There are a few times in one’s life when one experiences something so monumental, so pivotal, that one knows one will never be the same. For many fans in the Star Wars community, one of those experiences happened 10 years ago today, when The Force Awakens, the first film in the Disney era of Star Wars, was released in theaters. The film, in ways both good and less than ideal, marked a point of no return as far as the progression of the Star Wars story, and 10 years later, the ramifications of The Force Awakens are still being felt.

There is, unabashedly and undoubtedly, so much to love about Episode VII. The characters, namely Rey and Kylo Ren, are some of the most compelling characters in the saga. The music, unsurprisingly thanks to the return of John Williams, hits both within the film and on the soundtrack. And the visuals, which perfectly blend the use of CGI and practical effects in a manner that wasn’t yet possible during the prequel era, reach a level of perfection that is almost hard to quantify. The movie, as an entity in and of itself, just works on every level.

That said, there are also some critiques of the film that are important not to overlook. For instance, The Force Awakens is a retread of A New Hope in a lot of ways. A young person from a desert planet finds a droid carrying important information that must get delivered to a rebellion of heroes trying to resist tyranny by blowing up a superweapon. The synopsis could apply to both films.

That is not inherently a bad thing, as both A New Hope and The Force Awakens are successful in their execution of their respective stories. It is, however, safe. This, it turns out, might be the biggest critique of the film. The Force Awakens is, unlike the subsequent sequels that came after it, a very safe film. It is not meant to ruffle feathers. It is meant to be a warm Star Wars blanket that was wrapped around fandom as this new era of Star Wars was brought to the fore. It did that with great success, so it is not necessarily a bad thing that it played it safe. But it is a reality.

If playing it safe is not the largest critique of The Force Awakens, then J.J. Abrams’ proverbial mystery box is. Abrams is famous (or infamous, depending on one’s point of view) for being able to set up a story that motivates audiences to continue watching. He did this fantastically with The Force Awakens. The mysteries and questions it presents are both worthwhile and captivating. Who is Snoke? What is Rey’s lineage? How and why did Ben Solo turn to the dark side? And what is the deal with Luke Skywalker hiding away? All of these got the fandom talking for the years between Episode VII and Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.

But what gets lost in translation more often than not is that the critiques of The Last Jedi, which is the least safe Star Wars film since The Phantom Menace, are actually critiques of The Force Awakens. Many people, for instance, did not like that Luke Skywalker had isolated himself on Ahch-To when the galaxy was in need. But that’s the story The Force Awakens actually begins. The Last Jedi simply answers that question, which is what the middle act of a story is meant to do. So, when it comes down to it, who is really to blame?

Taking all of this into consideration, what is the legacy of The Force Awakens 10 years after its release? It is a question without one answer, as the film was a fulcrum point around which Disney’s era of Star Wars would swing. Certainly, the film should be remembered primarily for all of the good it brought to the saga and the fandom. A character like Rey, for example, brought in a plethora of new fans because of the combination of Daisy Ridley’s acting, J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan’s writing, and John Williams’ insanely good theme for her character.

Likewise, the movie set up a new era of Star Wars fandom in the questions that it compelled fans to ask, leading to the explosion of Star Wars fan-made media, such as podcasts and websites like Clashing Sabers itself. The level of investment in the story that The Force Awakens created was not quite as big as A New Hope in 1977, but if lightning in a bottle can be caught twice, then The Force Awakens did it.

Above all, though, The Force Awakens should be remembered for just being a damn good film. Its blend of writing, music, characters, themes, sound design, etc., could be taught in film classes for generations to come. There will be many future filmmakers who will credit their experience seeing The Force Awakens in theaters for the first time as what got them into filmmaking, just as A New Hope did almost 50 years ago. That level of impact is rare, and thus important to acknowledge.

All of that said, where there is good, there is also bad and ugly. The Force Awakens surely has the warts that mark every story wherein fans are invested to the level that they are when it comes to Star Wars. The reality is that no art can please everyone, no matter how safe it plays the game. Thus, The Force Awakens should also have to bear the brunt of the critiques often leveled onto The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, which are really just dealing with the consequences of The Force Awakens’ actions.

At the end of the day, though, The Force Awakens should be remembered for the most important thing it did: bringing Star Wars back into our lives. While it is not the first thing that Disney released after purchasing Star Wars (shoutout Star Wars: Rebels!), it is certainly the most pivotal. It reintroduced Star Wars to the masses, and it was as close to accomplishing what The Phantom Menace did with regard to fan excitement before release as any movie in the modern era could ever get. For that alone, it should be beloved and embraced. For that, it should be remembered, as much 10 years later as it was on the day of its release, as a moment in time that captured and captivated many, yours truly included, to the point where they were brought into—or back into—Star Wars forevermore. And that is a legacy worthy of Star Wars.