I have decided to write this post for a large number of reasons, but I'm not going to really get into all of that. This is, I'll tell you now, a REALLY REALLY REALLY long blog post...but if you wait about 5-6 days, I hope to have it up in vlog format on Youtube. We'll see how that goes. But if you want...go ahead, and read this GIANT post. =) It would make me happy!
Basically, everyone has a Star Wars story, and no, I'm not talking about my writing "40 Days" or about Han's Star Box, I'm talking about how I first got interested in Star Wars itself. There are so many Star Wars fans out there and every single story is different. Some are similar, some are totally one of a kind, but my story, I actually find it kind of funny.
For those of you who don't know, I am now 17, and I just "discovered" Star Wars about 9-10 months ago. Of course, I knew what Star Wars was, I just had never seen the movies, and I'll tell you right now...I honestly had NO idea WHAT-SO-EVER who Han Solo was...or that he was also Indiana Jones. I figure I should throw in here that I'm a huge Indy fan as well...and it was probably one of my first movie...obsessions...other than anything Disney. I watched it all the time, and when I was younger my favorite Indy movie was "Temple of Doom" although now I prefer the original "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
Anyways, so here's what I remember/thought of Star Wars one year ago...I remember when I was a young girl, seeing my dad get the Star Wars special edition DVD set (of which we still have) and that the cover on the ROTJ was green and had some dude called Luke Skywalker on it. I must have asked a little about it because I believe we watched all of, or a part of, Jedi sometime around there because I remember Darth Vader's helmet coming off and him dying...although he died differently in my head than he did in the movie. Either way, I also learned around that time that the Star Wars films were done "backwards", starting with 4 then 5 and 6, and then 1, 2, 3. I thought this was ridiculous and wondered why someone would do something so silly. Oh, and all of this occurred in my home office at my dad's desk. Why I remember that I have no idea.
Other than the Jedi cover being green, I remember a few things about the prequel series. I remember seeing Episode 1 at some point, but all I remembered from it was some guy has a lightsaber and there's a little kid that's named Anakin that lives in a desert that eventually becomes Darth Vader. Yep, that's about it. I remember a little about the second movie because I remember wondering how his hand got chopped off and thinking that it was bad that they were getting married even though they weren't supposed to. Now this brings us to the 3rd episode, which came out in 2005. Up to this point, I had never really seen an entire Star Wars movie and remembered what happened and understood...so my parents thought it would be a good idea to take me to see the final movie! Actually, it was more of a..."You're going to see a movie!?! I want to come!" and then my dad said "Sure" and I got to go. I really don't remember much about what I took away from that movie other than the guy with the purple lightsaber dies, the kid from the desert fights Obi-Wan Kenobi (because I knew who he was!) and then almost burns alive before becoming Darth Vader. I really don't remember ever realizing that Luke and Leia were born, but at that point the only connection I had with the originals was the fact that Darth Vader was Luke's father and Luke was the guy on the cover of Jedi. So that's about it as far as the movies go.
Now, what did I think about Star Wars in general? Honestly, I grew up thinking it was ridiculous. I never understood the appeal in something like Star Wars. I mean, blasters? People kill each other? Something about a senate? I mean...Darth Vader is cool and all, but what's so special. It just seemed weird to me. This is probably due to the fact that the really annoying and strange (yes...she's weird) girl loves Star Wars. At the beginning of my Sophomore year she was in my English class, and I remember we all had to bring in something that showed a hobby or something we love to class one day. She brought a Star Wars book and explained how she had like all of them, and I remember walking out of that class wondering who in the world could read such a thing. Now, I'll explain more about this girl a little later, just because I find that part of the story funny, but in general, I thought Star Wars was silly...sorry everyone, but as you know, my opinion is about to change!
