I generally approach internet discussions with 2 rules:
1. Take everything said at face value and give people the benefit of the doubt. I don't know anyone well enough to psychoanalyze or second-guess their motives.
2. If someone says something so racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted that it doesn't deserve the dignity of a response, I don't respond to it.
If Robert Downey Jr. didn't want to come back for any more movies after his Iron Man 3 contract ran out, then yes, Iron Man wouldn't have been around for the conclusion of the Infinity Stones storyline. RDJ was so intrinsic to the character in the public consciousness that I don't see any possibility of Marvel recasting the role for a very long time. And while Iron Man 3 was more of just a thematic closure for the character, Age of Ultron ended with him explicitly talking about retiring, thus leading to him being semi-retired at the beginning of Civil War.
Doh! I forgot about that one. God, the first Iron Man movie feels like it was an infinity ago.
A week ago, my sister, my father, & my half-brother each separately asked me about what I thought about Solo. Now, none of them live under a rock or anything but they're also not as deeply steeped in sci-fi culture as we all are here. And none of them knew anything about Lord & Miller getting fired until I told them. So, yeah, I think we do need to take a step back and realize that we're in a very hardcore minority here. That's not to say that the hardcore fans can't influence the tone of the mainstream reaction but it's not a 1:1 reaction.
Star Wars is much more of a casual thing for me. I know all of the movies pretty well forwards & backwards but I don't watch the TV shows, buy the comics, or read the novels. (However, "Shadows of the Empire" for Nintendo 64 was friggin' awesome!)
Star Trek is my legacy favorite. I gobbled it up voraciously during my formative years, from about 4th grade until I graduated high school. But once I got to college, I kinda got bored with Enterprise. There are still huge chunks of Enterprise & The Original Series that I haven't seen and I haven't watched any of The Animated Series and I only bothered with the first episode of Discovery. But pick out nearly any random clip from any random episode of The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, or Voyager, and I'd lay fair odds that I'll be able to identify the episode.
Doctor Who is my new love. I hold it a personal point of pride that I've seen every single surviving episode of both the classic series and the new series as well as Torchwood. Still working on The Sarah Jane Adventures and Class though. I'm also addicted to Doctor Who wall calendars, novels, and those 3" Titans vinyl figures.
Although, for me it's a big-4 since Buffy/Angel is also way up there for me.
You mean when they killed off Col. Sumner in the very first episode of Stargate Atlantis?
That would be me. It's my #2 favorite, after Revenge of the Sith.
The more I look at how devastated Obi-Wan was at the end of Revenge of the Sith, the more I think he's lying to himself as much as anyone. He's concocted this myth about Darth Vader betraying & murdering Anakin Skywalker so that he can still sleep at night.
Which was another movie that seemed to underperform at the box office. Maybe Ehrenreich is just cursed.
