kbrearey

I remember being very excited for Episode I.  My older brothers and I grew up on Star Wars and, when we were younger, had many of the toys and would use them to act out our favorite scenes from the films (or create our own).  Being born in 1978, I never got to see the original version of the first film on the big screen, and I don't remember seeing ESB (although my parents tell me they took me to a screening of the film.)  I do, however, have great memories of seeing Return of the Jedi on the big screen, but even then, I was only 5 and my memory doesn't serve me as well as it could if I was even a few years older.  So aside from this experience, this is the first time I was getting to see a new Star Wars film on the big screen.

The commercials and trailers were amazing and I remember feeling that the film would be great after seeing them (Although seeing Darth Maul's dual sided lightsaber was disappointing as I felt that would have been a cool reveal in the film itself.)

As far as the hype, though, I loved it.  I lived in it.  I was totally excited and wanted to read every magazine article I could find, look at every picture, watch every news report.  Again, this was the first new Star Wars I was going to REALLY experience in my life time.  I stopped myself short of reading spoilers as I did want to go into the film fresh.  The images in magazines and the trailers were teaser enough to get me there and I wanted to experience the story by watching it on the big screen.

My brothers and I saw it on opening day at an evening showing (as we all had to work and couldn't go at midnight).  Everyone in the theater cheered as loudly as they could when the Star Wars logo retreated into the stars at the beginning of the movie.  Everyone was hyped....everyone was excited.......and I can't tell the rest of the story as you have asked for no bashing in this thread........So, I will leave it at that.

Xizor was a waste of a character, really.  It's been a while since I read "Shadows.." but from what I remember, Xizor's main ambition was to make Vader look like a fool so that he could be the Emperor's second in command.  Why go to all that effort to be someone's lackey?  Why not have ambitions to overthrow the Emperor?  It was entertaining enough to get me through the book, but was completely illogical.  Thrawn may have been annoying at times and the Ysalmiri (sp?) were a stretch for me, but at least Thrawn was a badass.  Not a waste like Xizor.