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Adventures in Raising the Next Generation of Original Star Wars Fans

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 (Edited)

As some of you may recall, I have struggled to create a PT-free environment in which to raise my children- AKA the next generation of OT fans- AKA our only hope.

It’s been a challenging… er… challenge.  And I have several friends/“saga” friends who think I am doing a disservice to my kids.  There’s also a sneaky cousin who likes to bring in contraband like “Commander Cody” and crap like that.

Here’s an interesting story from not too far back:

We were driving in the van somewhere with the wife and kids.  And my 7 year old son randomly asks me:

SON: Dad?
ME : Yes?
SON: How did Darth Vader turn to the Dark Side?
I share a silent look with my wife.
ME : Well… nobody knows.
SON: Oh…
ME : So… what do you think?
SON: I don’t know.  Maybe a bad guy came to him and said that he could have whatever he wanted if he joined the dark side…?
ME : Do bad guys usually tell the truth?
SON: No.
ME : Would you believe a bad guy if he came and told you that?
SON: No.
ME : What if it was someone you thouhgt was your friend?
SON: Oh, yeah!  That would be really hard!

Anyways… this is the one that really made me feel like I wasn’t wasting my time.

It was the day after Christmas and I was hanging out at Gma and Gpa xhonzi’s.  My younger brother was there, but had retreated upstairs to watch some TV without all of his nieces and nephews screaming in his ear.  It didn’t really work because there were little kids upstairs too.  So he started surfing channels and my 7 year old son wandered in.  Attack of the Clones was on one of the channels and all my son saw was: STAR WARS: Episode II: Att…  He got really excited (he got several SW toys for Christmas) and so my brother switched it on (he’s apparently not up to date on “the plan”)  After about 30 seconds of it my son, that golden boy, says to my brother:

SON: Oh… is this the Clone Wars one?  
BRO: Yeah…
SON: Oh… nevermind.  I thought it was one of the good ones.

And then he walked off.  My brother told me that this had happened and it really made my day.  It was like… Christmas.  I asked my son about it later and asked what exactly made him decide that the “Clone Wars one” wasn’t worth watching.

SON: You said they were dumb.
ME : … <slightly caught off guard>
SON: Aren’t they?
ME : Oh!  Oh, yes.  They are really dumb.  They’re not worth watching.  They bring the average way down.

And then the DSXII blows up.

THE END.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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xhonzi said:

And then the DSXII blows up.

Gotta admit I didn't see that one coming.  It was like an M. Knight twist.

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I don't have kids, but when I do, I hope they grow up to be just like that kid.

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I would have liked to raise my son in this way, but unfortunately he does not live with me and I haven't seen him since 2005.  Sore subject.  Never mind.

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And this is why I don't want to have kids - it's too difficult to hide the PT from them. j/k.

An unenviable position to be in, good luck with that.

If I did have children I'm sure sooner or later they'd find out the about the PT movies and I just thought of this now, when prompted, I'd honestly tell them I don't have them to watch, I don't like them, they're pretty silly/bad and besides they were written and directed by a different person than the original movies - mostly true in reality and certainly true symbolically.

 

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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If I had children, I don't think I'd do anything to 'prevent' them from watching the PT. I'd show them the OT first and tell them why I don't like the PT, but I'd leave it up to them whether to watch it.

Maybe I'd have them watch some PT fan edits instead...

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Quackula said:

Maybe I'd have them watch some PT fan edits instead...

This is probably the route I'll take, although the concern is that the PT is so "pretty" and the OT so "ugly" that they'll hate the OT even if they see it first - unless they avoid the PT for at least a few years.

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xhonzi said:

my 7 year old son

 

Of course a seven year old is going to know that a bad person lies.  You should have waited until his mind was in a much more malleable state.  Like in his twenties.

Since they're like poetry, what with the rhyming and all, I find that I only need to watch three out of the six films.

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TV's Frink said:

Quackula said:

Maybe I'd have them watch some PT fan edits instead...

This is probably the route I'll take, although the concern is that the PT is so "pretty" and the OT so "ugly" that they'll hate the OT even if they see it first - unless they avoid the PT for at least a few years.

Well then obviously we need a fan edit that makes the PT look uglier.

 

...has that been done?

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Keeping your kid from watching the PT?  That's a little over the top.  This is a different generation, and they have every right to enjoy things that we don't enjoy.  In fact, it doesn't bother me at all if the younger generation doesn't like the original SW and prefers the PT.  They also don't like the Beatles, Miles Davis, and a host of other things that earlier generations consider great.  However, they should learn to respect that which came before, because the things they love will become passe too.

That said, I think that eventually anyone with an IQ over 90 will realize, on their own or with a modicum of education, that the PT sucks and the OT rocks.

"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars

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Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

Keeping your kid from watching the PT?  That's a little over the top.  This is a different generation, and they have every right to enjoy things that we don't enjoy.  In fact, it doesn't bother me at all if the younger generation doesn't like the original SW and prefers the PT.  They also don't like the Beatles, Miles Davis, and a host of other things that earlier generations consider great.  However, they should learn to respect that which came before, because the things they love will become passe too.

