There are a few genres and franchises that in life we hold dear, Films, Tv, Games all sorts, in the filming world there’s a few that stand out LOTR, Marvel, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park etc, and Star Wars. The franchise is older than me (just) but for me, it’s been around my whole life, at this point I’ve seen all of the films several times, the TV series’s with the exception of the Mandalorian Series, this kicks off a new era of Star Wars.

The begining

When I was growing up, I like millions watch the Original 3 on the TV whenever they were on, and as many others fell in love with the franchise on these alone, it set the benchmark of all space films even to this day, at the time the special effects and graphics were brilliant and were even improved in the late 90’s reworked versions, (much to a debate). 

The story was simple yet compelling, it created a whole new Religion, Universe, set of rules and space rules, in essence, this was a shift in pop culture.  It still gets referenced now, many shows refer to it, and yet all people may not like it, they know parts of it and references to it, how many Shows and Films can ever say that.

The New wave

After the original ones starting in 1977, the Prequel trilogy started in 1999 with Phantom Menace, to much hype, arguably more hype than any other films in history, (maybe Avengers), unfortunately, it was never going to be successful to die-hard star wars fans, and that is where we are at with films. But this trilogy I think has aged well, when I first watched these they were ok,

I wasn’t a fan of Phantom menace but I did like Darth Maul, the second one was a step up in graphics and created a whole new genre with Star Wars with the Clones, the third was essentially the built-up end of the first 2, and that’s my opinion of these films unlike 4,5,6 where they are great stand-alone films with cohesive story across the three, the 1,2, and 3 were all building to the final events of 3, which are some of the more significant in Star Wars history and were great.

The Universe expanding

With this whole new extra universe being created, it brought TV shows like Clone Wars and Rebels, which in turn brought more level of depth the universe of Star Wars, alongside books and novels of the last 30 years we had begun to create a whole universe of so much detail that Star wars fan like myself loved it, even more, personally I think the Clone Wars series is as good as any other part of Star Wars.

Let’s be honest the Mandalorian detail in the new series and Rebels spawned from here. The clone War series and the Prequel trilogy are both great to go back and watch and for me have aged well.

Those Newer films…

With Disney buying Star wars we see new age, a new set of star wars films, a new series, and potentially more spin-offs to come to yet expand the series, however, the big thing was the final Skywalker Trilogy, much like the Prequel this was never going to be good with Die-hard Star Wars fans,

These days everyone picks holes and points out things, we get it, thats what the internet is for lol, but it needed to end the Saga, the 7th film was actually for me a great start, it was essentially a carbon copy of 4, which isnt a bad thing, but they took many essences from it and produced this, 8th…..that film, different director and it seemed to get lost,

There were parts of really poor ideas, and then there were ok parts and more about the Universe, but in reality, its the worst, the 9th and final film was good, and whatever the internet says it was fine, there still some issues but to be honest it felt like it was trying to pieces together back the trilogy form it’s up and downs.

For me, it was a chance to say goodbye to one of the biggest Sagas if not the biggest in film history, telling a story of ver 40 years with actors like Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and many others, so whatever you think, you have to respect that and the franchise, just enjoy it for what it is.

Reflection time

One of the main things I love about Star Wars is its storytelling through the years, but not just the main parts the sub-levels of it all, the universe that it has essentially created, as I said with Disney buying it, the money, the Disney+ platform behind it, we are now into a New Era, the final series of clone Wars came out, let’s not forget it arguably spawned the Mandalorian TV series idea,

There are rumours and announcements all the time, a series based on the bad Batch, the OBI wan series, it’s already spawned two may jor films in Rogue One and Solo, though both linked to the original Saga, Solo, in particular, was a really good film, I rate it very high. With all this being said the merch, the films, TV, Characters, Story, everything… there’s so much to love about Star Wars,

Tigger and I love to watch it and ultimately its one of the biggest franchises, in filming and pop culture history, only Marvel are pushing it close (Disney owned), but it doesn’t yet have the tenure of Star wars for me. One day I will go into detail on the films maybe, but in case you live under a rock and haven’t seen them I’ve tried to be general and not spoil it, but if you haven’t watched them, watch it.

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