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Once upon a time, I would have said it requires meaningfully engaging with the core themes of the work. The Zen-like sayings of Yoda which are some of our only glimpses into Jedi philosophy. The broad conflict between the light side and the dark side, and all the things those sides represent. With the light side representing love, friendship, individualism, courage and heroism, and the dark side representing fear, anger, hate, conformity and cowardice.
Star Wars wasn't queer. Star Wars wasn't commie or capitalist. Star Wars wasn't feminist and/or against the patriarchy. I get that people point to certain lines or characters and try to spin it at "Star Wars was really X" all along. But no. They were not core themes of Star Wars. You can see anything in anything if you are willing to squint hard enough at 6 hours of footage.
I do wonder sometimes what made Star Wars nerdy. In the sense that when I was a kid in the 90's, being a Star Wars fan was weird. I wasn't alive for it, but it was a massive nationwide phenomena when it came out. It's not like only nerds saw it. But I guess it was the nerds that stuck around for 20 years, watching the original Trilogy over and over again. Playing the West End Games RPG because they just didn't want to let go of the world. The EU didn't really start proper until the 90's. Return of the Jedi came out in 83! None of the Video Games were that good until Lucas Arts was finally allowed to make some, and that was in the 90's as well. Being a Star Wars fan in the late 80's and early 90's must have been profoundly lonely and boring.
I mean, Christ, I was hoping to find some documentation, but look at this downright quaint blog talking about Star Wars Celebration in 1999. Or this threadbare article about a 10 year anniversary convention for Star Wars in 1987.
Anyways, the point I was winding to, is that Star Wars has no core themes anymore. There is no longer anything there for a true fan to intellectually engage with. So the teen girl diddling herself to 80's Luke and modern Kylo Ren dicking down may as well be just as much a fan as anyone else geeking out over laser swords, cool looking space ships, or pausing the VHS at their favorite frame of the Twilek in the slave dress dancing and rubbing one out.
I would agree with this as regards the sequels. I only saw The Force Awakens, but the lack of any depth or engagement made it instantly absurd. Everything that happens in the original trilogy is instantly made redundant. You could skip straight from RotS to TFA, and anything you missed is covered by the opening crawl. Episodes IV-VI, the classics, the strongest entries in the series, the ones that made Joseph Campbell best friends with George Lucas, are actually the least important in the series, reduced to side quests.
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