My love affair with Star Wars

Its amazing how some movies are so ahead of its time that they transcend time and space. One such movie is Star Wars. I grew up on Star Wars in the late 70's and it is indeed encouraging to see that Star Wars still exist so many years later. We now have a new generation of Star Wars fans, literally echoing Luke's words in the movie, 'I are a Jedi, like my father before me'. The fact that I can now share my love for Star Wars with my 12 year old daughter means everything to me. I felt The Force Awakens as truly an awakening of a new era of Star Wars, with the old guard still present (Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Peter Mayhew as Chewie, Anthony Daniels as C3-PO, Kenny Baker R2D2), we now have the next generation (Rey (Daidy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)). Even though the next two movies would fall flat and be divisive, I still believe in the force.

Star Wars has, and will always be a big part of my life. I grew up watching the movies, I played with the toys and I even live by some of the teachings derived from the movie (Do or do not, there is no try!). I have cosplay characters from the movie, collect action figures/comics/books/etc etc (you get the picture). In fact I have met some really cool people (and have even become very good friends with them). I am also astounded as I find Star Wars fans everywhere (I have yet to work at a place that did not have a single Star Wars fan). Such is the power of Star Wars.

I remember the dark times as a kid, after the last (so called) Return of the Jedi was released. I felt hollow. Thank god for the expanded universe and writers such as Kevin J Anderson, Timothy Zhan and Barbara Hambly for greatly expanding on that universe during the "dark ages". All we had back then were novels, comics (Dark Horse comics Dark Empire saga was the bomb back then, and it's still my perfect sequel to the original trilogy) and our action figures, the original vintage figures from way back, and the muscly beefed up POTF line by Kenner. Ah the good old times.

Its interesting to see how far Star Wars has evolved over the years. The second coming for me was when George Lucas announced the prequel trilogy. We all knew George had originally had 9 movies in his mind, but chose to start in the middle with episodes IV, V and VI, and decided on not doing the continuing saga after ROTJ. The prequels to me were pretty meh. The only one I actually liked was The Phantom Menace (yeah bite me ;) It was the anticipation of a new Star Wars movie that fulled my desire. While they stuffed up Yoda (he looked all weird and sickly with the puppetering), I felt the best part of the movie was Qui Gonn Jinn (Liam Neeson was the ultimate Jedi Master), the Pod Race at Boontha Eve and Darth Maul (mad props to Ray Park). After Vader, the next best Sith was Maul.

Fast forward to 2023, we now have the conclusion to the Skywalker saga, for better or worse, as well as an expanded universe with the back story of the rebels led by Diego Luna's Cassian Andor in an effort to secure the plans for the Death Star in Rogue One, as well as the Han Solo story. The advent of streaming and Disney+ brought us the excellent Favreau and Filoni helmed The Mandalorian. Pedro Pascal plays the mysterious bounty Hunter Din Djarin with the heart of gold.And we are introduced to the adorable baby Yoda aka Grogu. This series also set up several others such as Ashoka and the completed Book of Boba Fett. We also have Obi Wan Kenobi and Andor. Watch this space for my thoughts!