Story: "Parallel" Submitted by Zolo77

AN: Alright fellow shippers, this is a taste of the enormity which has been consuming my poor bedraggled brain for the last few months. I LOVE this new story - but I promise to finish Future before actually posting this one for real. But I got a little excited and had to share. fair warning, it might undergo a few more tweaks and edits before finally hitting the "big screen" but i wanted to get a feel for it. I hope you love it too. :)

Parallel  - by Zolo77

"Another?" Han asked, leaning down behind her, running a hand lightly down her throat, tipping her head back with the side of his thumb. His nose trailed slowly down hers and he kissed her, delaying any response.

The party had broken up well over an hour ago. And now, with the children fast asleep, they finally had the rest of the night to themselves. Leia had started the long cleanup process when Han had returned from the bedroom, a small navy box in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. He had herded her gently away from the momentous mess littering the kitchen, with the promise that it would all still be there in the morning. The place was a disaster by any standard: balloons, streamers, empty glassware and small white china plates strewn across every available surface. But he was right – it would keep.

"Mmm... please." Smiling lazily back at him, Leia curled her bare feet under herself and settled further into the deep-set sofa, listening to a mid-rim soul band coo softly around them from the in-ceiling speakers. The heels she had bought especially for tonight had been discarded hours ago, kicked off somewhere in the dining room - locating them was another task for tomorrow.

Han leaned over her then, picking up the discarded wine glass off the dark wood side-table and placing a kiss on her bare shoulder. Tilting her head to the side to encourage the gesture, she pulled her hair across her neck, gathering it away. They hadn't been like this for a while. Hectic schedules, coupled with the ever growing commitments and complications which came along with raising three small children, meant they had learned to cherish moments like this. Moments which, as both of them would attest to, came around far too seldom.

He kissed her lightly again before standing and moving over to the bar on the far side of the room.
The living area they sat in was a large one, and secretly the reason Leia had pushed to buy the apartment in the first place. With room enough for three growing children, two offices and the master bedroom complete with a large ensuite which was tucked away with grandeur at the top of a curved staircase. But to Leia, the openness of the living space, with the full length windows and conversation pit complete with a built in holo projector and in-ceiling sound - which opened out to the dining room and kitchen, added something to this space which no other home had offered. Han had been pulled in by the large balconies, one on the main floor featuring sliding glass doors which opened seamlessly to an enclosed outdoor lounge and the smaller private deck off their bedroom – which in this particular district was something few apartments had. His insistence their children (and himself) be able to actually get outside on a daily basis was paramount. The large soaker tub in the master ensuite helped seal the sale further.

The memory made her smile. Their first home. Well, as a family at least, the unwelcoming ultra-modern bachelor pad they had landed in after the liberation hardly counted as a "home". She had been nearly desperate to leave the overwhelming feeling of confinement and utility for the comfortable, welcome openness their new apartment held.

Clinking glassware could be heard over the soft sultry jazz now playing overhead. The hi-ball and wine glasses were a strange memento as well, bought before they were even married, at an auction several levels down on Coruscant. They were also rather Imperialist in design, but Leia had loved them. Handcarved and label-less; from an unknown artist in one of the colonies, the set was simple in design and every glass a slightly different size. Often commented on by guests, the glassware had become an unintended conversation piece.

The bar was set against the full height transparasteel wall which ran the full length across the back of the living room, it offered a breath taking view of the city as guests helped themselves to any number of fine reserves which Han had collected over the years, and was secretly very proud of it. The bar itself was antique of unknown heritage. They had picked it up off-world and lugged the damn thing back with them. Bought originally to be the centerpiece in Han's office, they had managed to drag it into the living room and there it was staying – at least until his office was finished.

It was a bit eclectic, Leia thought, as she watched her husband pour from decanters they had received as wedding gifts. She smiled, biting lightly on her lower lip, thinking of their wedding. They had left straight afterwards, desperate to get away. Returning, weeks later, to chaos. Gifts has taken over, cluttering the apartment, piled everywhere. It had taken them days to organize, open and catalogue everything. Having not bothered to register – on top of not really having the time - they had received a fairly bizarre assortment of gifts, most of which they kept; among those were the various bar pieces from all corners of the galaxy as well as a strange metal sculpture, they had wrongly believed to be an ornament, until their first anniversary when the thing lit up and started to chime at midnight, the noise reverberating around their small bedroom; scaring the daylights out of both of them – it now lived in Han's unfinished office.

Tonight though, despite the beautiful lights of the city glittering around them and the hypnotic stream of traffic across the sky, Leia appreciated a far greater, private view. Han stood in front of the bar, tall and sure, white tailored shirt cutting a sharp contrast against the lights of the city laid out before him. He had been relaxed that evening, and after the last few challenging weeks, it was a nice break for both of them.

"Wine?" He questioned, breaking the spell, not looking up from his task.

Leia shook her head, "No, Whiskey Sweet, I think."

"You sure?" he asked, setting his tumbler aside he reached under the cabinet and produced an unopened small glass bottle filled with a slightly murky, dark plum liquid.

"Of course."

"I don't how you can drink this, it's terrible," he replied, sauntering over to her, offering the glass with a smirk. Taking the drink, fingers tracing lightly over the hand carved etching on the face of the tumbler, she smiled at him.

"Happy birthday, Sweetheart." He whispered, lightly touching his tumbler to hers.

"Thank you, tonight was wonderful."

"Good. That's what it was supposed to be."

Leia took a shallow sip of her drink and tried not to pull a face. He was right, it really was awful.

Glancing over to find him watching her, she made a face and shivered dramatically. Han laughed, scooping her feet from under her and gently placing them on his knees, pushing the gathers of fabric aside, clearing way for his hands on her calves.

"This is so bad. Can I have a sip of yours?" without answering, he offered her his drink.

"Let me make you something else."

"No, it's fine. It won't feel like my birthday without it."

It was a small, inside commentary which had started shyly a long time ago. Well before they thought of themselves as having secrets with each other.

They had been holed up in a dump of a town, on a backwater beaten up planet, waiting for an answer from local government officials on supplying for the Rebellion when Han had strolled into the living area of the small, trashy hotel room they were sharing, darkly dressed, blaster at his side.

"You're leaving?" Leia asked, annoyed with herself that her voice sounded slightly panicked.

"Yeah, seeing as it's only 2200 and we don't have to be anywhere tomorrow, I figured I'd get some air. Don't open the door to anyone; I have a key. I mean it, Princess. No one." She curled herself into the corner of the large threadbare sofa and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and rolled her eyes at him.

"Hey, I mean it. This isn't exactly the best part of town." Han took half a step towards her, uncertainly flitting across his face.

"I'm not a child, Han. I don't have to be left alone in a hotel room with specific instructions and a code word. I'll be fine. Go. Have fun." she made a flippant gesture of annoyance with her small hand and bent her head even further over the book she was pretending to read.

