ST John Boyega (Finn) in Episode VII

Who?

 

GOODBYE

 

LOL. Another troll.

 

Same one most likely. Pay him no attention.

 

Boyega got a hater. Must be doing something right.

 

Actually, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume if he's flat-out twittering the word "Skywalker" then his character is not "Skywalker" cuz if he was "Skywalker" then he'd never even think aboot twittering the word "Skywalker" for fear of violating a NDA. So his character is not a Skywalker then! Cuz he twittering the word Skywalker. Makes sense, no?

 

It's sad that he is getting the biggest amount of hate from the trolls haters racists All the above. I dont really see them targeting Daisy, Gleeson or Andy Serkis (yeah remember him? Me neither)

 

Let just hope it doesn't get any uglier when the first teasers air and if he is the main character.

 

Yeah I fear it'll get ugly but something makes me feel like if it's revealed that lets say...Gleeson is the lead then we'll have trolls saying Disney/Lucasfilm is being racist/sexist for NOT having Boyega or Daisy be the lead. Oh trolls...always find a way to complain.

 

Fortunately they're Pond Life and not sufficiently evolved to be taken seriously. Ignore them and they die...

 

Thier complainers/trolls in every fandom, sadly. Just look at the Batman fandom. Everyone hated that Heath Ledger was casted as Joker. Then they saw the movie and now call him the best one ever. That why you should watch the movie before making a judgement if it's bad or good.

 

There may be trolling if Gleeson is the lead but it will not match the venom spewed by those who will lose it if Boyega is the focus.

 

Let's make sure people can tell the different between those who would be upset because they are racist and those that would be upset because the main lead isn't a Skywalker (which is where I fall).

You can be upset and not be a racist.

Same goes for Gleeson in reverse. There will be some that will be upset if he is the main lead because they are racist, and there are some that would be upset if he is a Skywalker.

It's two sides of the same coin.

 

When I mentioned “spewing venom” I would think that it was clear I was not including people who would be disappointed only because a Skywalker was not the lead. This should be especially obvious considering that posts leading up to mine had been dominated by a conversation involving another troll getting banned because of use of not so subtle prejudicial remarks regarding Boyega. So who would think that my reference to venom would be about anything other than the out-of-line venomous remarks made about Boyega? You even responded to one of my posts last week in which I made that very same claim that there are fans who genuinely want to see a Skywalker as the main focus and therefore would be disappointed with Boyega at the center of the storyline. No offense but when you constantly rush in at all times to make this point it comes across as a case of “thou doth protest too much”.

But if you ended it there that would be one thing. Instead you had to pile on with some false equivalency argument about how people who are against Gleeson could be racist too. Really? I don’t see SW fandom as being overran by a bunch of non-whites who can’t handle the idea of a white lead. That would severely limit their ability to enjoy the franchise considering it would exclude all the movies, all the animations series, all the games, all the comic books and all but a few of the hundreds of EU novels out there. But yeah other than that they’re good. In all seriousness...non-white fans have been used to white lead characters for this and other movie/TV franchises for their entire lives. If Boyega was the main guy in EP VII, it is only white fans who would be put into a situation for THE FIRST TIME of having to identify with a lead Star Wars character who was not of the same race. And that type of “change” is what leads to some of the nasty remarks on these boards which get people banned. However if you want to direct us to folks taking similar racially motivated digs at Gleeson, ones getting them chastised or booted by moderators, then by all means please do so.

Truth is if Gleeson turns out to be the main character you are more likley to get pushback from female fans who want a female lead rather than from non-whites who are bemoaning a loss opportunity for Boyega (especially considering that not all people of color are black and thus not all of them are invested in seeing a black lead).

And while there are a contingent of people who want SW to move away from the Skywalkers, I still don't see any of them getting chased off the boards by moderators for offensive remarks.

 

first, although I quoted you, I wasn't actually addressing your point about venom. I was making a general point about what Darth Claire said. That there will be trolls either way, and that among those trolls are people upset by the color of the actor. So yes, some people against Gleeson have racial motives. Whether they are as ignorant enough as the racists against Boyega to post those is another matter.

Racism is racism whether you vocalize it or not.

That's a fact, both ways, but my point was that there will be people that have legitimate reasons that have nothing to do with race - ON BOTH SIDES, and that everyone should be careful before they throw the term racist around (like you just did towards me).

Speaking of that, I do take offense to your insinuation that I "protest too much," thus making me a racist. Go check my posts on Luke's wife. I suggested Felecia Bell and supported the notion that Luke's wife could be a woman of color. Heck, earlier in this thread I said I supported John as the central character if he was Luke's son.

