Alita: Battle Angel has been at the centre of unfounded controversy that was ignited by outrage media. The #AlitaArmy have been called alt-right and they are not happy.

Jim Cameron’s film adaptation of the popular Gunnm manga received some harsh criticism upon its release this year, but not for the film’s qualities but rather some weird gender politics.

You might also like

It all started when an online community criticised Disney’s Captain Marvel for forcing gender politics down movie-goers throats. In turn, the people who criticised the film were called sexist, misogynists, etc. They responded by claiming that the problem was not that Captain Marvel was female and that it was just because of the comments the actress had made about straight white men in an interview with Variety. Additionally, they highlighted Alita as a perfect example of a female heroine done right and a positive role model for young girls. “Captain Marvel is a female superhero whereas Alita is a girl who is a hero,” they said.

The outrage media then targeted the film calling it problematic because it is too “hetero-normative” and went as far to say that people only like the film as a protest. Unfortunately Alita fans who had nothing to do with this exchange were unfairly pulled into the drama. Alita fans lash back!

Alita alt-right? Alita Independent smear.

The #AlitaArmy had nothing to do with the Captain Marvel vs Alita: Battle Angel drama, and a lot of them even avoid the topic like the black plague. But that didn’t stop an Independent journalist, Adam White, from calling the fan community a cult and labelling the members alt-right Nazis.

The community had finally had enough of these absurd claims made against them and wrote an open letter to the editors.

Open letter to The Independent

My name is Tony. I’m @StarOfElyon on Twitter. I’m writing to see if I can get you involved in helping clear the name of the online community, which I’m a part of, called #AlitaArmy. We were wrongly linked to the “alt-right” by Adam White who writes for The Independent. The “opinion” that he published was defamatory and contained bad interpretations of events that happened on Twitter. I was referred to in The Independent’s article by Adam White as someone who made an “attack video” against a female journalist that wanted to interview us. He ignored important details that were public knowledge to create his narrative that she was “maliciously attacked”. I will even provide you with links to proof that the Independent’s article is a lie.

Before I post the links, I need to make you aware that I’m African American and I was part of the #AlitaArmy before we adopted a hashtag. Many of us are not white and/or right wing. This was also ignored by Adam White. It’s not even possible for us to be “alt-right”. There are some people who have used Alita as a political protest against “woke propaganda” and some of those people have used the #AlitaArmy hashtag. When we spoke up and asked them not to use the hashtag in attacks against other movies or characters, they put up a fight. The good thing is that those people aren’t the core of #AlitaArmy; they eventually lose interest in the hashtag and move on.

Alita: Independent call community alt-right

The link to the Independent’s article as it currently appears follows. In the archived article, also linked below, my video was called an “attack video”. The archive proves that the article was altered numerous times to cover up the lies that have been told:

We and the female journalist involved got off to a bumpy start but we sorted out our misunderstanding. We forgave each other and we’re on good terms, and we have been on good terms since then. Adam White did not bother to contact any member of the #AlitaArmy community that was involved, nor did he contact the female journalist whose name is Kylie Harrington. Kylie expressed her displeasure with The Independent on twitter. Here are links to her tweet and an archive of them.

Hi @Independent, I would’ve really appreciated it if you reached out to talk to me before using your interpretation of my experience w Alita fans in your article. I’m still in school and even I know that you should at least try to make contact w people before telling their story. https://t.co/vnxrniXy3t — Kylie Harrington (@kylieisntfunny) July 8, 2019

Ms. Harrington did finish her story with the interviews that she got from #AlitaArmy members and she published it with The Wrap. It’s also on Yahoo! Here are the links to the article she wrote and the archive.

#AlitaArmy was interviewed by Kylie Harrington of The Wrap and Yahoo! News in June 2019. Not everyone's words made it into the article so to be sure that nothing was done for naught this thread will feature the replies of those who spoke to Harrington.

https://t.co/fSJkxNTpC4 — The #AlitaArmy ????????⚔♥ (@AlitaArmy) October 4, 2019

So far, the Independent denies my request to them that they retract their smear piece and clear our name of any alt-right affiliation. I would like for this horrible stain on the #AlitaArmy community to be wiped away. Thank you.

Alita alt-right? Kylie Harrington responds to Alita Independent drama.

Alita, alt-right? That should be laughable but unfortunately not only has this smear left a terrible stain on the Alita fans but it has also damaged the reputation of the Alita franchise. Disney have not greenlit a sequel and it is reportedly because they do not want to be associated with the alt-right. After the Alita Independent article was published even Rosa Salazar herself stopped talking about the movie. So it may appear that the smear against Alita: Battle Angel and the fan base was successful.

That hasn’t stopped the community for fighting for a sequel. The Alita petition has over 100k signatures and is growing exponentially. Alita is also one of the most searched movies of 2019.