He stood watching her for the span of several heartbeats, Leia could feel herself tensing, a warming blush crawling up her chest towards her throat. That always happened when he studied her, it was so annoying.

"Come with me."

Her head snapped up so fast she saw stars. "What? Come with you where?"

"Out. Could be fun. Like I said; we have nothing planned tomorrow, might as well go blow some steam and check things out."

That was the last thing she had expected, and it threw her off guard, and besides that, she hadn't really ever been the type to 'blow off steam'. She clung to her book staring at him, frantically trying to quell the warmth with had now certainly reached the base of her throat. "I'm not dressed. I haven't showered, you should just go. It'll take me a while to get ready."

"I'll wait. Go, go get changed. Take your time." Han turned toward the comm installed next to the door, and pressed a quick code. Leia sat watching him in dumb silence. "What are you doing?" she finally asked.

"Ordering a drink. You said you'd be a while, right?" This was all becoming too familiar, too comfortable, she thought as she watched him kick off his boots and fall causally into the large chair opposite her. This was very 'couple-ish' and she wasn't sure if she was comfortable with it. But, she thought, as she stood slowly and turned towards her room, if he was able to be friendly, then maybe this was a good idea, the alternative was a very long assignment and she didn't feel up to fighting with him any more than they would normally. "Wait, you ordered a drink? How is that even possible? We can't get them to bring us fresh towels." She spun around at the door and quirked her head at him.

He laughed at her expression, "Trust me. This place has more alcohol than it does clean laundry. And they'll do pretty much anything to make an extra credit or two. Now, go! We're losing daylight." He dismissed her with a smile and a quick gesture.

It hadn't taken her as long as she thought it might. Han had only gotten through half a glass of cheap whiskey when she emerged from her room; makeup dark and dramatic, hair pulled up into a messy pile, clad darkly as well, black slim leggings and boots with a loose deep green sweater over the only black camisole she had.

He caught her eyes and held her gaze a heartbeat too long, downed the rest of his glass and stood. "Ready?" she merely nodded, following close behind him.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, she thought for what must have been the hundredth time, as she caught their reflection again in a darkened window of a closed shop. They made an attractive sight, she admitted begrudgingly to herself. His tall, self-assured swagger complimenting her small frame nicely. "Here." He interrupted her musings, placed his arm around her shoulder and steered her into a smoky doorway off the street. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim. Han didn't seem bothered and ushered her into a booth in the back corner, catching a busty server by the arm and ordering something quickly as they passed. Leia tried to shrug out from under him, panic starting to creep its way into her mind.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"I said I'm fine," she snapped, instantly regretting it. They were getting along, and now she had ruined it.

"Okay." Han drew his arm off of her and placed both elbows on the table, jaw twitching as his eyes scanned the bar. She knew he was checking exits, he always did. Force of habit, she knew.

"Sorry." She whispered. Han didn't reply, simply nodded and kept his eyes away from her. At that moment, drinks appeared in front of them and she grabbed hers, shuddering slightly as she took a large gulp of the bitter liquid.

They sat in silence, growing comfortable with each other, watching the scene around them buzz and flow. An endless throng of beings - mostly alien - skirt around them.

"I need another. Same for you?" Han broke the silence, watching her with a look she couldn't quite place.

"Yes, please. No actually I'll have a Ruusan Ice Wine, if they have it."

"You sure? Have you ever had it? It's vile stuff. Really, you should get something else."

"No, it's fine. That's what I want. And yes, I have tried it; quite a few times actually." Leia started tracing invisible patterns in the rough wooden tabletop.

"Lady, you get stranger and stranger the more I get to know you." He remarked, signaling the server over again. She smiled quietly, perhaps the evening was saved, small spat avoided – or at least forgotten for now.

"That's rich, look who's talking."

He laughed then, a handsome rich laugh which forced her to look up at him. He looked so different at that moment, younger, less cynical and almost – free. Compelled by something but not knowing what exactly, and expanded her story.

"It was my sixteenth birthday; my friend Winter and I wanted to celebrate, so we snuck into the galley after the staff had gone to bed, broke into the liquor cabinet, but we didn't know what we should take, so we simply choose the closest bottle. It turned out to be that. It was horrible, but we drank it anyway since we really didn't know any better.: She stopped and smiled. She hadn't let herself think about Winter very much. Or her life before this. What was the point really? Everything was different. Gone. Han sat quietly, smiling as well. "Anyway,: she continued, "I left shortly after that to take my seat at the senate, but for my seventeenth birthday, Winter sent me a bottle as a joke. I never got around to drinking it. It was left in my apartment on Coruscant. Then, well -" she looked away from him without finishing. They sat in silence for a moment as a tired looking server dropped two glasses on front of them and gathered the chips before stalking off.

"Have you heard from-" Han asked quietly, sliding the small glass of wine to her.

"No. I don't know where she was when... when it happened. I desperately hope she was off-world. But I might never know."

"I'm sure when the war is over, you'll find her."

"If I last that long, maybe." Leia said quietly. She offered him a small smile to his silence and lifted the glass, inhaling its offensively sweet smell.

Nothing more on that subject was said. He didn't bring it up again, and she had forgotten the exchange took place. It wasn't until several months later, Han and Chewie had gone on a stockade run with a few members from Luke's newly formed Rogue Squadron, when a strange box appeared in her room. It was wrapped simply. Curiosity finally got the better of her late that evening, after hours of staring at it. Ripping off the packaging she found a bottle of Ruusan Ice Wine. She knew immediately, even as she picked up the card and read the familiar hurried-slanted scribe, what this gift meant.

For you and Winter. Don't give up.
PS - Everyone hates Ruusan wine - call it Whiskey Sweet - it sounds better and at least people wont know you drink that stuff.

She had kept that bottle with her, it had been packed in her luggage during the evacuation of Hoth, and after being reunited with the fleet she had stared at it night after night. A reminder of two people she had loved, two people which the Empire had stolen from her. Two people she would devote her life to finding again.

It had taken years, but she had finally shared that bottle with Winter.

"Hey, you awake?"

She laughed, and nodded. "Just thinking."

"Of?"

"You."

"Oh, that's alright then." He smiled. "I have something for you." Han whispered into her ear after a moment.

"There's more?" she asked, Han simply hummed an affirmative sound, making her giggle. He shifted slightly and picked up the small navy box she had noticed early from the table beside him.

"There's always more. Here, happy birthday."

Leia took the small package from him, tracing the velvety feel of the box several times before lifting the top.

"Oh, it's beautiful."

"It reminded me of you."

xXx

"Thank you for today, it was perfect." With the lights of the city hidden behind the darkened wall of glass behind them, and a trail of clothing strewn up the staircase, Leia turned in his arms and staring up at the dancing points of light created by the candles on the bedside table.

"Good. That was the idea."

"Although, I think next year we need a bigger cake. There's hardly any left over, and Luke called dibs on the corner piece."

"He can't call dibs, it's your cake."

