Star Wars: TIE Fighter Taught Me Why People Like Star Wars

I am 31 years old and I am not a Star Wars fan. That may offend some of you already. Don't worry, this isn't me sitting here acting all righteous. I wish I was a Star Wars fan. To some degree I am. I feel like I'm getting there. I was outright offended by my brothers when they saw The Force Awakens without me. I didn't talk to them for a month! Let me be clear: I like the movies, I even had some toys  growing up. However, if I said that I was a Star Wars fan, I feel like I would be doing true fans an injustice.


The first time I watched the original trilogy was well into my adulthood, Right about when Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was coming out. My boss at the time (a true star wars fan) was super-pumped that the Sith movie was coming out and invited everyone over to his house on Fridays for five weeks straight leading up to the release of the final movie.

That's a real fan of Star Wars. That wasn't me.

"Let's laugh at him because he doesn't know our origin stories!"

 I can't really say why I'm not a fan. Though, I was taught exactly why people could invest themselves into the great story and universe. My tutor, was Star Wars: Tie Fighter. 

When I was in the fourth grade or so, we moved into a new house that had a den. My dad bought a computer for this den. It was the coolest place in the house. My dad was always into computers and games. I can assure you he is the reason why video games have such a big place in my life. He, like all the other people who played PC games in 1994, was a huge Star Wars fan (or then, it was what it felt like.) Star Wars: Tie Fighter was one of the games he used to test our new Compaq Presario.

The whole Star Wars mythos felt yucky to me. Again, I can't explain why. I was a snobby kid and I didn't want to be a part of it. But when I had a chance to play the PC. This was the only game we had. Plus, we had a flightstick for the PC. What kid doesn't want to play pretend and pilot a spaceship!

Starting off, you become a rookie pilot for the Imperial Navy. You can do flight simulations and practice-pilot all types of empire spacecrafts. TIE fighters (obviously), TIE bombers, and TIE Interceptors. There are story missions that relate to the movies, but having never watched them, I didn't really care. I just wanted to play a game where I can use that damn flightstick!

I got very comfortable with this cockpit view.

Using that flightstick, I was enraptured in zero-gravity dogfights. I became very good at being a TIE fighter. Those rebels never even stood a chance. It took me a bit of playing and getting used to it, but eventually, the higher-ups started to recognize my flight skills. Soon, I felt a heavy privilege and responsibility to the Imperial Navy when I took on missions. I was earning medals and ribbons after each mission.

"And I earned this one for helping an old woman cross the street!" 

 I eventually started to pick up some bits of knowledge of the Star Wars universe. I was able to identify what rebel alliance ships were and which ones were from the Imperial Navy. I eventually figured out that this Imperial Navy I was pledging my allegiance to was the Empire. That's right. I was with the bad guys. 

After I learned that, I stopped playing. I went AWOL from the Imperial Navy. I didn't want to be apart of the evil empire. I fell for imperial propaganda. My whole space pilot career, I was being told that The Rebel Alliance stood for anarchy and chaos. I had no idea that I was enforcing the tyrannical reign of an evil emperor. 

"Consider this my formal resignation, you lying sack of shit, sir!"

I tried to play Star Wars: X- Wing, but it wasn't the same. As far as games go, TIE Fighter was a much better game. What also wasn't the same was how I felt about Star Wars. I understood how those space scenes could enthrall and mesmerize fans of science fiction. Being a pilot in a battle from the movie was a lot of fun. I understood how people can choose the light side or the dark side. I understood the power that Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader had over the galaxy. They corrupted me and I understood what it was like to be a cog in their wheel.

Star Wars: TIE Fighter wasn't the game that turned me into a Star Wars fan. It did, however, help me understand why my dad, my cousins, and my friends loved the movies so much. I believe it is because there is so much lore and detail in even the littlest parts of the movies that it feels like you can be apart of it. Because I loved that game so much and how I found out that I was on the side that I didn't want to be on, I finally had some real points of discussion when true Star Wars fans would talk around me. I could tell them what it felt like to manipulated by the Emperor, and just how guilty that made me feel.