Is there a dungeons and dragons controversy I missed? What happened?

I haven’t seen any of these shows, only clips. The clips of this show I’ve seen are ridiculous. The writing, acting, the sets. It all looks utterly terrible. Are the other shows really this bad too?

There’s some overlap between what you’re saying and Wesley Yang’s writings about ‘successor ideology.’ It’s not just that people refuse to create anything new, they *demand* to have access to the most successful and influential institutions of the past, to have the right to completely subvert, destroy and recreate them in their own image, and then go ballistic when they don’t receive the same applause and respect they perceive the institution to be entitled to. I really don’t understand the motivation, but it’s EVERYWHERE.

The women I have met don't spend a lot of money on games or entertainment, they spend a lot of money on fashion, travel and experiences. When they watch TV, Sci-fi is the last thing they watch. Hollywood & the Gaming industry somehow wants these women who don't spend on film in place of men who will spend their last dime on a collectible pokemon card. Make it make sense.

😂😂😂😂please do some Intro music to a 70's porn movie "how deep is your love"

Dude you're being way too kind. This episode was bizarre and ridiculously stupid. I know you acknowledged those things but you still talked about the show as though there's a foundation that's worthy of discourse that's meaningful. It's really not. Sigh... But keep on truckin bro!

Thanks for the review. Your story ideas at the end is pretty much what i have had in mind for the rewrite i wanted to try out after the show ended, maybe make a little comic out of it, because i don't have that amount of money to waste, like Disney... The investigative part would have fit more for a murder mystery than what was shown in episode 1 of this show. Absolutely pathetic. Murder happenes, we see who it is, next thing a person with the description is captured right away... wow... how exciting...

Vote Kain!

These 'new fans' don't seem to care at all about normal standards of quality like worldbuilding, characterization, plot, dialogue, cinematography and so on. It's like they see shows as political statements, and if it's a political statement they agree with they like it (which almost always is the case because almost everyone in Hollywood and entertainment media is part of their tribe). Among general audiences these people are a small minority, but among the professional critic class they are vastly overrepresented, which is why these shows get such high critic scores while being panned by the audience. The moment the Acolyte was marketed based on its diversity and female characters, they guaranteed for themselves a 80%+ critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Because these people do not care about quality, it's all just politics to them, and liking a show that is officially considered 'diverse' is simply a statement of allegiance to the political tribe. While criticizing such a show makes you a bad person, an apostate, no matter what your criticism actually is. That's why dialogue between these old fans and new fans so often seems impossible. It's like speaking different languages, because to the new fans, it's a political debate. Not a conversation about Star Wars, or whatever other franchise the discussion is actually about.

Do we need anymore evidence that DEI is killing entertainment?

There isn't always a causal link between bad writing and a woke corporate and marketing team, but many of the franchises where this is happening were build by and targeted at men, and were made for an english speaking audience, which will be inevitably predominantly white. That means that when a company like Disney is choosing who will helm a project, most of the candidates will be white men. If they're not willing to hire any of them, statistically they're eliminating most of the talent, particularly the enthusiastic talent. That will, in many cases, result in a decrease in quality.

Really love this channel, you speak a lot of sense and make such good rational points, and like you say, you don't want to offend anyone but you have to say these things cos it's all accurate. Followed you on Twitter/X as well for what it's worth. Cheers from South Africa! Come over and have a beer one day.

It always resorts to personal insults, "incel" etc. Trying to mock and demean the person instead of having a valid argument. And it seems the level of value a person has is how often they have sex and with how many different kinds of people... (when the true value is actually the exact opposite).

