I've been reading a lot about Star Wars lately, and as a child born in 1989, I've got to say I never actually realized just how deeply many older people (Generation X) really hate the prequel films. Personally, it makes little to no sense to me, as the millenial that I am. The Star Wars prequel films are not just worthy of defending to me -- I actually think they are, in some regards, better than the originals. Essentially, I don't think that Star Wars would have really survived, if those 3 films hadn't come out when they did, all those years after the originals.
A lot of people might think I love the prequels just because of the generation I'm in. It's probably a bit true. However, I also think that the films themselves changed the Star Wars universe in ways that were really very necessary. The original films, for example, are almost endlessly focused on the story of Luke Skywalker, and background details about the SW universe are almost sort of sparse. The story is really just concerned with getting Luke from point A to point B. In many ways, the original films, in terms of background, just feel plain lonely, and this loneliness is reflected in the types of atmospheres we see as we watch. For example, just think of the opening of a New Hope. We are basically stranded on Tatooine , with the biggest background scene (in my memories) being the cantina scene. In thr second film, Empire Strikes Back, we start out on a truly desolate snow planet (Hoth), and then wind up in Cloud City. Was Cloud City memorable? Absolutrly. But we still don't see any real background. Cloud City exists as little more than a prop for the characters to walk through.
At the time the originals were released of course, this style of filmmaking was basically how it worked. In the late 70s and early 80s, video games that are obsessed with building enormous background details weren't around, and something like Dungeons and Dragons (a game also obsessed with background details) was really only just being born. The original Star Wars fans were being taken into a universe that was literally just forming, both inside the screen and out of it . Yes, it was and always will remain exciting to watch A New Hope and see the way that Luke Skywalker himsef learns about the rest of the Galaxy and the existence of the Jedis just like we do --- but there's also something beyond mesmerizing, as I say, about the world building that the prequels were able to do, that the originals could not. The prequels didn't have to worry about explaining the Jedi to us. They didn't have to go over details that, in the first film, were full of mustery. The prequels were instead focused with expansion--- and I suppose that tis is why so many people from Gen X lost their heads over them.
One famous detail that everyone hates of the prequels is Jar Jar Binks, the comedic relief alien introduced in the first one. Generation X despises him. Why? It's simple: He is an alien, and ironically, as obsessed with space as the originals were, they never really granted any alien characters that much screen time. Most of them were secondary characters at best--- and we certainly never received anything like what Phantom Menace gives us, when it introduces us to the entire home world, under the sea , of where Jar Jar Binks alien species lives.
It's almost as if the original generation was genuinely disturbed to see just what tiny characters the original ones like Luke and Han and company were, in comparison to the rest of this massive universe that was now built. It was genuinely strange, for example, to suddenly see other Jedis popping up, and not just a few of them, but literally tons of them. In the Generation X mind, Luke Skywalker was supposed to be a sort of standalone story. That's all this universe was. It was Skywalker and Darth Vader and Han Solo. What the hell is all the rest of this crap?
For a kid in the late 90s and early 00s, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Stand alone stories are, in a very real sense, old hat for my generation. Fans now, especially fantasy and science fiction fans, are obsessed with endless back story and background details. Mostly because we want to be able to have the right to create our own characters in said universe. Consider the fact that I grew up with an online game like Star Wars Galaxies, where I was not only able to create a Jedi if I wanted --- my own--- but I was even able to just play as a dancer in a cantina on Tatooine , or a random droid mechanic. I used to spend countless hours in the Star Wars universe as a boy via that game --- and I didn't even own the films! Yet I once passed an entire summer between 8th grade and freehman year, living as a dsncer of some kind, on Naboo.
For Gen X, it sounds preposterous to follow the story of a simple droid mechanic or dancer on Naboo . For the millenials who grew up surrounded by video games and endless message board discussions about background lore, it's a literal way of life. Becoming an extra in the Star Wars universe is just as exciting to many a millenial mind, as being Luke Skywalker. Essentially, Luke Skywalker for me is just one mere character in Star Wars. To Gen X, he's like Christ. The real reason it was hard for them to stomach the prequels was because Luke wasn't there, and Obi wan-- as the wise old man---basically wasn't either. I also get the feeling that they didn't like how Darth Vaders background was being revealed to them. After all, in the old school movie making philosophy, it's always been said that mystery is better than detail. Generation X lived nearly 20 entire years not knowing Darth Vaders background story. So I can understand how weird it was to finally go to the theaters and see him presented as a child decades earlier--- and a particualely nice child , at that.
