I got a new tattoo on Saturday. The design isn’t exactly how I had originally planned it, but I’m pretty happy with it.

Star Wars had a pretty huge impact on my life. When I was a kid we didn’t really get to watch a lot of TV or movies. But my dad had copies of the three original movies on VHS recorded and I watched them whenever I got the chance. I probably only sat all the way through all of the films a few times each, but I watched enough random clips whenever possible that I had all of them memorized. When the special edition of Star Wars came out, my dad took us to see Return of the Jedi in theaters, which was something that I never thought I’d be able to experience. We bought the three pack VHS for him for his birthday that year, and it was pretty awesome getting to see the movies in non-crappy recorded from cable quality (blu ray wasn’t even a twinkle in our eyes yet).

I used to go to the local library at least once a week, which is where I discovered the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Up until that point I had been mostly reading Hardy Boys books, but the Star Wars books opened up a whole new universe to me. The idea that there were new characters and stories after (and before) the movies thrilled me beyond belief. The backstories to the minor characters gave the movies a whole new life for me. It was these books that kept me reading, and gave me a love for books.

Once I made my way through as many Star Wars books as I could find, I started looking for other sci fi books. That’s when I discovered Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, anything with space and/or the future. It took me a while, but I started to learn the difference between science fiction and science fantasy. When I learned that people like Asimov and Clarke weren’t just writers, but actually scientists I gained a whole new respect for their work. It was that understanding that made me want to be more than just a writer, or a reader, but actually learn about science, too. That’s why I want to be an engineer.

Science fiction isn’t just about telling stories. It gives us a glimpse into the future, into some of the endless possibilities that we face ahead of us. It gives birth to ideas of technologies that we might not have dreamed of otherwise. The stories help us see problems and issues that we might never have considered otherwise. And hopefully they can help other kids want to not just see a brighter, better, more technologically awesome future, but help bring it about.

But enough of that sentimental talk, back to Star Wars. I let it get tainted for me a bit in the past decade or so ago. When the prequels were announced, I was through the roof. I still lived upstate and we were 45 minutes away from the nearest movie theater, but my big sister Laura was kind enough to drive me there to see it. I was 11 when it came out, and I loved it. That was also about the same time that Lego Star Wars started to exist, which was a combination of my two favorite things in the world, so what was not to love?

During that time, I didn’t think about continuity errors, or how annoying Jar Jar Binks was. It wasn’t until I met adult fans of the series that I started to hear all the angry views about the prequels. How the timelines didn’t add up, how things didn’t line up with the expanded universe, how George Lucas had turned his back on his fans to just make money. And I bought into the toxicity. I still watched all the movies (multiple times), of course, but now there was this seed of unhappiness planted deep inside me whenever anything Star Wars came up. I stopped reading the EU, I stopped caring about it.

It wasn’t until maybe a year or two ago that I realized I didn’t have to be mad at George Lucas or at Star Wars. Maybe he didn’t make the best movies possible, or the most consistent movies possible, but he made beautiful films that let me see that universe that I once loved so much. And he made great children’s films, which is what he aimed to do. And if everything didn’t line up with whatever other Star Wars stories there were in other mediums, that’s okay. How many times have Marvel or DC rebooted, rebranded, killed off characters, brought them back to life, or whatever?

Maybe George didn’t always handle it the best when confronted with these issues. But he did finally let it go. He gave Star Wars to Disney, who has done a fantastic job with Marvel. And he donated the $4.1 billion he got for it to charity. And I’m starting to feel excited for Star Wars again. I think that the new movies will be incredibly entertaining, and I know that the visuals will be top notch and allow me to see this beautiful, exotic universe that I fell in love with years ago. I’m excited for my nephews and nieces to grow up in a world with new Star Wars movies coming out, new lightsaber duels, new space battles, new revelations of who is whose father. It’s going to be awesome.

I only wish that I could get back the years I gave to the naysayers. So I say this to all the haters of things out there. Stop being grumpy! If you don’t like something, let it go! Don’t tell impressionable kids that this version of Star Wars, or Star Trek, or Marvel, or DC, or Doctor Who, or BattleStar Galactica, or whatever is terrible, and worthless, and wrong. Because while you might feel like the creators of these new versions of things are ruining your childhood, they’re not. Your childhood already happened, you’re just ruining someone else’s by not allowing them to make decisions for themselves and maybe just enjoying what’s in front of them.

And, yeah, it’s the internet and everyone loves having their soapbox, so I’ll get off mine after one final statement:

Don’t be a dick.

To lighten the mood, here are some of my favorite things:

A gift from Joyce on our first married Christmas!

I also have an X-Wing, but it’s in pieces somewhere…