Star Wars Discourse in the internet age

The Mandalorian wrapped it’s second season a few weeks ago. The season had its ups and downs but I think pretty much everyone appreciated the gift that was the Season Two finale.

But leave it to the internet to ruin a perfectly good gift. The discourse in many circlese quickly shifted to how terrible the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy is — how those creators and artists are garbage and don’t know what they’re doing, while Filoni and Favreau should have full control of any and all Star Wars content until the end of time. People praised The Mandalorian but only at the expense of Episodes 7,8 & 9.

I'm kind of sick of fighting about this. I'm looking forward to Star Wars fans getting back to enjoying one thing without needing to tear down another.

I’m old enough to remember how hated the Prequel Trilogy was when it first came out. Fans wrote songs about their childhood’s being raped. Actors from those film — REAL PEOPLE — saw their real lives damaged by that discourse. Finally, thanks in large part to the expanding Star Wars storytelling universe and The Clone Wars animated series, it seems those fans have gotten over all that. There is a place for all of it. It was clear to me that the fandom was moving in the right direction, toward inclusion and celebration, and that excited me.

I didn’t see the Original Trilogy in its first theatrical run. My Star Wars was in a galaxy of action figures and imagination (later, I joined a role-playing campaign with some good friends and THAT was my Star Wars for a while). When the Special Editions were released, I went to see them and to bask in the joy of a fandom hungry for something, ANYTHING, more from the world they loved so much. My friends were far bigger fans that I. But I liked being included. I liked seeing the movies through their eyes.

Even when we all went to see The Phantom Menace, I felt like an outsider, but an eager outsider. I waited in line for hours both for tickets and to get into the physical theater (remember life before assigned seats?). I cheered on my friends who had choreographed a lightsaber fight to perform before the movie began. I applauded the 20th Century Fox fanfare. I got chills when the opening crawl began. And when the movie was over, I stayed up until 5 AM talking, listening to my friends, these die-hard fans, as they worked through their thoughts and feelings. Ultimately, whatever flaws they saw in the film, they were excited because it was new. They’d wanted new Star Wars their whole lives and they finally had it. For better or worse, they chose to embraced that. It was a valuable lesson for me.

I saw The Phantom Menace four times in the theater and each time I changed my mind about it: it’s terrible, it’s not so bad, it’s a total mess, there are some great themes in this! But it was never my movie. I liked Star Wars but I didn’t love it. Not in the form of the Original Trilogy. Not in the form of the Special Editions. And not in the form of the Prequel Trilogy.

My love of Star Wars came in the form of Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo Ren. The Force Awakens meant so much to me because it felt like a metaphor for my own journey through that galaxy far, far away. Like Rey, of course I knew the legends. I’d heard the stories. But they were just that — just stories. Luke, Leia an Han were heroes from another age for another imagination.

And then suddenly there was Han Solo telling Rey (and telling me!) that it was all real. The Jedi. The Sith. All of it. My mind and my heart exploded. The Force was awake within me. Finally, I understood what my friends had loved for so long. Finally, I was a real part of that inclusive and loving fandom.

As you can imagine, then, seeing the thing I now love dismissed and derided at the expense of something someone else loves feels… weird. It doesn’t feel like the fan club I wanted to join. It doesn’t feel like Star Wars to me.

Recently, I saw a quote from Lesyle Headland about how she's the type of fan that doesn't have a favorite SW movie. She just wants to live in the universe of Star Wars in perpetuity, forever. "There is no Star Wars movies; there is *only* Star Wars.

That's really where I'm at.

But I get the Mando love. For fans of a certain age the Original Trilogy is everything. And The Mandalorian is made for those fans. It's an action figure toy aisle come to life. It's a 90s fever dream. It's the fanfiction everyone wrote in their heads. It's making Legends stuff that people loved canon, finally. I never read any of the Legends stuff, so that isn’t as important to me. But still, I choose to celebrate all of it. I love what the show means to so many people. That's awesome. That’s Star Wars. That’s the celebration I’m here for.

And if you’re interested in more Star Wars celebration check out the ForceCenter Podcast. The team there has the best Star Wars content on the internet. They’ve helped me manage my own feelings about all of this in profound ways that they’ll never know about. You’ll be glad you listened.

May The Force Be With You… Always