"Well, it's his birthday too, I guess. Although, I might eat all of it for breakfast. Then I can apologize later."

"Sounds very 'Solo' of you. I approve."

"I thought you would."

"So, what did you wish for?"

"I can't tell you! If I do, it wont come true."

"Please?"

"Fine," she sighed, leaning closer to him, fingers playing across his chest. "I wished for what every woman wishes for on her thirtieth birthday: I wished to be twenty-nine again."

"I've never understood that. What exactly is wrong with being thirty?"

"I'm not sure. It's not even that old, really." She looked up and scrunched her nose at him playfully. "I mean, it's not forty. Forty's old. Isn't it?"

"Excuse me, are you saying I'm old?" he turned quickly, pinning her under him and winding a hand loosely through her hair, massaging her scalp softly. Her eyes closed slowly and a contended sigh left her. "I'm saying you're mine." she whispered breathlessly.

"Yes, I am." And with that, he leaned down to kiss her again.

xXx

"Leia?" he breathed into the darkness.

"Yes?"

"What did you really wish for?"

"It's silly."

"What?" Han asked again, already knowing the answer. She buried her face into his shoulder, and breathed deeply.

"Alderaan. I wished for Alderaan."

Teaser Trailer to Premiere Friday November 28th!

The trailer is coming!  LINK  This Friday!  Sadly, of course it would be a real project for me to get to one of these theaters, so you people are all required to go see it for me if at all possible.  Hopefully it will be on the internet three minutes after it premieres so I don't have to wait too long. 

I'm sure it will reveal nothing, which is actually a good thing, I think.  But if/when I do get to see it I'm sure throughout the duration I'm going to forget to breathe.  This means it's really real, it's really happening.  I'm guessing the music will be involved, and the goosebumps I'll have while hearing it are going to be difficult to get rid of. 

How do you guys feel now that we are just over a year away from it?  What do you want to know about it?  What do you not want to know?  I'm torn.  Part of me wants to see a lot of stuff, but I think a bigger part of me wants to be surprised.  I will admit that as far as plot and such goes, I'd like to know beforehand whether or not Han and Leia are currently married/at least have been married, and if they have kids.  I want to be mentally prepared for the horrible possibility they aren't, or be relieved to find out there was nothing for me to worry about in that regard.  Beyond that, I think I'd like to mostly be surprised.  I don't want to know the whole movie going in.  I don't want to just be waiting for things to happen that I'd already heard about.  I think it will be more fun that way. 

But anyway, check the theater list up top and hopefully some of you live in big enough cities that you can actually go check it out!  Go see Hunger Games or Interstellar or anything!  Just go see it!

And We Have a Title

Finally, we have a title for Episode VII.  I will say that of all the things to worry about with this upcoming movie, this was one of the least of my concerns.  But today we finally found out that the movie will be sub titled: The Force Awakens. 

My initial reaction is that it doesn't bother me.  That in and of itself makes me happy.  I can recall having a visceral reaction to hearing The Phantom Menace, which should've been a clue right there.  Although to be honest that title doesn't sound nearly as corny to me anymore.  Think about it, all of the titles are a little cheesy, it's just that back in the 70s we didn't have the internet to complain about everything and for everyone to tell us how much we were supposed to hate everything.  It also probably isn't a great sign that my first reaction is, well, I don't hate it.  I think I expected to hate it, or be annoyed.  But, thankfully, that's not the case.

As for what it means?  That is anyone's guess.  Does this mean that the Force has been asleep all this time?  Are the rumors that Luke Skywalker has been missing for many years true?  Possibly.  Aside from that it could mean any number of things.  I personally don't like the idea that he's been missing for years.  I mean, the poor guy can't really catch a break.  He grows up kind of isolated on a farm, loses his aunt and uncle, finally starts making a name for himself, never has a girlfriend.... and then he disappears?  That doesn't really seem fair.  It also would feel like they were basically undermining the end of Return of the Jedi.  Don't leave us with what looks like a happy ending only to come back 30 years later and tell us, just kidding, after that everything went to crap! 

Another side note though, the "reveal" of this one was a little strange.  I happened to be on Facebook and Star Wars posted this picture and a link to an article telling us that "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens has wrapped production."  The reaction included a lot of comments that mirrored what I was thinking: Wait, was that the title reveal?  What the heck?  I mean, instead of just going ahead and saying, "Title revealed!" they sneaked it into a headline about wrapping production.  Very strange.  But this does tell me that they are probably just going to be randomly announcing things here and there on social media, without warning.  It seems an odd way to go about it but I guess that's just the age we live in now. 

So, comment away.  What do you think? 

Happy Birthday, Carrie!

Oh, wait, to get readers for a blog you have to blog more than 4 times a year?  Now you tell me.  Sorry, things have just gotten slower around here, I'm kind of on my own and there hasn't been much to talk about unless we wanted to delve into Episode 7 rumors, but I'd rather wait until we just know stuff for sure rather than running around in circles speculating, so, yeah. 

Anyway, today is Carrie's 58th birthday.  Wow.  And she finally gets to be Leia again.  Or at least we think she is.  It's weird, if you've been following any rumors or things floating around, you'd think Carrie wasn't even in this movie.  We haven't heard a word about her.  Hopefully that means absolutely nothing.  The good news though is that Harrison healed quickly and apparently is all done shooting his scenes and we are just a little bit closer to the day when we finally get to see it.

Also cute about her birthday is that apparently last night the whole cast went out to dinner to celebrate with her, including Harrison.  There are some pictures floating around the internet of them all going into the restaurant.  Sadly, all separately, but still, everyone looks pretty good.  I really just can't wait to see this movie. 

Anyway, happy birthday, Carrie!  I can't wait to see you as Leia again, and hopefully getting some kisses from your long-time on-screen husband Han Solo.

And Finally, There was Revenge of the Sith

I survived.  I made it through all three movies and I survived.  The good news is that I never thought this movie was nearly as terrible as the others, so I wasn't dreading it as much.  Maybe someday I'll bust out the prequel special features discs, but let's not get too crazy. 

For whatever reason I feel as though it has been the longest since I sat through this one start to finish.  I remember renting it or something (did people still rent stuff at the video store in 2005?  I can't remember anymore) and watching it with some people, but I don't think I tend to catch this one even accidentally on TV when it's on.  What I had remembered most was that there were actually some good moments in this one.  Of course interspersed with some crappiness.   (My computer doesn't seem to agree that crappiness is a word, but we're just going to have to agree to disagree there.)

So things finally slowed down enough for me to sit down and watch this one.  It started with yet another lengthy intro that made me feel like I was watching the beginning of a video game rather than a movie.  I feel as though you can't really open a movie in the middle of a huge battle, even with the opening crawl I haven't been given a chance to really care what's going on.  We care even less when everything we're seeing is so obviously computer generated.  Picture the ships flying around in space during the big battle at the end of Return of the Jedi.  Those were tangible, filmed things.  They may have only been models, but they looked real.  This is all just so blatantly fake.  Even Artoo is computer generated.  It's like they got too lazy to shoot any real things, ever.

