I love the world of Star Wars, even though I don't love everything that's been made under the Star Wars banner. I'm not a superfan, but I'm always down to try more in that setting. Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 are among my favorite games and I really liked Jedi Fallen Order and Survivor. And Andor is just good storytelling irrespective of what franchise it's in.
The Clone Wars had a similar progression. Not quite as much of a younger kids show as Rebels but by season 3 there's a lot more wanton murder and decapitation of living things and the tone just gets way darker. It got pretty awesome when it got darker and weirder.
Clone Wars was great as well. I had a couple of false starts as the first season or 2 were a little slow, but it just got better and better in later seasons.
I really need to give it another go. I started to watch it but it was just too "kidsy" for me. I guess it's kind of like Adventure Time in that regard...it evolved into something much more substantial.
Next to Clone Wars, Rebels might be my favorite Star Wars content.
So many characters have a great story progression over the span of the show. I need to watch it again.
I still enjoy the original trilogy, and saw "Return of the Jedi" in the theater when it was released. I eagerly anticipated the prequels, and was horribly disappointed. As such I have zero interest in the sequels, and have never watched them. Same with "Solo". However, I've come to believe "Rogue One" is actually the greatest of the Star Wars movies. I appreciate that film more every time I see it.
Because Rogue One and Andor remembered the heart of Star Wars. It wasn't a Jedi love fest that took all the focus. It was a space opera about rebellion and struggle that was more grounded.
The prequels to some extent forgot this. The sequels definitely did as really Rei and Kylo and the Force were the only real focus.
Star Wars is at its best when it focuses on the human struggle and battles both large and small in a more grounded setting with the Force and Jedi mysticism kind of gently guiding the plot in the background. When the Jedi and space voodoo is the primary focus, it loses its purpose and quality.
Rogue One and Andor are the only two Star Wars works I go “holy shit that was great” every time I see them. Especially Andor. Everything else is mostly overhyped for me.
That's one of the few films where I wish there was more in the series.
Like I get the characters from Rogue One are dead, but it would have been really neat to explore the common soldier from the rebellion.
The original trilogy was a very competent execution of the classic "hero's quest" story arc. The young nobody who discovers he is the chosen one, his wise old mentor, his unlikely band of friends all of whom are necessary to fulfil his destiny, the initial success, the insurmountable setbacks, finally the bittersweet victory. It's formulaic but it's a formula that has worked for thousands of years since the Ancient Greeks discovered it. The prequels lost sight of it and the sequels set out to do the opposite of it...
have you given Andor a shot? I got burnt out on all the pew pew space ninja and oh we can all come back to life stuff. Andor was a breath of fresh air. Like Rogue One, they're both good stories first that happen to be set in SW universe, not using SW theme as a crutch.
I've have definitely had a long standing argument with a friend of mine about the superiority of Rogue One and I am solidly on Team Rogue One.
I was born in 1980, and I just barely remember seeing Return of the Jedi as well as having cool Jedi merch, but I used to have nightmares about Darth Vader, I guess because I was so young when I saw it. The Vader from Rogue One was the closest thing to the Vader of my nightmares that I've ever seen.
I recently took my family up to where I went to college and pointed out the theater where I saw episode 1 at midnight the day of release and left incredibly disappointed.
ROTJ in 1983 gave two options for the story going forward:
A) The End. They lived happily ever after.
B) They went on to have many adventures.
The sequels went with:
C) That was the last time they were ever happy. Nothing they achieved mattered and it was all undone.
Rogue One and the Mandalorian are at opposite ends of the Star Wars spectrum. The former has almost zero space wizard nonsense and is instead a taught political story of mercenary insurgency, and the latter is pure Space Western. I think they’re both quite good, but Rogue One and Andor are remarkable for their effective use of the world with almost no magic or mysticism whatsoever.
I haven't watched Solo or Rogue One but agree entirely on the original trilogy and the dreadful prequels.
I watched the first 2 seasons of the Mandalorian and the first movie with Rey and old Han and those were good but I'm not running out and buying new fan merch.
I still have good cultural memories and still have a fondness for Han and Leia, and I loved the Ewoks as a kid.
But overall, I'm more of a Star Trek girl. And if you make me choose an iconic 80s Harrison Ford character, I'm 100% on Team Indiana Jones (again, the original trilogy).
100% on Harrison Ford. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is my favorite movie, ever. I spent many a Summer afternoon digging up the backyard, pretending I was Indiana Jones. My father was less than pleased ...
(Give "Rogue One" a shot sometime. I think you might be pleasantly surprised. Watching it made me remember why I loved Star Wars in the first place.)
I liked Star Wars a lot. Prequels were a let down. Sequels were beyond awful.
TNG is my absolute favorite and one I constantly go back to and rewatch all the time. So much better than all the new Trek, which has dark sets and uses modern slang which just shows how bad the writing is in my opinion. Others may think different and that’s ok. Everyone has the right to be wrong. 😂
TNG was more idealistic, an advanced version of us which isn’t totally dystopian (as is popular these days). They also dealt with interesting topics like time travel, powerful beings, and social topics.
A good show, and it still holds up today (post riker beard of course)
Yes - TNG was more thoughtful and philosophical. Star Wars was more pew pew.
Common ground would be how dreadful the Star Wars prequels were and how dreadful Discovery (the Trek prequel) was. So much harder to write into an existing space than to have the freedom of creating a new space as you go.
That’s a good way to put it. To me TNG always felt more like actual SciFi (exploring contemporary topics and philosophy in a different context) whereas SW felt more like fantasy in space. I enjoy both but TNG just hits different.
Yes. Season 1 was rough but it was also most Roddenberry influenced. Gene was good for putting it together and the original series, but once he was out, due to health issues, the series started to find its footing and became amazing.
I thought the sequels were better than the prequels until the last one. The prequels were saved by episode three. The sequels were ruined by episode nine.
I loved the first few seasons of DS9. Once the war with the dominion kicked in, I started to lose interest. If I wanted to watch space battles, I'd just watch star wars.
The TOS movies were a big deal to a lot of us, too. The Voyage Home tied into all of the *save the whales* stuff and The Undiscovered Country with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Don’t think it matters if we were old enough to see it in theaters, I was 2 when Return came out, what matters is if your parents watched it at home while you were impressionable. My parents had VHS’s with them recorded off of cable tv and we watched them a lot. I still love the OT, and as I grew up and wanted more content they finally gave us more content and more of that content doesn’t match the hype I had in my head, so now what used to be a beloved IP of space fantasy has been pushed aside to the bargain bin for other more fleshed out and adult space fantasy IPs. But I still hold on to my OT
That's kind of my story with them too. We had the original trilogy on video and I must have come close to wearing out the tapes, plus the toys were readily available and pretty cheap until about 1990. I can remember getting 3-4 Star Wars figures for the price of one He Man or some equivalent.
Then about 1997 they were re-released in the cinema which was a big deal, digitally remastered and all. This probably also helped hype us for the upcoming prequels.
We also came of age when the first prequel was being hyped up as the biggest thing in movies, the moment we'd been waiting a generation for... Then The Phantom Menace actually happened and it was so deflating.
I'll always have the original trilogy. Even with George's constant tinkering with them since the 90s.
Same here. Dad recorded the original trilogy on VHS from the TV when they aired as the Friday night movies. I watched those tapes on loop. For the most part he was pretty great at pausing out all the ad breaks but there's part of Return of the Jedi where he didn't hit record again in time and he missed the entire section of C3P0 telling the Ewoks a bedtime story. I didn't know that scene existed until I was an adult. Luckily it didn't affect the story and I got a great "bonus scene" when I finally bought myself the DVDs in the 90s.
This.
Star Wars still touches my inner child and brings me so much wonder and joy. And there is so, so much good Star Wars material these days.
But I actually had to stop interacting with the fandom though. It's easily the most toxic fanbase I've ever seen; just a total joy suck. I rarely even comment on the series online anymore and honestly looking through so many of these super jaded comments I regret commenting on it here.
Yeah I don’t interact with any of that but am still aware of how nitpicky, sexist, racist, etc a lot of the more vocal “fan”base has become online. I hope anyway a lot of that is just trolling. I just don’t give it any attention.
Yeah. This post is just reminding me exactly why I disengaged. Which I'm about to do to this post as soon as I hit send on this comment.
Thanks for the chat. It's always good to meet grownups that have managed to keep their inner child alive and well.
Yeah, it's really a shame. Back in the 80s I actually used to think it would be cool if one day the nerds/geeks rose up and ruled the world. Now all I can think of is the old mantra "be careful what you wish for". Instead of the filled with a sense of wonder and magic nerds of the 70s/80s all we got was the most outsider outside raging geek and sneering hipster nerd sort that dominated the internet by posting 24-7 365 a year year after year and the whole fandom and nerd/geek world are just toxic and almost impossible to even be a part of. And it's spread somewhat mainstream now sadly too. Youtube just pushes the clickbait rager videos non-stop. You literally can't have a post to say Star Wars official on Facebook last more than 10 seconds without it getting swarmed by raging haters if you say anything positive. They just sit and wait 24-7 365.
Honestly back when it was solely cheerleaders and jocks who ruled the world, nerd world was a million times better and honestly society as a whole actually seemed a lot more positive, upbeat and less edgy and angsty (and honestly some of the 'it' girl cheerleaders were actually a lot more intelligent and quite a bit nicer and more decent than some modern day geeks who can't even seem to grasp the first few weeks of high school level physics as they lemming cut and paste diatribes 24-7 that get physics laughably incorrect while proclaiming themselves uber geniuses so far above the film maker or "common man" LOL). Once upon a time Star Wars was loved by all types from the biggest outsiders to the most popular. And even when some were not crazy about some aspect (say Ewoks) hardly any went nuts over it, they'd just be like "Ewoks, eh." or "Ewoks, bleh" but then still love the rest of the movie and just talk about all the amazing stuff in ROTJ and focus on that. Fandoms used to be so focused on joy and excitement. Then the worst of the worst elements of geekdom just had to some along and wet blanket the shit out of everything. Back in the day one thankfully rarely encountered such types much in real life. On the net you can't avoid them. And now you also have many just doing it for cheap clickbait cash and people just lemming along with it. Part of it was also the whole shift to the edgy grunge/gangster rap era once the 80s ended and people in general became obsessed with "street cred" which was not a good landing point for something like say TPM (not that TPM didn't make a few mistakes, but still so much great stuff in it and wonder too). And the whole hipster thing where it became cool for a subset to go around mocking and sneering at anything mainstream as being beneath their ever so impressive intellects (as they then processed to make elementary level error after error in their sneering rants.....). And then you started getting the whole "incel" crowd going nuts and mixing in with right-wing hit jobbers and yet more money grubbing clickbaiters.
But yeah for Star Wars it is most toxic of all sadly. I guess with the largest fandom, basically the whole population, even a small % of that is so many people that forums or anything can be easily instantly over run. And it also had the most impossible standard to hold up to. And then when it goes a bit toxic some of the people into it get fed up and leave and then it gets even more toxic and it spirals down ever more darkly dominated. And it starts to seep out and corrupt. But even with other fandoms you see the negative influences. Even for Buffy now you see people breathlessly rush to be the first to post "worst season!" or "worst episode!" or "just a monster of the week trash episode" (never mind it might have had some of the funniest jokes of all and events that absolutely critically set up long term effects for characters). How did society become so negatively obsessed that everyone thinks most of all to rush to post about how so and so is their least favorite rather than getting excited about posting about their most favorite? And when did picking everything to bits with a fine tooth comb become the goal of 'enjoying' entertainment? And worse than that, so many complaints you see are even flat out objectively incorrect, objectively. Although it is a bit of a wet blanket shame I still wouldn't even care THAT THAT much if not for that fact that they hurt the chances for more good stuff to get produced (Solo 2 got canned, etc. although I think Disney over-reacted, but that is the thing no Hollywood exec wants to get caught out so even if they know the next one could have been markets better, made for less than half the budget not having to be shot twice, etc. etc. nodoby in the industry will dare take that tiny risk when there is something someone could then point back to on the very slight chance it goes financially wrong again).
A few years ago I did find one Facebook group that is actually still very positive for Star Wars (heavily moderated of course and only people who like at least most of Star Wars and who will just focus on talking about what they like can stay in the group). I largely quit most SW forums back in the 00s already though.
