Wednesday, May 4, 2011

May the Fourth Be With You!



See? Leia is excited about Star Wars Day. And Lando just wants to drink his coffee out of that stylish 70's mug.


In case you were not aware, today is Star Wars Day! May the fourth, May the Force, get it? Somehow, I was not made aware of this day until last year and feel I've missed out on years of connecting with my fellow geeks. Although I suppose in the past I hadn't been on facebook or anything so I wouldn't have known who to commiserate with anyway. It does tend to bring out the other geeks you weren't aware of. If you're on facebook, you might be surprised which friends of yours will acknowledge it. I may have to continue to lie low, though, as I don't want anyone to be on to me ;)


This year's May the Fourth has even larger significance though because it means we were finally told what special features to expect on the upcoming September release of all six Star Wars films on Blu-Ray! Like any good nerd, I was on my computer and watching the countdown clock tick down to zero at 9am... at which point nothing happened. There seemed to be a bit of a glitch on the web site and I had to switch browsers but eventually I did get to see what I had been waiting for. The full details can be found on starwars.com but highlights are some new documentaries, addition of commentary that is taken from archival interviews and such from the actors way back when (presumably talking about certain scenes as we are watching them) and deleted and alternate scenes with never-before-seen footage.


I'd be far more excited about this if I knew exactly what kind of deleted scenes we're talking about here. In the meantime, without knowing the full details, I suppose we can spend some time fantasizing about what kind of deleted scenes there might be that we have never seen before. If you haven't seen it yet, a few months ago they already released a clip that had never before been seen that was of Luke building his new lightsaber in the beginning of ROTJ. I'm not so blinded by my Han and Leia love that I was not able to enjoy and appreciate some new Luke footage, but at the same time, I want some extra Han and Leia stuff! I am maintaining some sense of optimism that maybe, just maybe, there exists footage of alternate takes of their first kiss on the Falcon that we have some pictures of in the Making of The Empire Strikes Back book that if you don't have already, you must buy as soon as possible. I'm not kidding. I can also hold out hope that maybe somewhere there was once a deleted sex scene between them... but somehow I don't think that's going to happen. And when I relayed my ideas to Push, she told me that the best I could probably hope for was an extra kiss between Luke and Leia. There is footage that suggests that that indeed was filmed. And let me be the first to say that I sincerely hope that those scenes are not included on the Blu-Ray.


There were also rumors circulating that they actually shot a Han and Leia wedding for the end of ROTJ, but as much as I'd like to believe that's true, I just sincerely doubt that that ever actually happened. Although wouldn't that throw a huge wrench in the EU? Although they could always pretend that Ewok law does not extend throughout the galaxy and it didn't really count. I almost can't believe I'm even contemplating this right now...


No matter what, I'm so excited for the Blu-Rays that I think I'm even going to watch the prequels. Yes, I'm not kidding. I actually think the third one is decent. Except I can't really remember because I haven't watched it in its entirety for probably at least five years. I don't recall at all really what the second one is about, just that Obi-Wan has a stupid beard, Anakin and Padme's "romance" makes me want to throw up, Padme's shirt rips in a way that very conveniently perfectly exposes her midriff, and for some reason, even though Artoo can fly in these movies and acts like a superhero and space ships seem to actually have more advanced technology than they had twenty years later, apparently prosthetics were not particularly far along because Anakin's fake hand is something out of the dark ages when later on his son gets one that might as well be a real hand. Did anyone wonder why I haven't watched these in a while? Rest assured, I'm definitely watching the original trilogy first. I may have to carve out that entire week for only all things Star Wars.


So, in honor of Star Wars day, I was just curious how long all of you had been obsessed with the movies? My level of obsession has varied over the years, but I'd say it's been a part of my life for literally almost my entire life. I know when I was a kid we had ESB on tape that we recorded off HBO and I watched that one the most and wrote my little illustrated version (I can still picture some of the illustrations in my head, like Leia flailing her arms when Han was flying into the asteroid field... man I wish I still had that!) In the beginning though, I don't think I gave a second thought to the romance side of things. In fact, I'm almost afraid to admit this, but when we used to play Star Wars when I was really little, when we used to use wiffle ball bats as lightsabers, I always wanted to be... Luke. Please, don't judge me. I was like six and I didn't know any better. The important thing is that eventually I did come to my senses, probably sometime around when I started to notice boys and thought, wow, Han really is super hot, isn't he? So eventually I did start being Leia when we played, and my brother was Luke because... well, he's my brother.


I'm sure in my early adolescence there was a large dip in my obsession because there wasn't much Star Wars goodness to go around. The EU books had started to come out, but I was not aware of their existence and still had not discovered that books that were not assigned by teachers were sometimes actually fun to read. We didn't have internet so I wasn't looking at web sites or anything. Then, in 1995, my chance finding of that paperback Courtship of Princess Leia on a trip to some random store with my mom. At the time, I thought it was the greatest discovery ever. Give me a break, I was a teenager and it was the first thing I got to see outside of the movies and maybe this Star Wars card game that my brother used to play with my cousins, sort of like that "Magic" card game, but Star Wars. And, thankfully, one of my cousins had most of the other books that had already been published so I could get through them all pretty quick. Enter the internet, my discovery of fanfic, and I have never been the same. I actually sometimes wonder if my life would be different if it weren't for George Lucas... or Harrison Ford. Because honestly, I sincerely doubt I'd be this obsessed with Han and Leia if Christopher Walken had gotten that part. Let's not try and think about it.


So, Happy Star Wars Day! Enjoy the geek camaraderie, bask in your obsessiveness. Read some fanfic and get excited for September! May the Fourth Be With You!


Side note: my spell check does not recognize the word internet. Seriously? It doesn't recognize Ewok or lightsaber either, but come on!

