Poll: Are you as sick of Star Wars as I am?

[Johnny Impact]

No.

Didn't care for the prequels overall. I'm not a rabid devotee of original trilogy but there's just *so* much stuff in the prequels that shouldn't have been. I still think Star Wars is a cool place to visit. I groaned when I heard Episode VII was being made but everything I've heard about it has been positive: practical effects where possible, Lucas is out, only the original trilogy is canon, etc. I'm cautiously optimistic for the first time in a long time that the Big Media representation might live up to what I know it can be.

 

[happyninja42]

Newp. Not sick of Star Wars. I am in fact running an RPG using the Fantasy Flight Gaming system for Edge of the Empire with some friends of mine. Which, if you are a fan of Star Wars, I highly suggest you check the system out, it's very fun and creative.


I wouldn't call myself a fanatic for Star Wars. I don't read the EU stuff, though I have read I think 2 trilogies set in the 'verse. I don't read the comics much either, though I did read some of those once upon a time as well. I've played most of the video games in the 'verse, because I enjoy playing a Jedi. And I can quote the movies almost verbatim if I am watching them at the time. But that's mostly because I've seen them so many times over 30 years that they've just been branded into my memory. But I'm not rabid about the 'verse or anything. I enjoy it for the most part like anything else, when it's done well. When it's done bad, it gets on my nerves.

But that's pretty much anything really. Any story genre that's done poorly is frustrating, if it's done well, I like it.

I don't really find the prequel movies to be terribly good movies, but I don't think they're a BETRAAAAAYAL!! *Spoony voice* Like many people do. I just thought they were mediocre scifi movies for the most part. The original trilogy has it's own flaws too to be sure.

I'm curious about the new movies, but I'm not chomping at the bit about them, and I'm not worried/optimistic about them. After this many years of watching movies, I've let all my expectations fall to the side (especially this early in the production), and just wait until the movie is out. I'll go watch it and see how it does. If it's good, great, if it's not, meh, no big deal. It won't lessen my enjoyment of the franchise anymore than anything else done poorly has.

 

[conmag9]

My opinion of the Star Wars franchise has always been a bit mixed.

On the one hand, I loathe almost everything about the setting. The ship designs, the blasters, the troopers (when the Empire's around), much of the interaction, the single-biome planets (not for accuracy reasons, mind. I just find they tend to focus on BORING biomes), etc. etc. The clunky look of most of the ships bugs me and the interaction is odd. Some of the various species were kinda interesting though, and I'll admit I'm fond of the Diathim (the "fuzzy glow" look was a nice touch). But overall, not a universe I'm fairly fond of.

Except for the force, the Jedi and everything to do with them. Love that. Love it to pieces. Love the idea of it, the mystic-flavor of most of it, love the look and feel of wielding swords made out of plasma, the sheer possibility. The Jedi Order's pseudo-monk aesthetic, their occasional inner conflicts thanks to too-much navel gazing or risks in times of war. I think most of the Sith are kinda dumb to tap into an energy that basically always screws them over in the end, but since it's triggered by emotions and is addictive, I can at least understand it.

So with all that in mind, I'm not terribly interested in the new movie (though at some point I'll likely give it a shot, just to make sure), but could really go for another Knights of the Old Republic game. The focus on one character in an RP setting (especially if Obsidian gets their hands on the story again...maybe with a bit more time for bug testing and less cut content) over-rides a few of my concerns.

 

[faefrost]

Oh hell no. I was 11 the day Star Wars hit theaters. This was a movie that for some reason was magically hard wired and beamed directly into my and my cohorts brains. The magic has never completely faded. (although granted the Prequel Trilogy did give it more than a bit of tarnish.)

 

[AgedGrunt]

When it comes to being ubiquitous and popular, nothing comes close to Star Wars. I once studied it and noted at least one Star Wars reference per day while I browsed the web.

It's just fans... you're everywhere. And anytime there's a cosplay, parody, image macro or a witty reference, you're all over it. Someone in a Stormtrooper costume could be walking their dog in their neighborhood and it can hit the front page of Reddit. It's just...why? The trigger is, well, *anything* Star Wars.