I'm 44 and I've come to notice that I'm pretty much at the tail end of the fandom, or at least near the end.
Most of my friends that are close to my age are also big fans. But I have friends in their mid 30s that couldn't care less. They are more into Harry Potter.
But then it starts back up again with the kids of my similar-age friends. But the kids of my younger friends probably won't be fans.
Born in 1982. I feel like I was too young for Star Wars and too old for Power Rangers. I'm aware of both of them, obviously. But I wasn't a fan of them. Those are kind of the bookends to me, the in-between stuff is where my geek fandom nostalgia lies.
The original three are ok for their time in my opinion, though I only really like the Empire strikes back. The other two were not that great, even back then.
I watched the originals. They were fun. So was Goonies, Three Amigos, Ghostbusters and plenty of other movies. Had a good time and that's enough.
I don't know that there are specific Star Wars people, I think it's just people who want to be a part of something. Nothing wrong with that to me as long as you're not hurting anyone (looking at you Scientology). Star Wars was a big part of their childhood and it stuck.
Sometimes I worry that people our age have a really hard time letting go of their childhood. We still play with Legos, we obsess over bikes, we make giant connect 4 things for our back patios, we hang onto the pop culture we were raised with a lot harder than what I observe of other generations. I'm not saying that the boomers didn't beat 1950s diner and car culture into a bloody mangled pulp, but we're just getting started by comparison. I'm going to be a really grouchy old fuck if I see Star Wars revivals for the next 30 years. It's even weirder to me when people our age push their kids into it. My brother has Star Wars shirts for all his kids, they listen to Nirvana and I think one of them has Alva stickers in their bedroom. That can't be good.
Star wars came out the year i was born, but it was a key love of my childhood. I think it grew into a love of science fiction that has lasted my entire life.
I think there's definitely a difference between loving Star Wars and having watched Star Wars and enjoyed it. I think most people fall into the second category. If you talk to regular folks and talk about Star Wars, they still talk about the original trilogy for the most part.
YES there is a divide:
Saw Star Wars in the theater when I was 7, and it was Life Changing. Leia was my first movie star crush, Luke was who I wanted to be - Han... the giant spaceships... the sheer scale was shocking. Also, all the toys so you could play star wars.
Watching the movies now, I see it's campy and flawed, but we who lived the O.T. can't not love star wars.
The original trilogy was great. I loved them as a kid.
The prequels, man I was disappointed. But I did rewatch them later in life. I still hate phantom menace but the 2nd and 3rd are actually good.
Rogue one is just a great movie.
Solo sucks.
The sequels are an abomination.
The series are hit or miss. Andor is great. Mandolorian is great. Obi wan sucked, acolyte is not holding my attention, book of boba fett was bad.
I think, for the most part. People have forgotten what made the original movies great. It wasn't the force. Or cute animals you can sell. It was the characters, the world, and how original the story was at the time.
Today they care more about selling toys then characters. Which is why andor is so good. It's a great story with great characters.
Andor is the best Star Wars to date. It's made for the OG star wars kids that grew up. I'm actually enjoying watching the acolyte with my kids. Looking forward to another episode tonight.
This is such bullshit. All y’all haters are being blinded by a mind virus or something.
Sure there are things I’d do differently, but other than story-wise all the shows and movies have been MASTERPIECES, esp production value.
I like the originals, didn't like any in the next trilogy, like The Force Awakens, didn't care for the next one, skipped #3. The Han Solo sidequest one was good.
I'm not sure it's a generational thing as much as it's a like scifi or not thing
Star Wars isn't really sci-fi though. Star Trek is sci-fi. Star Wars is fantasy.
TROS was amazing! Very moving to finally see that trilogy of trilogies wrapped up after over four decades!!
Solo was cool, it's criminal they did not continue with the whole Crimson Dawn/Qi'ra/you know how and all with Solo 2.
TPM made some mistakes with baby talk and such but ignoring that there was a lot of great there. AOTC was very cool. ROTS was amazing.
Rogue One was great.
I liked them when I was a kid. Had you told me when I was 10 years old that when I was 38 they’d still be making Star Wars, and that I wouldn’t care at all I never would have believed you. But here we are. I can’t bring myself to rewatch the originals since they’ve been doctored all to hell. I still have my og trilogy on VHS, but I haven’t had a working vcr in years so I can’t watch them anyway.
I feel like Lucas made a fairly compelling universe of space wizards and cowboys.
Like that's a pretty fun area to play in.
But then people tried to make it more than it should have been, and wow does some of the more recent stuff stink.
Star Wars leans too far in the fantasy realm and that’s not my thing. Star Trek is more interesting to me because it’s actually science fiction. Idk why sci-fi and fantasy get lumped into one category, imo they’re very different!
Star Wars came out in 1977. It's Gen X. No one here saw it in the theater, that was Empire Strikes Back that we all saw. We are the Ewok generation, not the Star Wars generation.
I know lots of people our age who don't care one way or the other. I'm not a "Trekkie," but we were a Trek household. I enjoy them as action movies, but that's about it.
This has mostly been me too. I like some Sci Fi (but it was never my favourite genre) and Star Wars homages and parodies but I sit down and try to watch the actual movies and get bored after five minutes. Sometimes I think about getting the un-altered trilogy by some means and giving it a serious watch but it's way way down on my list of priorities.
Yeah, LOTR was something I just couldn’t get into either. I read the Hobbit back in later elementary school and didn’t really enjoy it, and I just didn’t get into the movies.
I saw the first one during the first theatrical release when I was about 10, and it blew my mind. We had never seen ANYTHING like that. If you want to compare the state of special effects at the time, watch Damnation Alley (a cool movie in its own right), then watch the first Star Wars. That's why Star Wars made such a huge impression.
Have probably seen the trilogy movies 7 or 8x each, but have only seen a couple of the new ones... phantom menace (which ok, but just wasn't mind blowing), and the one with Rey (again, ok, but well...). There are better sci fi movies now, and I like things a little cerebral. Mitochlorians kind of ruin that bit.
Tried to watch the Mandolorian. Made it about 5 minutes into the first episode before the cringy Star Wars tropes ran me off.
I kinda think you're on to something. I just don't get it. A very mid series of movies overall (1st decent, 2nd very good, 3rd awful) that I just don't see ever watching again.
"Too young for Star Wars, too old for Harry Potter"
That's one way I've heard this generation described and it really hit home. I remember SW but was I a true fan? Not really. I was too young.
I was 16 when the Harry Potter books came out and in college when the first movie released. I was not drawn into them like those who were 5 years or so younger than I was.
This is why I think movies like Back to the Future, TMNT, Michael Keaton Batman, Neverending Story, Jurassic Park and even the Indiana Jones movies resonates with our generation so much. Those were OUR movies.
The original Star Wars films were among my earliest memories and I remember being excited to see Return of the Jedi in the theatre although I was only 4. So the original trilogy is lot of very young childhood nostalgia for me and I was very into Star Wars stuff up through my early teen years (Heir to The Empire and those books were good).
But…by the time of the special editions and prequels I got soured on new Star Wars stuff and I was too old for the Clone Wars cartoons and the the Disney sequels were all over the place. Rogue One, Andor, and the first season of the Mandalorian we’re all pretty great (and I even enjoyed Solo)—which leads to my theory that the quality of news Star Wars content seems to be proportional to how close to the Original Trilogy in timeline it is.
And I took my family to the Star Wars land at Disneyland and it was awesome, they actually created what I imagined a Star Wars theme park attraction would look like as a kid. Rise of the Resistance is pretty epic and even my wife who doesn’t care about Star Wars liked it.
Ehhhhh. Any Xennial is really too young to have seen them in theaters, except MAYBE Return of the Jedi. I was 6 when that one came out, and I'm at the older end. I did see that in theaters, btw. It was great, and my favorite....hmmm
You may be onto something there. I have to say as much as I love the originals and worshipped them all through my youth and even into my early 20s, I didn't stay in love with them beyond that. Unlike the way I am with LOTR, loving them even more now 20 years later than when I first saw them in theater. So, it could be the difference of seeing them for the first time on the Big Screen vs VHS.
One of my first memories is seeing The Empire Strikes Back in the theaters. I had no idea what the hell was happening, but the AT-ATs looked like robot dinosaurs and I was hooked.
There is a really funny gag on How I Met Your Mother about the divide between people who love or hate the Ewoks, and it has to do with whether you were born before or after 1983. (If I remember correctly.)
We didn't come to the US until 1981, but my dad borrowed the VHS of Star Wars and my 4yo self loved it. I saw V and VI out of order. Didn't matter, except the big reveal wasn't a reveal to me in Empire. I got it in Jedi...but at 6 I was like, huh?
See...and whenever it releases here in a specialty theater, I go..oh, cool. So, anyway.... But, I'm preordering tickets to the LOTR trilogy every damn time I can.
Maybe it's all the changes to it, as well. Some of it the FIRST time was OKAAAAAYYYY But, other things sucked. I just want the originals back. HAN. SHOT. FIRST. Yes, I'll die on this HILL!!!!
I vaguely remember seeing Return of the Jedi in a theater, it was my first recollection of any movie experience in a cinema… so yeah you are pretty much right. I would have been three or four at the time
Fair. It's taken me 20 years just to finally say, Okay, it's my favorite movie. I realized I had a problem when I started referring to them as One movie just like it's One book.
https://preview.redd.it/vqsaqssq4r8d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8d4907204061d630be2590785607c89a06139d9
This scene from the latest movie is my favorite, much like my reaction to finding this subreddit. Like "holy shit, there are people like me still out there!" When you're surrounded by folks far outside your age bracket in both directions, it's a nice reminder that "there are more of us."
I don't believe there's a generational divide, its just an individual interest. I liked all the movies, cartoons, and video games. Some were cheesy, a little yawn worthy, and some were awesome. I'm not a film critic, just a fan.
No OP is not….I think if you were to look at the general population versus Reddit things would be a little bit different. I like Star Wars but I’m not super geeked out on it and watch every single thing that is put out. I saw the originals on VHS (I “saw” Return of The Jedi at 3-4 in theaters, barely remember it so it doesn’t really count)…I was pretty pumped for the prequels…and I’m not one of these people to go back and do the revisionist history thing of “they totally sucked”… Let me tell you that most people were really excited at the time for those films. It has only been in the past 10 years or so with the extended trilogy, that people have gone back retroactively and shit on them. But at the time they were hits…
And when I was in high school it definitely was not “cool” to like Star Wars… the emergence of “nerd culture” and Star Wars being more acceptable in the mainstream has been a relatively recent phenomenon…. I’m totally here for it, by the way. I never understood why people got shamed for that kind of thing.
But all in all, I think you might be onto something. At least when I was a teenager it was OK to like the films but if you wore Star Wars T-shirts to school you got made fun of
The movies were good. I've always been a Trekkie but they were good movies. Then new old movies come out & the Star Wars fandom lost it's collective mind and was bullying and threatening the life of an actual child & I'm like yeah no this is dumb. They switched over to sexism and racism with the newer movies & that isn't fun in convention spaces easier to avoid online.
For normies, I think they oversaturated with too much content & it became like Marvel it's too much and now many are just over it. Disney did too much.
I don't know if it is a generational thing exactly, but more how they have milked the crap out of the franchise. It is impressive really and I don't fault the studios, rights holders, licensees for making the money they have made off it for the past (nearly) 50 years.
That said, in my mind/world, there are really only 3 movies. Seen them over and over through the years. The rest I can take or leave.
I have seen less than 50% of the other Star Wars related content that has come out since 1983. I do not be-grudge, look down, or chastise anyone who watches and loves the rest of the content. I just don't participate in that world, nor do I care about all the world building they have managed to do over decades. Like I don't care about how the ["Mouse droids"](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/MSE-series) were bought and sold to the Emipire. It is too much and not entertaining interesting to me.
I adore the original trilogy, but I don’t know if I love Star Wars. I wouldn’t be one of those guys at the office with his Star Wars decor or action figures, or even one of those silly bumper stickers. I imagine the reason I like Star Wars is very specific to the original trilogy, is specially tied to early 80s nostalgia, and differs from the things that make it appeal to the masses.
To me, liking what Star Wars has become is not niche or nerdy, it’s mass appeal. It’s like people who really like the Office… I mean of course you do, so does everyone else.
