May the 4th be with you!

Even though I’m known as the “Star Wars” guy in a lot of my social circles, “May the 4th Be With You” always sneaks up on me. Should I have put up decorations? Should I hold a dinner? Should I invite that one relative with the controversial prequel opinions? I never know what to say on May the 4th, but after looking at some of the online discourse, I have some thoughts.

It seems like the final film, Rise of Skywalker, made nobody happy. It didn’t ask a lot the thematic questions that the Last Jedi did. Many characters that we fell in love with were sidelined, their arcs left unfinished. The final conflict was decided by the characters who screamed the loudest. And ultimately, we were reminded that these movies are directed by a bunch of white guys who don’t quite realize the hopes and dreams that these films carry. Hearts were broken. Boxes were ticked. Did I enjoy it? Yes, but I’m a little ashamed of it.

If you want to say Rise of Skywalker is a bad movie, I’m not going to disagree with you, but it’s getting to the point where these opinions are taking away from the goodness that was Last Jedi. I enjoyed Rise of Skywalker because I knew there was no way that it could follow the act of the Last Jedi. That movie parodied, deconstructed, and deified that franchise all in one movie. We were lucky to see it. For me, it was like watching Adam West’s Batman punching out Jared Leto’s Joker. All of the characters were experiencing this conflict between the holding on to the past and destroying it for the sake of the future. Rey had to convince Luke that she was worth training. Finn had to decide between running from the resistance and facing his former taskmasters. Poe had to grapple with the responsibilities of his command. They all made mistakes, people died, but by the end, they all grew a little, as characters should.

The next movie was complete cheese-whiz on microwaved buttered popcorn, but that shouldn’t overshadow that inspiration we discovered. Here’s the brilliant thing about Star Wars. We can fix the parts we don’t like. Do you know why? It’s fan fiction. George Lucas wrote it because he couldn’t get the rights to Flash Gordon. Just like how Nintendo created Mario after they couldn’t get the rights to Popeye. We can write our own stories where love triangles aren’t resolved by two of the people being brother and sister. We can have that marriage between a career politician and a high flying dumbass that works. Stories where protagonists don’t have to be white or straight. If you can’t write it, look for it. It may even already out there, and just hasn’t been served up by starving special effects artists yet. Did the Mandalorian have too much machismo for you? Try the Murderbot series! I love them both, but Murderbot has more emotional intelligence. The new novel is coming out tomorrow. We can find those stories that energize us, that make us grow, not by complaining about what we hate, but by celebrating what we love.

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