This post contains spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker! Proceed at your own risk.
I don’t have a first memory of Star Wars. I don’t know who introduced the movies to my brother and me – possibly the neighbor boys or our church friends. My parents had seen the movies, but they weren’t huge fans, so I don’t think it was them. And yet, I cannot remember life without it.
I don’t even remember what sort of impact the movies had on me as a child. I’ve heard so many stories of people who say Luke was their hero or that Leia was their role model growing. I don’t even remember really having a favorite character!
But, I remember playing Star Wars, my brother as the Jedi Master, myself as the rebellious Padawan. I remember talking about it for hours as we looked at the picture books. I remember wanting the Death Star LEGO set. I remember lightsaber fights in backyards and being ganged up on because I was the only girl.
Then my brother and I grew up. We still enjoyed the movies, but we outgrew our lightsabers and LEGOs.
Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!
The Force Awakens was the first Star Wars movie I saw in theaters. And it – pun most definitely intended – (re)awakened my love for this franchise. Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose, BB-8, and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo are all characters to whom I became desperately attached. I started watching Star Wars Theory videos with my brother. The Last Jedi cemented my status as a Reylo (thank you Rian Johnson), and I’d go down Pinterest rabbit holes pinning all the Reylo theories. I’m watching The Clone Wars now. After The Rise of Skywalker, I listened to podcasts dissecting it. I got the novelizations for my birthday. When I say the sequels revived my love, I mean it revived it.
I don’t know the original trilogy without the prequels. I was only seven when Revenge of the Sith was released in 2005, so I wasn’t old enough to be aware of the hate and criticism they originally received. I never understood the hate; I still love the prequels despite its cringy-ness and Jar Jar Binks (whom I find endearing). In any case, the prequel memes are great. The sequel trilogy arrived with its own drama and division within the Star Wars fandom. I’m almost too painfully aware of it now. I love the franchise, but it can have one of the most toxic fanbases out there. I’m not sure why, and I don’t have a solution for this problem.
I could discuss the issues within the fandom at length, and it needs to be discussed. But that’s not what I want to focus on. Today, I want to celebrate what Star Wars means to me.
Star Wars has always been about hope. It’s the most ridiculous space opera about one family’s drama ruining an entire galaxy, but it all comes back to hope. Hope that the good will win, hope in our friends and family, hope in the good around us. Star Wars is also about compassion. Compassion that can lead to redemption, such as Darth Vader’s and Kylo Ren’s. Redemption is the point in Star Wars. It’s more than just a fight between the light side and the dark side of the Force. The mysticism in these movies is one of my favorites!
I love the adventure in Star Wars. Why wouldn’t you want to watch a movie about space wizards running around with laser swords? Or bounty hunters and smugglers with cool ships? Cute droids and weird creatures? Amazing fashion choices?? Sign me up!
Compassion, which I would define as...unconditional love...is essential to a Jedi’s life. So, you might say that we are encouraged to love.
I also love all the characters. There’s really not one character that I don’t love (or love to hate *cough cough* Emperor Palpatine). Anakin’s journey to Darth Vader is so tragic. And oh, Obi-Wan – I love him so much. Padme is simply amazing. Leia, Luke, and Han are, of course, as classic as classic can get. Don’t even get me started on how much I adore R2-D2, C3PO, Chewie, and BB-8. Star Wars also has some great villains: Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Count Dooku, General Grievous.
And then there’s our new characters. I don’t think I love any of them as much as I do Rey and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo. There’s something about Rey that just resonates with me (and it’s more than her being the Type Nine example in Star Wars characters as the Enneagram posts… maybe…). Her compassion, her strength, her search for meaning, and her anger speaks to me. And Kylo Ren. Ben Solo. His character is so fascinating and so tragic. I’ve already said that I’m a Reylo and I could speak at length about it, but I will restrain myself at the moment. (I’m planning to write an actual academic essay about them for fun, so yeah.)
You’re not alone. Neither are you.
For some in the fandom, especially in light of The Rise of Skywalker, these reasons have been shattered. Some days, I feel that way, too. It’s terribly upsetting. I was too overwhelmed the first time I saw it – all I could remember was that Ben and Rey kissed!!! I was shocked. After a second viewing and further thought, I see the plot holes. There are so many things that make me roll my eyes – Palpatine’s return, the fetch-quest nature of the movie, Rey being a Palpatine, ‘Rey Sykwalker.’ I’m so angry over Ben Solo’s death. He! Deserved! Better!
Hearing stories about how other people and their children have reacted to The Rise of Skywalker and Ben’s death breaks my heart. It makes me want to have a lengthy conversation with JJ Abrams and Lucasfilm. Truth be told, from a storytelling and marketing point of view, it doesn’t make sense. But that’s not the point of this blog post.
All this reminds me that the stories we tell are powerful. They hold meaning upon creation, but they take on new meanings once in the hands of its audience. I know this means leaves it open to literally millions of interpretations. Some will be more on the mark than others. However, what I love about stories is that they live on in our own imaginations.
And yes, what happened in the movies is technically canon and cannot change unless the powers that be say otherwise. But I’m off living my own version of these stories. Rey and Ben’s story doesn’t have to end there. It won’t for me. Heck, Anakin and Obi-Wan’s stories haven’t ended yet.
That’s what I’m celebrating this Star Wars Day.
May the force be with you.