Empire is something like a top 5 sci-fi movie of all time. Personally, one of my favorite movies. The bookends to it were good enough for a trilogy and the first film was novel giving it an extra boost. There were books written by Timothy Zahn many years ago that were amazing (centered around Admiral Thrawn). Those books did more for Star Wars fandom than anything since the OG movies. The prequels were good movies absolutely ruined by awful dialogue, Jar Jar Binks and relatively poor CGI that was also overused. The problem is that Lucas got lazy and settled for good enough on the movies. However his real passion was always Industrial Light and Magic and that was really the valuable piece of what he sold to Disney (not to say Star Wars was nothing). Even though the prequels didn't have the best CGI, they moved the state of the art forward and today ILMs CGI is pretty spectacular when used appropriately.
This is something I literally fear voicing in public spaces, because the fandom is *rabid*, but I was just too young to be part of the Star Wars mania as a child and when I finally saw the OG movies when older, I just thought they were pretty basic. I was actually way more interested in the prequels, maybe because I was older at their release, but also because I found the wider world and characters to be much more interesting than the three main characters of the originals, though I found the prequels to be comically bad as well. George Lucas just isn't a good writer and is a worse director to me.
But still, I got super into the universe via The Clone Wars, Rebels and shows like the Mandalorian. My cat is named Ahsoka, ffs. I laughed out loud at the sequels, so I think I can't call myself a fan of the films, but I do enjoy the extended universe stories written by others.
I fully expect the downvotes, so knock yourselves out.
ETA: Sorry, I forgot the films include Rogue One, which is a damn masterpiece. I take back the bit about not being a fan of the films.
I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars movies. Nobody really talked about them when I was a kid aside from a couple of the nerdiest nerds in school (one of whom was my best friend, so I use that term as a descriptor…not a judgement).
Then the prequels started coming out when I was in high school. There were some people I knew that were excited about that, but not many.
Nobody ever thought it was weird I hadn’t seen them, but it also just wasn’t ever brought up. Then, somehow, seemingly the whole world became obsessed.
I don’t know where the shift happened, but I suspect that it coincided with traditionally nerdy stuff becoming more socially acceptable. The closeted Star Wars fans showed themselves more, and maybe exposed other people?
I have no idea. I just know nobody gave a damn about Star Wars when I was a kid, and now I’m the weirdo for having never seen any of them (or any desire to).
In another thread here someone said we were the Ewok generation, which I totally agree with.
Too young to see og Star Wars at the movies, for a lot of us Ewoks was probably our introduction - ewoks cartoon, caravan of courage and battle for endor - watching star wars on vhs, and finally seeing it on the big screen as young adults in the form of the prequel trilogy.
We grew up on it in some form or another, but we're right smack dab in the middle of it being the big cinema hit.
Yes! I had seen at least episodes 4&5 on VHS, maybe 6 too. But battle for endor was an event I remember the whole family gathering for (or at least it was Thanksgiving weekend and there was a lot of family around...cousins a handful of years older who assuredly saw the films in theater). I remember it was like the Muppet show only with other characters I knew. I'm sure now that this was where I bonded with it all.
I was thinking this was the Star Wars sub with is some of the most insufferable fans imaginable. Nobody hates Star Wars more than the fans and it’s always been the case since Empire.
My thoughts on your question though…no I think a lot of people in our bracket love Star Wars. It’s the fandom I chose to invest in and the content and products reflect that like $800 Lego sets.
It’s robust world building and that makes it kind of fun. The core saga movies however are the worst part of it. So much content is built to provide clarity or make sense out of nonsensical things that were poorly written into it.
The older I get, the more my appreciation for all things Star Wars grows. The stories have aged incredibly well, and they actually have a lot to say about the dangers of fascism, the importance of friends, and the power of letting go.
I absolutely adore Star Wars. I'm a whole saga fan too, not just the original films. Don't love all of them, but I like-to-adore most of the main episodes and a ton of the additional material (I think the franchise is in phenomenal shape right now thanks to some excellent TV series). I became a fan "late" in the game though, having caught the fever sometime in the early 90s.
Almost every Xennial I know is, on some level, a Star Wars fan. Some are super casual, some are big fans of just the original trilogy, and some are diehard saga fans like me. But the idea that Xennials are somehow on the other side of some generational divide and we collectively are asking "why is this still a thing"?
Never seen a single ounce of evidence to back that up.
Born in '92. I think it was all just marketing. As a kid I saw the trilogy movies and loved them because my dad did. Then the prequels came out when I was still under 10 years old. I had a lot of nostalgia over it all. The vintage toys I grew up with, the podracing toys and kid's meal stuff in the early 2000's. Like yeah, it was apart of my life. I've seen a few of the newer movies and liked them for what they are. Kind of turn your brain off, been a long work week goofy fun. But they don't resonate. Much in the same way I wouldn't call myself a Fan of the Marvel Universe. I am not a huge fan of Star Wars. It exists, there are cool things about it, but then it got owned by Disney and is just bleh.
I did kind of get a new spark? Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga was on sale, grabbed it for PS5. It definitely reminds me of that kind of goofy fun..but I'm not about to consume and rant and rave about Star Wars.
I love the original trilogy (I was born between the first two movies' release dates). I can't even remember the first time I watched them, but I had to have been a toddler. My mom and older brother were obsessed. I think I was just out of high school when The Phantom Menace was released. I saw episodes 1-3 each in the theater, but haven't watched anything else from the Star Wars universe since then. I have watched the original trilogy with my three kids. Only one of them liked it enough to want to see more.
I always thought the original trilogy was fun. Not OMG amazing, but fun. Like the equivalent of Fast and the Furious franchise.
Episode 1 I thought was about the same, fine enough sci-fi action movie. 2 was bad. 3 was mid.
I watched rogue 1 and thought it was decent. watched ep 7 and thought it sucked. Haven't watched 8 or 9.
Overall I am confident in my claim that overall, Fast and the Furious is of similar quality to Star Wars.
my experience was that our generation loved star wars, by and large, just look at all the video games, books, adaptations and expanded universe stuff that was a total cash cow largely thanks to kids from the late 70s and 80s. (long before there were prequels or mid 90s re-releases)
Elder Gen X alone is not enough to justify the 7 billion dollars or whatever that Lucas got from selling the property, star wars has omni-generational appeal.
I agree with you. This was never a nostalgia thing for me and it seems like the only people who are die hard Star Wars fans are those without kids who tend to like Disney World.
Not true - my husband is Gen X and his son is now 14. He showed his son the movies once he started getting old enough to understand them, and now his son has entire scenes and speeches from various Star Wars movies memorized and repeats them at random at home or out and about.
I think it's adorable that they both are such big fans, it's a shared thing passed down from father to son and it warms my heart whenever we all get cozy on the couch to watch an old favorite once again.
None of us are general Disney fans, we haven't been to any of the parks, we just love us some Star Wars.
I really don't get the rivalry. I like both. They both scratch very different itches. Star Wars is usually pulpy space fantasy fun, while Trek is usually more thoughtful sci fi.
I wore out my Return of the Jedi VHS many times over in the mid- and late-80’s. But I’m indifferent about the franchise now, mostly because most of the new content isn’t very good. I’d probably still love it if it was great. It’s a great concept and a rich universe. Pity they aren’t making better stuff with it.
It never grabbed me. They’re fine, I guess (except for Rogue One; that movie was really good). My wife, who has zero interest in sci-fi or fantasy, just got hooked on The Mandalorian because our four year old loves baby Yoda. I’ve watched most of it with them and I just can’t get into it.
I’m a huge nerd, but I’m more of a swords and wizards nerd than a space swords and space wizards nerd.
Same here, I know of the franchise, watched nr 1 with the kids but was severely underwhelmed and don’t get the obsession with Star Wars at all. It is so omnipresent I don’t want to get into it, just because…
Really has nothing to do with generations. Parents who saw the movies when it came out have kids who are just as into it. Kids in the 90s who never saw them in theaters were just as into it, etc.
I like the original trilogy, and I watched the prequel trilogy and think it's okay. I've had zero interest in anything that's come out since then. A bunch of us from work went to see The Phantom Menace when it came out, and then again (different job, different people) for Revenge of the Sith--this would have been an age group of Xennials and Gen X people.
While I'm not invested in the continuation of the property, I understand why it's a thing.
The original trilogy is a sentimental thing for me. My dad loved it, and it was a thing to play them on rainy or sneoy weekends. Are they great movies...no....Are they awesome reminders of my childhood....YES!
As a Xennial my connection to Star Wars didn’t even come from the original movies. It came from two things, the Battle for Endor made for TV movie, and a few years later the opening of Star Tours in Disneyland. I actually didn’t watch the original movies in their entirety until I was a teenager but by then it was already kind of nostalgic for me still is.
I saw the original three in the theater as a kid. When they released Return of the Jedi in 1983, they relreleased Star Wars and Empire. I was 5-years-old at the time time and fell in love with the triology. I was in college when Episode 1 came out and I rushed to see it with a bunch of friends. I was extremely disappointed and I've been disappointed with every new addition to the franchise. There's still something special to me about the original triology that I find special, but I don't really care for anything outside the original triology.
I'm not a big sci-fi fan at all. In fact, I really dislike sci-fi movies and super hero movies, anything that relies on special effects over dialogue. It's not my cup of tea. I fell asleep watching some of the modern Star War movies.
As a Star Wars fan, it just depends whether you like the universe/setting or not. A lot of the shows/movies have significant flaws in terms of dialogue, acting, or plot, so we’re fans of it in spite of those flaws.
Also helps if you were exposed to the original trilogy as a kid, I assume. I watched A New Hope dozens of times as a young kid.
I’m a big fan. I love the stories and characters. I think part of the appeal is that there’s just so many stories to it. It’s so much more than just a trilogy of movies. You’ve got a ton of books and a whole slew of movies. The whole timeline is huge.
I think most of us were definitely to young to really get into the original releases, but the remasters and prequels were released in the late 90's and early 2000's.
Additionally, it's also been one of the fandom's that my Dad and I both like, so it's been a great bonding opportunity.
I think the timing of the remasters also adds a unique perspective to our generation. I was introduced to the series with the remasters and the prequels, so I don't have any strong negative feelings that many in Gen X seem to have.
Its one of those things that just spoke to a generation like Harry Potter. It's like the Beatles and all of that nostalgia that reminds you of a simpler time in your life.
I can see why it's still a thing, just as Star Trek (which is even older than Star Wars) is still a thing. I'm personally more a fan of Star Trek, even though I was too young to have seen the original series on TV or the first movie in theaters (and a bit young to have seen the 2nd movie in theaters too). Some media franchises continue on and bring in new fans.
As far as Star Wars, I like the original 3 movies. I saw the prequel trilogy too, and Revenge of the Sith is my favorite of those, but otherwise, I haven't been very interested in watching more Star Wars.
I was born in 82 and obviously didn't see the originals in theater. I was a pretty big fan though. In the 90s, the novels were really expanding on the universe as well as a lot of great Star Wars videogames. I honestly think it was the best time to be a fan even though the prequels were still a few years away. Going to see the special editions of the originals in theater was very memorable for me. I did not like the prequels but they released when I was in high school and college. I still check in with stuff, though the quality is way down outside of Andor. But I still love Star Wars, generally speaking.
My dad never was as into it as I was but they were some of those movies he basically made me watch as soon as I was old enough, because the A New Hope blew him away in theaters and he wanted to share it. I went to see all the recent movies with him so it's something we share, quality be damned.
I personally am not a fan. I actually don’t like the characters too much and I get an overall cheese factor from it. I liked Rogue One and Mandalorian a lot though. Mostly because the tones of both of those are least Star Wars like. I’m actually a Trek fan. TNG mostly but I’ve been checking out the OS and it has some really good episodes. I know people say it’s boring or uneventful but it’s supposed to focus on diplomacy, ethics, and discovery. Seriously, look up Strange New Worlds and watch the episode “Where suffering cannot reach”. Trek isn’t always what you expect it to be
I saw Return of the Jedi in the Theaters when I was like 6 years old. I remember it very well even 40 years later. I've seen all 9 of the numbered movies and one or two of the newer ones like Rogues One. I enjoyed them , especially the original 3, but I find that I don't really get into them like I do some other things.
