No One Hates Star Wars Quite Like Star Wars Fans

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

No other sentence seems to inspire as much devotion as those which have flashed up on movie and television screens since the 1977 premiere of Star Wars (which was only retrospectively retitled as Episode IV - A New Hope in 1981). Yet as intense as the Star Wars fandom's love affair is with George Lucas's ground-breaking space opera, the scenes which would come to follow those words in the years which followed did no always meet the expectations of some of the fandom's most passionate and outspoken members.

Treating the original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy as verging on sacrosanct, latter attempts at tweaking and expanding upon the Star Wars universe, beginning with George Lucas's own special edition edits and prequel trilogy, and later through to the Disney era sequels and spin-off films have often been contentious to say the least. Whether it be changing the trigger order of the Han/Greedo scene in A New Hope, introducing a certain slapstick Gungan character into the prequels, or turning Luke Skywalker into a broken and disenfranchised hermit who turned his back on the galaxy he once saved, there are certainly no shortage of complaints which have been aired by Star Wars fans over the years.

What's more, with Lucasfilm now firmly in the hands of the Mouse House who have plans to push out a veritable avalanche of new Star Wars content in the coming years, there's also little doubt there will be many new complaints to come.

The question is though, is this open disdain for much that has followed on since the conclusion of the Original Trilogy actually warranted? Are those amongst the fandom who have declared war on what they deem as lesser quality franchise entries merely disgruntled fanboys and fangirls with too much time on their hands, or are they urging us to look beyond our own all-encompassing love for the brand to think more critically at what is being served up to us in the guise of the world's biggest sci-fi franchise?

Coming Clean: Where I Sit In All This

Before I begin to delve much further into this article, I suppose it might be prudent to be as transparent as possible in regards to my own feelings on the matter and my own place in the fandom. First of all, it would not be too far a stretch to declare myself a lifelong Star Wars fan - as an 80s kid I grew up with the original trilogy on VHS, and as young as 6 years old I would watch and re-watch A New Hope endlessly, to the point where I could almost recite the script verbatim. I used to run around my front lawn in a cheap plastic Storm Trooper costume, I would pretend my bubble baths were the Death Star trash compactor where Luke had been pulled underwater, and my favourite childhood toy was a stuffed droid modelled from C3PO I dragged around until the beanbag filling began to pop out of it.

In my teen years I was ecstatic as the original expanded universe novels began to build upon the universe I had fallen in love with during my younger years, and I still consider Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire novels some of the strongest Star Wars fiction ever written and will loudly proclaim to anyone willing to listen that Zahn's Grand Admiral Thrawn is still the second best Star Wars villain ever created after Vader himself.

It was also right about this time, however, I also began to learn that not everything released under the Star Wars brand was solid gold, and Vonda McIntyre's EU novel The Crystal Star still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. As the years passed, the EU books kept coming, some good, others forgettable, but by-and-large I would happily continue to devour them as the only other Star Wars content available outside of the original films.

And then, in the late 90s George Lucas began dropping his special edition rereleases back into cinemas complete with whizz-bang new special effects and never-before-seen extra footage. To be honest, I either didn't notice or remember noticing that Lucas had changed up the Greedo scene on my first viewing of the New Hope special edition on the big screen, I just remember being overjoyed at the extra bits and whiz-bang background tweaks he had introduced to one of my all-time favourite movies. Of course when the matter was brought to my attention, I firmly fell on "Han shot first" side of the fence (and still do), but I don't think that particular change ruined the whole experience for me in the slightest.

And then, in 1999...

Midichlorians, Jar Jar Binks and the Taxation of Trade Routes

The lead up to the release of The Phantom Menace was an exciting time for Star Wars fans. Ever since Lucas retrospectively declared A New Hope as Episode IV in 1981, diehard fans had been left wondering what exactly happened before we first met Luke on Tatooine, and what the hell happened in those Clone Wars Obi-Wan told us about. What was eventually released as the prequel trilogy, however, left many fans divided.

Now let me be clear, I myself, probably enjoyed the prequels more than most others I know. Sure they most certainly didn't seem to capture, at least for me, the same magic as the OT and the rough and tumble of the galaxy's wild frontier had been swapped out for urbanised planets, galactic senates and shiny new ships, but these quibbles seemingly paled in the face of the realisation that after all this time, I was finally getting new live-action Star Wars movies. Plus Ewan McGregor freaking nailed Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I can't be the only one who really wanted Mace Windu to call Jango Fett a motherf*ker.

In a world in which the internet was not yet easily accessible in everyone's pocket, and the echo chamber of social media was still yet to fully coalesce in some unknown future, it was easy and fun to debate the merits of these new films with friends. Sure it soon became clear, that at least for many existing fans who had entered the franchise via the OT, that the prequels did not quite measure up to the legacy of their predecessors, but you could still have a civil debate with a mate over a few beers about the purpose of Jar Jar Binks without half the internet piling on you for it.

