Please stop with this "Disney destroys 'Star Wars'" talk!

There seems to be only one opinion among "Star Wars" fans: Disney is in the process of destroying the franchise. For good. Or at least since "The Acolyte". No other "Star Wars" series has ever performed so badly with audiences. Not even the much-maligned "The Book of Boba Fett" was rated so poorly. That must mean something.

As a "Star Wars" fan, my heart bleeds. Not because I agree with the wave of hate. "Hate leads to untold suffering," Yoda once said. It's because of the culture of self-destruction that makes me sad. Fans have always fought for the right of the guardian of the Grail to determine what is real "Star Wars" and what is not - much like the Jedi in "The Acolyte" determine who can and cannot use the Force in the galaxy. Which is not Jedi-like at all.

"Ironic ...", Emperor Palpatine would say.

I've lived and breathed Star Wars for as long as I can remember. But what fascinates me about the Star Wars saga and makes my heart beat faster doesn't necessarily apply to others. And vice versa. I don't want to explain to you why you have to like "Disney Star Wars" or why you are not entitled to criticise Disney Star Wars.

But - is it really that bad for "Star Wars"? Or are some fans getting a little carried away?

Witches in "Star Wars!"

Let's start with a recent example that is currently causing a lot of controversy among fans: "The Acolyte". In the third episode, a coven of witches conjures up the dark side of the Force in a ritual that looks like amateur theatre. I admit it: the scene is hilarious. And that's putting it mildly.

Despite this, the scene doesn't throw me off as a fan. It certainly doesn't make me curse and proclaim the franchise's demise. For days, angry fans on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have been explaining how Disney is pushing through the agenda of a commune of lesbians who no longer need men to father children and that "Star Wars" is going under as a result.

I just shrug my shoulders. After all, there was already a coven of witches in the animated series "The Clone Wars", which was created under the watchful eye of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas. They also had some pretty weird stuff going on. But above all, they kept slaves - male slaves. Using their green Force magic, they reshaped their bodies and made them dance to their tune like lapdogs. Just imagine the reactions today if something like that had been Disney's idea ...

But nobody was talking about a progressive agenda and the demise of "Star Wars" in the late 2000s when "The Clone Wars" aired on the Cartoon Network. Perhaps because the animated series was barely noticed by adults. Or perhaps because social media was not yet widespread enough to have a significant influence on how people reacted to new Star Wars content - or comment columns where disappointed fans would get on each other's nerves.

In any case, the concept of a coven of witches with a different interpretation of the Force than the Jedi is not new or Disney-exclusive. It's just much better realised in the Nightsisters of Dathomir - as they are called - and I agree with the many critics.

I've rarely heard such lousy dialogue! And the scripts too!

Another criticism I keep hearing on the topic of Disney Star Wars is that the dialogue and scripts are subterranean. Not just in "The Acolyte". Just remember text gems like "Somehow Palpatine Returned" and "They fly now!" from the sequel films. Rightly so, mind you. And yet: this hasn't just been the case since Disney?

Even I, as a hardcore fan who has plastered half my flat with "Star Wars" stuff, heretically claim that the texts and dialogue in the franchise have always been weak. Harrison Ford also said in 1977 while shooting "Star Wars": "George, you can write it like that, but I can never say it like that!", while his co-star Mark Hamill even dreamt at night about the first film's grotty script.

Of all the things I adore about "Star Wars" - it's not the dialogue.

"I don't like sand" is not even the most outrageous example that George Lucas has penned. I find "Blinded by love" much worse. Honestly, anyone who draws the line at the comic ritual of the Brendok witches in "The Acolyte" but can watch this scene without making a face is biased. Not even John Williams' beautiful music in the background can save the debacle here.

Hand on heart: dialogue and well-written scripts were rarely the strength of "Star Wars":

Exceptions that prove the rule are few and far between: "Andor", for example, a series created under Disney - of all things. It has so much incredibly well-written dialogue that I find it difficult to choose one.

Luthen's monologue perhaps? Maarva's funeral oration? Nemik's manifesto? Mon Mothma's fundraising? Or perhaps Kino Loy's unforgettable "One Way Out!" speech?

Would "Andor" have been made under George Lucas' direction? Hard for me to imagine. "Star Wars", as George Lucas once said when defending his polarising character Jar Jar Binks, is for children anyway.

For. Children

"Andor", on the other hand, is aimed at an adult audience and thus remains an absolute one-off in the "Star Wars" universe. Because regardless of whether we are talking about productions made under Lucas or Disney: They are all primarily aimed at a rather younger audience. One that places far less emphasis on sophisticated dialogue or coherently thought-out stories and characters than us adults who spend hours on social media or in commentary columns.