Let's see, then Anakin and Obi Wan infiltrate this big ship, and Artoo does his thing, in CGI form, as well as suddenly being able to like fly and set stuff on fire, proving that really and truly nothing in any of these movies could've worked without him.  They rescue Palpatine and Anakin has a good final fight with Count Dooku that ends when he has a choice whether or not to kill him, and Palpatine tells him to, he thinks he shouldn't, but he cuts off his head anyway.  Honestly, the rules seem kind of fuzzy to me on when it is or isn't ok to kill someone for a Jedi.  I suppose at that point Dooku was unarmed (literally, Anakin had moments prior cut off both his hands) so maybe that makes it not ok to kill him.  But if he'd killed him first rather than cutting his hands off first maybe it'd be ok?  I mean, later the Jedi kill all kinds of guys, and that seems to be ok.  Even Yoda kills people.  So really, I'm just not super clear on how the rules work with that.

Then Anakin goes home and finds Padme, and they're apparently still hiding the fact that they are married.  It seems like it'd be hard to hide something like that from Jedi, especially when you are living in the same apartment and only hiding behind a pillar when you meet up.  So she tells Anakin that she's pregnant, and I remembered that I always hated the acting in that scene.  It also made me mad that we'd never get to see a similar scene for Han and Leia, one that was much happier.  But whatever. 

General Grievous happens somewhere in here, too.  He seems to me an excuse for a cool action figure with four lightsabers.  Does anyone know why this droid-like guy has a heart and apparently asthma?  It makes for an interesting lightsaber fight, but that's about it.  Which is silly, because there is a freaking ton of lightsaber fighting in this movie, so there's not a lot of reason for sticking this kind of pointless one in there.  Also, Obi Wan shoots him in the heart and kills him.  And for whatever reason, that's totally cool.  Again, what are the rules for when it is and isn't ok for a Jedi to kill?

Anakin starts having bad dreams, basically knowing that Padme will die in child birth.  This I thought was actually a decent catalyst for making him turn eventually.  But can we talk about Padme for a minute here?  All right, in AOTC, sure, that movie was terrible and mostly pointless.  But Padme does at least here and there get to kick a little ass.  She unlocks herself from her chains and climbs up a big stone pillar to evade these giant monsters, she shoots her way out of stuff and basically doesn't need the boys to help her.  Now, maybe we can just blame it on the fact that she's pregnant, but she basically spends this entire movie staring off her balcony and looking worried or upset.  She barely even talks.  She also wears the most elaborate nightgowns I've ever seen.  That can't be comfortable.  Oh, and I almost laughed to myself at the scene when she is brushing her hair on the balcony.  Not just because the dialog is horrendous ("You're so beautiful."  "It's because I'm so in love."  "No, it's because I'm so in love with you!"  Are you kidding me?) but because I was thinking, sure, I always go out to the balcony when it's time to brush my hair.  Doesn't everyone?  Also, she just looks weird in that scene, I'm not sure what it is. 

So, let's see, Yoda goes to Kashyyyk as an excuse to get Chewie in the movie.  And Palpatine starts manipulating Anakin.  To be honest, this whole thing sends chills down my spine, and in a good way.  Well, not good so much, but the creepiness you feel as he talks and pulls him in deeper is a big part of why this one movie isn't that bad.  It really is pretty well done.  The scene at the opera where he tells the whole story of the Sith and how he can teach him to save people from dying is actually really well done.  And it's sort of nice to see that they do some regular recreational stuff, just to see a different side of the universe we've seen to this point.  That guy did a tremendous job and I really don't see him as an actor playing Palpatine, but as the Emperor.  It's pretty cool that they got the same guy and he did such a great job falling back into the role, which must've been difficult without all the crazy makeup and the hood.

But, if you remember correctly, everything gets really bad, really fast.  I recall having the sudden realization before heading into this movie that knowing what we all knew about the OT, inevitably the bad guys were basically going to win.  That thought was both cool and unsettling.  It becomes more unsettling the more bad stuff starts to happen.  And it all seems to begin with killing Mace Windu.  If Sam Jackson isn't around to keep things in order, you're in trouble!  Well, actually first they realize that Palpatine is a Sith and go to arrest him, and then he fights Windu and two other Jedi who are apparently really, really terrible with lightsabers because Palpatine kills them really, really easily before it turns into a one-on-one fight.  This is of course when the dark side lightning comes out and makes Palpatine's face the grossness that we all remember from the OT.  By the end of this showdown Windu is dead, Anakin has chosen to stand with Palpatine who has promised to show him how to let Padme live, and dubs him Darth Vader. 

Oh, so much more badness.  Anakin goes back to Padme and tells her a shady version of what's going on, and she's suddenly dumb enough in this movie to believe him.  She is also the skinniest pregnant women you've ever seen.  I mean, supposedly nearly full term with twins?  Based on what I see, she has maybe a single, 3-pound baby in there.  That's it.  You're really stretching the lengths of my willing suspension of disbelief, here.  She runs around like it's no big deal. 

Time for Order 66.  I have no idea what the heck the point is of having a stupid, numbered name for it is, but it means it's time for all of those clone troopers to start killing the Jedi.  You see a lot of Jedi get slaughtered.  You probably also remember that this is the part when Anakin slaughters the younglings himself.  Yeah, this movie is not really for kids.  Fortunately at least Yoda is safe on Kashyyyk, and it is kind of cute when he crawls up on Chewbacca's shoulders. 

The final battle between Anakin and Obi Wan is pretty cool, and ends in kind of an excessively gruesome way.  Oh, wait, but before that Padme confronts Anakin.  She is like 2 hours from giving birth to full sized babies and has a baby bump the size of a grapefruit, but whatever.  All Anakin wanted to do was save her, but now he force chokes her.  I think he's gone off the deep end just a tad.  But whatever, because by the end of this scene, Obi Wan chops off his legs, his other hand, and leaves him to die just after what's left of his body catches on fire.  Did I mention excessively gruesome?  Although I suppose it was necessary to have a reason for that elaborate suit he winds up in.  And I do remember hearing vague stories as a kid long before we even knew there were going to be prequels about Vader getting scalded by hot lava in a lightsaber battle with Obi Wan.  I have no idea how we knew that, but we did.  And this brought it to life. 

Oh, hey, excitement, as it's time for Luke and Leia to be born!  This is kind of cool!  Except... what is this about losing the will to live?  Are you serious?  That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!  Please don't ruin this moment with that ridiculousness!  Ugh.  You ruined it.  Well, the babies are born, and Luke comes out first and she gets to name them.  It also seemed unclear to me whether she actually birthed them or if they were removed through some sort of operation.  They had this weird thing covering her legs.  Anyway, she has what is supposed to be a poignant moment when she tells Obi Wan that there is still good in Anakin, but it's all ruined by that whole losing the will to live nonsense.  Talk about turning a strong character into a weak one.  How about staying alive for the sake of your children?  You don't need that psycho man!  Having her die in childbirth could've been a perfectly fine plot point if you'd just had her have some actual medical complication.  Would that have been so hard?  Seriously, Anakin still could've had the bad dreams and all that stuff and nothing would've changed except I wouldn't have to cringe every time I even think of that moment when the droid says she's lost the will to live. 

