Woke Wars

Their right-wing mind does not understand metaphors to reality so they don't see it

Right wing star wars fans probably love the empire and wish they were darth vader. Just because they like a piece of media doesn't mean that theyre interpreting it the way it was intended or the same way you are.
- They love the Punisher, but perverted the purpose of the fictional hero
- It’s also why they love the old Disney shit so much. Because in many of the old movies it’s the aristocracy who are being portrait as the good guys and who defend the peace from turning into anarchy.
  
  Maybe we're not thinking of the same movies, but when I think of old Disney I don't see that pattern:
  Snow White: an orphan girl, bullied by her step mom, flees into the woods to live with dwarfs, then becomes a princess because she's pretty.
  Pinocchio: wooden puppet is given life by a fairy to reward its craftsman for being a good person.
  Fantasia: artistic vignettes
  Bambi: life of a deer.
  Cinderella: an orphan girl, bullied by her stepmom, becomes a princess because she's pretty, with the help of a fairy who rewards her for being a good person.
  To me it seems like the good guys are mostly attractive youths with a strong work ethic and no parents.
- Alex Jones does exactly this. He’ll start talking about Star Wars, but it almost always turns into him doing a Vader voice saying he’s going to kill all the “globalists”. It’s a sight to behold, lemme tell ya.
  
  It is like when Trump talks about Hannibal Lecter as his friend and a great guy.
- Which is why the Prequels were the worst thing ever. It made kids think Anakin Skywalker was a good guy and it's the Jedi Council's fault they didn't give him the respect he deserved because he was strong and powerful. Dude was a creepy weirdo when talking to Padme, told her fascism was cool, massacred a village, but because he's so powerful and awesome, Padme (a Senator) instantly becomes a trad wife.
  Then came a bunch of cartoons showing how awesome this guy is (biggest Mary Sue ever) while making it seem like being a storm trooper would be a cool and honourable thing. And now we've got a bunch of video games that showcase how awesome and bad ass Darth Vader is.
  It's not like a pro-fascist interpretation of the Prequels comes out of nowhere. An adult watching those movies sees these things and dsimiss it as George Lucas phoning it in while making those movies because he only cared about toy sales. But it's easy to see how a kid watching these movies would identify with Anakin Skywalker and be influenced towards having fascist tendencies.
  Also The Last Jedi is the most misogynistic movie in the franchise if you ignore the marketing and think about how a child would interpret it. But that's a story for another time.

Remember when Eric Trump compared the Democrats to the Resistance and thought that was a burn?
- Strange how the felons kids have stayed real quiet in the last few months...
- I always mix up Eric and trump jr. I think trump Jr is the one that has been engaged to Ms Kimberly guillofoyle for the last 6 ulyrar

Media illiteracy is part of the reason they are right wing in the first place. They do not make those connections.
- Also see: every conservative Trek fan
  
  Their brains should be studied for science. How are they not crushed under the weight of their own contradiction?

Three possibilities:
No they don't.
They kinda do see some vague similarities (there is a prison) if they squint but it's different because reasons.
They do but they think it's woke garbage anyway.
- There is no such thing as a "right wing" Star Wars fan.
  They cried when Palpatine died.
  
  I'm sorry to inform you that there are right-wing Star Wars fans. Just as there are right wing whovians and trekkies and bronies. No it doesn't make sense but there it is.
  
  Bro, Paul Ryan likes Rage Against the Machine. I don't even know if sarcasm exists anymore.
  It wouldn't surprise me if a Nazi likes Inglorious Bastards.
  
  Unfortunately, yes there’s rightwing Star Wars fans. The GOP even made a video photoshopping DNC leaders at the imperial generals meeting on the Death Star and making Nancy Pelosi the person behind Darth Vader’s mask. They claim the Democrats are the evil empire and that republicans are the rebels.
  
  They root for the Empire.
  
