Ten Years
Ten years ago today, I was anxiously waiting for the school day to end so I could rush home and beg my mother, for the hundredth time, to take us to see Episode I. Yes, I had to wait two long, agonizing days after it premiered. I was possibly the only senior in my high school who didn't my own car, which had never bothered me much before, but now I was entirely dependent on my parents to see this long-awaited movie, and my mom hates crowds. Two days. I had heard the spoiler-filled conversations of people talking about it at school, people who couldn't possibly be as freakishly obsessed as I was. Oh, the pain. :P
Well, on the 21st I finally managed to convince my mom that the crowds and long lines wouldn't be too awful, and I really, really, really wanted to see it, please, please please??? So we went.
It was crowded, but the wait wasn't too bad. There were plenty of showings, after all. I remember sitting there, breathlessly waiting. There was some commercial thingy for a sound system with a prolonged aerial shot of a jungle, and for a few confused moments I thought "Is this the movie? Is this how it starts?" And then realizing there would have to be the familiar Lucasfilm logo and all the other trappings. Whew!
It wouldn't have taken too much to impress me, really. I just wanted an opening crawl, spaceships, Jedi and lightsabers, the Force, and familiar names with younger faces. Well, I got that. And plenty more. I loved it. I sat there watching Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan being awesome and realizing "This is my first viewing, my first impression, of a Star Wars movie. I'll never see it the first time again." I don't quite remember my first viewings or my first impressions of the original trilogy - I first watched them before I was fully self-aware. ;)
I didn't like Jar Jar. I thought he was over-the-top, a mistake in an otherwise excellent movie. It took time, and the random decision to write a fan fic from Jar Jar's point of view, to establish me firmly in the pro-Gungan camp. But I was otherwise absolutely delighted. The Jedi, sweet little Anakin, sneaky Palpatine, enigmatic Amidala (I had seen just enough spoilers to know who Padmé really was). I was only able to watch it two more times, with friends, before I went to college, but when it showed up in my college's dollar theater, I watched it another seven times. And when it came out on VHS, the count went up to 40 before I lost track. ;)
It's interesting looking at when the prequels came out alongside what was happening in my own life at the time. When Episode I came out, I was preparing for college, that first big step away from home. The way Anakin is torn between leaving for exciting adventures with Qui-Gon, and devastated to leave his mother behind? I got that. Only I was eighteen rather than nine, so it was a little easier. ;) When Episode II came out, I had just gotten married. And I had just given birth shortly before Episode III. A lot has happened in these ten years, both in Star Wars fandom and in my own life.
During my second semester at college, I found my way to theforce.net and plunged headfirst into Internet fandom. I wrote mountains of fanfic, participated in many a discussion about the new territory Episode I had opened up for us, and made myself a cloak patterned after those worn by the handmaidens on Coruscant. :) Since then I've left (run away screaming from) Tf.n, but I have a lovely small circle of fellow fans here on livejournal, and I still write the occasional fanfic. And I wear my cloak when I want to turn a few heads. It's good to be a fan.
Well, on the 21st I finally managed to convince my mom that the crowds and long lines wouldn't be too awful, and I really, really, really wanted to see it, please, please please??? So we went.
It was crowded, but the wait wasn't too bad. There were plenty of showings, after all. I remember sitting there, breathlessly waiting. There was some commercial thingy for a sound system with a prolonged aerial shot of a jungle, and for a few confused moments I thought "Is this the movie? Is this how it starts?" And then realizing there would have to be the familiar Lucasfilm logo and all the other trappings. Whew!
It wouldn't have taken too much to impress me, really. I just wanted an opening crawl, spaceships, Jedi and lightsabers, the Force, and familiar names with younger faces. Well, I got that. And plenty more. I loved it. I sat there watching Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan being awesome and realizing "This is my first viewing, my first impression, of a Star Wars movie. I'll never see it the first time again." I don't quite remember my first viewings or my first impressions of the original trilogy - I first watched them before I was fully self-aware. ;)
I didn't like Jar Jar. I thought he was over-the-top, a mistake in an otherwise excellent movie. It took time, and the random decision to write a fan fic from Jar Jar's point of view, to establish me firmly in the pro-Gungan camp. But I was otherwise absolutely delighted. The Jedi, sweet little Anakin, sneaky Palpatine, enigmatic Amidala (I had seen just enough spoilers to know who Padmé really was). I was only able to watch it two more times, with friends, before I went to college, but when it showed up in my college's dollar theater, I watched it another seven times. And when it came out on VHS, the count went up to 40 before I lost track. ;)
It's interesting looking at when the prequels came out alongside what was happening in my own life at the time. When Episode I came out, I was preparing for college, that first big step away from home. The way Anakin is torn between leaving for exciting adventures with Qui-Gon, and devastated to leave his mother behind? I got that. Only I was eighteen rather than nine, so it was a little easier. ;) When Episode II came out, I had just gotten married. And I had just given birth shortly before Episode III. A lot has happened in these ten years, both in Star Wars fandom and in my own life.
During my second semester at college, I found my way to theforce.net and plunged headfirst into Internet fandom. I wrote mountains of fanfic, participated in many a discussion about the new territory Episode I had opened up for us, and made myself a cloak patterned after those worn by the handmaidens on Coruscant. :) Since then I've left (run away screaming from) Tf.n, but I have a lovely small circle of fellow fans here on livejournal, and I still write the occasional fanfic. And I wear my cloak when I want to turn a few heads. It's good to be a fan.