"Star Wars" is for children

Think about it: when did you become a "Star Wars" fan? Probably not the day before yesterday. More likely as a child. Like many others. Just like me. Today I'm 35 years old. When "The Phantom Menace", the first film of the prequels, was released in 1999, I was eleven - and thanks to the special editions of the original trilogy that were first broadcast on TV in 1997, I was already in full "Star Wars" fever. I couldn't help but think Jar Jar Binks was great and funny.

The generation before me? Oh, they hated the prequels fervently. And everything in them. George Lucas was destroying his own legacy, she ranted. The very bad feeling she already had because Lucas made changes in the Special Editions was confirmed: "Han didn't shoot yet first! My childhood was a lie!"

But the prequel films went one better. Suddenly, snore-inducingly boring trade blockades were causing political stink in the Galactic Republic Senate. Yawn. That doesn't fit in with the otherwise so adventurous "Star Wars". Anyway: midichlorians? What happened to the mystical force? Darth Vader is supposed to have built C-3PO? And why the heck does the film look like a computer game?

The situation escalated. Anakin actor Jake Lloyd, who was only ten years old at the time, was bullied by fans to such an extent that he described his life after "Star Wars" as "living hell" and wrote about it at suffered severe depression, even though his mother only recently denied her own son's version. Jar Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best even received death threats. In an interview decades later, he admitted to having seriously contemplated suicide. Hayden Christensen had a similar experience. After playing Anakin in his 20s for two films, he felt compelled to retire from the public eye in order to finally be left alone.

And George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars? He was labelled the anti-Christ. As a false prophet. Fans chanted on the streets: "George raped our childhood!" There was even a documentary film - "The People vs George Lucas" - that incited people against their former messiah.

In the end, Lucas sold "his" baby to Disney. Possibly even with a sigh of relief - and not just because of the 4 billion dollars he received for the deal.

Everything was better in the past - wasn't it?

No, Disney is not doing a perfect job. You can and should criticise that. I don't unconditionally like everything that comes from Disney and that has "Star Wars" written all over it. "The Book of Boba Fett", for example. Or whatever that is. But I'm not the target audience either. "Star Wars" will always be aimed at younger people first and tweak the established canon when it suits. But that's nothing new. It was already the case under George Lucas. Even his original trilogy wasn't created from a single mould.

Darth Vader, for example, only became Luke's father in "The Empire Strikes Back". Otherwise, Obi-Wan Kenobi would never have hidden Vader's son under his original name in the first film. Lucas didn't even decide that Luke and Leia were twins until "The Return of the Jedi". There is no other way to explain Luke and Leia's kiss scene one film earlier. And Obi-Wan actually had his own "Somehow Palpatine Returned" moment when he had to explain to a dismayed Luke that Luke's father was actually Vader and had not been murdered by said Vader, as Obi-Wan had originally claimed.

But "from a certain point of view" that was the right thing to do, yes yes.

I'm glad social media didn't exist back then. They would have savaged Lucas for such a lax approach to established lore. And for the fact that Emperor Palpatine's best and most high-tech soldiers in "Return of the Jedi" would have been defeated by a horde of teddy bears with sticks, spears and stones.

Even worse: it's even Leia, a woman (!), who kills the gangster boss Jabba because her male colleagues, including a Jedi, can't get it together on their own. Instead, they allow themselves to be captured by said teddy bears.

"Only a Sith knows nothing but extremes"

It seems that adults who grew up with "Star Wars" are always the biggest and - unfortunately - the most hateful critics of the franchise. First 20 years ago with the prequels. Today with everything Disney produces. They take every mistake, no matter how small and insignificant, as an opportunity to declare the Star Wars saga dead: "Oh God, there's fire in space in 'The Acolyte'! How illogical!"

As if there had never been fire in space in "Star Wars" before ...

In fact, "Pillar of Garbage" sums it up pretty well in the video above: In the search for confirmation bias that Disney is indeed the source of all evil in today's "Star Wars," every little quirk that "Star Wars" has always had suddenly becomes a giant hole.

As a child, such behaviour on the part of adult "fans" was a mystery to me. It still is to me. Judging by the appearance of those who today stir up hatred, ridicule and malice against Disney Star Wars on their social media or on YouTube, I would put them at around my age. Have they forgotten what it was like back then to see even the things they liked the most mauled? Must they, too, now once again drive actors into depression? Or deprive the next generation of the joy of "Star Wars" for better or worse?

Is this really the kind of "fan community" we want to be?

An appeal: Be more tolerant - and kids again

"It's like poetry. It rhymes.", George Lucas once said. In this case, I hope not. My appeal to the naggers: Be a child again. Put yourselves in the shoes of your 11-year-old self, who grew up with the prequels full of joy and curiosity. Who thought Jar Jar Binks was funny. The one who celebrated Anakin destroying the droid control ship single-handedly. And who cried when he fell to the Dark Side.

Somewhere, that child is still - and celebrates actor Hayden Christensen frenetically when he steps onto a stage today, after he gave up acting decades ago because he could no longer bear the hatred of the generation before you. [dootot

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