Nothing makes you feel more like a half-hearted fan when you don't know an important bit of information before someone else in the "real" world knows it. You know what I mean. When someone else - who probably doesn't even really care - comes up and tells you, "Hey, did you know Darth Vader is really Luke's father?" And you haven't seen The Empire Strikes Back yet. That sort of thing.

I felt like that when someone in my office came up to me and said, "Did you know that they're making a new Star Wars movie?"

"You're kidding me," I answered. I didn't believe them. After all, Master Lucas told us that he was making six movies. Two trilogies. That's it. No more questions.

"They're making a TV show," I explained. "Maybe you're confused."

But I ended up being the one who was confused once I read the article on Yahoo.com which was so nicely provided to me by my coworker. (StarWars.com now has their announcement up, and you can view it here.)

Confused. Bewildered. Flabbergasted.

And utterly, ecstatically, bouncing-out-of-my-swivel-chair with fangirl happiness.

Star Wars on the big screen. Yeah, okay, so it's animated. Yeah, okay, so it's coming in the middle of two movies I've already seen. So really, it's like a novel on the big screen. Or fanfic on the big screen. A really big screen. Animated big screen, but still. Big screen.

I bounced around the office for the rest of the day. And I'm still bouncing however many days later this is.

But when I looked at this week's Community Poll on StarWars.com, I was fascinated to see the difference in opinion that us fans seem to have about this upcoming movie. You can see the poll here.

Apparently, 44% of us (as of writing this blog) are so gun-ho and excited and trembling with squee-ness and joy that we don't care if it's an animated movie that's basically just a two-hour TV show pilot put on the big screen to entertain the masses. I was one of those 44% that frantically clicked, "Of course! It's in the theater? What's the difference!"

But then there's our other little 56% of fans who believe this is only a "special preview" of the television series.

So when I got down to thinking about it - which is truly frightening because when Star Wars fans think, we can get scary. Downright awful scary. But now I'm digressing.

So when I got down to thinking about it, and I started to wonder if this was really nothing more than, say...putting the pilot episode of House MD or American Idol up on the big screen.

To me, what makes this movie "count" as a "real Star Wars movie" is that it will be considered canon (at least, that's what I've heard). Granted, this makes it really difficult to ignore the goings-on that will happen in this movie, so if I hate the story and what it does to the characters, I'm in trouble.

I can easily disregard some of the Expanded Universe because it's books, novels, comics that I can completely ignore, not buy or simply white-out the portions I don't like. (Sidenote - I've actually put a post-it note over the portion of the Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary that mentions Obi-Wan Kenobi's relationship with Jedi Siri Tachi. Didn't like that character. Will never like that character. Didn't like what it did to Obi-Wan's character. Thus, ignore(ance) is bliss.)

But it's a little more difficult to ignore a movie. (And how many purists would love to disown the prequels? It's impossible to deny they exist!) It's hard to ignore teaser trailers and newspaper articles, but it's even harder to ignore masses of toys lining the shelves of WalMart and Target. How can I ignore something that's so pumped and so primed and so polished - a great little chunk of Star Wars history handed to me on a platter.

I get to be a part of it all - just like when The Phantom Menace came out. Yes, this new movie isn't live action, and yes, it ultimately is just a pilot for a new TV show to feed our Star Wars frenzy. I recognize all of that. I accept it. I know the truth.

But I can't help but think I get to see the magic, the wonder, the story, the joy, excitement, energy, emotion...I get to see all of this again.

On the big screen.

So to me - personally - it's more than just a television show premier with a special gimmick attached. It means much, much more than that.

It means I once again get to witness a new milestone in the history of our fandom. A fandom that we have helped create and build and bring it to where it is today. Lucas made the story. He made the movies. He breathed life into the characters and the plot, and we helped it to live.

We latched on - for whatever reason - and made it ours. Whether we identified with Princess Leia and her courage, her spirit, or we were like Luke Skywalker and longed for adventure, for change. We've followed Obi-Wan and Anakin from childhood to adulthood to death and redemption. We've followed Han Solo from Tatooine to Hoth to Bespin back to Tatooine and then on to Endor. We were there when Padmé witnessed the dawning of a new era, a new Empire.

We were beside them all. Lucas might as well have digitally inserted every single fan into the movies because somewhere - back there amongst the pilots or the senators or doing the Ewok yub-yub dance - we were there.

So this movie represents something special to me because I'll be there. I'll see the characters I've grown to love. I'll fight with them, cry with them and allow them to lead me back into this little world where I can lose myself, even if only for a moment.

And I get to wear my Jedi costume again, too. That's always a plus.