Why Ackbar is Too Busy to Be a School Mascot
Word on the streets is that the University of Mississippi, which apparently everyone in the known universe refers to as Ole Miss as though it was a crazy cat lady living down the street, was home to a movement to pronounce Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars as its mascot.
I applaud the idea and I can see why the university was at least willing to grin and let it go: it was good PR (hey, I’m posting it) and more importantly, as one student points out: if Ackbar was the university’s mascot, it would start attracting nerds from all over the world. And we all know that nerds pretty much own the universe at this point.
No, the only laughable part is if anyone actually thought George Lucas and LucasArts would grant some kind of license to a trademarked character from one of the world’s biggest franchises ever. Hell, I’m amazed that they even managed to get some cutesy letter about Ackbar being unable to accept the job or whatever instead of a pack of lawyers flinging stacks of cease & desist letters around. Kind of like all the anti-war protesters at my own university, except in suits and less smelly, probably.
As for why Ackbar is too fictionally busy to take on the role of mascot, let’s face it: like most of the rest of the world, he’s about as interested in living in Mississippi as he is in having his eyeballs gouged out by the terrifying sentient Swiss Army knife that is R2-D2.
Gia Manry is a professional writer specializing in geek culture. She currently writes primarily for Anime News Network, but also likes being followed on Twitter. She can be contacted via her website.