I’ve always liked Star Wars – and who didn't? The spaceships, the space swords, the ...space. Sure, it's got all the fun stuff that anybody could ever want in a movie. Yet, Star Wars was never something that I would have gone out of my way to watch or even talk about.
Star Wars thrilled me because of its concept. I’m a 90s kid. My first Star Wars film was The Phantom Menace and that formative experience forced me to recognise the best and worst things about the franchise: the best being the concept and the worst being in the detail. I came for the drama and slept through the rest.
I loved the fights, I loved the podcast racing and I loved seeing this distant galaxy where humans had a place but there was no earth to be found. It still wasn’t enough to make me love the entire franchise and even watching the original trilogy never gave me passion. I grew up when women’s representation was still diabolical and full of tropes, but it wasn’t quite as bad as when the original films came out. This probably diluted my view on the impact of Leia. Don’t get me wrong – Leia was the only person I truly felt inspired by in the original films – it’s just that Han Solo and Luke, by comparison, seemed that much more intolerable. It felt that everywhere there were rather arrogant and/or bland men, apart from perhaps McGregor’s Obi-Wan. Han was charming, but in a very dull way that actually gets pretty old very quickly because all men seem to think they are him or they try to be him. Luke was better on that front at least, and his story had wonderful twists, but at the same time, I just found myself watching Luke and wondering why Leia didn’t get the same amount of focus given the sibling reveal. Where were her powers? She had led these foolish men for so long, and yet why was she left to essentially wait for Luke to save the day? In a galaxy of mediocrity, Leia stood out as one of my favourite characters but Star Wars itself remained something that was so cool to look at and even dream about, but not a story that actually delivered close to the content I wanted. This has all changed.
Flame me, curse me, say I’m not a geek – I really don’t care. It was the modern iteration of Star Wars that has ignited a passion that I didn’t know I could possess for this story. What felt stale and melodramatic has turned into cunning subversion and radical inspiration. Rey standing as the light-sabre wielding champion ushered in a new age where Star Wars decided to step forward and drag the rest of the galaxy with it, even if some of its fans were kicking and screaming. Poe, Finn and Rose belong in this franchise. They have made it better. Star Wars is not the home of geeks who think they are on the outside. It’s one of the most popular franchises ever. It is mainstream. It should have reflective representation. It’s a breath of fresh air that it has made that choice to embrace diverse stories in a galaxy of infinite possibility. I actually care about more than one character now.
An audience should be able to see itself in the characters they watch. If you don’t think that matters then why do so many hate on it? Why do so many people get upset when just one character isn’t a guy, or isn’t white?
Star Wars has characters that have all been invested in with a subtext that has managed to achieve more depths than the past films. The films are finally something I can get truly excited for, rather than just the light-sabre battle scenes. Star Wars is at its best now and that’s truly why so many people are so upset.