Ever since Disney and Lucasfilm released Star Wars: The Last Jedi and a number of fans appropriately criticized the Rian Johnson story, media outlets and creators can’t stop talking about the “toxic” element of Star Wars fandom. Instead of looking at the criticism and interacting with fans in positive manner, they’ve begun attacking them and hurling insults left and right. Anyone who has been following the world of comics in recent years has seen this all too well, but it’s now bleeding over into Star Wars.

The mentality of these creators reminds me of a meme featuring the Simpsons Principle Seymour Skinner. It perfectly encapsulates how intensely isolated many of these creators are.

The latest creator to go on a rant against Star Wars fans is comic book writer and Star Wars: Aftermath author Chuck Wendig.

Wendig didn’t hold on any punches in his attack against Star Wars fans as he called them many names and accused them of being everything from MRAs (Men’s Rights Activists) to incels (involuntary celibates). Of course, a rant wouldn’t be complete without also calling them white supremacists.

Their names change — MRA, incel, gamer-gate, comics-gate, sad puppies, Real Star Wars fans — but at the heart of it is the same fragile rage born of the poisonous chemical combination of white supremacy and toxic masculinity. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

Because nothing says unhinged like calling everyone you don’t agree with a white supremacist. Now, what promoted this barrage of odd behavior?

How did Chuck Wendig get to accusing Star Wars fans of being white supremacists? Well according to the author it all began in a place far far away, and a time long ago. Apparently, the author happened upon a Twitter discussion where a number of fans were planning to boycott his upcoming Star Wars Darth Vader annual and were talking about the failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story.

help I fell down a weird rabbit hole of shitty Star Wars fans oh my god these people — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

In a wildly bizarre series of Tweets, Wendig decides to take out his anger on the people who might have supported him and bought his books. I’m not sure they will after this.

Here’s what happened, for context: some numbnuts tagged me into some thing about boycotting my upcoming Darth Vader annual issue (out in August!), and there… I saw some shit. pic.twitter.com/DmlOe9D9BA — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

Current idea is that SOLO is “tanking” — I guess by having the fourth biggest opening in 2018 so far — because of SUPERFANS who so hated the Last Jedi so bad that their magic hate powers caused a sorcerous boycott of SOLO. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

While it is true that Solo had the fourth largest opening of 2018 so far, it’s been a major bomb based off box totals and the estimated production budget of the film. In fact, the film lost 65% in its second week. In fact, Deadpool 2 almost beat the film domestically in its third week.

In a moment of obliviousness, Chuck doesn’t realize that fans who love a franchise can be happy that a film they consider to be subpar or even bad is doing poor at the box office. It’s more than likely these fans want the film to do poor because it will send a message to Disney that there is something wrong with the stories they are telling with their Star Wars franchise. It doesn’t mean they don’t love Star Wars. They just don’t love these particular Star Wars stories.

And that’s astonishingly goofy on so many levels. First, that fans — again, FANS! — are happy — HAPPY!? — that Star Wars is faring poorly. It’s like rooting for your own child to fail. It’s like hoping your own puppy falls down some steps. It’s so weird. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018



It’s not like “rooting” for your child to fail. It’s more like expecting better from them, knowing that they have both the talent and ability to do so.

Second, that people hated THE LAST JEDI enough to affect SOLO’s numbers, but somehow not enough to affect… TLJ’s numbers? Like, with TLJ, what, people kept tonguing that broken tooth? Feeding money into the Movie Machine to hope it would get better? And then bought the Blu-Ray? — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

He would go on to make a similar argument with The Last Jedi, not understanding that people might have gone back one or two times to see The Last Jedi in order to find something redeeming about the film. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is pretty telling though that most fans weren’t happy with the film.

Another explanation as to why The Last Jedi still had strong numbers is because people wanted to find out what was going to happen after The Force Awakens, but once they find out they were unimpressed with the current Star Wars direction and decided to forgo forthcoming movies.

But of course Chuck Wendig wasn’t done there. He began to rave about “SJWs” and “identity politics.” He dismissed the criticisms with a wave of his hand by lumping them all together. He attempted to label his critics as the other, to demonize them. But he like many others know that fans aren’t revolting in some bid to toxify the fandom. There are actual complaints about his own work and the work Disney has produced since they purchased Lucasfilm and Star Wars.

And if you fall deep enough down the rabbit hole, it gets extra weird. First, they hated TFA, because something something SJWs, JJA, identity politics, ANH rehash, whatever. Then, they hated TLJ because it “ruined TFA.” … pic.twitter.com/1DKKcUdoK2 — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

And now they’re happy SOLO is underperforming and they’re claiming it as a success in this weird ideological culture war they’re waging. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

SOLO arguably *is* underperforming, and to claim that their little fan campaigns had anything to do with that is so bizarre and narcissistic, you might as well claim it’s because you did a fucking magic “I Hate Star Wars” tap dance in your man-cave. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

Did you catch that? Wendig went from defending Solo and scoffing at the idea that the film was tanking because it still had the fourth largest opening of the year to admitting that the film is “underperforming!” And then at the same time as reporting on a boycott of the film, he believes it isn’t having any effect. But he admits the film is doing subpar compared to its expectations. This is some next level mental gymnastics.

