The Star Wars fandom is huge and volatile, so sometimes when controversies happen they end up being dumb. And by dumb, I mean really, really, really dumb. There have been some ugly fights in Star Wars fandom (and even a few among professionals!). A lot of them make you lose faith in humanity in general and wonder why we haven’t gotten past these issues. But Star Wars is about hope and even throughout all these struggles the hope for the galaxy’s future burns bright. So let’s take a look at these ridiculous controversies and agree to rise above.
The Stormtrooper Helmet Battle
One of the dumbest Star Wars related battles was a legal battle. Andrew Ainsworth created the prototype for the original Stormtrooper costume for Star Wars. When he was strapped for cash later on, he decided to make a few replicas of his original design and sell them for cash. When Lucasfilm sued him for copyright infringement, he honestly thought they were joking. But they weren’t, Then Ainsworth took on Lucasfilm and won. Turns out there was no contract between Ainsworth and Lucasfilm for the Stormtrooper design and therefore no real clear copyright claim. Lucasfilm didn’t have a legal leg to stand on, but they sure tried anyway.
George Lucas vs Disney
Another surprisingly dumb Star Wars controversy also came directly from the higher-ups. It was when George Lucas accused Disney of being “white slavers”, despite having no apparent basis for this claim. It was Lucas himself who willingly sold the Star Wars franchise to Disney, and he describes it as selling his “kids” to “white slavers who take these things and..." ... something?
Later Lucas apologized, saying “"I misspoke and used a very inappropriate analogy, and for that I apologize. I have been working with Disney for 40 years and chose them as the custodians of Star Wars because of my great respect for the company and Bob Iger’s leadership." The apology was expected, but it's still unclear what the heck George was trying to say with his “white slavers” remark in the first place. In any case, it was a very strange little kerfuffle.
The Great Mary Sue Debate
This is one Star Wars controversy that still runs hot in some corners of fandom, rather than being considered “fringe”. There’s accusations of Rey and Jyn being “too perfect”, aka the definition of a “Mary Sue”. I’ve long seen a lot of issues with the term and how it was used and honestly think it’s become so nebulous (or perhaps was ALWAYS so nebulous) that it means nothing and is just a way to diss (mostly) female characters at this point. There could be no greater proof of how “Mary Sue” has come to be thrown at female characters with no regards for fact than the fact Jyn got hit with the label even after fans had only seen 90 seconds of footage of her in a trailer. That’s proof enough for me that the conflict is ridiculous, but not enough for everyone. If you’re curious, you can check out my article on the subject and see the controversy in the comments as well.
Aftermath and the Great Gay Crisis
In 2015 Chuck Wendig released an official Star Wars novel called Star Wars: Aftermath. It was an exploration of what things were like for the Star Wars Universe after Return of the Jedi. The main character, Sinjir Rath, was casually mentioned to be gay at one point. Some fans reacted badly to a gay character in Star Wars, even pelting the book with one-star reviews on Amazon solely for that reason. Wendig had this response to homophobic fans:
"If you're upset because I put gay characters and a gay protagonist in the book, I got nothing for you... You're not the Rebel Alliance. You're not the good guys. You're the fucking Empire, man. You're the shitty, oppressive, totalitarian Empire. If you can imagine a world where Luke Skywalker would be irritated that there were gay people around him, you completely missed the point of Star Wars. It's like trying to picture Jesus kicking lepers in the throat instead of curing them. Stop being the Empire. Join the Rebel Alliance. We have love and inclusion and great music and cute droids."
Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker himself, seemed to have similar feelings and even went so far to say that Luke himself could be gay if fans wanted him to be, since his sexuality was never firmly defined. Plenty of fans were upset at this statement, while some were elated.
Carrie Fisher Being Bothered Over Her Age and Weight
The late Carrie Fisher was a badass in many ways, but one awesome thing about her was definitely how she refused to take any of the shit her employers, the media, and fans threw at her about her appearance. Carrie spoke openly about the treatment of these issues in Hollywood and helped the conversation move forward as a result.
She talked about how she was pressured to lose weight as a nineteen-year-old when she first played Princess Leia in Star Wars and said things haven’t changed in all the years since then. She laid it out in her usual pointed, funny manner. “They don’t want to hire all of me – only about three-quarters! Nothing changes, it’s an appearance-driven thing,” she said. “I’m in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance. That is so messed up. They might as well say get younger, because that’s how easy it is.”
