Martie
At age 19, I’m really new to the world of Star Wars. I hadn’t seen any of the films when my aunt, who has been a Star Wars fan all her life, came to visit. “Revenge of the Sith” was playing at the theater just up the street from our house, so I asked my aunt if we could go. She tried to convince me to see the other prequel movies first (I knew this movie fell in the middle of the chronology of the series) but I couldn’t be persuaded, so off we went to see the final chapter in the Star Wars saga.
As a fan of fantasy and science fiction genres, I expected to like Star Wars, but I never expected to be blown away by it! I was literally in awe of all the characters, the effects, the story… all of it. I was so excited that we stopped at the video store on the way home and picked up my very own copies of the other five movies. I watched “Attack of the Clones” next, and then “Phantom Menace” before watching the original trilogy back to back. Needless to say, I’m now totally addicted. My aunt even made sure I have my own lightsaber!
Isaac
The Star Wars Universe was opened to me on a cold Christmas morning. The year, I believe, was 1986, and my parents had rented the three original movies. All the toys that year were the Star Wars toys my parents had been collecting and saving for my sister and me. That morning we finished assembling the toys, put in the movies and discovered the Galaxy Far Far Away. To this day I continue to watch the movies and play with, err, collect the toys.
Des
In some form or another, I have been a fan of Star Wars ever since I saw The Phantom Menace as a child. Qui-Gon Jinn's death, in particular, left a deep impression on me, and I would mentally replay the last moments of *that* climactic duel over and over again. Not only that, my sister and I would reenact that duel using rolls of vanguard sheeting as our 'lightsabers'. Three years later, in 2002, I picked up my best friend's copy of the 3-in-1 Classic Trilogy
novelisations, and my love of the Saga became irreversibly entrenched. Later that year, I discovered online Star Wars fanfiction, and it has since ruined my life.
I find myself drawn most of all to the characters and the dynamics of their relationships. I am fascinated by how Obi-Wan, Dooku, Qui-Gon, Anakin, all can exist as defined characters in their own right, and yet at the same time function
as mythological archtypes and far-ranging metaphors in so many different ways.
anakinluvergurl
I wish I could have seen Episode Four in the theater, but I didn't because I wasn't alive! I was just seven years old when Episode One came out. Despite my age, I was still introduced to Star Wars through the Original Trilogy. I remember seeing some of the prequel commercials and having no idea about the films -- but I loved the lightsabers, without even knowing what they were called. That inspired me to borrow copies of the books; I read them and was instantly hooked! First I read the OT movie novelizations, then I watched the movies, then I read most of the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe books. Then I read Episode I, watched it, read Episode II, watched it, read Episode III and watched it. I've now seen all the movies, most of the Clone Wars cartoon, and read maybe 50 of the books. Really, I am part of the generation that started with the OT -- I had never even heard of Star Wars before Christmas 2004 (I've only been a fan of Star Wars for about 30 months and I'm totally crazy -- it's strange but true!), and I basically went through the whole saga the way the OT generation did, except I did it in the course of about a year, instead of nearly thirty. So, I'm a part of the generation I was born into and yet not part of it. Weird, huh?
SWBookworm
I remember stumbling on to Star Wars the summer I turned 13. It was 1996 and I was flying out to California to spend a month with my dad. I was an enthusiastic reader and didn't have time to make my usual library run for a stack of books to take with me, so I raided my cousin's paperbacks. I wasn't really into space stories but sci-fi was pretty much all he had. A New Hope was included in the stack I grabbed. It was one of the shorter stories, and I read it on the plane to Los Angeles. By the time we landed I was hooked.
I remember begging my dad to stop at a book store on the way home from the airport. I was newly obsessed and wanted to find the next two novels. We were late already, so he didn't give in, but my step-mom took me to buy them the next day. By the time I came home at the end of the month I'd read all three OT novels, a few EU novels, and owned my own copies of the films.
I was thrilled when I found out there would be new films, but true-to-form, I still read all of the novelizations first.
Thomas Bradfield
1978 - El Salvador. As an American in a country that hated Americans I found myself getting into fights on a regular basis. The country was at war and I witnessed the carnage firsthand. Every morning on my way to school I would pass bodies in the street. My only escape was repeatedly reading a Star Wars novel my father had given me. When I returned to the U.S. I was a twisted mess. Paranoid and abusive. I would inflict pain for pleasure and steal from anyone. I had gone to the Dark Side and I had no respect for anyone. Yet in the back of my mind were Yoda’s words of warning:
“Once down the dark path forever it will dominate your destiny…"
I had a rage inside of me and I felt that I was going to go down that same path as my father. When Return of the Jedi came to theaters, I sat and watched Darth Vader get pulled back from the Dark Side. No matter what he had done, no matter how many lives he had destroyed, he had been forgiven. I had an epiphany, I no longer feared the ghosts of my past. Faces of friends, long dead, no longer mocked me in my dreams. I felt I had a second chance. I would later become a Police Officer and in 1996, I accepted a position as a Unit Supervisor working in a State Prison.
