Star Wars: Passing on the Legacy
by Shannon on Tuesday, 30 of January, 2007 at 6:40 pm
So the other day I had a geeky moment of weakness and picked up Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy game. I don’t play video games much these days, occasionally the Legend of Zelda for the Gamecube, and sometimes I’ll even go old school and play it on the ancient Nintendo I got for my husband a few years ago. But this Star Wars game just looked like too much fun to pass up, and I figured my kids would like it eventually. I have three boys; seven, five and one year. I didn’t really expect them to get into the game that much right now, but I figured in a year or so my oldest would love it. So, I brought it home and popped it in, and the two oldest all gathered around like they always do when they see a new game, and much to my surprise they liked it. In fact they loved it. They’ve been playing it for about a week now, heck they won’t even let me play it.
So, them liking this game prompted me to stick in the movie. The game follows pretty closely (as closely as it can at any rate) the plot line of the movies when you play it in story mode. So, I popped in the first original series movie and just conducted a little experiment to see how much they’d actually pay attention. Again, to my surprise, they liked it. Now all of us die hard fans out there are like “well of course they liked it, what’s not to like.” But you have to understand only the oldest will sit thorough a movie that’s not animated, and that has to be loaded with toilet humor to catch his attention, they’re just at the age between silly cartoon antics and something a little deeper. So, I fully expected them to watch for a few minutes and move on. But they didn’t.
In fact they watched most of it, they started to drift after Han and Luke rescue Leia from the Deathstar, and my middle son, Max, was a little confused about the fate of Obi-Wan, that one is his favorite character in the game so far. But other then that they loved it. In fact they were quoting the one liners. Nothing funnier (or more surreal) then hearing your kids walking around quoting Han Solo, and then giggling. Apparently the humor of jumping into a garbage shoot is increased ten fold when you’re a boy under a certain age.
I won’t say that my kids got all the subtext or appreciated the awe inspiring moments like I did as a kid, but they’re still young so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. But what was so weird to me was watching them watch this. To see your kids lying out on the floor, absorbing the very movie that in many ways defined your life (sad kind of but true) is just… well as my stoner friends used to put it, “Trippy man”. I tried to see it as they saw it, not as something I’ve watched uncountable times, and committed to memory. I tried to turn off that “writer” part of my brain that has in the last ten years or so started cringing at the dialogue, and bemoaning Lucas’ awkwardness with female characters. In fact, I’d even started looking at Leia as something of a cliché, which is so ironic given how much I loved her as a child. Of course looking at it from a fresh perspective reminded me that when this movie came out Leia wasn’t a cliché. Strong, leading women were hard to find in S/F in those days. Women who’d berate you for your rescue attempts, and spout off as many sarcastic one liners as the lead males did, all while shooting a blaster. God, the first time I saw this movie at the tender age of nine it was love at first sight, especially with Leia. And somehow I’d forgotten that. I’d forgotten that big bubble that welled up in my chest at the sound of the music and seeing that opening shot as the massive Imperial ship floated past the camera. I’d forgotten that moment when Obi-Wan “gave up the ghost” so to speak, leaving Luke there watching. And oh god, the sheer joy when Luke hit the mark on the Deathstar and whole damn thing blew up so spectacularly, I even forgot that fire balls weren’t possible in space.
I guess I can thank my kids for that, for reintroducing me to that sense of wonder, reminding me why Star Wars is the legend it is today, warts and all. And hopefully when they reach the right age they’ll thank me in kind for introducing them to it, for making it a part of their lives. Oh, and I suppose we both owe a debt to the Lego Star Wars game. Any game where Chewbacca can rip off his opponent’s arms is my kind of game.
Category: Star Wars
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