💯

Hate to burst your bubble, but I grew up loving the Willow movie, and I loved the tv show. It was very misjudged and overlooked by those who made their minds up after only one or two episodes. Yes, the modern speech patterns were annoying as well as the rock songs, but these are immaterial format changes, and not the core ideas of the world. The movie was all about Elora Dannen as a plot device, and so is the show, but this time around she's an actual character, and a main purpose is to define her and ready her for her destiny. It's trying to continue the world logically and everyone in it is trying to continue some legacy or other. The main point is the characters, and there's your problem: you fell for it. They're intentionally unlikeable at the beginning, when they've all been growing up inside a literal magic bubble sheltering them from the harsh reality beyond, but they quickly begin to grow and change into better people once they leave that shelter and begin their quest. The world is cruel and ruled by old gods and blood magic, and full of horror and monsters, and party members start dying right away. At the very least it was a genuine attempt to bring back the old audience by honoring what truly mattered in the movie's philosophy, while adjusting other elements to draw in a new audience who never saw the film. It was not the corporate hollowing out and repurposing that happened to Star Wars, Star Trek, and Dr Who. At worst it was a well intentioned misfire. How people managed to miss the real story being told and concentrate on the few things wrong is beyond me, but it serves as a good rubric to judge the fairness of critics, because a great many moan about the lack of quality writing, when they don't even recognize good writing when it comes along. The people who say Rey doesn't have a clearly established character or emotional arc. She does, it's on the screen, but you can choose to ignore it if you refuse to see her as human in terms of the story. because you won't see beyond your own bias. The sequel movies were just messy and distracted, they didn't tear down Lucas canon like the tv shows have. Now, I'd prefer to leave this battle in words, but I could duel you with a sword if it might change your mind. I'd suggest you simply give the only season of Willow we're going to get another shot. I still hope someone might pick it up for the other two books we saw on that shelf at the end.

You say some really important things here!

Time is to blame. Generational replacement. The palimsest effect. I now have the image of Donald Sutherland pointing and screaming at me

...............And now THE BOYS................................

I can't help commenting one more time: it is a coup, so they have no reason to stay true to the spirit of the original IPs. The whole idea is to rip out the old by the roots, replace it and grow new fans (money) with it. Inculcation is part of the process. It's not working, because the real fans are the majority, and are a little older and wiser, and resent the disrespect and the pillaging (they are literally stealing the cachet and value of the IP).

If the perceived "toxic fan" (which I am starting to take as a compliment) is a group they identify as a by-product of an amorphous patriarchy, then it stands to reason they think (and trumpet) they are fighting on the side of Good. Then, when we push back, yet do *not* resort to these facile binary zero-one terms, they accuse us of being divisive.

What made Star Wars great was not (just) people going to the cinema watching the movies. It was people getting invested into the world - buying all kinds of toys and collectibles, reading the books, playing the games. Are the "new fans" doing that?

I legit don't think the people attacking you (and others like you) know what the the word 'grifter' actually means. It's weird how often and incorrectly it gets used nowadays.

@9:42 Lets get super honest here for a sec. This whole thing comes from the feminist idea (whichever wave it is that escapes me at the moment) that you have to strike back and destroy the thing people love and take it over. Its not enough to be a part of it and expand it and help cultivate something great that they perceived as being problematic, but you have to actively destroy it in order to get retribution for a perceived slight against you. Its them taking down the patriarchy and symbols of the patriarchy and making cis white men angry or whatever other bullshit they say. So yeah they cant respect the tradition because the tradition in their eyes is one that is patriarchal in nature and they must destroy it and take it over. I know people hate to hear this shit and will instantly call me an incel woman hater and a racist because folks love some dogwhistles but its the truth as far as what Ive seen over the past 30 plus years as this stuff started and began to take hold in comics and then into tv and movies more recently. Its not enough to tell good stories that incorporate those elements because they have to destroy the white men who made those thing. I find all this division incredibly stupid personally and wish people didnt hate each other so damn much and fall into these ideologies that cause so much damage on both sides of the arguments. There is enough room for everyone in these tents, we dont need to tear anyone else down to elevate those that need and deserve to be elevated. We go nowhere divided, we gain everything united.

