May the 4th Be With You

*Triumphant Star Wars Theme Tune*

It’s the 4th of May today (if you hadn’t already noticed), so rather than do my new What’s on the Box feature I’m going to be sharing with you 4 of my favourite things about Star Wars! 

There are lots of people who couldn’t give a flying care about Star Wars, my mum included, which is fine – but Star Wars has always been a huge part of my life. I was raised on the Original Trilogy with Luke, Leia, and Han Solo as a child and I’m 100% sure it started my lifelong love affair with Science Fiction as well as kickass female protagonists ❤ I wasn’t born when the first films came out but I have been to see every single film release at the cinema since, collected various books, played a lot of the video games and otherwise invested a lot of time into the SW universe. Here are some of my favourite things from SW over the past 26 years.

1. The Women of the Star Wars Universe

Growing up as a young girl, I was constantly searching for female role models and Star Wars was one of the places where I found them. It was, and still is, so important for young girls to be able to see a variety of multi-faceted and complex women on screen, and I can say without a doubt that the women in Star Wars have been a great influence on me as a child and as an adult.

I was 7 years old when Star Wars: Episode 1 first came out and started my obsession with Padme Amidala. Putting aside the quality debates of Episodes 1-3, Padme was one of the first live-action female role models that I found and I adored her. I loved that she could be a beautiful Queen, an outspoken diplomat, and a skilled shooter. Padme’s empathy, compassion, and intelligence really spoke to me and made me want to be just like her (minus the death obvs) when I grew up.

How can I count the many ways in which I love Rey? Although I am now obviously a lot older, the introduction of Rey to the SW universe was groundbreaking in so many ways. Of course, Rey is not the first female Jedi but it was the first time that we were seeing this acknowledged on screen with her force sensitivity and lightsaber skills. Rey is everything that I wanted as a child and I’m just so incredibly happy that she exists for all those young girls growing up now. And also, Daisy Ridley gives me life.

Lastly, I come to Leia and, of course, Carrie Fisher. Leia is the princess that I grew up with and the one who will truly stay with me. It’s hard to be able to put into words just how important she was and I really don’t think I can do it justice in this post, but the impact that Carrie had on millions of peoples lives will always be remembered.

2. The New Episodes + Rogue One

There’s not much to say about this other than how much I freaking love the new Star Wars films!! Episode 7 absolutely blew me away, Rogue One had me bawling in the cinema, and Episode 8 had me literally on the edge of my seat. There are a few things that I’m disappointed about with the new films, particularly around diversity issues, but overall the new films are mind-blowingly amazing. And please don’t even get me started on the end of Episode 8 and how much it killed my heart.

3. The Old Republic

The Old Republic is one of the things I am the most obsessed about with Star Wars. I love this period of the SW universe. I don’t know exactly what it is but there’s just something about TOR that’s so attractive to me. I’ve played both of the Knights of the Old Republic games which were ACE. I cannot get enough of the MMO or the fact that they chose TOR as the focus of the MMO, although I am a massive trash bag who still hasn’t finished a class storyline! And I really enjoy the books set during this period. If you ever wanna play TOR online or just chat about TOR then I am HERE FOR THAT.

4. Fiction as Education

This might be a bit of a weird one to throw in, but Star Wars has always been my perfect go-to example of how we can use fiction as education. Growing up I didn’t learn about things like politics from traditional education, I learned it from Star Wars. I learned the differences between things like republics, democracy, empire, tyranny. I began to get interested in how politics worked and how politics could be used by different people for different motivations. Basically, I learned so much from Star Wars that I once had a teacher comment on my level of understanding and was pretty amazed when I said I had learned it all from Star Wars.

Thing’s like history, politics, economics, and a wide range of other complicated things can be difficult for a lot of people to grasp. They can be such abstract ideas that people can’t see how they affect them in their daily lives, but films like Star Wars and the battle against tyranny is easier for people to understand so I think they can be a great introduction to difficult topics which is another reason why I love Star Wars.

I hope you’re all having a great May the 4th!
What are some of your favourite things, if any, about Star Wars?
Feel free to talk to me about SW anytime ❤

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