Do Star Wars fans have appreciation for the wrong Lucas? — Page 2

The orgin of this conversation was that there were loyal fans who remained loyal to SW straight on through, who George did not remain loyal too. It kind of veered off into a whole differerent and irrelevant discussion that seems to have more to do with perspective than anything else.

Baron said "there's no doubt it died hard around 1985 in a way that hasn't happened this time around"

Why is there no doubt? I really never saw it as dead during that period of time. We still had video games and comics being produced along with a few other odds and ins. I don't think a market flooded with merchandise is a fair assessment of whether something is a dead fad or something with an authentic massive fan base that still very much care about it at any given moment.

And I really don't think there is much evidence that the "New-Star Wars" crowd is clinging too it more tightly than we did. I see it more as Star Wars is clinging to them, and fortunately for it, only very slowly wearing out its welcome. I mean, there was a Star Wars film in theaters just this year, and now a TV show, had an animated feature film been in theaters in 1988, you can bet it would have reawaken the fad crowd. Also, in this day and age we are in an even more material driven society than we were back in the seventies and eighties. Now everything gets tons of merchandising.

Had Star Wars really been dead, it would have taken a lot more than a small line of action figures and a few new novels in the early to mid nineties to revive it. Instead, those figures and novels fell right into the eager hands of fans who had been waiting for them. Games like X-Wing, Dark Forces, and Rebel Assault sold amazingly well, because not only were they good games, but there were still more than enough people interested in Star Wars to make it worthwhile to keep producing them. If that counts as dead, then check my pulse, I may have been gone for quite some time now.

negative1 said:

i think you're agreeing with some of what i was saying..

but i stand by my original assertion that the popularity of the 'star wars' FILMS WAS A FAD,

because by it's very nature, they only came out for awhile, were only popular for a short time,

and were promptly forgotten until their rereleases (SE), and releases on other media..

 later

-1

 

A movie that is a fad is 'Independence Day' because that was a huge hit in 1996, the #1 movie that year, and then 10-12 years later alot of people look back on that film and realize it was a cheesy piece of crap with cool effects at the time.  The only people that like it now describe it as a guilty pleasure movie.

Star Wars wasn't a fad because the movie stood the test of time.  I won't even go into the sequels, prequels, SE, etc.  The original movie is like The Wizard of Oz, it is truly timeless in a movie sense, that generations and generations of people will continue to fall in love with the movie.  The Sequels/Prequels/ are for just SW geeks, as there are so many people I know that love the original, and don't like anything else from the series, or would say ESB & ROTJ are OK.

I understand what your saying that the merchandising dried up after around 1985, but that doesn't make it a fad, because if you say that, then you have to say every movie is a fad, because they hit the theater, they either connect or not with the public, and then either it becomes a classic and people watch it forever, it becomes a good movie that will always be on cable, or a shit movie that is forgotten within the year.  That is just the nature of movies.

Fads are things that are popular that are good for a year, but the masses turn against it and a backlash occurs.  Just think of Parachute Pants in the mid 80's, every kid I know had them in 1985, but 1987 you would be an asshole if you had a pair of them. 

And for the record, SW was not forgotten after 1985 from the fanbase, as the VHS releases in the late 80's and early 90's, before the SE releases, always topped the sales.  Heck, everyone I know got a VCR in the 80's to get Star Wars and Raiders on VHS!