Lore as a Third Place

Delving into The Acolyte Discourse. Also: Terra Nil and the Anti-Game, Construction Archetypes, & Washed Out's New Album

I’ve been enjoying The Acolyte and noticed the both good and bad trends around the primacy of lore and meta-narratives:

Primacy of Lore

As mega IP franchises have grown, ‘lore’ or ‘canon’ has grown increasingly important with fandoms creating wikis and discussing small details found in things like bonus compendiums. As media has become more social, lore has become more important, serving in some cases as a vessel for sacredness. When new creators create new works in a franchise, a social ‘test’ of acceptance becomes whether the creators understand the lore. Lore becomes a venue where people are being social in, and upsetting it can cause relationships to disappear. And so, there’s this almost fearful tension in how lore gets treated, *especially* when the lore gets touched by creators who aren’t (under the belief of the group) seen as usual members of it. In the case of The Acolyte, you have a lesbian woman writing very female gaze-coded media in what’s seen as a historically male-driven franchise (in both supporters and fans). Thus, in desiring to “protect” their venue, there’s a subset of fans who spend inordinate amount of time not enjoying the show, but rather trying to find things that could be wrong.

Any transgression against the sanctity of the venue is seen as an issue, no matter how insanely minute the detail.

One example is the debate around Ki-Adi-Mundi’s age. With his inclusion as a background character in The Acolyte, it’s seen as retconning his age: he is much older than first believed.

The first reference to his age is from a Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace Insider’s Guide. The era in 1999 where you could buy a CD-ROM just to read information.

As his age is shown, it also mentions that his weapon of choice is a purple lightsaber that is never seen in subsequent films: his lightsaber is two different colours other than purple (in Attack of the Clones).

So, there’s a reaction among some fans that because of this faux pas, this ‘retconning’ from a CD-ROM released in 1999, it’s a tick-mark against inclusion into the venue. So minute and almost absurd.

To me, lore shouldn’t get in the way of a good story. If you treat lore this seriously, you’re inevitability going to run into an issue where the stories become stagnant. The world becomes more rigid and the characters increasingly have less agency.

But, it’s understandable why *some* fans treat lore so seriously. I think it’s in part because media itself has become “third places” and lore is treated as secular Bibles. Third places are venues outside home and work where we usually interact with the rest of society. Pre-internet it was the bar, public spaces, library, community clubs, etc. Now, every show has a fandom and sub-reddit. With lore being elevated as third places, it attracts primacy that is seen by some as sacred, and in need of protection.

This, however, can come at a cost of 1) IP franchises not willing to take risks, and 2) not including new fans. There’s an unwillingness to share the venue simply because parts of the fandom is scared… and this leads me to the second part.

The Good and Bad of the Meta-Narrative

I’ve argued repeatedly that one reason certain media succeeds over others is that it requires the people who made it to form part of the narrative. In the age of AI, it will be more so, as you can’t automate authenticity.

Thus, there’s this inevitable trend where the creators form a strong part of the marketing. It adds leverage to the media, but it also means that a lot of media breaks 4th walls a lot. Not in the classic sense, but you *can* be taken out of the media in certain scenes when you can “see” the creator in it. For certain fans, this is what they want: hell yeah for a lesbian woman writing about ‘lesbian space witches’. For some, they don’t want that. For some, this 4th wall on the other side is invisible because you are embedded in the meta-narrative as-is. For example, it’s not weird for me to see my Star Wars like this because that’s my politics: pro-inclusion, pro-diversity, progressive. I enjoy it actually as a part of the meta-narrative. I enjoy seeing new fans excited about new forms of representation and new stories (like Star Wars actually leaning into being horny). People simping over Manny Jacinto’s arms. I love it and not since TLJ have we seen this part of the fandom be this excited.

But, I think what’s a bit left unsaid is that some media rely more on this meta-narrative and some don’t. Due to the unique nature of capitalism + progressivism, despite some franchises being scared, the long march of IP will push it to new areas to simply get new fanbases and make more money. So, you will have stories written by people who have not written stories for those worlds before and they will bring their own life into it. That’s good. That’s great.

But, I think what’s more irksome for some fans is that the meta-narrative can take primacy over the media itself and if you don’t like the meta-narrative, then that comes across a threat to your lore-as-venue.

One might conclude to say that media should stand on its own two feet: it shouldn’t have to rely on this meta-narrative to be a success. But, I disagree. Stories ultimately teach us new lessons, perspectives, and seek to challenge us. Having media be loaded by additional context is a hallmark of the times we live in and that extra context adds to the experience. It adds complexity, yes, but that’s part of what makes it interesting in navigating this both as a creator and as a viewer/reader/player.

Some days we can enjoy this meta-narrative and complexity and social-ness and on some days, we just want to the story to stay a story inside its own world. Both can and will co-exist. It’s the reason we’re seeing metamodern film continue to be enjoyed alongside a resurgence of more modernist media.

Now, please enjoy the rest of the newsletter!

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Bonus Content!

Been a quiet week trying to survive in heatwaves. Making my running/training schedule really, really hard. 😅

Doing more the same this week: watching Nathan For You, The Acolyte, Reading Brave New World, and playing Terra Nil.

Speaking of…

Terra Nil & Parking Lots

Been playing this reverse city-builder game called Terra Nil. My good friends from Clockwork Acorn, recently coded the free expansion for it, and it was time for me to dive in. Really, calming, relaxing “city-building” where you have to restore land.

Adam Millard has an interesting take on genre subversion in gaming. It’s actually similarly relevant to how people are approaching mega IP franchises.

“People have gotten trapped in their own preconceptions.”

“It’s arrogant to assume we’ve truly understood games.”

Speaking of subversion. As an urban nerd, I found this trailer reveal of Car Park Capital, hilarious. ht Adrienne.

Reminds me of how Monopoly was first made to show to players the problems of unregulated capitalism. 😅

Signing NFTs

Squiggle #9999 is going to be minted soon. It’s one of the cornerstone generative art projects created by snowfro.

What I like about it, is that for this final piece, users will be able to “sign the minting contract”, merely paying a small fee to tell the world that “I was here”. It’s one of those no-brainer features I’ve hoped to see in NFTs for a very long while. When you walk through Star Wars Celebration, you see so much of the merch accrue value because it was signed by someone important. NFTs allow this “signing” and this accrual of provenance without actually obscuring the art itself.

It’s something I’ve been advocating for a while and quite excited to see it reach a cornerstone project like this.

Pick Your Construction Archetype

Which one are you?

Probably close to a Left-YIMBY + YIMBY on most days and on days I’m really annoyed at *gestures* politics and urbanism in the USA, a Suburbia Killer. 😅

Washed Out - Wait On You (Live)

Washed Out is one my favourite artists. Feel It All Around is my 4th most listened to song ever. Huge fan. That being said, his previous two albums haven’t been my thing that much, but I’m seriously enjoying all of “Notes from a Quiet Life”.

Enjoy this live performance!

Hope you get see a lovely sunset this week. Take care!

Simon