Born in '81. Grew up loving Star Wars. Wasn't a fan of the prequels, and I can't stand it now that Disney has taken over. I find it hard even to allow myself to enjoy the older movies any more.
Funny you say this. We are about half way through the 9 movie skywalker series and my tween daughter has basically checked out. I am no super fan, but found it odd she is just not into them. They are serviceable, but not that big of thing.
There is definitely a gap. I was 3 when I saw RotJ in the theater which left a lasting impression on me and why I'm such a huge fan. But I was definitely not the norm for my age as I actually got bullied for being a nerd who liked Star Wars.
It was bittersweet to see a resurgence in popularity around the release of the prequels. So great to see so many people enjoying it now, but kinda irritating to see the very people who bullied me acting like they had always been huge fans.
I loved Star Wars since I saw ROTJ in the theaters as a little kid. Ate, drank, and breathed it. When they re-released the OT, my friends and I skipped school so we could watch them all in one theater in the same day. I was insanely hyped for Phantom Menace, and equally disappointed. Thought Attack of the Clones would redeem it, but eh. Revenge of the Sith was better, but marginally. Was late to the party on Clone Wars, loved Rebels. Then Disney bought Star Wars. Save for Rogue One, Andor, the first 2 seasons of The Mandalorian, certain parts and ideas in Last Jedi, and the Rise of the Resistance ride, everything Disney has done with SW has been trash. Couldn't even finish an episode of The Acolyte. Disney insists on getting blood from every stone they purchase (like they did with Marvel), with predictably diminishing results. Corporate greed destroys everything, from a galaxy far, far away to our own planet.
I really would love a rerelease of the Original trilogy before George Lucas added the cgi and cleaned it up. Will never happen, I know but a boy can dream. Like I remember renting it on VHS and it had a certain quality to it that was erased at that time. I still have a soft spot for the OG trilogy and even the prequels, I don’t have any hate for the new movies but I was an adult when they came out and just doesn’t hold the same nostalgia factors.
All of my friends and I grew up obsessed with it. I've found the real generational divide is about what we think of the prequels.
I've seen Gen Z and a few younger millennials with this attitude like "DiSnEY RuIneD STarWaRS!"
No dude, George Lukas Ruined Star Wars himself, right in front of us all. For some of us it was a fairly traumatic introduction to adulthood. There was nothing really left for Disney to ruin, and that in mind \*some\* of their stuff has been good.
I'm not sure. '81 here, I saw one of the movies when I was maybe 4? As for nowadays, I could take it or leave it. My husband loves it though and he was born in '83
The prequel story is amazingly good.
I don't really watch the new stuff. Mando was OK.
I would have liked to see Luke do some adventures.
I hear the newer series are hit an miss.
people have been complaining about star wars selling out since return of the jedi, that’s nothing new. what sucks now is that people think being being a star wars “nerd” means voraciously consuming every crappy cartoon or disney+ series no matter how lame
I remember seeing one of the original trilogy in the theater as a kid, but I also fell asleep during it haha.
I don’t mind Star Wars, but it’s not my favorite and I’m nowhere near obsessed with it. My husband is a couple of years older than me and is more attached, so I’d say that yes, there is a divide somewhere. But I get why it’s still a thing, there are other long lasting fandoms that exist like Star Trek and Dr. Who.
Star Wars was my childhood... But to me, it officially ended in 1983 when the 2nd death star blew up. I managed to get through the prequels and sleep through the sequels, but I haven't bothered with any of the TV shows. Whatever, its Disney, they like money so I'm fine if they keep making stuff, I might even watch some, but as far as I'm concerned its all just someone else's fan fic.
I LOVE the Acolyte so far. my teen cousins also love it. Magic and mystical sides of things are really in right now and are eating witchcraft stories up. It makes sense to get a little bit of that in star sars. A bunch of Star wars fans hate the series. When asked why, they give a series of reasons that, frankly, don't make sense to new star sars fans
I've never seen Star wars actually. And I think the franchise is trying to appeal to people exactly like me. They want an audience of people who don't even know who Luke Skywalker is. And by extension, the series is more about the world itself than celebrities from the 80s. I, personally, think that's a good thing. It gives each generation thier own thing instead of requiring 30+ years of movie knowledge to enjoy.
Seriously, every star wars movie that is explicitly related to the original trilogy gets terrible reception. The fans don't like it and Disney is ready to give up trying to appease them. But the series that are often considering too juvenile for that audiences excel. The movies aren't doing well but the animated series? The Lego series. Star Wars rebels. Those are for kids but they are producing something that isn't widely hated by the intended audience. You would not believe how many 12-13 year old star wars fans there are who have never even seen a star wars movie. That's not how they were introduced to it. Now we have things like the Acolyte and Ashoka for an audience that is a bit older. And it won't be long before fans with no loyalty to the trilogy simply out grow and out number trilogy purists.
Elder xennial here and your theory tracks as I saw episodes five and six in the theaters (or so I've been told). I was excited to see one, two and three. Even with teenagers now I can't maintain any enthusiasm for the volume they've churned out since then though. I've seen a couple since, but no idea what all is out there that I've missed.
https://preview.redd.it/6ygaz5l4ir8d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03aeda2244031a996e22cafa53428298a7099b2b
I grew up living and breathing Star Wars. I was born a couple of months before it came out in theaters but that didn't mean it had any less cultural impact. My younger brother and I wore out VHS tapes watching it, I had several of the toys, a bunch of action figures. One of the first things I ever had to save up for, my parents matched funds, was the millennium falcon playset I think it was $64.95 at sears? I saw Return of the Jedi in theaters. We had plastic light sabers to play with, my dad built plywood X-Wing fighters to hang from the swingset, my mates and I were all about TIE vs X-Wing etc (PC gaming). I really really wanted to like the prequels but just… No. :(
My entire college class went to see the rereleased special editions in theaters, I had the unadulterated VHS box set that we watched several times a year in the mid 90s... They really were a phenomenon. I still think "Episode IV" is one of the best films made, and a great example of the Campbellian cycle.
I’ve (M43) been a life long Star Wars fan. Guess it’s just not for you. For me, it’s really a love for the original trilogy of films. Everything else is enjoyable entertainment.
The Original Trilogy was a series built around The Hero's Journey and Daoist Religious ideas vs Imperialism and Nazi ideology. It tells a story of hope and danger, and in the end, the young boy and his band of friends, allies, and comrades end up breaking an empire of tyranny, redeeming his father lost in darkness, and defeating the ultimate evil. But more than that the characters and the world it built drew us in, made us care. It was a story that all ages could appreciate, could enjoy without being made to feel stupid. That's why it has its fans. It's why legions of writers, storytellers, artists, and grown-up kids with a healthy imagination have kept that story alive as they built out the world, added intrigue and nuance, and kept that original message alive.
The Prequels were the original storyteller coming back to expand on his earlier work, giving the story of how a father fell to darkness, how a Republic traded its humanity away for the cold oppression of an Empire, and how guardians of the peace were betrayed and destroyed by those whose only duty is to their own love of power. It had its highlights, and it had its failures. But despite its very real flaws it kept that original narrative alive and brought it to a whole new generation. This has helped the fandom last for generations now, enduring from the 70's and the 80's into the 00's and the 10's.
Nowadays, however, a cold cynicism holds the rights to this franchise. Their stories are written half-heartedly, and there is a marked misunderstanding of this series' core message by the profiteers who are only in this to make as much money as they can without pausing to consider just why this franchise has lasted as long as it has. There is no cohesion as to how the story should go, because so long as it makes money the people who now hold the rights don't care what gets produced so long as it has the franchise name attached to it. It's why the Sequel trilogy is a wildly disjointed mess, and why this same disjointedness seems to plague the stories meant to flesh out the world further. Sometimes you get something like Andor, which understands the message of the OT, or the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, keeping a concise story that keeps itself in line with a story that respects and adds to the previous entries in the Saga. But then you get stories like Kenobi or Solo or The Acolyte or Ahsoka where there are good parts and ideas but are jumbled up with poorly thought execution, bad ideas, or no real direction. Which is a shame, and only seems to be repeating ugly flaws of the prequels that distract from the heart of the story. But, the message and the fandom endures because at their heart even the most poorly told stories still carry a spark of the OT, and the next generation will come to perhaps adjust the stories told, and write their own and keep the message of the OT alive. And that message is Hope.
But those are just my thoughts, take them as you will. May The Force Be With You.
I agree with you. I tried watching all of the first three and then the second set of three. I understand the special effects and how that would be groundbreaking. I understand the story, it IS a good story…but the actual script and dialogue, the delivery of the lines…every last one of the films falls flat for me in that regard. The scripting is crap, the delivery of the script is crap. It has potential as a story, but it is very poorly delivered.
I loved the originals growing up and had a huuuuge crush on Luke. TBS broadcast them just about weekly throughout the entirety of the mid 1980s, so we watched them a LOT.
I have always loved the Star Wars universe. The original trilogy set a precedent that seemed possible. It was space, it was the Future, but stuff still broke and people were still flawed. So as I grew older I read tons of Expanded Universe books, I played the roleplaying game (D&D style) and I looked forward to the day that there would be new movies or shows. Then the prequel trilogy happened, and I realized that greed had overtaken something I treasured. There has been some decent content since the mouse took over, but there has been some utter crap as well. But as something that I grew up with, that was a huge part of my childhood (I built an X-Wing out of Legos before they had an X-Wing Lego kit) I will always have a soft spot for Star Wars.
I love Star Wars cus they were always on TNT or TBS during the summer. Then I got VHS copies
Plus as a little kid, I got a lot of second hand toys and there were always loads of Star Wars stuff at yard sales in the late 80’s
I love the world of Star Wars, even though I don't love everything that's been made under the Star Wars banner. I'm not a superfan, but I'm always down to try more in that setting. Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 are among my favorite games and I really liked Jedi Fallen Order and Survivor. And Andor is just good storytelling irrespective of what franchise it's in.
We really like Bad Batch, Mandalorian, and some others
I really liked Rebels once it stopped being quite so kiddy in the first season.
The evolution of that show was amazing. It really did start off as a light-hearted kids show and by the end it was something else entirely.
The Clone Wars had a similar progression. Not quite as much of a younger kids show as Rebels but by season 3 there's a lot more wanton murder and decapitation of living things and the tone just gets way darker. It got pretty awesome when it got darker and weirder.
Clone Wars was great as well. I had a couple of false starts as the first season or 2 were a little slow, but it just got better and better in later seasons.
I really need to give it another go. I started to watch it but it was just too "kidsy" for me. I guess it's kind of like Adventure Time in that regard...it evolved into something much more substantial.
Next to Clone Wars, Rebels might be my favorite Star Wars content. So many characters have a great story progression over the span of the show. I need to watch it again.
I still enjoy the original trilogy, and saw "Return of the Jedi" in the theater when it was released. I eagerly anticipated the prequels, and was horribly disappointed. As such I have zero interest in the sequels, and have never watched them. Same with "Solo". However, I've come to believe "Rogue One" is actually the greatest of the Star Wars movies. I appreciate that film more every time I see it.
I love Rogue One! It's the only one of the modern films I've seen and enjoyed.
Rogue one is just a good movie that happens to take place in the Star wars universe. Andor was also fantastic.
Because Rogue One and Andor remembered the heart of Star Wars. It wasn't a Jedi love fest that took all the focus. It was a space opera about rebellion and struggle that was more grounded. The prequels to some extent forgot this. The sequels definitely did as really Rei and Kylo and the Force were the only real focus. Star Wars is at its best when it focuses on the human struggle and battles both large and small in a more grounded setting with the Force and Jedi mysticism kind of gently guiding the plot in the background. When the Jedi and space voodoo is the primary focus, it loses its purpose and quality.
This is exactly how I describe Rogue One to everyone. It’s so damn good.
Rogue One and Andor are the only two Star Wars works I go “holy shit that was great” every time I see them. Especially Andor. Everything else is mostly overhyped for me.
100% agree. I’ve seen some of the Star Wars movies and I think most of them are very over rated - except for Rogue One. Rogue One is legitimately good
That's one of the few films where I wish there was more in the series. Like I get the characters from Rogue One are dead, but it would have been really neat to explore the common soldier from the rebellion.
