Legacy is a word that gets thrown around when we talk about Star Wars after 42 years. As we come to the close of the Skywalker Saga, Nine movies that have spanned generations in telling the story of a powerful Jedi family whose rise and fall are a centerpiece of the galaxy far, far away, perhaps legacy is the right word, after all. I was thinking about it the other day after I saw the press screening for The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars has been a part of my life since day one and even though I’ve said it before and will say it again, as a nerd, as a fan, it is ingrained in my DNA, but what  is the legacy of Star Wars and the Skywalker Saga. Do I dare say that it’s not really the movies! The movies are just a by-product, The true legacy is our experiences sprinkled with the nostalgia that we’ve had with this franchise since May 25th 1977. And no matter whether we think the movies are good or bad, what we love most about Star Wars can never be taken away because of those experiences. I love all that I have experienced

in the world that George Lucas created. For me, that’s what I hold on to more than anything else. I also freely admit that I have a love-hate relationship with George Lucas and Disney when it comes to Star Wars, I’ve always been entertained by it because it’s a story set within a universe that I love so much. Because of that, I’m never truly disappointed.

My earliest memory of Star Wars is watching the first movie on VHS because I wasn’t born when it came out in theaters. My father spent over $1,000 on a VCR and even spent the $120 for the VHS copy of A New Hope. Yes, back then, that’s what it cost to own a movie on VHS. But owning a copy of any Star Wars movie is totally worth any amount of money even when you wear the tape out in 6 months and your father has to buy it again. I remember him taking me to see Return of the Jedi and telling me that there wasn’t going to be any more Star Wars films. It’s not a good thing for a dad to make his child cry outside of a movie theater, but experiencing the movie with my father is still a fond memory. I remember introducing the movies to my kid sister who’s 11 years younger and watching her fall in love with Star Wars just like I did, we still talk about it to this day. And I remember when the special editions came out, we were all excited and then we got our first taste of how George Lucas can disappoint us by changing the scene with Han Solo and Greedo. Even at 19 you couldn’t fool me when it came to good storytelling and I knew that Han would always shoot first because that’s how it’s meant to be;  no ridiculous edits in the film can change that.

However, no matter how disappointed we might be we still gather as fans. We can all admit at this point that the Star Wars Prequels were the most disappointing, especially Episode 1. It’s not a very good movie, but it is a Star Wars film and it has a great lightsaber duel. When I look back 20 years later, I don’t remember the film so much as standing in line all night long with my friends waiting to see the movie. We were the ones that brought the beer. The legacy of that movie is the experience we had with other fans and I’ll never trade those memories even if I don’t watch Episode 1 ever again. That’s the same feeling I have about each of the Star Wars Prequels. Fourteen years ago, I stood in line all day with my best friend and his wife waiting to see the Revenge of the Sith. We saw it twice in one day and here we are again about to embark on the last film of the Skywalker Saga. It’s only right that he’d be standing by my side as we go see this movie. I treasure that experienced more than I do the film. For me, it’s hard to be disappointed by anything Star Wars when I have those kinds of experiences with friends.

Today, I run a nerd news outlet called, That Nerd Show. It’s a different experience when we see a Star Wars movie as a staff, but still the same great experience because I’m seeing it with friends. Although I jokingly tell them that it’s a team building exercise when you work at a nerd news outlet. I’ve enjoyed what Disney has done with Star Wars. It’s not the original trilogy and everything that I love about those three movies, although nothing can be. I’ve enjoyed the experience of seeing it as a staff more than the movies themselves. I attribute that more to the legacy of Star Wars and the Skywalker Saga because we’re all huge fans of this franchise and grew up with it so to see the movie at work with colleagues that I love, it doesn’t matter how disappointing the movies might be despite the fact that I don’t think they really are. Getting to see the movie with them is what counts. Of course,  I have my gripes about Star Wars fans, not all of them, but a good portion of them who I consider toxic fans. The type of fan who ruins the fun for everybody because they can’t just be happy with a Star Wars movie. It’s what I like to call the dark side of a legacy. Much like the force, legacy has two sides to it, the light and the dark. Yes, it’s a great universe to be apart of. The sandbox that is Star Wars is so fun to play by in, but it’s hard for a lot of fans to get past the fact that, that perfect moment of nostalgia they had when they first discovered Star Wars and all the love that came with is something that they will never capture again. Disney has done an admirable job of making the last three movies feel like Star Wars, especially after how disappointing the Star Wars Prequels were, but they can only come so close and can’t recapture the magic that was Star Wars from 1977 to 1983. Really, Disney has made nostalgic Star Wars movies and that’s all they are for us fans that have been with the franchise since the beginning.

