Is the Star Wars fandom broken beyond repair? And who’s to blame for that? 

The fans are still here. The problem is that Star Wars itself, isn't.

Blaming the fans is flatly the wrong response. Any company that disdains its customer base is going to take a hit.

I find it bonkers that consumers are now being blamed for the failure of a bad product. And it's insane their are people out there who think it's true.

Declaring the sequels and the acolyte non-canon would be a good start.

The problem with Disney Star Wars is the rotten foundation. The sequels were a disorganized mess that not only tarnished its own stories, but the legacy of the previous films. No spin off shows or movies can make up for the damage done by the sequels. Because that was what they needed to get right. They had an opportunity to get Mark Hamil, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fischer back together one last time for a final send off. But instead they had them separated and destroyed their characters one by one and didn’t even bother with their new characters. No matter what they do to try to salvage it, the damage has been done. New Star Wars is a lost cause.

Demanding standards isnt bieng fussy. Its a valud expectation of a fan.

I've had to adopt a headcannon that only consists of Lucas Star Wars essentially. You are right. Disney got ALL of the important projects wrong: the sequels (especially), Obi Wan show, Boba Fett show, etc. They nailed some unimportant projects like Rogue One, Andor, Solo, and Mando S1 and S2 but that's it. The fact that they squandered Luke, Han, and Leia are absolutely criminal as far as Star Wars goes. The only thing that would pique my interest at this point would be to completely nuke everything Disney Star Wars and re-do them. Although doing this would give the feeling would be like saying, "You are a virgin again" after losing your virginity to someone you did not want to. It feels weird to put it back in the bag. I still like Star Wars, but Disney has ruined a lot of my enjoyment of it and I do not think we'll get the fans back.

Lucasfilm under Kathleen Kennedy have done irreparable damage to the Star Wars brand and the thing is, most of us Star Wars fans no longer care. Cause we realize we dont need Lucasfilm to get the Star Wars we want. Ive seen so much great fan man Star Wars projects recently and it made me realized Star Wars will never die cause the fans will always keep it alive. Plus, we still got Episodes 1-6, EU, Clone Wars, etc. We dont need Lucasfilm for Star Wars

Short answer: yes. But that’s only because Disney won’t change course or try to reach out to the established fans. I’m stunned that the people responsible for this situation, good or bad, are still in charge. How much more damage do you want to do? Because that’s all KK has done. Damage. She doesn’t deserve a redemption arc, because she took Anakin’s away.

It's amazing how for decades, fans argued and had things they did not like (ewoks, jar jar) but they were by and large happy to play star wars games, watch star wars movies, drink out of star wars coffee mugs, collect star wars toys etc. Then Disney buys star wars and suddenly the fans are the problem, it's their fault that people don't like Star wars, nobody is buying it and we are all fighting. Could you imagine this was any other product - maybe a soft drink, where another company bought out the brand, changed the ingredients, started marketing it towards a different demographic of consumers and suddenly all the old consumers are complaining that it does not taste right and they stop buying it- would this be the consumers fault?

No, not beyond repair. As for whose fault it is, obviously it’s Disney/Lucasfilm and their friends in the access media. Their decision to label any and all fans who didn’t happen to like certain SW projects as ists and phobes has done more to break the fandom than anything else. That said, I actually see the fandom largely united right now. The hardcore Acolyte fans are a small minority so in a way, that show actually brought most of us together.

The fandom is not broken, the brand is and that may have driven away enough fans that the brand can’t recover. Stop blaming fans, There are no toxic fans. If this was a vacuum company no one would be saying such bullshit. They would be dissatisfied customers and the brand would suffer.

It absolutely is, and we can thank disney, their shills and their bootlickers for it. I'm not going to say we were ever a perfect fandom. We had our differences but it was never this bad or this toxic. But ever since disney stepped in, it's been nothing but endless gaslighting if we don't fully support whatever crap they make or the direction they take the franchise in. Up until a few years ago, I could still be friends with people who liked what disney were doing. Today, almost all of those people are on the block list.

I thought the thumbnail was a screenshot of young Professor X talking to old Professor X. 😆 “Star Wars: Days of Future Past”

Fans absolutely do not have too high of expectations. Star Wars as a whole before the Disney era was just good. The movies, the clone wars, all the games. It was all good quality Star Wars content. Wanting quality Star Wars is not an unreasonable expectation, it should just be the standard like it was before the dark times. Before the Disney empire..