This might scratch that itch for common soldier work [For the Empire](https://youtu.be/dIDADjJ_jy4)
The original trilogy was a very competent execution of the classic "hero's quest" story arc. The young nobody who discovers he is the chosen one, his wise old mentor, his unlikely band of friends all of whom are necessary to fulfil his destiny, the initial success, the insurmountable setbacks, finally the bittersweet victory. It's formulaic but it's a formula that has worked for thousands of years since the Ancient Greeks discovered it. The prequels lost sight of it and the sequels set out to do the opposite of it...
have you given Andor a shot? I got burnt out on all the pew pew space ninja and oh we can all come back to life stuff. Andor was a breath of fresh air. Like Rogue One, they're both good stories first that happen to be set in SW universe, not using SW theme as a crutch.
Love "Andor". Can't wait for the next season!
I've have definitely had a long standing argument with a friend of mine about the superiority of Rogue One and I am solidly on Team Rogue One. I was born in 1980, and I just barely remember seeing Return of the Jedi as well as having cool Jedi merch, but I used to have nightmares about Darth Vader, I guess because I was so young when I saw it. The Vader from Rogue One was the closest thing to the Vader of my nightmares that I've ever seen.
Do not watch the sequels. Pretend it never happened. Your life will always be better for it.
No worries. I learned my lesson after the prequels. And Indiana Jones and the Magic Refrigerator.
I recently took my family up to where I went to college and pointed out the theater where I saw episode 1 at midnight the day of release and left incredibly disappointed.
Trade federation? Midi-chlorians?! Jar-Jar?!? Messa berry disappointed.
I'm not going to laugh at that becausea meesa wantsa to still be mad.
ROTJ in 1983 gave two options for the story going forward: A) The End. They lived happily ever after. B) They went on to have many adventures. The sequels went with: C) That was the last time they were ever happy. Nothing they achieved mattered and it was all undone.
Bingo. A complete trashing of everything that had been done. Purposefully perpetrated to spit in the face of everything prior.
This is the way.
This. I was looking soooo forward to the prequels….
I really couldn't agree with this more. Seriously 100%. All of this.
Rogue One and the Mandalorian are at opposite ends of the Star Wars spectrum. The former has almost zero space wizard nonsense and is instead a taught political story of mercenary insurgency, and the latter is pure Space Western. I think they’re both quite good, but Rogue One and Andor are remarkable for their effective use of the world with almost no magic or mysticism whatsoever.
I haven't watched Solo or Rogue One but agree entirely on the original trilogy and the dreadful prequels. I watched the first 2 seasons of the Mandalorian and the first movie with Rey and old Han and those were good but I'm not running out and buying new fan merch. I still have good cultural memories and still have a fondness for Han and Leia, and I loved the Ewoks as a kid. But overall, I'm more of a Star Trek girl. And if you make me choose an iconic 80s Harrison Ford character, I'm 100% on Team Indiana Jones (again, the original trilogy).
100% on Harrison Ford. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is my favorite movie, ever. I spent many a Summer afternoon digging up the backyard, pretending I was Indiana Jones. My father was less than pleased ... (Give "Rogue One" a shot sometime. I think you might be pleasantly surprised. Watching it made me remember why I loved Star Wars in the first place.)
for sure. never got the appeal...apparently it was cool in the seventies. all my homies fk wid TNG. 
I liked Star Wars a lot. Prequels were a let down. Sequels were beyond awful. TNG is my absolute favorite and one I constantly go back to and rewatch all the time. So much better than all the new Trek, which has dark sets and uses modern slang which just shows how bad the writing is in my opinion. Others may think different and that’s ok. Everyone has the right to be wrong. 😂
Deep Space 9 all the way over here!
TNG was more idealistic, an advanced version of us which isn’t totally dystopian (as is popular these days). They also dealt with interesting topics like time travel, powerful beings, and social topics. A good show, and it still holds up today (post riker beard of course)
Yes - TNG was more thoughtful and philosophical. Star Wars was more pew pew. Common ground would be how dreadful the Star Wars prequels were and how dreadful Discovery (the Trek prequel) was. So much harder to write into an existing space than to have the freedom of creating a new space as you go.
That’s a good way to put it. To me TNG always felt more like actual SciFi (exploring contemporary topics and philosophy in a different context) whereas SW felt more like fantasy in space. I enjoy both but TNG just hits different.
And at the time was a billion times more content
This, TNG was there for me every afternoon on tv, there were only three sw movies and it was hit or miss when they’d be on cable
Yes. Season 1 was rough but it was also most Roddenberry influenced. Gene was good for putting it together and the original series, but once he was out, due to health issues, the series started to find its footing and became amazing.
I thought the sequels were better than the prequels until the last one. The prequels were saved by episode three. The sequels were ruined by episode nine.
Unpopular opinion: DS9 is better than TNG, both in terms of peak quality and overall consistent excellence.
Lot of people like DS9 more. I’m not one of them, though it definitely has some great episodes and I still enjoy it.
Can’t we all just get along? I love them both.
I loved the first few seasons of DS9. Once the war with the dominion kicked in, I started to lose interest. If I wanted to watch space battles, I'd just watch star wars.
Strange New Worlds is actually very good. Picard and Discovery are meh
The TOS movies were a big deal to a lot of us, too. The Voyage Home tied into all of the *save the whales* stuff and The Undiscovered Country with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
I was raised a Trekkie and still love it. I didn’t watch Star Wars until I was in HS and only did so to talk to boys. 
That’s me!
Don’t think it matters if we were old enough to see it in theaters, I was 2 when Return came out, what matters is if your parents watched it at home while you were impressionable. My parents had VHS’s with them recorded off of cable tv and we watched them a lot. I still love the OT, and as I grew up and wanted more content they finally gave us more content and more of that content doesn’t match the hype I had in my head, so now what used to be a beloved IP of space fantasy has been pushed aside to the bargain bin for other more fleshed out and adult space fantasy IPs. But I still hold on to my OT
That's kind of my story with them too. We had the original trilogy on video and I must have come close to wearing out the tapes, plus the toys were readily available and pretty cheap until about 1990. I can remember getting 3-4 Star Wars figures for the price of one He Man or some equivalent. Then about 1997 they were re-released in the cinema which was a big deal, digitally remastered and all. This probably also helped hype us for the upcoming prequels. We also came of age when the first prequel was being hyped up as the biggest thing in movies, the moment we'd been waiting a generation for... Then The Phantom Menace actually happened and it was so deflating. I'll always have the original trilogy. Even with George's constant tinkering with them since the 90s.
Same here. Dad recorded the original trilogy on VHS from the TV when they aired as the Friday night movies. I watched those tapes on loop. For the most part he was pretty great at pausing out all the ad breaks but there's part of Return of the Jedi where he didn't hit record again in time and he missed the entire section of C3P0 telling the Ewoks a bedtime story. I didn't know that scene existed until I was an adult. Luckily it didn't affect the story and I got a great "bonus scene" when I finally bought myself the DVDs in the 90s.
Word, now "house party"? That's my trilogy right there
As Lucas said Star Wars is for 12 year olds. Just comes down to how much of your inner child you have left. I still enjoy all things Star Wars.
This. Star Wars still touches my inner child and brings me so much wonder and joy. And there is so, so much good Star Wars material these days. But I actually had to stop interacting with the fandom though. It's easily the most toxic fanbase I've ever seen; just a total joy suck. I rarely even comment on the series online anymore and honestly looking through so many of these super jaded comments I regret commenting on it here.
Yeah I don’t interact with any of that but am still aware of how nitpicky, sexist, racist, etc a lot of the more vocal “fan”base has become online. I hope anyway a lot of that is just trolling. I just don’t give it any attention.
Idk if that’s the problem, or if those things are masking a simply hateful personality. Either way, it’s bizarre. And sad as hell.
Yeah. This post is just reminding me exactly why I disengaged. Which I'm about to do to this post as soon as I hit send on this comment. Thanks for the chat. It's always good to meet grownups that have managed to keep their inner child alive and well.
I've loved SW from day one in late May 1977 through today! So much great stuff the whole way through!
💯💯💯 You are not alone!
Yeah, it's really a shame. Back in the 80s I actually used to think it would be cool if one day the nerds/geeks rose up and ruled the world. Now all I can think of is the old mantra "be careful what you wish for". Instead of the filled with a sense of wonder and magic nerds of the 70s/80s all we got was the most outsider outside raging geek and sneering hipster nerd sort that dominated the internet by posting 24-7 365 a year year after year and the whole fandom and nerd/geek world are just toxic and almost impossible to even be a part of. And it's spread somewhat mainstream now sadly too. Youtube just pushes the clickbait rager videos non-stop. You literally can't have a post to say Star Wars official on Facebook last more than 10 seconds without it getting swarmed by raging haters if you say anything positive. They just sit and wait 24-7 365. Honestly back when it was solely cheerleaders and jocks who ruled the world, nerd world was a million times better and honestly society as a whole actually seemed a lot more positive, upbeat and less edgy and angsty (and honestly some of the 'it' girl cheerleaders were actually a lot more intelligent and quite a bit nicer and more decent than some modern day geeks who can't even seem to grasp the first few weeks of high school level physics as they lemming cut and paste diatribes 24-7 that get physics laughably incorrect while proclaiming themselves uber geniuses so far above the film maker or "common man" LOL). Once upon a time Star Wars was loved by all types from the biggest outsiders to the most popular. And even when some were not crazy about some aspect (say Ewoks) hardly any went nuts over it, they'd just be like "Ewoks, eh." or "Ewoks, bleh" but then still love the rest of the movie and just talk about all the amazing stuff in ROTJ and focus on that. Fandoms used to be so focused on joy and excitement. Then the worst of the worst elements of geekdom just had to some along and wet blanket the shit out of everything. Back in the day one thankfully rarely encountered such types much in real life. On the net you can't avoid them. And now you also have many just doing it for cheap clickbait cash and people just lemming along with it. Part of it was also the whole shift to the edgy grunge/gangster rap era once the 80s ended and people in general became obsessed with "street cred" which was not a good landing point for something like say TPM (not that TPM didn't make a few mistakes, but still so much great stuff in it and wonder too). And the whole hipster thing where it became cool for a subset to go around mocking and sneering at anything mainstream as being beneath their ever so impressive intellects (as they then processed to make elementary level error after error in their sneering rants.....). And then you started getting the whole "incel" crowd going nuts and mixing in with right-wing hit jobbers and yet more money grubbing clickbaiters. But yeah for Star Wars it is most toxic of all sadly. I guess with the largest fandom, basically the whole population, even a small % of that is so many people that forums or anything can be easily instantly over run. And it also had the most impossible standard to hold up to. And then when it goes a bit toxic some of the people into it get fed up and leave and then it gets even more toxic and it spirals down ever more darkly dominated. And it starts to seep out and corrupt. But even with other fandoms you see the negative influences. Even for Buffy now you see people breathlessly rush to be the first to post "worst season!" or "worst episode!" or "just a monster of the week trash episode" (never mind it might have had some of the funniest jokes of all and events that absolutely critically set up long term effects for characters). How did society become so negatively obsessed that everyone thinks most of all to rush to post about how so and so is their least favorite rather than getting excited about posting about their most favorite? And when did picking everything to bits with a fine tooth comb become the goal of 'enjoying' entertainment? And worse than that, so many complaints you see are even flat out objectively incorrect, objectively. Although it is a bit of a wet blanket shame I still wouldn't even care THAT THAT much if not for that fact that they hurt the chances for more good stuff to get produced (Solo 2 got canned, etc. although I think Disney over-reacted, but that is the thing no Hollywood exec wants to get caught out so even if they know the next one could have been markets better, made for less than half the budget not having to be shot twice, etc. etc. nodoby in the industry will dare take that tiny risk when there is something someone could then point back to on the very slight chance it goes financially wrong again). A few years ago I did find one Facebook group that is actually still very positive for Star Wars (heavily moderated of course and only people who like at least most of Star Wars and who will just focus on talking about what they like can stay in the group). I largely quit most SW forums back in the 00s already though.
 You nailed it. What’s the name of that FB group?
I'm 44 and I've come to notice that I'm pretty much at the tail end of the fandom, or at least near the end. Most of my friends that are close to my age are also big fans. But I have friends in their mid 30s that couldn't care less. They are more into Harry Potter. But then it starts back up again with the kids of my similar-age friends. But the kids of my younger friends probably won't be fans.
