*Countdown To Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker*

[YoshioCheveyo]

At age 20 i've seen Star Wars IV the first time. - It was a blast. The first time serious 'action' and Space Si-Fi with Dolby and Colors. An awesome experience.
Disenchanted by the mostly SI-FI movie crap of the 70th i'd never watched it. All the actors? Who know's a shit about? lol No wait, Sir Alec Guinness! This actor is great, let's get in.
He made it. It's my Obi Wan by heart but the movie would be still great without him. /bow

Star Wars IV and V were realessed. I've been shocked about Luke. This man was an facial mutation.

The twins where just born as i played X-Wing vs Tie Fighter on zone.com via modem. Multiplayerbattles with 50-100 people all day. Loved it. One more great new experience.

Pondered about the announced Episode I. Never thought this might be happened. Whatever. Great pics, wonderful special effects, but i can't stand this Anakin. Kid or teen. Can't stand it.
Never got much thoughts about it cause the twins where just a greater game to pla...live with. :D

The SWG mmog was published. I read about Dancers and Medics and all this 'useless kiddy' stuff. My Mind! No Space!! I've laughed about and ignored it. (Shame on me. Missed great times) but still got a better game to play.

I've joined SWG Galaxies around 8 weeks before NGE. JTl was already released so i'd minded to join.
No kidding. Never got any thoughts about what an mmog is. And this is what it's mean?! I've been stuned. It was an awesome experience. The way to and got the NGE was an depressing experience. So many good folks left. For me, the NGE was a great experience i loved more than pre nge. More dynamic. But we lost so much good people and leaders. Sad.

Twins grew up. Nice game. SWG along. Great game for years. Lot's of new friends. Lot's of new haters. Just like real live.

Servermerge. For long time requiered. Gorath and lot's of more servers dying day by day. Why? I'll never understand.
People, friends, haters spread all over the servers. Me just went to Starsider. WoW. Starsider! Guys! You've never been there? You'll never know about it. SS was the greatest SWG experience.

Shutdown. One more depression all over the community. So sad. You loose in community, you win in community. We all get closer. At least I've deinstalled all the crap. Hated all about the losts. Lost forever! Never expected to get back.

Now! Here we are again. <3
It's a different community. It's a more discord than gamechat game, so people don't talk. Heroics got to get right in time. The faster the better. Don't talk about fun or laughter. The good guys gone, mostly. You! Don't take it personal. You're good.

Spread the word. SWG Galaxies is back. Better than ever. I love the staff. Sitting here and pondering every day about these young guys grew up all this new stuff - from nothing. We're Omega. The live game was Omega!

Greatly new experience. I'd never thought about coming back. I hear the Tie about Eisley again. For me it's all emotional, immersion. Follow...

For me today, SWG Galaxies is what Harry Potter is for my twins. Growing up all time always fictional friends beside. The Skywalker saga? It's A lifetime thingy. <3

PS. The movies...? Them all accompaniment...

And please don't talk about it's the last movie. Hah. It's a trap. It's a millionbilliondollargame. We just have to wait one more ten years.

PSS. I don't want a reward. Just kidding. No bothering. I don't speak or read english well, you see? :D

Last but not least. A movie, german talking only, made by Raas Kaaz and the Gorath German RP Community. Have fun. We make the game a dream.

https://youtu.be/avvfcALY_GQ

[Barunda]

Swg means the world to me. I am disabled and have a hard time going out into the real world. SWG gives me back adventure and alows me to do things I that can no longer do. Meeting new people and doing new things what more could anyone ask for.

[StealthySynth]

The star wars saga to me is multiple things. Its entertainment...a escape from reality! It has gave me different perspectives on life and how we treat and interact with others.

[Vinsable]

Star Wars, for me, is much like the Wizard of Oz, an Allegory. Its an Allegory of Politics & such; the Anti-Nixon Agenda, Anti-Bush Junior Agenda, and now an Anti-Trump Agenda, so it seems.
However, its MORE. Its also a Guide for me to Control myself & my Autism & such. Its teaching more about General Morality than just Political Views & such. And most, if not ALL Allegories are Mirrors of our own Reality & such.

