The Golden Age

The Golden Age was a prosperous time for the Galactic Council. Those who remember it look back on fondly on all the memories. There isn’t an exact start date, but it began around late April 2020 during the start of the Reddit Boom, which saw the introduction of various new small Star Wars subs on Reddit. The Halal Incident brought about it’s fall, ending what some consider to be the finest period in GC history.

## **Summary**

*Notable Members:* Doc, Pyke, Kalani, Gar

*Landmark Events:* The death of the N meme, Unbelievaboat

*Things to Remember:* Holy and ARandomPerson’s departure, The Pyke Syndicate

## **The Reddit Boom**

### Introduction

Small subs abounded during the Reddit Boom, which began around late April of 2020 and ran for approximately a month. New mods were eager to join the server so they could make contacts, spread the word about their sub, and most importantly, gain official recognition.

The Reddit Boom was as beneficial to the Galactic Council as it was to the new subs that joined it. Since the Galactic Great War was over, it needed to evolve slightly, to maintain relevance. The new subs joining furthered the GC’s influence, because the subs that started small would grow, and they would be brought up under the Council’s influence. They also fed the Galactic Council with activity, which would help the GC transition from the war and into a time of peace.

### The Start of the Boom

Many medium to large subs started out during the Reddit Boom with only a few members. No one can really trace exactly what triggered the Boom, but it could have been that in the aftermath of the Great War, many Redditors wanted their own power. It was easy to make a small sub about Star Wars, and you immediately had power over your own community. Everyone got to be a meme commander, even if they were passed over for promotion during the actual war.

The community of small Star Wars meme subs is also quite close, and one could make a sub about a popular, although niche character, and advertise on other subs through the deployment of cross posts. The small sub community had sent r/DexMemes and r/HondoOhnakaMemes up to approximately 4000 and 2000 members, respectively, just a few months prior to the Galactic Great War. Such success would be recreated in r/PalpatineMemes, and in the Shadow Collective of subreddits, although on a smaller scale.

### The Subs of the Boom

The first new subs to join the Galactic Council and it’s unofficial subreddit coalition, the r/CISr, include r/PalpatineMemes, r/PykeSyndicate, and of course, r/ShadowCollective, which will be discussed in further detail later in this article.

(I’m coming back to this later, with more subs)

### The Opposition

As with all large movements, there were those who were opposed to the Reddit Boom, including Qd and Stef. As it became trendy for everyone to have a sub, the topics of the subs became more and more niche-y. It seemed all the small background characters had subreddits dedicated to them.

Another aspect that all the new subs introduced was sub based Discords. Hoping to mimic the success of the Galactic Council, many sub leaders made Discord servers. For a solid month, there were copycat servers everywhere. Some of these include the servers made for the Shadow Collective, PalpatineMemes, OkBuddyGungan, and various CIS and droid “faction” subs. Of the Discords made, the only ones that grew away from being GC copycats, obtaining their own identity and user base, were The Imperial Ruling Council, and OkBuddyGungan, both of which are still active at the time of writing.

The main issue presented by those who were against the small subreddit creation was that having a sub for a background character with only a few meme formats was bound to die. Stef also voiced the paranoid concern that the various Discords would draw activity away from the GC. With this in mind, the GC voted a new rule in place. No Star Wars Reddit Discords that were newer than the GC could be created by one of the senators.

This rule was around for awhile, being held in place as long as it was relevant. The issue of its being reinforced, and of the right of the GC to enact such a law was never brought up, but the rule served more as a formality.

Although many of the Subreddits of the Boom died, the wave of fresh new users revitalized the GC. Regardless of whether or not the subs lasted, the Reddit Boom was a crucial part of the GC’s development. Many of the Boomers who joined with their subs back in early April 2020 would remain on the server for a long time to come.

## **A Time of Prosperity**

They were the best of times, yet certainly not the worst of times. Many landmark events took place during this period. Before the members of the GC knew trolls, before the server was tainted by toxicity, the GC was as innocent as a baby. It was a great time to be alive.

### The Alleged NSFW Channel

Rumors abound about a supposed NSFW Channel. According to several conspiracy theorists this “channel” ran from April 26-27, 2020; however, a public statement was made by the staff of the GC, fully disavowing the idea that there ever was an NSFW channel.

The proponents of the NSFW Theory state that it was, in fact, a thing, and they *claim* several prominent server members were sighted on this “channel”. One such member is Greev. Some say he was a “Sauce Dealer” on the “channel,” dishing out only the finest Star Wars sauce to the users of the NSFW gallery.

