A rant by Freddie Prinze Jr., who provides the voice of Kanan Jarrus on Star Wars Rebels, wherein the actor disccuses Star Wars fans, their toxicity, and the canonical reasons behind why various long-held beliefs regarding the Force are wrong, has recently gained attention and begun circulating across social media.
Prinze Jr. went on his rant during his guest appearance on the 59th episode of Jeff Dye’s Friendship Podcast, a podcast hosted by comedian Jeff Dye who has conversations with various guests “whether they are celebrities, athletes, or even Uber drivers.”
Though the episode with Prinze Jr. debuted five months ago, the rant has only recently come to public attention after a clip of the rant was shared by All Things Comedy, a comedy-based media site, on their Instagram page:
Prinze Jr. begins by telling Dye how “even I get hate from Star Wars fans,” stating that these upset fans failed to realize that they were not the target demographic for the series and were “just pissed off that Han Solo gave the f—ing Millenium Falcon to a girl.”
“I did a Star Wars cartoon, so even I get hate from Star Wars fans when I’m like ‘Look dog, you’re just mad the franchise isn’t aging with you.’ But that ain’t how it works. The first one was for f—-ing kids. The second three, were for different f—ing kids, and this one is for kids. You’re just pissed off that Han Solo gave the f—ing Millenium Falcon to a girl. That’s it.”
He then comments on the criticisms directed towards Rey and her Force related aptitude, equating Luke Skywalker’s training on Dagobah to Rey’s sudden expertise with her force abilities and drawing comparisons between Skywalker and “Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty.”
“Cuz Luke Skywalker is Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. He can talk to things that don’t speak English and understands what they’re f—ing saying. He gets a he gets a fairy godfather instead of a fairy godmother, who teaches him how to be the best Jedi in the world in no time f***ing flat.”
To support his arguments, Prinze Jr. then turns the discussion towards the topic of The Force, stating that skill does not matter in regards to a Jedi’s abilities or successes because “The Force dictates who wins or loses/”
“I know more about the Force than most people cuz Dave Filoni taught me, and George Lucas taught him, and all these video games have fucked people up on what the Force is. Like, Luke’s skill doesn’t dictate whether he wins or loses. The Force dictates who wins or loses, based on balance. And here’s the quick version, or how to explain it to all these people who f—ing think they get to decide.”
Prinze Jr. further elaborates on this interpretation of The Force by claiming that Palpatine’s seduction of Anakin was a means to subvert the attempts at balance by The Force, only for The Force to respond by birthing twins – Luke and Leia:
“If you wanna do this like timewise, Palpatine, you would say, and Yoda, are the smartest two. Palpatine clearly smarter because Yoda was blind to the power of the Dark Side and the seduction of Anakin. So let’s talk about the seduction of Anakin f—ing Skywalker for a second. If the Emperor is the smartest dude in the universe, and knows that the Force dictates this, if he kills who he sees as a rival, Anakin, then he knows the Force is just going to f—ing correct that, because the Emperor knows this. These are George Lucas’ words, not mine, so f— you if you disagree with me. Straight up, this is information time, not affirmation time. Straight up, man.
So the Emperor knows that. So instead of killing Anakin, what does he do? He seduces Anakin. To double the strength of the Dark Side. So what does the Force do? It balances us. How? It gives us twins. Luke and Leia. Two and f—ing two. Balance. And if you look at the movie through just that simple perspective, you will not only know why every single bad guy loses and every single good guy loses, you’ll know who’s gonna win and lose in the next f—ing movies. I can tell you, I just don’t wanna wreck it!”
While this characterization of The Force seems contrary to what many Star Wars fans have become familiar with through years of various multimedia, Prinze Jr.’s theory is technically correct as it relates to current Star Wars canon. In an interview with Slashfilm, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels director Dave Filoni discussed how he had worked with Lucas to develop The Force and its workings in current canon:
“I had a lot of discussions with George about the Force and a lot of that stemmed out of our discussions for Mortis that a lot of it dealt with our discussions on the characters that were the kind of multi-personality being that Yoda finds, the Priestesses in the end of The Clone Wars. And so we were really getting into the nature of the Force as being the cosmic Force and the living Force and what that all means. And so Bendu for me is an extension of those conversations I had with George. And I’m trying to really get down in the story lore a lot of the things he and I talked about. So he wasn’t a character we talked about, but I knew there was opportunity for a character like that. Once you get beyond the concept of the Jedi and the Sith where kind of religion’s working using the Force, there is the Force itself which exists all around us. It’s just life itself. And the balance of the Force never speaks in terms of destroying one side or the other. That’s an attitude we put on it saying okay, the light must vanquish the dark and the dark wants to stop the light. Those are imbalances, which nature corrects all the time.”
Prinze Jr. concludes his rant by stating that the characters in Star Wars are all “archetypes” and that those who disagree with current canon and attempt to cite other non-canon material (such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, as inferred by Prinze Jr.’s Gray Jedi reference) should refrain from doing so because “that’s pretend, fan-fiction s—t”:
“People bitch about the dumbest s—t. Like, its archetype characters. These are George Lucas’ words. There is no Jack Bauer in Star Wars. That character doesn’t exist. It’s not Han Solo. Han Solo is a reluctant hero, okay? That’s the archetype. Darth Maul, who everybody wants to win and he’s everyone’s favorite because he looks sick and he’s great in the video games. F—k you guys! He’s Sisyphus! He is born to fail. Learn your Greek mythology, like, I dunno, George f—ing Lucas did! He’s cursed to roll a boulder up the hill only to have it roll to the bottom again every single time for eternity. That is Darth Maul’s quest. He is in on the joke, you guys. He knows it, he’s just cursed to live that life.”
He concludes:
“Again, not my opinion, George Lucas’. So go f—k yourself if you disagree! You don’t get to ‘level up’ in the Star Wars world. That’s a f—ing video game! There’s no such thing as a Gray Jedi. Qui-Gon even says, I turn towards the light because it’s there! There’s no Gray! That’s pretend, fan-fiction s–t! Which is cool, but don’t try to canonize it because it doesn’t work! And I’m never gonna buy it ever. Star Wars is for f—ing kids.”
What do you make of Freddie Prinze Jr.’s comments regarding Star Wars?