I saw a post somewhere recently that basically said “Why do people who hate Star Wars spend so much time focusing on it and talking about it? Why don’t they focus on something that they actually like and makes them happy?”
And that got me thinking. Why do I focus on Star Wars? I have a love-hate relationship with Star Wars as a franchise. The one thing I don’t feel about Star Wars is indifference. When Star Wars is at its best, it’s something that’s deeply entertaining and engaging for me. When Star Wars is at its worst, I can’t stand it. There’s no other franchise where I have both positive and negative reactions to it so strongly.
I still want Star Wars to be good. And there is still some good Star Wars stuff being made. But it’s like trying to admire the beautiful work done on a garden while the house is on fire, and the homeowners insist that everything is fine.
Star Wars is just something that I can’t fully let go of. It does bring me happiness, still.
Feel much the same way. When I think too much about the past 23+ years, that delicate balance tips more towards hate. Disassociating from all that crap, effectively acting as if the SW saga ended with the Hand of Thrawn duology, helps keep the flame alive.
Suppose The Princess Bride was such a financial success that they decided that this would be a franchise with new installments coming out every year, new books and games being produced several times a year, and merchandise and advertising being pumped out around the clock forever.
The only difference between the Princess Bride franchise and the Star Wars franchise is that they managed to make two classic movies back-to-back with Star Wars and this made everyone assume that such a level of quality could actually be achieved on a continuous basis instead of George Lucas being at the center of a once-in-a-lifetime confluence of talent and opportunity that allowed for lightning to strike twice.
Ever since then people have been wistfully looking back to those first films and wondering how everything after it seems to suck, but it’s just because the first two films managed to set expectations at a level which was unsustainable for a continuing franchise. Fans don’t hate Star Wars, they’re just disappointed with inevitable mediocrity compared to prior greatness. Fans of the Princess Bride Cinematic Universe would have exactly the same reaction if such a thing were to exist.