So....How to start this off? I'm no literary genius by any stretch of the imagination, so you'll have to excuse the style of prose, but I knows what I likes. As I say in the title pages of this new blog, its a first for me so be gentle.
I went to see Star Wars (it was still just Star Wars then, not A New Hope) when I was 6 when it came out in 1977. I saw Empire in 1980 as soon as I could and in 1983 my brother and I dragged my mum to see Return of me......I mean the Jedi. I was hooked as soon as that opening crawl slid up the screen. I've always loved Science Fiction and loved watching all the fifties and sixties stuff when it was on the TV growing up. This? This was different! Waaaaaaay Different!
Star Wars was a visceral experience. Its not been dimmed by time and I still have goose bumps when the titles roll and I hear John Williams' legendary theme music. It captured everything I loved about the genre. It gave me heroes to adore and emulate. It gave me villains to boo and hiss at. It gave me starships, dogfights in space, laser battles! It also gave me my first crush. Carrie Fisher. Fell in love with that Princess and still love her to bits.
I didn't care about George Lucas' inspiration or the parallels with westerns. Gods no! I cared about Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon, whether Luke would defeat Vader and a million and one other things that had nothing to do with Akira Kurosawa and his influence on the Jedi. All of these things would come a lot later.
As time went by I bought the books (My first was Han Solo's Revenge, bought in W H Smiths in Tenby sometime in the 80s), the comics, the action figures. I became totally immersed in the whole thing. I knew everything about the films. Could quote (and still do, to my daughters unending frustration) verbatim all of them. I was into Dungeons and Dragons as a kid as well so it was only natural that when the role playing game by West End Games came out I was all over it. It was towards the end of my D & D phase though and I never really gamed it but the source books became my new bibles. Full of new material and I absorbed it like a sponge. I was that most heinous of things....A Star Wars geek. I knew everything. Go on....ask me!
Its hard to describe my love for it, why it means so much to me but bear with me.....Anyway onwards! There was a significant gap in any real Star Wars stuff past the original works of Brian Daley or Alan Dean Foster. A Splinter of the Minds Eye etc were all I had beside the RPG so in 1991 when Timothy Zahn's Heir To the Empire came along you can imagine my joy.
This book, and the plethora of stuff that was to become, at first, the Expanded Universe and later Legends (shudders) gave me, and millions of others like me (I'm looking at you Richie!) the Star Wars hit we needed. It propelled us into more adventures with our heroes in that galaxy far away. There were hits, there were misses (all of which we'll cover here at some point) but it was Star Wars! Same goes for Droids, the animated series and the Ewoks stuff. Thats all we cared about. It didn't matter if it was good Star Wars or bad Star Wars.......it was Star Wars!
In the late 90s rumours started that George was going to continue the saga. In a twist though he was going backwards. Starting with Episode Four had always been a bit of a question mark for me, but again.....Its Star Wars, so I rolled with it when it was announced that he'd be going back to Episode One. After much build up, a lot of hype and much excitement on my part on 19 May 1999 The Phantom Menace was released. I went to see it with a mate from work, an almost as big a geek as me, and I BLOODY LOVED IT! At the time I ignored all the plot holes, the niggles.......the Gungans.....(No offence to Ahmed Best). Again none of this mattered, Star Wars right? Now on reflection, yes we did gripe a bit about these things but hey nothing is perfect. For the next six years we had Star Wars on a regular basis. And this was on top of the now immense EU (Expanded Universe, not European.......well, you get it). Again, there were good bits and bad in all three films but I didn't really analyse it that much at the time. In all I enjoyed all three. There'll be more on this subject at a later date.....believe me!
So. We'd had All of this. The Films, the Books, the series and later the computer games. Star Wars got everywhere in pop culture as well. I loved seeing references in films, on TV and reading them in books. From the Simpsons to Robot Chicken, Family Guy to Stargate there are quotes and references all over.....
Its OK Sheldon I didn't forget you........Of course The Big Bang Theory basically played on the whole Sci Fi genre and geeks like me! And Star Wars is a massive part of it. Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and James Earl Jones all cameoed. And for a while it was enough. Rumours started of Lucasfilm doing live action series and the magnificent Clone Wars animated series was a high point (Thank you Dave) But nothing materialized. The books continued, the fan films were made but nothing big.
