Reaction to the new Star Wars trailer.

On Facebook I recently posted this:

That...really pretty much sums it up.

But I admit, I've been hurt before.  There was a time when the following had me convinced everything was going to be okay and that I was justified in my nerdly excitement.

Yeah, remember those days?  I still do.




I've never been the same since those later movies came out.  I had shelves of Star Wars toys.  I used an R2-D2 phone as my primary means of communication.  I had every follow-up novel, I had posters, I had memorized such obscure details regarding the series that other nerds thought I was nerdy.

...okay, slight confession, I still have many of those things, but they aren't really out where anybody can see them.  I sold pretty much all the books, and I have forgotten most of the obscure details I knew about Star Wars.

"My" Star Wars was a thing of the past.  It was a time for Gungans, child actors, and cartoon series bridging films.  I packed away my childish things and faced the world with fresh eyes.

At least until I found something new to geek out over.

But even then, I've never latched on to anything as hard as I did Star Wars when I was younger.  I think there's always just been that fear that the thing I love that much is going to turn and become unrecognizable.  I'll be standing there disappointed again that something that was so amazing simply decided to twist itself into something unrecognizable and something that I want to just move on from.

See also: The Matrix and the fourth Indiana Jones movie.

So when I saw the teaser for the next movie, did I get excited?  Of course.  Deep down, my love for the original trilogy and the material that came out afterward leading up to the prequels still burns strong.  I'll freely admit that they weren't perfect and that there was some pretty terrible stuff connected to it (coming soon, my review of the Star Wars Holiday Special), but there was still just so much to love, it eclipsed the, for lack of a better phrase, "dark side" of the material.

However, I do want to comment on all the backlash the teaser has received from, well, from "nerds in the derogatory sense."  Complaints about black stormtroopers, new lightsabers, and other things just make me sigh and hope that if I become a publicly outspoken fan again, I won't be clustered with people like them.

(I've maintained many times I'm unable to really get into certain things that become huge not because I don't like the material, but because I hate the fans who come to represent what being a fan of said material is.  I could tell you some horrible and terrifying stories of people I knew that were huge fans of various animated series from Japan)

I do want to share this, though.

If Steven Colbert says the trailer is great, that's good enough for me.  If he becomes the public face of Star Wars fandom, I'd happy stand up and take a place behind him.