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Post #346892

Author
C3PX
Parent topic
The People VS George Lucas teaser trailer
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/346892/action/topic#346892
Date created
26-Feb-2009, 5:37 PM

You didn't offend me in anyway. It might be a generational thing to some degree, though it goes much deeper than that.

I have written countless analogies for this whole matter before, but no matter how many I write, some people still don't get it. They still think some of us ought to get over it and accept what Star Wars has become, rather than wanting what it was to us.

I know this is meaningless, and it isn't going to convince anybody, but I thought of a really great analogy today, and might as well type it up.

For those who just can't quite wrap your head around the OT Star Wars fan, those of you who constantly think, "I just don't get these obsesses old lunatics!", please imagine yourself in the following scenario:

Jorge's Famous Three Layered Cake

Imagine a fellow named Jorge Lewis. Jorge Lewis is a cake maker at a local bakery. You hear from one of your friends that Jorge makes a really excellent chocolate cake (if you don't like chocolate cake, then imagine your favorite type of cake instead). You go to his bakery and try it out, and yeah, it is a pretty amazing cake. Suddenly you are a huge advocate of Jorge and his delicious cakes. You go around telling everyone about them. They are so great you just can't shut up about how good they are. You pass people on the street and happen to hear them talking about needing to order a cake, and you stop and say, "Excuse me, but I couldn't help but over hear you say you needed to buy a cake, well check this Jorge Lewis guy out, he makes an amazing cake!" You probably just crept those people out, but you don't care, because you discovered something amazing, and you just can't keep it to yourself, you have to share it.

Eventually Jorge comes out with a two layered cake, and it too is amazing. You go on loving this cake and telling everyone about it. It is an incredible cake, and now it comes in two layers! After a small passage of time, Jorge adds a third layer. Three wonderful layers of chocolaty goodness! You and all your friends agree: Jorge's three layered chocolate cake may very well be the greatest tasting thing on earth. Jorge's three layered chocolate cake is so amazingly, wonderfully, fantastic, it renders all other chocolate cakes inedible. Anytime you eat any other kind of chocolate cake, no matter how good it is, you simply can't shake the feeling that you are experiencing a cheap knock-off, or that you are settling for second best. Jorge's three layered cake has set the standard for cakes as far as you are concerned, and it is pretty hard for anything else to live up to it.

After years of loving Jorge's three layered chocolate cake, after having it at every single one of your birthdays, and for holidays and special occasions, you have never grown tired of this cake. You love it, plain and simple. And you love Jorge for having brought it into your life. It is one of those small pleasures that you just wouldn't want to do without. It is a really good cake.

One day, you enter Jorge's shop to buy one of these wonderful three layered stacks of sugary goodness, and excitedly he tells you he has something new. For years he has wanted to put frosting on these cakes, but has never quite been able to get the frosting right. Until now. You have loved his three layered cake from the very beginning, you had never imagined what it would be like with frosting. It had always just kind of been frosting less, and you had always just kind of figured it was always meant to be that way. "Finally, my cake is completed! Finally it is the way I have always imagined it to be! This, my friend! This! Is the cake I have always intended for you to have had when buying from my bakery! This is the way I always envisioned my famous three layered cake being. My apologies for all those subpar cakes you purchased from me in the past, but one bite of this will make it up to you. At last, my cake is perfect!"

Jorge is really excited about the new cake. You stay around and chat with him for a bit, tell him the new cake looks very impressive and you can't wait to try it, and congratulate him on finally finding the right frosting; something that apparently he had been looking for for a very long time. All these years you'd been too busy enjoying the cake to even really consider the fact that it lacked frosting. Oh well, this new cake sure looks good!

You get home, cut yourself a piece, and bite into it. Not bad. Not bad at all really. An interesting change, something new, a little bit of variety. However, as you go on eating for a few more bites, you start thinking to yourself that it is a little bit too sweet for your taste. The new cake isn't awful by any means, but it just isn't the wonderful three layered cake you fell in love with.

The next time you are ready to buy one of Jorge's cakes, you go to him and say, "Alright Jorge, I'd like to order another one of those fantastic three layered cakes of yours. Only this time, could you hold the frosting--"

"What? Hold the frosting? Are you nuts? No! I am not doing it! I won't hold the frosting for you! My famous three layered cake you love so much has frosting on it now, and that is all there is to it, (insert your name here)!

