Our fandom

"Maybe it's not a flag we'll rally around. [...] Maybe it's a person."

[Leia, by Claudia Gray]

Or, maybe.

It is a fandom.

The Star Wars community is a complicated one.

The most vocal, and, maybe, feared, is the "Fandom Menace."

We know who they are, what they say, how they behave.

But we are not them.

And we are, indeed, part of this fandom too.

We believe in respect, in joy, in equality.

We believe that this franchise should be the mirror of the reality in which we want to live in.

In which families are found, in which there is a chance for everyone, in which nothing is more important than to fight for who we love.

We believe in Kanan, saving his adopted family.

In Kuill, protecting a random stranger and his child.

In L3-37, fighting for the ones without a voice.

In Luke, in Hunter, in Obi-Wan, in Din Djarin, in Ezra.

In Rose, in Leia, in Amilyn, in Avar, in Hera, in Vi.

In Ahsoka.

"In my life, when you find people who need your help, you help them, no matter what. I guess it's just who I am."

All the lives they touched, all the people they saved.

All the kindness and the selflessness.

This is our community.

This is our fandom.

[This is the first of a two parts post —tomorrow the second— about this community and its attention to the needs and lives of others. To celebrate this wonderful group of humans that I was fortunate to meet in these months, I share a gorgeous wall art by Geeklygifted. In their shop they say: "as geeks we know that the stories, characters, and fandoms we love so much can inspire, heal and challenge us." And it cannot be more true.]