Regarding Rian’s tweets and social media posts when he was criticized; Incredibly unprofessional. When you set out to make a sequel in a loved franchise and you openly admit you’re going to turn the franchise and the fans on their ears, be ready for some blowback and be ready for it to be harsh. All that maaaahh deeeeeeek!!! bullshit is just weird and childish. WTF, Rian?
Thing is… he didn’t respond to legitimate criticism like this.
This. You can criticize these tweets as unprofessional (and you’d be right), but the narrative going around in the wider fandom that Rian Johnson attacks fans or responds to thoughtful critique with unprofessionalism isn’t true.
Plus I think in general that if you go onto a director’s account and you trash talk them to their face? They have every right to be unprofessional to a degree. Obviously if they tell you to say kill yourself or get personal then that’s not right but if they call you an asshole or mock you? They aren’t the ones at fault, it’s the person that decided it was a good idea to attack them. Directors, writers and film crew are all people so to a degree they have a right to clapback at toxicity and hopefully fans who engage in that behavior will maybe take a moment to stop and reflect on that behavior and realize “Oh… yeah maybe I shouldn’t be like this.”