A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Far Away...

Nowadays, if you say you like Star Wars even a little bit, you're automatically branded a geek. Well, then I'm happy being a geek because Star Wars is freakin' amazing! It's one of those shows that practically everyone's seen and you can't go through life without watching at least once because it's a HA-UUUGGE part of our pop culture. There are spoofs of it everywhere, people quote famous lines from it all the time, parody famous scenes, dress up like iconic characters, etc. Everyone, at least once has done the Darth Vader breathing and said "Luke, I am your father" right?

I can't say which movie I saw first. I know I saw Return of the Jedi all the way through first, but I saw bits and pieces of others before I watched that one. Quite sad that I saw the last movie first, but oh well. I didn't really understand it since I was like 6 or something. I don't remember when I saw A New Hope. I can't remember if I saw it before or after I saw The Phantom Menace. It might have been after, but I'm pretty sure I saw it before I saw Attack of the Clones, which was the only Star Wars film I saw in theaters. Then I saw Revenge of the Sith. By that point I decided that I wanted to watch all the movies in order and realized that I had never seen The Empire Strikes Back, so I watched them in order and finally watched that one for the first time.

The complete list is:
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Episode IV: A New Hope
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

The Star Wars saga could also be called The Story of Anakin Skywalker, I've decided. Because overall, it's all about him. His rise, his downfall, and his redemption. When people brand people who like Star Wars as geeks, that's because a lot of Star Wars fans are attached to the aliens, the lightsabers, the guns, the funky outfits and hairdos, etc. I've said thousands of times, I like movies for their plots. I don't care about special effects, setting, or whatever, just as long as I'm entertained by the story. And boy does Star Wars have an intriguing story. Most people now are bored with the Star Wars story because it's sort of old hat, but I'm still intrigued by the ingenuity of it. As innovative and interesting as the Force, the Jedi, the Deathstar, the alien species, the droids, and the space travel is, the story of the Skywalkers is what draws me in, personally. Like I said before, the saga is all about Anakin Skywalker. It could not stand without him. The first two movies are about his rise as a Jedi, the third is about his turn to the dark side, the fourth and fifth is about his rise as a Sith, and the sixth is about his redemption. Everyone knows his alter-ego, Darth Vader, better. EVERYBODY knows Darth Vader, even if you haven't seen the saga. Everyone knows the breathing sound and "The force is strong with this one" and "Luke, I am your father". Everyone misquotes that last one. It's really: "No. I am your father" in response to Luke saying: "He told me you killed him [my father]". I guess everyone just sticks "Luke" onto the beginning of it to make it more recognizable.
Funny story behind that quote too. George Lucas had a fake line in the script that said "Obi-Wan killed your father." Only five people knew what the line actually said before the movie was released. George Lucas (obviously, since he wrote it), Irvin Kershner (the director), Lawrence Kasdan (a writer), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) was told like five minutes before filming so he could give a proper reaction to the news, and James Earl Jones (voice of Darth Vader) who actually spoke the line (and he thought it was just a joke since he spoke both the real line and the fake line). Even David Prowse (who played Darth Vader) didn't know what it said.

"Join me. And together we can rule the galaxy as father and son."

I didn't have any initial shock to the news of Darth Vader being Luke's father since I had seen Return of the Jedi first and The Empire Strikes Back last, but I still get excited when I watch it. Just imagine hearing this awful villain, who's barely even human, claiming to be your parent who you thought was dead. I can just imagine what it would be like to be someone watching it for the first time. I would have loved to have lived back in 1980 when The Empire Strikes Back was released when NOBODY knew and everyone heard that for the first time.

Of course, the secrets don't end there, then comes Yoda's line, "There is another Skywalker". Unbeknownst to Anakin and Luke, Anakin's wife had given birth to twins who were then separated to keep them safe from their power-deranged father. Ironically, Luke had been reunited with his sister for quite some time, but they did not know of their relation.
George Lucas claims to have had the entire saga planned out from the beginning, but some people shoot down that claim saying it's unbelievable because he had Luke and Leia kiss in The Empire Strikes Back and also teased at a romantic relationship between them. Why would he do this if he always knew that they were brother and sister? My argument for that, is that obviously back then people didn't know that they were siblings, and Lucas wanted to start a romantic relationship between Han Solo and Leia. As a creative writer myself, I know it's good to have some competition in a romantic development, and the only other male character that could have presented a threat to Han was Luke. In A New Hope, Luke and Leia appeared to like each other a lot, and I noticed that a lot of people seemed to like them together (not knowing they were siblings), so Lucas, being a good filmmaker, teased at a possible relationship between them to get people to come see the movie. Of course, Luke and Leia had no idea they were related either, so why not start to have a little crush on each other? So I think it is entirely plausible that he had it planned out the entire time.

Evil Anakin

Back to Anakin's story. It was prophesied in The Phantom Menace that he would be the one that would bring balance to the force and destroy the Sith. However, he, of course, goes bad and joins the Sith instead, and it seems that the prophesy will not come true. Then it seems that it was pertaining to his son, Luke, instead; that Luke would be the one who would bring balance to the force and destroy the Sith. But then, Luke manages to unearth Anakin out of Darth Vader and he ends up killing the Emperor, thus fulfilling the prophesy after all.

Most people say that the prequel trilogy are not very good, or at least not as good as the original trilogy. I agree that they aren't as good as the original trilogy, but I still like them. I think people are too harsh on them. They say that the acting was too bland, or the special effects were too much, or characters were emotionless, or whatever. I think people are just being ridiculous. I enjoyed seeing Darth Vader before he turned evil and how he went into that black suit of armor. I liked seeing a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi, more intense lightsaber duels, the beginning of the Deathstar, how R2-D2 and C3-PO met, why Obi-Wan and Yoda were the last remaining Jedi, and so on. So what, if they weren't the same as the original trilogy, I LIKED them!

Another thing to remember about the films is the music. Star Wars has one of the most famous theme songs ever written (obviously, since it was written by John Williams. he does all the famous theme songs).

I think my favorite movie might be Return of the Jedi, then A New Hope, then Revenge of the Sith, then The Phantom Menace, then The Empire Strikes Back, then Attack of the Clones. Attack of the Clones didn't have much plot to it. It was mostly just fighting, with a quick love story thrown in.

It's hard to believe that this saga almost didn't happen. So many times, it was rejected. And even when it was finally accepted by a studio, it was threatened to be shutdown several times and wasn't taken seriously by any of the crew. Everyone thought it was too bizarre. Like there was a princess with two giant cinnabuns on the side of her head! Even Harrison Ford (Han Solo) complained about the weird things he had to say, about how he couldn't pronounce a lot of his lines. It's a mighty good thing that they endured through it and that they weren't shut down, because look at it now. (Imagine all the studios that turned Lucas down. How they must be kicking themselves!)

One of my favorite theme song spoofs 

HERE