 I see your point, but 50 Cent's new album doesn't affect how we view "Revolver" or "Sgt. Peppers." The PT actively recontextualizes how the OT is viewed.

That being said, my boy (currently 20 months) is going to grow up with the OT and TPM. He can experience the rest of the PT when he's old enough to watch them at a friends house.

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TV's Frink said:

 

This is probably the route I'll take, although the concern is that the PT is so "pretty" and the OT so "ugly" that they'll hate the OT even if they see it first - unless they avoid the PT for at least a few years.

 Although at a certain young age the PT might look like a cartoon for babies, and the OT will look edgy and grown up. I went through that stage around 8.

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TheBoost said:

Although at a certain young age the PT might look like a cartoon for babies, and the OT will look edgy and grown up. I went through that stage around 8.

Today's "Make Frink Feel Old Post" brought to you by TheBoost.

EDIT: nvm, you weren't talking about the PT specifically, were you?

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TheBoost said: I see your point, but 50 Cent's new album doesn't affect how we view "Revolver" or "Sgt. Peppers." The PT actively recontextualizes how the OT is viewed.

Yep, but one can of course say that ESB and ROTJ do that to SW.  Many sequels do that when they reveal details about the prevous films that were previously left to the imagination.  Despite growing up with the OOT, I can still act on what I have subsequently learnt about SW, forget the two following films, watch it as a stand alone film and appreciate it on that level.  It takes an effort, but I can do it.  The same is true of other films.

If children love Star Wars enough to research its origins and development when they grow up, they can do the same.  If they don't, then it won't matter.  I'm with Puggo on this one.

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Chewtobacca said:


I'm with Puggo on this one.

You guys are having kids?  I'm so excited for you two.

:p

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As much as I despise the PT, you should show your kids all the movies and let them decide for themselves.  Trust me, as kids get older, their tastes will change, and quality always wins out.

When I was a kid, I loved Jedi more then Empire, I liked Rocky III more then Rocky I, I liked Temple of Doom more then Raiders.  As I got older, I changed my mind on all of the above movies because quality rules in the end. 

Trust me, let your kids enjoy all the movies, and don't shelter them from anything, and let them come to their own conclusions.

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Chewtobacca said:

TheBoost said: I see your point, but 50 Cent's new album doesn't affect how we view "Revolver" or "Sgt. Peppers." The PT actively recontextualizes how the OT is viewed.

Yep, but one can of course say that ESB and ROTJ do that to SW.  Many sequels do that when they reveal details about the prevous films that were previously left to the imagination.  Despite growing up with the OOT, I can still act on what I have subsequently learnt about SW, forget the two following films, watch it as a stand alone film and appreciate it on that level.  It takes an effort, but I can do it.  The same is true of other films.

If children love Star Wars enough to research its origins and development when they grow up, they can do the same.  If they don't, then it won't matter.  I'm with Puggo on this one.

Yeah but ESB and ROTJ were good. The PT was suck.

I don't want my kid to grow up to be a researcher. I want him to like "Star Wars" and not think Vader is a whiny teenager.

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Lucas needs to make three more crappier movies than the PT so we can start seeing them like we see ROTJ now. =P

Ewoks? Another Death Star? C'mon.

 

I think Star Wars is like sex (better than?). You need to have "The Talk" with your kids about Star Wars the same as with the birds and the bees.

Certainly show them the OT first and get that drilled into their heads for four or five years, but when they're starting to come to you with questions like "How did Darth Vader become Darth Vader?", you need to sit them down and explain the whole story of the PT and OT and the two Lucas's. Maybe they won't fully understand at first, and maybe they will, but either way, they're going to end up making their own conclusions about it when they're old enough to have access to all six movies, and it's better, in my opinion, to give them advice on "safe PT viewing" as opposed to "unsafe PT viewing."

Otherwise, what might happen is they resent you for depriving them of something and then gravitate towards that as a form of rebellion. It's all fun and games until they come home with a Jar Jar backpack. Then you'll wish that you'd have explained it to them.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

END OF LINE

(It hasn’t happened yet)

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Tyrphanax said:

I think Star Wars is like sex (better than?).

Is there possibly some alternate reality universe with an originalsex.com forum where they try to convince each other that sex is better than Star Wars?

...

...

Nah, that's ridiculous.

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Like all things you have to compare like with like a good Star Wars is better than a bad

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TheBoost said:

Yeah but ESB and ROTJ were good. The PT was suck.

I don't want my kid to grow up to be a researcher. I want him to like "Star Wars" and not think Vader is a whiny teenager.

I can understand that.  I wasn't thinking about quality: ESB and ROTJ were, of course, just examples of recontextualising.  Maybe they weren't especially  good ones given the topic!  I do see your point though. :-)

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Tyrphanax said:

Certainly show them the OT first and get that drilled into their heads for four or five years

Tyrphanax said:

It's all fun and games until they come home with a Jar Jar backpack.

I can't decide which one to use in my sig :)

“It’s a lot of fun… it’s a lot of fun to watch Star Wars.” – Bill Moyers

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The backpack one, definitely.

I love this thread. More stories, xhonzi!

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