George Lucas couldn’t care less about lore, so why are Star Wars fans obsessed with it?

George Lucas never cared at all about lore, which makes Star Wars Fandom’s obsession with him all the more ironic. Lucasfilm’s latest release, The acolytewas controversial before it was even published; But matters only worsened as each episode dropped, with frequent claims it somehow broke canon and lore. Some argued that Osha and Mei undermined the significance of the chosen prophecy, while others debated such esoteric points as the age of the Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi.

Apart from the question of motives, it is fascinating to note the angle popular YouTubers took to attack the latter Star Wars Disney+ TV show. While some discussed The acolyte On its own merits – debate the writing, narrative momentum, and performances – the main focus has always been on the teaching. It paid off; Many videos netted YouTubers a tidy profit, with millions of views. But why is the US Star Wars Fandom so obsessed with knowledge?

George Lucas couldn’t care less about lore

The creator of Star Wars considered lore to be a distraction for a story

Lightsabers are such an iconic part of Star Wars study, but you might be surprised to hear that the original drafts called them “laserwords.” Lucas didn’t like the name, however, because he felt that a reference to lasers would lead to some viewers debating the scientific accuracy of it all. He wanted to tell a science fantasy story, not a science fiction one, which means that he wanted the rules to be much more flexible. And so lightsabers were born – because Lucas didn’t want people distracted by asking how lightsabers work. He cared so little about construction.

Fast forward to production of The empire strikes backAnd it is notable how willing Lucas was to undo everything he had done before. Because that’s what the iconic “I am your father” moment really is – a recon, revealing that everything Obi-Wan told Luke about his father was a lie. The idea that Leia is Luke’s sister in Return of the Jedi? This is also a recon, and it even required changing Leia’s age to make her Luke’s twin. Lucas didn’t care about continuity if it got in the way of his story.

I’ll never forget a story from Dave Filoni, Lucas’ protégé, in which he discussed working with Lucas on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. At one point, Lucas decided that he wanted a small ship to be a stealth fighter, complete with a cloaking field. Philoni, well aware of the lore, objected that any ship this size should have a cloak due to power constraints. “this means” Lucas insisted, and that was that. This is how little knowledge is important to Lucas.

Star Wars fans have always been focused on lore

There are good reasons for this interest in lore, even if it is flawed

Star Wars Fans, of course, have always taken a very different view. I think there is a good reason; Their love for Star Wars Meaning that they want to immerse themselves in the world(s) that Lucas has created, and this is much easier to do when you have a consistent set of rules and a history that allows you to put things into it. It’s worth remembering that fanfictions and RPGs have always been a massive part of the franchise, and these use the consistency.

Making matters even more complicated, however, is the sense of entitlement that some parts of the fanbase have cultivated. Again, I think there are reasons for this; It’s hard for modern viewers to imagine, but there was a time when Star Wars Were dead, when there were at least some comics, and certainly no upcoming ones Star Wars Movies on the horizon. At that time, the franchise essentially belonged to the viewers, and they soon developed a sense of ownership.

This, of course, is one major reason why the fanbase clashed with Lucas himself when he returned to make the prequels. I was part of the fandom back then, and I remember well how we discussed and debated the finer points of the latest movies to figure out how to make them work with the EU. Many saw this as an almost personal sound, because they forgot one simple truth; George Lucas owned Star WarsThey didn’t, and he didn’t really care about their learning.

Lucas’ attitude towards Lore is healthy

But you shouldn’t do it too badly

George Lucas isn’t really invested in the worlds he’s created, in the rules and histories that tie everything together. No, he is first of all a storyteller, and he wanted to tell his story. He didn’t care if it contradicted anything that came before, whether it was established in his own movies, a random CD-ROM, or an RPG sourcebook. For Lucas, the story was first and foremost.

This feels like a much healthier approach to storytelling. too often, Canon and continuity can feel like chains on a writerLimiting them rather than freeing them to tell exciting stories. And yet, I can’t help feeling that there are limits to it, reviews that are not smart because they completely invalidate anything that came before. I am thinking of Star Wars: The Bad Batchs premiere here, which directly contradicted some excellent Cannon comics, or from Tales of the Jedi Erase LGBTQ+ characters from EK Johnston’s novel Ahsoka.

Note what these two examples do, however, which is different to – say – Lucas’ cloaked ship. In the case of The bad batch, It shrinks the galaxyBecause it just means that everyone is connected somehow to everyone else. in Tales of the Jedi, Letters and thoughts are actively deletedA narrative choice made even more frustrating because the characters give some much-needed diversity to the galaxy. On reflection, I think there are two approaches we can take to learning when it comes to recons like this, if you’ll forgive me borrowing some terms from the field of geography:

• Accreditation recommendations: The recons add something to the galaxy, establishing new concepts and ideas that can be further explored at a later date
• Erosion Recommendations: The recons reduce the galaxy, removing something or diminishing it

There is still something very subjective to this, of course. to crawl back to The acolyteReklas, I personally did not see anything about Usha and Mei that reduced the selection in the least; They are consciously created by Force-sensitives using a Force power that is inferred within Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the SithWhereas Anakin was created by the will of the Force itself. In general, I think the best approach is one that gives the benefit of the doubt, actively looking to see what is added rather than removed.

One thing is certain. George Lucas himself wouldn’t even care about that level of thought; He would just want to tell whatever story he came across at a certain moment, and almost anything can be rewritten because of a spur-of-the-moment decision. Maybe Star Wars Fans should at least try to take the heat out of this debate, recognize the truth that a story is not a Wikipedia entry (or a Wookieepedia bio), and… let people tell their stories.