I love Star Wars. I don’t have to love everything in it

You don't repair fandoms, you repair IPs. This one is a bit too far gone, though. Too much of the foundation on the IP has already been dug up and destroyed

I think Disney is shooting themselves in the foot where they really don’t need to. They have stuff that is already working: Mandalorian, Andor, Tales, and Visions have all been generally appreciated, even in their low points. That’s four unique formulas that they can build and improve on, and on the side, they can put long-term effort into bigger projects like films and new shows. Invest in stuff that works, study why it works, and use that to inform how you innovate new stuff.

Hey Thor, genuine question - do you think Disney/Lucasfilm WANTS to repair their relationship with fans? Because I'm starting to think they don't. I actually am beginning to think they hate us. Not a specific demographic, but they hate that we care about the integrity of the lore, that we don't want it messed with, and that we care more about Lucas' original characters more than their new ones. Star Wars is not beyond repair, but the desire of current Star Wars leadership to win us back isn't there. They do not want to win us over, they want to replace us with mindless fans who don't ask questions, and just consume products.

I... just... the thumbnail. "This will begin to make things right" was literally the first line of the Sequels (RIP Max von Sydow, by the way. He deserved better) I don't think anyone in 2015 could have forseen how bad things would eventually get.

The goal has never been to please everyone, but to have a substantial majority of people to like the brand and so a flourishing and enjoyable environment. And Disney and KK have competely ruined it.

Disney would have to first, acknowledge the causes of their failures. Don't see that happening since they have conclusively demonstrated they will only come to the wrong conclusions. Second, if somehow they realize what they've done wrong, they would have to jettison most of what they have done. They are too heavily invested in the sequels and sequel era to do that. Third, if the they ever did realize their mistakes and decide to take the loss and effectively reset what they have done, they would have to go back to the EU, select the best stories, get the authors on board, create a single governing body to maintain continuity (that actually has a plan and respect for the IP) and then select one or perhaps two directors to turn the stories into reality. Those directors would have to have FIRM, CLEAR orders that they do NOT write anything. They do NOT change what the writers wrote. Their sole job is to direct the action on set. Period. Assuming those three highly improbable things were to come to fruition? Sure, Disney would win back the customer base and perhaps more.

"This will begin to make things right." After that line, everything went so wrong on many levels.

hey Thor, I hope all is well with you! Question based on today’s video: firstly, I want to say that I appreciate your hopefulness- and genuinely wish I could share in it. But truthfully, the way I see it, I’m not sure anything can “heal” the *fandom* (not Star Wars specifically, but the Star Wars fan base). Whether Star Wars can be turned around is a whole other can of worms. Anyways, my question for you is: how does the fandom heal when there is a vocal (id argue minority) who accuses the majority who are unhappy with the state of Star Wars (to varying degrees) of being “haters”, “racists”, “sexists”, “misogynists”, “nazis”, etc etc? Even when we had something like Andor, where 90%+ of the people who are normally “negative” about Star Wars came out very positively in favor of the show, the vocal minority still claims (I believe wrongly) that no matter what Star Wars does it won’t make this majority happy, *therefore* Star Wars should instead cater to this “new generation of fans”, for sake of simplicity, let’s call this group Disney Star Wars fans- people who liked (or at least didn’t hate) the sequels and are *very positive* about the Disney+ shows such as Kenobi or the Acolyte. This vocal minority, propelled by the media (the same media who vilified George Lucas it’s worth adding…) are basically doing everything in their power to push a lot of fans out the door in order to “address the toxic fandom” as they put it- and let’s just be honest, a lot of people don’t need that big of a push given the way Star Wars has been handled over the past decade. So I’m just curious, what do you think could heal the fandom? Is consistently good Star Wars enough to take the wind out of the sails of the vocal minority and media from painting those unhappy with the state of the franchise with all the nasty words under the sun?

In my mind it's Disney's fault the Fandom is broken. All they had to do was treat Star Wars (and the community) with the same respect that Lucas had. To actually invest in quality writing, sensible story decisions, and producing quality product. As for whether it can be fixed... maybe. But that would require putting Star Wara out to pasture for 5 or 10 years, without any new film, animation, or live action show releases. Let everything calm down, and let anticipation for a new story build. And then move forward with new stories and quality writing.