[Vayman]

A journey beyond what is thought possible.

That is what the Skywalker saga has given me. Now as I near the end, I reflect on how the tale began and to where it took me.

I first met Luke as a simple farm boy who was spent his long days on trivial tasks for his aunt and uncle. What I could not discern was that his simple life was a shelter from his destiny. He perceived it as a cage keeping him from his dreams. And so the long days under the hot suns burned.

Even when destiny called upon him for action, he resisted. When confusing half-truths were presented to him - about who he was; what he might become - he resigned himself to the cage his family built for him.

But the evil of the galaxy shattered that cage.

I saw the look on Luke's face as he stared through the smoke at the burning corpses of Lars and Beru. They had sheltered him from an unspoken destiny. Too late, he understood that they did this for love. They had made a terrible choice for him; one that cost them their lives.

Luke embraced his destiny that day; driven into it by the very evil which he was destined to confront.

I saw the look on Luke's face. It spoke of the doom of the Empire.

Luke always set his eyes on the horizon and on the stars beyond. Unshackled, he could take his feet to meet his gaze. I traveled with him.

Through Luke's first steps into a larger world, I followed. His failures were my own. His triumphs felt all the sweeter for his tribulations. Luke had much to learn and unlearn; and so did I. This was a place where you had to let go of preconceived notions. A world where the sins of the father could be rinsed away by the love of forgiveness. A galaxy where technological domination was no match for the heart of righteousness.

I thought I met Luke as a simple farm boy on the verge of a heroic destiny. But what I really met was a guide for a galaxy that has inspired a lifetime of imagination in a galaxy I thought was not possible.

But nothing is impossible.

Never tell me the odds.

[JerroVD]

I'm not entirely sure how cohesively I can gather my thoughts on what Star Wars has meant to me, as it's been a major part of my life since I was just a kid.

For almost two decades I've loved Star Wars as a story and as a type of culture I guess. Always sort of valued it and the way it made me feel. I'd say that since I saw the original movies I wasn't just interested in a series of films, it was almost a whole new world. I remember in some of my younger years spending hours and hours talking and reading about it all, online and offline. (Granted, I've mostly forgotten it since, but I remember my feelings more so than any Star Wars facts I can throw out.)

Since 2015 I've been sort of on a downward trend with it, due to not personally enjoying some of the direction the movies have taken, however regardless of that, what I hope for the most from Star Wars moving forward, is to continue to have a world of it's own unlike any other. That's why I loved it in the first place, and I want it to keep giving people what it always has managed to do.

(Side note, I understand this is my first and so far only post after having an account for over a year, but I thought this would be a topic fairly important to me so I just wanted to share my thoughts.)

[doomrider]

I love Star Wars because it is a uniquely American story of failing upward, and of things being much worse than they seem. we first meed Darth Vader and he is portrayed as an unstoppable badass evil space wizard. he takes over a ship, slaughters a bunch of rebels, choke slams a dude to death, and captures the princess. this seem to be falling into place for him. However, everything else that happens completely undermines the idea that he is even competent at his job. First, the princess hides the secret plans inside a robot that looks like a trashcan, and he escapes with another robot that seems to have an anxiety disorder. whats worse, is that the princess is his daughter and the robots used to be his. they escape to the planet right below them, which is where vader grew up and also where his old boss and his OTHER KID happen to have been hiding for the last 20 years. his kid and his old boss team up and fly to his secret base in outer space and manage to steal his daughter right from under his wheezing plastic nose. THEN his kid comes back to blow up the space station and Vader gets blasted out of the fight by a drug dealing ex employee of his.

when next we see him, he has chased the rebels to snowtown and he launches a huge assault on their igloo base... and they escape again. even when the drug dealer's spaceship breaks down in an asteroid field, vader still can't capture him and they escape. then he lures them to cloud city and makes a whole huge dinner that nobody even eats because he arrests everybody. pretty sure he can't even eat with that hat on anyway. incredibly, his kid shows up and walks right into his clutches but instead of having a father/son chat, they have a lazer sword fight and he chops his kid's hand off. AND HIS KID STILL ESCAPES! WTF!