What's more, I began to see a whole new generation of fans being drawn into the magic of the franchise. Kids were now running around in Clone Trooper armour, much as I once did in my own Storm Trooper costume. Perhaps, just perhaps, they would could to regard the PT with the same nostalgia and reverence I did for the OT, and that was kind of a cool thought.

Sure those who had a far less favourable view of the prequels certainly had their points, and many of the weaknesses they still point to to this very day certainly hold water, but I don't subscribe to the overly dramatic idea that they in any way destroyed my childhood. Quite frankly, I'd rather have the prequels we got rather than the big fat nothing else we would have had were they never made. Call me a prequel apologist if you will (I have been before), I don't care and I'm not apologising for anything.

You don't like the prequels? Cool, I can see why you don't, and probably agree with many of your arguments. Personally I still liked them despite their failings, but I LOVED the OT far more and I'm sure there are younger fans who think the exact opposite out there somewhere.

And here's the clincher: it is entirely possible to hold a contradictory opinion to someone else in regards to a piece of art and still accept the validity of their stance.

Begun, the Clone Wars have..

One thing I still wish the prequels had spent more time doing was explore the Clone Wars more closely. Whilst Attack of the Clones introduced their origins, by the opening crawl of Revenge of the Sith we were in their final days. It has always been my position that in a more perfect world, Attack of the Clones would have been Episode I and a new entry would have slid between it and Revenge of the Sith. After all in all those younger years when we could only imagine what happened before A New Hope, the events of the events of the Clone Wars first mentioned by Obi-Wan were typically right at the top of those guesses.

In 2003 the first Clone Wars animated series went someway to filling in the gaps, but it was a highly stylized series and was, at least for me, more along the lines of the Star Wars: Droids cartoon in the 80s, a cool little side project but not part of the official film continuity. It wasn't until 2008, when George Lucas brought on Dave Filoni to head up a new Clone Wars series that we actually started gaining some officially connected insight into the events of those missing years.

I'll be honest, and my initial reaction to the animated Clone Wars movie and the first few episodes did not exactly thrill me. I felt, at first, that the idea of Anakin's new apprentice Ahsoka Tano was a mistake, a redundant character shoe-horned into the existing storyline and with no real future ahead of her. I was almost ready to write the whole series off completely, and it was only out of sheer stubbornness that I persisted through the early parts of the first season.

I have never been more happy to admit that I was wrong.

As the seasons progressed, Filoni's mastery of Star Wars writing began to show through the first initial faltering steps, and soon after many of the holes and questions raised by the prequel films were not only being answered, but answered well. Moreover, Ahsoka had also transformed into a integral and interesting part of Star Wars lore.

Filoni was beginning to prove himself as a more than worthy Star Wars storyteller, and he clearly possessed an insight into many of the facets of the franchise which first inspired so many to fall in love with the OT.

Enter the House of Mouse

Before Disney swooped in to buy Lucasfilm from George Lucas for a whopping $4 billion, most Star Wars fans seemed resigned that they'd probably never see another live-action film again. Sure there were vague rumours of a sequel trilogy, but Lucas himself seemed largely content to leave the main saga as it already was and was intent instead on finding an affordable way to get the live-action Underworld series off the ground.

Then in a massive display of Mickey Mouse's huge pocket book, not only were we getting a sequel trilogy, but also a plethora of spin-offs and new shows. Not even during the years of the prequel trilogy was there the promise of so much new Star Wars content, but it all began with the Great Purge of the Extended Universe and the (temporary) cancellation of The Clone Wars.

Fans were understandably upset, many had spent years religiously devouring the events covered in the Extended Universe books and they were immediately tossed aside. For myself, however, the EU always posed a mixed bag and as much as I lamented the loss of Grand Admiral Thrawn (and can't thank Filoni enough for resurrecting him in Star Wars: Rebels), I was more than happy to see the back end of some of the less perfect additions - and I will say I was never a big fan of the whole Yuuzhan Vong arc (which in the old EU coincided with the timeline setting of the new sequel trilogy) to begin with.

Mixed reactions to the new films, even before The Force Awakens was released, were to be expected, it was nothing we hadn't encountered before with the reactions to the prequel films but this time the echo chamber of social media was in full effect. It was now nearly impossible to escape the accusations of JJ Abram's unimaginative reworking of the classic OT tropes, claims of Rey's "Mary Sue"ness and so on.

Again, much like the prequels, a lot of these complaints weren't completely without merit, but unlike the prequels were you could have a civil and quiet debate with a mate, now if you happened to offer the opinion that you actually liked the idea of Kylo Ren's volatility and inner-conflict you'd have half the fandom piling on you in an instant. If there's one thing social media has repeatedly proven itself incapable of, it is that it is by no means a civil platform for meaningful debate.