But, wait, interspersed with that we have basically the creation of Darth Vader.  This is another moment that is both kind of cool, and kind of cringe-worthy.  Anakin is in rough shape and they get him all suited up and we have that really sort of awesome moment when the mask is put on him for the first time and we hear him take his first breath, that sound we all know so well.  Ok, that gave me chills.  But, of course then they had to ruin it after he asks about Padme and Palpatine tells him that he killed her when he choked her.  Ok, well, I can see him telling him that just to make him more mad.  But then he has this whole Frankenstein's monster thing where he walks off the table and then.... and I still remember watching this and thinking, no, please don't do it... don't do it... don't.... damn it, he did it.  Yes, he dramatically leans back and holds his arms out and yells over dramatically, "Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  Ugh.  I felt like doing the same thing when I heard him do that.  But, hey, Darth Vader is born. 

In the end we have Padme's funeral, which is quite sad.  Then we have something I'd totally forgotten, when Yoda tells Obi Wan that he can converse with Qui Gon.  I seriously didn't remember that and I have no idea if there is any reason that that was put in there.  They show Vader and Palpatine looking off the bridge of their ship at what appears to be the framework of the Death Star.  Ok, that doesn't make sense to me.  Are you telling me that it takes them 18 years to build the first Death Star and for anyone to know it exists (it seems to be a major surprise to Luke, Obi Wan and Han when they find it after it blows up Alderaan, so it seems relatively new) and then it took like two or three to build the second one?  I mean, I know it wasn't totally finished in ROTJ, but it was pretty darn close.  I think they thought audiences would think it would be a cool thing to see, but honestly, given the timeline, that just doesn't make any sense to me.

Yoda goes off into exile, and the babies are split up.  I admit I do in fact get a little choked up when Leia and Luke are given to their respective caregivers.  It just brings the whole thing full circle and I thought these were very nice moments when Leia is there with the Organas on Alderaan, and Luke is with Owen and Beru starting at the sunset on Tatooine.  Yes, I'm a little sappy like that.  And that's where it ends. 

So, there you have it.  I survived the prequels.  Maybe I'll even sit through them again in 16 months when it's time to prepare myself for Episode VII but I'm not going to watch them by myself again, I don't think.  This one is exceedingly dark, I think, which in tone for a Star Wars movie is pretty rough.  But I guess it's good to know that they fix it in the OT. 

And on the Second Day, She Survived Watching Episode II

Yes, not only did I make it through Episode I, but on the very next day I sat through Episode II.  My biggest gripe with this one in more recent years was that I couldn't really remember what it was actually about aside from a few "turning point" moments when Anakin shows his first dark side tendencies and somehow, through absolutely no help from the script but merely by necessity of plot, Anakin and Padme "fall in love" and get married.  I didn't even remember Anakin had lost his hand in this one. 

Ugh, where to begin?  Well, I guess the beginning.  Anakin and Obi Wan are older.  This is apparent by Anakin being played by an entirely different actor and Obi Wan having a beard and no longer having that stupid Padawan haircut that poor Anakin now has to sport.  Am I the only one who thinks it's lame to have a specific haircut they have to have during that?  The dialog, right from the beginning, is dreadful.  Anakin is already speaking in ridiculous monologues about how he's been thinking about Padme every day for ten years (and by thinking, I mean obsessing in a stalker-like manner) and you already feel a little violated on behalf of Padme. 

Even Padme seems more than a little put off by Anakin's creepy stalker vibe.  Seriously, the way he looks at her and talks to her for the most part is downright creepy.  It makes you wonder if George Lucas has any idea how relationships work or how people fall in love (he's been married more than once so you'd think he'd have some idea, although when you have like, billions of dollars the rules probably change a little bit) because any sane woman would not fall in love with someone who acted like that.  More likely, they'd be asking for a new body guard to be assigned to them.  Also not attractive at all is his whining about Obi Wan holding him back.

Seriously, all of their interactions in this movie are terrible.  I thought I remembered it being bad, but after so long I wondered if maybe I was being unfair, because you just can't compare to Han and Leia.  But honestly, upon this most recent viewing, it's like it's even worse than I remembered.  Even Padme herself early on asks him to not look at her like that because, "It makes me feel uncomfortable."  And then when he apologizes he watches her walk away with a serial killer-ish look on his face, which of course is much better.  But hey, eventually they giggle and laugh in a field for some reason, and somehow she lets him kiss her after more ridiculous, over the top dialog, but then she says she can't because of the whole Jedi thing.  Right, the Jedi thing.  And not because he's actually given you zero good reasons to actually fall in love with him apart from maybe being considered marginally attractive, but no level of good looking supersedes that much creepiness. 

Oh, wait, what else was going on?  Um, Obi Wan goes to where they are making all of those clones and we learn that Boba Fett was basically just another clone, and all of those clone troops are just like him.  This came after an assassination attempt and an almost-cool sequence where we get to see lots of Coruscant and people walking around and a fun chase through the city.  This whole thing on Kamino with the clones and Jango Fett (who, thanks to that new movie, I kept thinking in my head was Django Fett) just seems like a way to reel in all of those Fett fans.  But then he goes somewhere else for some reason and gets all captured and stuff.  I kept waiting for General Grievous to show up but hadn't remembered that he wasn't actually in this movie. 

I still don't like the idea that Owen Lars married Shmi Skywalker.  Especially when early nerds such as myself remembered that in some material prior to the prequels, it came out that Owen was actually related to Obi Wan, not Luke, but whatever.  The whole thing where Anakin goes and finds his mother near death and quite obviously having been pretty tortured was fairly disturbing, even before he turns and kills all of the Sand People.  I guess they did do a decent job there of giving him a valid reason to start turning to the dark side.  She seemed a little too tortured and bloody for a Star Wars movie.  I mean, for all of the deaths in these movies, there is remarkably little blood.  I mean, it took me until I was in my 20s after watching these movies dozens of times before I even noticed the tiny bit of blood on Han's fingers after he helps Leia when she's singed by the blaster in ROTJ.

However, his outburst of telling Padme all about it... I don't know, that didn't really seem to work for me, either.  It seemed more like he was saying it all out about murdering the women and the children was more for the benefit of the audience so that we knew how serious it was rather than something he'd actually say to Padme.  For some reason she still doesn't go running from this raging psycho. 

