Why is it About Star Wars That Makes People So Passionate About It?

[Beastro]

Beauty and the Beast.

One of the most archetypal stories ever created with depth of symbolism and meaning to it that has made it universal and a story that has existed long before Beauty and the Beast itself was fashioned.

It is not dumb entertainment nor something that "can be anything". You can change the clothing on the story, but its heart and soul remains unchanged. What is in Star Wars that tapped into the Heroes Journey is just that very thing, and it has been ruined by straying from that.

The cantina scene from the first film captivated people more than almost anything else in it.

Yes, and unveiling that cantina has debased its mystery.

Worse, we now must have cantina scene after cantina scene in Star Wars because of it. The setting is trapped by the scenery that made it iconic.

Lightsabers. They are awesome.

For some, for others who don't give a damn at all about that and the Jedi it's the dog fighting.

That, especially the catina scene as Frustration mentioned, sparked the imagination of kids to tell their own stories with the action figures, and as they get older leads to all sorts of fanworks, memes, theories, etc. Also as an excuse for so, so many expanded universe books that gave full extensive stories to every single random person to appear on the screen, no matter how minor.

The problem is that sort of thing should never be looked at in detail because it dispels your imagination.

That level of detail is not needed and that expanse of mystery in Star Wars was ruined by the EU where every little bloody corner of the galaxy has a wookiepedia article with a history going back thousands of years that leaves pretty much no more terra incognita. It would be one thing is this was but a patch of the galaxy, but there's no more room left to grow out of.

This is why similar settings kept impertinent areas vague and mysterious. Middle Earth has nothing on the East beyond Mordor, we don't know what happened to the Blue Wizards and if they fell to Sauron or kept up a fight against him with allies whose details never reached the West. We don't know the details of the Imperium in Dune and of Houses or worlds not mentioned in the novels. Both settings went into detail to create depth, but left the fringes loose which made those details all the more vivid by tantalizing us with what other wonders were in those two worlds.

Star Wars had that until after Return of the Jedi.

[Winter]

Beauty and the Beast.

One of the most archetypal stories ever created with depth of symbolism and meaning to it that has made it universal and a story that has existed long before Beauty and the Beast itself was fashioned.

It is not dumb entertainment nor something that "can be anything". You can change the clothing on the story, but its heart and soul remains unchanged. What is in Star Wars that tapped into the Heroes Journey is just that very thing, and it has been ruined by straying from that.

The cantina scene from the first film captivated people more than almost anything else in it.

Yes, and unveiling that cantina has debased its mystery.

Worse, we now must have cantina scene after cantina scene in Star Wars because of it. The setting is trapped by the scenery that made it iconic.

Lightsabers. They are awesome.

For some, for others who don't give a damn at all about that and the Jedi it's the dog fighting.

That, especially the catina scene as Frustration mentioned, sparked the imagination of kids to tell their own stories with the action figures, and as they get older leads to all sorts of fanworks, memes, theories, etc. Also as an excuse for so, so many expanded universe books that gave full extensive stories to every single random person to appear on the screen, no matter how minor.

The problem is that sort of thing should never be looked at in detail because it dispels your imagination.

That level of detail is not needed and that expanse of mystery in Star Wars was ruined by the EU where every little bloody corner of the galaxy has a wookiepedia article with a history going back thousands of years that leaves pretty much no more terra incognita. It would be one thing is this was but a patch of the galaxy, but there's no more room left to grow out of.

This is why similar settings kept impertinent areas vague and mysterious. Middle Earth has nothing on the East beyond Mordor, we don't know what happened to the Blue Wizards and if they fell to Sauron or kept up a fight against him with allies whose details never reached the West. We don't know the details of the Imperium in Dune and of Houses or worlds not mentioned in the novels. Both settings went into detail to create depth, but left the fringes loose which made those details all the more vivid by tantalizing us with what other wonders were in those two worlds.

Star Wars had that until after Return of the Jedi.

