Why I LOVE Star Wars

Wednesday, December 23, 2015


Friday, December 18, 2015 was a great day for many, many reasons...one of them being the fact that "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was released to the masses.

And it was magical.

If you told me a year ago that this year, I would have finished all of the Star Wars movies by the time the newest one came out, I would have laughed. It took me forever just to watch Episode IV and half of Episode V in college, so I couldn't imagine finishing the rest of the series. But then, I had some great friends who convinced me to take part in a series of weekly Star Wars parties to finish the series by the new movie's release date.

And when December 18 rolled around, I discovered that I absolutely loved this franchise.

It's not that I didn't love it before. In fact, I loved the original trilogy (my favorite is a toss-up between "A New Hope" and "Empire Strikes Back"). And even the prequels were fun to pick apart and watch for the sake of getting a certain baddie's backstory.

But it was the release of the newest movie in the series that really got me excited about the franchise as a whole. I hadn't had so much fun at the theater since the Harry Potter films. I laughed. I teared up. I reveled in the nostalgia. And most of all, I was completely and fully invested in a well-crafted story that just so happened to be decades in the making.


So, why do I LOVE Star Wars? Well, I could say the special effects, the characters, the settings, or the plot at large, to name some things off the top of my head.

But the truth is, I love Star Wars because it's a crystal-clear-cut battle between good and evil.

Let me explain.

With any of the movies, there's a Light Side and a Dark Side. There are no good guys on the Dark Side, nor are there any bad guys in the Light Side. If they walk amongst their counterparts, they are either undercover or conflicted, but they still profess to be with either side. Nobody is morally ambiguous here, and there's definitely no fence-straddling. In fact, when a character is trying to be good or reinvent themselves, they immediately associate themselves with the Light Side/Resistance/Rebels as opposed to the Dark Side/Empire/First Order. And if a bad character is torn between the two, they will fight their hardest to remain on the Dark Side.

Sure, the bad guys have the cooler weapons (see Darth Maul's dual-lightsaber or Kylo Ren's sword-like lightsaber complete with a hilt), but the good guys are usually better at aiming (see anyone vs. a Stormtrooper) and - even better - they win in the end. Even when things seem bleak, the good team is the winning team.

I really think that this applies to faith. Sure, people who behave wickedly may seem to have it all, but really, if you trust in God in all things and rely on Him even when times get dark, walking in the light will be far better in the end, and the victory will belong to those who trust fully in God, obey His commands, and live faithfully for Him.


And that, my friends, is why I love Star Wars. Well, that, and the adorable droids. :)