The Underworld's first Profile Pic/Logo, made by Chris.
My name is Ben Hart and you probably know me as the "Founder" of the Star Wars Underworld, which basically means I'm the dude who clicked the "Create page" button way back when. Today marks the Underworld's second anniversary and I wanted to take some time to explain how exactly the Underworld came to be. It's nothing compelling or thrilling, just a little tale about how I ended up in the right place at the right time...
I've been a Star Wars fan for as long as I can remember. I will admit there were times when my fandom faded in and out, sometimes I would become hyped up about other things, but nothing ever stuck with me like Star Wars did. After the release of
Revenge of the Sith not much was going on in the Star Wars universe. During that period I kept my fandom alive by hunting down and watching fan films like "
Ryan VS Dorkman" and playing
Battlefront II.
Then came 2008 and the Clone Wars film, I was pretty excited for it but ultimately I wasn't able to catch it in the theater. The Clone Wars fell off my radar for a while, until one Saturday I discovered that the first two episodes of the newly launched series were available on iTunes. I was skeptical of this whole Clone Wars thing but I decided to give it a shot and buy one of the episodes, and it was the second episode Rising Malevolence. It was love at first watch. I was blown away and preceded to watch it many more times that day. Needless to say I became an avid viewer of TCW, and soon after began chatting with other fans on the episode guides on starwars.com.
Meanwhile, I had joined Facebook, and for a while I had wanted to start my own page on the site. But I knew one thing for sure: It wasn't going to have anything to do with Star Wars. Reason being, all my friends and Family were well aware of my love for Star Wars, I wanted to do something that would impress them. Creating a Star Wars page would be too predictable. Plus, I felt that I was too "Into" Star Wars, that it may even be immoral to be almost obsessed with the Saga as I was. Oh how wrong I was.
Season one of TCW came and went, on Starwars.com I took on the screen name "AdmiralTrench" and befriended several people, including "Rexbeatsall", a.k.a Anthony, who had his own site called "watchtheclonewars.com". Through it he provided episodes of TCW shortly after(Or sometimes before) they aired for those of us who couldn't watch them on TV. About midway through Season two Anthony started a new site called "
Master Toons" which served the same purpose and more. It was not long after until we started noticing our posts disappearing, especially those linked to MT.
The admin there was obviously cracking down on us, for good reason of course. Within this I saw an opportunity: We needed a private place to chat and share links to MT, and perhaps I could give this Star Wars Facebook page thing a try after all. And since I didn't know a single person who liked Star Wars as much as I did, this would give me a chance to finally share my love of the Saga. But first I wanted to know what my friends on Starwars.com thought of the idea. So I posted this:
The reaction wasn't encouraging, those who did respond predicted that it most likely wouldn't be successful. But there was no turning back, I was now determined to make this happen regardless of what anyone thought.
The next day, April 10th 2010, I created a page and called it "Clone Wars Commentary". A few minutes later I deleted it, realizing that not only was it a stupid name but it would be foolish to limit myself to strictly TCW when I loved the entire Saga. So I started over and came up with a more original name, one that reflected the mission of this page, which was to exchange information secretly and beyond the watchful eye of the "authorities". And it was "The Star Wars Underground". But alas, there was already a fan group called "Underground" on Facebook. So I went back to the drawing board and settled for "
Underworld". Although I can't recall exactly how I came up with
Underworld, I'm willing to guess the
Season two finale trailer helped inspire me, since it mentions the Coruscant Underworld.
The first few things I posted on the Underworld.
And so it began, by that night it had 7 fans. Within a week it had gained 40, and the next 107. In that period Chris, Jordan, Ruari and Dave stumbled upon it, just to name a few. I ran it solo for a few months, and even managed to start up a
Twitter and
Forums. Not long after I was preparing to shut down the page for a couple weeks because I was going on vacation, when Anthony suggested that Chris and Jordan should be made admins to take over in my absence. I complied and little did I know it would be the best thing that ever happened to the Underworld. And the rest, they say, is history...
If there's any moral I want to convey through this, it's this: Don't let anyone, including yourself, discourage you
from pursuing your passions. If you know it and love it, then embrace it! Don't worry about what others might think, just do it!!
Our current logo.
In conclusion I would like to thank EVERYONE who has Liked, followed, shared, tweeted, and supported us these past two years! I would also like to send out my most sincere thanks to the entire SWU crew: Chris, Jordan, Dominic, Savanna, Tanner, Kyle, Dave, Ruari, Trey, the list goes on! You have made the Underworld what it is today! You have all changed my life and I can't thank you enough!
YOU ROCK!!
Sincerely, your friend, Benjamin. -B-