Evidently, the “channel” was created because, “all the big servers have an NSFW channel, even if it’s never used.” Supposedly, an incident in which Obi Wan the Bold Wan stumbled into gallery, led to the creation of the Deez Nuts role. Deez Nuts was allegedly given to the users who were active in the channel, and was available on request. The role didn’t last long, though. Proponents of the NSFW Theory claim that the channel was deleted on April 27, but really, we all know that no such channel existed, and even if it did exist, it certainly isn’t worth going into any more detail.

### Unbelievaboat

On April 28, 2020, Stef introduced the legendary bot, Unbelievaboat. To test out the new economy, he created an item called “spice” and priced it at zero credits. What followed was a server wide spice trip, as everyone bought spice for free and immediately used it. K2 used the most, though the exact number is too much to count. He maxed out the digits on the !buy and !use commands, outdoing everyone. Coincidentally, no one can seem to recall the events of April 28th.

After the fun was over, the free spice was removed and replaced by “Spice” which cost a cool 100 credits, and gave you the High on Spice role when used. The remaining spice was hunted down and defeated, either being used up, or bought up by Stef. However, one spice was left to serve as a server artifact. The relic would be the source of much strife in the days to come when Large Clank was sued for holding onto some spice illegally. He was punished by having his name changed to Small Clank after a server wide court session.

The spice floated around the server until Doc, broke and desperate for release used "Spice" except the bot didn't differentiate between the spice that gave the @High on Spice role that Doc had in his inventory, and the server relic. Doc used the spice, and the server relic was lost forever.

### Stef’s Promotion

Stef had always been an integral part of the community. Almost as soon as he joined, he was setting up channels and structuring the server. However, on April 30, 2020 Qd officially recognized Stef’s work, and made him an admin. Stef would go on to do many great things. He was already a war hero, but now, he was soon to find a place in the post war server.

> “It was the third day of my being there. I hadn’t been around long, but I already understood the value of having an admin like Stef on board.
> -Doc Maybe, on Stef’s promotion
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Stef would grow into a champion of the GC during the Server Siege of Halal and Nihilus. Time and again, he had proved himself, both during peace, and war, and the server would have never gotten of the ground were it not for him.

### The Birth of a Mango

On May 11th, 2020, Scrapshot completed an order for Large Clank. It was a Mandolorian helmet pfp, all done up in orange and with leaves on the helmet. Mango dubbed himself The Mangolorian, and started what might be the longest running inside joke of the GC. Over time, he took on various different mango themed pfps, but always retained the nickname “Mango”. He eventually returned to being Large Clank, but not after months of being a Mango, and inspiring the biggest fad on the GC ever.

It is thought that Dex and Hans are responsible for many of the Mango edits to follow, including Pope Swolo, Pope Francis with Kylo Ren’s body and a poorly edited Mango around his head. Other notable Mangoes include Doc Mango, which was just Doc’s pfp but with his face as a Mango; several months later, Doge took on Phase II Mango helmet.

The last major Mango event took place on 8/12/20 as the people of the server were pitted Mango to Melon. Several individuals changed names to be fruit themed, or forcefully had their names changed to a melon theme by Qd.

### The Departure of Loved Ones

Even in the height of it’s prosperity several prominent members left the server. If you wish to know more about the individuals in question, head over to the User Database page, and find the page on the user in question.

HolyWanKenobi left on 6/01/20. His main reason was that Discord was negatively impacting his life, and do he deleted his account and left. He had been around since the Ancient Era, and was deeply missed, especially by Dex.

ARandomPerson, the banking clan representative resigns on 5/11/20, leaving the server just days after the POTC/NolanBatman War. He was an original member, a Neutral, and was responsible for drafting the original rules of war.

## The Shadow Collective

The Shadow Collective (r/ShadowCollective) was a subreddit coalition, originally starting with r/PykeSyndicate. It expanded using the fiery activity that comes with meme wars, rapidly bring many subs into its sphere of influence.

### The Founding of an Empire

On April 28, 2020, The Representative of the Pyke Syndicate, or just Pyke, as he came to be called, joined the Discord. Initially, he was only there for r/PykeSyndicate, but in due time, he also made the r/ShadowCollective sub, and represented that as well. It was because of Pyke that the Underworld role was added, for the... “aggressively neutral” members of the server, who aligned with none of the existing factions and did their own thing.

Pyke and another mod, Tobias, ran the Collective, and it was like a big family. They did a meme of the week, and the winning sub was featured on the coalition, which was an effective way of increasing community, and advancing the subs of the collective. If one sub was attacked, they all were, and their might came to be feared.

### The Subs of the Syndicate

The following is a complete list of all the subs that joined the Collective either of their own free will, or those that were captured and forced to kneel.

r/ClanSaxon and r/BlackSunSyndicate

r/ShadowCollective and r/Samukai

r/Crimson\_Dawn and r/NiteOwls

r/OhnakaGang and r/GeonosisMemes

r/NightBrothers and r/DarthMaul

r/TechnoUnionMemes and r/ClanJaigEyes

r/HondoOhnaka\_Memes and r/DarthBaras

r/DeathWatch\_Memes

These are the subs that joined the mighty Collective. They came in all shapes and sizes, but they fought alongside their brothers during the wars, and and now rest alongside them in their death.

