Never Tell Me The Odds

Posted by In Her Own Write on April 11, 2020 · 4 mins read

This Easter is not that cool. My original plan was to chill out for the entirety of this 4-day-“holiday”, but no problems and situations arise so I ended up just doing other stuff besides homework.

Luckily though, I got into Star Wars. There was an urge inside me calling me to binge-watch something, or else I am going to regret it. I planned to watch Star Wars first, then the Lord of the Rings, then Jurassic Park. But no, after watching like The Empire Strikes Back I have decided to watch Indiana Jones right after this. Well, to put it simply, Harrison Ford. But dang are these classic franchises so cool. Although I am very late to the Star Wars fandom (at 16, no should have watched this when I was 6), I think my passion came right on time. It is a new hope. Something I could cling to for quite some time. I am not comparable to the hardcore fanboys, but I am working my way. I find myself actually quite a nerd when it comes to movie franchises like Harry Potter, Star Trek and of course DC and Marvel.

I will not talk in-depth about Star Wars’s plot at this point, as I am still on episode 8 and I haven’t even watched Rogue One, Solo, The Mandolorian etc. But I will tell you this: I think that the key to Star Wars’ success is its characters. These heroes and villains have captured my attention from beginning to end, and though some of the supporting characters are hit-or-miss, I care about each and every one of them. Their character development and what they represent. Even the droids, they are so CUTE. I don’t loathe the prequels or the sequels, but yeah most of the magic still lies in the OG trilogy. I’ll use Harry Potter as an example here: I find the characters not as compelling as SWs, it is the universe, the world-building that’s amazing. To be completely honest, I don’t care for half of the HP characters. Most the ones I care are in Slytherin. But Star Wars focuses more on the Heroes’ Journey. Now I can tell you that a lot of modern-day action movies try to mimic the storytelling of Star Wars, the splitting-heroes-in-different-teams-and-ultimately-leading-to-their-win kind of thing. They follow most of the structure of SW and ESB, but they seldom capture the feeling of these classics. Why? Well, in my opinion, it is because there is no formula to Star Wars’ charisma. Frankly, George Lucas’ success with the first Star Wars should be accidental. Actually, the closest thing to the SW formula may be compelling characters. Luke, Han and Leia. Need I say more? R2D2, Chewbacca and C3PO. Darth Vader. Anakin. Obi-Wan. Yoda. (But not the Ewoks and Jabba that was a wrong move) They are all-rounded characters with strengths and weaknesses. We all root for them.

No matter how bad the prequels are, they still have a special place in my heart. I actually read a book about Padmé in primary school, and I thought wow do space ladies all have weird hairstyles grool. But Hayden Christensen’s Anakin is still a celeb crush of mine and I will forever be a prequel apologist.

As I want to save my cool topics like once a week, I will continue to post random things like this (and like Chickens and Cannibalism) in the next few days. Tomorrow is a break Day so I will try to come up with even better topics.

I am listening to Binary Sun right now and I am tearing up again

#InHerOwnWrite