It’s *never* because of hater-fans. A movie also never *succeeds* because of its fans, because most moviegoers — the ones who form the bulk of the moviegoing public, the ones who buy most of the tickets — don’t give a great honking shit about most of this stuff. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

Trevorrow was fired from #EpisodeIX, so their thing is, PUT ALL OUR ENERGY INTO JW2 AND MAKE IT A SUCCESS and THAT’LL SHOW STAR WARS, THE THING WE SUPPOSEDLY LOVE BUT ACTUALLY REALLY HATE. I mean, you might as well “support” oxygen. “Everybody’s breathing it. We won!” — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

Thing is, I still remember this from AFTERMATH — all the review-bombing, all the conspiracy theories about how the book was Secretly Failing. I’d get emails telling me, “Ha ha ha, your book isn’t even on bookshelves!” — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

I also heard, “It did so poorly, they’ll never hire Chuck Wendig again!” and then I got two more books and a comic and then I was in FACPOV and then I got another comic and — nnnyeaaaah. pic.twitter.com/OT99nKnA2i — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

He then decided to go after YouTubers and other non-traditional critics who criticize his work and the current Disney Star Wars films for lazy writing, logical flaws, and other issues that have become all too common in the Star Wars films.

In fact, you can almost see the hate and derision he feels for these non-sanctioned critics who don’t toe the line and shower praise on everything Star Wars no matter what.

And of course you wonder how this even continues or why, and those answers are both complex and simple. First, some people have monetized it, or want to — YouTube channels that financially channel people’s dipshit rage. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

Second, bots or fake accounts. Given that some of these accounts are literally nothing but this — or are this and Trumpy shitstain stuff — you kinda see what’s up. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

Something tells me the white boogeymen should pop out.

Third, it’s what’s at the heard of ALL this weaponized aerosolized horseshit — it’s sexism and racism. It’s sphincter-stung white dudes who are so tender, so brittle, they cannot hack that the world is now only 90% about them instead of 95%. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

Ha, I was right! Wendig basically brings out an SJW checklist of all the “bad” things in the world.

Their names change — MRA, incel, gamer-gate, comics-gate, sad puppies, Real Star Wars fans — but at the heart of it is the same fragile rage born of the poisonous chemical combination of white supremacy and toxic masculinity. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

And then he goes on to lump anyone who provides a different opinion from the radical, progressive social justice warriors into one group. He groups MRAs, Incels, Gamer Gaters, and Comics Gate folks all into one giant group because apparently they are all the same. Who knew? I mean it’s not like these are all different groups of different people with different ideas right?

This is the huge, huge cultural knot that lead to this current fuuuuuucked-up moment in American and world history, and it’s going to take time and effort to untie it and/or chop through it. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

It’s the same shit. It’s the same tiny hearts nested in massive inflated egos who fear that the world is not uniquely theirs and that they might actually have to, gasp, share it with other people, and oh no, not get by on mediocrity alone. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

The reason they hate identity politics is that it involves politics that do not perfectly invoke their singular identity. At the heart of it, these people aren’t fans, and they can’t see through the particulate shit-fog of their own expulsions to see what they really are. — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) May 31, 2018

Then Wendig shows his true hand. His disgust with fans who are not interested in seeing identity politics inserted into their fandoms. He even goes so far as to claim that you aren’t a “fan” if you disagree with identity politics being inserted into Star Wars.

But what happened next is still baffling me. After OneAngryGamer exposed Chuck’s hateful view of many Star Wars fans he went on an even more crazy Twitter rant.

I uhhh whhhh uhhh ummm whhhh … wuh? pic.twitter.com/R4JAMlJcVi — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) June 6, 2018

He even tried to go after Google News because he didn’t like seeing the truth about his own words.

But most of it is just nonsensical.

are we just is that what is … pic.twitter.com/Q09uqK0Ctq — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) June 6, 2018

you know what, burn it all down, hail Satan pic.twitter.com/TSRCOuhTuV — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) June 6, 2018

*cue article on Google News: DIRECTOR OF LAST JEDI, CHUCK WENDIG, CHOOSES SATAN AS HIS MASTER* pic.twitter.com/y29lgFsrxr — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) June 6, 2018

What’s really interesting is that it appears the terrible practices that many Marvel Comics freelancers and employees have expressed towards customers and fans is bleeding over into Disney’s Star Wars freelancers.

This is not a good look at all and it’s a terrible business practice as Marvel sales took a huge hit last year and are still struggling to recover. Not only that, their brand has been diminished significantly among many who used to be lifelong Marvel supporters.

Can Disney and their shareholders afford this type of behavior in a much larger medium where they hope to make millions even billions of dollars off of Star Wars?

If Marvel Comics freelancers and employee behavior has taught us anything it is that the company that acts this way will take a hit in sale. Not only that, but new competitors will emerge to take away their market share like Ethan Van Sciver, Diversity & Comics, Jon Malin, Brett R. Smith and others have done in the past month in the comics industry.

Given how creators like Chuck Wendig are responding to fan and customer criticism by attacking them and labeling them as “white supremacists” it does not bode well for Star Wars and Disney at large.

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