May the Fourth Be With You (originally posted Sept. 14, 2016)
Originally posted September 16, 2016:
As today is Star Wars Day, I thought I would revisit the blog post detailing my love for the original trilogy. I originally wrote this four years ago as part of a lead up to a review of The Force Awakens.
Star Wars was one of my very first movie loves. I know I had watched "A New Hope" (back then it was just called "Star Wars: Episode IV") multiple times by the time I was six years old. One of my fondest and most hilarious memories is of watching this movie with my cousin and her family one evening at our house. We finished the movie and went off to play some make-believe continuation of the story.
My cousin then informed me, "In the second movie, Darth Vader tells Luke that he's his father."
To which I replied, "Uh UH! There's no SECOND movie!"
So, her "spoiler" didn't really sink in. I was convinced there was only the one story, and while the memory is vivid, I also remember the shock of watching Empire Strikes Back for the first time and discovering that 1) there WAS a second movie, and 2) Darth Vader WAS Luke's father!
This trilogy has remained firmly lodged very near the top of my "favorite movies" list for my entire life.
My maiden name was Walker. When I was seven or eight-ish, I remember telling my entire Sunday School class that my last name used to be "Skywalker" and that Luke was my big brother. I told them we had run away from the Empire and come to Earth to hide, and had to change our names when the movies came out.
Yeah....I didn't have many friends in Sunday School. (Not until jr. high, anyway, when I met a group of girls as nerdy as myself and we hit it off). I think perhaps my nerdiness was a bit too much for most of them at such a young age.
When I reached jr. high, I discovered The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn on a library shelf, and was transported back to that galaxy far, far away.... I was delighted to discover that a talented author had continued the story of my favorite characters. I devoured those books and went on to read many more of the books in the Expanded Universe of Star Wars (usually referred to as the "EU" by crazy fans like myself). The Courtship of Princess Leia, The Truce at Bakura, Shadows of the Empire, Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future, The Crystal Star, I, Jedi, The Han Solo Trilogy, Allegiance, Outbound Flight, The Jedi Academy Series, The Young Jedi Knights YA series, Darksaber... and so many, many more. I even read the entire New Jedi Order (eventually, that was in college). I continued to read the Star Wars books as they came out... though I have fallen behind a bit as the years progress. There are a lot of books I haven't read yet... but I always make sure to get whatever the latest Timothy Zahn installment is. (I just got the first two Thrawn books for Jolabokaflod last Christmas and they are very high up on my TBR!)
Therefore, it was somewhat devastating to me when Disney declared that the books were no longer to be considered "cannon." I love those books. I refuse to imagine that they are anything but cannon. I have such respect for the authors who must have all worked together in some way, or at least read each other's books... to have so many different authors writing what is essentially pretty phenomenal fan-fiction... and with only fairly minor discrepancies... that's pretty amazing dedication.
In high school, I found a friend who loved Star Wars as much as I did, and we made a game of asking each other random trivia questions about Star Wars whenever we passed in the hallway.
I went to see all three of the original movies when they came back to the theaters.
I went to see all three of the prequel movies when they came out - and though I was disappointed by the cartoony, somewhat ridiculous stories and the bad acting... I was also happy to be back in the Star Wars universe on the big screen once again.
In terms of paraphernalia I own: at least 2 copies of each of the original trilogy on VHS (and will keep them until somebody wises up and releases the digitally remastered version on blu-ray... if Disney wants to get back into my good graces, that would be one sure-fire way to do it), more than one set of copies of the movies on DVD and one copy on blu-ray, the radio drama CDs, multiple toy lightsabers (one of which I often used as a pointer during my teaching years), over 20 of the books, and don't even get me started on the number of Star Wars lego sets in my house.... seriously, it's ridiculous.
In spite of the sequel trilogy, which I could rant about for hours… but this post is already long enough… I still love this world, these characters, the story.
And so, in light of my great love of Star Wars, which you now understand a little bit, I say to you…
May the Force be with you.
Let’s chat! What do YOU love about the Star Wars universe? Who is your favorite character? Which is your favorite movie? Have you read any of the books? Do you have a favorite book? Have you seen the cartoon shows? Have you watched The Mandalorian (which is epically awesome, by the way)? How are you celebrating this year’s Star Wars Day?