Dude, you are taking this FAR to seriously. To go back to that FULL quote I used, Jean Cocteau was often hated by his surrealist peers for taking the surrealist style and distilling it into something that everyone in the mainstream could enjoy. Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast drew on mythology, dreams but presented in a way that spoke to the child in all of us which was by design AS ADMITTED BY COCTEAU HIMSELF IN THE OPENING CRAWL OF THE FILM!!!

You're here complaining about how Star Wars isn't that deep while claiming Beauty and the Beast is, ignoring that, again, the man who turned that story into a mainstream hit was doing so in such a way that was meant to apply to the child in all of us. The thing I opened this series with pokes fun at the idea that how everyone gets worked up instead of just enjoying the insane ride that we have all been on for over 40 years. Saying Star Wars is something we should take 100% serious is like saying Jean Cocteau meant us to see Beauty and the Beast through the eyes and ideas of adults while the first thing he put forth in his own film can be accurately summed up as "Stop thinking for a bit, a lighten up."

And this is a film talked about 77 years after it's release. Star Wars is almost close to that age and talked about MORE then Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast. In the grand scheme of things, a simple story has more to offer then the most deep and complex story could ever could.

To settle this, I will bet you that in 100 years, Star Wars will not only still be made but that everyone will still be debating if the Prequels and the Disney Sequel Trilogy will still be talked about.

[Beastro]

You're here complaining about how Star Wars isn't that deep while claiming Beauty and the Beast is, ignoring that, again, the man who turned that story into a mainstream hit was doing so in such a way that was meant to apply to the child in all of us. The thing I opened this series with pokes fun at the idea that how everyone gets worked up instead of just enjoying the insane ride that we have all been on for over 40 years. Saying Star Wars is something we should take 100% serious is like saying Jean Cocteau meant us to see Beauty and the Beast through the eyes and ideas of adults while the first thing he put forth in his own film can be accurately summed up as "Stop thinking for a bit, a lighten up."

And I would agree, if this were 1983. What has come since RotJ has fragmented the harmonic simplicity of Star Wars' fable. That is the major issue I have with it. Things like the EU were overdeveloped while other things like the repeated settings, the lightsaber duels, the dog fights, the planet killers, the bounty hunters, the cantinas, how everything four thousand years before the first film in KOTOR is the exact same, are constantly repeated.

Star Wars has fallen apart. The EU didn't do so much damage in the 90s because it wasn't mainstream, that changed however when the Prequels came out. Disney has only caused the rupture to explode exponentially with what they've done. The Prequels (indeed his behaviour going back nearly from the start) are a major issue: Lucas himself has played a role in damaging this harmony by blurring the boundaries on matters legitimacy. With what people are doing to LotR, we can always cut off the new crap by saying definitively that it isn't what Tolkien would want because neither him not his son were apart of it and would most certainly have opposed it. We cannot say the same of Lucas beyond what has come since his sale of Star Wars to Disney. He could declare that the Disney crap isn't legitimate, but then, as I said, the problem goes back further than them.

Star Wars is almost close to that age and talked about MORE then Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast. In the grand scheme of things, a simple story has more to offer then the most deep and complex story could ever could.

You are mixing complexity up with depth. What makes symbolism so powerful is that it is both simple and contains depth.

They may talk more about his film, but Beauty and the Beast goes back father than that to the mid 18th Century.

To settle this, I will bet you that in 100 years, Star Wars will not only still be made but that everyone will still be debating if the Prequels and the Disney Sequel Trilogy will still be talked about.

I bet you in 100 years Star Wars won't be talked about much at all while something like LotR will remain in discourse.

[McAvoy]

You're here complaining about how Star Wars isn't that deep while claiming Beauty and the Beast is, ignoring that, again, the man who turned that story into a mainstream hit was doing so in such a way that was meant to apply to the child in all of us. The thing I opened this series with pokes fun at the idea that how everyone gets worked up instead of just enjoying the insane ride that we have all been on for over 40 years. Saying Star Wars is something we should take 100% serious is like saying Jean Cocteau meant us to see Beauty and the Beast through the eyes and ideas of adults while the first thing he put forth in his own film can be accurately summed up as "Stop thinking for a bit, a lighten up."

