However JJ Abrams handles Star Wars Episode VII, there is a high probability that some people somewhere on the internet will be very pissed off about it.

There is a reason why when people get in heated discussions about music and start referencing The Beatles I immediately disengage. For what it’s worth, I like The Beatles. I think they successfully aggregated, implemented, and influenced a lot of music. I have taken two college classes on them. I have listened to the majority of their discography and extended solo careers. I do not listen to them as much anymore, but can appreciate what contributions they have made to music globally while equally recognizing their monolithic multi-generational marketing empire and their importance to several generations on a personal level. However, because of their massive market appeal and unprecedented adoration on a global level (“bigger than Jesus”), I think that it is very difficult to make adequate comparative arguments and assessments to contemporary musicians when speaking from a position of immense passion, deified history, and bias.

Similarly, Star Wars holds an utterly monolithic pop-cultural stranglehold on the hearts, minds, and wallets of multiple generations. I watched my father’s VHS copies of the original trilogy when I was 9-years-old and I’ve been fucked up ever since. Like many Star Wars fans, I played countless video-games, read Expanded Universe books and comic books, got through the prequels, and shelled out cash for apparel, tabletop games, legos and action figures (my nerdcore hip-hop group also has a Star Wars influenced song). I have researched and read lore. I have machete-d through more dense and poorly worded walls of text than this to argue on the internet about meaningless minutiae (let’s just appreciate retcon for what it is). I have done these things because Star Wars is awesome. As such, to Star Wars fans, it is hard to mess with the story (and defenestrate the Expanded Universe material) without striking a collective cultural nerve.

Were the prequels sub-par compared to Episodes IV and V? Of course. Will everything, including the Nobel Prize-winning cancer cure created by your firstborn child, be a catastrophic disappointment when holding it to the same expectations as Episodes IV and V? Yes. Does this mean the prequels were actually redeemable? Maybe. In all honesty, I think the prequels get a lot more hate than is justified and if the prequels are considered sub-par by your standards, then JJ Abrams might be able to bring something of value to the table.

I appreciate Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek for what it is: an entertaining, high production romp through the Star Trek universe that adequately incorporates elements of the original material while making it amicable for new audiences. It was entertaining. I don’t get the lens flare abuse, but I think JJ Abrams is a decent fit for the project. I’m not anticipating Abrams to make an eccentric, critical, radical, dark, morally gripping, and intelligent art film—but I am expecting it to be entertaining and I am hoping it will at least provide a unique and interesting perspective.

Consider the following: George Lucas created an amazingly open-ended, sprawling universe and pop culture behemoth that has captured the attention of multiple generations of artists, filmmakers and audience members alike. Episode V, the most important Star Wars movie, was grittier, darker, and more emotionally complex than its predecessor. It also was not directed by George Lucas and is the film he has had the least direct involvement in. It is one of the most critically acclaimed movies of all time and is generally regarded as the best Star Wars movie to date. The most captivating film in the franchise was one where someone else was in the driver’s seat. It’s adult. There are real issues. There’s intergalactic revolution and betrayal. Luke gets his hand cut off. We find out that Vader is Luke’s father. This is not necessarily a movie intended “for children” as we are told the glitzy prequels and Episodes IV and VI were meant to be.

(As a side-note, these darker, grittier themes played a significant role in one of my favorite pieces of the EU—the Star Wars Legacy comics by John Ostrander)

The point here is that one of the most important moments in the franchise represents a radical departure from the author’s original perspective, aesthetic, and intentions. Lucas captivated children and our childlike spirit, and Episode V made those feelings important and validated. We were met with true struggles and drama, something that fans of the original series found devastatingly lacking in the prequels.

I think the prequels lived up to Lucas’ objectives: to entertain and captivate a new generation of Star Wars fans, to elaborate on the original story, to further the brand, and to sell merch. I loved Episode I when I was a kid and it first came out. There is a part of me that still does. However, fans expecting complex emotional roller-coasters and the hard-boiled grit of Empire were met with midichlorians and Jar Jar Binks. I can’t fault Lucas for wanting to make “children’s movies,” if that’s what he truly intended and wanted to do. However, fans expecting something else were understandably (and still are) very disappointed.

As The People vs. George Lucas notes, Lucas is great. He’s a creative genius. He “built a sandbox” and let everyone else play in it for a while. Some of my personal favorite pieces of media from the franchise were ones where Lucas had minimal to no involvement. It might not be the worst thing in the world to relinquish the reigns and let someone else steer for a while.

They’re going to mess with the canon. I get that. I love the EU, but from a creative standpoint, I could see how maintaining and acquiescing to that universe might be tedious, absurd, constricting, and relatively futile (and, again, midichlorians). I understand and appreciate the canon, but I don’t think it’s an entirely necessary facet to a good Star Wars story. I’m half-expecting a Jedi Academy movie, and if that’s what we get, I would honestly be utterly stoked.

If you consider the prequels utterly atrocious and terrible, then we have hit rock bottom and it can only go up from here anyway. If the prequels were bad, what is the real harm of another movie that might be just as bad? I, for one, am very optimistic. A different director, an obscenely massive Disney budget, and a predominantly new cast all present novel opportunities for improvement and expansion.

And, let’s not forget that at the end of the day we all get another Star Wars movie. You can watch it and enjoy it, skip it, or hate it as much as the prequels and try to pretend it never happened. Even if there’s no pleasing everyone and even if it might not be the movie I’m hoping for, as a Star Wars fan, it’s hard to not get excited about the prospect of another Star Wars movie.