Editing 1769: Never Seen Star Wars

{{comic
| number    = 1769
| date      = December 7, 2016
| title     = Never Seen Star Wars
| image     = never_seen_star_wars.png
| titletext = If anyone calls you on any weird detail, just say it's from the Jedi Prince book series, which contains so much random incongruous stuff that even most Expanded Universe/Legends fans collectively agreed to forget about it decades ago.
}}

==Explanation==
[[White Hat]] tries to start a conversation with [[Cueball]] about the [[wikipedia:Star Wars|''Star Wars'']] space opera film franchise, which Cueball cuts short by stating that he has never seen the movies. This deeply astonishes White Hat. Because the movies are known worldwide and are ingrained into American pop culture, White Hat considers seeing ''Star Wars'' a universal experience.

Cueball reasons that not having watched the films is the "default option", the option that applies if a person makes no explicit choice. In this case it means that if a person does not make the explicit choice to watch the films, then they remain in their initial state of not having watched them. It has been estimated that about 1 billion people, about 15% of the world's population, have seen at least one of the Star Wars movies. This means that about 85% of people alive today have, intentionally or otherwise, exercised that default option. Even accounting for people who have never had the option of seeing Star Wars movies (through poverty, age, country of residence, and so on), people who have not seen Star Wars are still in the majority.

However, the Star Wars mythology is so frequently referenced in American popular culture{{fact}} that it's difficult to consume a normal media diet in the US without being exposed to enough quotes, clips, references, parodies and analogies to piece together most of the plot and major scenes of the films, even having taken no action to see them. Even without having watched it, it's reasonable that White Hat would expect Cueball to know something about the series. He is right, as it happens, since Cueball is able to recognize that "{{w|Death Star}}" is a ''Star Wars'' reference, and later knows that Darth Vader is a major character and that there exists something known as Jedi.

When White Hat finally begins to grasp that Cueball has indeed not seen ''Star Wars'', he declares that they must see it very soon or even immediately. When Cueball again shows a lack of interest, White Hat seemingly calls in social reinforcements to agree with him that having watched ''Star Wars'' is the norm. Cueball feels threatened by his friend's unreasonably assertive behavior and quickly removes himself from the situation. 

Later, [[Ponytail]] likewise wishes to start a conversation about ''Star Wars'', this time about a new movie coming out. Based on his previous experience, Cueball reconsiders admitting to not having seen the past movies, and instead pretends to be looking forward to the new one. Ponytail then tries to continue the conversation, so Cueball bluffs with an incorrect declaration that Darth Vader eats Jedi, likely constructed from other mentions of the ''Star Wars'' characters that he has overheard throughout his life. Cueball carefully chooses his words to make it seem as if he knows what he is talking about.

However, Ponytail doesn't call him out on this error, instead agreeing with it. Cueball is relieved &mdash; expressed as his thinking an onomatopoeic sigh of relief &mdash; as he believes he has guessed at an accurate piece of information and has avoided entering a similar situation to the previous one. The punchline of this part of the comic is Ponytail's identical feeling of relief, suggesting that she also hasn't seen ''Star Wars'', and is also bluffing to hide that fact. It may be inferred that Ponytail has had similar experiences to Cueball, and now actually starts a conversation about ''Star Wars'' in order to avoid that social stigma. It might also be viewed as both of them having lost an opportunity to have a conversation with someone else who hasn't seen ''Star Wars'', because both are afraid of how they'll be treated. Although it's not clear what exactly they're missing out on here.

The "{{w|Star Wars expanded universe|Expanded Universe}}" (EU) was the term used to refer to canonical content outside of original six motion pictures, including novels, comic books, and video games, which existed in a shared continuity. After the ''Star Wars'' franchise was acquired by Disney it was announced that the "Expanded Universe" would be discontinued and rebranded as "Legends", so that the new ''Star Wars'' movies would not have to adhere to the established EU canon.

The title text is a tip for people like Cueball, to help them hide deception when roped into conversations about the films. It argues that since the ''{{w|Jedi Prince series|Jedi Prince}}'' series of novels established so many strange concepts that don't mesh with most other canon information, it makes for an excellent scapegoat to blame ill-fitting declarations on, seeing as even the most devoted, well informed fan has agreed to forget the entire series. Casually bringing up such a forgotten series might also make the bluffer out to be extremely knowledgeable about the ''Star Wars'' franchise as a whole.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat is facing Cueball while talking to him.]
:White Hat: You know the scene on the Death Star where&ndash;
:Cueball: Nah, I've never seen ''Star Wars''.

:[Close-up of White Hat in a smaller panel.]
:White Hat: <big style="background:#000;color:#fff;">''WHAT.''</big>

:[White Hat and Cueball are still facing each other.]
:White Hat: ''...How?!''
:Cueball: Uh, it was easy?
:Cueball: It was literally the default option.

:[Close up of Cueball. White Hat is speaking off-panel.]
:White Hat: But... How did you&ndash;
:Cueball: Not doing things is my superpower. I'm not doing an infinite number of things ''as we speak!''

:[White Hat and Cueball are still facing each other.]
:White Hat: We ''have'' to watch it.
:Cueball: Nah, I'm good.

:[White Hat has turned away from Cueball and has his hands to his mouth to shout to people off-panel. Cueball has likewise turned away as he walks away and is speaking back over his shoulder.]
:White Hat: ''Hey everyone! This guy's never seen Star Wars!''
:Cueball: Listen, I gotta go.

:[A small caption above the single panel.]
:Later...

:[Ponytail is looking down at her phone in her left hand while Cueball is facing her.]
:Ponytail: Wait, there's a new ''Star Wars''?
:Cueball: Oh, I've nev&ndash;
:Cueball: ...yeah! Excited for it! Big fan.

:[Ponytail holds her phone to her side, transferred to her right hand, as she and Cueball face each other.]
:Ponytail: What'd you think of the last one?
:Cueball: Uh... That Darth Vader, man.
:Cueball: Sure does love eating Jedi.

:[Ponytail and Cueball continue facing each other.]
:Ponytail: Haha, he sure does!
:Cueball (thinking): ''Phew.''
:Ponytail (thinking): ''Phew.''

==Trivia==

* White Hat's attitude during this exchange can be contrasted with [[1053: Ten Thousand]], where Cueball instead handles a similar knowledge gap as an opportunity rather than something horrifying.
* This comic may be inspired by the fact that a new ''Star Wars'' movie, ''{{w|Rogue One}}'', was released into American theaters on December 16, 2016, 9 days after the publishing of the strip. 
* The huge pop cultural success of Star Wars means it is genuinely surprising to encounter an individual who has not seen it (at least amongst the typical audience of xkcd). The TV series ''{{w|How I Met Your Mother}}'' had {{w|Do I Know You?|an episode}} based around this premise, and there is an occasional radio comedy chat show from {{w|BBC Radio 4}} (which also had a television version) in the UK titled ''{{w|I've Never Seen Star Wars (radio series)|I've Never Seen Star Wars}}'', in which celebrity guests try out experiences that are common to others, but new to them. The series was conceived as a reaction to one of the creators having noting how rare it was for them to "have not seen Star Wars", and so devised the format where a guest would talk about (or be talked through) various different first experiences specifically arranged for them. Just one guest <!-- from memory: not sure if it became one of the experiences (for whoever it was), but it was commented upon --> was noted as having 'Star Was' as a potential first-time experience.
* The first panel of the comic was once missing lines connecting the dialogue to whoever is saying it. This was later fixed, and the original version is archived [[:File:never seen star wars old.png|here]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]