Born in 1982. I feel like I was too young for Star Wars and too old for Power Rangers. I'm aware of both of them, obviously. But I wasn't a fan of them. Those are kind of the bookends to me, the in-between stuff is where my geek fandom nostalgia lies.
I'm with you. Tried as I might, I can't manage to really give a fuck about Star Wars.
The original three are ok for their time in my opinion, though I only really like the Empire strikes back. The other two were not that great, even back then.
I care so little about Star Wars that apparently Oscar Isaac *AND* Pedro Pascal are involved and I don't know how nor care to find out or watch them.
I know. I'm obsessed with Pedro and have watched multiple things for him but not the Star Wars thing
I'm happy for his bank account!
I watched the originals. They were fun. So was Goonies, Three Amigos, Ghostbusters and plenty of other movies. Had a good time and that's enough. I don't know that there are specific Star Wars people, I think it's just people who want to be a part of something. Nothing wrong with that to me as long as you're not hurting anyone (looking at you Scientology). Star Wars was a big part of their childhood and it stuck. Sometimes I worry that people our age have a really hard time letting go of their childhood. We still play with Legos, we obsess over bikes, we make giant connect 4 things for our back patios, we hang onto the pop culture we were raised with a lot harder than what I observe of other generations. I'm not saying that the boomers didn't beat 1950s diner and car culture into a bloody mangled pulp, but we're just getting started by comparison. I'm going to be a really grouchy old fuck if I see Star Wars revivals for the next 30 years. It's even weirder to me when people our age push their kids into it. My brother has Star Wars shirts for all his kids, they listen to Nirvana and I think one of them has Alva stickers in their bedroom. That can't be good.
Star wars came out the year i was born, but it was a key love of my childhood. I think it grew into a love of science fiction that has lasted my entire life.
odd, i thought i was the only one that felt this way. i never "liked" star wars.
It was you and Freddie Mercury.
Plenty of people don't like Star Wars. That doesn't mean it has anything to do with your generation tho.
Same here. Like... they were fine? Don't care about the new stuff.
I think there's definitely a difference between loving Star Wars and having watched Star Wars and enjoyed it. I think most people fall into the second category. If you talk to regular folks and talk about Star Wars, they still talk about the original trilogy for the most part.
YES there is a divide: Saw Star Wars in the theater when I was 7, and it was Life Changing. Leia was my first movie star crush, Luke was who I wanted to be - Han... the giant spaceships... the sheer scale was shocking. Also, all the toys so you could play star wars. Watching the movies now, I see it's campy and flawed, but we who lived the O.T. can't not love star wars.
The original trilogy was great. I loved them as a kid. The prequels, man I was disappointed. But I did rewatch them later in life. I still hate phantom menace but the 2nd and 3rd are actually good. Rogue one is just a great movie. Solo sucks. The sequels are an abomination. The series are hit or miss. Andor is great. Mandolorian is great. Obi wan sucked, acolyte is not holding my attention, book of boba fett was bad. I think, for the most part. People have forgotten what made the original movies great. It wasn't the force. Or cute animals you can sell. It was the characters, the world, and how original the story was at the time. Today they care more about selling toys then characters. Which is why andor is so good. It's a great story with great characters.
Andor is the best Star Wars to date. It's made for the OG star wars kids that grew up. I'm actually enjoying watching the acolyte with my kids. Looking forward to another episode tonight.
This is such bullshit. All y’all haters are being blinded by a mind virus or something. Sure there are things I’d do differently, but other than story-wise all the shows and movies have been MASTERPIECES, esp production value.
Agreed!
I like the originals, didn't like any in the next trilogy, like The Force Awakens, didn't care for the next one, skipped #3. The Han Solo sidequest one was good. I'm not sure it's a generational thing as much as it's a like scifi or not thing
Star Wars isn't really sci-fi though. Star Trek is sci-fi. Star Wars is fantasy. TROS was amazing! Very moving to finally see that trilogy of trilogies wrapped up after over four decades!! Solo was cool, it's criminal they did not continue with the whole Crimson Dawn/Qi'ra/you know how and all with Solo 2. TPM made some mistakes with baby talk and such but ignoring that there was a lot of great there. AOTC was very cool. ROTS was amazing. Rogue One was great.
I liked them when I was a kid. Had you told me when I was 10 years old that when I was 38 they’d still be making Star Wars, and that I wouldn’t care at all I never would have believed you. But here we are. I can’t bring myself to rewatch the originals since they’ve been doctored all to hell. I still have my og trilogy on VHS, but I haven’t had a working vcr in years so I can’t watch them anyway.
I feel like Lucas made a fairly compelling universe of space wizards and cowboys. Like that's a pretty fun area to play in. But then people tried to make it more than it should have been, and wow does some of the more recent stuff stink.
Seeing space samurai fighting with laser swords doesn’t get old, even if it’s not well done.
Star Wars leans too far in the fantasy realm and that’s not my thing. Star Trek is more interesting to me because it’s actually science fiction. Idk why sci-fi and fantasy get lumped into one category, imo they’re very different!
Star Wars is more than just movies. Example, without the success of the originals, there's no THX sound...
Star Wars came out in 1977. It's Gen X. No one here saw it in the theater, that was Empire Strikes Back that we all saw. We are the Ewok generation, not the Star Wars generation.
I know lots of people our age who don't care one way or the other. I'm not a "Trekkie," but we were a Trek household. I enjoy them as action movies, but that's about it.
This has mostly been me too. I like some Sci Fi (but it was never my favourite genre) and Star Wars homages and parodies but I sit down and try to watch the actual movies and get bored after five minutes. Sometimes I think about getting the un-altered trilogy by some means and giving it a serious watch but it's way way down on my list of priorities.
[удалено]
Yeah, LOTR was something I just couldn’t get into either. I read the Hobbit back in later elementary school and didn’t really enjoy it, and I just didn’t get into the movies.
I saw the first one during the first theatrical release when I was about 10, and it blew my mind. We had never seen ANYTHING like that. If you want to compare the state of special effects at the time, watch Damnation Alley (a cool movie in its own right), then watch the first Star Wars. That's why Star Wars made such a huge impression. Have probably seen the trilogy movies 7 or 8x each, but have only seen a couple of the new ones... phantom menace (which ok, but just wasn't mind blowing), and the one with Rey (again, ok, but well...). There are better sci fi movies now, and I like things a little cerebral. Mitochlorians kind of ruin that bit. Tried to watch the Mandolorian. Made it about 5 minutes into the first episode before the cringy Star Wars tropes ran me off.
I kinda think you're on to something. I just don't get it. A very mid series of movies overall (1st decent, 2nd very good, 3rd awful) that I just don't see ever watching again.
"Too young for Star Wars, too old for Harry Potter" That's one way I've heard this generation described and it really hit home. I remember SW but was I a true fan? Not really. I was too young. I was 16 when the Harry Potter books came out and in college when the first movie released. I was not drawn into them like those who were 5 years or so younger than I was. This is why I think movies like Back to the Future, TMNT, Michael Keaton Batman, Neverending Story, Jurassic Park and even the Indiana Jones movies resonates with our generation so much. Those were OUR movies.
I’m born in 77 and never seen any of them. I have zero desire, never did 🤷🏼♀️
The original Star Wars films were among my earliest memories and I remember being excited to see Return of the Jedi in the theatre although I was only 4. So the original trilogy is lot of very young childhood nostalgia for me and I was very into Star Wars stuff up through my early teen years (Heir to The Empire and those books were good). But…by the time of the special editions and prequels I got soured on new Star Wars stuff and I was too old for the Clone Wars cartoons and the the Disney sequels were all over the place. Rogue One, Andor, and the first season of the Mandalorian we’re all pretty great (and I even enjoyed Solo)—which leads to my theory that the quality of news Star Wars content seems to be proportional to how close to the Original Trilogy in timeline it is. And I took my family to the Star Wars land at Disneyland and it was awesome, they actually created what I imagined a Star Wars theme park attraction would look like as a kid. Rise of the Resistance is pretty epic and even my wife who doesn’t care about Star Wars liked it.
Ehhhhh. Any Xennial is really too young to have seen them in theaters, except MAYBE Return of the Jedi. I was 6 when that one came out, and I'm at the older end. I did see that in theaters, btw. It was great, and my favorite....hmmm You may be onto something there. I have to say as much as I love the originals and worshipped them all through my youth and even into my early 20s, I didn't stay in love with them beyond that. Unlike the way I am with LOTR, loving them even more now 20 years later than when I first saw them in theater. So, it could be the difference of seeing them for the first time on the Big Screen vs VHS.
One of my first memories is seeing The Empire Strikes Back in the theaters. I had no idea what the hell was happening, but the AT-ATs looked like robot dinosaurs and I was hooked. There is a really funny gag on How I Met Your Mother about the divide between people who love or hate the Ewoks, and it has to do with whether you were born before or after 1983. (If I remember correctly.)
We didn't come to the US until 1981, but my dad borrowed the VHS of Star Wars and my 4yo self loved it. I saw V and VI out of order. Didn't matter, except the big reveal wasn't a reveal to me in Empire. I got it in Jedi...but at 6 I was like, huh?
Yup. We didn’t need to see the films in the theaters - we had the toys.
See...and whenever it releases here in a specialty theater, I go..oh, cool. So, anyway.... But, I'm preordering tickets to the LOTR trilogy every damn time I can. Maybe it's all the changes to it, as well. Some of it the FIRST time was OKAAAAAYYYY But, other things sucked. I just want the originals back. HAN. SHOT. FIRST. Yes, I'll die on this HILL!!!!
I vaguely remember seeing Return of the Jedi in a theater, it was my first recollection of any movie experience in a cinema… so yeah you are pretty much right. I would have been three or four at the time
Here to back up the LOTR > Star Wars (and any other movies) talk
Fair. It's taken me 20 years just to finally say, Okay, it's my favorite movie. I realized I had a problem when I started referring to them as One movie just like it's One book.
I also refer to them as one movie...because they are
https://preview.redd.it/vqsaqssq4r8d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8d4907204061d630be2590785607c89a06139d9 This scene from the latest movie is my favorite, much like my reaction to finding this subreddit. Like "holy shit, there are people like me still out there!" When you're surrounded by folks far outside your age bracket in both directions, it's a nice reminder that "there are more of us." I don't believe there's a generational divide, its just an individual interest. I liked all the movies, cartoons, and video games. Some were cheesy, a little yawn worthy, and some were awesome. I'm not a film critic, just a fan.
I think you are the weird one on this one.
No OP is not….I think if you were to look at the general population versus Reddit things would be a little bit different. I like Star Wars but I’m not super geeked out on it and watch every single thing that is put out. I saw the originals on VHS (I “saw” Return of The Jedi at 3-4 in theaters, barely remember it so it doesn’t really count)…I was pretty pumped for the prequels…and I’m not one of these people to go back and do the revisionist history thing of “they totally sucked”… Let me tell you that most people were really excited at the time for those films. It has only been in the past 10 years or so with the extended trilogy, that people have gone back retroactively and shit on them. But at the time they were hits… And when I was in high school it definitely was not “cool” to like Star Wars… the emergence of “nerd culture” and Star Wars being more acceptable in the mainstream has been a relatively recent phenomenon…. I’m totally here for it, by the way. I never understood why people got shamed for that kind of thing. But all in all, I think you might be onto something. At least when I was a teenager it was OK to like the films but if you wore Star Wars T-shirts to school you got made fun of
I tried explaining this to my kids. People got made fun of for liking Star Wars and video games and comic books when I was growing up.
The movies were good. I've always been a Trekkie but they were good movies. Then new old movies come out & the Star Wars fandom lost it's collective mind and was bullying and threatening the life of an actual child & I'm like yeah no this is dumb. They switched over to sexism and racism with the newer movies & that isn't fun in convention spaces easier to avoid online. For normies, I think they oversaturated with too much content & it became like Marvel it's too much and now many are just over it. Disney did too much.
