I’ve been a Star Wars fan forever (duh), and I’ve come to realize a few things about fandom lately.

As a kid there were the first three movies to keep me entertained. And, of course, plenty of marketed stuff outside of that. Cartoons, the Ewok movies, toys out the ass, blah blah. It did fine. By the time I outgrew the non-Movie stuff, I was surprised to learn there were books. Timothy Zahn’s “Heir to the Empire” came out at just the right moment to feed my voracious appetite for books. I’ve not stopped reading the things since.

But as the first wave of books started to go bad (which in the end prompted Lucasfilm to dump their publisher and begin a far more structured series… which was also far more interesting and successful), word of the prequels began. Glee! This would sate my hunger for something meatier to feed my fandom. And they did, to be sure. They were cool. Only in retrospect have I realized how bad they were. Still cool, though.

After Episode 3 launched (in fact, immediately after viewing it) I felt adrift. Where was there to go from here? Sure there was talk of more TV stuff, and there’d be more novels, but the story I was really interested in was done with. That was it.

I needed something new to keep my interest going. It had been a part of my life for far too long. I really couldn’t comprehend cutting that loose. And towards the end of 2005, I gravitated towards the 501st. Costuming! That was something new.

And so we joined up. It was fun for a while. Good friends, good fun, a load of Star Wars nerds just like me. But it didn’t revive my spirits about Star Wars. Well, for a little while. But not for long. It was a friends thing, not a fandom thing anymore. My fandom is still untargetted, unguided.

The Clone Wars cartoon has been an extra-large disappointment. There’s a live action TV show in the works, but details on that are sketchy and I’m starting to feel skeptical. There’s just not much point anymore. I’m apathetic about it all, which is really quite an alien feeling. Of course, there’s a series of books in the works now that hold my interest, but that’s a pretty thin thread. All the comics, TV stuff, toys, video ga… well actually there haven’t been any GOOD games lately, but whatever… all of it has become meaningless and bland.

I’m really quite bothered by it. And yet it’s a chance to escape it and find something more interesting in which to invest my attentions.