Always appreciated your reviews, made me feel less like I am crazy. Keep being you man, channel is going to keep growing!

15:38 Go to the dark side, become the Sensitivity Reader and beyond reproach

here's the way i look at it : The 'new fans' are the ones who used to make fun of the 'nerds' in high school, because they thought that's how they'd get in good with the popular kids now they're adults, and they're looking at these 'nerds' who, 20/30 years on, have this life long love of something they can share with other former 'nerds', while all the popular kids have grown up and moved on from caring about such things, leaving these people without a real social circle to speak of... they're profoundly jealous of the nerds now. They now suddenly want what the 'nerds' have, so they force their way into things like D&D, Star Wars, etc. Nominally this would be fine, a lot of people get into the 'nerd stuff' later in life and generally these communities are happy to have them. The problem with the tourists, though, is they're still obsessed with the high school clique mentality and making sure they're part of the 'right crowd'. So when they come into the nerd-dom, they insist on bringing all the twitter-level politics with them because that's what they think will allow them to stay in the right social circles at the same time... and they just don't get that it's just as superficial now as it was then. The nerds, though, can see right through them. We've been dealing with these posers since high school, we know they'll move on like locusts as soon as a new fad comes along. THAT is why there's so much resistance to things like 'the acolyte', because that's doing lasting damage to something we genuinely loved, just for the momentary pleasure of a bunch of people who won't remember this show exists in 2 years (how long has it actually been since you've heard anyone talk positively about Obi-wan? not the discourse around the show, mind you, but the actual show itself) bringing new ideas into old franchises is, by itself, not a problem. As mentioned about Andor, it's quite different from traditional Star Wars, but it's also not undermining the core of what Star Wars is. It's simply adding a new dimension to the world... and that's good. You look at something like 'The Acolyte', yeah, that show cannot exist in the same universe as the Prequels, there are too many fundamental problems with the continuity.... and it adds fucking nothing of value in exchange for it. But hey, all the people who feel bad for all those innocents Anakin killed when he blew up the Death Star will tell you how much they love new Star Wars.... it's not the old fans who toxic, if anything the old fans are guilty of being too accommodating for too long

What you're describing is Entryism. As I listen, I appreciate more you bring to the table. You've earned my sub. Andor suffered because of the rightful jilting fans felt because of Obi-Wan. I gave it a chance due to my general appreciation of Rogue One. It's also partly due to a lack of interest in the character. What was a pleasant surprise was the competence that went into the show. It was extremely well made. Throw in great writing on top of it and even better themes and character development and it became a quiet giant of a show. It's an anomaly in my eyes, but a welcome one.

The modern media way- appropriate nerd culture to mine the depth of creativity (since the Hollywood creative well is empty), change it to “force” diversity in a disingenuous way, ignore the lore that made it unique, throw together a script/story that does not appeal to the established fan base, then play the victim when it doesn’t go well. Manipulate the diversity to use as a shield to defend the bad remake and attack the fans that made it an attractive IP to pursue in the 1st place. *Rinse & Repeat* This is a terrible formula! RIP: Star Wars, Warhammer, Willow, The Witcher, Lord of the Rings

there's an eminem song out now that's based on the old steve miller band's hit abracadabra. i'm not a big fan of the song. i like sampling, but i prefer it when the samples are a bit more obscure. using a big part of a chorus or a riff from a hit song just doesn't seem very creative to me, instead it seems kind of lazy or maybe insecure. plus it's fun to try to figure out where more obscure samples are from and go exploring older music that i might have missed. i found a lot of artists that i really like that way. maybe that's the problem with a lot of current creatives- they've grown up with a lazy, insecure kind of mix up culture view of these ips. for them it's not offensive to use a star wars sample to tell their little stories. it's just what they're used to.