Websites know this, too. Heck, last time I was a regular at Cracked, you could find a Star Wars joke in nearly every article, and it was a frequent source used in their Photoshop contests, scoring prize-winning entries on a regular basis.

Thing is, Star Wars is just fine; I don't get the obsession. The hype for Episode One turned me off for good.

 

[Ishal]

Am I sick of Star Wars?

There was a time about a year ago I might have said yes. Heck, I probably did say it right on these forums. But now, not so much. There are those who say we've reached "Peak Star Wars," due to the reasons you and others have stated. Too many books, fan fictions, spin offs, cartoons, games, etc etc.

I'm not sick of it, in fact, I'm looking forward to the new films. I wouldn't say I'm excited, just intrigued. The Star Wars setting in a good one, a damn good one. I approach in a way that compartmentalizes my various interests. If I want a good story that asks metaphysical/philosophical questions about the force, and what it means to be a Jedi, then I play KOTOR II. If I want to sit down and enjoy a spectacle, I watch the films. That's what I'm expecting from the new films. The Star Wars movies aren't deep or particularly smart films. Star Wars is not Star Trek, and doesn't want to be. I think if JJ can nail the spectacle and have a competent script, I'll enjoy the new movie. The thought of seeing gratuitous space combat with Star Destroyers and Tie Fighters, then seeing Stormtroopers again. Yeah, I could get into that.

And from what I've read from the supposed leaked script, it doesn't sound all that bad.

 

[The_Amazing_G]

I was born after Star Wars (in 89), so I never cared for it. When I got around to seeing the original trilogy I was not impressed, and I watched the prequels because other people did but they were terrible. I think its because I like characters more than setting, and the characters and interactions in Star Wars were just awful. Growing up on something like Buffy or Star Trek DS:9 and yes, even Voyager, when nothing really has to happen because the whole episode can be carried on the backs of character interactions and dialogue really coloured my world view of entertainment. It also led me to liking TV shows much more than movies, I like long arcs and slow story-telling.

I can understand that. Star Wars has pretty much always been more about setting than characters. Over the course of the entire series, many characters were just straight up boring, although plenty of exceptions come to mind, those being:
Han Solo, Princess Leia, both Obi-Wans and the original Darth Vader. Although in retrospect they were all given such depth by excellent performances of acting by Harrison Ford, Carrie Fischer, Ewan Mcgregor/Alec Guinness, and David Prowse, respectively. I am noticing now as I list them that almost all of them were in the original series, actually...

But getting back to my main point, Star Wars has always had it's depth and focus in the setting more than anything else. I've seen many worlds beyond that of Star Wars that just seem to be setting up the maximum amount of cool in it's respective universe as an investment before each individual person adds their artistic interpretations to the various persons, places and things. In my perception of Star Wars canon, this is the fleshing out of science-fiction limitations and abilities, such as futuristic weaponry, government/political settings, cool Force/ligthsaber stuff and whatnot, so it may be used in fan-fiction, comics and all the others. Another setting that comes to mind is The Inner Sea in Pathfinder. For those of you who don't know, it's a D&D-esk fantasy setting that covers all the bases: Pirates, witchcraft/wizardry(hee hee), hypothetical not-in-your-face advanced technology/aliens, Germanic fantasy combat and flavor, pretty much universal equal rights, elves dwarves etc, fight-for-rights-and/or-against-imperialistic-slavery-countries-to-feel-on-the-moral-high-ground, perpetual natural disasters, deserts and Egypt-like settings, tombs and loot, demons/angels, etc etc etc etc. Seriously, this is all in one setting(Inner Sea World Guide by Paizo). But I digress.

I think this may be why I see a lot of people saying "I like the Star Wars universe", instead of the less common "I like Star Wars in it's entirety" or "I like Star Wars characters".

As bad as the prequels supposedly were, I guess it can be said to have added a heavy amount of science fiction explanations of how Star Wars in supposed to work(space battles and weapons etc), although the level of advanced technology in the prequels when compared to the originals is a head-scratcher that has been mentioned plenty of times before. At the moment, the only personal qualm I can think of besides the obvious ones is the reinvention of The Force as distinctive super powers such as the force jump b***s*** and the like. It's kind of like the difference between the definition of magic IN THE BOOKS Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. In Harry Potter there are specific spells that pretty much everyone can learn and the power levels between characters are abundantly clear, such as Harry Potter vs. Dumbledore. Whereas Lord of the Rings had a very abstract view of magic that is not clearly defined and really only explains as much as is required to follow the plot, just like the original Star Wars movies with The Force. Personally, I prefer the latter.

