Thanks to my amazing enabling mom while I was a teen, I’ve seen every Star Wars film released in my lifetime on opening night, the first showing local to me. Most times it was packed but otherwise a normal movie. But the beginnings of new trilogies, episodes I and VII, were magical. Especially Episode I. The seats were filled with overexcited fans and it was bedlam. People cheered, clapped, whooped, groaned, and gasped throughout it. Episode VIII was also memorable, because after a certain character suffers an unexpected fate it was unreal to see so many people leaving trying to hide how hard they’d been crying. A group of us, mostly strangers, hugged a dad who’d brought his kids while we stood in the human traffic jam trying to leave, because he burst into tears again. A lot of the fandom is garbage opinions thrown around to be edgy, but under it a wonderful shared love of the majesty we felt when we were introduced as kids. It’s great to chase that hit of nostalgia together.