I would not call it a coup. It is a deflection/defense mechanism. They came from the corporation, who made those products with recognizable names as it guarantee some returns. If they fail to make an impression, as most franchise do (how many tv shows went unnoticed), the older fans can be blamed for hating changes. New "fans" seeing that their fanfiction writing in corporate products pandering to them, doesn't leave an impress on culture, also put the blame on the older fans who hate it. I'm pretty sure at least 90% of the articles bashing Starwars fan at this time, was pushed by the corporations who own them, or the journalists with access to the studio. I'm glad I only enjoy the six films of the Star Wars, and the Clone War (Traditional Animation not 3D ones). I have no plan to watch Andor, Acolyte, and whatever else it had. Star Wars ended, let it rest. I liked Willow, I don't understand the need for a sequel and have little desire to watch it. Just because somebody put out a sequel, prequel or expanded universe for something I like, it doesn't mean that it deserve attention. That's said, the plot of the Acolyte sound like another kick in the ball, to the faithful fans, with the usual fanfiction tier writing.

What most intrigues me about these obvious coups is how will the youth perceive them? It seems that is their target, but will they accept or reject it? The real resistance against this dreck will be won by them.

There are so many great talented actors on this show. It sucks the writing is so hit and miss this season.

I don't always agree with you, but even then, I like how you present yourself and thoughts. I wholeheartedly agree with this video, though. I'm just sorry there was no snooty British queen reading an article in this one, though. As an aside, I was drawn into The Witcher by the Netflix show, had never read the books and jumped ship by the third season. For many reasons, including the replacement of a main character actor. I've never liked that, nor how the crew purportedly treated Cavill. But another reason I left is because I could feel that something was off with season 2, even having never read the books or played the games. It was inauthenticity. I think that's why they can't keep their 'modern audiences'. Maybe they do draw in newbies but since most of us actual sane people, we can tell when a piece of work isn't being done for the love of the work, but for other, quite simply, more sinister reasosns. So any new people they drew in eventually leave, too. Just a thought.

Erik, can I ask you a question? A lot of channels whose views align with yours on this don’t seem to have you on or even mention you by name. You were just “Forbes “ or “the Forbes reporter” when referencing your Acolyte review even though in the past they readily named Forbes reporters they disagreed with. Is this separation intentional?

For the algorithm

You are still stuck on trying to understand their lack of understanding. They do understand. The usual suspects are false and they lie. One type of lie is to make you believe it, the other type of lie is trying to make you they believe it. The way they infiltrate fandom is the same song and dance they done all over the place in every country in the western world. They have facebook whisper networks, they have meetings about their "opponents". They probably have had meetings about you. How to get you. Either to discredit you or win your affection. People just dont want to see that these people have goals and organizational capacity. They do and they use it.

Thank you for honestly critiquing this show unlike your colleague Paul who gushes over crap.

I consider all contributions from these interlopers non-canon.

The Mary Sue is the grandmother of the imposter fandom. I'm pretty sure Da Vinci will be called incel and basement dwellers by Mary Sue if he was alive now and do not agree to his masterpieces being changed for modern audiences, just like Tolkien's LoTR being wokefied into Rings of Poop. 😂

That first 'motherfuckers' caught me off guard to the point I laughed out loud. The passion we OT fans feel about the originals was palpable. I feel you, man. Fucking preach.

Thanks, Erik, for discussing this topic. I’m old - about the only only fandom I missed in its infancy is Star Trek - and have loved genre entertainment (for roughly 50 years (zounds! to write that number is awful! 😂). “Fandom” is also an interest for me as well, and the rise of what you perfectly call “corporate fandom” is sadly destroying genre entertainment for all. It sucks! And makes me sad for all the young geeks who have to navigate such a greed-motivated landscape. With Rings of Poo S2 looming large I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately; thus your vid is timely for me…and makes me feel less alone. Wish I had an answer to the problem, but alas, all I think we can do is keep fighting the good fight! 🙏👍

