The Star Wars Moment

The Mandalorian movie is what pushed me over the edge. It wasn't terrible; the movie's biggest sin is that it was merely average. This is weekly television, like an episode of Buck Rogers airing on NBC.

Star Wars should never settle for average.

Star Wars is exceptional.

Average is the death of Star Wars, the taking of something we collectively hold as a betterment for ourselves, the ideal of the Republic and the Jedi, the noble fight against evil, the stories of personal struggle and failure, epic redemption arcs, and it reduces it to "streaming content."

The world is worse off if average Star Wars exists.

In fact, the world is doomed if average Star Wars is all we are going to get from here on out.

The New Republic is a metaphor for the world overcoming its divisions and constant infighting, abandoning slavery and tyranny, forging unity based on the common good, and moving toward a true galactic civilization. The Empire is the metaphor for the old military-industrial complex model of society, and the notion that perpetual war is the only thing holding civilization together. This world is doomed if we abandon those ideals.

These ideals were born out of the chaos and death of the Vietnam War.

We abandon Star Wars as a unifying cultural force, or let the television people run the show, and we are heading right back to the wartorn battlefields of the 1960s. This will be a worldwide war, starting as small engagements first, as blocs grab resources, populations, and use revolution and bloodshed to capture ideologues and crack down on dissent in bloody massacres.

Star Wars helped us move on from that massive cultural wound, and it gave us an enemy to fight against and an ideal to hope for. A Star Destroyer bombing an innocent world is the same parallel to a B-52 carpet-bombing towns and villages. The Death Star is a nuclear war metaphor. Stormtroopers cracking down on protestors is the National Guard at Kent State.

These television writers are too stupid to grasp the obvious metaphors.

Most of them are content to sell toys as oblivion rages around them.

Other writers will make Star Wars small, like a reflection of their own personal battles, and try to frame the franchise around tiny ideas and struggles, matters of self, and societal acceptance. That is a huge mistake, too, since the Star Wars metaphor is bigger than just one person. This is not a struggle session using Star Wars as your set dressing. What happens in this galaxy affects the entire universe; your actions, your moral corruption and downfall, could kill billions.

Every choice matters here.

Every action has a galaxy-wide consequence.

Who we are, what we do, the choices we make - they will eventually affect the entire universe. This is not a personal, introspective, intimate franchise. This is a global struggle painted on a galactic backdrop. The choices we make as people matter, and an introspective Star Wars is a selfish, "me generation" Star Wars that dooms the world in the most selfish, self-centered way possible.

There is no New Republic; everyone is hustling to "get theirs." You are basically a Hutt, only caring about money, not caring about others, and your selfish actions directly lead to the harm of others. You keep a princess as a slave. You use violence to intimidate others. The only thing that matters to you is making an example out of people who owe you money, because you are a thug and a gangster.

Star Wars dealt with the "me and get mine" generation pretty harshly. You could never be on the side of the New Republic if you were a side hustler. Sacrifice was needed. A lack of self-interest is required. Unlike the Mandalorian, who is ripping off the New Republic, ostensibly for good reasons, he is hurting the cause more than he is helping it. Mercenaries like that are a drain on resources that causes suffering to others, since the money is not there to buy ships, pay troops, get supplies, or feed refugees.

And mercenaries like that will sell out the New Republic if the Empire comes along paying twice.

It is a terrible precedent to set.

Sure, "Mando would not do that," but what about other mercenaries? Surely he is not the only one. You hire a hundred and half sell you out? It is not a sound strategy, and it will cost the New Republic lives and the moral high ground when a mercenary working for the New Republic blows up a passenger ship full of innocents, and another sells the Empire the names and locations of New Republic sympathizers and military bases. Those in it for the money are in it for the money.

We play the role-playing games and can see that clearly.

Those of us who know Legends Star Wars know the truth about mercenaries and self-interest. We know the truth about corporatism and military power. We know the fight about selfish interests versus sacrifice for the greater good. We know that profits that do not contribute to the greater good directly fuel evil. We know that some ideals are bigger than all of us.

We also know the distractions of the corporate machine and how they lull us into forgetting the sins of the overseers and Empire, how consumerism, promiscuity, disco, and distractions paved the way for complacency and more wars. The tools to get the populace disinterested in the New Republic and the ideals of a better universe are in the opium of corporate consumerism. If the Empire can just distract and placate the population with baubles and trinkets, no one will want to fight for a better life. The same goes for class infighting; any distraction and internal division is a tool of the overlords.

All of this was so clearly laid out for us in the source material.

Here I started this thinking the Star Wars fight was about preserving a rule system for everyone to enjoy and create their own stories. I thought this was an old-school fight about saving a narrative gameplay system that so many enjoy. Even those who just want to enjoy and preserve the Legends stories for entertainment sort of miss the point. This is not a fight about game preservation or our ability to tell stories in the classic universe. This is not about BX being superior to 5E.

This is not about shilling for a corporation to see its profits rise as validation for a life we do not have, or some phony, hollow victory against "the other side" on a fake social media platform. I am not here to cheer on profit margins or celebrate when they fall because the company made a stupid mistake. What sort of life is that? It is the definition of a vapid life, consumed by vile side-ism or hateful schadenfreude.

New Star Wars lost touch with what Old Star Wars meant. It is a pale imitation that wears the costume but lacks the heart and soul. Every tone-deaf release they make confirms that point.

They just don't understand it. My stories? The ones I play in my games? Those reflect and reinforce the true narrative and spirit of the original stories and movies. I was alive during the 1970s and saw the first movie on the first week of release. I know the time and the world in which this cultural force was born.

The fight for Star Wars is a fight to save the world.