Hey guys scope out this hot take: I don't think an actress should get death threats by a minority of fans for playing a character that the majority of fans disliked. Take that neckbeards

You know, it's almost as annoying to see the moralizing hand-wringing oh-the-humanity speeches people are giving in this thread. The real problem is that Star Wars is a cult, not that this actress is getting heat. As part of a rabid global fanbase making up all kinds of people - from the even-tempered to the psychotic - and coupled with the kind of Internet that's proliferated, with the upswells of abuse and hatred that are a tactic of almost every side, you are going to find this kind of thing. It is partially a kind of sexism, yes, but it is naive and facile to limit it only to that reading. Everyone who has been despised in the Star Wars cult since 1999 has received their share of abuse, and have been victims in their own way. Now that abuse has the form of post-Internet mob social media hatred and harassment, and flavoured by the culture war. In this sense, Hamill's gesture is nice, even humane, but despite his character in the Star Wars universe, he is not the Jesus Christ of Star Wars. He commands no power to stall the hatred.

You have people in this thread addressing the culprits as though they were listening, as though they could be addressed in the first place, as though those people were in some way morally removed from the entire apparatus. But how about this: Star Wars itself is a parasitic being, all the way from Darth Vader toasters through to comic con Stormtroopers and The Last Jedi. Every part of it, every corner, ever dollar spent does nothing more than to feed this cult. Rose doesn't name a virus in the system to its fans (some, but not all), it names the impossible ideal that this cult can never attain but will do anything for.