Anchorhead said:
The twenty-somethings who came into Star Wars after it was a finished entity are no different than the twenty-somethings who discovered Indiana Jones after the original three were a completed entity. The experience of (and the reaction to) a story that took some of us eight years to watch, is going to be inherently different than it is for someone seeing all of it in just six hours.
For us, there were several years between films. Those years were full of life experiences - new friends, new schools, driving, girls, jobs, first apartments, new films to discover, etc, etc. We went into each film as a different person than we were three or four years earlier.
To the twenty-somethings seeing it all at once and for the first time, ten years after it's completed, they bring a single view point into that initial experience. That view point is who they are that day, not who they were becoming over the course of a decade.
Thankyou for this Anchorhead. I enjoy reading posts that clarify your personal Star Wars experience as I feel they give me a larger understanding of the Star Wars community as a whole. I would say it is not just twenty-somethings that these statements speak to but a majority of us, even if we did experience the theatrical runs.
The reason you are one of the posters I have made a point of questioning is precisely because your view is outside "the norm" for this forum, and reading accounts of your experiences and perspectives helps me to better examine and understand my own; hopefully in a more objective fashion. By having a narrower focus you have broadened my Star Wars universe in your own way.
I also came for the preservations and stayed for the lols :P In addition I appreciate the knowledge, expertise, sense of humour and different viewpoints of the many different members here.
I myself do not particularly appreciate the prequels, I think George deserves the bashing that any of us feel is necessary at any given time and I think fans of any or all parts of the original trilogy and 97SE versions, fans of cinema and the general public (whether they know it or not) are having their own personal histories rewritten by an egomaniac.
I appreciate the freedom with which I can say this on ot.com and not be censored or banned from the site by Lucas yes-men - another reason I am here.