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.
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