Other than the limited movies I'd seen, and this weird girl, I had gone on Star Tours at Disney World once. Now, I have some pretty bad motion sickness problems, so you can imagine a simulator ride through the stars did not settle well with my stomach. I felt terrible the rest of the day, plus I didn't understand a thing about the ride (although now I listen to the soundtrack from that old version and wish that "LIGHTSPEED TO ENDOR" was still there...because right after he says that, the Han Solo and the Princess theme plays...and it's just missing in the new version!). I typically hated that park, the Studios, because there was very little for me to do there. We didn't always have time for Indiana Jones, I was terrified of the "Alien" section of the Great Movie Ride (and still am)...more on the GMR in a few minutes...the Tower of Terror scared me since I was little...and I will NEVER go on it, unless I am able to do so with some famous person or something...I couldn't go on the Rock'n Roller Coaster because of motion sickness, I don't like 3D movies much, so that takes out the muppets, and that's about it...unless I wanted to go on the Animation Tour, but for a young girl, that wasn't always interesting. There are a few more rides, but let's just say the park wasn't great for me. Plus, of all the parts of that park, I can't ever really remember going into the Star Tours section. I NEVER walk that way, I always go the other way, so I really had no connection to it at all.
Alright, so now that the past has been explained, let's get to the actual part of this story...how I discovered Star Wars. So in the summer of 2010, my parents sprung on my brother and I that we were going to go to Disneyland for the first time ever the following summer. Now, I've been to Disney World over 20 times, but only to Disneyland once...that summer of 2011, so naturally, my brother and I were very excited. We had pretty much no idea what to expect, but I was really looking forward to getting closer to the Disney heritage that is located there compared to Disney World...where Walt never walked. At Disneyland, Walt lived there, he created it, he walked it...and it just makes for a totally different atmosphere. Either way, we had 6 days in the parks, and probably around the 3rd or 4th day, we stopped in Tomorrowland for lunch. Our trip was right after the re-opening of the Star Tours attraction, making it Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. My parents and brother went on it, but I just walked through the ride to the exit because of my motion sickness...and that meant that currently the Jedi Training Academy was going on. So while we were sitting at the quick-service restaurant in Tomorrowland, we noticed something happening...the Jedi Training Academy. We were at a pretty good location to see it going on as well, so I saw as the Jedi Masters entered, and I watched the little kids train, and then Darth Vader appeared...FROM THE FLOOR! I just thought it was so cool. It was at about this point that I realized I never really had seen Star Wars. I figured, at that point, that since I love movies, I really should watch something like Star Wars, because it is such a popular movie series and we had them and I didn't really remember much and just thought that it was a good idea.
So at this point, it's just kind of in the back of my mind. We finished our vacation, which was amazing, came home, school started a few days later, I was busy with Band stuff (I was Vice President last year and president this year), and I really didn't think anything of Star Wars until late October. I remembered that I was going to watch them and so one night I had some time. I thought about it and figured I would watch them in order of Episode, so 1 through 6, not in the order they were made, because I wanted to understand the story. So I grabbed the DVD for Episode 1 and find it doesn't work. I was angry, but then I realized that we had a VHS copy of it too. I remembered seeing that version in the cabinet and thinking "Pfft...Star Wars." I searched it out, and threw it in my VHS player in my room, one of the two working VHS players in the house (the other is in my kitchen). I watch it and get to the point where Anakin leaves home, and considering the fact that previously this is all I remembered from that movie, I figured...that's the end! It certainly seemed long enough to be the movie. But no...it kept going. All I could think about what "This is soooo long. How do people like this?" Of course, my mind thought back to that girl at my school and I wondered how there could even BE books about this....and I made a silent wish the other movies were better.
So I move onto Episodes 2 and 3. 2 was ok, better than 1, that's for sure, but I felt it was still a little strange, and I had already seen all of 3, so it made some sense. I also just realized I forgot to tell you something very important about 3! When I did see it in the theater, there's this part in the movie where there's a thunderstorm...and as we watched it, there was thunder outside. So in the next scene, when there is no thunder, there was still thunder, coming from outside, and my dad and I were very confused. We later found out that there was a GIANT thunderstorm, with a Severe Thunderstorm warning and everything and found it amusing that there was thunder without a thunderstorm in the movie. Anyways, everything made a lot more sense in these movies, and I decided that Yoda was cool and stuff and that was about it.