 

[Delock]

I'm sick of HEARING about Star Wars, and this has been something that's been true ever since episode 3.
However, whenever I indulge in the new stuff, be it TOR, Clone Wars, or even an occasional book, I find the material easy to return to, fun, and often entertaining.

So I'm sick more of fans and those who hate it, especially when anything new comes out and it saturates every pore of the internet.

It's a fun universe that I prefer Mass Effect to for my Sci Fi epic with aliens need, but it's nice escapism that I like to indulge in every now and again. It's just a shame it's one of the face of Sci Fi or I'd be able to get the breaks from it that I need (hell, anytime another one of the big Sci Fi giants pops up, comparisons back to this come up, so there really is no downtime from Star Wars).

 

[beastro]

I've long ago felt this way along with Star Wars, but I was one that wasn't so upset about the Phantom Menace and the whining about it. By the time the next two came out I was more ready to sit and giggle at Hayden Christiansens acting than feel hurt that a great sci-fi franchise was being ruined.

Since the beginning of the last decade the only real Star Wars to draw my attention were the KOTOR games but that was mroe to do with gameplay than anything else, well, for the first one, the second I loved specifically because it criticized the core philosophical and religious themes of Star Wars and showed how futile and dreadful they were.

 

[CelestDaer]

Born in 81, pretty sure I only saw the 'original trilogy' in theaters when the Special editions came out, and even then, I just didn't care. Though, I'm pretty sure the first time I really became aware of how little I cared for the Star Wars universe was just after Episode 1, I think my mom made me go see it with her, and I was just so underwhelmed by it... I think it's to do with the extensive amount of reading necessary to enjoy this universe full of politics. That's basically the reason I know so little about the races in Mass Effect, as well. If the information wasn't force fed to me at some point in the series, I took no notice of it. Don't get me wrong, I love knowing random things about stuff I'm interested in, but Mass Effect didn't do that so much for me until I made an RP blog... and even then, I mostly just filled in the holes with educated guesses...

 

[Lieju]

Not really.

But I've never been particularly invested in Star Wars.
It was never my thing. As a kid I was more into Star Trek and LOTR and Lovecraft.

It's sort of background noise to me at this point.

 

[The_Amazing_G]

I've long ago felt this way along with Star Wars...

A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away?

 

[Oroboros]

I like Star Wars. I liked the two Kotor games, I liked the games with Kyle Katarn, I liked Jedi Academy, I thought the space fighter sims were snazzy, I liked Empire at War and Battlefront. There was a time where I loved everything Star Wars, and I still do like a lot of the older games and movies....but I'm not really happy with a lot of the current content, and not really interested in the new stuff on the horizon...so I guess I have mixed feelings. There are a couple of reasons for this, I feel:



Prequel Trilogy: I felt somewhat disappointed with the prequel movies, it just didn't seem to be as high quality and just didn't seem to synch well with the older movies. Some good content branched off of it in the forms of games etc that helped revitalize interest in the IP, but I certainly felt disappointed on some level.

Dropoff in games: pretty noticeable-the market used to have so much Star Wars games on it we were practically tripping over the content...but then it just seemed to dry up. No Battlefront 3, no Kotor 3, no Jedi Academy sequel, no more Rogue Squadron games, etc etc. Nothing really new in the way of Star Wars games except that silly motion detection game with the dancing minigame. Hard to remain excited when there really isn't much to be excited for.

The Old Republic: I loved Kotor and it's sequel. But the art direction, the handling of the main characters of the first two games, the retcons, and obvious cash-in undertones of turning a popular rpg franchise into a MMO. I thought that it was neat how KoTOR II managed to let players set the alignment and gender of the player from the first game in a non-immersion-breaking 2 minute conversation, in a game that didn't use import data. The way that ToR dealt with it- by fixing the player characters and game endings to a 'canon' appearance, gender, alignment, and playthrough irritated me to no end, not to mention how the plot of the game treated the characters themselves. I waited a long time to see where the journeys of the two PC's took them. Seeing how their journeys concluded felt like a kick In the nads.