Star Wars represented the happiest years of my childhood. It sheltered me from years of terror in a war torn country and eventually guided me away from the dark side. I have come full circle. The Force has really been with me all these years.
MJLS
The first thing I saw from Star Wars was when I was about 8 years old. My dad was watching Return of the Jedi on TV and I went downstairs. First thing I saw were the Ewoks...I didn't know what they were back then until I began to see the prequels...beginning with Episode II.
Angie
I was a six year-old Trek fan who watched the original series on TV and played Star Trek on the playground. Then Trek was cancelled and we were all sad. Every now and then rumors of Star Trek movies would make us happy for a while, but they never happened. Finally another rumor came along – that it was cancelled (again) because they were going to make Star Wars instead. There was great tumult and snarling and much bitterness.
My thirteen-year-old self boycotted Star Wars for months. I refused to see it because it was The Movie That Got Star Trek Cancelled AGAIN!!! :P Stories about the huge lines and how great the effects were kept circulating and finally I succumbed. I took the bus up to San Francisco with my great-aunt and saw it.
Whoa.
It was awesome. The opening crawl was incredible and it just got better after that. All the way home I dreamed of being a Jedi. I bought Star Wars school folders and tacked them to my bedroom wall. I collected the trading cards. Later on, when I started going to conventions, I bought Star Wars fanzines. The first piece of original art I ever bought was a sketch of Han Solo from a guy working the artist's ghetto at my first ever convention for five bucks. I was young enough to still be obsessive and old enough to have some money and did my share to enrich Lucas for a while.
Lumy
The Empire Strikes Back was the first movie I remember seeing in the theatre. I was six years old. My parents weren't ones for toting us kids around to movies and things so I'm sure they were waiting for my bro and I to become mature enough to sit through a whole movie. ESB was so dark, though -- I didn't really like it much back then. I was freaked when Luke's hand got cut off -- more so than Vader telling Luke he's his father, I don't even remember my reaction to that. Hee! I absolutely fell in love with Return of the Jedi though. My brother and I played with our action figures nearly every day, though the things we acted out were silly and not very Star Wars-y. For some reason we each became very attached to our Bossk figures... a character that had 2 seconds of screen time was our favorite to play with. Go figure!
Pronker
It was Spring 1977. My friend and I attended a Day on the Green in Oakland CA to see the Eagles, whose opener was some group called Foreigner. Sometime in the long, lovely afternoon, an advertising plane trailing a banner circled the Coliseum, the writing slowly becoming visible: STAR WARS IS COMING. The entire audience reacted, no one around us knew what was going on, and to quote a certain actor: "It was the Force, man!"
Skye Princess
When I was young, maybe around 6 years old, I heard about Star Wars but thought that it would be a scary movie. I did not want to see it because I was scared. My mom took me to see A New Hope in the theaters in 1997 (i.e. the special edition). I was completely blown away. I saw The Empire Strikes Back in theaters as well. I did not get a chance to see Return of the Jedi in theaters, but I saw it on video when I bought the special editions on tape. Return of the Jedi is now my favorite of the three because Vader is redeemed in the end by Luke. For the early part of my teen years I went through a big SW phase when the prequels. They were fun but the OT is still my favorite. Hopefully I will get to see the original versions of the OT someday.
Issue 2, February
wakybz2
I was introduced to Star Wars at the age of about six. I was watching the sixth movie with my cousin. The only thing I that I could remember is eating Ding-Dongs and watching little Ewoks stroll around the screen. From that day on, all I could think of was Star Wars. In 1999, two significant things occurred. My baby brother was born and The Phantom Menace came out. One thing I specifically remember is dangling my little feet with my Darth Maul sandals whenever he came on the screen. I've since enjoyed many birthdays and Christmases being bombarded with Star Wars toys and apparel. Episode III is my favorite of the movies; I followed the big hype even before it came out. I bought the tell-all video game and went to the movie on opening day. I currently have every movie on DVD. The Star Wars saga will be something I will always remember, for my entire life.
