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Why I Love Star Wars

This page could also be titled "Why I Think Star Wars is Great." It's not just about what appeals to me in Star Wars -- it's also about how I think it succeeds in so many ways. And, to people who hate Star Wars: I know people disagree with these views, and that's fine with me. Perhaps, though, I can at least show you the reasoning behind the other viewpoint. :-)

What It Is

How can you understand why I like something if you don't even understand what that thing is? Here's a quick overview.

The most well-known part of Star Wars is, of course, the movies. The original came out in 1977, and its two sequels came out in 1980 and 1983. Those three are called the Original Trilogy, and they are A New Hope (more commonly known as just "Star Wars"), The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.

Some observant people may have noticed at the time that the original Star Wars (A New Hope -- ANH) was not called Episode I at the beginning of the opening scroll, as one might expect, but rather Episode IV. The Empire Strikes Back (ESB) and Return of the Jedi (ROTJ) were numbers V and VI, respectively.

At the time, most people thought that that was it, and that the story of Episodes I, II, and III would remain largely a mystery forever. Almost twenty years later, though, in 1999, audiences worldwide finally got to see Episode I - The Phantom Menace, which depicts (in short) the childhood of the Original Trilogy's villian, Darth Vader. It wasn't a sequel -- rather, it was a prequel.

The Phantom Menace (TPM) was followed in 2002 by Attack of the Clones (AOTC), and Revenge of the Sith (ROTS), the final movie in the saga, is coming out on May 19, 2005. Strangely enough, ROTS will end 10 years earlier on the chronology than a movie that came out almost 30 years ago.

(On a side note, while George Lucas is adamant about ROTS being the final Star Wars, the movies won't be out of the picture for some time to come. Starting in 2007 and continuing at a rate of one per year, all six Star Wars films will be re-released -- in 3D. Cool, huh?)

Star Wars doesn't only consist of the movies, though. The story of the main characters (and tons of new ones) before, in between, and after the six movies is told throughout literally hundreds of novels, comics, videogames, and even a few TV shows that have been produced since the original film came out. All of that material is known collectively as the "Expanded Universe," aka the EU for short.

So, when I say "I love Star Wars," I'm not just talking about only the movies. Rather, I'm talking about a truly staggering wealth of material, half of which I haven't even begun to explore.

How Star Wars Succeeds

In my opinion, Star Wars succeeds in countless ways. In addition to the ones you can see just by watching the movie trailer, such as the amazing special effects or the wonderful score by John Williams, here are a couple of the big ones:

Memorable Quotes and Characters

Star Wars -- both the movies and the Expanded Universe material -- has innumerable memorable quotes, many of which have quite common in day-to-day life -- quite an accomplishment for a movie that no studio at the time wanted to make. "Use the Force, Luke," "I am your father," and "May the Force be with you," are just a few of the lines from the movies that are now referenced all over the place. In addition to that, nearly everyone knows at least the basic story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and Darth Vader. Star Wars references are everywhere.

Case in point: the recent triumph of the Boston Red Sox -- "the Rebels" -- versus the New York Yankees -- a.k.a. the "Evil Empire" -- in the 2004 American League Championship Series. Before the first game of the series, Fox Sports aired a special clip depicting the Rebel-style Red Sox battling the Imperial Yankees with lightsabers while some of John Williams' brilliant original score played in the background.

The Force: Jedi & Sith

Whenever anyone asks me what superpower I'd most like to have, I reply "The Force." Sure, it's not technically a superpower, but it's cooler than any of them. While Superman can fly, if he just had the Force he could shoot lighting from his fingertips and choke people over the phone -- besides, Superman would choke himself if he flew too high and the air grew too thin. Yes, Spider-Man can shoot webbing, but if he had the Force on his side he could just use a convenient mind trick to convince his enemies they didn't even want to fight him. And finally, yes, The Hulk can get big and green and throw stuff -- but Yoda's tiny and green and doesn't even have to touch an X-Wing to move it. :-)

On top of all the cool mind powers, the Jedi, as well as their sworn enemies the Sith, get a super-cool sword that can cut through almost anything in seconds: a lightsaber.

Finally, there's a moral side to Force-usage: use it for evil, and you're turning to the Dark Side, so be wary. The whole idea of Jedi vs. Sith wouldn't be nearly as interesting if it didn't have that concept of the Light and Dark Sides.

High-Tech cool stuff... but also a sizable helping of Low-Tech

It's hard to resist massive space battles, giant walking tanks, and... tiny furry teddy bears taking down a galaxy-spanning tyrannical empire. Star Wars isn't just about shiny starships and massive steel ("durasteel" in Star Wars terms) skyscrapers. It's also about small, run-down, grimy spaceports like Mos Eisley. Our world isn't perfect, clean, and beautiful, so why should the a far more sophisticated society be? Star Wars somewhat introduced the idea of an imperfect future, where there are obvious dings and scratches on even the big hero's spaceship. (Technically, the Millennium Falcon is actually a "Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-1300 freighter.")

Even Coruscant, capital of the galaxy, which is literally defined as "glittering" in the dictionary, has its "dark side." Below the miles of gleaming skyscapers that cover the entire planet lie criminals, rock-eating slugs, and "Cthons," devolved sub-humans who prey on anything they can get their deformed hands on... including, if need be, each other.

The galaxy of Star Wars isn't perfect -- rather, it's far from it -- and that's just part of what makes it so believable.