Newsflash: People crying about the Fandom is likely Shills, shill wannabes, normies, or casuals. Who gives a 💩 about what they say and why stupid enough to take everything with open mind when Disney clearly 💩 on IP and want us to shut up and accept? Need better writers, not crybabies constantly asking us to just accept the bad writing.

Mandalorian S1 a S2 managed to get majority of fandom together, it CAN be done.

Well the media is most certainly to blame. They were the first to start disparaging the Prequels before RLM did it, and of course the issue I have with RLM's videos on the Prequels is that it's really from non-Star Wars fans, but the internet holds their opinion highly for some reason. That "child size helmet" 'critic' is a fine example that I can say: "tell me you never interacted with a child without telling me you never interacted with a child." Cause children even at ages of 9-10 do have larger heads compared to their body. But sure, lets take the opinion of a Star Trek fan and someone who also fails in understanding basic story concepts, sometimes with half thought out ideas that aren't really smart (seriously the describe a character without mentioning name, occupation, or attire is on par to public schools teaching of History and Math: it's really a memorization game). Seeing how "Star Wars fans" act in The People vs George Lucas will make any self respecting person regret ever calling themselves a Star Wars fan. You could say it's still a minority, but the fact many on the internet champion this sorry excuse for a documentary, it's no wonder why Star Wars fans have the reputation they do. And ironically these were the type of people the Media championed back then; now the Media attacks the monster it helped create cause they no longer have a use for them.

I don’t think Star Wars fans have particularly high expectations. Look at hard core fans of The Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Dune, heck even sports teams. We want quality. I also think the frustration compounds as more Star Wars projects disappoint fans. If it was rare that a movie flopped or felt like a cash grab, we would be more forgiving of Lucasfilm. But they keep missing the mark, have bad PR with fans, and just can’t consistently keep their act together.

The best course I could advise is letting Star Wars rest for 10-20 years to let the wounds heal, and then try again. But I can’t see that happening.

Not getting the original trilogy cast back together on screen is an unforgivable sin against not only Star Wars fans, but against all American cinema history. The brand is cooked. I almost didn’t click on the video because a sequel frame was the thumbnail. I’m just that disinterested in the sequels to the point where even discussing how awful they were isn’t fun anymore. It’d take a minor miracle at this point for Disney to rebuild the brand. That said, I’m starting to delve into the EU which I missed most of as a kid and I think that’s way more fun because to me it’s all new and there’s so much.

Iger and Kennedy. The master and the apprentice. Sure they have their acolytes running around, but it's ultimately because of their incompetence Star Wars is in such a horrible state.

Disney’s handling of Star Wars could not actually have been any worse.

Only a fan of pre-Disney at this point. I'll aways have Georges movies, the EU novels, and the Lucasarts games.

I don't think the Fandom is broken. Everyone (or at least the large majority) who kept star wars alive and well for decades is still here. The problem is the people making star wars HATE us and would rather drive us away than give us anything of quality. The idea that Star Wars fans can't be pleased is laughable when you see the glaring flaws in things like the Prequels and Clone Wars that are still almost universally beloved in the modern day, and that idea is just a coping mechanism for the shills and few genuine fans of Disney's schlock

I remember not having any new STAR WARS at all from 1984 to 1991, when Timothy Zahn's "Heir to the Empire" novel came out. I didn't think we would ever get any new STAR WARS movies. I thought STAR WARS was done, finished. And we would only be able to go back to watch the three movies that we had from 1977-1983. But it started ramping up again in 1996 all of the way to 2005, which was a kind of STAR WARS renaissance, and we were able to enjoy new STAR WARS again. But STAR WARS has always had its critics. When the first movie came out in 1977, not everyone liked it. When the 2nd movie came out in 1980, not everyone liked it. When the 3rd movie came out, well, hopefully you get the point. From 2015 to 2024 (now), we've had a decade of some hits but mostly misses. Not all of the novels and comics are hits. Many of those works are misses. STAR WARS is definitely not beyond repair. It can be resuscitated, but it needs to be resuscitated with a solid foundation. I believe that if this can be established with the people with the know-how of how to do it properly, then the fans will come back. But it has to be done correctly and with care.

I think many people are confusing the ideal with expectation. If you ask Star Wars fans what they want out of Star Wars, they may give an answer that's unrealistic to fulfill, but that answer will be the ideal Star Wars. That is the nature of ideals, they are unreasonable. Most will accept something far less than the ideal, heck, Force Awakens was far from ideal, but still accepted until The Last Jedi came. As such, I don't think fans have unreasonable expectations, it's just the Disney's Star Wars had unreasonable poor quality.