JJ Abrams/Disney: I *hated* what Abrams did to the Trek series-his movies felt like a cobbled together skin of trek pop-culture references, memes and fanservice pulled over a generic formulaic action movie I have seen far too many of. there have been plenty of bad trek movies in the past, but the two he had a hand in felt both dumber and less 'trek' than even Nemesis, despite their slick production values. The fact that Abrams is making such a big deal about trying to stay true to the Original Trilogy makes me both irritated and worried. As I see it, the new movies will either treat the old 'wars' in a similar bull-in-a-china shop to how Trek was handled (blowing up both Vulcan and Romulus in the same movie, retconning Romulans into bald tattooed biker thugs etc) or it will be genuine and prove that JJ really didn't care about being true to Trek, and deliberately trampled all over it. Either way, it's hard (for me) not to feel a bit bitter and apprehensive about the franchise in general, particularly the movies.

TL;DR version: I wasn't overly fond of the prequels, I like the IP being in the hands of JJ and Disney even less, and my enthusiasm for the games was sapped by the TOR MMO and the general ongoing drought of Star Wars games. But I still freely enjoy many of the older Star Wars content.

 

[The_Amazing_G]

I didnt vote because your poll is heavily skewed towards the negative.

Well, that's fair, but it doesn't seem to be keeping people from representing the majority in the polls(currently 47.5% answered 'No', more than any other category). I don't feel that it's skewed towards a negative, per say; negative is taken by the view of the observer. E.G. people who like Star Wars may see criticism of it as "negative", and people who hate Star Wars may see praise of it as "negative", as least in theory. Not a hard and fast rule to be sure.

And besides, this thread IS designed to be attractive to those who feel the same way as I do, tired of it, because I wanted to know how many out there feel the same, not how many out there disagree with me. Hmmm... Let me rephrase that.

Seeing both sides of the issue is important to me, but if people who are tired of Star Wars see a thread about Star Wars, they are likely to avoid it because it wouldn't appeal to them(for obvious reasons). So I felt that it was more important to make the point of the thread clear in the title and polls; this is a thread about how people feel about Star Wars, not Star Wars itself.

Make sense?

 

[omega 616]

As a 25 year old, I have never rated any of the star wars films as any good. Even a lot of films that I would classify as "an okay way to kill a good chunk of time" are much better than this series, I rate all of the newest transformers films (haven't seen the newest one) and the expendables films above star wars.

It's just so very dull! It's called star wars and the fighting isn't very war like or exciting. Just the other day the one with darth maul was on and I watched a bit of it, I watched darth kill Liam Neeson and then get killed (not even decent fight choreography), I watched the gungan vs droid "war" which was more of a comedy scene, I watched Anakin destroy a huge space station with r2d2(?) beep booping at him (which again was a joke, as Anakin didn't really have a clue what was going on) and I also watched those dudes who look like the bosses from abes oddysee (the ones without arms) capture and then immediately lose Queen Padmé (or at least her decoy) and none of it was interesting, exciting, thrilling ... I would even go so far as to say barely entertaining.

I don't think any of the characters are that likable, I do like Maul (dies too soon) and Samuel Jackson is always a badass but everybody else is just kind of annoying ... Yoda is a god damn prick to be honest.

I get that the technology is a little old now and it is probably suffering from "it was the original but so many have done things like it since and improved on it, that the original now looks tired and over done" but I think there is a lot of rose tinted glasses.

On the other hand, even though I never played a lot of battlefront 2 ... I played enough to realize how great it is/was. Same applies to the KOTOR games, I have the second but I am suffering from pc-too-good-itus. The other games have seemed a bit generic, such as forced unleashed ... which is just a "hack-o, slash-o, button mash-o" 'em up with a star wars skin.

