Stop trusting in mere humans,
who have but a breath in their nostrils.
Why hold them in esteem?Youths oppress my people,
isaiah 2:22 & 3:12
women rule over them.
My people, your guides lead you astray;
they turn you from the path.
Yes, I watched it.
The new Disney+ addition to the Star Wars Universe has come out, “The Acolyte,” and since I am a glutton for punishment I decided to check it out. If you follow nerd media blogs and Youtube channels, this show is the talk-of-the-town; and not for good reasons. The Acolyte is produced by the controversial Leslye Headland, and let me tell you, it is causing a flood of consternation and negativity among classic Star Wars fans.
So my task on this post is to try to evaluate “Why?”
I am not going to talk about the pedantict plot, the cheap costuming, the stilted acting, or even the forced DEI composition of the cast. You can read about all those obvious issues in a hundred other places. What I want to talk about is something more hidden, something more symptomatic of our cultural zeitgeist: How wealth and boredom has created a lethal stew of hubris, a lack of general self-awareness, petty jealousy, malice, grievance, all mixed together in a noxious sludge of recrimination. Let me explain…
A WNBA CASE STUDY
“We Got Next!”
This catchy advertising slogan which was first coined back in April of 1996 was used to promote the new Women’s National Basketball Association, WNBA. The idea for this campaign comes from kids playing pickup streetball-basketball games in the public courts in town. Players would pick teams and after the game is over the next team who claims, “We Got Next,” gets to play.
While this seems like a very creative concept to promote the new women’s professional basketball, it also betrays something fundementally flawed about the whole league: This subtly communicates that the lesser players, the women, had to wait their turn before they could take the court after the better players are done. And because of this, there is always going to be a psychological need for the women to “prove themselves.”
As a kid, I can remember playing pickup ball, and when my friends and I played, the older players would take the court and play for hours until “We Got Next.” We so wanted to be out there playing with the bigger guys, but because of our lack of size, our age, and our inability to compete with the bigger and older players, we simply had to wait our turn. Sometimes that wait was for hours.
Waiting your turn is no fun, and when we finally got the court we really thought we were something. But in all honesty, the older guys were far better than we were. And once they were done, they didn’t stick around to watch us play. Nor did they care that we took over because they were already at the local 7-Eleven sucking down frozen cokes and grabbing their swimsuits to head to the pool. So there we were, playing our game with a chip on our shoulder, we wanted to prove that we could ‘hoop it up’ as well as the older guys. But the truth is, we had to wait because we were not that good.
Now bring this to the WNBA. The phrase “We Got Next” sounds super cool to have for a television adverstisment. And with marketing experts and creatives, it is easy to show the lady ballers crossing their arms acting tough dribbling a ball on the court with ghetto swag to lure in people to watch thinking it might be as good as the NBA. But once a person tuned in to watch, compared to the NBA, they were like watching the little kids who had to wait their turn. It simply is not entertaining basketball. If you don’t believe me , the revenue of the WNBA tells the story. Last year in 2023 the WNBA earned 200 million dollars, which is a pretty good chunk of change. While the NBA earned 4.5 Billion in 2023. That means for every 1 dollar the women made, the men brought in 22.2 dollars. That is a huge difference in earnings, not even counting the fact that the NBA subsidized the women’s league so they wouldn’t go belly-up.
The poorer athletes needed the better athletes to keep them playing.
But here is the kicker: if you would talk to the women in the WNBA about their basketball league, compare their skills, watch their swag, many in the WNBA would say that their league is just as competitive and exciting as the men’s league. Honestly, it is not even close! The women, and fans, who believe this nonsense are completely self-deluded. But when they finally got their turn, they were compelled to act like they are just as talented and interesting. And in thier insecurity, some of the players went completely overboard trying to prove their worth with strong talk and thuggish attitude. “We Got Next” is not something to be proud of. It is actually rather embarrassing when you say it with a false swag.
THE ACOLYTE’S PROBLEM
“I just feel like when you get the opportunity to do Star Wars, you’re just going to shoot your shot.” Notice how the show runner Leslye Headland describes her chance to produce The Acolyte? Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
When George Lucas sold his Intellectual Property to Disney, they immediately handed the control of the Star Wars Universe to an angry lady in waiting wanting to prove her worth. Kathleen Kennedy waited her turn long enough, and when she finally was given the Star Wars playground, something she really didn’t earn, she had to prove her ability to play ball just like the legandary producers George Lukas and Steven Spielberg. Like a young kid waiting for the basketball court, Kathleen Kennedy in her own way was shouting to the world, “We Got Next.”
The question that needs to be asked, in Kathy’s mind, who is “We” referring to?
She wasted no time in letting the world know who we was by touting the slogan, “The Force is Female.” She was proud of it, even printing it on shirts and hiring a boatload of strong feminist women in higher positions of creative power. To her, she felt that the people who were left out of the original Star Wars game was all the poor, forgotten marginalized groups: the gay community, the trans community, the feminist progressives, and the people with disabilities. To Kathleen, it was now their turn to make quality entertainment.
What she failed to realize is that the original Star Wars was great because of talent, not because of identity politics. In the same way women basketball players are not playing in the NBA because of some concerted effort by mysoginistic men to not let women play, it is simply because of the differences in physical talent. Every NBA game features dozens of dunks and mind-blowing displays of athletic talent, and that is why people watch. In the WNBA, if somebody barely dunks a ball just once in the season, the world must stop and take notice. “Wow! Wasn’t that finger roll off the glass amazing?” (Well, if I am allowed to be honest, my son in High School could do that in the 10th grade). Real entertainment is all about talent, not about which groups are allowed in and which are not.
What “The Acolyte” producers and Disney+ executives have failed to realize is that people actually could care less about DEI, progressive politics, and letting the marginalized finally get their shot. All they want is a great story with believable acting. They want a fantasy that makes sense, is fun, and not one that caters to people who demand that “We Got Next!” Did you know one of the best characters in the original Star Wars was a very talented woman, Princess Leia played by Carrie Fisher, and she was fantastic!
But now, it feels like everyone on “The Acolyte” is so pompous and proud because it is now “their turn” and they are going to shove their story, their agenda, their greatness in your face whether you like it or not. It isn’t about the fans of Star Wars and entertaining people for a few hours, it is about proving how equal, and even superior, the marginalized groups are. It is not really because they love the original story, it seems to be more about the idea that “We Got Next.”
Did you know, no one ever stuck around the basketball courts to watch the little kids play. Same thing with “The Acolyte,” it just is not good entertainment.
YOU MUST EARN IT
The truth is, no one deserves anything.
No one is owed an NBA contract. Not everyone is owed to have their own television series because not everyone can write or act. And not every show deserves to be watched. When you get mad that people don’t want to watch your program that is called hubris, and it usually comes from years of jealously waiting to have your shot while watching better and more talented people than you perform.
People need to stop demanding things in life, and see that true diversity is about using the unique talents you have been given and using them in the unique place where you excell. People don’t owe you! Politicians are never owed the Presidency (right Hilary?), a Homosexual relationship is not ever really owed to be acknowledged by God to be considered a real marriage, because it is not (think conception), women shouldn’t be on the front lines of battle for a myriad of reasons (especially when it comes to carrying out 230 pound wounded soldier to safety), and Leslye Headland should never have gotten the keys to Star Wars Universe even if she once worked for Harvey Weinstein. (Yuck!!!)
The lesson for all of us is to learn humility. Stop demanding, Kill the jealousy that resides in your heart. And then work hard to be good. I love how Proverbs 22:29 puts it, “Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.”
Amen and amen!
