by Aaron Schweitzer, Editor
We all know May the 4th is two shared holidays. One is Cinco De Cuatro, but the one that we likely associate this day with more is Star Wars Day. I’ve been thinking a lot about Star Wars recently and I felt the need to write about it on this holiday. Let me take you back to where this article started.
I was at a friend’s house and his wife got home in the middle of a Star Wars conversation. She joined the conversation by saying that Star Wars is the most overrated franchise of all time. Now, look, if you want to have a civil argument with me, that’s totally okay, but you bring in ridiculous accusations like that and we’re throwing fisticuffs. My rebuttal was that The Lord of the Rings trilogy holds that title (sorry, Robert). And similarly to my reaction, there was a sort of angry confusion. “Did he really just say that?!” So she gave her argument and I gave mine, which is that as someone who personally likes LotR but isn’t all gung-ho about it, if you have anything negative to say about it (The Hobbit movies aside), people look at you like a crazy person. But with Star Wars, there is something beautiful about the fan base. And yes, I do see comments on Twitter. But at the end of the day, even though Star Wars has some toxic fans, particularly geared towards certain movies or company eras, we come together because we love Star Wars. It’s the only franchise that we can all look at each other and be like, “Yeah, Solo kind of sucks, right?!” and you can completely disagree with me, but we’ll still be friends!
Welcome to my TED Talk.
It’s no secret that the world has a lot of conflict in it right now. Remember, I do check Twitter. Whether it’s the response to COVID-19, including masks and/or vaccines, which political party you voted for last election, your views on the Black Lives Matter movement, or who you want to win the next season of The Bachelor, there’s a lot to fight for and like many of us, I’m simply exhausted.
Now, that doesn’t mean that I’ll stop proclaiming the things that I believe in, but I’m simply tired of harming friendships, familial relationships, and even romantic relationships because we have a LotR trilogy mentality. And I don’t mean that to sound patronizing to the LotR films or the community that loves those films (and believe me, you’re not the minority). But what I do mean is that the people who say, “You aren’t allowed to see things differently than I do!” Because the reality is, the world at its best is a lot more like that Star Wars defense that I just said. At our best, humanity can take a look at things and say, “Yeah, slavery was bad, but I’m still a fan of the U.S.” or “Yeah, pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza, but I’ll still eat it.”
Perhaps it was misleading, but the purpose of this article is not to say that Star Wars is a perfect franchise. The point of this article is to say that how we choose to react to what we experience in comparison to other people’s experiences has been tearing us apart!
At the time of writing this article, there are currently 7.674 Billion people in the world in 195 countries, with half being male and half being female (and if you want to divide that further, Facebook now has 71 different “Gender” options), at least 20 different religions (and again more if you divide by the world’s main religion, Christianity, by the 45,000 different denominations), and at least five (more realistically six or seven) different generations according to Western definitions! We’re already divided enough as it is, we’ve got to stop splitting that further!
Along with that is something special that Star Wars gave us. What started as one man’s vision of creating a world with interesting characters and stunning visuals eventually led to the creation of 11 (and counting) films, six TV series (and counting) comprised of 18 seasons, a holiday special, several theme parks (or at least sections of theme parks), 110 comic series, well over 400 books (Legends & Disney Canon included), and 140 Star Wars video games, all told consistently over the course of 44 years (at least four different generations)!
It’s hard to not be blown away by these facts, but what is crazy is how each piece of material has helped expand a story to a universe that we love, and there have become many things that we would each consider our favorites! When Clone Wars premiered, let’s be honest, it sucked; but now there are so many people who would claim it as their favorite Star Wars property. Remember when they announced The Mandalorian, a Western that wouldn’t feature a lightsaber for a season and a half, and now it’s some people’s favorite Star Wars property. Remember the feeling you got when Boba Fett showed back up, or when they announced the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, or when we first saw Grogu, or even when they announced Star Wars films were coming back… TWICE!
The point is, Star Wars has done and will do anything and, you know what? I’m here for it. If they want to try another political thriller, I’m here for it. If they want to make a detective story, I’ll be there. If they want to go for a horror movie, I’ll finally be excited for a horror movie. And I bet you’ll be here for all of it. You know why?
Because I’m a fan. If you’ve made it this far, you are too. And as fans, we celebrate the things we love. And when it doesn’t work… we still love Star Wars.
May the 4th be with you.
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