The problem isn't the fans not liking everything that comes out. The problem is blaming the fans and calling them pretty disgusting names for not liking it for valid reasons. It boggles my mind the fan base isn't unified in decrying Disney/Lucasfilm when they do this. Nobody likes being called something they are not - especially harsh labels like ist and phobe.

Hey Thor, do you think bringing back Lumiya would be way easier than Mara Jade. You could even take the character in the different direction of redemption because there isn't that much attachment to her outcome in the Legacy of the Force. The stories are kinda similar where it concerns Luke Skywalker, but there's no baggage of marriage. (So similar in fact I wonder if Zahn didn't ripoff Lumiya)

I don't think it is beyond repair but it's close to it. Disney/Lucasfilm has a limited amount of time to turn things around and I don't see any significant signs that they are turning things around.

Hey Thor, you should give DarthAngelus a shout out. His adaptation of the Thrawn Trilogy is amazing and he's just one episode away from finishing Heir to the Empire.

Lore is broken. Nothing matters in the star wars universe. It's ded.

As long as the sequels remain cannon, the fandom will never heal, and Star Wars will never be a cultural phenomenon again.

I share your sentiment here. Example: I never liked anime Rebels. But I didn’t hate - I just thought it either not for me, or not important cause it wasn’t mainstream. I had my CloneWars after all. Same was with 7th episode: I didn’t realy liked it. But it was alright and I was full with anticipation to 8th episode… And then things went down. After 9th episode I lost fate. I didn’t quit to love StarWars, though.

You're totally right, Thor. And I hope Star Wars does get that second chance to earn the fans back through good storytelling. But the narrative in the media has gotten a bit silly now. When a business starts blaming the customer for their own product's failure, there's no longer any reliable test for quality. Suddenly it's become a moral issue, with certain media outlets backing up the idea that people who don't like their product are somehow morally wrong. Imagine if they said the same thing about cars! "Anybody who refuses to buy the new Ford Bronco is clearly a degenerate, the worst of humanity..."

I will be honest. Like the poster Thor read out at the beginning, I too am checked out. The only joy I got recently from the franchise was watching ROTS (best SW film) in cinema as a rerelease. Watching Obi Wan vs Anakin on the big screen gave me such goose bumps and it was a treat. The franchise is completely damaged. It’s Death Star broken in ROTJ. It’s fragmented into different pieces and whatever Disney does, seems to breaks down the fandom further. You could retcon the sequels and cut all the filth added like the Acolyte and I still think it won’t win fans over. I don’t know what to do as a fan anymore. I may rewatch the six films, CW and some of Disney’s stuff like Andor and R1. However even watching all of this, in the back of my head, I’m aware of what this all leads up to, what happened to Luke in TLJ and just the contempt Disney and Lucasfilm holds for old fans like myself.

I’d say the Disney Star Wars fandom definitely is broken. But us oldheads ain’t going anywhere as much as KK has tried.

RIP Star Wars, with Lucas gone it will never be the same.

The Star Wars Fandom was largely pleased with The Force Awakens even though it was a remake and not that great. They were also largely pleased with Rogue One and season 1 and 2 of Mandolorian. So don't give me this nonsense about how hard Star Wars fans are to please. It's not our fault that the corporate drones at Disney don't get the franchise and thought they could slap the Star Wars brand on any tripe and suckers would lap it up.

After years of watching the fanbase and their views on all things Star Wars I’ve concluded what is actually hurting the fanbase… nostalgia. Every era of Star Wars has been hated on by the generation that grew up/loved the previous era. Just look at the prequels as a fine example, hated a bashed for years (even to the point it was controversial to even praise them) are now more beloved by some than the OT. It doesn’t always go with positivity though, as TCW have gone from the greatest work outside of the OT to a disgrace that blundered the lore in the EU (even some calling it pre Disney Disney). Speaking of EU fans, a lot seem to be unable to accept anything from the new era, including the good stuff like Andor, just because it ‘replaced' their lore. I know this may not be the best section on this platform to document this viewpoint, and I agree that Disney have done a huge gap in the fanbase through social media (or at least those who work there, as we can’t state they were tasked to do this), but that doesn’t mean it can’t come from both ways. I love Star Wars, I truly do, but never forget that this fandom once managed to produce "The people against George Lucas", the same director trying to campaign a funeral as if nothing happened.