So then they have to go find Obi Wan.  That doesn't go well, but at least by having gone back to Tatooine now they have Threepio with them, which means when they all get thrown into this droid making factory there is opportunity for comic relief in the form of excessive puns from Threepio.  Ok, even in the OT he cracked some groaners, but they were sparsely sprinkled throughout, so it wasn't so bad.  Four awful puns in like ninety seconds of screen time might be just a little much.  Oh, also, suddenly Artoo can fly.  I remember discussing this with my brother when these movies came out, like, when did Artoo suddenly get all of these new cool powers that he never had 20 years later? 

One other thing I noticed in this movie was of course, once again, excessive CGI.  I mean, scenes where they really just as easily could've just had, you know, actual people walking around in the background they turned them into cartoons.  Once again, at times I felt like I was watching a video game.  There was one part during this droid factory scene where they show Padme when she is stuck in this container thing.  This is probably the one shot in the movie that is quite apparently actually not altered in any sort of way with any sort of effect.  It's actually visually jarring to see it, it feels so out of place. 

So, then we get to this whole scene where Obi Wan and Anakin and Padme are captured and about to be put to death in an overly complicated spectacle of an execution.  Usually these scenarios are just to give the good guys a chance to escape.  But wait, first Padme has to tell Anakin that she loves him.  Why?  I don't know.  At least partly because they are about to die.  But she doesn't just love him... "I truly, deeply, love you."  Ugh, really?  This whole thing is so absurdly forced and the characters have zero chemistry, but anyway...

So, good guys escape and eventually a whole bunch of Jedi show up and admittedly it is pretty awesome to see dozens of lightsabers throughout the crowd.  Although man, can we get a few different options for lightsaber colors beyond green and blue?  Mace Windu gets purple and nobody else does, and apparently red is reserved for bad guys.  But there are other colors, you know.  Somewhere in this spectacle we get the one moment I remembered because it was so ridiculous and overt, when Padme's shirt is ripped exactly perfectly across the bottom to expose her midriff.  Although honestly, if my midriff had ever looked anything like that I would probably want it exposed most of the time, too. 

Um, escaping stuff, and eventually they come across Count Duku, or Sarouman the wizard from Lord of the Rings.  He's a bad guy doing bad guy stuff (we know he's bad because his lightsaber is red and has a curvy handle for no reason) and he speaks all evil-like.  So Obi Wan and Anakin are fighting him and not doing so well, getting singed pretty badly or, in Anakin's case, losing your hand.  But then Yoda shows up.  And this isn't the same Yoda we usually know, this is badass, crazy spider monkey Yoda.  I had actually forgotten this until it started, then I distinctly remember laughing during this part when Yoda suddenly starts flipping all over the place and going insane with his lightsaber.  And when I say I laughed, I actually don't mean because I thought it was ridiculous and dumb, I thought it was pretty cool. 

Anyway, good guys win, bad guys lose, but Clone Wars have begun or whatever.  Oh, and then at the end Anakin and Padme get married.  I guess we're supposed to be happy about that but since this is the worst love story of all time, it probably would've made just as much sense if either of them had married Artoo.  And my final gripe with that is Anakin's prosthetic hand.  I get that this is like 20 years or so before the OT, but given how every other bit of technology in these movies seems just as advanced (or even better) than what we had seen before, it just seems hard to believe that at this point in time he had that ridiculous fake hand when not too long after his son had a hand that was basically human. 

I don't really remember what I thought of this when I first saw it.  I'm sure I hated the love story and thought that was terrible, but I'm not sure just how much I disliked it.  I don't think I tried to make myself like it or held onto the same level of denial as I did after the first one.  At this point I think I'd maybe come to terms with the fact that these movies were generally going to be pretty bad.  And once again I was left wondering what the heck it was all about anyway.  And wondering what else they could've done to make it better.  Just so much worse than the OT. 

So, that's it, I finally watched this crappy movie again.  The love story is as bad or worse than you remember.  The plot is as convoluted as ever.  The acting is just as bad, except for Obi Wan.  The CGI makes you feel like you're watching a cartoon.  But there are a few ok moments, at least.  Not enough to make it a good movie, but whatever.  Maybe now I'll have an easier time answering the prequel questions on my Star Wars DVD Trivial Pursuit if anyone would ever play it with me. 

As mentioned, I'll be watching Revenge of the Sith soon, but not for another week or so because I'll be quite busy, but I'll get to it.  Especially since I know that one has a fair amount of good moments in it.  Like, 5% good moments, 95% bad as opposed to the even more skewed ratios in the first two, but I'm not as annoyed at the prospect of watching that one as the other two. 

I Finally Watched My Episode I Blu Ray

It's been 15 years now since your hopes and dreams were smashed and replaced with the huge disappointment that was Star Wars: Episode I.  That makes this particular rant more than a little bit outdated, but it's been nearly that long since I seriously sat down and watched the entire thing and since we are fairly well hurting for content on here lately, I'm going to go ahead and write at least a few of my thoughts.

First, it's kind of amazing that it has been nearly two years since I got my box set of these and am just now getting around to sitting down and re-watching the prequels.  I told myself that I would at some point sit down and watch them all again, and for some strange reason yesterday I finally decided to go ahead and pop this one in.  Aside from glimpsing a few scenes here and there during those almost monthly Star Wars weekends where they show all of the movies on Spike, I haven't watched this one since my VHS copy that I'm sure I tried to force myself to like just because it was Star Wars before finally having to admit to myself that it is complete crap. 

So, what did my recent viewing remind me?  That yes, it's still pretty darn bad.  Half of it plays off like a cartoon or a video game.  I mean, I literally felt like I was watching the intro scenes on my nephew's Lego Star Wars game a few times.  It's really hard to feel anything for characters when you don't feel like anything you're watching is real.  And it still astounds me that space battles created with visual effects in 1977 can look more realistic than the cartoon CGI creations in this.  I've said it before and I'll say it again here: the special effects in the OT were used as a service to tell the story and were quite well done and never felt like showing off or overdoing it.  This whole movie seems like a commercial for ILM to show how far technology has come and how much more they can do now.  The only problem is that none of it looks real.  I think in the back of our minds we know when we're watching ANH that we're not actually seeing an X-wing flying through the trench of the Death Star, but it just looks so much more tangible.  In this movie there is not a moment where we mistake what we're looking at for anything but computer generated. 

Jar Jar might be worse than I remember him.  Not just the cutesy comic relief, but the fact that for absolutely no reason at all he is given the rank of general and left to help lead a pretty important battle.  Really?  Um, yeah.  But hey, he goes on to wipe out lots and lots of battle droids totally by accident.  Seriously, he does absolutely nothing due to any bit of competence and only takes them out because he gets his foot tangled in some wires or something.  Look, it was kind of funny when Han Solo "killed" (debatable, I guess we'll find out soon if he did or not) Boba Fett by accidentally hitting him while he was blinded, sending him into the Sarlacc pit.  But I think we would've lost a lot of respect for Han if everything he did was accidental.