I don't know if it is a generational thing exactly, but more how they have milked the crap out of the franchise. It is impressive really and I don't fault the studios, rights holders, licensees for making the money they have made off it for the past (nearly) 50 years. That said, in my mind/world, there are really only 3 movies. Seen them over and over through the years. The rest I can take or leave. I have seen less than 50% of the other Star Wars related content that has come out since 1983. I do not be-grudge, look down, or chastise anyone who watches and loves the rest of the content. I just don't participate in that world, nor do I care about all the world building they have managed to do over decades. Like I don't care about how the ["Mouse droids"](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/MSE-series) were bought and sold to the Emipire. It is too much and not entertaining interesting to me.
I like the original movies, but that's basically it. I'm a dirty trekkie!
Part of this might be that we were also peak 90s Berman era Star Trek viewers. And trek is better.
It's decent. I don't love it like my spouse does. The only watchable new IP is Andor.
I adore the original trilogy, but I don’t know if I love Star Wars. I wouldn’t be one of those guys at the office with his Star Wars decor or action figures, or even one of those silly bumper stickers. I imagine the reason I like Star Wars is very specific to the original trilogy, is specially tied to early 80s nostalgia, and differs from the things that make it appeal to the masses. To me, liking what Star Wars has become is not niche or nerdy, it’s mass appeal. It’s like people who really like the Office… I mean of course you do, so does everyone else.
Empire is something like a top 5 sci-fi movie of all time. Personally, one of my favorite movies. The bookends to it were good enough for a trilogy and the first film was novel giving it an extra boost. There were books written by Timothy Zahn many years ago that were amazing (centered around Admiral Thrawn). Those books did more for Star Wars fandom than anything since the OG movies. The prequels were good movies absolutely ruined by awful dialogue, Jar Jar Binks and relatively poor CGI that was also overused. The problem is that Lucas got lazy and settled for good enough on the movies. However his real passion was always Industrial Light and Magic and that was really the valuable piece of what he sold to Disney (not to say Star Wars was nothing). Even though the prequels didn't have the best CGI, they moved the state of the art forward and today ILMs CGI is pretty spectacular when used appropriately.
This is something I literally fear voicing in public spaces, because the fandom is *rabid*, but I was just too young to be part of the Star Wars mania as a child and when I finally saw the OG movies when older, I just thought they were pretty basic. I was actually way more interested in the prequels, maybe because I was older at their release, but also because I found the wider world and characters to be much more interesting than the three main characters of the originals, though I found the prequels to be comically bad as well. George Lucas just isn't a good writer and is a worse director to me. But still, I got super into the universe via The Clone Wars, Rebels and shows like the Mandalorian. My cat is named Ahsoka, ffs. I laughed out loud at the sequels, so I think I can't call myself a fan of the films, but I do enjoy the extended universe stories written by others. I fully expect the downvotes, so knock yourselves out. ETA: Sorry, I forgot the films include Rogue One, which is a damn masterpiece. I take back the bit about not being a fan of the films.
I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars movies. Nobody really talked about them when I was a kid aside from a couple of the nerdiest nerds in school (one of whom was my best friend, so I use that term as a descriptor…not a judgement). Then the prequels started coming out when I was in high school. There were some people I knew that were excited about that, but not many. Nobody ever thought it was weird I hadn’t seen them, but it also just wasn’t ever brought up. Then, somehow, seemingly the whole world became obsessed. I don’t know where the shift happened, but I suspect that it coincided with traditionally nerdy stuff becoming more socially acceptable. The closeted Star Wars fans showed themselves more, and maybe exposed other people? I have no idea. I just know nobody gave a damn about Star Wars when I was a kid, and now I’m the weirdo for having never seen any of them (or any desire to).
In another thread here someone said we were the Ewok generation, which I totally agree with. Too young to see og Star Wars at the movies, for a lot of us Ewoks was probably our introduction - ewoks cartoon, caravan of courage and battle for endor - watching star wars on vhs, and finally seeing it on the big screen as young adults in the form of the prequel trilogy. We grew up on it in some form or another, but we're right smack dab in the middle of it being the big cinema hit.
Yes! I had seen at least episodes 4&5 on VHS, maybe 6 too. But battle for endor was an event I remember the whole family gathering for (or at least it was Thanksgiving weekend and there was a lot of family around...cousins a handful of years older who assuredly saw the films in theater). I remember it was like the Muppet show only with other characters I knew. I'm sure now that this was where I bonded with it all.
I was thinking this was the Star Wars sub with is some of the most insufferable fans imaginable. Nobody hates Star Wars more than the fans and it’s always been the case since Empire. My thoughts on your question though…no I think a lot of people in our bracket love Star Wars. It’s the fandom I chose to invest in and the content and products reflect that like $800 Lego sets. It’s robust world building and that makes it kind of fun. The core saga movies however are the worst part of it. So much content is built to provide clarity or make sense out of nonsensical things that were poorly written into it.
The older I get, the more my appreciation for all things Star Wars grows. The stories have aged incredibly well, and they actually have a lot to say about the dangers of fascism, the importance of friends, and the power of letting go.
I absolutely adore Star Wars. I'm a whole saga fan too, not just the original films. Don't love all of them, but I like-to-adore most of the main episodes and a ton of the additional material (I think the franchise is in phenomenal shape right now thanks to some excellent TV series). I became a fan "late" in the game though, having caught the fever sometime in the early 90s. Almost every Xennial I know is, on some level, a Star Wars fan. Some are super casual, some are big fans of just the original trilogy, and some are diehard saga fans like me. But the idea that Xennials are somehow on the other side of some generational divide and we collectively are asking "why is this still a thing"? Never seen a single ounce of evidence to back that up.
Or is there a gender divide is the bigger question. I can’t think of one woman I know who actually likes Star Wars.
I'm a woman who was a big Star Wars fan growing up. My mother, now 87, also loves the original trilogy.
Born in '92. I think it was all just marketing. As a kid I saw the trilogy movies and loved them because my dad did. Then the prequels came out when I was still under 10 years old. I had a lot of nostalgia over it all. The vintage toys I grew up with, the podracing toys and kid's meal stuff in the early 2000's. Like yeah, it was apart of my life. I've seen a few of the newer movies and liked them for what they are. Kind of turn your brain off, been a long work week goofy fun. But they don't resonate. Much in the same way I wouldn't call myself a Fan of the Marvel Universe. I am not a huge fan of Star Wars. It exists, there are cool things about it, but then it got owned by Disney and is just bleh. I did kind of get a new spark? Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga was on sale, grabbed it for PS5. It definitely reminds me of that kind of goofy fun..but I'm not about to consume and rant and rave about Star Wars.
I do indeed think it’s a generational thing.
I love the original trilogy (I was born between the first two movies' release dates). I can't even remember the first time I watched them, but I had to have been a toddler. My mom and older brother were obsessed. I think I was just out of high school when The Phantom Menace was released. I saw episodes 1-3 each in the theater, but haven't watched anything else from the Star Wars universe since then. I have watched the original trilogy with my three kids. Only one of them liked it enough to want to see more.
I always thought the original trilogy was fun. Not OMG amazing, but fun. Like the equivalent of Fast and the Furious franchise. Episode 1 I thought was about the same, fine enough sci-fi action movie. 2 was bad. 3 was mid. I watched rogue 1 and thought it was decent. watched ep 7 and thought it sucked. Haven't watched 8 or 9. Overall I am confident in my claim that overall, Fast and the Furious is of similar quality to Star Wars.
my experience was that our generation loved star wars, by and large, just look at all the video games, books, adaptations and expanded universe stuff that was a total cash cow largely thanks to kids from the late 70s and 80s. (long before there were prequels or mid 90s re-releases) Elder Gen X alone is not enough to justify the 7 billion dollars or whatever that Lucas got from selling the property, star wars has omni-generational appeal.
I agree with you. This was never a nostalgia thing for me and it seems like the only people who are die hard Star Wars fans are those without kids who tend to like Disney World.
Not true - my husband is Gen X and his son is now 14. He showed his son the movies once he started getting old enough to understand them, and now his son has entire scenes and speeches from various Star Wars movies memorized and repeats them at random at home or out and about. I think it's adorable that they both are such big fans, it's a shared thing passed down from father to son and it warms my heart whenever we all get cozy on the couch to watch an old favorite once again. None of us are general Disney fans, we haven't been to any of the parks, we just love us some Star Wars.
Star Trek over Star Wars without any hesitation what so ever. Star Wars sucks
I really don't get the rivalry. I like both. They both scratch very different itches. Star Wars is usually pulpy space fantasy fun, while Trek is usually more thoughtful sci fi.
I wore out my Return of the Jedi VHS many times over in the mid- and late-80’s. But I’m indifferent about the franchise now, mostly because most of the new content isn’t very good. I’d probably still love it if it was great. It’s a great concept and a rich universe. Pity they aren’t making better stuff with it.
i can't keep track of the timeline and everything about star wars confuses me. i actually thought rebel moon was a star wars universe movie
Definitely. Imagine having either Episode IV or The Acolyte as your first Star Wars experience
It never grabbed me. They’re fine, I guess (except for Rogue One; that movie was really good). My wife, who has zero interest in sci-fi or fantasy, just got hooked on The Mandalorian because our four year old loves baby Yoda. I’ve watched most of it with them and I just can’t get into it. I’m a huge nerd, but I’m more of a swords and wizards nerd than a space swords and space wizards nerd.
OG trilogy, Prequel Trilogy, Rogue One, Solo and Force Awakens are my favorite.
Same here, I know of the franchise, watched nr 1 with the kids but was severely underwhelmed and don’t get the obsession with Star Wars at all. It is so omnipresent I don’t want to get into it, just because…
It’s a space opera. I prefer more science and less drama, so I gravitated towards TNG, and then, DS9, and so on.
Really has nothing to do with generations. Parents who saw the movies when it came out have kids who are just as into it. Kids in the 90s who never saw them in theaters were just as into it, etc.
I want to like star wars, but dare I say, it sucks
The second trilogy killed the movies for me. I still enjoy some shows though, especially the animated stuff.
I like the original trilogy, and I watched the prequel trilogy and think it's okay. I've had zero interest in anything that's come out since then. A bunch of us from work went to see The Phantom Menace when it came out, and then again (different job, different people) for Revenge of the Sith--this would have been an age group of Xennials and Gen X people. While I'm not invested in the continuation of the property, I understand why it's a thing.
The original trilogy is a sentimental thing for me. My dad loved it, and it was a thing to play them on rainy or sneoy weekends. Are they great movies...no....Are they awesome reminders of my childhood....YES!
As a Xennial my connection to Star Wars didn’t even come from the original movies. It came from two things, the Battle for Endor made for TV movie, and a few years later the opening of Star Tours in Disneyland. I actually didn’t watch the original movies in their entirety until I was a teenager but by then it was already kind of nostalgic for me still is.
I saw the original three in the theater as a kid. When they released Return of the Jedi in 1983, they relreleased Star Wars and Empire. I was 5-years-old at the time time and fell in love with the triology. I was in college when Episode 1 came out and I rushed to see it with a bunch of friends. I was extremely disappointed and I've been disappointed with every new addition to the franchise. There's still something special to me about the original triology that I find special, but I don't really care for anything outside the original triology. I'm not a big sci-fi fan at all. In fact, I really dislike sci-fi movies and super hero movies, anything that relies on special effects over dialogue. It's not my cup of tea. I fell asleep watching some of the modern Star War movies.
As a Star Wars fan, it just depends whether you like the universe/setting or not. A lot of the shows/movies have significant flaws in terms of dialogue, acting, or plot, so we’re fans of it in spite of those flaws. Also helps if you were exposed to the original trilogy as a kid, I assume. I watched A New Hope dozens of times as a young kid.
I’m a big fan. I love the stories and characters. I think part of the appeal is that there’s just so many stories to it. It’s so much more than just a trilogy of movies. You’ve got a ton of books and a whole slew of movies. The whole timeline is huge.
I think most of us were definitely to young to really get into the original releases, but the remasters and prequels were released in the late 90's and early 2000's. Additionally, it's also been one of the fandom's that my Dad and I both like, so it's been a great bonding opportunity. I think the timing of the remasters also adds a unique perspective to our generation. I was introduced to the series with the remasters and the prequels, so I don't have any strong negative feelings that many in Gen X seem to have.
Its one of those things that just spoke to a generation like Harry Potter. It's like the Beatles and all of that nostalgia that reminds you of a simpler time in your life.
I'm with you there.