by ROTJ vader pretty much has been demoted to a construction foreman on the replacement space station for the one he let get destroyed and does nothing but yell at his employees and wait for his kid to show up again. This time, he loses to his kid in single combat, fails to get him to join him and gets his own hand chopped off (more on that later). left with nobody on his side except his boss, he then decides to KILL HIS BOSS to save the kid. i mean i guess that's kind of noble but too little too late IMO. the guy is a shitty father. then he dies.

the prequels promised to fill in his backstory and we all expected to see anakin/vader doing all kinds of badass space wizard shit. but instead the first thing we get is 2+ hours of darth vader as the most annoying kid in the universe. the next one isn't much better as he basically just becomes an emo teenager and gets his hand cut off (JFC). by the time ep3 rolls around you are ready for him to be vader, finally we will get to see him do some badass space wizard shit. hoo boy, we were not expecting what comes next. he gets a new job working for the top evil space wizard and proceeds to have the WORST first day on the job of all time. First, he murders his own boss. then he goes and does a SCHOOL MASSACRE. then he goes to lavatown and murders a bunch of businessmen, chokes out his wife, and gets all of his remaining arms and legs chopped off in a fight with his old boss. on top of that, his old boss takes his lazer sword and watches him burn in the lava like a marshmallow. his new boss saves his ass from the lava and puts him in a frankenstein suit and tells him his kids are dead, which i guess as the supposedly most powerful or 2nd most powerful space wizard of all time he doesn't figure out is not true for like 20 years. darth vader SUCKS and his kids aren't much better tbh.

[Rasdro]

Star Wars in short gives me Happiness, hope, and fight on. As strangely has it's read. I always get this biggest grin on my face when I start seeing "In a galaxy far far away..." Watching the movies and shows I always look out and see the backgrounds and seeing the different characters always say to myself, "Look at all these characters and each having their individual stories." Only franchise I do that to. I don't really know why either. I suppose I feel invested into it giving practically all my attention to since I saw Luke destroy the death star many years ago. Now today I can experience that with rewatching shows, comics, video games, and books. Its crazy I can now read about these stories or roleplay with it in video games and learn more about lore with all these medians. I was loving the star wars short stories as well. Rogue one seeing them get the plans to the death star. I was on edge of my seat with that movie. Deep down I hope Star Wars doesn't "end". I hope its the beginning we get to explore more stories and more adventures. I will miss the Skywalker legacy its been apart of our lives for very long time and seeing the story gives so much hope I've very excited about the closure of Skywalker legacy. Seeing how Ani fulfills his Destiney. Gives me grin just to write this up and shivers might I add!

May the force be with you!

[Rinlul]

The first time I ever remember watching a movie was laying on my stomach, seeing the speeder bikes race through Endor. Ever since then 90% of my "fiction" consumption has been within the Star Wars universe, a rich aethstetic that is so easy to see yourself in.

I don't think that was an accident, from the banal aspects of the lived-in universe where most things (and people) are a bit rough around the edges to the Earthbound reflections of what inspires us and what oppresses us. Star Trek seems like a franchise about where we could be without injustice, trying to imagine a universe beyond it. Star Wars has always been relevant to the current injustices in the world. We feel the feelings of the characters so deeply: their pain, their fear, their hopelessness.

We feel it because those characters tap into what is already inside us. Every day, whether we can name it or not, our hearts are h e a v y with the Dark Side we see around us. From greed and "trade disputes" to an Empire expanding it's grip over our world: stealing away what's sacred, imprisoning and enslaving us to work in service of the Dark Side, and threatening us with superweapons if we resist.

But we feel more than the characters fear. We share their starry-eyed gaze into the sunset(s) as we contemplate a universe more vast than we could ever understand. We have an amazing array of differences in culture and language that could be exploited by fear-mongering, but they more likely come together in a wild and funky richness like at Maz Kanata's watering hole. And we feel their Hope, however desperate or inexplicable, that there might be a chance to fight back against the Dark Side. Maybe against all odds there is a tiny spark, maybe in the heart of some random farmhand from a backwater place, that sends echoes through the Force and becomes a myth that inspires future generations of Resistance.

