example that the world can follow. Encourage where we can, find a way to be optimistic, and simply put, know that there is a line that cannot be crossed.

Secondly, I don’t anticipate that she will ever see this, but I want to write an open letter to the wonderful, lovely Kelly Marie Tran with this portion of the column. Kelly, thanks for being you. Your charm is second to none. Your appreciation and awareness of your role in Star Wars is evident and for that, I couldn’t be more thrilled. I can’t wait to see you again in Episode IX. I can’t possibly imagine what it’s like to be in your shoes. From time to time, I won’t even look at Reddit, knowing that the trolls of the internet are out there, ready to throw any shade possible at my video, my article, my podcast. You took shot after shot for months on end from these jerks. I think it showed wisdom in removing yourself from social media for a while here, even though it’s ridiculous that it ever came to that. You’re much tougher than most people could ever hope to be. Just know that the silent majority of Star Wars fans makes up the vast majority. This majority, regardless of the varying degrees to which we enjoyed your character, loves you and roots for your success in the coming months and years. We stand with you and support you. Whenever I hear of media or fellow castmate interactions with you, I never hear a bad thing about you. I don’t even hear a mediocre thing – people love being around you, it appears. I hope I get the opportunity to meet you one day, just like hundreds of thousands of other Star Wars fans. Don’t let the fire in your heart fade. I want to share with you my favorite quote from The Last Jedi that holds such weight and such inspiration in the real world today:

“That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.” – Rose Tico

No truer words have ever been spoken.

Josiah LeRoy is The Geekiverse’s Founder. You can catch him on Twitter as he roams the streets of LA next week for E3 2018.

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