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!