What makes Star Wars different from other franchises goes to the heart of sci-fi nerd psychology. Though nerd culture is more mainstream now than it was 40 years ago, there's still a negative connotation with being a "nerd" -- particularly when it comes to sci-fi. It's still perceived as more "normal" to go to an NFL game than it is to a sci-fi convention. Sci-fi has a long history of being a niche genre, and some of us grew up either being closeted about our sci-fi interests or indifferent to the taunts and teasing from others. When Star Wars came around, however, it became a hit not only with the usual sci-fi nerds, but with the "normals" as well. That's a big part of what makes it great. Here was a movie that we could enjoy as part of the larger "normal" culture. "Hey, the jocks like this movie too!" Star Wars made us all feel cool! Which is why, then, some fans feel threatened when Star Wars suddenly isn't cool. Ewoks. Not cool. The prequels. Not cool. Jar Jar. REALLY not cool. Were any of those things subjectively worse than anything we watched in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, Star Trek or any other sci-fi we loved? Hell no. But because they were in Star Wars -- this awesome franchise that made us feel we finally had a seat at the cool kids table -- it became uncomfortable. Did these things really ruin Star Wars, or did they ruin the happy glow of acceptance we felt from others about Star Wars? To me, that's the fundamental source of Star Wars fan conflict. In order to feel validated -- that Star Wars is still cool and, by association, WE are still cool -- these less cool things must be invalidated, even destroyed. The prequels must be shunned. Jar Jar MUST be ridiculed. George Lucas, because he allowed these things to happen and made us feel threatened, must be exiled from his own work and history rewritten to suggest he wasn't even responsible for any of the cool things to begin with. It's a heresy, we're told, for George Lucas to alter his own films even though he made and paid for them. It's perfectly acceptable, however, (and certainly not hypocrisy) when some fan alters and distributes them because he's erasing the flaws and restoring "cool" to them. It's a crime against cinema history if even a frame is changed on the originals, but if Jar Jar were edited out of the franchise, well, history will survive. Because it feels good to be cool. It feels good to be accepted. 'Oh, do you find this one part over here to be not cool? Here, I'll destroy it for you. There. I killed Jar Jar. That felt good. See? All cool again. Like me. I'm one of you."