Oh, Jake Lloyd.  Look, I feel bad for the kid because I'm sure he did the best that he could and was just following George Lucas's terrible direction.  He never should've been cast in the first place.  I really find it difficult to believe that there wasn't a better choice out there.  Or even a hundred better choices.  In the history of movies with important child leads there are plenty of examples of kids who you almost wouldn't even guess were "acting."  So it seems impossible to me that there were literally no other kids out there who could've done a better job. 

And the plot and the trade routes and senate and no confidence votes and... what the heck was going on there?  Maybe it's just because it all bores me so much I don't pay enough attention, but all of that crap is just plain confusing.  I'm not even entirely sure what the final battle was all about beyond the fact that the people of Naboo/Gungans are the good guys and the... uh, other guys (the ones with the vaguely Asian accents) were the bad guys and the Emperor, or at this point, Darth Sidious, had something to do with them.  I don't want to watch it again to see if I can make this all more clear, but it's possible that before Episode VII comes out I'll try and have a marathon viewing and watch all six movies again.  We'll see. 

If you didn't recall, Episode I originally had a puppet Yoda before they moved to CGI starting with Episode II, but for the blu ray they made him CGI again.  Somehow even 1999 puppet Yoda looked less good than 1980 puppet Yoda, so this change doesn't really bother me aside from knowing that Frank Oz must be kind of annoyed that he had to do all that work for nothing when ultimately all you get of his performance is his voice which surely doesn't require awkward positions and cramming himself into small, hidden spaces for. 

I'd swear George Lucas forced Natalie Portman to have the most monotone voice in the history of the universe.  All of her dialog is stilted and awkward, and I'm sure none of that is her fault but all due to direction and the fact that the dialog is terrible.  That said, Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor actually somehow manage to do a decent job and not look like they can't believe they have to be in this ridiculous movie. 

Darth Maul is still kind of cool and it's actually kind of too bad that he had to die in this movie and couldn't be used later.  The lightsaber fight is also pretty impressive.  It also makes me laugh a few times throughout as even though we only saw this movie a few times, there are a few lines my brother and cousins and I quote to each other here and there, when applicable.  I mean, seriously dumb, mundane lines but when said in the correct tone of voice and accent they cause laughter because we all know exactly where it's coming from.  (Example: "You catch on pretty quick."  See?  Why would that make anyone laugh?  But for us it does.) 

The same stuff still makes me roll my eyes though.  Midichlorians, Anakin is Jesus because he has no father (are you kidding me?) Anakin built C-3PO, Obi Wan wasn't trained by Yoda, Samuel L. Jackson is awesome but spends the entire movie just kind of sitting there.... ugh, it's impossible to list all of the reasons, and you've all been there and it's been covered endlessly, but I just figured I'd write out a few of my thoughts on seeing it for the first time in a while. 

I do believe it would be impossible to make a movie this disappointing again.  So, we can hold out hope that Episode VII won't be anything like this.  Hopefully we will be given some characters to care about, we will for sure get to see some of our old favorites, and preferably we will be happy with what has become of them at this point.  We can probably also be sure that we will not get another Jar Jar-esque character.  Admittedly the other day out of nowhere I started thinking that we might get to see Han Solo and Chewbacca flying the Falcon together again, and whatever else may happen, that's pretty awesome. 

So that's it, I finally got around to watching The Phantom Menace.  Remember when they revealed that title and we were all like, huh.  I mean, it doesn't even make sense.  Shouldn't it be something about the Chosen One or something?  The title of the movie just indicates that even they don't know what it was really supposed to be about.  Anyway, I may watch Attack of the Clones tonight if I'm feeling up for it, although I'll need a nap first or else it will surely put me to sleep.  This will be good, because I really and truly don't remember what the heck this movie was about, either.  I'll be sure to let you know when I find out.

Happy Birthday, Harrison!

It's that time of year again: Harrison Ford's birthday!  Hard to believe the man is 72 today.  I realized this also means that he is more than twice as old as he was when he first appeared as Han Solo.  Crazy. 

Also, for any of you who are not aware or keeping tabs on his recovery from his broken leg and the subsequent filming delays, there are photos circulating of him walking around on this sort of peg leg thing where he rests his weight on his upper leg, but not the lower.  I've never seen such a contraption but thought it was a very encouraging sign that he will recover relatively quickly.  This way he is still basically walking around, still putting weight on that leg, just not the lower part of it, which means he will probably not lose much in terms of muscle atrophy, etc.  I also suspect it could make things easier to shoot from the waist up if needed.  I did read that he has taken quickly to it and will, as we all would suspect, bounce back faster than most.  So even at 72, he's still doing pretty darn well for himself.

Production will also be taking a two week break in August to give him some time to heal.  I suspect this means that any of those reports that said that he would be out for six months are lies, as by the end of that time frame we'd be coming up on 8 weeks since this happened, right within the 6-8 week range we were initially, and subsequently "officially" given on how long he'd be out for.  This news felt rather encouraging, and I suspect they may not have to alter things as much as I feared or even at all except maybe framing certain shots.  There were a lot of panic inducing "articles" circulating without much factual basis about writing him out of the movie or drastically reducing his role, and none of that appears to be true. 

But anyway, today's his birthday and as a fellow Cancer, happy birthday, Harrison!  Can't wait to see you as Han Solo again.

Helpful Article on Writing

Once upon a time we used to write a lot of posts about actual writing.  That was actually kind of the intent of the blog in general, although we meandered off on a lot of often fun sidetracks.  It's been a very long time since we discussed writing in and of itself, but I just came across this article that I thought had some simple but also very useful tips on writing.  I'll link it here rather than copying and pasting, but it is six tips on writing from John Steinbeck.  Push, especially, I thought of you quite a bit when reading some of these.  One tip in particular talks about moving on from a particular scene that is giving you trouble, which is something I've told her to do on occasion.  It doesn't do you any good to spend all of your time hung up on one scene and never getting anywhere, especially when you have a clear idea of what the rest will look like. 

Where have you gotten your best advice on writing?  Do you try to make yourselves better or do you just write and not worry about it?  Personally, I always want it to be better.  Sadly this often means I'll go back and cringe at older things I've written, but it can also inspire you to do better and figure out how not to make the same mistakes.  I do wonder though if for some there is just a natural gift for words that cannot be taught or learned.  And then there is the fact that some people have their own distinct style of writing.  For me, if I wasn't trying to be better at it, I'd just write for myself and not share it with other people.  Although it's difficult to be a story teller without an audience.

Anyway, hopefully you got some good tips in there and I'd be interested to hear if others read about writing or study it at all or if you just go out and write and don't care what anyone thinks.

Not So Great News From the Set of Episode VII

Well, things haven't started out so well on principal photography on the set of Episode VII.  The photo above is obviously from ROTJ, when they actually made it through without injuring anyone terribly.  If you haven't heard, Harrison Ford has apparently been fairly badly injured on set.  The exact details are unclear, but based on what's been going around so far he has a broken ankle from a hydraulic door that fell on him (some reports say it was the door of the Falcon, others say it was just some door on set) and it will require surgery and 6-8 weeks of recovery and therefore not shooting. 