Depth

Speaking of believability, Star Wars has an incredible depth that no saga I've ever seen or heard of can match. (Lord of the Rings does come close though, and I respect it for that.) Every character, from Chalmun the Wookiee, owner of the famous Mos Eisley Cantina, to Admiral Ackbar, who was actually once a slave to Grand Moff Tarkin, has an incredible backstory. Planets do, too. Tatooine was once completely devoid of settlers aside from the miners of the Czerka Corporation. Coruscant, capital of the galaxy, was once home to two primitive battling armies: the Taungs and the Battalions of Zhell. The Corellian System, from which Han Solo and numerous other heroes of the rebellion came, was actually artificially constructed by an ancient, incredibly advanced alien species.

All of that means that, in Star Wars, there's an explanation for everything, a reason for everything, and a backstory for everything. Together, that makes the Star Wars galaxy a much more interesting place.

What's Most Appealing to Me

The title of this page is, after all, "Why I Love Star Wars." :-)

I've only actually been asked why I like Star Wars so much a few times, which I think is good - it's a very hard question to answer. It's really a combination of everything, all working together to create one coherent saga. I love the continuity between sources -- a throwaway line in one of the movies might have a whole book written on it, for example.

Best of all, it's an evolving galaxy. There's always more material coming out, so I can just keep on learning more and more about that galaxy far, far away.

Defending Common Attacks on Star Wars

While it is loved my many, Star Wars also has plenty of critics. Some of their attacks, however, are somewhat unfair in my opinion. Here's my defense of them:

Jar Jar

Jar Jar Binks, everyone's favorite Gungan (not), is definitely the most controversial character in Star Wars. First introduced in Episode I, Jar Jar was meant to be comic relief in a trilogy that won't have the happiest of endings. People have criticized the character, though, for being so unbearably stupid and childish -- not to mention for his somewhat lackluster mastery of Basic (the Star Wars equivalent of English).

The thing is, Jar Jar isn't supposed to be a highly sophisticated guy. The Phantom Menace is definitely meant for for children than, say, The Empire Strikes Back, which I think is appropriate - the movies, and the characters, "grow" as they go on.

Besides, Jar Jar at least has good morals. He risks his life for the Jedi more than once, and when he enters the Galactic Senate he becomes one of the very few uncorrupted politicians in the galaxy.

The Special Editions

In 1997, Lucasfilm released "Special Edition" versions of the Original Trilogy, featuring updated visual effects, new characters and scenes, and one incredibly small yet incredibly infamous plot change. Instead of Han Solo just shooting Greedo in the cantina scene, establishing the character as a rogue who only cares about money and has almost no conscience whatsoever, in the Special Edition of A New Hope it's Greedo who shoots first. Han then dodges somewhat unconvincingly and fires back in "self-defense."

Much more recently, on September 21, 2004, Lucasfilm released the Original Trilogy on DVD for the first time ever. Much to the dismay of many fans, the DVD versions had even more changes. In addition to the amazing and universally-loved restoration of the film, Lucas and Co. changed the dialogue between Vader and the Emperor in ESB, replaced Sebastian Shaw as the ghost of Anakin at the end of ROTJ with Hayden Christensen (who plays Anakin in the prequels), and made several other small changes. Interestingly, on the DVDs Han and Greedo shoot at almost the exact same instant.

I don't mind the changes, though many do. I think that, for one thing, George Lucas has every right to alter his movies in any way he wants to. Furthermore, because of how the Star Wars galaxy is constantly changing, it it sometimes necessary to correct inconsistencies. According to Lucas, the original trilogy wasn't entirely "finished" when it was released and didn't live up to his expectations, so I think it's fine if he wants to keep tinkering with it.

I think that, once all six movies are released and people can view them all start-to-finish, it'll turn out that these minor changes actually make the saga work better as a whole.

The Prequels

Most people seem to think that the Original Trilogy is immensely superior to the prequels. I think that that's partly because people have lived with the originals all their life, whereas the prequels are new and somewhat different in style.

The should be different, though -- the prequels take place during an era of peace, when there hadn't been a full-scale war in thousands of years, and the originals take place during a civil war that has torn the galaxy apart. I predict that Episode III will do a great job of bridging the two very different trilogies, and hopefully that'll make the transition run a little more smoothly than it does currently -- after all, at the moment there is a 20+ year gap in the movies.

Sound in Space

Most people don't care whatsoever, and while others believe that there is sound in space (perhaps largely due to Star Wars), some complain of the fact that, in Star Wars, spaceships make audible sound outside planetary atmospheres, which in our galaxy would be impossible. Here's my defense:

1. Creative License All the time, movies -- even those based on a true story -- distort the facts a bit, to make it a better movie. Other times, they may simplify events. In a way, all black and white movies are doing the same thing -- after all, the events happened in color. If it's okay to change around some colors, shouldn't it be okay to change around some sounds?
2. "Audio Interpreters" Some Star Wars books state that some ships have sort of "audio interpreters" built-in -- devices that make up sound for extravehicular events that are actually impossible to hear. Maybe, in the movies, we're just hearing the shipboard computers' sound effects.
3. Alternate Universe Maybe the laws of physics in the Star Wars universe are different than they are for us, so, while it's impossible for us to hear sound in space, they can.

Conclusion

I love Star Wars. A lot. You may not, but hopefully now you understand why I'm such a big fan.

If you've never seen any of the movies, I highly recommend that you go out and rent them. There's a very large part of popular culture these days, not to mention plain old great movies. If you've seen the movies and like them, I recommend that you try reading at least one of the books -- Yoda - Dark Rendezvous by Sean Stewart for a prequel-era book, or Heir to the Empire, first book of The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn, if you'd prefer a book that takes place after the movies.

Finally, if you're a gamer, be sure to check out all the Star Wars videogames, especially the Knights of the Old Republic series and the Jedi Knight series.

Have fun! :-)