 

I just noticed that I'd never posted in this thread before and now I kind of feel bad.

Anyways, I have very few doubts that Boyega will be the lead. It's almost a certainty. And I'm excited about it. From all the Tweets we've gotten, Boyega seems like a great, genuine guy who's excited to have the role and knows how lucky he is to have landed it. I haven't seen him in anything but from what I've heard he's an amazing actor and I can't wait to see how he does in VII. Of course there will be the racists and whiners out there who say "a black guy can't have the lead in a SW movie!" I just roll my eyes and ignore it.

 

That would be hilarious if we did all this talk about Luke not having a son/Boyega being the lead only to find out Luke had a black wife and John was his biological son lol.

 

Since I am by default 'weak sauce warmed over', I finally got around to getting on the Youtubes and checking out young Boyega. I'm impressed! Do we think he will be keeping the Brit accent or going all American on us?

 

1. He never called you racist

2. Who are these imaginary people that have racial motives against Gleeson?

 

Fine. Perhaps you should have quoted her line instead which would have spared any confusion, but that stuff happens from time to tme. You can't blame me for thinking you were directly responding to my words.

False equivalency again. There is an undeniable history of white males being leads of SW franchises. That's accepted by virtually every non-white fan who loves the material. While I have come across folks who wish for non-white leads and some who are more adamant that there should be more non-white leads, I have yet to come across any non-white fan who resorts to either 1)making racist comments over the anger of a white person being cast as a SW lead or 2)proclaim they will not see a SW movie if the lead is white. But you will find such remarks, some more subtle than others, in which it is clear that Boyega's race is an obstacle in regards to him being accepted by certain individuals.

If they are not "as ignorant" to post it may mean that perhaps they are not ignorant enough to have those same hangups when it comes to Gleeson. You may be chaisng boogeyman that don't exist. I'm sure you can go all around the web and find examples of racism towards whites, but what I'm waiting for is your evidence of non-white SW fans displaying prejudice towards white actors in leading roles.

Whoa! Weren't you the person who wrote not too long ago that every written remark against Boyega being the lead is not a confirmation of racism? Didn't you imply that people shouldn't try to assume that even the people who write some questionable remarks about Boyega are racists at heart? And now you turn it around and call people out for being racist even though they haven't written anything at all???

So in other words there is this legion of internet trolls who are prejudiced against Gleeson but they never write anything negative about him; they just THINK racist thoughts? They're out there, but they are silent. Okay. How do you think you can get away telling people not to jump to conclusions that negative written remarks about Boyega are examples of racism while at the same time indicting others, who never wrote anything bad or good about Gleeson, of being closet racists? That's silly. Are we the Thought Police now? This gives you the advantage because your version of racism requires far less evidence.

Which we have already covered and which had nothing to do with the post that I wrote.

Understandable if you take offense. But my "protest too much" line originally followed a few sentences in which I made a point of taking on your view point that there were racists lurking out there who didn't want Gleeson (or other white guys) to be the lead. And my follow up line was that you talk a good game about how we should not play the race angle but then you go about comfortably throwing around accusations of your own. However since I have been accused by you of being too wordy I did my best to chop down my original thoughts and got rid of nearly ten sentences. Which is why my "protest too much" line comes across as awkwardly placed within that paragraph. That's on me. I should have done a better job of making that clear even if it meant adding back some of those sentences.

My friend, no need to go there. This is just as pointless as the ol' "some of my best friends are black" line. You don't have to spend time convincing me you are not a card-carrying bigot. I mean that. Besides, for future reference, mentioning how you had even consider some black chicks who could be Luke's wife doesn't prove anything anyway. Racist slaveholders slept with black women even though they had low views of black people. Besides it isn't as if having the idea of a white male lead hooking up with a non-white female in the movies is an example of an open mind. That's merely business as usual and a typical characteristic of white male fantasy of the men who run the entertainment industry.

I say let's call it a truce and just be done with this.

 

I'm guessing American.

 

OK guys, let's give the discussions about racists and racism a rest and move along.

 

From MTV interview with Gleeson..

That’s in stark contrast, perhaps, to fellow cast-member John Boyega. Boyega hasn’t necessarily revealed anything, as far as we know; but he has tweeted the fan-baiting phrase “Skywalker” previously from Twitter, something that made Gleeson double over with laughter when he found out.
“I wonder if he has to put them by lawyers before he puts them out there!” Gleeson said, laughing. “I wonder!”