ST Impact of TFA on your life

Argh, I should have posted it later though as now it's buried at the bottom of the previous page

 

You mean this?

 

I understand the people talking about impact on your life versus how old you are, because I think there is a lot of relevance to that, but it's not always true, either. I suppose in many ways I will always think of the prequels as kind of "my" Star Wars movies, the ones I grew up with, in the same way our older members think of the OT. They misunderstand (sometimes) that we all grew up with the OT obviously as well, I mean we didn't own a ton of movies growing up, but the OT was something I watched constantly. I'm pretty hard-line with my definition of "fandom" so I don't personally SAY that I was a Star Wars fan when I was 5 years old, even though I suppose I could make that claim. I just didn't really consider myself a "fan" as such, until I was old enough to know at least what that meant. But I have many memories of hanging out with friends when I was really young, maybe 6 to 10, and it seems like almost every time, no matter what the friend, we always watched Star Wars! It's so funny to think about, but my jock / athletic friends, my nerdy / gamer friends, everyone loved Star Wars.

Yet at the same time, the prequels were the most impactful because I felt I "participated" in them as a cultural event, rather than with the OT where I was seeing them on VHS and didn't directly feel part of the whole phenomenon at the time. Not until the SE re-releases, anyway, then that's where I became a "true fan," or where I basically counted Star Wars as a hobby and started studying it, watching the movies repeatedly, collecting, etc.

I cannot say that TFA had that type of impact on my life, clearly, as TPM was the impetus for me to become a writer and Star Wars in general propelled my interest in filmmaking and that career path. That being said, I think TFA had a really nice impact and felt like this awesome cultural event that once again everyone participated in and that once again swept me up in that feeling Star Wars brings. Ever since, I just feel like my fandom is more "alive" than it was after ROTS. As a prequel lover, of course I loved that whole time period, but there was a sense of being let down when ROTS was gone from theaters and you just wonder... is this really it? I mean, does Star Wars have to survive now like other beloved "old" movies that have their place in history but are not really, as such, active? Then the Clone Wars were fantastic, but I didn't appreciate the series enough at the time. The more I learned how much Lucas was involved, and the more I got into the story, the more I realized this is an incredible part of the overall lore and I still think of The Clone Wars as this great, last gift from Lucas to the fans. Somehow, though, without theatrical movies it just didn't feel the same.

TFA kind of said, "Star Wars is back!" in the biggest way possible. It reminded whatever detractors the franchise has, yeah, this is still the biggest game in town. By far. So you may not like it, but it's happening. Every year. Deal with it! lol.

 

Thinking of it in terms of cultural event, I came in on the tail-end of the OT craze. When I saw ANH at a re-release in '82, it was still a Big Deal. It was like being told you were going to Disneyland or something. But none of us thought of ourselves as fans because almost everyone loved Star Wars. That's just how it was.

But TFA is the first time I've seen such fervour since the OT days. I lived through the TPM release, and even then I didn't see the same kind of repeat viewings from Boomers the way I did for TFA. The only other movie I can really compare it to in terms of hype and (met) demand and expectation is E.T. But really, it was like the second coming. People here like to complain about TFA, but really, it achieved something monumental: it gave a 40 year old franchise enough life for at least 10 more years of content, if not more.