On Monday, it was widely reportedly Kelly Marie Tran had completely wiped her Instagram clean of any posts. The Last Jedi actor hasn’t confirmed the reason why but let’s put it down to the hordes of disgusting harassment she’s been receiving from toxic individuals of the Star Wars fan base.
For months, Tran has been the victim of hateful comments about her appearance, gender, and race across her personal pages on social media. Not to mention the targeted abuse on her varied posts.
Rose Tico, played by Tran, was introduced in the latest instalment as a maintenance worker for the Resistance. Tran only made an Instagram in the lead-up to the film’s release and kicked off her social media presence by posting adorable videos of herself geeking out to being in a Star Wars flick. Even after the hateful comments started, Tran still posted daily positive quotes to inspire and lift up others.
In short, a lot of fans of varying degrees, didn’t like Tran’s character or plot line in The Last Jedi which is fine – but to deliver hateful comments day after day to a fellow human being for a fictional character they played is ridiculous.
https://twitter.com/caroldanvrs/status/1003885633075441664
kelly marie tran deserves better than the star wars fandom that can’t seem to grasp the idea that she’s an actual person not her character
— danielle (@noyasjoon) June 3, 2018
Following Tran’s exit from Instagram, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson responded to the news by calling out all the “manbabies” via his Twitter. Last year, Johnson had to disable the comments on his Instagram after ‘fans’ started to leave the most stupid words on a post of a child playing with Star Wars figurines.
What we talk about when we talk about manbabies
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) June 5, 2018
On social media a few unhealthy people can cast a big shadow on the wall, but over the past 4 years I’ve met lots of real fellow SW fans. We like & dislike stuff but we do it with humor, love & respect. We’re the VAST majority, we’re having fun & doing just fine. https://t.co/yhcShg5vdJ
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) June 5, 2018
Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill agreed:
Same here, but over the past 40 years for me. https://t.co/5p2eYexgO6
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) June 5, 2018
Following his tweet, Hamil later pinned this photograph to the top of his feed:
What’s not to love?#GetALifeNerds pic.twitter.com/k1sa0X1qpg
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) June 6, 2018
Despite Johnson’s words, certain members of the fanbase still didn’t understand their wrongdoings and so Johnson made it even more clear:
Done with this disingenuous bullshit. You know the difference between not liking a movie and hatefully harassing a woman so bad she has to get off social media. And you know which of those two we’re talking about here.
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) June 5, 2018
But Twitter-user Dan continued:
Your “implication” was not an implication at all, it was explicitly stated in your tweet: you’re conflating critiquing a movie with being an abusive asshole to people online, when it’s clear as day they are two seperate things & we’re condemning the latter and not the former.
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) June 5, 2018
Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey, also quit social media following waves of harassment from the Star Wars fanbase. She later told an interviewer she received therapy in order to cope with the atrocious behaviour of certain ‘fans’.
The good of the Star Wars fanbase have since shown their adoration for Tran via the hashtag FanArtForRose.
Here she is, our shining ray of light and positivity <3
#fanartforrose #Rosetico #kellymarietran pic.twitter.com/nlgGppVWtN— Maria Nguyen ლ(ಠ_ಠლ) (@DTNart) June 6, 2018