Well here we are at Episode 4. I throw the disk into the DVD player in my living room and my mouth drops open at how different it is compared to the others. It's like a totally different series, but I watch anyway. But you see, here comes the shocker. My dad was just telling me the other day that when Star Wars originally appeared in theaters that the "shocking" scene for a lot of people was the Cantina scene due to the large number of strange creatures. I agreed, it was the most shocking scene for me as well, but in a different aspect. My mouth dropped open AGAIN as a certain character appears...
"I'm Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon..." and on and on. I honestly was freaking out because it took me all of a few minutes to figure out and confirm that Han Solo was indeed, Indiana Jones. I was shocked. Now, I didn't mention this before, but when I was little, I had this major crush on Indiana Jones...so you could see how I was blown away to realize that here is the same guy in Star Wars...the thing I thought was ridiculous and silly. I move on through the story, and I pretty much start turning around. I learned, finally, who Princess Leia was, and I experienced the destruction of Alderaan for the first time. And then comes Empire. I believe I watched it a day after I saw the original Star Wars, or a week or something, but it was close. It was here that I thought Han was hilarious and such, but the "moment" where I fell in love with Star Wars and Han Solo is similar to many other people..."I Love You" and "I Know." I've always been one for romance, but that blew me away...I couldn't believe how adorable something like that was. And then he got frozen in Carbonate and I prayed, like everyone else, that he was alive. That movie was shocking to me not because Darth Vader was Luke's father, but because Han was gone...he was GONE!
It was the Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving when I finally got around to watching the last movie, because no matter how shocked I was about Han, I had very little time. I finally saw Jedi, and honestly got very confused about the ending, because it was NOT how I remembered it. I did on the other hand love the Han and Leia parts...and freaked out when she rescued him and he was like "Who are you?" and she was like "Someone who loves you" and he was all "Leia!" LOL, anyways.
There is a bit more to this story though, and this is getting really long, but I'll finish anyways. So since I had seen the movies, and loved Han Solo, I kind of looked on the internet for some John Williams music and such, and at some point, I came across the John Williams is the Man video made famous by Corey Videl. I loved the video, got it on my phone and listened to it until I knew the words. It really officially changed how I saw Star Wars. And then the following January as I traveled to Disney World again, I got some motion sickness medicine with a goal to go on Star Tours. I wanted to at least try it...and find three things, the Falcon, Princess Leia and Master Yoda (and yes, I accomplished it! I found all three). I would never be able to go on that ride without my motion sickness, but I was very excited and that was it...I loved Star Wars, although, not the prequels, and mainly only Han Solo, but how could you not love Han Solo?
Now, since then, I've seen Empire a ton of times, and Jedi probably almost as much, as well as the original a few times. I got my dad the Blu-Ray collectors edition for Christmas, mostly for my own selfish reasons of wanting to see deleted Han and Leia footage, but now we have it either way. I got into reading fanfiction somewhere in December I believe, maybe a little sooner, because I remember reading it in January in Florida, and I started writing in March or April. I forced my friends to watch Star Wars, and one of them is now crazy about Star Wars just as I am, and we regularly argue over who is better...Han Solo (YES!) or Darth Vader. We had determined that they really can't be compared because they are both so awesome (they ARE the top two Star Wars characters of all time, after all, and two of the three star wars characters on the top 50 heroes and top 50 villains from movies of all time...Han is #14 on the heroes list and DV is #2 on the Villains list). We also love to lightsaber fight, and we often "shoot first" going "BANG" at each other all the time. We also know the entire "I'm Han Solo" dance from the Kinect Game, and we love to do "FORCE CHOKE!" to one another. So we have a Han thing (shooting first) and a DV thing (force choke!).
Now, I promised I would explain two more things...the Great Movie Ride and the girl from my school. So back in December or so when I was listening to the soundtrack for Star Wars, I came across this part in the original theme that I knew from somewhere but couldn't place it. All I could remember was people smiling, and that made no sense at all. My brother eventually figured it out, it was part of the ending montage in the Great Movie Ride...and because before that I had no idea who Princess Leia or Han Solo was, and that's who is mainly in the Star Wars ending of the montage, I never placed it. I thought it was pretty funny eventually when I went in January and saw it again. Then I was the one smiling and laughing.