Hey Thor. Thank you for your balanced takes. We just want quality Star Wars nothing more nothing less

Star Wars fandom wants quality. They got quality before Disney erased old EU and created their own.

I went to a convention today and a new fan was worried she was going to be assaulted by "gatekeepers" and I tried to reassure her that most people are glad to see new fans interested in a things they like. You just don't want to go in swinging and bash stuff you haven't read or call people sexist without good cause.

I don't remember OT fans hating PT fans and vice versa. Not like it is now. Disney encouraged fans being abusive toward one another, and while I'm no lawyer there ought to be a case for a class action suit there.

I think the fans are fine. Starwars is broken. Not the fans fault that Disney has been actively antagonistic to the fanbase for literally years now. The constant crying over Starwars is definitely annoying, but Disney caused it

I was talking to my brother just yesterday and we kind of wonder if anything is going to right the ship without burying it and starting over faithful to the heart of the mythology that captured the widest audience.

I’m done with Disney and Lucasfilm for now. I understand that not every project will be a banger. But it feels like at first Lucasfilm didn’t care about the fans and now they hate them. That to me is an intolerable way to run a business. I stopped following every RU-vidr that was on board with the “ackolyte haters are racist”, witch (😉) Marvel seems to be doing with Agatha, and that seals the deal with me for now. Since the deal with Verizon is ending I’ll be cancelling my Disney + account. I have my physical media and books of George Lucas and EU Star Wars and unless you (Thor and Naboo) give a good review of something I won’t be taking in the content any further. Thanks for the video and your thoughts. I’ll still be watching you because I’ve grown to enjoy you and Naboo’s personalities. Here’s to Lucasfilm getting their heads out of their butts someday! 🥃

Hey Thor, nothing is ever broken beyond repair. If they put out a string of quality shows, movies and games people will consume it and look forward to more. As far as whose fault it was. It's partly quality and partly people caught up in the culture war nonsense. Some people turned on Disney for reasons other than the quality of the content.

Hey Thor, how would you feel if Disney jumped far ahead on the Star Wars timeline (maybe a thousand years or two) and just made a new time period their own? Personally I think it would be the best direction Disney could take for Star Wars right now. As you talked about here Disney has mostly done a solid or good job when they've done things that don't involve legacy characters. And putting some distance between all the Legacy characters and the drama with the Sequels and High Republic could at the very least put people at easy that they aren't going to ruin anything

Discussing about Star Wars, „theorizing“ about details was and is INTEGRAL part of the fandom. Being critical and dissecting everything. Since the beginning. Disney abused it.

Hey Thor... I appreciate you tending to my comment. I'm happy to have heard your thoughts. Excellent vid.

Fans are fans Star Wars changed way off in a different direction. Is any sport broken because the different teams fans are rivals? the difference is that the sport is playing by the same rules and you don't have baseball change the rules and decide to use hockey sticks or switch to a football a few people might like this but you will loss a lot of fans and get a lot of complaints. Take a hard look at sports played by women there are fans but not enough to support them properly.

Thanks thor, you calm me today.

Kinda unrelated, but I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Kenobi series should have been a movie about Obi-Wan coming to terms with his trauma and deepening his connection to the Force. It could show him as both depressed and a reluctant hero, struggling not to draw any attention to Luke. If we need to have a Kenobi vs. Vader fight, we could have Obi-Wan discover a Force Well somewhere in the desert-similar to the big tree on Dagobah-and symbolically confront Vader whilst not breaking canon. If that feels too simplistic for a movie, it could take inspiration from 'Werewolf by Night' in the MCU, presenting an hour-long "short" that showcases a more mature and contemplative side of Star Wars that the franchise deserves.

That's like calling Tarzan a legacy character in a Tarzan movie, and having introduced "Jungle Girl" as an attempt to replace him in the franchise by have her show him up by making him inept at the simplest skills to survive in the jungle.

It’s not like Disney has made bad Star Wars products since they bought it. Fans are holding them accountable for the bad product

Kylo Ren (The Last Jedi): Your parents were nothing Kylo Ren(The Rise of Skywalker): Actually, you're the granddaughter of the Galactic Emperor The fans expectations aren't too high, at this point just tell a decent story!

Star Wars without the modern politics, agendas, self-inserts, and attacking the customers--would make better Star Wars. Pretty much as soon as the first interview of the show is about representation, and nothing actually about the show, we all know what time it is.

