Spoilers What do casual fans get wrong about Star Wars?

[The Firebird]

I mean, the OP makes it very clear that the hardcore fans aren't just talking about the movies. That's for the casuals. The whole point, as I understand the thread, is that there is MORE TO IT, and that is found in all the extra. So it is kind of weird to try and chastise hardcore fans for not understanding that the movies are simplistic. Everyone knows.

The most interesting thing about the films is that they have resonated so widely and across multiple generations. Intentional or not (and I think there is intention there), Lucas captured something profound and powerful. And none of his imitators have come close. While the best of the spin offs may be considered "higher quality" they have nothing like the cultural impact.

Imo that's because Lucas gets storytelling and mythmaking for children, or better for a cross generational audience, better than perhaps anyone I can think of. I'm thinking of Jung and the inherited image, the collective unconscious.

It reminds me of an exchange before Hamill and Lucas. Regarding Vader's introduction, Hamill said

"I wanted to see Darth Vader’s first entrance, even though I didn’t work that day and I said George why don’t you cut away to two characters saying ‘Oh that’s the Dark Lord of the Sith. He’s the most powerful evil. [Lucas] goes, ‘No, he’s got a white background and he comes on in a black costume. We’ll play some scary music. You know, they’ll get it.'”

Get it they did.

 

[James Gasik]

OTOH, Qui-gon was a slave trader who cheated at dice.

From a certain point of view.



It's worth noting that we didn't get that bit of lore in the entire original trilogy. Which is how we ended up with Luke having romantic partnerships with Mara Jade, Calista, and his sister in various parts of the Legacy stuff.

Sorry, I can't help ID the story.

Ugh, yeah, the "no attachments" rule was poorly explained and badly presented. There is no way you could ever avoid anything that could possibly lure you to the Dark Side anyways! And yeah, at no point in the original trilogy did Ben or Yoda say "now Luke, no attachments to anyone, you hear, or you'll end up like your old man!".

Plus, and this part always gets me, apparently you can also just leave the Order if you feel like it with no repercussions, I mean, Dooku was able to!

 

[Reynard]

The most interesting thing about the films is that they have resonated so widely and across multiple generations. Intentional or not (and I think there is intention there), Lucas captured something profound and powerful. And none of his imitators have come close. While the best of the spin offs may be considered "higher quality" they have nothing like the cultural impact.

Imo that's because Lucas gets storytelling and mythmaking for children, or better for a cross generational audience, better than perhaps anyone I can think of. I'm thinking of Jung and the inherited image, the collective unconscious.

It reminds me of an exchange before Hamill and Lucas. Regarding Vader's introduction, Hamill said

"I wanted to see Darth Vader’s first entrance, even though I didn’t work that day and I said George why don’t you cut away to two characters saying ‘Oh that’s the Dark Lord of the Sith. He’s the most powerful evil. [Lucas] goes, ‘No, he’s got a white background and he comes on in a black costume. We’ll play some scary music. You know, they’ll get it.'”

Get it they did.

Right, but that isn't the point of the thread. The point of the thread is that when you look at ALL of Star Wars, there is more to it. It isn't just "kid's stuff" regardless of Lucas' intent with the films.

 

[overgeeked]

I disagree with the hardcore/casual dichotomy for this franchise, because it is a franchise where I think your version of "hardcore" are less common than the third group: people who were hardcore for some part of Star Wars, but drew the line at others. Whether it is because of aging out of hardcoredom, disliking some directions the franchise has taken, not having Disney+, or just needing to draw a line somewhere on a sprawling franchise with more content than anyone can reasonably consume, I think people who have absolutely devoured everything in some branch of the franchise but are casual or non-consumers of other branches are more ubiquitous than true omnivores.

Though for my part I guess since my true hardcore days were mostly confined to the era whose wider media is now deemed non-canon, by Disney canon I am now strictly a casual who doesn't really know the galaxy far, far away at all. Read all those novels for nothing...

That’s the group I’m in. I was a nut for Star Wars a few decades ago. Gobbled up everything until around the time they killed Chewie in the novels then just didn’t care. Not because of that, it just happened to coincide.

What casual fans get wrong? Many of the early novels, some comics, and the WEG Star Wars RPG material did a much better job with the franchise than just about everything since the original trilogy. And most of that “deep” worldbuilding since the OT comes directly from that WEG Star Wars TPG material. Rogue One was great. Mando was good. Andor was fantastic. Besides those, meh.

 

[pawsplay]

I didn't like the Thrawn novels. Mara Jade was okay but I didn't like her storylines. The Yuzhan Vong were Star Trek villains that accidentally wandered into the Star Wars galaxy. I didn't like Rodians getting the Planet of Hats treatment. I was actually pretty happy with the EU being jettisoned.

 

[overgeeked]

"The Jedi Order's paternalistic approach to galactic politics and dogmatic fear of attachment is what ultimately doomed the Order and the Republic with it" is a far cry from "Actually, the Empire were the good guys", which is the reddest of flags.

Yeah. So many people cheering for the space Nazis in the fandom of the anti-space Nazi franchise.

 

[overgeeked]

It has been wild seeing some Star Wars superfans on my social media feed go from here to some really dark political places in the last few years.

It’s absolutely insane how this stuff spread through fandoms. Pick just about any geek franchise and it’ll be on the right side of history. And yet, somehow, gobs of fans have “Well, actually’d” themselves into being on the wrong side of history. Absolute madness.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Pick just about any geek franchise and it’ll be on the right side of history.

Comics fans, for one, seem to have moved the opposite direction as many Star Wars fans, in large part -- and I don't think this is an exaggeration -- due to Chris Evans' portrayal of Captain America, which was basically a very attractive and charismatic civics lesson.

 

[Necropolitan]

OTOH, Qui-gon was a slave trader who cheated at dice.

Cheating at dice to free slaves is fine actually.

Watto's lucky Qui-Gon didn't decide that even if mind-tricks don't work on Toydarians lightsabers do.

The problem was Qui-Gon only putting in the effort to free the one slave he wanted to take with him.

 

[Deset Gled]

Cheating at dice to free slaves is fine actually.

Watto's lucky Qui-Gon didn't decide that even if mind-tricks don't work on Toydarians lightsabers do.

The problem was Qui-Gon only putting in the effort to free the one slave he wanted to take with him.

Kinda problematic to cheat at dice for your personal benefit, no matter how many "whataboutisms" you try to hide behind.

Qui-gon respected, supported, and participated in the slave trade, no matter how you try to talk around it. Of course, Anakin had more freedom as a slave on Tatooine than he did as a Jedi student, anyway.