Seeing both sides of this current argument that is happening between fans and, well, only with the fans since Disney is remaining mum about it as they quietly remove as much mention of Slave 1, the name of the ship that’s captained by the most notorious bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe. In truth, it is a name, and sometimes names don’t matter as much, but when a name has been used for decades and not a single issue has been found with it, then the woke mob should probably pick another target and move on. The only problem is that this isn’t the work of the woke mob unless Disney has officially joined those ranks. This is a decision that Disney has made to replace the name of Fett’s ship and fans aren’t having it. Slave 1 has been the call sign for this ship for so long that many fans are already stating that they won’t be calling this ship anything else no matter what happens. This is one of those confusing moments when one can’t help but wonder why in the world a corporation like Disney hasn’t figured out yet what when one messes with a known formula, they’re bound to get more of a mess than they wanted.
The name of the ship is a problem for a lot of people apparently, especially now that it’s been seen that words hurt, memories hurt, and everything can hurt if it’s forced into a perspective that offends people. The reason why Disney is doing this is that it’s ‘better from a marketing point of view’ which probably should have been obvious since if it’s going to make money, then they’re all for it. If it’s something that presents a risk, meaning just about everything these days, then it’s bound to happen that things are going to change. The fact that the name of the ship has been around for quite some time means nothing to the Mouse House since anything under their mouse-eared umbrella is going to conform or get kicked to the curb and have a retcon job done on it. But the funny thing here is that few if any people have ever mentioned the name of the ship, and even when they do, there’s been no big controversy that’s ever been loud enough to bother the fans. So is Disney overreacting a bit? Yep, there’s no doubt.
Here’s another reason why it’s ridiculous, since if they’re going to take Slave 1 out of Star Wars for ‘marketing purposes’, then perhaps they should go ahead and retcon a few other things while they’re at it. How about Oola from Return of the Jedi? She was a Twi’lek slave girl after all, and she even had the chain attached to her to prove it. How about Leia in her ‘slave’ outfit that’s caused a few murmurs over the years? Then there’s the fact that Chewbacca was in chains at one point, and that many wookies were seen in chains throughout Rebels. One can’t forget that Anakin and his mother, along with many others on Tatooine, were slaves as well. Is Disney going to retcon all of The Phantom Menace to fit their marketing strategies? It’s nothing to get irate about, but definitely, something to question about since it sounds rather silly when thinking that they’re going to take the name of a ship off the market but wouldn’t even think about touching the rest of the franchise, which deals with actual slavery in a few parts of the story.
Like many others, I don’t care that Slave 1 is being taken off as the ship’s name since Disney is going to have to deal with this short-sighted concession to the woke mob eventually. It won’t hurt sales, that much is for certain since people will keep buying stuff. But forcing this change into place when The Book of Boba Fett is set to come out later this year definitely makes this situation all kinds of awkward since as long as the Mouse House keeps bending their corporate knee to an oversensitive mob that is set to devour itself at any moment, it’s like that they won’t stop unless someone or something shakes them back to their senses.
Quite honestly, both sides of the argument are ridiculous since it’s just a name, albeit one that a lot of us Star Wars fans care about since it’s been around so long. But on the other hand, Disney is starting to reveal that it’s more concerned about its public image than the fans that help prop it up by watching, buying, and enjoying its material. One of these days it’s bound to happen that Disney is going to have to find a compromise that will work for both parties since as of now, this isn’t it.
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