The dark side of the Star Wars Legacy is the ridiculous arguments by fans who have put the franchise on such a pedestal, that they can’t help but be disappointed when it doesn’t live up to their expectations. Not every fan is like this. But I seem to meet more and more of them every day. They are the equivalent of somebody who once had great sex and has been trying to relive that moment over and over, not realizing that they will never get it back.  And now, they are forever disappointed with everything else after. Again, I’m not saying that every fan is like this, but it wouldn’t be the Star Wars universe without toxic Star Wars fans who criticize anything new because it’s not what they grew up with. I admit,  I can be a hardcore critic and nitpick every one of the Star Wars movies. They’re not perfect. Even The Empire Strikes Back, which I consider the best film of the franchise is not perfect. If I were grading it today as a movie critic, it would only get a 8.5 or 9 at best. Some of my favorite arguments from Star Wars fans have always been that the Prequels didn’t feel like the original trilogy because that’s what the wanted. When JJ Abrams came along and made The Force Awakens they complained again because it felt too much like the original trilogy and they wanted something, you know, original!. But that’s what JJ Abrams is known for. He makes nostalgic movies based on movies or stories that we have loved before. Alias can simply be a female James Bond series, nothing original. One of my favorite movies of his is Super 8 but all that movie is, is The Goonies meets E.T. It’s definitely not original and that’s okay. The Force Awakens didn’t have to be completely original for us to beg that it feel like it was the original trilogy reincarnated. Fans criticize Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi because he made bold choices in his storytelling and wouldn’t pander to them, especially with a beloved character like Luke Skywalker. He tried to give it an Empire Strikes Back feel, which he did in my opinion along with this great and dark narrative about heroes who are still flawed and filled with self doubt. You know, good and honest storytelling. But that wasn’t good enough. He gets labeled as the director who ruined Star Wars and Luke Skywalker, which is far from the truth because the three movies that Disney has made is not about the legacy characters, it’s about the new characters and how the older generation shepherds them. The original trilogy wasn’t about Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was a background character that helped shepherd the new characters like Luke Skywalker as the wise old man. The Star Wars Prequels are about him being a young heroic Jedi. Fans, make up your mind, which way do you want it…original storytelling or lots of fanservice, which is a type of pandering.

So now we have arrived to Episode 9. The final movie in the Skywalker Saga and the big question on every fan’s mind is, will it deliver. It has to, the pressure is immense for JJ Abrams to deliver and to wrap up the Skywalker Saga nicely. This editorial is not a review of the film. I will say that I liked it very much. I will also admit that it’s a typical JJ Abrams film where it has a lot of fanservice so it is far from perfect and not without its problems like the first act being all over the place. But it’s a fun film and that’s what it’s meant to be while closing out the Skywalker story, which it does nicely in my opinion. Of course, as I write this, I already hear the negative reviews in my head. I can already see the Rotten Tomatoes scores where this film doesn’t live up to expectations. I can already hear the complaints that they packed too much into a two hour movie and maybe that last part is true. Does that mean that the film is bad? Does it mean that you can’t enjoy the film as a Star Wars fan? Sure, you can because sometimes fans forget that these are just movies. They’re not stories as sacred as the Bible or your own family history. It shouldn’t even be put on the same pedestal as classical mythology even though they’re really just mythological stories told in a science fiction format. Since day one, this entire saga has been one big Space Opera that shares, yet, another story of good and evil and how some characters can overcome their fears to be heroes and some fall from Grace only to be redeemed. But all of this is to the backdrop of huge space battles and great sword fights with lightsabers, and a little mysticism sprinkled in there just for good measure. It’s not a story that will change our lives. It’s not a story that’s supposed to inspire us. It’s a story that merely entertains us. That’s all it needs to be, but if we get to have that shared experience with other fans whether it’s seeing the movie as a group or fathers and mothers introducing it to their children, which for my generation that’s what’s happening now, then that is the best experience that we can have with Star Wars. Even if we hate on some of the movies together, it’s still a great shared experience.

So as we enter the final journey of the Skywalker Saga and see the final film in this story, my hope is that fans can rise above any criticisms they may have of how this last movie or any of the Disney movies were made because it’s not the original trilogy. Maybe we’re smart enough to realize that we can’t get those same moments back from when we saw Star Wars for the first time and knew we loved it, no matter how much we try to relive everything.  Maybe we just make new memories whether it’s with our children or the same friends we’ve had since the beginning. Maybe we can just enjoy these films as huge entertaining spectacles on the big screen and nothing more. I believe that Disney has truly been great at one thing… making us forget how shitty the real world really is by bringing us into one that purely entertaining and familiar. They allow us to escape even if it is with some false sense of security or self-worth, but that’s always been okay because escapism is needed. It’s every much a surviving mechanism as breathing. That’s another part of the true Star Wars Legacy. Yes, we’ll never get back what we once had, but we can escape into a world that makes us feel good even if it doesn’t meet all of our expectations. That’s honestly how I view Disney’s Star Wars trilogy, especially Episode 9.

The controversies and criticisms don’t really matter at the end of the day, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be fun.  The best thing it can do is provide a shared experience with our friends who like us, grew up in a galaxy far, far away. It’s true, I can nitpick this last movie and every other movie in the Star Wars franchise, seriously criticizing it for not being perfect, but that only takes away from the joy I have when watching a movie that entertains me. Why should I take that joy away? I think Star Wars fans are always going to have a love-hate relationship with the creators and the people behind the franchise now, it’s inevitable. But here’s one thing that they will never be able to destroy, our shared experience and I keep repeating that to remind fans that that’s what’s important. We can have fun together in this universe. And if you’re like me who is seeing this final film with old and new friends, waiting to enjoy one more Star Wars film with everybody because it’s always better with like-minded fans than alone… I ask you to take a moment and look around.  See the people who love Star Wars just like you, people you have something in common with, people that you can share this experience with and know that it’s not the film that makes the Legacy of Star Wars, It’s always been that shared experience in the Star Wars universe. That’s the true gift George Lucas gave us.  Be glad that we have it because the world would certainly be a worse place if we didn’t. And doesn’t the enjoyment of Star Wars, the good and the bad, overall,  make the world a better place. It’s Star Wars,  of course, it does…and that’s it’s real legacy.