2024 was a mixed bag for many Star Wars fans, and it was sometimes surprising how polarizing that fact could be. We had the emotional ending to The Bad Batch and the wild romp of Season 2 of Young Jedi Adventures. People of all ages have been drawn in by Skeleton Crew and its nostalgic feeling. On the other hand, The Acolyte made it clear that there could be a wide divide between types of fans. Going into a new year, let's take a breath and reset. Here's how some people are still making Star Wars a family of fans.
3 ways Star Wars fan communities can combat toxicity
1. Get rid of gatekeeping
I'm on a number of groups meant to be safe spaces for fans, and the codes of conduct tend to have similar features. Be civil, avoid toxicity, etc. But the core one is "NO GATEKEEPING." The Non-Toxic Star Wars Fanbase, one of my favorite havens, says, "It's a vast galaxy - not everyone knows every single detail of content. No one is better than anyone else for knowing more about Star Wars than another person."
Aiming for a more inclusive fandom fundamentally feels more like Star Wars. If you look at the original trilogy, the Rebel Alliance has Bothans, Mon Calamari, Sullustans, Wookiees, etc., and all of them are contributors to the war against oppression. Meanwhile, the Empire is shown to be led without much diversity, and the anti-alien bias only gets worse if you read the books. Having a space for all makes us all better.
2. Free exchange of ideas
If I had a credit for every time I found someone saying they watched or read something so I wouldn't have to, I'd be as rich as Captain Rennod. Richer if I counted the videos about how this version of Star Wars is worse than the last time Star Wars was the worst thing ever. It was a popular thing to talk about in 2024. I'm not going to say that everything put out last year was the best thing ever, and you're stupid if you think it wasn't.
Everyone is entitled to find joy or disappointment or something in between when they consume media. We want to have conversations between the Yord Horde and Neel Nation. One of my favorite thought-provoking things of the last year was when someone disagreed with me in great detail and it gave me a new perspective on a show I hadn't appreciated enough while letting me still enjoy my own favorite things. Talking things out instead of dictating a position that we should align gives people the chance to solidify their beliefs no matter what side those fall on.
3. Can you imagine?
I'm going to get a little personal on this last part. I went straight from seeing Star Wars for the first time to writing fan fiction because I was desperate for the stories to keep going into the future. I soon discovered that this was 1994, and people had been continuing the stories for years, but for me, fandom is at its best when we wonder what comes next.
I love coming to Dork Side of the Force because the site is full of that. I will come to the site to see what new theory someone has about upcoming cameos in Skeleton Crew, but also click through to an exploration of what would happen if a movie rumor turned out to be true, I go to these speculations and explorations with the same enthusiasm that I still look for good fan fiction across the internet. Most of all, I turn to fan communities to have people prod me in the "What if" part of my brain.
Here's to a 2025 that has just as much to explore as years past.