Growing Up Star Wars: Episode III, The Re-Awakening.

***DISCLAIMER*** The opinions that I state within about the Disney-era Star Wars movies are just that, my opinions. I have no wish to engage in the senseless debates over why the sequels are "shit" and that Disney took a big steaming dump on your childhood. You can read on and privately agree or disagree with my statement, or you can avoid reading altogether. Makes no matter to me. Disagreeing with me is fine. Leaving me angry comments about how I'm "wrong" and that I'm "not a true Star Wars fan", will immediately be jettisoned out the airlock and cause the commenter to be banished to Dagobah.

Now, on with our show.

Dateline: 2005. The Star Wars saga has come to its conclusion. The six-episode saga that tells of Anakin Skywalker's rise to Jedi Knight, fall to the Dark Side, and eventual redemption has been completed with the release of Revenge of the Sith. The story is over.

A casual meeting of corporate giants with
$4 billion dollars at stake.

 The next several years remain golden for Lucasfilm's flagship property. The galaxy far, far away is, for the most part, still alive and well in books, comics, and video games. Hasbro and other licensees continue to produce action figures, vehicles, and playsets. The Clone Wars animated series continues to expand the universe, winning rave reviews from fans and critics alike, and Disney's Star Tours attraction receives a much-needed upgrade from one destination to several, randomized adventures and a 3-D enhancement to truly make it feel like you are apart of the Star Wars story. But so far as anyone knows, the era of the big-screen Star Wars films is over.

With my daughters, attempting to
recreate the Clone Wars theatrical poster.

 
Or so we thought.

October of 2012. I'm driving home from work one day with the radio on when the announcement is made that George Lucas has sold Lucasfilm and all its franchises to the Walt Disney Company. More Star Wars is on its way! My jaw hits the floor of the car and I almost swerve into a ditch. Like many (but not all) of us, I am elated at the news. After all, Disney had been recently knocking it out of the ballpark with their acquisition of Marvel Comics. So I'm sure that Star Wars is in good hands.

Despite my excitement, the news is also a bit saddening. In 2008, my best friend David, who, like me, was a huge fan, passed away unexpectedly. Our love of Star Wars is what brought us together and cemented our friendship. He was just about the only person with whom I could really share my excitement with over this and now could not, so the announcement was tempered with a note of melancholy.

Anyway, fast track to December of 2015. I have finagled a ticket to the opening night 11PM screening of Episode VII, The Force Awakens. I was seven years old again, reveling in every image

that flashed before us on screen. I immediately fell in love with Daisy Ridley and her character of desert scavenger/Jedi-hopeful Rey. John Boyega and Oscar Isaac were the perfect new male leads. Adam Driver was terrific as conflicted villain, Kylo Ren, and we got something that the prequels did not have, all our old favorites in Han, Chewie, Leia,, and(very briefly) Luke.

I loved it. I loved every minute of it. Yes, the story was basically a flashy re-telling of A New Hope but I didn't care. Unlike the prequels, this immediately felt like old-school Star Wars to me. It got even better upon my second viewing a week later when the whole family went. Watching my youngest daughter's face light up at the first sight of the Millennium Falcon was one of my proudest Dad moments ("It made me so happy!" she said, when I asked her about it.)

I have to say that the internet is probably the number one cause of high blood pressure in my life. Too many people use it as a platform to force their opinions on others, and nothing was worse than when The Last Jedi was released in 2017. What took me aback was the absolute hatred spewing from the so-called fans. Honestly, it was like someone peed in the fandom's lunchbox. Racism, sexism, and just plain stupidity abounded when reading comments from others. This wasn't civilized discussion. This was pure hate. If you liked it in any form you weren't a "true fan." Both Daisy Ridley and newcomer Kelly Tran were literally bullied off of social media by irate a**holes who went so far as to make death threats in some cases. The people who cried that The Force Awakens was unoriginal were now screaming that Last Jedi was too different. Director Rian Johnson was the anti-Christ of Star

Wars and people were clamoring for J.J. Abrams or even George Lucas himself to come back and retake command, even though they had earlier "ruined people's childhood."

As for myself, I think The Last Jedi is one of the best of the saga. I went in with few expectations and couldn't believe how it kept me guessing at every turn. But you can't say things like that to the "true fans." Unless Luke Skywalker does something like use the Force to pull a star destroyer out of the sky (Which has already been done in the LucasArts game The Force Unleashed.) it just isn't good enough.

Truthfully though, I don't believe anything from this point on will ever be good enough for certain fans. Fans, who, unless someone makes a movie of the script that was written in their minds will never be satisfied. The number of talking heads on YouTube who gain thousands of viewers watching them spout unsubstantiated drivel about why, in their "expert" opinion, The Last Jedi, and now, The Rise of Skywalker are "complete cinematic failures", is mind-numbing. I pretty much avoid discussing Star Wars anymore, except for those few Facebook groups where toxicity is not allowed and dealt with if it rears its ugly head.

My take on The Rise of Skywalker? It was a hard movie to watch. That is not meant as a negative. It was hard to watch for someone who has followed this journey since he was a star-struck seven-year-old watching the original in the theaters 40-plus years ago and now see it end. It was hard knowing that J.J. Abrams had to scramble to re-write the script after the untimely death of Carrie Fisher and do what he could to pay tribute to both the actress and the character and satisfyingly end her story arch at the same time. It's hard to say goodbye to these characters after all this time. To quote See-Threepio, this movie was "taking one last look...at my friends."

Rogue One and the criminally underrated Solo (a personal favorite) have helped flesh out more backstories while becoming enjoyable films one can watch without knowing the larger picture. And Disney promises (to the consternation of some) more Star Wars to come. What that will look like is anyone's guess.

 For me personally, the nine-part Skywalker saga will always be a deep-rooted part of my soul. More than anything else in science fiction, it has been the driving force behind my own space opera adventures. I will be forever thankful to George Lucas for sharing this wonderful gift with the world.

Just as we crave beauty and flights that take us to worlds we've never seen, realms we've never experienced, the Star Wars saga will continue. In the largest sense, it can never end, because imagination has no end - From SPFX: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980

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