Just because you declare it as arbitrary doesn’t mean it’s actually arbitrary.

either you’re defining star wars by the films, or you’re picking and choosing what really “counts”

you’re doing the latter

No, I’ve watched pretty much everything at this point, and have read the EU books to boot (really enjoy some of them).

And I remember the decades of TV news/videos and publication stories/articles about what makes Star Wars, Star Wars.

I’d feel confident if you put it up to a vote, that the Force and/or Jedi/Sith is the primary response to the question “What is Star Wars to you?”. Everything else is just copying other stuff and slapping a sci-fi paint on it. Traveller TTRPG like.

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