I have been a SW fan since I saw A New Hope at a drive-in theater on opening weekend in 1977 when I was 4 years old. And until very recently the Empire was always portrayed as space Nazis. And as SW fans we?re all fully aware, the Empire only had white men, with (mostly) English accents, which portrays them as racist, sexist, xenophobes. All of that does an excellent job of teaching the audience that the Empire is evil.
Fast forward to the Mandalorian. We see Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon, which makes no sense, regardless of how good an actor he is, he is miscast as an Imperial Officer. It?s like seeing a Jewish officer in the Nazi military, or a black woman as a leader in the KKK. It?s just inconceivable and makes you scratch your head and do a double-take. What?s next, will there be aliens and females in the Empire next? It just makes the empire appear kinder and gentler, and thus less evil. It?s clearly retconning SW, and I don?t like it. I enjoyed seeing Carl Weathers as the leader of a bounty hunter guild, we?ve never seen anything to contradict that casting decision, and I?ve enjoyed Weather?s performance in everything I?ve seen him in, so I?m totally happy with that, but the further you get away from having a smug white old Englishman as an imperial officer the further you get away from the original intent of what the Empire is and the evil they represent.
The decision to make a more diverse Empire, reveals a complete lack of understanding of the dynamics of SW, and betrays the Kathleen Kenedy, and Lucasfilm Story-group?s agenda of identity politics. Other than maybe Pablo Hidalgo, they don?t understand anything about SW.
That?s all I?m saying. And no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on, if you are a SW fan you?ll likely pick up what I?m laying down.
I?m not married to my opinions though, so if any of you have a logical counter viewpoint, I?m sincerely interested in hearing your explanation. As a lifelong SW fan I?m very interested to see the new stuff in a way that makes logical sense to me so that I could enjoy it more.
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