Note: I know I'm about to use a lot of examples related to the divide between Grievous fans, but I swear this essay is actually about TLJ. I'm using my examples as an analogy.

That sounds like a strange thing to write a chapter over, I know. It's easy to chalk up the TLJ divide to just having a toxic fandom full of horrible people, but recently, I think I should revise my viewpoint on this. It's a bit more complicated than that. 

To better explain how I think this isn't just toxic hate, I'm going to talk about my own experiences. While I'm not especially passionate about TLJ (TFA is more my style in the ST-era), I do have experiences being on one side in another toxic fandom war: the division of Grievous fans into old-guard (people who prefer him prior to CW08) and new-order (people who prefer the CW08 portrayal and beyond). The only overlap is in RotS, and even that gets sketchy. But I'll illustrate an example of why I don't think the gap is caused by toxic hate, but rather by both sides desiring different things. I hope this analogy can better help everyone understand the reasoning behind the TLJ divide.

A while ago, I made the mistake of assuming that 95% of all Grievous fans were old-guard. This was a grievous error (I know, I know, you can kill me now), as around a third of the subfandom is new-order. I have quite a few new-order friends, and when I asked them why they prefer the new backstory to the old, they said that it made Grievous seem more brutal and they preferred that to the sympathetic baby boy gone wrong that's in the Legends EU. 

At first, I scoffed at this idea, especially since the new backstory obviously didn't make him scarier (just whinier). However, as I delved more into thought on this subject, I realized they had a point - the new backstory is much scarier and more disturbing, rather than tragic. In spite of this, I stayed old-guard, as I do today. But why is this?

I believe that it stems from the fact that we want different things. Old-guard fans of Unknown Soldier are largely female. Why? They enjoy Qymaen's emotional conflict as he slowly devolves into a ball of pure rage and hatred. That's an interesting sort of character. But new-order fans are almost exclusively male (at least from what I've seen). They like the aspect of being OP with no character weakness whatsoever, and the new portrayal of Grievous gives them what they want in that regard.

Now, I think you're going to ask me.... "What the kriff does this have to do with TLJ?"

It's almost the same scenario with Kylo Ren. TFA portrayed Kylo Ren as a Force-user without weakness, for the most part. There is a point where he cracks, when you're talking about Han Solo in the "Torn Apart" scene, but I'm going to speak in generalities here. However, in TLJ, he is seen to be blatantly conflicted. We see sweet little hints of Ben Solo shine through, most notably here:

A lot of people who prefer the butt-kicking image of Kylo got really ticked off at this sort of emotion and conflict being displayed. I'm not making a criticism left or right at either side, just like I'm not going to bash new-order fans (especially since both factions get crapped on by OTers who are butthurt about the spinning lightsabers). It's just that we like different things, and we should leave it at that.

The TLJ hatred, to be clear, is not as black-and-white as the Grievous situation (since in his case, we're mainly talking about the backstories). There are surely fans who hate TLJ because it was different than something else they liked about Star Wars or fans who get upset because it doesn't give them nostalgic feels. But have you ever noticed how most TLJ fans are female, or how a lot of TLJ haters are male? It seems strange to me, almost as if it's the different portrayals of Kylo Ren. Another thing I should clear up is that the Kylo Ren portrayals are a purposeful story item, not a result of sloppy storytelling between the authors like with Grievous. But even if you think that, you have to admit there's a difference. That's the analogy here.

Understanding how this psychology works helped me to see new-order fans in a new light, and the new story in general in a new light. I think it can begin to heal the rift in the TLJ divide as well. Understanding that, while you may like one thing and another may like something different, you can still be friends and find common ground. Admitting that neither version is objectively superior, but that you guys just prefer different things for your own reasons, can help people avoid getting branded as fake fans. But understanding why someone may like something, even if you don't enjoy it yourself, can make situations less awkward.

Any other thoughts? What's your stance on TLJ? Other reasons people may hate it? Share your thoughts!