Restless.

[matt_zimmer]

So let me offer a Jar-Jar Binks opinion.

Ahmed Best has shared that the Jar-Jar backlash was so cruel and severe that he seriously considered suicide. I feel bad he felt that way. But to be honest, he was looking at the backlash all wrong.

Were I in Best's shoes, my reply to people giving me shit for Jar-Jar in airports would be to say, "Dummy! Jar-Jar was SUPPOSED to be annoying! And I made him the single most annoying character in screen history! Where's my fucking Oscar?!"

Best reacted with shame, which is understandable considering the fandom of Star Wars turning utterly toxic was still in its infancy. But if he had owned the fact that Jar-Jar was SO fucking memorable he got under EVERYONE'S skin, I would love to hear the assholes' response to that.

Because there isn't one. Best killed it in the role. Just the fact that I loathe that character so much means Best did EVERYTHING right.

Comments

[jasperhansen]

This is a golden, distinctly Matt Zimmery take. I dig it.

[matt_zimmer]

I've offered it before, but probably not on my journal. But yeah, if somebody wants to tell me Gilda And Meek is the shittiest comic they've ever read, my response will be, "See that? I just made you FEEL something. You're welcome."

[jasperhansen]

You've shared it here before, but it's cool to see it again. And I totally feel that point about Gilda and Meek. Making people uncomfortable for the sake of true, healthy art like that is a necessary indulgence.

[matt_zimmer]

It's not my favorite reaction, but I'll take it over a yawn.

[jasonderoga86]

The backlash to Ahmed Best's portrayal of Jar-Jar is a prime example of franchise fandom taking an immature, venomous shot at an actor in said famous franchise. It reminds me of how veteran Spider-Man writer Dan Slott was hammered with death threats over his work on the Superior Spider-Man series, solely because the fans thought Otto Octavius' mind in Peter Parker's body made Parker look out of character, become an all-seeing Spider-Man with his new camera mini-spiders, and develop an disturbing promiscuity towards Mary Jane. Yeah - a new story arc in the Spider-Man series pissed fans off THAT much that they sent death threats and doxxing threats towards Slott, so much that the police literally had to get involved. And then of course, there was Comicsgate, which was really an anti-diversity crusade against publishers and comic book shops; my friend the editor-in-chief at Alterna Comics became a near-casualty of this extremist campaign when he was swatted in 2019. He's still traumatized about it to an extent, and I will never forgive the right-wing hacks behind that deliberate attack.

If people are uncomfortable about the portrayal of a cherished pop culture character, or about how one person supposedly "ruined" a famous franchise, then all they need to do is stay the hell away from such things. Focus on the non-ruined aspects of the franchise. There's no need for them to go rabid and literally bully a person to suicidal ideation as "payback" for their supposed defamation of a pop culture icon -- it won't "save" a franchise nor will it provide any kind of closure to either party. In this case, at the risk of sounding cliche, hatred on this level leads to suffering to both parties -- no one wins in that scenario. Some people out there simply just suck, and are so full of shit that attacking others feels powerful... but only for a fleeting moment, because then they need to find something or someone else to hate. Hell of a way to live one's life.

[matt_zimmer]

If a creator dips into a long-running franchise, and they fuck things up, believe it or not, that's their prerogative. Believe it or not, fans are NOT owed great entertainment. Some of it's gonna suck. And fans have NO say when it does. Some interpretations are gonna be bad. That's how it works. Fans are so goddam spoiled. And nothing says that more than death threats over a writer writing a shitty comic book.

For me growing up, most entertainment was bad. The joy was finding the rare pieces of it that didn't suck. Diamonds in the rough. Rare pieces of joy to find a movie or TV show back in the 1980's and 90's that spoke to me. Going through entertainment and sifting out the good and the bad is part of the experience. Spoiled fans are so ignorant, they don't even understand that's how it's supposed to work. They believe they are automatically entitled to perfect entertainment.

Do you know the messed up thing? I can't think of a single creator who has ever publicly tried to disabuse them of this fucked up notion. Toxic fans have the power in genre they do because creators LET them have that power. How messed up is that?