5 Things to Know About Star Wars If You’ve Never Seen It Before

2 minute read

If you’ve never seen Star Wars before—not even a clip, not even a few minutes—you can probably still understand why Monday is Star Wars Day. It is May 4, after all, and like other date-related memes (see: “It’s Gonna Be May,” “It’s October Third“), Internet nerds can’t help but share “May the Fourth Be With You” all over social media.

So even if you’ve never actually heard Harrison Ford as Han Solo utter the words “May the force be with you,” take it from someone who only recently watched the franchise for the first time: it’s pretty easy to get familiar. Here are a few quick facts to catch you up on the iconic franchise for Star Wars Day:

1. The Empire is bad. The Jedi Knights are good. You may have been confused by “The Empire Strikes Back,” since bad guys aren’t usually in the title.

2. Ultimate bad-guy Darth Vader is ultimate good-guy Luke Skywalker’s father. Because all sci-fi franchises are about the struggle between good and evil.

3. Princess Leia is Luke’s sister, and therefore Vader’s daughter, too. So it’s a good thing those two crazy kids never get together romantically.

4. There are lots of animal villains on the planets they visit, but none of them are very scary looking. Except Jabba the Hutt. He is terrifying.

5. The Empire is defeated, but the struggle continues. The next installment, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens will see the old gang picking up the light sabers once again.

And now you’re ready to see Episode VII. Catch it in theaters Dec. 18, 2015.

See the Concept Art For the Original Star Wars Movie Trilogy

C-3PO and R2-D2Courtesy of Lucasfilm
The Millenium FalconCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Darth VaderCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Y-Wings line up against the Death StarCourtesy of Lucasfilm
An X-Wing versus TIE fightersCourtesy of Lucasfilm
HothCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Echo BaseCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Battle of HothCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Battle of HothCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Cloud City of BespinCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Luke versus Darth VaderCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Luke Skywalker versus Darth VaderCourtesy of Lucasfilm
DagobahCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Jabba's PalaceCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Jabba's PalaceCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Luke Skywalker versus a rancorCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Jabba's fallCourtesy of Lucasfilm
EndorCourtesy of Lucasfilm
B-WingsCourtesy of Lucasfilm
Luke Skywalker versus Emperor PalpatineCourtesy of Lucasfilm

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