6 comments:

  1. Caption:

    Princess Leia of Alderaan and the smuggler, Han Solo excitedly await the opening of Door #1 to find out what they have won on "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" - hosted by Lando Calrissian.

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  2. Wow, Z, now I am starting to believe we might actually be the same person. I, too, used to want to be Luke every time we played Star Wars. And (I have never talked about this since it happened) when I was in sixth grade, my entire class was obsessed with Star Wars and we had to pick our sixth grade play. They ALMOST let us do Star Wars. The reason they didn't was because the "popular" girl didn't want to do it and I guess even in the sixth grade, what she says goes. BUT the rest of us revolted and said "Screw it. We'll be in your stupid Winnie the Pooh play (yup that's what she wanted) but we are going to make our own Star Wars movie. Enter my first attempt at film-making. We never actually made them but I was going to play Luke and, funny story the, two that were going to play Han and Leia were these two kids named Chris and Elizabeth and they HATED each other which in sixth grade terms meant they loved each other. Perfect right? And weirdly enough, we had a kid from England and guess who he was going to play? Yup 3P0. And a kid that skipped two grades and was way smaller than us, Artoo. Then we had this super tall kid, you know the one that grew faster than everyone else? Chewie.

    Even though that was never made I still started the profession that I still work in today during that time and I didn't even realize it. That's video editing. I used to record the parts of the film that I wanted to "edit" in camera and set them to music. I had no idea that I was actually editing until years later when I sat down at my high school editing system and suddenly was really good at it.

    I have been obsessed with Star Wars literally since the first time I saw it and could comprehend it. I have an older brother and he loved it and watched it all the time but I couldn't really understand it until about the third or fourth grade. Then I discovered fanfiction when I was in about 8th or 9th grade. Needless to say, it was all over from that point on, lol.

    The only time I was ever NOT obsessed with Star Wars was when I got my first boyfriend and I couldn't really see past anything but him. BUT I still loved it and all my birthday, Christmas, and anniversary gifts from him were Star Wars related.

    I cant wait for the Blue Ray either, gonna finally get a PS3 for that. I have checked out the site a bunch of times today and come up short, I'll check it out now. Here's hoping for that deleted ROTJ desert scene. God, Han looks hot in all of those pictures. They should call it the dessert scene. ;) I would agree that either a Bespin or an Endor sex scene would be awesome but fat chance. Damnit! And I saw the Luke footage at Celebration. Let me tell ya, it was better and got a better response than when we got our first glimpse of Yoda fighting at Celebration 2 and that was a time in my life I will never forget.

    As far as the books go, Digs and I are having this conversation now. I had no idea she has read so many, and I am positive Z is miles ahead of her. You guys are so brave. I started flipping through to all the Han and Leia parts since about 5th grade and only now do I have a desire to read them all. Although, I have my own reasons for not reading the NJO in its entirety. Maybe one day someone else besides Digs, Z, and Push will see why.

    Another thing you and I have in common Z is that I also didn't know about May the 4th Be With You until maybe last year or the year before. I used to through a huge raging Cinco de Mayo party at my house every year and when my friend told me about it I replied "Why the hell didn't anyone tell me?! We don't even like Mexico! We just wanted an excuse to party and now your telling me we could've had a bad ass Star Wars party!?" Then I punched him really hard in the arm.

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  3. I'm looking forward to the blu-rays. I too have my fingers crossed for some deleted/alternate Han and Leia scenes. Naturally. ;) I'd kill for that sandstorm scene.

    The only thing is, I found the box art to be pretty awful. Like bad photo manipulations or something. But oh well, it's not like I sit around staring at my movie covers.

    Let's see...well, I didn't start out as a huge Star Wars fan. At all. I remember watching parts of ESB and ROTJ when I was a kid. Mostly I just remember the Hoth battle and the speeder bike chase. There was this kid at my school that no one particularly liked and he was obsessed with SW, so I think that kind of put me off (I was also too busy being obsessed with Jurassic Park). He even threw this crazy SW birthday party. Although I saw Episode I in the theater and used to pretend my bike was a podracer.

    Anyway, I didn't watch the saga in its entirety until I was about 17 when my friend had a SW day at his house. After that I was just like, "I can't believe I wasted my whole life ignoring these movies."

    A few years later, bought the originals on DVD and then my obsession started to grow...and now here I am. Tadah!

    Jarik, that's awesome about the editing thing!

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  4. ...okay, my long comment just got deleted again, so long story short, I grew up knowing the names of the characters and I knew who Vader and Yoda were because my family ran a costume shop, but I didn't watch the movies until I was about 12 or 13. I saw ANH and that was it, I was hooked. I bought the whole trilogy on video and watched them all back to back that weekend.

    I was a crazy fan for a long time. Collected vintage action figures, skipped school to stand in line for the SE (what great parents I had!), but when the PT came out in 1999, it kind of killed my fandom. I just wasn't into what Star Wars had become, and since a lot of the newer fans were really into the prequels it was harder to find a fanbase to connect with, so I moved on to other things and probably didn't watch SW at all for about ten years (except the ROTJ DVD, I was morbidly curious...but Sebastian Shaw is the only Anakin for me, thanks).

    Then last year I had an OT marathon with my best friend and was hooked again. I've only been into the fanfic for about six months now, but it's been a lot of fun so far! :)

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  5. HA! I love this picture; Empire was the first Star Wars movie I watched with my younger brother (he had to beg me, I thought it was for nerds--and boys!) but I have been obsessed ever since! I have made so many good friends through a shared love of Star Wars also, I feel like it's such an important part of my life! :D

    May the (belated) fourth be with everyone!

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  6. Leia to Han: I'm so ecxited! I can't believe you're finally gonna meet my Dad! He's SOOOO gonna love you!!!!

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