### The Wars

The first raid in which the Collective struck together was against r/Firstorderbase, which was a success, minus a few users being reported to Reddit.

The second was the Reylo one, where u/Halalboi9021 sent out a message to all subs of the Collective, and some neutral subs like r/PalpatineMemes as well, urging them to ride on r/Reylo. He attacked early, leading a few members of Reylo to trace him back to Pyke and his sub. Pyke, his sub, and multiple members of his modding team were reported, despite Halal getting off Scott free. Pyke made a formal apology to the Reylo community, and called off the attack. However, r/BlackSunSyndicate continued to raid, but records of their engagements were lost to history.

The Reylo raid caused quite the stir; getting several members reported sent a message to the Pyke Syndicate and many of it's allies in the Collective. They ceased their warring, yet the raids were the only thing that keep the community alive - without the wars, the brotherhood soon fell to pieces, with many of the subs falling into crippling inactivity.

## The Revival Wars

The Revival Wars was a brief set of excursions first between with r/kitfisters going against r/DurgeMemes and r/PykeSyndicate, and then with the GC going onto r/WorldPolitics at a time when the sub was morphing from actual World Politics to a hub for shitposting. As there is already much written on WorldPolitics and what it became, I will focus on the areas which directly pertain to the GC community.

K2-B4, or Antewon, as he would later be called, came to the Senate with the proposition of joining the efforts of various groups to suppress WorldPolitics and keep it from being political. He listed bringing content, interest, and activity to the subs- many of the CIS ones which were struggling, as reasons to go to war. However, many neutral subs readily mobilized to gain members, and in the end, a joint ride by all subs in the GC was launched on WorldPolitics on 6/13/20.

> I'd like to go on record and say that the many people who seem to think all the Star Wars memes they saw on r/WorldPolitics belonged to members of r/PrequelMemes are mistaken. PrequelMemes rarely gets involved in wars. The sheer mass of Star Wars content was coming from the little guys -the underdogs- who viewed the small offshoot subs as being their faction- not PrequelMemes. - Doc Maybe, On Star Wars fan's involvement in WorldPolitics
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The Revival War was the last major joint offence for many of the subs in the GC. For some, the Revival Wars were a last ditch effort to save a dying sub, for others they were fought for the joy of shitposting. Others still progressed beyond needing, or wanting wars in order to survive. Mere months later, many server members would slowly turn away from Reddit, and eventually, the server itself would separate from Reddit to form a freestanding community. Regardless of their impact, effectiveness, or execution of the original intent, the Revival Wars paved the way for the defactionizing of the server. They proved that server members were beginning to see themselves as belonging to a larger community on the GC, not as to a sub or a particular faction. The Revival Wars showed us that members were proud to be a part of something greater, and possessed the ability to adapt to large scale server changes.

## The Trial of Halal and the End of the Golden Era

Halalboi was a simple troll, and yet I'm dedicating an entire section to him. Some people may consider this odd, or unnecessary, but to me, Halal was an icon more than he was an actual nuisance. Halalboi, who has since deleted the Discord account many of this occurred on, was just a regular user, but he wasn't around long. He would spam pings, be horny in main to get on people's nerves, and made homophobic comments. Nowadays, this would be annoying, but most people wouldn't bat an eye. As previously mentioned, he would start wars, commit cringe, etc etc.

> "Win" - Qdzs1, remarking on what it was Halal did to become so infamous.
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In the end, Halal could not respond to attempts to get him under control, and so a trial was held. The vote to ban him was nearly unanimous, with only 2 votes being cast in favor of giving him another chance. Halalboi was banned, and eventually faded into obscurity, but the changes he ushered in would bring an end to the Golden Era. With the expansion of the server, new people would come along, and the more people who joined, the greater the odds that not all of them would get along. The GC was no longer just a tiny hangout server for a handful of people with the same interest and overall views. New people, including trolls, were flooding in, and changing the demographic every day. There would be people that were toxic or annoying, some maliciously so, and the few months of inside jokes and carefree messing around without really having to worry about server moderation or rules was over.

Though the so called "Golden Age" is over, I encourage those who remember it to put their focus on the now, rather than the then. Memories are being made now, and bonds strengthened. Though we look fondly at the past, the person who was pulled from the Golden Age is older, wiser, and still living in their "golden age" - the now. We never really grasp the golden moments till they're past, and so I encourage you to go out and seize yours now, while it's still more than just a fragmented memory.