When I was really little, my dad put a movie on TV called Star Wars. The version he had didn't even include "A New Hope" in the opening crawl. To be perfectly honest, my little baby brain probably didn't process most of it, other than liking spaceships and alien muppets. He probably showed all three of them to me, because he also has every Star Trek motion picture lined up in a box set. A few years later, with my brain (slightly and drastically) more formed and ready to understand forms of media beyond Sesame Street or Smurfs, I picked them up and put them into the VCR. The effect it had this time around was profound, and lifelong.

From the mysterious opening title, to the action packed pacing, to the intrigue around some mystical energy, to the struggle of ragtag rebels against an evil Empire, I was hooked. Specific things definitely stuck in my mind, from these youngest of ages. R2 and Threepio's banter. The aliens in the Cantina scene, really anything with aliens (especially the jawas). The immersion of the worlds, like Mos Eisley and Cloud City. The introduction of Yoda, which was a way cooler reveal to my kid brain than Luke and Leia's parentage. Boba Fett. Leia. Lando. Obi-Wan. Just that ephemoral buzzing soft dreamy dark-and-light feeling* you get from certain fantasy films of the '80s. Strangely, it would take a few more years of fandom to really get into the starfighter battlers -- I distinctly remembering rewatching it an umpteenth time and suddenly realizing there was a lot to pay attention to there. You know, besides "it's a trap!"

My favorite, by far, is Empire Strikes Back. Who else has the guts to have the villains win at the end of the movie??

I have quite a few friends that are really into Star Wars, so for one birthday years ago, we went and saw the Special Edition release (whichever one was out closest to my birthday) and then ate a bunch of pizza. We would make Star Wars quizzes for each other using the Official Guides and Star Wars Dictionary. One of my friends always reading Star Wars books, any time you see him with some free time he's reading the latest one -- whenever our teacher would assign a 'free choice' reading, he would pick a Star Wars book. My other friend Danny is probably the biggest Star Wars fan I know: he has a Rebel Alliance tattoo on his arm, has pretty much all of the books and comics, and can tell you any fact about the Original Trilogy there is.

I found an old RPG guide book at our big local trading outpost, and when I saw that it contained maps of Mos Eisley, I bought it right away. There's something about places like our real world trading outpost, or my travels around the country and beyond, that remind me of fictional places like Mos Eisley. That's kind of an odd sensation, the realization that real life can be reminiscent of places that only ever existed in imagination and artistry.

Of course, if you wanted to actually travel around the Star Wars galaxy, you could book a trip with Star Tours. They have spaceport terminals at Disneyland and Disney World.

Without a doubt, one of the most unrelenting fun Star Wars experiences is the multimedia project Shadows of the Empire! A novel, comic, soundtrack(!?), and a great video game, this was a real test for Lucasfilm to see if people were ready for more Star Wars after a long time. We really were! That Nintendo64 game was a big hit, including with me and my friends. The comic and book were great too, even if there was a creepy part with Xizor. In the game, you do everything from swoop racing to flying with a jet pack and fighting Boba Fett! This one was a win.

Lucasarts is the game division of George Lucas' company Lucasfilm, and they make some amazing games. All of their Star Wars games are fun (including X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Rebel Assault, Dark Forces) and they also had a CD ROM called "Behind the Magic" that told you all about the lore and making of the films. But any other Lucasarts game you get will be great, I gaurantee it. Every Monkey Island game is a blast, and there are even weirder ones like the Sam and Max games, Maniac Mansion, and The Day of the Tentacle. A game I absolutely adored was Grim Fandango, but they only made one of them. If you want a really challenging time, play the Super Star Wars games for SNES!

The special editions were kind of a mix for me. On the one hand, I loved seeing bigger cities full of life, updated effects and what not. But then... there was a lot of stuff in there that we definitely didn't need. The awkward Jabba and stepping on his tail gag, or changing things so Greedo shoots before Han. I think the fans were upset with that one for good reason. Nevertheless, it was a really fun time to be a Star Wars fan, and hang out with good friends enjoying the return to the Galaxy far, far away. I guess I can't be upset, we got more Star Wars!

I was lucky enough to get to go to the first ever Star Wars Celebration, a convention for fans in Denver, Colorado leading up to the release of Episode I. Despite long lines, rain, mud, and general lack of organization in many facets, the show was still a big success to me (as a fan). Multiple guest appearances, signings, props and memorabilia, collectibles (hey even the passes and maps themselves are collectible now), and best of all I got to meet and speak with Ralph McQuarrie, and I bought a signed original print of his. There were a lot of fun sights and sounds (hip hop Stormtroopers?) but meeting an artist like McQuarrie was a real honor.

Then there's The Phantom Menace. We waited in line for hours after school to see it. Now, I won't say I was disappointed completely, because there were a lot of cool and exciting parts. Darth Maul was awesome (way to waste a great character and kill him off too soon!), as were all the lightsaber battles and even using them for things like cutting through metal. I even liked the podrace, though it went on too long. But there were things that were a bit too off. I really didn't like the Jar Jar poo jokes, maybe I've just outgrown that stuff. Now I've heard some people say some pretty mean things about the actor, or about the kid who played Anakin. That's messed up. It's really always a problem with the script. I wasn't a huge fan of Anakin in this, which sucks because he's supposed to be the main character. Although, they definitely focused more on Qui Gon and Obi-Wan. I like a lot of the new characters. I wasn't even mad that it looks 'shinier' and 'newer', even though it's supposed to be an older era. Some friends of mine took issue with that, but I figured 'well yeah, things looked shiner back then, because they were new then and hadn't aged like later. Also, the Empire's restricting effect on the Galaxy probably also made it rarer to find shiny new stuff'. It's not the strongest Star Wars movie by far, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the prequel trilogy.

While I do love all the stuff bout the Force, the Light Side Jedi vs the Dark Side Sith, the plucky rebels versus the Galactic Empire.. I will always have smugglers and bounty hunters as my favorite. I just like seeing what the average spacers, gangsters and pirates are up to!

The merch! The action figures weren't very actiony, and for some reason Kenner made Princess Leia look like Davy Jones from the Monkees, but the ships were pretty cool. I also found it odd that the figures were smaller than other types of figures, so they stand really short next to your X-Men or whatever. I guess there's no standard size! It may have been to make it easier to fit into the ships. To solve that problem, we also just collected a lot of Micro Machines. I was already into Micro Machines, but when they started releasing Star Wars playsets, figures and ships, you know I was there. Now, for some reason, they had two different sizes for a lot of them, but they were all 'micro' and so close enough. I'm sure I had a lot more of these than any other thing I was collecting, Star Wars or otherwise. I'd have to really take a while to remember and list out all the ones we had.

1LiNKS8

So of course, when I first started exploring the internet (internaut?) I would look up the things I was already into, like pretty much everyone else. I did find some pretty cool Star Wars online forums and communities, like TheForce.Net and ForceThis.Com, where I went by ZG-88.

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Wavs from the films

*I think it also has something to do with the way it was filmed at the time, which you see with other movies like Dark Crystal. Dark and moody, but also vibrant at times and hopeful. It's like waking from a strange dream after you fell asleep on the couch in the afternoon. I think it might also have something to do with the special effects being practical. I love the direction Star Wars is headed with digital effects, and it gives a lot of hope for new movies and stories to be told, as we are already seeing. But then there's just something extra-special about practical special effects like puppets and stop motion. There was a wonderful documentary that I saw at our nearest Omnimax, it's just called "Special Effects"

May the Force be with you.

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