With today being the sixth of January, it is time to crown our King of Fools for 2018. However, this year’s King isn’t just a single person but a group of people. In fact, it’s unclear just how many people we’re talking about because Twitter bots often speak louder than most of us humans. Nevertheless, this group caused a bit of a stir at the end of 2017 while also making fools of themselves. Who are they?
***Warning: this post contains spoilers for The Last Jedi***
The King of Fools for 2018 are Angry Star Wars Fanboys/Fangirls. More specifically, the fans that took to social media, started petitions, and made multi-hour-long YouTube videos complaining about how The Last Jedi ruined the saga. As you can see above, some of the rogue fans brought the film’s Rotten Tomatoes audience score down to a meager 50% despite it’s Certified Fresh 90% critics score.
Now, is The Last Jedi a perfect movie? No. However, the outrage its garnered seems disproportionate. Additionally, it’s somewhat ironic that the big knock on the film is that it venture into too many new territories considering The Force Awakens was criticized for playing things too safe. Perhaps we can hope that Episode IX will serve as the Goldilocks of the latest trilogy?
To be sure, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with disliking a movie, but these so-called fans took things to the next level when some began harassing those who were defending the film online. Then there’s the aforementioned laughable petition to have The Last Jedi removed from the Star Wars canon and remade — although the creator later admitted, “It was a bad idea… and I feel that we are pooling our efforts in not a healthy direction.”
So, because of their irrational outcry and misplaced anger, Angry Star Wars Fanboys and Fangirls are our 2018 King of Fools.