For example, in my own memories, it seems that I was acquainted with Darth Vader before ever seeing the prequels (which came out when I was 10) but, oddly enough, I can't really say how or why. I don't think I ever saw the originals until after I saw the prequels, so what I think happened was that I probably met Darth Vader dozens of times -- between the ages of 5 and 10 --- as an action figure, et cetera, and so, I did actually myself have a bit of the Gen X idea of him, even if just for a brief time as a child, completely outside of movies. For me, Darth Vader existed before Anakin. But consider the view of a child like my brother, born in 1999, the very year Phantom Menace came out. In my brothers universe, the story of Anakin Skywalker as a boy, has actually always existed. From day one in his mind, my brother was aware that Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker years and years before. From day one, he was basically aware of all the major Star Wars plot details. In fact, that's the curios thing about a movie as popular as this: It's so popular now, that there's almost no real reason to watch any of them, save for just wanting to pass some time with your beloved characters. Essentially everyone who is even a marginal part of online nerd culture knows the biggest Star Wars details. I met a 14 year old boy (birth year 2004) on Discord one week who knew everything about it --- but also told me he'd literally never seen a single film. I also remember my old friend from high school sitting down to watch A new hope with me once, confessing he had never seen any of the originals. He'd watched all the prequels of course, probably dozens of times, and, again, knew the entire story anyways. I remember looking at him as he took in A New Hope, and then having him turn to me and explain how he couldn't believe this movie had ever become what it now is. “It looks ridiculous.” he said. Yet he continued watching, because it's almost like something everyone has to do at this point. Star Wars is simply one of those types of phenomenons now. Something becomes an insane craze; we all become curious to see what it was when it was born.
Of course, background details, as important as they are to millenials, aren't always necessarily a surefire way to success. Consider the recent movie that was released called Solo. They say now that it's actually the first Star Wars film to not be a triumphant success at the theater. Why has this happened, thry wonder...why isn't anyone as interested in Solos background story? I mean , haven't I been writing that all we millenials and the next generation after us want, are background details and origin stories? Well, yes , we do, but I don't think that we necessarily want background details on all the original characters. Rogue One, for example, which was a triumph and even beloved by critics , is the sort of background details that new and young fans want. The background of Han Solo wasn't important because it's basically already known and easy to imagine. At this point in the franchises life, the best bet is probably going to be creating altogether new characters, which it seems is basically what Rogue One did.
To me, what I would like to see Star Wars become now, is an alternate universe that our own world is able to look to, for endless inspiration, when we need it. I see the SW universe as a sort of strange reflection of our own. It’s like looking into a mirror where you see familiar things that are, for some reason, always twisted in weird ways. Old men with grey beards who seem like what we know as Samurais .. but who fight with swords of lasers, instead of steel. Images of outer space that look like the space we know -- but, for some reason, is full of sound and explosion. Planets with little cantinas and mountains that, again, seem like our own, and yet remain populated by creatures we don’t recognize, dressed in clothes we do. It’s like this massive collective dream that we are all able to dream and reference together -- and I should hate to see something like this disappear from our culture. I think its important for a shared dream this massive to exist in a culture like the one in which we find ourselves.
Personally, I’m very in love with how ubiquitous the story is, within our real world here. I love the fact that the story pops up all over the place, no matter where you’re looking, like a hit song on the radio thats just been playing for years and years. I love how many actions figures have been created from it. I love how many comics exist of it. I love how many games have been made, even if I’ve only played 2 of them. And thats why, when I contemplate the future of this franchise, I would personally like to see 10 more Rogue One’s, instead of Episode IX’s. I want the background. I want the little details. It might sound crazy to some, but I would literally watch an entire trilogy of movies set in the SW universe, about that theoretical dancer at a dive bar on Naboo.
It’s enjoyable for me to imagine a world in which so many Star Wars films have been released that watching all of them becomes next to impossible. I want it to get confusing. Many people, i can tell, fear that world. They think its wrong, that its “ruining” the magic, and making the originals “not special”. Their fears are in vain…. the originals will always be special for the first people who saw them...which is all that counts. The thing thats important now is making new stoties that are special to new people. The latest villain in Force Awakens and The Last Jedi is incredibly special to the younger generation in a way that I personally can’t see at all. But as I keep stressing, Kylo Ren being special to me is largely irrelevant. He’s just one character in a universe that I find mesmerizing. I don’t watch the films for him. I watch them to get a window into this weird dream-like place.
So, ya. Star Wars.
--- notes on a summer morning with too much Sun.
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