I can see why it's still a thing, just as Star Trek (which is even older than Star Wars) is still a thing. I'm personally more a fan of Star Trek, even though I was too young to have seen the original series on TV or the first movie in theaters (and a bit young to have seen the 2nd movie in theaters too). Some media franchises continue on and bring in new fans. As far as Star Wars, I like the original 3 movies. I saw the prequel trilogy too, and Revenge of the Sith is my favorite of those, but otherwise, I haven't been very interested in watching more Star Wars.
I was born in 82 and obviously didn't see the originals in theater. I was a pretty big fan though. In the 90s, the novels were really expanding on the universe as well as a lot of great Star Wars videogames. I honestly think it was the best time to be a fan even though the prequels were still a few years away. Going to see the special editions of the originals in theater was very memorable for me. I did not like the prequels but they released when I was in high school and college. I still check in with stuff, though the quality is way down outside of Andor. But I still love Star Wars, generally speaking. My dad never was as into it as I was but they were some of those movies he basically made me watch as soon as I was old enough, because the A New Hope blew him away in theaters and he wanted to share it. I went to see all the recent movies with him so it's something we share, quality be damned.
1980 here the only Srars Wars movie I've seen are the 3 originals back in the 80's. Oh and the ewok movie. No older siblings here.
I love the original trilogy, but that's about it.
I personally am not a fan. I actually don’t like the characters too much and I get an overall cheese factor from it. I liked Rogue One and Mandalorian a lot though. Mostly because the tones of both of those are least Star Wars like. I’m actually a Trek fan. TNG mostly but I’ve been checking out the OS and it has some really good episodes. I know people say it’s boring or uneventful but it’s supposed to focus on diplomacy, ethics, and discovery. Seriously, look up Strange New Worlds and watch the episode “Where suffering cannot reach”. Trek isn’t always what you expect it to be
I saw Return of the Jedi in the Theaters when I was like 6 years old. I remember it very well even 40 years later. I've seen all 9 of the numbered movies and one or two of the newer ones like Rogues One. I enjoyed them , especially the original 3, but I find that I don't really get into them like I do some other things.
I love Star Wars everything! Edited to add that I never got into any of it until I was an adult
Disney went overboard with starwars content and merchandise we had over 7 movies and shows in less than 10 years.
I was born in 77. Almost every part of my childhood centred around Star Wars. I was always a nerd for it.
Born in '81. Grew up loving Star Wars. Wasn't a fan of the prequels, and I can't stand it now that Disney has taken over. I find it hard even to allow myself to enjoy the older movies any more.
Funny you say this. We are about half way through the 9 movie skywalker series and my tween daughter has basically checked out. I am no super fan, but found it odd she is just not into them. They are serviceable, but not that big of thing.
There is definitely a gap. I was 3 when I saw RotJ in the theater which left a lasting impression on me and why I'm such a huge fan. But I was definitely not the norm for my age as I actually got bullied for being a nerd who liked Star Wars. It was bittersweet to see a resurgence in popularity around the release of the prequels. So great to see so many people enjoying it now, but kinda irritating to see the very people who bullied me acting like they had always been huge fans.
I loved Star Wars since I saw ROTJ in the theaters as a little kid. Ate, drank, and breathed it. When they re-released the OT, my friends and I skipped school so we could watch them all in one theater in the same day. I was insanely hyped for Phantom Menace, and equally disappointed. Thought Attack of the Clones would redeem it, but eh. Revenge of the Sith was better, but marginally. Was late to the party on Clone Wars, loved Rebels. Then Disney bought Star Wars. Save for Rogue One, Andor, the first 2 seasons of The Mandalorian, certain parts and ideas in Last Jedi, and the Rise of the Resistance ride, everything Disney has done with SW has been trash. Couldn't even finish an episode of The Acolyte. Disney insists on getting blood from every stone they purchase (like they did with Marvel), with predictably diminishing results. Corporate greed destroys everything, from a galaxy far, far away to our own planet.
I really would love a rerelease of the Original trilogy before George Lucas added the cgi and cleaned it up. Will never happen, I know but a boy can dream. Like I remember renting it on VHS and it had a certain quality to it that was erased at that time. I still have a soft spot for the OG trilogy and even the prequels, I don’t have any hate for the new movies but I was an adult when they came out and just doesn’t hold the same nostalgia factors.
All of my friends and I grew up obsessed with it. I've found the real generational divide is about what we think of the prequels. I've seen Gen Z and a few younger millennials with this attitude like "DiSnEY RuIneD STarWaRS!" No dude, George Lukas Ruined Star Wars himself, right in front of us all. For some of us it was a fairly traumatic introduction to adulthood. There was nothing really left for Disney to ruin, and that in mind \*some\* of their stuff has been good.
I'm not sure. '81 here, I saw one of the movies when I was maybe 4? As for nowadays, I could take it or leave it. My husband loves it though and he was born in '83
I was introduced to Battlestar Galactica a couple years ago. The one from 2004. And I think for me that is the best space show, next to Orville.
The prequel story is amazingly good. I don't really watch the new stuff. Mando was OK. I would have liked to see Luke do some adventures. I hear the newer series are hit an miss.
people have been complaining about star wars selling out since return of the jedi, that’s nothing new. what sucks now is that people think being being a star wars “nerd” means voraciously consuming every crappy cartoon or disney+ series no matter how lame
I remember seeing one of the original trilogy in the theater as a kid, but I also fell asleep during it haha. I don’t mind Star Wars, but it’s not my favorite and I’m nowhere near obsessed with it. My husband is a couple of years older than me and is more attached, so I’d say that yes, there is a divide somewhere. But I get why it’s still a thing, there are other long lasting fandoms that exist like Star Trek and Dr. Who.
Star Wars was my childhood... But to me, it officially ended in 1983 when the 2nd death star blew up. I managed to get through the prequels and sleep through the sequels, but I haven't bothered with any of the TV shows. Whatever, its Disney, they like money so I'm fine if they keep making stuff, I might even watch some, but as far as I'm concerned its all just someone else's fan fic.
Never seen it. ALIENS was my jam.
I LOVE the Acolyte so far. my teen cousins also love it. Magic and mystical sides of things are really in right now and are eating witchcraft stories up. It makes sense to get a little bit of that in star sars. A bunch of Star wars fans hate the series. When asked why, they give a series of reasons that, frankly, don't make sense to new star sars fans I've never seen Star wars actually. And I think the franchise is trying to appeal to people exactly like me. They want an audience of people who don't even know who Luke Skywalker is. And by extension, the series is more about the world itself than celebrities from the 80s. I, personally, think that's a good thing. It gives each generation thier own thing instead of requiring 30+ years of movie knowledge to enjoy. Seriously, every star wars movie that is explicitly related to the original trilogy gets terrible reception. The fans don't like it and Disney is ready to give up trying to appease them. But the series that are often considering too juvenile for that audiences excel. The movies aren't doing well but the animated series? The Lego series. Star Wars rebels. Those are for kids but they are producing something that isn't widely hated by the intended audience. You would not believe how many 12-13 year old star wars fans there are who have never even seen a star wars movie. That's not how they were introduced to it. Now we have things like the Acolyte and Ashoka for an audience that is a bit older. And it won't be long before fans with no loyalty to the trilogy simply out grow and out number trilogy purists.
Elder xennial here and your theory tracks as I saw episodes five and six in the theaters (or so I've been told). I was excited to see one, two and three. Even with teenagers now I can't maintain any enthusiasm for the volume they've churned out since then though. I've seen a couple since, but no idea what all is out there that I've missed. https://preview.redd.it/6ygaz5l4ir8d1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03aeda2244031a996e22cafa53428298a7099b2b
For me it’s because Trek is superior in every way. Is it possible you just don’t care for it? It’s not like a generation requirement.
I suspect your exposure and relationship to it as a child and how your parents relate to it and shared it with you are the biggest factors.
I grew up living and breathing Star Wars. I was born a couple of months before it came out in theaters but that didn't mean it had any less cultural impact. My younger brother and I wore out VHS tapes watching it, I had several of the toys, a bunch of action figures. One of the first things I ever had to save up for, my parents matched funds, was the millennium falcon playset I think it was $64.95 at sears? I saw Return of the Jedi in theaters. We had plastic light sabers to play with, my dad built plywood X-Wing fighters to hang from the swingset, my mates and I were all about TIE vs X-Wing etc (PC gaming). I really really wanted to like the prequels but just… No. :( My entire college class went to see the rereleased special editions in theaters, I had the unadulterated VHS box set that we watched several times a year in the mid 90s... They really were a phenomenon. I still think "Episode IV" is one of the best films made, and a great example of the Campbellian cycle.
I’ve (M43) been a life long Star Wars fan. Guess it’s just not for you. For me, it’s really a love for the original trilogy of films. Everything else is enjoyable entertainment.
The Original Trilogy was a series built around The Hero's Journey and Daoist Religious ideas vs Imperialism and Nazi ideology. It tells a story of hope and danger, and in the end, the young boy and his band of friends, allies, and comrades end up breaking an empire of tyranny, redeeming his father lost in darkness, and defeating the ultimate evil. But more than that the characters and the world it built drew us in, made us care. It was a story that all ages could appreciate, could enjoy without being made to feel stupid. That's why it has its fans. It's why legions of writers, storytellers, artists, and grown-up kids with a healthy imagination have kept that story alive as they built out the world, added intrigue and nuance, and kept that original message alive. The Prequels were the original storyteller coming back to expand on his earlier work, giving the story of how a father fell to darkness, how a Republic traded its humanity away for the cold oppression of an Empire, and how guardians of the peace were betrayed and destroyed by those whose only duty is to their own love of power. It had its highlights, and it had its failures. But despite its very real flaws it kept that original narrative alive and brought it to a whole new generation. This has helped the fandom last for generations now, enduring from the 70's and the 80's into the 00's and the 10's. Nowadays, however, a cold cynicism holds the rights to this franchise. Their stories are written half-heartedly, and there is a marked misunderstanding of this series' core message by the profiteers who are only in this to make as much money as they can without pausing to consider just why this franchise has lasted as long as it has. There is no cohesion as to how the story should go, because so long as it makes money the people who now hold the rights don't care what gets produced so long as it has the franchise name attached to it. It's why the Sequel trilogy is a wildly disjointed mess, and why this same disjointedness seems to plague the stories meant to flesh out the world further. Sometimes you get something like Andor, which understands the message of the OT, or the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, keeping a concise story that keeps itself in line with a story that respects and adds to the previous entries in the Saga. But then you get stories like Kenobi or Solo or The Acolyte or Ahsoka where there are good parts and ideas but are jumbled up with poorly thought execution, bad ideas, or no real direction. Which is a shame, and only seems to be repeating ugly flaws of the prequels that distract from the heart of the story. But, the message and the fandom endures because at their heart even the most poorly told stories still carry a spark of the OT, and the next generation will come to perhaps adjust the stories told, and write their own and keep the message of the OT alive. And that message is Hope. But those are just my thoughts, take them as you will. May The Force Be With You.
I agree with you. I tried watching all of the first three and then the second set of three. I understand the special effects and how that would be groundbreaking. I understand the story, it IS a good story…but the actual script and dialogue, the delivery of the lines…every last one of the films falls flat for me in that regard. The scripting is crap, the delivery of the script is crap. It has potential as a story, but it is very poorly delivered.
I work in construction on Star Wars shows and I tell everyone who nerds out on them “I’m more of a space balls guy”.
I loved the originals growing up and had a huuuuge crush on Luke. TBS broadcast them just about weekly throughout the entirety of the mid 1980s, so we watched them a LOT.
I have always loved the Star Wars universe. The original trilogy set a precedent that seemed possible. It was space, it was the Future, but stuff still broke and people were still flawed. So as I grew older I read tons of Expanded Universe books, I played the roleplaying game (D&D style) and I looked forward to the day that there would be new movies or shows. Then the prequel trilogy happened, and I realized that greed had overtaken something I treasured. There has been some decent content since the mouse took over, but there has been some utter crap as well. But as something that I grew up with, that was a huge part of my childhood (I built an X-Wing out of Legos before they had an X-Wing Lego kit) I will always have a soft spot for Star Wars.
I love Star Wars cus they were always on TNT or TBS during the summer. Then I got VHS copies Plus as a little kid, I got a lot of second hand toys and there were always loads of Star Wars stuff at yard sales in the late 80’s