And I would agree, if this were 1983. What has come since RotJ has fragmented the harmonic simplicity of Star Wars' fable. That is the major issue I have with it. Things like the EU were overdeveloped while other things like the repeated settings, the lightsaber duels, the dog fights, the planet killers, the bounty hunters, the cantinas, how everything four thousand years before the first film in KOTOR is the exact same, are constantly repeated.

Star Wars has fallen apart. The EU didn't do so much damage in the 90s because it wasn't mainstream, that changed however when the Prequels came out. Disney has only caused the rupture to explode exponentially with what they've done. The Prequels (indeed his behaviour going back nearly from the start) are a major issue: Lucas himself has played a role in damaging this harmony by blurring the boundaries on matters legitimacy. With what people are doing to LotR, we can always cut off the new crap by saying definitively that it isn't what Tolkien would want because neither him not his son were apart of it and would most certainly have opposed it. We cannot say the same of Lucas beyond what has come since his sale of Star Wars to Disney. He could declare that the Disney crap isn't legitimate, but then, as I said, the problem goes back further than them.

To settle this, I will bet you that in 100 years, Star Wars will not only still be made but that everyone will still be debating if the Prequels and the Disney Sequel Trilogy will still be talked about.

I bet you in 100 years Star Wars won't be talked about much at all while something like LotR will remain in discourse.

Actually I can bet you Star Wars will be talked about just as much as Lord of the Rings. Think about how some stories are still talked about despite not much has been done with them recently.

[Beastro]

Actually I can bet you Star Wars will be talked about just as much as Lord of the Rings. Think about how some stories are still talked about despite not much has been done with them recently.

I hope so, but I worry the damage done to it is irreparable for the reasons I added into my previous post with an edit.

Lucas knows more than anyone else. See the look on his face in that interview where he says he feels like a parent who sold their child into white slavery, then after a pause, finally has it all hit him what he did.

He sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.

[McAvoy]

Actually I can bet you Star Wars will be talked about just as much as Lord of the Rings. Think about how some stories are still talked about despite not much has been done with them recently.

I hope so, but I worry the damage done to it is irreparable for the reasons I added into my previous post with an edit.

Lucas knows more than anyone else. See the look on his face in that interview where he says he feels like a parent who sold their child into white slavery, then after a pause, finally has it all hit him what he did.

He sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.

The original will be talked about. The other eight movies will be talked about like appendices to the original story.

I am willing to bet eventually in the next 100 years, Star Wars will be remade. Hopefully by that point we progressed from 2D movies.

[Beastro]

I am willing to bet eventually in the next 100 years, Star Wars will be remade.

You make that sound as if it's a good thing...

The best place for it to be would be to remain as what it was, three films from 1977 to 1983 unaltered with flaws and all.

That is where the magic is.

[Winter]

I am willing to bet eventually in the next 100 years, Star Wars will be remade.

You make that sound as if it's a good thing...

The best place for it to be would be to remain as what it was, three films from 1977 to 1983 unaltered with flaws and all.

That is where the magic is.

Nostalgia makes the Heart grown fond and the eyes blind.

[McAvoy]

I am willing to bet eventually in the next 100 years, Star Wars will be remade.

You make that sound as if it's a good thing...

The best place for it to be would be to remain as what it was, three films from 1977 to 1983 unaltered with flaws and all.

That is where the magic is.

Not saying it would be a good thing. Just saying it will be remade. Probably after Lucas dies. It is what it is. Hollywood likes to remake things.

[Winter]

One of the most archetypal stories ever created with depth of symbolism and meaning to it that has made it universal and a story that has existed long before Beauty and the Beast itself was fashioned.

It is not dumb entertainment nor something that "can be anything". You can change the clothing on the story, but its heart and soul remains unchanged. What is in Star Wars that tapped into the Heroes Journey is just that very thing, and it has been ruined by straying from that.

Sooo, would this be a bad time to mention that the original Beauty and the Beast fairy tale was basically just propaganda for Arranged Marriages and it was only in the retelling that it became the classic that we know it as?