She continued, “When I do lose the weight, I don’t like that it makes me feel good about myself. It’s not who I am. My problem is they talk to me like an actress, but I hear them like a writer … We treat beauty like an accomplishment and that is insane.”’
But it wasn’t just Hollywood that Carrie had to contend with. Moreso than her male co-stars, Carrie found she was subject to public debate as to whether she had “aged well” or not. She responded by tweeting, “"Please stop debating about whether OR not I aged well. unfortunately it hurts all 3 of my feelings. My BODY hasnt aged as well as I have". She also said "My body is a brain bag, it hauls me around to those places & in front of faces where theres something to say or see."
She also retweeted the statement, "Men don't age better than women, they're just allowed to age."
One reporter got snippy that Carrie was sticking up for herself and said she shouldn’t have become an actress if she didn’t want to be judged for her looks. “OK, I quit acting,” NOW, can I not like being judged for my looks? Tell me what to do and who to be, oh wise New York post columnist. You GENIUS,” she responded sarcastically.
Carrie Fisher was a talented, accomplished woman, so it’s ridiculous that we as a society are still focused on her looks over all that. She weathered the storm well and fought back with gusto, but it’s still unbelievable she had to deal with any of it all. I hope we can honor her legacy by moving forward- not holding actors to such weird standards and not picking women apart when they have the gall to age.
The Drama over Female Leads
The rising number of female leads caused a bit of drama in Star Wars fandom.. The second the trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story came out, people were having conniptions about Jyn Erso being the lead. Accusations of political correctness were everywhere because there had been a stunning TWO female leads in the Star Wars movies with this addition. There were the usual comments about how women don’t belong in space and so on.
I saw some of it firsthand when I wrote my article on the issue and got people complaining that Jyn being a capable fighter was “unrealistic” despite having no idea what her backstory is and despite the multitude of “unrealistic” male fighters in action movies. Of course, while the detractors were loud, this was another controversy that didn’t amount to much and in the end it turned out having female leads didn’t damage the sales of the movie at all.
The Call to Boycott Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
A call to boycott erupted when Rogue One: A Star Wars story came out, spearheaded by the “alt-right”, more accuarately known as a “neo-nazis”. The kerfuffle started when the official Star Wars Twitter tweeted “are you with her?” in reference to the rebellion led by Jyn Erso, which many interpreted as a reference to Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president and the “I’m With Her” slogan. Fuel was only added to the fire when one of the writers for Rogue One pointed out on Twitter that the Empire is a white supremacist group opposed by a multicultural group of rebels led by women. The alt-right backlash against this was so strong these tweets are deleted, though tweets about “Star Wars against Hate” that seemed to reference Brexit remained and were also retweeted by Mark Hamill himself.
This all led to a #DumpRogueOne hashtag campaign and rumors that the movie had been reshot to include scenes denouncing Donald Trump. There were even false rumors the writers had called Trump a Nazi.
However, the boycott against Rogue One proved ultimately ineffective and Rogue One did very, very well.
The Call to Boycott Star Wars: The Force Awakens
When Star Wars:The Force Awakens had John Boyega front and center as Finn, seeng a black lead upset quite a few racist trolls in the fringe elements of the Star Wars fandom. There were a cascade of racist tweets in response to the initial Force Awakens trailer that showed Finn unmasking. They made calls to #boycottstarwarsVII. There were claims that it promoted “white genocide” and was meant to destroy and demoralize whites”. There were claims it was “appropriating white culture” despite the fact white people have never had exclusive claim to Star Wars...and what exactly is “white culture” anyway?
The people involved even bought director Abrams Jewish heritage into it, claiming this was another Jewish plot to “destroy whites” and making other anti-semitic statements.
Fortunately, John Boyega was undeterred by the mindless hatred being flung at him and told fans he got the part, so get used to it. “I’m not saying get used to the future, but what is already happening. People of color and women are increasingly being shown on-screen. For things to be whitewashed just doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Ultimately, the cries of these vile fans were pointless. Many other people joined Boyega is scoffing at the racists. Despite all the calls for boycott, The Force Awakens was incredibly successful, showing that diversity definitely isn’t a detriment to Star Wars.