The entire universe of Star Wars has been a huge love of mine for as long as I can remember. I also can't actually remember when I started to be involved in the story. For years, I've watched the films and read many of the novels that have spun off from those movies. When the animated Star Wars movie came to theaters a few years back, I went and enjoyed it more than I probably should have. I have literally dozens of Star Wars books in all shapes and sizes and I've read many of them several times over. My question for this post (yes it does relate to out themes this time) is what makes a story so lovable, so addictive that people follow it for years.
First, I want to look at stories that fit this mold. One of course is the Star Wars Universe. Others include Middle Earth (Lord of the Rings) and Narnia. Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings books from 1937-1949 and Lewis published his Narnia series between 1950 and 1956. Despite both of these being decades old, the stories are timeless and as appropriate now as they were then. Like Star Wars, these worlds are absolutely huge. There's so much going on and so much that can go on.
This is what these stories, and others, have in common. It's easy to lose yourself in these worlds and every time you revisit them you may see something new. That's one of the reasons why I fell in love with Star Wars. There are so many characters, stories, and worlds that it's almost impossible to cover it all. Lastly, I felt like I belonged in the universe, that I almost had a personal connection with the characters from these stories. Does that make me weird?
I love this post! Growing up, the Narnia books were some of my favorites. It was so easy to imagine myself crawling into Professor Kirke's wardrobe with the Pevensies. I find myself easily sucked-in to fictional worlds, especially if I binge-read, so no, I don't think you're weird with having a personal connection with characters! Reading is such a great escape.
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