Moreover, it social media had also been weaponised by the fandom and was now being turned on the very people involved in making the movies they were supposed to love. And this brings me to The Last Jedi, and here's where I will stick my own neck out and state the controversial opinion that it was my favourite film of the new sequel trilogy. (*Cue the commentary in 3..2..)

I'm not going to go into too much detail as to the reasons behind my opinion, that'll be fodder for a future article perhaps, but I can say that I enjoyed Rian Johnson's willingness to go out on a limb and try to deliver something we hadn't seen before in the franchise. I will also say, I walked out of the midnight premiere knowing that film would piss a lot of people off too, and probably for some good reasons.

I can acknowledge and understand when fans complain about the movie's treatment of Luke's character, or when they talk about how Admiral Holdo's withholding of her plan was completely unnecessary, but what I can't get behind are the personal attacks that began to get levelled at actors like Kelly-Marie Tran who was forced off social media due to the backlash. Again I actually quite liked Rose's character (now before people get all huffy, I understand why others don't) and was disappointed that she was underused in The Rise of Skywalker, but the level of vitriol being levelled at her personally, as an actress who was just playing a role, was all kinds of uncool and unwarranted.

For me the whole sequel backlash was just largely a matter of history repeating itself, we'd heard the same things about the prequels, only now it was much, much louder and far harder to miss. And, just like the prequels too, the sequels were also proving themselves as an entry point for a third generation of fans, this time my own kids' generation, and that was uber-cool. Seeing my daughter fall in love with BB-8 the same way I did with R2 all those years ago just reinforced the pervasive magic of the franchise which manages to transcend all those other quibbles.

Enter Favreau and Filoni

Let me be upfront, for me The Mandalorian is hands down the best Star Wars content to be produced since the Original Trilogy. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni manage to capture much of the same untamed, wild-west essence and story telling magic that the prequels, sequels, and spin-offs tried to, but didn't quite manage to replicate, whilst paying due heed to the existing lore. This, of course like most everything else in this article, is my personal opinion and I'm sure there are more than enough people out there who think differently, and to them I say: great, I'm kind of interested to hear why you think that.

I am deeply encouraged, however, that this latest addition to the universe I have loved deeply since I was a child seems to cross many of the fandom divisions between the sequel and prequel haters and lovers. Some common ground is something the fandom seems to desperately need, a welcome respite from the flood of barbs and insults that seem to relentlessly fly whenever someone dares to voice their own opinion on the broader saga.

That being said, it is also important to realise that perhaps the divisions within the fandom are not as deep as they may at first appear. Like anything else, the most vocal and outspoken members of any group may not always perfectly represent the more reserved portions of the population who choose to withhold their own feelings. It can be all too easy to forget this in the wretched hives of scum and villainy that some social media comments sections can become.

On the flip side, however, its also important to realise that many critiques of the films (even those directed toward my own beloved OT), are indeed raising some valid points worthy of consideration. True they are not always articulated in the best way, but there are still things to be learned from even the most poorly phrased criticisms.

Is Some Small Measure of Scepticism Needed?

Where I think it is important the Star Wars fandom begin to direct their attention is beginning to enter the coming future of the franchise with a mix of enthusiasm and healthy scepticism. Shortly we are going to be inundated with a flood of live-action Star Wars content, both on TV and on the big screen, in volumes we have never before experienced.

For my generation, who lived with long gaps between the OT and the PT, we were so starved for new Star Wars content we first entered the prequels with the voracious appetite of a famished child. Now, we are entering a time when the Disney owned Lucasfilm plan to capitalise on their investment and provide us with an amount of new content we could have only dreamed of in the 80s and early 90s. As such, it is important to remember that quantity does not equal quality, a lesson previously proven by the old Extended Universe novels. Those fans who are so willing to point out the flaws of the most recent films may indeed have much of worth to teach us, reminding us not to enter in to upcoming content with blind loyalty to the brand just because it's called Star Wars.

May the force be with you. Always.

About the Author

TC Phillips is a scribbler, mess maker, and story teller by nature. He is the founder of Central Queensland’s own independent press Specul8 Publishing, as well as a member of the editorial team for Supanova Comic-Con, Australia’s largest pop-culture convention. He is also an author of his own special brand of warped fiction, and he revels in delving head first into all things strange, bizarre and fantastical. Holding degrees in both Theatre and Education, he also holds a Master of Arts (Writing) and possesses a near super-natural ability to consume more Coca Cola than any living being really ever should. When his pancreas is not screaming under the pressure of his dietary habits, he is constantly befuddled by his three young children and amazed that his long suffering wife has not yet taken it upon herself to murder him in his sleep.

Primarily interested in speculative fiction in all its assorted forms and manifestations, he loves writing historical fiction, sci-fi and fantasy, but has also found himself becoming increasingly drawn to the Victorian flavour of Steampunk. Having grown up with his nose between the pages of his mother's collections of Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the darker aspects of 19th Century life now hold an intimate fascination for him - a fascination which often bleeds through onto the page.