Star Wars Fans And Their Relationship To Lucasfilm

Ever since last December something is amiss in the Star Wars Galaxy. And I don’t talk about the movie(s) here, I talk about how Lucasfilm or people who work for them communicate with their fans. Or, as many have noted, with their customers actually. Or are we? There seems to be some dispute about what exactly the relationship is between Lucasfilm and the people who buy tickets for one of their movies. On the weekend a writer for the official Star Wars website offered her point of view on Twitter. And according to her Star Wars fans are not customers of Lucasfilm after all? Click through to read more!

You’re not my customers!

On Saturday Twitter User “Geek Girl Diva” who writes for the official Star Wars website had this to say about the relationship between Star Wars fans and Lucasfilm on Twitter:

You are not a “customer” of either Lucasfilm or Star Wars.
You may be a customer of Hasbro or Del Rey or any # of licensees, but buying a movie ticket doesn’t make you a customer unless it’s of the theater you bought the ticket from.
You do not own LFL or the SW Franchise.

Likewise, you do not deserve your own personal, “acceptable” treatment or behaviors from anyone at LFL, associated with LFL or otherwise employed BY LFL,
They don’t owe you anything because they work somewhere that makes something you think should be made differently.

You are entitled to your opinion, sure. But so is anyone at LFL. If LFL has an issue with their behavior, they’ll correct it. It’s not your job or your place to tell them how they should behave.
They don’t work for you. Stop acting like they do.
Thank you and yub yub.

p.s. Maybe I feet this way because SW has always felt like a gift to me. It’s something I get to enjoy. It’s a world I get to play in. That world could end any time and it’s not mine.
So I’m always happy when I get more even if I’m not in love with all of it.

It has to be pointed out that “Geek Girl Diva” is probably only a freelancer working for the official Star Wars website, but still, the question remains if her viewpoint is a) what most of the people at Lucasfilm think too and b) if she is actually correct.

Opinion: I think Geek Girl Diva and anyone who might agree with her at Lucasfilm/Disney is mistaken. Saying the fans who buy the movie tickets or Blu-Rays are not direct customers of Lucasfilm is like saying that buying Coca Cola at the supermarket doesn’t make you a customer of the company who makes it. Sure, you’re a customer of the supermarket too, but buying something from a company, even through some intermediary like a supermarket, still makes you their customer.

Now imagine Coca Cola, for some reason, decides to change the recipe of their Coke. And it no longer tastes as good as before, you are unsatisfied and have no intention of buying that new Coke. What do you do? Right, you get in contact with Coca Cola and tell them you no longer like their new Coke. You don’t go to the supermarket you bought it from to complain about the new recipe, because the supermarket has nothing to with it. You may inform the supermarket about your intention of no longer buying that new Coke, so the supermarket can change how much of the stuff they actually order (if many people complain about the same thing) but if you want your old Coke back you go to the very company you’re a customer of: to the Coca Cola Company.

Now imagine someone working for Coca Cola tells you you have an unhealthy obsession with Coke and that your debilitating and very toxic masculinity makes you not appreciate the much better and refined Coke recipe, you are afraid of change. And then the representative kindly tells you to f*** off.

The Coca Cola Company would be in a lot of trouble after that. And the person working for Coca Cola would probably be removed from their position soon after.

Saying that Star Wars fans are not customers of Lucasfilm is just like that. It’s disingenious to say the fans are not customers of the company that tries to sell its product – a movie – to the audience.

And anyone working for or with Lucasfilm, whenever they talk to fans, no matter if it’s on Twitter or elsewhere, also talk to customers and customers very well take issue with company representatives that insult them – even if some customers may deserve it, you just never ever insult them, especially with blanket statements that make no distinction between idiots and fans. Anyone working for or with Lucasfilm becomes that company’s spokesperson when they decide to post something on Twitter or give an interview.

Denying that basic fact shows that some people working for or with Lucasfilm have no real understanding what Star Wars fans are and how important they are for Lucasfilm and Star Wars. Without the fans there would be nothing.

So, on the off chance Geek Girl Diva or anyone else working for and with Lucasfilm reads this: Star Wars fans are the lifeblood of the franchise and we are loyal customers of your brand. Some have been since 1977. Treat us like customers, not like some necessary evil that should shut up and just give you their money.

So, what do you think? Do you agree with Geek Girl Diva? Have we no business telling Lucasfilm how the people that work for them should behave when they talk to Star Wars fans? Or do you think Star Wars fans are customers? Do we not deserve “our own acceptable” treatment? Or do we?

Source: Geek Girl Diva’s Twitter

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