It's been 20 years since Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace hit theaters. I remember growing up with Star Wars baked deep in pop culture. You couldn't escape it. It was part of the background noise, a membrane covering society that couldn't be avoided. While the original films were good in their own right, they were never allowed to stand alone.
Fans, by the truckload, began writing, drawing, and composing. Eventually Lucas caved and the entire EU was born as dozens of authors began filling in the gaps, telling more and more stories. You could find technical manuals for all the spaceships, weapons, planets, aliens, that were in the movies, then in the books. It fed itself. At that point, Star Wars was a living thing.
That's why Phantom Menace wasn't very well received. It didn't blend well with the established dogma. It had a very different feel to it. I actually thought it was a decent movie by itself. (Including Jar Jar - we needed a village idiot, deal with it) But the fact that the movie didn't mesh well with the fandom was exactly the problem.
The background noise that was Star Wars just felt different. A part of my childhood felt almost unrecognizable. But that was to be expected. Nothing lives up to 20 years of hype.
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