SPJ Talks About Why is Star Wars Popular

By Jash Jhajj

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” Everyone knows about this iconic title crawl. It was Star Wars season, and the Skywalker saga has come to a permanent close. Before I watch the Rise of Skywalker, I will talk about one of my favorite movie collections: Star Wars. I remember my first Star Wars movie being Force Awakens and how I experienced something magical and new. I felt like I was a Jedi, and I could battle Kylo Ren, my favorite character. But, when I saw the news, I saw a lot of people going crazy over a single movie collection. I used to wonder why people love this movie set. Do they like the action or the characters? This made me think and led to this article. Why is Star Wars popular?

“What is Star Wars,” some people who hate or just don’t know Star Wars ask. It is an anthology series about what the title says. Wars happening in the stars. There is the light side and the dark side. The only time the movies break this rule is during the prequel trilogy, but that is another topic in itself. It is a simple concept to understand. If you want to know the whole Star Wars timeline, then I prefer to search Star Wars Timeline on YouTube to get a quick recap of what has happened.

Now, some people hate Star Wars. I know two people who hate Star Wars. My mom and my older sister hate Star Wars. They believe that it is a story about a father and a son trying to kill each other. When I was younger, that is what I thought until I saw a movie trailer of Star Wars. That 2 to 3 minutes made me love Star Wars and ever since then, I’ve loved Star Wars. I even asked my aunt to get me a Kylo Ren lightsaber for a Christmas present. I understood the concept in those 2-3 minutes, making me love it. So, why do some people hate the series? Maybe it is because they don’t understand it or just don’t like that type of content. My sister and mom like movies like “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” Maybe that is why they slept through most of the Force Awakens.

Now that I have established what Star Wars is and why some people hate it, we should go to the main question. Why is Star Wars popular? Is it because of the action? No, not really. I mean, the action now is incredible, but in the first movie, it is so dull! I almost skipped the scene where Darth Vader was about to kill Obi-Wan. Also, the action does draw an audience, but not a big audience that is willing to trample each other for a movie, and its space penguins. Maybe the characters make it a popular topic? Maybe. Characters like Luke Skywalker, Yoda, Darth Maul, etc. are cool, but that isn’t a drawing point to everyone. I mean, think about Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar Binks was supposed to be the comedy character that many would like, especially kids. Lucas himself said that he was going for a significant risk by adding Jar Jar Binks. However, people hated this character and even tried to change his existence by using a theory widely known as Darth Jar Jar Binks theory. So, it can’t be anything, and we are back to square 1.

After a few hours, I understood what it was all about. It is about the connectedness we feel during this movie. Think about it. Right now, I am fanboying over a movie that makes zero sense. You and I have something in common even though you don’t know anything about me except for my love of Star Wars. Star Wars isn’t an anthology series for kids to bother their parents to buy toys. It’s a series for the men, women, black, white, gay, straight, kid, and adult. Anyone can love this series. This lovely warm feeling makes you feel happy and see other people as your own. This series helped make many friends and family get closer. That is also why we created an unofficial holiday called “May the 4th be with you!” That is why I can fan out with even the most popular star on the internet.

I am not even going to conclude because I feel like I just have to say two more things:

May the Force be with you!

And

The worst movie in the Skywalker saga is Return of the Jedi because it is so bland and boring that it makes me want to say that it isn’t Star Wars. I am about to get hit by a million Star Wars nerds.