The Geonosian Queen of Star Wars: Kathleen Kennedy

World Class Bullshitters released a video that is an open letter to Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, and calls her out as the common source for all of the franchise's problems since George Lucas sold the company to Disney. This is short; you can listen to it--it's really an audio track--over your coffee break at the office, so take a moment and listen.

That was kind. That was reserved. As they show in their excerpt from the drunk commentary for Force Awakens, they can and do get mean. They live up to their self-proclaimed title.

And they're right.

Kennedy's entire career is being a moneyman's busybody. That's what Executive Producers do: stick their noses into the business of the people actually doing the real work of filmmaking to ensure that the moneymen are satisfied. They're Political Officers, Commissars without the Commie part, and otherwise just useless stand-ins for their masters. You get no simpler an example of the Agent-Principle concept in action than with an Executive Producer who is NOT also one of the moneymen. She has never had actual skin the game, and now that she's been de facto unleashed she's pushing her own goals over that of her now-detached Principle (Disney).

She is, in the jargon of certain subsets, a "bugman": an individual who sacrificed whatever unique cultural and religious identity that was her posterity in favor of the false promises offered by being a bland, soulless global non-culture drone that is our current mega-corporate economy. At best, she aspires to be the Queen Bee of her own hive within the swarm, and Muh Feminisms is the path to that goal.

One of the tells of these "bugmen" is a lack of creativity, which includes a lack of discernment where people are concerned. She sees each film as a product, and each product as a component in a revenue-generating machine, and her demonstrated contempt for the population echoes down through the organization. It's astounding that men like Dave Filoni endure in such an environment; the drop in quality before and after the Lucasfilm sale of all things Star Wars makes that crystal clear, and it is in who runs the show. George cared. Kathy doesn't.

Fortunately, this is a situation that has a remedy. The problem is in using it; you need enough pressure put on Disney to compel a regime change, which is difficult because Disney is also run by bugmen. (It hasn't been Walt's company for a very long time and it shows.) You need to suborn or replace the gatekeepers in order to use the remedy, so either pressure them where they're weak or just plain replace them with someone willing to act.

For we on the outside, the best way to apply pressure is to Fork & Replace. Make our own Star Wars, and use the inevitable success of our superior visions to replace the official brand over time; either they adapt and conform in order to compete or they collapse and get forgotten. Nick Cole (w/ Jason Anspach) has a series of books in this vein, "Galaxy's Edge", starting with Legionnaire, and he's not the only one. My own "The Ghost Fist Gambit" will be out with the PulpRev Sampler Anthology, at a time and price To Be Determined.

So no, don't take this crap lying down. At the very least, deny the Mouse your dollars; many of you already refuse to buy the real revenue stream (the merchandise) so why not go a little further and refuse to see it in theaters or buy it on home video (of any kind)? Find the alternatives, or make up your own, and scratch that itch in a far more satisfying manner instead. All bugs must be squished.