The Star Wars franchise has a huge, creative and at times scarily devoted fandom. Star Wars fans are everywhere and the internet is bursting with stories about them! Some stories about Star Wars fandom are funny, some are weird and some are downright touching. Let’s take a look at the great stories that Star Wars fans have to offer this year.
The Star Wars fandom rallied to support a bullied girl
Layla Murphy and Weird Al Yankovic
Earlier this year, an eight year old Star Wars fan by the name of Layla Murphy was being bullied by her classmates. The girls in Layla’s class insisted that Star Wars was for boys and mocked her for her interest. Layla started becoming depressed and reluctant to wear her geeky T-shirts.
Her mother responded by reaching out to Jason Tuttle, a member of the 501st legion, a Star Wars based charity. Layla had befriended him at a convention. The group rallied to help and encourage Layla. They send her kind words and gift, the most impressive of which was custom Stormtrooper armor. Layla now has the confidence to wear her fandom proudly.
Young girls getting bullied for being Star Wars fans seems to be a reoccurring problem, since the armor Layla now wears was originally made for another bullied girl named Katie. But it’s heartening to see the community will support these girls and give them the freedom to be themselves.
A Two Year Old Gave a Baby Monitor Rendition of the Imperial March
A two year old girl proved that Star Wars fandom can start incredibly early in life when she sang the Imperial March into her baby monitor after waking up from a nap. Jonathan Liu noted that after watching some of the Star Wars movie, his toddler seemed a bit drawn to the dark side of the force. She often wants to hear the Imperial March, calling it “the Star Wars song” and will pull out Star Wars picture books in order to find Darth Vader.
You can see the video of the adorable concert here.
A 5 year old boy’s walker was turned into the Millennium Falcon
Chantelle Leck and Patrick Bailey figured out an incredible way to incorporate their five-year-old son’s walker into his Halloween costume. Their other son, Holden, had insisted on being a Jedi for Halloween for the third year in a row. It was decided that his younger brother Sebastian should have a Han Solo costume to go with his bro.
Sebastian’s cerebral palsy meant that his costume needed to have some unique attributes. So his parents came up with the idea to convert his walker into a Millennium Falcon made of corrugated plastic and hardware parts.
In addition to looking snazzy, the Falcon aided the non-verbal Sebastian in his trick or treating. There’s a button he can press that said “Trick or Treat” and also four different Han Solo quotes. In addition, the costume included a speaker that blasted Star Wars music, and an attached handle that allowed his parents to keep Sebastian steady.
You can see the video of Sebastian in his Millennium Falcon here.
A fan has an amusing encounter with YouTube Customer Service
A tumblr user called Peyton reported they purchased Star Wars Episode IV on YouTube, unaware that it was the version where Han Solo doesn’t shoot first in his famous encounter with Greedo. Horrified when they discovered the fact, Peyton wanted a refund. But Youtube’s policy says once you’ve watched the video in question, you can’t get a refund.
Refusing to give into despair, Peyton tried for one anyway. When they asked for the refund, Youtube customer service pointed out they’d already watched a good chunk of the video. Peyton explained it was the digitally edited version where Greedo shoots first and “literally three seconds” later found a refund in their inbox.
Cleary, if there’s one thing YouTube can agree with their customers about, it’s that some Star Wars things are sacred.
A Californian Fan Built a Giant Death Star
Coby Powell took on the task of building a giant Death Star on top of his home in Lafayette, California for Halloween this year. The death star he put on top of his home is about 23 feet in diameter and made out of PVC pipe, a few parachutes and LED lights. He used a crane to put it on his roof.
Though he originally only planned the Death Star to be a Halloween decoration, it ended up being so popular that Powell decided to keep it up until at least mid-December. You can see a video of the home-made death star here.
An English fan got Stormtrooper pallbearers for his funeral
Gordon Deacon showed everyone how you can be a Star Wars fan from beyond the grave. His wife, Marlyn, said the man was “mad’ for Star Wars and collected everything to do with it from lightsabers to cookie jars.
The fifty-eight year old father of four died from cancer in February, but he made sure to go out with a bang. He requested that his casket be carried into the church by stormtroopers. And his wish was granted. His casket was accompanied by four people in full stormtrooper costume , along with a person in Bobba Fett garb. He also requested that attendees to the funeral wear Star Wars cosplay, if they wanted to, though he banned Darth Vader costumes. There was even a Stormtrooper funeral wreath at St. Margaret’s church in Roath, Cardiff, where the funeral was held. The service took place on February 11th.
That just goes to show how very dedicated Star Wars fans can be. You can see the funeral procession here.