I was a Star Wars fan. I use the word was, because what is now being produced is no longer Star Wars. I was 6 when A New Hope came out. I have seen the original 3 Star Wars movies in the theater, drive-through more times than I can truly remember. I bought the VHS tapes, laser disk, DVDs, blue rays and so forth. I went and saw the re-releases in theaters. When the prequels came out my friends and I made t-shirts and took the day off work for each film and saw them 3 times in a row, the late-night premier the day/night before the twice the next day with meal and drinks in between to break it all down. Me and my friends did this for The Force Awakens and then we did it for Rogue One. We planned to do it for The Last Jedi, but we only made it through the second showing the next morning, we did not go to our traditional 3rd showing, we just ate the cost of the tickets. I can remember after the evening show of TLJ I think we were all in shock, not quite sure of what we saw. After the morning viewing of TLJ, we were all disheartened. I did go see The Solo movie with only one of my formerly 15 strong group of moviegoers. I thought Solo was ok, I thought Glover was amazing as Lando. I also enjoyed the Droid Activist droid, she was funny. For The Rise of Skywalker I could only get two takers to see it the opening weekend and most only watched it when it came out on whatever streaming service of movie channel they had at home. None of us have bought the new action figures or the DVDs or BlueRays. I can show you a 17-foot wall of Star Wars collectibles and half a dozen led light sabers from the original and prequel movies in my basement "man cave". We went from avid fans of Star Wars to "Yea, maybe I will check that out when it hits HBO" That's 15 grown men with wives and children and disposable incomes, from taking days off to see a movie to meh. I don't know what Disney's business model is, but I can tell you I am not unique in my sadness at the current state of Disney Star Wars. That is not to say there have not been a few bright spots of hope, the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, the 2-episode Mandalorian arc inside Book of Boba Fett. I admit I have a baby Yoda and Mando Funko figure. Andor was great but some of my formerly rabid SW fan friends have not seen that. Don't even get me started on D&D. Wheelchairs and dungeons are poor bedfellows is all I'm gonna say.

I still like the show, but all your points are valid. The writing has gotten lazy.

You are cool people, Erik. 🙏

Among other functions the purpose of mythology (through story-telling) is to 'validate and support the existing social order.' Through generations the great popular mythologies (Star Wars, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, etc.) emerged naturally from a shared experience, much of which reflected human frailty and courage, vices and virtues. The co-opting of the properties to a new set of norms which arose recently from a very narrow academic viewpoint does not and cannot have the resonance needed to reflect our own psychological and social realities. It is a form of propaganda--and anyone with mild sensitivity can recognize it as such. One of the most obvious characteristics of propaganda is the lack of ethical underpinning in the stories. We witness the hero's behavior and something feels wrong. We are presented morally gray characters not to reflect the difficulties of real relationships and choices but to undermine the belief that real heroism exists. Even the most skilled of these imposters can only provide the superficial aspects of the story--which is why they don't stay with us and are easily forgotten.

Many current creators are more vandals than tourists. We have yet to see life-signs of this mystical (or mythical?) "modern audience" that shows up with numbers (and dollars) that will support these "modernized" versions of classic IPs.

The irony is that people are hating it the more it becomes like the comic itself, a badly written story that overrelies on excessive shock vakue for its own sake and crimgy one note policization.

Dude...Aliens series, Predator series, Terminator etc etc etc...they've been doing this for decades. I just figure they're all narcissist. They want to reimagine it in their own image, fandom be damned...and they always fail. Hard. Wonder why Axel F is doing so good? Hmmmm.

The biggest problem with Star Wars now is that it doesn’t appeal to kids, it’s lost the core audience, kids aren’t interested in Star Wars. I’ve got a 9 year old boy, him and his mates couldn’t care less about Star Wars. The only Star Wars fans are us old blokes who cling onto the golden age. The fact is, their audience is declining, there are no new Star Wars fans, the franchise will die in the next 10 years.

Just one comment? Needs more! Thumbs up!