While this news is bad, we can only hope that it is not terrible and more of a pain and a delay than anything tragic.  First of all, let's be glad it didn't land on the man's head.  I suppose we can also sort of be glad that if the cause of the injury is true, then it means that we can't really blame it on him being old and not able to do the same things he used to do, because if something falls on you, I don't care how old you are, you're probably going to break a bone.  The news is still fairly vague but they are telling us that it will require schedule juggling and moving a lot of things around, but filming should still be completed on schedule.  I only hope this doesn't shrink his role or severely limit him even when he does come back.  As you can imagine, with an unsafe set the rest of the cast is not happy, and I'd imagine he won't be thrilled when he comes back either.  It will be interesting once we get the real story.

It's slightly more concerning that he has been in the hospital since it happened on Friday.  There were other reports floating around about a pelvis injury but that has been denied.  Time will tell.  I feel bad for the guy but this is far from the first time he has had something bad happen on set.  He wrecked one knee on Raiders, he destroyed his back on Temple of Doom, he wrecked his other knee on The Fugitive.  I know on ToD he was off set for many weeks and had surgery and came back, so we know that they can make things work even when he's the star of the film and in every scene, let alone when they can adjust the schedule and probably shoot plenty of scenes without him.  Then again, he was 30 years younger working on that movie, but let's not think about that. 

So, unfortunate news for sure, but hopefully not devastating.  If we find out that the schedule was merely rearranged and we won't notice a difference when the movie comes out, I'll be happy.  I just hope it doesn't change anything.  And again, I do feel bad for him since nothing like that should be happening on a set!

How Much Do You Want to Know Before it Comes Out?

So, by now we are all hearing bits and pieces of actual news about this movie.  It is becoming more and more real that it is actually happening, and now we can at least relax in the knowledge that our favorite characters are, in fact, coming back.  And likely in fairly substantial roles (especially one ex smuggler in particular).  But I find myself wondering how much and what I really want to know before it comes out.

Many of you are probably hearing these rumors swirling around that Han Solo will die.  Now, I think I said a long, long time ago, when all we knew was that there would be a new movie and that our favorite characters would likely be back, that if done well, I could live with that.  I don't really want to argue over whether or not that is something they should do, because they're going to do what they're going to do there and there is nothing we can do to change it.  I'm more curious to know how "spoiled" you all want to be going into this movie.

I have mixed feelings here.  I know for a fact that I do not want to know everything.  I mean, how fun would that be?  I also know for sure that what I mostly wanted to know was that Han, Leia and Luke would be back, and that Han and Leia would be an old, married couple.  Since that fact has been basically verified, I am feeling a lot more at ease and a lot less interested in scouring movie news for information.  I think we are all also basically assuming that at least one of the young actors will be their child, so that also makes me happy.

Beyond that?  I'm not sure what I want to know.  Back when Episode I was coming out, it was truly exciting.  I was in college at the time and the internet was just starting to become a thing that you really used quite a bit, though not quite as big that you spent hours and hours on it like we do now.  Although that was probably just because it moved a lot slower.  I was so excited for these prequels, and had also felt much like I do now, that I'd never get to see a new Star Wars movie.  I made a conscious decision to try not to read/see too much about it before it came out so I could go in with fresh eyes and see it all as new and exciting.  So I could really see it all unfold before my eyes.  I remember that the first trailer coming out was a huge deal, but I don't remember if I let myself watch it or not.  I probably did, but after that, I'd avert my eyes when it was shown on TV.  I would save magazine articles to read later, after I'd seen it.  I never looked at message boards or web sites that would tell me anything about it.  Although to be fair, at the time I don't think I ever went on message boards anyway.

So, I went in with those fresh eyes.  And I wound up being bitterly disappointed.  Well, not at first.  Honestly, at first, I think we all wanted so badly to like it that we wouldn't admit even to ourselves let alone out loud that we didn't really like it.  We'd waited our entire lives to see it, and it was mostly crap.  It was hard to really accept that, let it sink in, and vocalize it to see if everyone else felt the same way.  But oh, it was painful.

I don't expect this one to be nearly as painful.  Now, do I expect it to be amazing?  Right now, no.  I won't let myself get my hopes up.  But I do know I'm debating in my head what I want to know going in.  I already know the most important things, that Han and Leia are still together and have at least one child.  Do I want to know more beyond that?  If Han Solo is going to die, do I want to know that before I see it?  I don't know!  Although honestly, if that is slated to happen, I actually would find it hard to believe that a living soul could go into that movie and not already know that.  The internet is a crazy place, and for better or worse, information like that would be impossible to keep under wraps.  I mean, if we had the internet in 1980 I'd be willing to bet that most people would've known before they saw ESB that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father.  I think it's kind of sad that we've lost the element of surprise, but it is what it is and there's no going back.

But still, will I avert my eyes when the trailers come on?  Will I be able to not watch clips that are shown before it comes out?  Will I try not to see much media before?  I still don't know.  I will say though, I've had this thought in my head that sooner or later there will be the first shots of Han and Leia as their old, married selves, and I'm not sure I'll be able to not look at that, or contain my ridiculous excitement upon seeing it.  But specific plot details?  I don't know!

Have any of you given any thought to this?  I'm all about spoilers when it comes to things I don't care about that much, but if it's something I really want to see, I kind of like to be surprised.  I just wonder how surprised I'll really let myself be.  Really it'd probably just be easier to go into a coma tomorrow and wake up in December of 2015 but then, well, that's actually probably a terrible idea.  

May the Fourth Be With You!

 

Happy Star Wars day, everyone!  Would you have believed a year ago that we'd have just now found out some of the awesome news on Episode VII?  Me, neither.  Then again, two years ago I'm sure none of us had any hope that there might be another movie in the first place, so at least sometimes there are good surprises.  Anyone doing anything good to celebrate?  I'll admit, I unfortunately have had a crazy busy day and I've been traveling so I am not even wearing a Star Wars t-shirt.  Lame, I'm terrible this year.  But I'm at least relieved to have heard some movie news, and think it's just awesome that they are about to start shooting scenes with Han and Leia.  I mean, how amazing is that?

Anyone watch The Big Bang Theory?  I'm not an avid watcher and really only saw a whole episode probably like a year ago.  At which point I was like, how have I not been watching this show all along?  So much geeky goodness.  But anyway, last week they had a Star Wars Day themed episode.  It wasn't the greatest but there were a few funny references only fans like us would understand.  I've also heard that the show The Goldbergs, which is a family comedy set in the 80s, also had a Star Wars themed show I haven't had a chance to check out yet.  Honestly though, if you love the 80s, you should check that show out.  I've found it highly entertaining.  It's sort of like The Wonder Years but a little bit less serious. 

Not much else to say here since we're all still hung up on casting news and such, but it didn't seem right to let such an important day pass without a post.  So, happy Star Wars day and May the Fourth be with you!