I like Star Wars. I like the story, I like the people who like Star Wars, I shared in everyone’s disappointment with the prequel trilogy, and I’m excited about the new movie (which we are planning to see with John’s family on Christmas Eve).
I don’t live and die Star Wars, and that’s okay. I didn’t see any of the movies until high school (a big thank you to Randy for sitting me down and making me watch them), and I’ve only seen them a couple of times since then. Maybe three. Definitely the first one and Empire more. I borrowed the original trilogy from a coworker about a year ago, so I’ve seen all three recently. We watched Return of the Jedi Saturday night, and it’s possible that that was only the second time I’ve seen it. Third, at most. I mean, it’s everywhere – I’ve seen videos, clips, parodies. There’s nothing about this movie that is a surprise to me. Well, except one thing.
Some of you should sit down. Some of you won’t know what I’m talking about and won’t care.
We were watching Return of the Jedi, and Admiral Ackbar came on the screen for the first time. I recognized him immediately, knew his name, could have picked him out of a line-up, BUT – I could not have told you he was a Star Wars character. Every other character, human or alien, was familiar to me as part of the Star Wars universe, but not him. I don’t know how that’s possible. If pressed, I would have guessed he was a recurring Futurama character.
I’m atoning for this failure. Please forgive me.