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OK but, here's the thing, this kid? Not that bad.
(hexbear.net)
Obviously he didnt deserve the harassment he got regardless. Like even if he was dogshit he wouldnt have deserved that. But I just rewatched Phantom Menace for the first time in awhile. Young friend of mine are going through the star wars movies because she was a sheltered homeschooled kid and hadnt seen them. Already did the OT, starting on the prequels.
Other than the obvious "oh wow, the racial stereotypes of literally three different alien species in this movie is insane", the main takeaway my rewatch gave me is "wow ok, Jake LLoyd is average at worst". He was just like, a regular kid actor? Nothing to write home about like say, young Maise Williams or something. But absolutely fine?
Yes, obviously the liberal centrist thing of going "both sides bad therefore the middle is good" is braindead and Star Wars Fans tend to have poor media literacy and political consciousness, but making the Jedi into Actually Good mind controlling space cops is very much not the solution.
Also, it's always seemed strange to me that the trademark Light side Force power is self evidently categorically evil (mind control) but the trademark Dark side Force power isn't (lightning)
Haven't seen the acolyte, probably won't bother to because although anti-woke grifter tears are usually a decent heuristic for good media even non-deranged reviews I've seen of it are universally bad.