  Perhaps they do exist, and the Star Wars right wing fans are right and think mega prisons are ok because it’s “only for criminals of course”, and they also rejoiced when the trade routes were taxed.
  
  What did they do when he, somehow, returned?
  
  It was a beautiful moment though.
- Until Andor, Star Wars had paper-thin worldbuilding that let right-wingers see themselves as the Rebels.
  Luke is a rural white boy who learns the true religion, which is being suppressed by the government. He uses his religious beliefs and skills honed as a farmboy to fight back. Han Solo is a businessman who just wants to make money moving goods from A to B, but the government keeps interfering, trying to destroy his business (and his personal property).
  What are the rebels fighting for? Basically it seems to be about personal liberty and the right to practice their religion. If there's any ideology beyond that, the movies don't really get into it.
  In most of the series, the empire is literally faceless. The storm troopers have full body armour that covers everything up. The Tie Fighter pilots have full helmets that cover their faces. The only people with faces you see on the empire's side are the generals and the emperor. That makes it really easy to have the empire represent anything you want.
  Part of what makes Andor such a great series is that it puts faces to a lot of the mid-level people in the empire. You see their backstabbing, their jockeying for position, striving for promotion. It really shows what kinds of people work for the empire, and what the values of the normal people are, and why they might want to join the rebels instead.
  
  That makes it really easy to have the empire represent anything you want.
  Isn't that kind of the point? When you make villains too specific then it's easy to differentiate the villains in a movie from the evil in real life. Donald Trump doesn't resemble the villain from the movie so therefore I can hate the villain from the movie while still liking Donald Trump because they're not the same person. The evil that happens in the movie is because of that particular bad guy, now that bad guy is dead and it's all wrapped up in a nice little bow.
  When a movie is about archetypes it's a little more difficult to ignore the ideas. The Rebellion is a diverse group of people, even a fish guy can be an admiral. A little green weirdo could be the powerful Jedi. The imperials are not all that diverse, are they? It's harder to rationalize that you're on the good guy side because that means taking orders from Admiral Ackbar which is contradictory to your political views which would be about wanting Ackbar fired because he must be a DEI hire.
  Also Lando making a deal with fascists and constantly getting screwed over because fascists don't give a shit about doing as they promised seems a little relevant now. Lando was fine with some random guy called "Luke Skywalker" getting screwed over as long as he and his friends came out ok. Seems a lot like people voting for Trump knowing immigrants would get screwed but that's fine because they would come out alright. There's a lot of Landos on Wall Street right now. Trump altered the deal, pray he doesn't alter it further.
  The ones made by JJ Abrams are really great about showing all of the reasons for people getting sucked into fascist movements... indoctrination (Finn), wanting to eliminate freedom to have order (Hux), bad relationship with their father (Kylo Ren), nostalgia for past greatness (Pryde), and ancestry (Rey). With Hux we even get to see how fascists are really just spiteful assholes that don't actually believe in anything, they just want power.
  With Rey we see hesitation about being part of the movement against fascism because of her ancestry. Maybe she's unworthy because of her ancestry? Nah that's bullshit, you don't need to identify with the shitty people in history because they're your ancestors, it's up to you how you identify yourself. The repeated message of "they [fascists] make us feel like we're alone" seems particularly relevant given how social media divides us now.
  And Palpatine... yeah fascism has come back to life again even though it's been defeated before. But ok, I guess we gotta do this shit again. People get all butt hurt they didn't explain the details of how Palpatine came back, but that's the point. Fascism comes back and you gotta oppose it when it does. Somehow fascism returned, and it doesn't matter how, because we have to oppose it no matter what. And if you really want to know how fascism returned, just look at the motivations of the fascist characters in the movies.
  
  Oh shi-
  This makes so much sense. It's like a glimpse into some form of enlightenment that I don't want to experience.
  Have some Lemmy Gold.
- They think the Empire are the good guys

“Right-wing Star Wars fans” in for a rude awakening when they figure out who the Empire represents.
jfc
- I wonder if they just haven't discovered 40k yet.
  