And secondly, the girl from my school. She really is weird, but I probably say that because she stalked me for a while, but here's the funniest part about her and this whole Star Wars thing. So a few months ago I decided to read a Han and Leia EU book...and I regret it. I found "The Courtship of Princess Leia" and figured I would give it a go. I could get it on my Kindle for free from our Library, so I did and read it and HATED IT. I couldn't stand the darn thing, but that's another story for another blog post. So after that I decided Tatooine Ghost might help, and it did. I read it, loved it, but still didn't understand how to read all of the books...although someday I hope to read the Han Solo Trilogy and such. Now, for the kicker. We were on a trip to the Library at a nearby college one day in January (so I must have read the books in late December) and when we came back I went to my English teacher's room...just to hang out for the last few minutes of the school day, and we were talking about books. The girl was there and the subject of Star Wars books came up because I was currently reading a book by the same author of the Han Solo Trilogy and she was all "I LOVE STAR WARS" and I was like, yeah, I read a couple and I found one of them terrible and so on and so forth. So we were talking and she was like, "Oh, what ones did you read?" and I was all "Courtship of Princess Leia and Tatooine Ghost" and she was all, 'Oh, I've never read those." I honestly almost burst out laughing because I was thinking of the day the previous year in English when were was all "I have them all!" We continued to discuss a little bit and I mentioned that my favorite character was Han Solo and she said her's was Anakin or something like that and about how the prequels were better than the originals and it was at that moment that I really thought this was funny. It seems to me that the large majority of Star Wars fans HATE the prequels...and that many true SW fans think the originals are the only way to go, myself included...not that this doesn't make you a true star wars fan if you love the prequels...I just think they really are better because of the quality of the story and movies themselves. Lightsaber battles mean nothing in the world of movie making. So yeah, here I am, standing next to the most irritating and strange girl in my grade that I always felt was in a little over her head with Star Wars, and I realize...I might be more of a original Star Wars fan than she is. It's funny when she comes and sits by us during our extended learning time, when many of us meet in the library at "our table" and laugh as I read from the Star Wars book about Jaina and Jacen, because we have a total of two Star Wars books on the shelves near us, and the second I say Star Wars, she's there...and then she gets all bored because I skip all the parts NOT involving Han Solo. And so, I'm not saying, in any way, that it's weird to like Star Wars, because it's not...I mean, if it was I'd be calling myself weird. Maybe I used to think that, but it certainly isn't true now...although I will never bring myself to read all of the books. I'm fine with sticking with fanfiction. =)
And so, now that this is super long, this is my Star Wars story. I now have plenty of Star Wars music, I keep the original VHS collectors set of the originals in my bedroom, I write Han and Leia fanfiction, own a green lightsaber, have a friend we often refer to as "Darth Shovell"...and she has a red lightsaber, regularly refer to things in Star Wars terms, say Han Solo quotes ALL THE TIME and spend time working on a variety of projects, some of which are Star Wars related. I also follow ApprenticeA productions, home of Corey Videl (John Williams is the Man) and their daily vlogs as well as the ApprenticeFacts. I own two Star Wars t-shirts, one of the Millennium Falcon (you can see Jason wearing it in the "The Empire" music video on Youtube, and if you haven't seen it...go watch.) and a Darth Vader shirt saying "Vader is coming, look busy." I have a Star Wars mug from Empire that I bought in New York for 10 Dollars, an R2-D2 dessert cup (he's cute!) sitting on my shelf next to my Jedi and Indiana Jones Mickey Mouses, and I am currently working on learning Han Solo and the Princess on piano. I hope to attend Star Wars weekends at Disney World someday and hopefully get myself encased in Carbonate through the "Carbon Freeze Me" thing they had this year (hopefully they will have it again!) and I am just as much of a Han Solo fan as anyone else...and I pray that someday I'll be able to find a Han Solo picture or Star Wars poster signed by Harrison Ford to put on my wall. Oh, and lastly, I can do my hair...Princess Leia Rebel Assault (on Endor!) style!
If you have read all of this...I'm surprised, but thank you. =) If not, that's all good...I never expected you to. LOL. I told you I can talk a lot once I get going. Alright, I've spent like an hour working on this and I have to get up in like...7 hours, so I'm going to go to bed now.
