bb8

BB-series astromech droid

“Bweep bwoop.”


I tried to write a thing about that Starcruiser video that's going around, but I just don't have it in me. I can't even watch it, and not because its bad or anything, it just makes me lonely. Which is a weird reaction to four hour video about a closed theme park attraction I never visited by a person I don't know. Its even not really about the video, it's about the pages and pages of exultant or hostile reactions to that video that just leave me feeling adrift. And I recognize this is all in my head. I don't know.

I think it makes me lonely because I just... there's a mode of being a Star Wars fan that is very, very popular, and very, very different than how I operate. And I'm really glad if you vibe with it! You have a big, happy, strong community out there that shares opinions and doesn't, I dunno, whatever

There's more to my life than Star Wars, but it pops up in other places too. In my religion, in my politics-- I don't know, do you ever feel this? In my family, even, sometimes. That, like, 90% match with something, that just makes that 10% discontinuity feel insurmountable and vast. Sometimes I think the loneliest place is after you find your community, not before.

I'm probably still in a pretty depressive episode from my dad dying, too, so there's that in the mix, I don't know.

I really don't know, internet Star Wars blog. I really don't know, complete internet strangers who follow me. You ever feel lonely in this? You ever feel close to the thing, and then a comment or a take or something makes it apparent just how outside of it you actually are?

I don't know if that's a parasocial delusion on my part. I suppose it is, actually, it's not like I'm actually in conversation with anyone. Nothing's disrupted, actually, there aren't any actual relationships to disrupt in the first place. It's a feeling that I don't belong, not a fact that I don't belong. I don't have enough connection to a community to be in contention with that community, any community, even Star Wars, and its literally all that this thing is. That's odd and sad in its own right.

I don't know what to do with this! I guess just keep writing things for myself, that's all I can do. I don't know. I hope we all like Acolyte. I hope I get to be in the fold for that one. We'll find out when we get there.


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in reply to @bb8's post:

I love you, orb-droid.

(sidenote, the Star Wars channel on the Waypoint discord is a pretty fun place to hang and have interesting discussions about the space wizard stories. Come join us there if you haven't)

That Starcruiser video has gotten some traction, huh? I haven't watched it yet, either...I think AMCA's coverage of their time with it was pretty much sufficient for me in terms of wrapping my head around what it was.

It also seems like the conversation around that video might be about something other than the content of that video. I don't know, and I just don't have the energy for it.

That overlap of Star Wars, religion and politics and that 10% gap is a core thing I feel like I relate to. I am a leftist in a sea of right-leaning people whether I'm at work or with my family. A couple of my co-workers are big Star Wars fans, and every time we have a conversation about it (which essentially is a conversation about politics inherently) I feel like we're on the cusp of a breakthrough and then, inevitably, they say something that makes it perfectly clear we are not thinking on the same wavelength at all. Makes my heart sink every time.

yeah, Acolyte looks sick. I just went through all the trailers and clips and it looks like it actually is what I thought it would be, which has me excited!

Thanks, BB

A few months ago I was waiting outside a Mediterranean restaurant with my friends and my friend's friends for a birthday reservation. A Ford F-150 with a F**K BIDEN sticker on the back parked next to us and somehow or another the conversation turned from addressing politics into a diatribe about how the Sequels Sucked(tm), which led to another party member saying that actually the Prequels Also Sucked(c). I, the one who opens Wookieepedia nearly every day and the only member with a writing degree, had to politely smile my way through the stranger's ritual until the minds drifted elsewhere. Haha, we all have Star Wars opinions, right? This is what Reddit confirmed, right? This is what they said on Red Letter Media, right? It was humbling.