  I had a former coworker who was a hardcore Trump-publican and also really into Warhammer 40k, Star Trek, and to a lesser degree Star Wars, and at least once a week would play Pink Floyd’s “Animals” and “The Wall”. That media illiteracy hits hard.
- or "right wing star trek fans"

The dismissiveness is intense, no matter the fan base.
“I can’t watch Star Trek any more because it’s woke.”
Star Trek is the original, ultimate woke TV. Since the original series, they’ve always incorporated the “woke” of their times, starting with the casting of Uhura. The cast of Roots is sprinkled throughout, which includes Avery Brooks and Lavar Burton. They didn’t quite make it with a female second in command, she ended up as Nurse Chapel instead. Even so, Star Trek TOS is pretty woke for the times.
I can’t imagine blinders aren’t worn regarding the Empire as well. Granted, this comes from recognizing authoritarianism for what it is.
- I THINK ITS specifically nutrek that broke thier minds, when they started to force all female leads, a bonus of lgbtq+ people. and not because the nutrek series were terrible compared to the Og ones.

I poked my fan into the Star Wars Reddit fandom once, and it seemed like they hate Andor?
I was honestly baffled at the time. I’m not a huge fan, but it’s like the best Star Wars thing I’ve ever seen (with the runner up being kotor II)
- Honestly only ranks below the original trilogy for me. It's really fantastic on all levels.
  
  To me, the original trilogy is… ok.
  That’s probably why I’m not in the Star Wars fandom, heh.
  Still, Andor felt so fundamental, quintessential Star Wars.
- Leftist and I honestly think it's one of the most embarrassing pieces of Star Wars media to ever exist
  Edit: If I called the Heist arc mid, that would be giving it more praise than it deserves. You can't change my mind.
  
  Would you care to elaborate on why that is? I would say it's easily the best piece of star wars media to come out since Disney took over, and arguably prior to that. It doesn't get overly bogged down in trying to reference or shoehorn in references to other star wars characters like parts of The Mandalorian or the sequel trilogy and it tells a compelling and emotional narrative about the path one man takes to become a dedicated member of the resistance

They won't believe anything that does not match their world-view. If you say the guy is innocent, they just say Fox news told them he was in a gang, and they treat that as a fact.
There is no way to get to these people, unless the GOP inflicts personal pain on them, and even then...loyalty and "purity" is everything to them.
EDIT: I'm having an existential crisis. I'm not sure I'm so dumb when I look at these people.

Actually (not so) funny story.. I had a neo-nazi kid in my class growing up.. like wear a nazi arm band to school level, and he was a massive star wars nerd. He actually liked the empire tho, so.. he'd be fully on board with this representation
- I overheard two kids talking about how much they liked American History X in the late 90’s… they loved the curb stomping scene and how “badass” Derek was. Safe to assume they missed the point.
- Amazing that the school didn't do anything. Curious as to which era of Star Wars this was? Early, Prequels, later?
  
  Well the school was quite limited in what the could do as long as no teacher saw him displaying the symbols directly, so.. basically only show it to people when the teacher leaves the room, or during breaks etc.
  In terms of eras, im not sure? Im not a star wars fan myself.. this was like 2018-2021, so im imagining everything up to then.. I know he talked about yoda quite a bit, if he was in a specific era only that may help narrow down his favourite

The Force AWOKEens

Yeah no shit. Everyone's friggin asleep. Nobody realizes what they see is not some master plan or 4d chess. It's consolidation of power for something very different than a democracy. A battle with the tech billionares afraid of death and a morally rotten to the core chewy center authoritarian up your heiney.

