In one of the better-known installments of the Peanuts comic strip, Linus makes the following observation during a conversation with Charlie Brown: “I love mankind—it’s people I can’t stand!!”


I'm starting to feel much the same way with regards to Star Wars. I still love George Lucas' creation - it's the fans and the new distributor I'm learning to hate.


I just read an article stating that Solo: A Star Wars Story may end up being the first Star Wars movie to lose money, and that Ron Howard feels badly that his contribution to the saga has fared so badly.


This news kind of ticks me off.


First of all, Ron Howard gave us the best SW movie since the original, as far as I'm concerned. The REAL problem is Disney's decision to churn these things out like so much hamburger meat - coupled with a certain segment of fans who apparently feel honor-bound to bad-mouth each new film and nitpick them to the point where the rest of us are starting to feel ashamed to call ourselves SW fans, for fear of being lumped together with these know-nothings. 


I'm looking forward to the end of the current trilogy, just to see how the story ends,  and I hope plans to make a Kenobi standalone film move to fruition - but after that, as much as I hate to say it, this first-generation SW fan is likely done with it. It's just not as fun as it used to be.


As much as I've liked the new movies to date, I'm STILL cheesed at Disney's decision to jettison 30-plus years of Expanded Universe stories.

I'm still angry at the way some so-called "fans" continue to badmouth George Lucas, the man who created the thing they claim to love in the first place.

I'm royally pissed at the way some of those fans have treated SW actors like Kelly Marie Tran and Jake Lloyd with such unwarranted hatred.

And I have ZERO interest in Rian Johnson's "non-Skywalker" trilogy. ZERO. 


I've been following this saga since 1977, when I was 14 years old. Many of my most cherished memories revolve around Star Wars in one fashion or another: the thrill I felt when I read the first Marvel Comics issue set after the original move, for example, or introducing my two young sons to the series.

But now at the ripe old age of 55 I'm growing less and less enthralled. Disney's sausage grinder attitude, coupled with the vile behavior of certain so-called "fans," are robbing me of the joy created by these stories that have helped keep the spirit of childhood alive in me for so many years.

And I don't mind admitting, it's breaking my heart.