We also feel their failure, which I'm not including in the paragraph of bad things. What Yoda said to Luke in The Last Jedi was one of the most important things that we all needed to hear. The Rebellion didn't win in the Empire Strikes Back. We don't win them all and that's totally expected. Whether we say the wrong thing to a friend or we make a bigger mistake that sets us back years, those failures are still SO valuable. We learned what not to do, and as long as we don't find ourselves discouraged, isolating ourselves on top of some Porg-infested island on a water world, we can pass on the wisdom that comes from those failures so that others can turn our intentions into something far greater and more magnificent than anything we could ever imagine. I have a feeling the next generation of how we relate to the Force after the passing of Luke and Leia is going to blow our minds.

And even if we don't feel the sense of destiny that maybe Luke Skywalker felt, he didn't stop the Empire himself. Long before he joined the fight, there were countless people who brought what they had to help fight for a better future. People maintaining the Y-Wings, healing the sick, cleaning the floors, and taking care of the children. You can't save a galaxy with just a lightsaber, and maybe we don't all get a trilogy of trilogies that carries our name. But it's still OUR story, and it can't exist without us.

In summary, Star Wars rules and Star Trek dr00ls.

Rinlul Orlanol

[Marahiafew]

Summarizing my past 35 years or so, of following the Skywalkers is not an easy task. In the late 70’s I can remember being in diapers, flashlight in hand fighting an on-screen Darth Vader, watching A New Hope on my Mom’s beta-max. I think I wore it out… over and over. I remember touring the Death Star in my imagination, jumping from couch to coffee table. That universe was so real to me then. That was my first brush with mortality, seeing Ben cut down and what happened next formed the basis for my understanding of death, and that the ending is ok, because we never really end.
That first taste of a dogfight in space… cardboard boxes strewn all over the living room, the cockpits drawn, TIEs on my tail… Ben’s voice… “Use the Force” is there anything more iconic?

Empire let me adventure to meet Yoda, and see just what this ‘Force’ is all about. I got to face Vader by Luke’s side in a real test of skill, and though we lost we learned who he was and what he might have in store. There was so much going on in my life at the age I wore out those VHS tapes, so many deeply personal things that the Galaxy Far Far Away, helped me cope. Luke and Han, and yes even the princess, were always there.
My love of creating things stemmed in large part from featurettes of Lucas and the ILM team’s behind the scenes footage. His talks taught me not to limit myself by what has been done, but to imagine something and make it happen, even if it has never been done before.

Return of the Jedi… I could go on and on with how much I just thrilled at the scenery, the combat, the story. For me, those three movies were a masterpiece and at that time I was finally getting to see all these people I had grown up with, adventured with, made up stories in my imagination about, coming together to finish the tale.

Years later, older and supposedly wiser, I got to see the origins of all I had grown up with. The first three episodes! I know many of us older fans were disappointed. But for me, it was back into the fray. I got to watch these movies with my younger siblings who were getting to see and enjoy Star Wars for the first time on their own footing. Despite how I might have felt about them at the time, these were Lucas’s visions of the past finally realized, and for that, to him I will always be grateful.

To date? I have not been a huge fan of the newer movies. I personally don’t feel they have done the original series justice. However, I can appreciate that the new generation is in love with them and that alone makes them worthy. A new generation of fans to marvel at this universe, to find their own sanctuary in the Skywalker Saga, with problems that face this new generation apparent in the storyline.

In all, the Saga has touched my life in such a profound way. So much so that my fitness and hobbies are based on Jedi and their practices. I am a member of a local Jedi order, and let me tell you it is not fun and games. It’s hard work to stay in line, and in shape. To keep up with the meditations and try to remain positive and diplomatic.
Outside of hobbies, my work is based on the practices of Lucas himself and the way he creates. I don’t approach a project just looking at how someone else did it, or what is available to me, but how I can create what I imagine, no matter how far out it might be. The stars are the limit.

A huge thank you to George Lucas, for all his creative endeavors, and especially the Star Wars universe, and yes, a thanks has to be given to Disney for continuing the story.

May the Force be with you.
Always.

Apprentice Alastor
The Last Council Saber Academy
(aka Carlos Rodriguez)