Over a couple weeks ago, a twitter hashtag was on the trending page as, I believe, a kind of “advertisement” for the upcoming Star Wars movie that premieres in just a few weeks. I looked at this hashtag and thought how difficult it would be to actually describe something as massive and meaningful a franchise that Star Wars has become, especially in recent years. I thought I’d take this opportunity to use this hashtag and give it more thought, and more words, to explore more in depth why I love this odd but unique film franchise so much.
Now the funny thing about my love for Star Wars is I didn’t start getting into the fandom or even watch a Star Wars movie until I was a senior in high school. Of course I knew what Star Wars was from my brother when I was younger. He was the perfect age at the time to get into the prequel films, while I was more preoccupied with watching Disney films over and over again. It wasn’t until the hype for the first Disney produced Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, was about to come out that I knew I just had to get in on the Star Wars bandwagon. I watched the first three movies during the holiday season before The Force Awakens hit theatres and, needless to say, I was definitely hooked into the world of Star Wars.
Over time and watching all of the Star Wars films I could find, I was definitely loving the different worlds and mythologies imbedded into the movies and couldn’t wait until a new Star Wars movie came out! I think what drew me in most with the Star Wars franchise was definitely the representation inside a mystical and imaginative science fantasy environment. One of the only things I love about the Star Wars prequels is the character of Padme Amidala, aka Luke and Leia’s mother. She was this badass queen turned senator and had this demeanor and voice that I just loved getting invested in. Not to mention I’m always a sucker for star crossed romance situations. Even as time moved on with the Star Wars franchise, we got even more cool and interesting female characters from Rey, Rose Tico, Jyn, Admiral Holdo and even more that’s coming this month!
Though with all these exciting new developments with Star Wars in terms of roles for female characters, it has been kind of nerve-wrecking seeing all of the negative backlash that the franchise has been getting and this recently put me in a difficult place with Star Wars. The fandom has become so toxic that it’s hard to even give praise to something in the new Star Wars films without someone claiming that your opinion is wrong. Now I think that’s just the world of the internet talking and taking over so many of our pop culture landscape that even having genuine, nice opinions is a rarity and shunned for being “too soft” on giving a different opinion from a negative majority, which in it of itself is another story for a different time. But when I still think Star Wars, even today, I think of the different ideas and story elements that have me, as well as audiences, connected with characters and scenarios that most of us can get behind and support.
Star Wars is a complicated franchise, for better or worse, but gosh darn-it I love seeing what different content and ideas and characters that come from this world so much that I will always be excited about what the future holds for the franchise now that the Skywalker Saga will come to an end(?). Whatever the future of Star Wars holds, the main reason I love Star Wars resonate in just one scene from the first film, involving two moons over a desert landscape.