There was a time I didn’t like Star Wars. I was in my teens. All my friends, who were nerds, by the way, were into the whole Star Wars universe thing. I didn’t care for it. In fact, I went one step further. I used to tell my friends Battlestar Galactica was better. Boy, did that go over well.
Thankfully, as I’ve grown older, I had kids of my own. My first introduction to the entire Star Wars universe wasn’t until I hit my mid-thirties. Yes, you can call me deprived. Coincidentally, it was also when my kids experienced their first introduction to the sci-fi saga.
For those of you wondering what it was like watching it on TV, and all we had back then were thirty-two inch CRT TVs and a VHS tape that rendered the film in a pan-and-scan format—life couldn’t have been better. You may think this is crazy, but if you didn’t have today’s standards to compare the picture quality, you would have thought the presentation was phenomenal. And back then, it was. The kids loved it.
Once the Star Wars prequel trilogy hit the theaters, I couldn’t help but take my kids to watch it. Somehow, the films were so amazing that other films in the sci-fi genre had trouble keeping up with the visuals, creative motifs and gorgeous backdrops.
And this brings me to the reason why I’m writing this Monday Mayhem post with Star Wars on my mind.
I have found that other than Star Trek, the Star Wars universe is where I would enjoy living. With so much talk about how bad or how wrong this world is right now, isn’t it refreshing to know hope exists in the movies we watch? I don’t know about you, but when I die, I’d like to think the world I’m leaving to my kids would be a world filled with hope. I don’t think I’ve ever thought that until I began watching Star Wars.
And although the Star Wars universe has meddling Sith Lords wanting to bring about the death of all humans, akin to a zombie apocalypse, the Force, which holds everything together, reigns supreme. Even with the Dark Side wanting to corrupt a good heart, the Force, living in every Jedi can overcome evil, and bring about real change to a heart.
Imagine the Force now, living in us, able to help us overcome the pulls to the Dark Side. Wouldn’t that be awesome? I sure wouldn’t think life would be all that bad after all.
Yet, as fictional as Star Wars is, some truth exists within its universe’s tales. Perhaps to see that truth we have to look closer. Or, perhaps, the Force is something real we have yet to experience.
What do you think of Star Wars? What do you like about its universe?
Looking to God 
For me Star wars is nothing but modern and future mythology of the world for everybody. Remember George Lucas went to his Teacher by the name of Joseph Campbell, the late mythologist and comparative religion. There he just bluntly said and or basically “blessing or not, im taking all aspects of mythology and putting it on silver screen.”
Wonderful words! Star Wars certainly does fill us with hope and the Jedi convey so much hope and promise. The films always manage to invigorate and make one feel alive.
If I lived in the Star Wars universe, I’d teach the stormtroopers how to shoot properly – “Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise…”, yeah right! But yes, it’s a fascinating universe and one that captured my imagination heavily as a child. I was always jealous of my friend for having all the toys…
Seriously. I thought it was only me who noticed stormtroopers having a bad shot!
I was like you. On my first viewing of Star Wars I was not impressed. When I saw it again in college, I appreciated it more. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one 🙂
Definitely not the only one. I guess we had to grow into the series!
These are just good fun, and I was very impressed with the most recent installment. The prequel trilogy could have been much better, but oh, well…
I did enjoy “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith”–more the latter rather than the former. The latest entry is simply amazing!
I saw the first film, although it was probably the fourth film, and now that there’s a new one out the first one I saw might actually be the second or possibly the fifth. The one I saw was the one that came out in 1977 (or 1976, around about that time). Is that the first, fourth, eighth, can anyone tell me?
For the record, I haven’t seen any of the others, but I have seen Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, the Finnish home made fan film. I won’t ask whereabouts that one sits in the franchise, although it’s just occured to me that the Finnish film was part of Star Trek, not Star Wars. I’ll get my coat. . . .
Okay, so, the fourth, fifth and six are actually the first, second and third filmed. The first, second and third are actually the fourth, fifth and six filmed. Clear as mud?
Yep. I’ll ask about the seventh filmed in a couple of years time.
