You had me at "SWIQ".
Seth,
SWIQ is a term I coined, which encompasses both a person's factual knowledge about Star Wars (e.g. Bothans died stealing the plans to the second Death Star, not the first), and a person's judgement about what made Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back--the two masterpieces in the franchise--well, masterpieces.
The only thing necessary for you to embrace the concept of SWIQ, is a general belief in the existence of absolutes, and a specific belief that there exists an absolute standard of excellence in Star Wars filmmaking: the theatrical cut of Star Wars, and the theatrical cut of ESB.
A person with a high SWIQ knows when something does belong in Star Wars movie, and when something doesn't belong in a Star Wars movie. A person with a low SWIQ will not be able to make those judgements correctly.
To make a good Star Wars movie, the filmmaker must have a high SWIQ, or else the film will contain all sorts of things that make a high-SWIQ viewer cringe and think, "This is not Star Wars". And if the filmmaker does not have a high SWIQ, a high-SWIQ viewer will come out of the theater disappointed, and thinking, "WTF? Why didn't they do this instead of that? And God, that scene would've been so much more moving if there had been better music behind it.".
But a low-SWIQ viewer won't ever know that a Star Wars movie was made by a low-SWIQ filmmaker, because that viewer will not be offended by the things that are there and don't belong; and because that viewer will not even notice the good things that are (conspicuously) missing from the film.
There is no actual numeric values for someone's SWIQ. That would be impossible to standardize. SWIQ is merely a matter of degree: high SWIQ, medium SWIQ, or low SWIQ.
Now, every fanboy, who knows a lot about Star Wars, and has strong opinions about Star Wars, should believe that he possesses a high SWIQ. But because there is an absolute standard of what does and does not belong in a Star Wars movie, he may be right, or he may be wrong. I know that I have a high SWIQ. You should also be confident that you have a high SWIQ. But if you and I disagree *a lot* on the movies that came after ANH and ESB, then one of us is right, and one of us is wrong. One of us has a high SWIQ, and one of us has a low SWIQ.
To put it in practical terms for you, let's say you were hired by Disney to direct a Star Wars movie--an Obi-Wan Kenobi standalone film, set in the years between ROTS and ANH. Disney tells you to hire the writer, the cinematographer, the chief VFX artist, the chief make-up artist, the chief editor, the music composer, etc. You are confident that you possess a high SWIQ, but you know that you cannot do everything, and that you must rely on these other people to make the film. You're gonna wanna hire people to head up those departments who you deem to also have a high SWIQ.
Like when you're interviewing a writer for the job, what are you gonna do? You're gonna talk to him about all the Star Wars movies, and ask him what he likes, dislikes, etc. If you hate Jar Jar, but he says Jar Jar is his all-time favorite Star Wars character, you're gonna give him the bum's rush out the door, right? Of course you will. Because the guy's an idiot. With an abysmally low SWIQ. If another writer candidate professes his love for the Special Editions, and thinks it was very progressive and awesome for George to change the original film so that Han didn't shoot Greedo until he was fired upon first, you'd say thanks, but no thanks.
I didn't create SWIQ. It's existed since that magical summer of '77. I only named it. And I did so, because I felt the need for a word (or short phrase or acronym), to describe how in touch an individual is with true Star Wars. Not just how many facts they know, but how much the 'get it'. How much they understand what makes those first two films masterpieces. What makes them magical. What makes them...Star Wars. And what makes these new episodes ring true, or ring false, when measured against those absolute standards of Star Wars excellence.
The Wook