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Obnoxious Star Wars Fandom “Gatekeeper” Is Told Off By The Co-Writer Of Star Wars Books
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Obnoxious Star Wars Fandom “Gatekeeper” Is Told Off By The Co-Writer Of Star Wars Books

Guy Tweets What His Definition Of A Star Wars Fan Is, Gets Shut Down By The Co-Writer Of Star Wars BooksAnnoying Star Wars Guy Puts His ‘Definition’ Of A Star Wars Fan On Twitter, Gets Shut Down By A Co-Writer Of Star Wars BooksStar Wars Co-Writer Calls Out A Guy That Rants About The Definition Of A True Star Wars FanGuy Tweets His Definition Of A Star Wars Fan, Gets Schooled By The Star Wars Book Co-WriterObnoxious Star Wars Fandom “Gatekeeper” Is Told Off By The Co-Writer Of Star Wars BooksStar Wars Book Co-Writer Questions This Guy’s Definition Of A True Star Wars FanObnoxious Star Wars Fandom “Gatekeeper” Is Told Off By The Co-Writer Of Star Wars BooksObnoxious Star Wars Fandom “Gatekeeper” Is Told Off By The Co-Writer Of Star Wars BooksObnoxious Star Wars Fandom “Gatekeeper” Is Told Off By The Co-Writer Of Star Wars Books
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In today’s world, there is a myriad of movies, video games, and other media, each of which has a fandom—a community of like-minded people that foster passion and love for the medium.

Now, each community has its own character and personality. It’s an identity assumed by the community and can vary from inclusive and even evangelical to exclusive and (sad to say) repulsive. This identity can even be reinforced by a community if some of its members begin to deviate from what it strives to be.

This is exactly what happened recently on Twitter when a Star Wars fan came up with a definition for what a person has to have actually done to be a Star Wars fan.

Ed Powell tweeted out a specific list of things that make someone a Star Wars fan

Image credits: DrEdPowell

Ed Powell, an astrophysicist and an avid fan of Star Wars, tweeted his definition of what it means to be a true Star Wars fan. He explains that having seen the movies doesn’t actually make one a fan. What actually does is things like reading the novelizations, books, and comics, watching the animated shows, and participating in discussion groups.

This is an example of a phenomenon that the internet has come to call “gatekeeping”. It describes a fan base (or a part of it) that is exclusive and picky about who can “join the club” or even enjoy the medium. Needless to say, the Star Wars community was having none of that.

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Phil “Satyros” Brucato, writer, journalist, and editor who also worked on Star Wars: Creatures of the Galaxy, stepped in on Twitter together with a number of other Internauts.

People weren’t too happy about the “gatekeeping”, with Phil Brucato saying it best

Image credits: SatyrosBrucato

Image credits: SatyrosBrucato

Brucato tweeted “Well, I’ve not only read books in the EU, I co-wrote some of them. And I think your definition of “a Star Wars fan” is [bull pies].” He continued in another tweet: The definition of ‘a Star Wars fan’ is: Someone who loves Star Wars. You don’t get to decide what that love looks like for someone else.“

A sizable number—over 15,000 right now— of people agreed with him and supported his words, leading to the tweets quickly gaining traction and going viral. This is an example of a community addressing the toxic behavior of its members.

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One can play the devil’s advocate and say that Powell has a more puristic (in the positive sense) take on what it means to be a real fan of the franchise, and it’s all right to have that opinion. However, it all boiled down to how exclusive it ended up sounding to the rest of the Internet.

Of course, some people made their own lists poking fun and writing the proper definition of “Star Wars fan”

Image credits: chaselyons

Image credits: Lee923

Image credits: OldThinkerTube

Image credits: LifeLossIsntDmg

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Image credits: Charalanahzard

Image credits: ashleylynch

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Image credits: franklinleonard

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Image credits: AnneTibbets

… and here are some other one-off additions

Image credits: lbjb247

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Image credits: atlemar

Image credits: UrsulaV

Image credits: TimTiro

Image credits: NAJohnson

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Image credits: UweBollocks

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Image credits: JohnJTerrible

Image credits: FreshCutFry

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Robertas Lisickis

Robertas Lisickis

Author, BoredPanda staff

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Some time ago, Robertas used to spend his days watching how deep the imprint in his chair will become as he wrote for Bored Panda. Wrote about pretty much everything under and beyond the sun. Not anymore, though. He's now probably playing Gwent or hosting Dungeons and Dragons adventures for those with an inclination for chaos.

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Robertas Lisickis

Robertas Lisickis

Author, BoredPanda staff

Some time ago, Robertas used to spend his days watching how deep the imprint in his chair will become as he wrote for Bored Panda. Wrote about pretty much everything under and beyond the sun. Not anymore, though. He's now probably playing Gwent or hosting Dungeons and Dragons adventures for those with an inclination for chaos.

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Sergio Bicerra Descalzi
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You are a true Star Wars fan if you watched the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special and actually liked it.

Clavelle
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can we stop seeing "Gets shut down by"? By the way, Star Wars is awesome.

Elizabeth Schuyler
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Honestly the gatekeeping on the Star Wars universe just gets worse and worse. I'm sorry, but I liked TLJ and Rise of Skywalker. I'm still as much of a fan as you.

Virgil Blue
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm a long time fan of Star Wars and thought the last two trilogy movies were as badly written as the average soap opera and a hot mess, but won't claim you don't have the right to like them. There were some nice battles and set pieces at least,.

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Sergio Bicerra Descalzi
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You are a true Star Wars fan if you watched the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special and actually liked it.

Clavelle
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can we stop seeing "Gets shut down by"? By the way, Star Wars is awesome.

Elizabeth Schuyler
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Honestly the gatekeeping on the Star Wars universe just gets worse and worse. I'm sorry, but I liked TLJ and Rise of Skywalker. I'm still as much of a fan as you.

Virgil Blue
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm a long time fan of Star Wars and thought the last two trilogy movies were as badly written as the average soap opera and a hot mess, but won't claim you don't have the right to like them. There were some nice battles and set pieces at least,.

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