OTOH, look at all the Stormtrooper cosplayers, who actually have formal legions and get into character about defending the Empire the way Good Germans would about the Third Reich.
One problem with Star Wars is that it makes fascism look cool to enough of the public that the next generation of real-world Nazis approvingly quotes it. (Compare this with Doctor Who, whose in-universe fascists, the Daleks, are kind of pathetic and not something anyone would emulate.)
- The downside of the Daleks being kind of weird-looking is that people don't recognise them as fascists and so fascists happily keep watching Doctor Who (even though they hate everything about it and will write books about why it's being cancelled any day now).
  It's no use depicting fascists in popular media, they don't recognise themselves in the villain.
  
  they have been calling dr who woke since 2020, especially the most recent series with a LGBTQ+ doctor, and one of the villians is a drag person, it has gotten thier panties all up in a bunch.
- The 501st legion, which is the biggest of these groups, was founded in 1997 so it predates the release of the prequels. If you're into building things, the stormtrooper armor is a lot more interesting than most of what is a available on the rebel side.
  The 501st is all about Star Wars fans who like making costumes working to get others into Star Wars and giving back to the community.
  I'm going to directly quote Wikipedia here:
  Giving back to the community is one of the 501st Legion's highest priorities. Because of this, the 501st Legion proudly refers to themselves as the "Bad Guys Doing Good". Members regularly participate in events to raise awareness for charitable causes, from walk-a-thons to blood drives, and provide opportunities for fundraising through events such as their "Blast-A-Trooper" game, where donations are collected from the public to target armored characters with Nerf blasters.
  In September 2016, the 501st Legion announced their commitment to a first-of-its kind international endowment in a unique partnership with Make-A-Wish. The 501st Legion Make-A-Wish Endowment Fund will allow Make-A-Wish America and Make-A-Wish International to grant more Star Wars-related wishes to children diagnosed with life-threatening medical conditions. The endowment fund allows Make-A-Wish to grant wishes, alternating between the United States and international locations every other year – a first for an endowment of this kind. The Endowment relies on contributions from its members, as well as the public. With a goal of $150,000 in the fund by 2021, the Endowment fund will grant wishes from the interest accrued; as the fund continues to grow, so will the number of wishes granted by the endowment.
  The 501st Legion never charges a fee for an appearance, but they do welcome donations to a charity in honor of the Legion or the local Legion unit. If an event host does not have a charity of choice, Legion members frequently direct the donations to the Endowment Fund. In cases where the event host is itself a charitable organization, a donation is usually not accepted by the 501st Legion as they volunteer their time for that charitable organization.
  In 2016, the members of the 501st donated over 182,000 hours of community service, raising over $889,000 USD in direct donations, and participated in events that helped raise over $46 million for charities worldwide

Pffft. Law&Order types love Robin Hood stories for their kids.
It fits in with the 'it's okay to break the law when we do it' mindset.

Not the ones that thought The Boys superheroes were the good guys.
- The protesters who LARPed being Homelander arresting Biden is just... ugh..

In andor the empire didn’t propaganda Photo of him with margaritas to appease the boot lickers

Um, but... isn't this the guy who murdered several guards and robbed star wars fort knox though.
Like, maybe killing cops and stealing from the government isn't the most heinous crime, but he's hardly wrongly accused. I'll concede that they pegged him by accident and for different reasons -- but if anything, the moral is "arrest enough people at random and you'll get the real criminals too."
- Um, but… isn’t this the guy who murdered several guards and robbed star wars fort knox though.
  What are you talking about? He's just a tourist!
- That was part of the irony of the show. He did the crime, he got away with it, then he was falsely accused of another crime and thrown in prison. The people who were hunting him were pretty frustrated because they couldn't find him, and they couldn't find him because he was in prison under an alias.
  He was wrongly accused of the crime that sent him to prison. He did commit the other crimes, killing the 2 guards and robbing Star Fort Knox, but they never caught him for those crimes.
  
  That's why I said this:
  if anything, the moral is “arrest enough people at random and you’ll get the real criminals too.”