I went to my first Star Wars celebration in Orlando 2017. What I enjoyed most was talking to other Star Wars fans from all over the world about Star Wars. Well that same Celebration was where TLJ Trailer premiered. I was among the first to see it, and the hype was through the roof. Star Wars was seemingly back on top. Well a few short months later after the release of the TLJ. The fandom started to change. It was harder to find those good conversations amongst fans. You either loved TLJ or hated it. I wasn’t a fan of it. But I didn’t go around bashing anyone who did. Flash forward to today after the launch of Disney Plus. With a series of hits and misses. The fandom fracture has only widened. Question is did the Acolyte give the fandom the full compound fracture? After the show’s cancellation. The fandoms divisiveness has reached the levels of TLJ. I get the shows budget issues and viewership were a big reason for the cancellation. With both sides of the fandom placing blame on the other for the show’s failure. I didn’t think it was the greatest SW show ever. But I thought it set up some good storylines that I wanted to see play out in live action. It’s just sad and disappointing that a franchise that I’ve loved for almost 50 years can’t get it right. Before the release of TLJ and Disney plus. Fans thought this will be the greatest time to be a Star Wars fan. Now that we’re here it’s been a nightmare. No matter what side of the fandom you fall on.

Star wars is absolutely dead; there's no doubt about it. The sequels sliced the fandom in half, and the tv shows obliterated the remaining pockets. Star wars went from a single contained thing, to this weird hybrid, a mixture of themes and flavors. The thing is, you aren't winning those fans back, and once they are gone, they are gone. Doing Luke dirty was a completely unforgivable act, and it is one that the majority of fans can never forget. No matter what Disney does in the future, the character of Luke is ruined, and this will be a sore spot that the fans will never be able to get over. Most stories are flexible enough to have lots of things evolve and change, but there are some core features that you just can't change without destroying the story, you can ruin a story by making a bad decision. Disney didn't just make one story destroying decision, they made 30 or 40 IP destroying story choices. The worst thing is, the only real way to fix things is to just wipe out everything Disney did. Yes it will upset a few fans, but way more fans will be happy than sad.

Have better writing and all would be cured, it's really that simple

if they had put the sequels in an alternative timeline a couple of years ago, it would be an easy enough fix. but after screwing up Mando s3, and really really really screwing up Kenobi, and then releasing the Acolyte they are making it very very difficult now even if they did ditch the sequels. -Ditch the sequels, first and foremost -Make animated series with the OT characters in its place, with the level of quality of Siege of Mandalore -a Boba Fett series set before Empire Strikes Back -a couple of Doctor Aphra movies, like Indiana Jones in ST -AND an Old Republic Trilogy on an epic scale like the Dune movies That is all doable and would be fantastic.

Lucasfilm is to blame for splintering the fandom and weakening the IP with its poorly received, brand inconsistent content. If Apple's products, for example, weren't brand consistent, its diehard fanbase and routine customers would be fractured. The best brands on the planet focus on meeting and exceeding their customers expectations, not subverting them. Walk into Target or Walmart, go to the toy department, what's missing? Star Wars. LEGO Star Wars doesn't count as that's LEGO being brand consistent. I'm talking about the missing Star Wars isle. There used to be an entire isle dedicated to the films, decades after they came out. You'd think, with a Disney added Trilogy, two Star Wars Story films and a handful of Disney+ series, there would be greater interest, yet, there's not. So, again, who is to blame? Not the fans! Is it broken? Yes! Beyond repair? Not yet!

Why should we be pleased When Disneyfilm is continuously churning out turds?

Under current leadership, yes. Among all the insults, lore changes and messaging there’s the problem of not nurturing their fandom. They picked sides and there’s always division in fandoms. When creators pick sides it fuels whatever division and fans the flames. They pick a side to support and insult the rest. They call that engagement but it’s not. That doesn’t create a great place to be within a fandom.

Im excited for Andor S2. I look forward to it. I loved the first season. All it took was high-quality storytelling to get me excited again for something in the universe. It's not a science. If you have a story to tell and tell it well, adding to the rich legacy of the universe, it gets me excited. I actually like the idea behind the Mandolorian as well, but I felt it sort of lose the charm of a wandering bounty hunter finding his way through the universe. Boba could have adopted the mantle, but they made him settle down. And then warped his character to suit it. It's just these weird changes. If they had a compelling motivation to explain why he did what he did in his own show, it appreciate the depth given. For me, it's these odd creative choices that seem to miss the point of the character. Andor worked Cassian back to setup a framework for his Rogue One self and did it well. It didnt try making him something he wasn't.

