The Acolyte wielding his lightsabers o the left with flames around him and smirking to the right The Acolyte may have been canceled, but the Star Wars fandom is still divided over the show – and now the controversy has erupted into a full-on social media civil war. Helmed by showrunner Leslye Headland, The Acolyte swiftly proved to be one of the most controversial TV shows in the franchise’s history; a review-bombing campaign against The Acolyte led to a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of (at time of writing) just 18 percent. Surprisingly, though, the show remains controversial even now, three weeks after its cancelation.

On September 4, the Rewriting Ripley Pod released a viral video pointing to some Star Wars YouTube accounts that, they argued, had “jeopardized the safety of our community & the creatives we love for too long.”

The Star Wars Explained team – popular YouTubers and podcasters within the fandom – responded to this by leading a campaign petitioning YouTube to demonetize some of these accounts. Mollie Damon, one of SWE’s co-hosts, shared the following infographic from another source:

YouTube swiftly responded with confirmation none of the videos involved breached their terms of service, and that they would not be removed; it didn’t exactly satisfy the campaigners, who had been calling for demonetization rather than removal of content. Naturally, the YouTubers whose accounts had been saved celebrated their apparent vindication – with the exception of Star Wars Theory. Although this popular (and highly critical) YouTuber hadn’t been called out by Rewriting Ripley Pod, he was name-dropped in the pages shared by SWE. He responded with a YouTube video and a tweet.

The Star Wars Fandom Is Taking Sides


The Star Wars fandom is now dividing along almost tribal lines; Star Wars Explained versus Star Wars Theory. Supporters of SWE argue that accounts such as Nerdotic and Star Wars Theory are a negative force in the fandom, selling anger and negativity because they know it will generate views and revenue. They further point out that Star Wars Theory’s counter-video includes personal messages from the SWE team and discussions of mental health, making this a very personal attack.

Supporters of Star Wars Theory, meanwhile, argue that the very principle of demonetizing accounts you disagree with is wrong. They further point to SWE’s desire to be a positive voice in the community, and insist they are hypocrites for being “against” other creators at all. More recent arguments claim the SWE YouTubers are in fact motivated by jealousy.

It is, quite frankly, a mess. What makes this particularly interesting, though, is that it’s happening in a very specific political context; the topic of social media moderation (some would say censorship) is a live issue in many countries, including the United States and U.K. The current Star Wars controversy is simply mirroring the real-world debate.