 

[Ratty]

Both yes and no. Sick of Star Wars in and of itself? No, not really, I think it's solid, if a bit weird, but it's a child of its age and thus a bit quirky. It's nice, it's solid and it has a certain appeal to it, in the kind of "I like Dungeons & Dragons, but now if only it was a more sci-fi-ish setting", which I most certainly subscribe to every now and then. My issue isn't with Star Wars... It's with everything surrounding Star Wars. I come from the Roleplaying community, which means that whenever you mention Science Fiction, everyone's head instantly goes "BING! Star Wars", which means that if I ever go to a convention and ask "Are there any science fiction scenarios?" I will instantly be told "There's Star Wars in room so-and-so" and I will hang my head dejectedly and sigh. So there. I don't mind Star Wars. I just don't like the fact that it has more or less codified everything Science Fiction within roleplaying

Which is sad cause it's not even really a sci-fi setting. It's space opera or "science fantasy". Unfortunate Star Wars has helped conflate the two genres in the popular imagination. Though that was probably inevitable to some degree. As the march of progress makes what was once scientifically plausible (like the hollow earth theory or intelligent life on mars) is now just pure fantasy given our advances in scientific knowledge since then.

 

[Ylla]

How can you be sick of it if you can just ignore it?
I havent even finished any trilogy.

 

[floppylobster]

I'm curious what others think of this. Are you as sick of Star Wars as I am? Do you care about the new movies coming out at all? When did you become disillusioned with Star Wars, and if not, what is powering your enthusiasm?

Although Empire and Jedi were released in the prime of my childhood I saw Star Wars at the cinema. I have grown up with it and always loved it. Though not all of it. Even as a kid I could tell the Ewoks were not as good as they could have been. And when I saw Phantom Menace I thought, "That was pretty bad". After seeing the entire new trilogy I actually look back on the Phantom Menace as at least being the most entertaining of those three. However, as you say, this is not about the movies as such.

And my answer is, no, I'm not sick of Star Wars. But I am very choosey about what Star Wars products I invest time or money in to.

I also liked Battlefront. I like it because it was a good game. And it was a Star Wars game. I played through Republic Commando and it was an average game, slightly elevated by being a Star Wars game. And I returned Galactic Battlegrounds for a refund, because it was a terrible game. Who cares if it's Star Wars. My point is you have to choose what you're interested in. Choose what interests you, and recognize, in the over-saturated Star Wars market, what is worth your time and what is ruining your enjoyment of the franchise.

This is why I don't watch Revenge of the Sith. It makes me hate Star Wars. This is why I don't play Galactic Battlegrounds. It makes me hate Star Wars. This is why I play Rogue Squadron (Gamecube), it makes me love Star Wars. Battlefront and Battlefront II actually enhanced my enjoyment of Phantom Menace because I gained an appreciation for the vehicle and location designs.

I skip all the extra stuff that bloats the universe and saps my enjoyment of it. I'm weary of the new films because I find J.J. Abrams to be a very shallow director. Somewhat without 'heart', although entertaining to the masses, his movies never connect with me emotionally. And worry that he is getting to cast the next three movies despite who takes over. But my eventual enjoyment of Phantom Menace has taught me that at least there might be some good games coming out, or some good ship designs that I will enjoy, and that you don't have to like every part of something to like it.

My advice to you is just take a break. I took a big break from it when I was in my twenties. I remember not going to see the new Indiana Jones film because I thought I was too grown up for it. Eventually I passed through that phase and now I own some Star Wars Lego and don't care how grown up I appear. I just seek out things I enjoy.

Weirdly enough, many years ago I was babysitting this kid when I realized he had no idea who Yoda or Darth Vader was. And it was in showing him those movies that I found my love of Star Wars again.

 

[Holythirteen]

Sick of star wars? Sick of anything specific?

I know very little of star wars since the prequel movies and that there was a second MMO at one point, I don't seek out any information on the intellectual property, and everybody in my life cares even less than I do. The only news that came to me down the grapevine was that disney bought the movies, and EA bought the games, 'nuff said. I expect more mediocrity from disney, and I expect the usual garbage from EA. (TBH I don't even know how SWTOR turned out, but I can guess... and it starts with the letter M, which is also what I expect from any MMO)

If you're sick of star wars, stop talking about it, and stop looking up information on it, and you can be happy and ignorant like me.

(Unless something came out on tv that you just can't block out for some reason, I wouldn't know, I don't have cable. But that's what tv guides and commercial skip are for bro)