The way you can please me is either: A: Undo the sequels somehow, possibly by doing numbered episodes that take their place or something B: set something so far into the future that the ST doesn't at all matter and focus on actually writing meaningful, fun and creative stories, not just copying everything everyone else is doing at the same time as you. C: Make Empire At War 2, and have it be a greater scope RTS than the previous with no silly MTX, over-monetization or always online bullshit. It's not my fault that the powers that be REFUSE to do this.

No… when Darth Kennedy leaves and if there’s a clear vision going forward and it has to be exceptional… people will return. They need to build up “good faith” by adapting the old EU in to animated features… outsource that to Manga. And honour George by bringing his treatments for episodes 7-9. Maybe do his Underworld TV show. And Throw KK’s Shite in the vaults never to see the light of day ever again.

We're all to blame.

I dont think even a 10% of fans would get picky over a fan project with bad quality Over a FAN project. Not a big comany's with the rights

Fandom that will never be please? It can be pleased. Even Disney achieved it with Rogue 1 and Mando seasons 1 and 2. What he means to say is the overwhelming majority of Disney Star Wars is DOG SHIT and it has nothing to do with fan expectations. IMO, Star Wars fans have low expectations to begin with; that's how bad Disney Star Wars is on the whole. It can't even meat the fandom's low expectations.

Hello Thor! Love your videos and discussions. IMO The issue with Star Wars and the fandom these days is that they made Luke/Solo/Leia dirty. The fandom broke with TLJ and will probably never recover from that. Luke and his team needs a Picard S3 moment, but Disney now can't and won't do it anyway because we lost unfortunately Carri. Luke was so influential to so many people in the 80s (I'm one of them).

The corporate greed and talentless hacks, that's what it is at the moment. Maybe in a distant future the SW license might be found in the discount bin of some underground parlour and that person might remember a time when it was a cultural phenomenon, then be like wth i remember this.

I do agree. It's not beyond repair but it's going to take a lot of work, if they can even do it, to get Star Wars anywhere near where it used to be.

i'm not broken and disney could never ruin star wars for me, nor could fans spewing anything negative. much love to you y'all, and may the force be with you.... always.

Hey Thor, I agree with what you said about an alternate timeline, but I can only see it working in the short term. Disney, being a corporate company with apparently little knowledge of actual storytelling anymore, would get the wrong lesson from their more creative projects failing, and only focus on the Skywalker Saga and legacy characters. Sure, in this alternate timeline, they would get those characters right, but after decades of the same characters and timeline with very little new characters, Star Wars would get stale and people would still get upset with Disney, and they would probably be in a similar, though still much better, situation. If Disney got the legacy characters right, but creativity wrong, they would stop being creative, and that is probably the worst thing a storyteller can do. Anyways, I would like the hear your thoughts on this. I think this ties into your previous two videos and is an interesting idea to look at, that however Disney handles Star Wars, they will fail and mess up in the long run because they care more about money that good stories and the fans.

“This will begin to make things right” *everything goes to shit*

They had a formula for success. They didn't use it. Star Wars was not a great selling brand, it was an idea. Starting with Rian Johnson, Disney left that 'idea' behind. Occasionally Gilroy or Favreau hit the mark but too often they chased a different idea. Sometimes they just didn't do a very good job. Kathleen Kennedy has been in the big chair for it just as Lucas once was. The number of 'creative differences' that have occurred and led to the departure of various people has to fall on her. She's not that good at what she has been doing. It seems clear to me she wanted to use Star Wars to send a different message than Lucas did and it has cost Disney a lot of money and Star Wars a lot of fans.

