Star Wars: The Last Jedi fandom has been divisive as of late. The Rian Johnson-directed flick has been met with so much criticism as of late that an online petition was created to exclude this movie from the canon. At this point, over 30,000 people have signed the petition, only to have been met with a recent update on the Change.org site.
Henry Walsh was the petitioner who started this campaign, and now, he revealed he was in a prescription-induced state when he posted it. Walsh claimed he was “frustrated and medicated” while recovering from a vehicular accident.
The Star Wars fan stated he had a deep passion for the franchise and then made a comparison between his GoFundMe support in order to help pay for his medical bills and that of the recent petition regarding the movement to remove The Last Jedi from the canon. He pointed out how he got more attention with the latter and expressed his discomfort in the two comparisons.
“I couldn’t get the help on GoFundMe to help pay for my surgery, and yet *this* gets this kind of attention? To the point that this petition has been in multiple news publications at this point? How many other people out there need help and can’t get attention?”
The update, according to ComicBook.com , was an unusual read and seems to be written in a fashion that suggests he wasn’t the one who started the petition. However, he still supports it, but knowing now that it was predicated while in an induced state, would readers wonder why he would reveal this to the public? One might guess that he came up with this update to soften the blow of the more negative write-ups regarding The Last Jedi . Apparently, he’s an overall Star Wars franchise fan, but not a big fan of the recent movie.
Last Jedi director Rian Johnson responded to the criticism on his recent Twitter feed , as he himself can empathize with fans, as he is, like Walsh, a fan of Star Wars himself. Rian claims a good percentage of his feed was filled with fans supporting him all the way, with only a small percentage being negative.
ICYMI: The latest fan petition calls for Disney to remove The Last Jedi from the Star Wars canon. https://t.co/kvf3j4qBej pic.twitter.com/at6yT4DZzE
— ComicBook.com (@ComicBook) December 19, 2017
Regardless, comments at the bottom of the recent post still support the petition, medicated or not. That said, it looks like business as usual with the campaign. One couldn’t help but notice this kind of thing would be effective, as online petitions of all kinds can be formed on the fly. There was also a campaign regarding Scott Gimple’s participation on The Walking Dead .
Perhaps Change.org and other petition sites are more of an outlet for venting as opposed to getting results. Is it only representative of how people feel about whatever cause that’s out there?
