Gaming

If you don't like something, that's fine. They made the product they want, they're free to do that, and you're free to not like it.

Just know that art has always driven social discussion, and it's always been met with heavy social opposition, just usually in the form of outright censorship. So historically artists had to be subtle in order to be critical without being censored. In order to see more edgy stuff you had to go to small, barely funded art house shows.

But then the internet happened, and suddenly artists weren't beholden to a small number of elite entertainment corporations. Art containing more openly progressive ideas can now be shared directly with the masses, the masses are now preferring progressive ideals more than ever before, and naturally corporations making entertainment products now have a financial incentive to cater to that demographic (often called "virtue signaling"). Today you see a mix of corporate pandering and actual art, even within the development teams of a mainstream product like Dragon Age or Disney. Some messaging feels honest, others feel ham fisted because it's pride month.

But the censorship of the pre-internet days existed for a reason. A lot of people feel uncomfortable seeing things that challenge their status quo. People tend to seek comfort, and they just want their entertainment to leave them be. But now that corporate censors are less of a barrier, and now that progressive ideals are proliferating, the people themselves are backlashing. They say things like, "it's way too much woke agenda, I'm tired of it. I want to watch a show without having the story be about woke issues." I think that's also normal.

I think the backlash is two fold: On the one hand, real art challenges the viewer, which can be exhausting when you just want to be entertained before you get a few hours of sleep and go back to work in the morning. But on the other hand, you do have what offen feels like a disengenuous layer of progressive pandering coming from corporations that you never saw before. And no one likes being pandered to, let alone not being pandered to.

I think this corporate pandering towards progressive ideals is new, the terms we use to describe everything are definitely new, but the tendency for art to expose people to progressive ideals and the tendency for the masses to be conservative and resist change are as old as humanity. And I view the two as a social evolutionary yin and yang, keeping each other in check.

Dude I'm trans and hate the acolyte. It's cause it's shit not "woke"

There's plenty of "non woke" media that's shit too

Turns out if you write nothing but shit you get nothing but shit. This is a capitalism putting restrictions on the artist not our society.

It's happened time and time again they force trends and focus tested ideas into the writing room instead of true passion. It will happen no matter the context. Shit media will just be shit media regardless of "wokeness" that's just a current symptom of how we create media. It's all for profit not for the sake of art.

That's what you actually hate dude.

Out of curiosity, did you like Andor? Because it had all that stuff too but it was well written instead. Just think about how many women are lead roles on Andor for a second.

I have seen The Acolyte, as I have seen/read/played a majority of what has come out of Star Wars after Disney bought it, as well as plenty of the Extended Universe from the George Lucas days. And I wouldn't consider any "gender/race related things completely out of place" in The Acolyte.

If I had seen The Acolyte without interacting with the Internet, I wouldn't even have considered that people would have a major problem with it. And if The Acolyte had been released as a book or comic instead, I doubt it would've made any waves on the Internet.

In all honesty, I have a hard time believing that anyone accusing The Acolyte of having an agenda doesn't have an agenda themselves. Especially among the content creators who make a living by publicly hating on stuff.