Besides you, Jack, Charles said it so well in his comment. I feel pretty much exactly that (but don’t tell my husband, who tends more toward the mega-fan than I, although not what I’d call an obsessed fan: our kids aren’t called Luke and Leia or Anakin, etc.; he doesn’t dress SW garb; etc.) I didn’t have the connection with the first movie because I was a toddler when it came out, whereas my husband got to see it in the theater with his dad. Plus, even though Leia is there, I could not identify with ‘princess’ types, although I really appreciate the character; and, to me, it’s essentially a ‘boy growing up’ story, until the ‘new’ SW franchise now (which I have some quibbles about, too). Anyway, I can really identify with what you say here, Jack. I have become more fond of it as the years passed, and my kids are on-again, off-again SW mega-mini fans, so I tag along with that. As to writing, acting, series, and the whole shebang, I feel TV has more literary wings: Babylon 5, Farscape, ST: TNG and ST: DS9, Alien Nation. Now those are some, to my mind, sterling SF series, whereas SW tends to be a bit, oh, I don’t know, more mainstream, kid-friendly, action-oriented, and doesn’t take the risks other series have.
I think what appeals to me about the SW universe is the storytelling, adventure/action, and good acting (at least with Ford, Fisher, et al!). Now, I can’t speak to the pantheon of the SW books universe. But, as a movie franchise, it’s fairly basic, as you’ve said so well, Jack: good versus evil. And if hope doesn’t remain, as C3PO says, “we’re doomed” as a society (again, another old, old story, back to at least Pandora and her box)!
I could never get into Deep Space 9. I’m not sure why, Leigh. It has all the makings of a great Star Trek universe series, yet it always does a flyby to me whenever I pick it up on some channel. Who knows? Maybe it’s just me!
I think, for me, I was just primed for DS9, in my teenaged years (feeling like an alien oneself!). I feel like I should have liked Voyager more, what with a female captain (Janeway), and while I liked it a lot, I simply didn’t have the intense exposure to it at the right time. Odo and Quark are two of my favorites on DS9, and the whole Jadzia Dax symbiont thing, I feel, was really pushing the TV boundaries at the time, blurring gender and sexuality when it wasn’t so much in the news and Kaitlyn Jenner was far in the pop-culture future, so I thought it was cool in that subversive and risk-taking sense. Anyway, not all the characters or plotlines (Bajorans and Cardassians, which I’m sure I’ve misspelled, for example, was somewhat overdone, I think, and too obviously played as a Middle Eastern conflict) worked for me either, in DS9, but I thought it was a strong series. Probably my second or third favorite newer (1980s through present) drama sci-fi series.
I’ve always thought Voyager was the next best thing to Star Trek: TNG. I miss those shows now.
Babylon 5! Now THERE’S a space opera! God I loved that show. Seemed to out-do Lucas every week. Big space battles, weird aliens, a huge good vs evil story arc. Wonderful stuff only handicapped now by what back then made it so cutting-edge; its CGI effects. The show can’t be converted to HD because all the original CGI files have been lost and tv stations are losing interest in catalogue SD shows that can’t be remastered to HD.
I’ll have to checkout Babylon 5. I don’t think I’ve ever watched it, in spite of the fact I’ve seen ads for it during its first run!
I’ve never been one to get offended because someone said something wrong about a movie that took up two hours of my life. I don’t understand that..but.. I do understand being excited about the movies. There is something about the Star Wars universe that makes it stand out. In my opinion, the Marvel universe is close second. 🙂
I’m in total agreement with you. The Marvel universe has a wonderful cohesiveness few movie franchises possess!
I wouldn’t say deprived. Just a late bloomer. 😉
I enjoy the Star Wars movies, but I’ve never been a hardcore fan. Honestly, the whole uber-fan mentality doesn’t come over me very often. Still, the franchise is one of science fiction’s cornerstones. Thanks to The Force, it’s even seen as one of the bridges between sci-fi and fantasy.
Growing up with hardcore Star Wars fans made me realize just how privileged I am to know there is more to life than a box of chocolates. Okay, so that doesn’t makes sense, but aren’t you glad I said it anyway? 🙂
Makes complete sense. There’s also ice cream, Twizzlers, and taffy. Man can’t snack on chocolate alone.
…and a jug of coke to wash it all down. 🙂
Now that’s a glorious dinner. 😉