You're kind of surprised. You didn't think the request was that big of a deal. You didn't think it would offend him. After all, he was the mastermind behind the original three layered chocolate cake, the fact that you love that thing he invented so much should be flattering to him. "Well, Jorge, it is just that the cake with the frosting on it is a little too sweet for my taste, and--"

"Too sweet? This is my cake, this is the way it is. That other cake you used to order, it doesn't exist anymore. If you really want that cake, well, let’s just hope you have an old slice or two left in your refrigerator, because that is the only way you are getting any."

"Alright Jorge, fine. I didn't mean to cause a fuss, I'm sorry. I'll go ahead order one of your cakes with frosting."

"Very good! That'll be $18.50. Thank you! Come again."

You get home and sit down to enjoy of piece of the cake, but it really is just too rich for your taste. You don't enjoy it like you did. It is no longer the cake that made you want to run out and tell complete strangers about what a wonderful cake it was. In fact, now when you compare it to those other cakes that you always felt never added up or came anywhere close to Jorge's cake, those other cakes don't fair so badly anymore. You even begin to prefer some of those other cakes over Jorge's. You'd have never in a million years have imagined that happening. It wasn't that those other cakes were getting so much better, but that with this overly sweet frosting on Jorge's cake, it just wasn't as good as it used to be (in your humble opinion).

You try scraping the frosting off with a butter knife, but the frosting is laid on so thickly, that it has been absorbed by the cake. No matter what you do to try to alter the cake yourself, it just isn’t that old cake you once loved so much.

After sometime, you decide to try again, "Jorge! Boy, your cakes sure are delicious! You know, the other day I was thinking about that old three layered cake you used to make. You know the one, before the frosting and all..."

"Fine!"

"Fine? Fine what? You'll sell me one of your original unaltered three layer cakes?"

"Yes. I will. I am sure you won't like it much, it was a pretty bad tasting cake, not even sure why you want it, but I'll sale you one. Just don't come complaining to me when you realize how awful it is."

"Thanks Jorge! This is great! Thank you so much!"

Jorge goes into the back and after a while returns with two cake boxes. One contains a beautiful looking frosted chocolate cake, and the other contains the cake you have been dreaming of, Jorge's famous three layered cake, sans the frosting... only, it is covered in frost.

"Jorge, what is up with the cake?" you ask politely.

"Oh, it is from the freezer. I found a bunch of these frozen in the back of my freezer, they’re left over from a big party I catered sometime last year. Been frozen for a year or so now, but I am sure you will still like it. I mean, you liked these things well enough when they were all gross, frosting less, and unfinished, seems like you'll like anything. That'll be $36.99.

"$36.99?!"

"Yeah, didn't I mention? You have to buy one of my new frosted cakes along with the year old freezer burnt one. So many customers were requesting the old frosting less cakes; by selling them together we will get to see which cake they really like. Freezer burnt crap, or, my delicious frosted cake. In the end, we will see which one you guys really like. Thanks! Come again."

So, after years of elevating this man to the level of "divine cake maker" and running around as one of his biggest advocates, literally annoying all your friends and family about this cake and nearly force feeding it to them, years of refusing to buy cake from anyone else, deciding that there are no other cakes worth eating, and feeling that no baker would ever be as good as Jorge, you walk away from the bakery feeling just a small twang of resentment toward the man. Jorge could easily sell you a fresh baked cake without the frosting, but for whatever reason, he simply won’t. Not even for you, a valued long term customer and a friend. Instead, he sells you worthless left over frozen year old cakes that most bakeries would have just thrown away. Not only did he sell it to you, but he made you buy one of his fancy new frosted cakes with it. Not only that, but you realize you wanted that old frozen cake so badly that you barely even hesitated to buy the frosted cake alongside it.
 
You feel kind of ripped off and cheated. Jorge and his products had meant so much to you, for some reason you thought you somehow meant something to Jorge. Guess not. Yeah, no use denying it, you feel a little resentful. You know what might make you feel better? Going home and cutting yourself a slice of that original famous three layered chocolate cake... after it thaws out.