darth_ender said:
Star Wars may yet show some greatness. "Come on, let's keep a little optimism."
HOW TO BUILD A PESSIMISTIC STAR WARS FAN IN FIFTEEN YEARS OR LESS
January 1997: "Oh yeah, Star Wars on the big screen again! That was fun, I wonder what nifty little new surprises we'll get in the next one?"
February 1997: "That Wampa was awsome! And did you see what they did with Cloud City? Nice!"
March 1997: "So many changes! I loved the new ending!"
Later in 1997: "I'm so buying these when they come out on VHS. Kind of cool having alternative versions of the films to mix it up a bit."
In a movie theater, sometime in 1998: "Wow! After seeing that trailer for the new Star Wars movie, I don't even care about the movie I am about to see right now. Man, I am excited! Just next year! Still so very far away though..."
Morning of May 18th, 1999: "Can't believe I'm going to be watching a whole new Star Wars film tonight! Gah, this day is going to drag on for so long! Oh well, I waited so many years for this, I can wait a few more hours! Can't believe all the early reviews are dogging it so hard, critics just need to lay off, they obviously just don't get Star Wars. This film is going to be great!"
Wee hours of the morning, May 19, 1999: "Uhhh... Well... Errr... It wasn't THAT bad. I mean, it had its problems. But it was fun. That lightsaber duel was amazing! Can't wait for the next one! It is going to be great, George was just getting back into the groove with this one. Going to go see this thing again tomorrow night!"
Sometime in 2001: "Ah, finally the very first Star Wars film to be released on DVD! That's weird... I was looking forward to seeing the deleted scenes, but I wonder why they spliced some of them back into the actual movie? Would have kind of liked to have it the way it was originally... I guess I'll be holding onto that TPM VHS tape. Wish George wasn't set on releasing these things in episode order, means we're going to have to wait until after 2005 for the trilogy on DVD. Hmm, I wonder if there are any bootlegs out there?... Just to tide me over."
Sometime in late 2001-early 2002: "Can't stop watching these trailers over and over and over again! Gotta love the internet! The name sounds kind of cheesy, but Attack of the Clones is going to be fantastic! Just from these trailers it looks incredible!"
May 16, 2002: "Seriously?! Wha... How... Huh... Uhhh... Arrrggg! What was that!?"
A short while prior to September 2004: "No, no, no, no, no! Please don't be true. I was so excited about this! Star Wars finally on DVD, and it is only going to be the Special Editions? I don't want those! Looks like I'll just have to be content with these TR47's..."
May 19, 2005: "Oh yeah, the new Star Wars came out today. Maybe I'll go see it sometime this week."
Sometime in 2006: "It is about time! Finally, one last good thing Star Wars related to look forward to. Just give me my originals and let me disappear into the shadows a content man. Star Wars and everything it has become in the last ten years can go on without me!
A little later in 2006: "I can't believe the versions of the originals we are getting on DVD are going to be the exact same quality as the LD bootlegs we already have. Whatever."
2007 - 2013: Announcements of anything new SW related: "Meh! Its gonna suck! It always sucks!"
One of the cool things about this place is we have a pretty eclectic group here. We have some older members who remember seeing the films as they came out, eagerly waiting years between to find out what happens next.
Then there are a bunch of us from the next generation who spent their childhoods watching and loving these films on VHS. This group missed out on the initial Star Wars mania. By the time we were old enough to buy action figures and toys, there was nothing left on the shelves. We had to rely on hand-me-downs and garage sales and thrift stores. So when things started picking up again in the 90's with new books, new figures, and new merchandise beginning to pop up in stores, it was an incredibly exciting time.
Then there are many here who are from later generations. They saw one of the prequels, and that got them hooked. Or someone bought them the DVD box set and they ended up really liking it. Sometimes I am surprised at the number who mention having seen the SE before the originals, or PT films before the OT films. It is really hard for me to relate to that. I can't even imagine. My childhood was VHS recordings of the trilogy on a nearly continuous loop, star ship schematics on my walls, mismatched SW bedsheets, beat up used SW figures triumphantly acquired at garage sales, and stacks of Marvel SW comics.
For some of us, our tenure as SW fans has consisted of lots and lots of eager waiting. And then we find ourselves having manure thrown in our faces. For fans who joined the party late, it is really easy to look at some of us and say, "Well, dummy, you just shuffle through the manure pile and pick out the good bits and the things you like from between the piles of crap and quit your moaning!" For that group of fans, they basically arrived at a large manure pile, and without having to blindly wait long intervals for things they fully expected to really enjoy, they can dig through it and take the stuff they like, and leave the rest.
We didn't know we were eagerly waiting for manure. And we sure never would have guessed that we'd have to work so hard just to get to keep the parts of Star Wars we liked. Given all of that, it is pretty hard to be optimistic when new things are announced. I'm willing to bet most of us pessimists were optimistic fans once, but these optimistic fans had the optimism gradually beaten out of them for the last fifteen years.