Preface

Surely, it would have been before 1990 when I was first introduced to Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back on VHS tape was the feature presentation in my nan’s living room. Both my mum’s brothers were present and were the reason the movie was playing. They loved it and the ideas that it gave them for a practical joke that will eventually be immortalised on Steemit.

The events that followed this introduction to the Star Wars saga could very well have completely screwed my appreciation for the films and everything they have given to the world. You’ll be treated to an explanation of the events (a seriously planned out practical joke) that transpired in a later post. That’s your prompt to FOLLOW me!

Star Wars immortalised in LEGO (another passion of mine).

An Inspiring Story Writer.

When George Lucas decided to create a story about space knights (they’re the Jedi, folks), he captured the excitement of youngsters simply by swapping clanking swords with light sabers. Every time I hear the sound of those iconic Jedi weapons ignite from their metallic hilts, I get goosebumps up the sides of my cheeks. It’s the sound that no adversary wants to hear and it means,

“The negotiations are over.”

For the uninitiated, and there are apparently quite a few of you, Star Wars pits good against evil in what is often termed a “Space Opera”. The hero of the story, a lowly nephew of moisture farmers living and working on an outer rim planet known as Tatooine gets tangled up in an intergalactic war for freedom in the galaxy. This all happened in the past.

Why haven’t you watched Star Wars yet?

You’ll really only need to watch up to about the 2 minute mark to get the general gist of why a couple of girls didn’t get around to watching Star Wars. And it is true. You should start with Episode IV (Later retitled to “A New Hope” from just Star Wars.)

One of the points that was raised was that people often don’t get into something that others find popular. I’m just going to label it as a psychological phenomenon that arises where, in an ever expanding population of people, individuals want to maintain a sense of originality and difference among a sea of sameness. However, having things is common with people is how you develop friendship groups. Let Star Wars be your commonality with so many amazing people.

Chronological Release of the Star Wars Films. It all started at episode IV.

Star Wars is an epic cinema experience that was released to the American public on May 25th of 1977 as Star Wars. That month is also significant for Star Wars fans for another reason. One of the lines repeated throughout the films is, “May the Force be with you.” As a result, May the fourth was snatched up by Star Wars fans as “Star Wars Day”. I suppose it’s like Christmas Day for the film’s fanatics. Interestingly, Star Wars Day was first celebrated in 2011 in Toronto, Canada at the Toronto Underground Cinema.

Original Trilogy

Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983 – the year of my birth)

Prequel Trilogy

Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Sequels and Anthologies

Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) (Sequel Trilogy)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story_ (2016) (Anthology film)
Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017) (Sequel Trilogy)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) (Anthology film)
Unnamed Episode IX (2019)

Everyone will have their favourite of the series and for a range of different reasons. The community, while never speaking for everyone, has quite a loud and very disapproving voice towards the prequel trilogy. Too much CGI, claiming the Force is some kind of biological entity that can be sampled, ignored story details that were originally written, not to mention the comic relief of Jar Jar Binks, an underwater native of the planet, Naboo. The list is endless, however, a far more knowledgeable writer on this topic can be found here and a defence for the sequels can be found here.. even if I don’t agree with most of it.

A New Hope is my favourite. It will take you all the way back to the start of a story that was written about a youth named Luke Skywalker who lived as far away from the action as you could imagine, yet somehow became the beacon of hope in the galaxy.

In terms of cinematic history, it gave us sizzling light sabers and introduced us to the villain we all love to hate. If you start here, at least you’ll see what it was like (sort of.. no thanks to George Lucas’s continual release of updated versions of the films) to be a viewer way back in 1977.

Luke watching the twin suns set on Tatooine. Source

May the Force be with you.

All the best,

Nick.

All content is original.

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References

Amber Plaster’s YouTube channel (The girls who hadn’t seen Star Wars)

Image of Luke Skywalker watching twin suns setting

In defense of the Star Wars Prequels (The Artifice)

Why does everyone hate the prequels? (Slate)

History of Star Wars Day: The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada)

Star Wars Day: Official Site

Stars Wars Wikipedia Page