Your First "Star Wars" Experience

I honestly was sure there would be a topic on this here, but I can't find one, so my apologies if I missed it.

I had a very interesting discussion with some friends of mine about this, and I wanted to hear of some of your guys' experiences.

What was your first "Star Wars" experience?  As in, how did you "find" the films, which one did you first watch, etc?

For me, I was around 4 or 5 so this must have been in 1993 or 1994 - I was walking into the kitchen after bedtime, to get a glass of water.  I looked at my parents in the living room, and they were watching something on TV.  I looked to see what it was, and a monstrous, ugly, horrific creature was being crushed by a huge metal gate, and a bunch of equally strange-looking creatures were shocked at this.

I asked my parents what this was, and they said "Star Wars."  I wanted to watch it with them, but they said it was too late and it was partway through.  I asked if we owned them, and they said no, but my grandma did.

So the next time I was at my grandma's house, I asked her if she had "Star Wars," and if we could watch it.  It was a pan & scan, early-90s VHS (the one right before the "Faces" set came out).  We watched it.

The only thing I can remember about my first time seeing "Star Wars," other than how enthralled and amazed by it I was, was how cheated I felt that no giant greature was crushed by a gate in it.  I was furious that my parents had lied to me.

My grandma explained to me that they had been watching the third movie.

The third movie?  There were more than one?  Yes, she said, there were three.  I instantly wanted to watch the rest, right then.

Some weeks later, we watched "Empire."  I liked it, but it terrified me, and the ending made me feel sick.  I asked her if the next one was as scary, and she said "yes and no ... it's like a mix of the first two."

We watched that one later, and I honestly can say that when I was a kid I loved every aspect of that movie.  The dark parts were awesome but not scary like ESB, there was a space battle like in the first one, AND there was a ground fight like in ESB!  Granted, both were smaller, but hey, you get BOTH!  AND a lightsaber fight!  All at once!  And it was funny, too!

Today, I realize how I loved it then for the very reasons I don't like it now.

Then I saw the SEs in theaters in 1997, when I was 8, and thought everything that was NEW! about them was AWESOME just because it was new.  Plus, I got to see it on a giant screen!

And the SE VHS tapes introduced me to the concept of widescreen movies (that and "Titanic").

When Episode I came out on 1999, I was 10, and I saw it on opening day.  I remember feeling weird afterwards, but hey, Jar Jar was kinda funny, and Darth Maul was a badass!  But I was confused about why Jedi were suddenly so violent about everything, and what flashy fighters they were.

Similar story to Episode II.  The love story bothered me a lot, but I liked the war!  I was irritated that Yoda was CG now - the beginning of my distaste for CGI.

Episode III, I was 16, and I disliked everything about it, except the scenes of the extermination of the Jedi (though I was upset that that had been done so quickly in one montage).

Well, that's me.  You don't have to mention all 6 movies if you don't want to, I just kinda got carried away.

I first got introduced to Star Wars through they toy figures. I saw them in a shop and was fascinated by them. I convinced my grandmother to buy me one (Hoth stormtrooper, cool outfit) and I wanted to know about the story behind them. So, on the very same day, I was brought to ANH (which nobody in their right mind called ANH back then). That was in 81. In 82 I saw ANH and ESB in a double bill, which was cool. I saw ROTJ in 83. I loved those films and I spent the earlier 80s obsessed with Star Wars.

When the SE came out in 97, it for some reason it didn't fully sink in that my beloved films were being replaced, despite the "One Last Time" VHS campaign which indicated that the OOT VHS would no longer be available. I mean, I was aware they were being replaced, but the awareness didn't go very deep in me. Thus it didn't create the concern or outrage it should have. I still thought well of Georgie back then. I thus was in a mindset to be tolerant of his outrageous mutilations of the OT. I have trouble understanding my mindset of the time. But a significant factor was that I was very pleased to see the OT on the big screen again and proud to see that my old favorites were a success in the modern era. For old Star Wars fans it was kind of like a party celebrating what we loved, so much so that some us paid too little attention to the fact that what we loved was getting buried.

I remained optimistic for the PT, when I should really have been quaking with dread. When TPM came out I was disappointed by it, but not massively. I was ok with it. In some ways I liked it. I was still in a go-along-with-what-George-does-he's-the-great-guy-who-created-Star-Wars mentality. And I was a big fan of Liam Neeson, so that went in the movie's favor with me. That was in 99 of course. In 2002, I saw Attack of the Bloody Fucking Clones and I woke up. The film struck me as being completely devoid of anything worthwhile. This was when I realized Star Wars was fucked. After AOTC I didn't expect much from ROTS, but when Revenge of the Shit came along what I saw on the screen was worse than even what I had expected.

See how a cheerful post about how I got to know Star Wars turned into an account of my reaction to George's destruction of SW? That's the mark of what's been done to Star Wars. The history of Star Wars is a history of beautiful greatness falling down into tragic fuckup. Jeez George, why did you have to do that?