In 2012 George retired and sold Lucasfilm to Disney. Almost immediately the rumour mill began. New films, series and games were coming. We, the fans, were over the moon. Then in 2014 it was announced that the entire EU would be dropped. Gasp! Wait? Whut? There was much grumbling and gnashing of teeth. The EU would become Legends. But ultimately it all belonged to the House of Mouse and they could do with it as they pleased.
By 2015 we had the first of the new Sequel Trilogy, and again we'll deal with the merits etc of those in another article. The trailers had whet the appetite, I for one had goosebumps, tears, the whole shebang! Then it arrived! The Force Awakens. First time the crawl went up the screen I wept. My daughter, sat next to me mystified. Why are all these old giffers bawling? She must have thought. At first go I enjoyed it. Its, after all, STAR WARS! I didn't analyse it too much at first but after a few viewings it wasn't STAR WARS......it was star wars. It was missing something. A year later we got, to quote a mate of mine, "The Star Wars we've waited 33 years for". Rogue One. It was epic, heroic, had Stormtroopers, Rebels, X-Wings and that final fight on Scarif. Then just as it couldn't get any better.......
It was head and shoulders above The Force Awakens on every level. A film made by a man who was, quite obviously, a huge fan and knew his onions. Thank you Gareth Edwards. Over the next few years we got Rebels, two more Sequel films, Resistance and Solo. The relative merits of each and the whole explosion of crap, if I'm honest, I won't go into here. Suffice to say they didn't live up to expectations. There are good things in them and parts I enjoyed but it was missing something....I will cover all of this elsewhere I promise. Rebels was a massive success but overall the Star Wars mojo was severely depleted. Don't get me wrong, I know a massive amount of work went into it all but the Sequels were not made by fans, they were made by Disney to make money. And make it they did. Solo was hit by this as well and all kudos to Ron Howard who had very little time to fix what Disney and Lucasfilm (KK ahem) farted about with but did a fantastic job on. I actually enjoyed Solo and would love a sequel.
Its all been a bit messy recently. I don't condone the abuse that Daisy Ridley and Kelly Marie Tran got over it. Same as Ahmed Best's abuse over Jar Jar. Ridiculous. I didn't like the sequels. I can see the merits in bits and that they were a massively missed opportunity but I also acknowledge that others loved them. Just don't get a cockstand with me because I disagree. There are some poisonous people in our fandom.....sigh
Anyway, I digress, thats all for later articles. In the midst of all this stuff, between rumours of series and then those series being cancelled, finally something happened....something magnificent.........It was like millions of voices cried out in joy! Finally we got the Live Action series we'd been waiting for. Helmed by the man that gave us Elf, Ironman and was Monica's cage fighting boyfriend in Friends.....John "The Saviour" Favereau, He is ably assisted in this by the wearer of the sacred cowboy hat, creator of Clone Wars, Rebels and Rebel Pilot, Dave "The Chosen One" Filoni.
The Mandalorian landed on Maldo Kreis and, single handed, saved Star Wars. It was back. The Star Wars I knew and loved. The grittiness, used feeling was in abundance. It's made by two guys who know Star Wars, who love Star Wars. The entire run of two seasons has been a roller coaster of emotions for all of us. From the first sight of baby Yoda to the arrival, in S2 of Bo-Katan "Starbuck" Kryse, Ahsoka Tano and, of Course, Boba Fett. Its been huge. The Acting, the story, the effects, the direction.....every kriffing thing about it, perfect........And then.....AND THEN, just as you thought things couldn't get any frakkin better......
Redemption.
I love everything Star Wars. Some stuff not as much as others, but its STAR WARS. I may have my gripes, I may have my issues but when its all said and done its something we all in this fandom love in some way. Ok you may hate the prequels, you may hate the sequels but respect those differences. And if you tear up, sniffle or, just like me and Star Wars Theory over on YouTube (Check him out, thoroughly recommended), full on lose your shit and cry like a baby then thats fine. Emotion is all part of this.
Well. Here we are at the end of my first massive ramble and first ever blog. Wow. Its been a ride. Let me know what you think. Full on flaming will be dealt with but all constructive criticism is welcomed. Remember we aren't going to agree on everything. I have spoken......
This is the Way
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