As Skywalker saga closes, a chat about values of ‘Star Wars’

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” the jam-packed conclusion to the nine-film Skywalker saga that kicked off 42 years ago, is out today.  For this chat, which has been edited for clarity, we gathered three of the Monitor’s biggest “Star Wars” fans – culture writer Stephen Humphries, politics writer Jessica Mendoza, and science writer Eoin O’Carroll – to discuss some of the values that permeate the franchise.  Though Eoin, Jess, and Stephen were raised in three different countries, all three became utterly captivated by the ”Star Wars” universe as children.

Eoin O’Carroll:  One of my earliest memories is of my dad telling me that we were going to go see “The Empire Strikes Back,” which is now my favorite all-time movie. What is your first memory of “Star Wars”?

I have two – I’m not sure which came first. There’s me at age 10 or 11, at some California theater, seeing “Phantom Menace” for the first time and thinking how cool podracing was. (Will I ever