Narrative Warfare: Why Laser Sword Wonder Girl Got Rejected

Author David V. Stewart examines why Mouse Wars is bad fanfic.

Nevermind the problems of the Pop Cult for a moment; this video aptly explains why the Pop Cultists of this flavor reject the Devil Mouse's films. They are, quite frankly, heretical inversions of the cult dogma and core narrative. The Pop Cultists may not comprehend that they are having religious reactions to a desecration of their faith, but that is exactly what's going on. This is why they reject, and why they demand respect; it's all about substituting a fake religion for the real one they either foolishly denied or were never permitted to experience at all, with all of the behaviors and energies one puts into religious devotion.

And yes, the Death Cultists that did this know this, which is why they did it; they're proclaiming their conquest of the cult's culture by killing the conquered's heroes and suborning their myths to the Death Cult's purpose. (Yes, that's exactly what this trilogy did, right down to that ending, and yes the Pop Cultists recognize it as such.)

Why am I harping on this?

Every violation of the brand weakens the cult's ties to it. Every fraid strand segments cultists off. Every ex-cultist becomes someone open to alternatives. Everyone open to alternatives is a customer looking for us to serve their unmet needs. They won't be open to anything outside their cult until their devotion to the cult is broken, and it is vital that we recognize when that moment comes so we are ready to meet them as they come out of it.

This is a turning of events that all of us can and should benefit from. Each emerging ex-cultist has different things about the brand that they are drawn to, things that each of us emphasize in our alternatives, so those who love the military end of it can enjoy Cole & Anspach while those attached to knights and gallantry would love what I do and so on.

The Pop Cult rejected the new Corporate material because it's heresy. If the heretics are not purged, and orthodoxy restored, then the devoted--seeing their idol as a traitor--will reject the cult and walk away. That's the window when they become open to non-brand alternatives to what entertainment the brand offered; as for the spiritual aspects, that's when a competent evangelist knows how to approach one seeking the real religion- and that's for another post by someone more competent than I on the matter.