Honestly it just takes okay core stories and respecting your fans. I don't know why so many people actually making these things don't seem to understand that. If the base narrative is good you appease the casual fans and get the love of your core audience. If you maintain even a moderate level of quality in the main narrative I suspect that a good portion of the core audience still gives basically any side content a fair chance. The core audience would retain the base they love and could easily disregard bad side products. Disney fundamentally lost a large portion of their core audience by damaging their base narrative. Then they make terrible side content. Instead of accepting that they damaged their base and make bad side-content, instead of telling their core audience that they understand the frustration, they attack the core fans that keep a franchise alive. Disney bought star wars for the fanbase it already had. They didn't buy it because they care about the story. Instead of maintaining their investment by making things for the fans the story *had* lucasfilm has decided to make things for the audience they *want*. The audience they *want* either doesn't care or outright doesn't exist. Whatever the case, they have poisoned so much good will. I think it takes more than Kennedy leaving. I think they will win back some people, but not enough. They need to make a definitive statement. "We made poor decisions. We failed to meet the standard we set for ourselves. We have damaged the fanbase. We put our good intentions ahead of ensuring we maintain the quality a franchise as impactful as StarWars deserves. Rather than understanding that some fans were dissatisfied by what we have made we have too frequently attacked the people who have kept this franchise alive for so many years. We will be taking a step back. New projects will be put on hold as we reassess the stories we have and will continue to tell. In the future we will ensure that the best of intentions are never put forward at the cost of the quality the fans expect from us. In the future, when we return to the galaxy far far away, we hope that you will give us another chance. StarWars has shown us that there is always a chance for redemption as long as we are willing to fight for it. That is what we hope to do." And whatever project comes first after that break needs to be in the top 10 stories ever told in either canon or legends.

You misread the issue, Thor. James Bond is a franchise. There were good Bond movies and bad Bond movies. Except at the end, the writers and directors accepted that their movies did not always land. That was a WRITING AND DIRECTING FAILURE. Disney took the wrong page from Sony GB16 and decided to blame the fans for their own writing and directing failures and made their messaging explicit. They made their current films a litmus test for 'do you belong to SW?' As if they had that moral pedestal or right. But this might be a bit too direct for you to admit. Fans don't like to be blamed for failing to adhere to ideology in their entertainment. The writers and directors poked a bear and are now bemoaning the bear as they enjoy the ambulance ride, instead of owning their action. Lesbian Space Witches...done offensively AND poorly. Who wants that?

No I do not have high or un reasionable expectations for something I love. And any “fan” or person who thinks or says that is the toxic problem any and all fans do not need.

Everything made past ROTS doesn’t exist in my mind. I’ve been checked out since TLJ.

Like the computer Joshua from War Games, the only way to win is not to play. Since just giving up on Disney and especially Star Wars, I’m no longer disappointed and annoyed. I regret holding out hope as long as I did. SW is dead and telling a good story is not on their agenda. No reason for fans to be called toxic of an istaphobe of any kind.

Nah, expecting quality from something they want us to pay for is never asking for too much. F that notion. There's plenty of good entertainment made like every second out there. You know how many hours of content gets posted on RU-vid every minute? If you look hard enough, you can find good content on TikTok, too. Twitch is a bit different since they don't exactly just post VODs, right? But still. And all this is FREE. Not to mention the movies and tv shows made all the time, that you DO have to pay for (or pirate lmao). There's new stuff maybe not daily, but at least a few times a month. And that's all without counting video games, board games, card games, books... even sports. Nah, anyone who thinks it's asking too much to be like, "If you make something good, maybe I give YOU my money instead of these MILLION other options." is insane or stupid. I don't want to be rude, necessarily... but c'mon.

You gotta let it rest and heal. Time will tell what part of it will remain and what will be forgotten.

Look at the growth of other properties that once lived in Star Wars shadow in terms of cultural impact. 40K, and Dune are both far, far more relevant than what Star Wars is now, and have begun to eclipse it.

Fix is easy. I’d be willing to bet most watched Disney+ bit of SW content they’ve made is Lukes cameo Mando season 2. making fan base happy is actually easy… Movie where Luke is a powerful Jedi building his Jedi order, have Han and Leia briefly appear so we can have them all togeather. I was happy with Mandalorian right up until they started linking it to the sequels, they need to produce content where it means fans can pretend the sequels don’t exist if thats what they want rather than stuffing crap down ur throats.

Even with KK done and gone the direction of the storytelling in the franchise won’t change that much. That is the main issue. It’s not a one person problem

I know a lot of people say "you cant just erase things from canon" but the truth js, lucasfilm have decanonized their property for years. The entire EU, every novel, comic book, video game, the holliday special... star wars has decanonized plenty of lore/products in the past and deleted things people have bought and consumed. Whats one more star wars product to cast in the fire? At least this time its for consumer reasons rather than creative decisions

Its less about quality, and more about messages and lack of passion