Raw Rats

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#1

Probably my favorite (possibly apocryphal) anecdote about Star Wars is that Lucas originally meant to call the movie Star War, until someone pointed out what the title spelled when read backwards.

I don’t really like Star Wars. Of the seven movies, I’ve seen… I think four-and-a-half of them, usually once each. I’ve seen the original a couple of times, the first one when I was maybe 19.

I saw the other two movies shortly after, then The Phantom Menace when it was new. A while later I saw… one of the other two prequels, in part. I think it might have been the third one?

My basic takeaway: the first movie bored me; I hated the structure to the second one, in particular the presumption of ending on a cliffhanger; and the third was okay. My favorite parts of the series are the Ewoks and Endor, generally. The best thing about The Phantom Menace is Jar-Jar. I don’t really care what happens in the prequels.

All of this is to wonder: is there a significant correlation between the age of one’s exposure to Star Wars and one’s fondness for it? Similarly, is there an inverse correlation between one’s nurtured affection for Star Wars, from a young age, and one’s appreciation of the “cute stuff” like Ewoks and Jar-Jar?

I’ll start the straw poll.

Year of first Star Wars viewing:
1997?

Age of first viewing:
19?

Would you consider Star Wars a major part of your childhood?
No.

How enthusiastic about Star Wars are you, on a scale of 1-10?
2. Maybe 3, if there are Ewoks.

What do you think of Ewoks (negative, neutral, positive)?
Positive

What do you think of Jar-Jar? (negative, neutral, positive)?
Positive

#2

Year of first Star Wars viewing: 2015

Age of first viewing: 23

Would you consider Star Wars a major part of your childhood? nope

How enthusiastic about Star Wars are you, on a scale of 1-10? i’m at a solid 2

What do you think of Ewoks (negative, neutral, positive)? precious little scamps

What do you think of Jar-Jar? (negative, neutral, positive)? precious hateable little freak

i never really got the whole cultural lust for anything star wars, and finally sat down to watch the movies (seen them all except 6 and 7 now). they were really goofy (not in the way that i like) and just not super interesting, although i can see how the original star wars would have been a huge deal at the time it came out

i had a micro machines star wars set when i was a kid and that was pretty neat, but that’s because micro machines playsets were super neat

actually they might have played a factor into my undying fascination with terrain and landforms…

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#3

Year of first Star Wars viewing: ??? Can’t remember, sometime in the 80s. I think ROTJ might have been the 1st movie I ever saw in a theater?

Age of first viewing: See above, damned if I know for sure. Early years though.

Would you consider Star Wars a major part of your childhood? Probably not? I mean, it was a thing, it was cool, and there were some cool video games about it that I liked later on. Did have some associated merch from ROTJ times, still have a tape that went with a book that was basically a summation of that movie sitting somewhere.

How enthusiastic about Star Wars are you, on a scale of 1-10? 5 or 6 maybe? I’m into it enough to know a bunch of technobabble and setting bits, but generally haven’t had much urge to engage with most EU stuff beyond the aforementioned video games, TV series, and a couple of comics. I don’t seem to hold the series at any point as some masterpiece the way some seem to.

What do you think of Ewoks (negative, neutral, positive)? Neutral

What do you think of Jar-Jar? (negative, neutral, positive)? Neutral

#4

Year of first Star Wars viewing: Probably around 1989 or 1990?

Age of first viewing: 7 or 8

Would you consider Star Wars a major part of your childhood? Yea, more early adolescence I guess though.

How enthusiastic about Star Wars are you, on a scale of 1-10? 9 for the actual movies, 10 for Dark Forces and Jedi Knight, maybe about a range of 1-5 for everything else.

What do you think of Ewoks? Neutral to positive

What do you think of Jar-Jar? Negative for Phantom Menace, neutral for his more limited appearances in the other prequels. Phantom Menace’s other racist stereotypes are also bad.

#5

Year of first Star Wars viewing:
1996-7

Age of first viewing:
6 or 7

Would you consider Star Wars a major part of your childhood?
No

How enthusiastic about Star Wars are you, on a scale of 1-10?
2 for the movies, 4 for the tabletop RPGs, 5 for the good videogames. 1 for everything else.

What do you think of Ewoks (negative, neutral, positive)?
neutral. They’re not what I hate about Return of the Jedi, I hate the underbaked plot, shoddy character writing and arbitrary stakes.

What do you think of Jar-Jar? (negative, neutral, positive)?
Negative, annoying unfunny and racist all in one

I’ve seen all of the movies but have only ever rewatched the original trilogy. I don’t like jedi, honestly, and the more the story focuses on jedi, the more my attention flags. I kind of like the first Star Wars as a relatively modern day mashup of Lensman, WW2 propaganda films and Hidden Fortress but it’s pretty corny otherwise. Really enjoy ESB, really hate RotJ.

I get way more excited about Fantastic Planet which I saw around the same time as Star Wars, which makes me pretentious right from childhood. I should not have been watching that movie.

#6

Saw these all as bootlegs in '84, and decades of appreciation for media piracy followed

I am highly Ewok-tolerant

I reject the Binks

I was only really ever enthusiastic about the props, costumes and sets; still have some of the tomes in this series

Though the Luke/Vader duel in Empire is magnificent

I would like an extraterrestrial/robotic wingman

The best SW game is Dark Forces

#7

Truth. Though I disagree highly with the edginess behind the idea of making Luke turn to the dark side at the end of jedi, the vague intimations of Luke’s dark side that survive as vestiges of that abandoned plot are probably the best thing about that movie.

#8

Year of first Star Wars viewing: 1984-ish? I saw ROTJ when it came out in theaters, but probably on like a second or third run.

Age of first viewing: 3? 4? Fuck only actually knows.

Would you consider Star Wars a major part of your childhood? Kinda, but not really. We were a Star Trek house 100%, though I did like the movies a little bit, and just thought they were fun. I was never invested in it that much aside from like as a silly thing.

How enthusiastic about Star Wars are you, on a scale of 1-10? I’ll put this at a 3. I watch the movies, but I am not super enthused about them.

What do you think of Ewoks (negative, neutral, positive)? Neutral, with an understanding that people hate them for being basically invented for the merch.

What do you think of Jar-Jar? (negative, neutral, positive)? Negative, if only because he seemed mostly pointless and also was where the accidental racism Lucas was using became just super upfront (though it’s not like it wasn’t there in the rest of PM (and even a little in the original movies), just like now it couldn’t even be ignored).

#9

Probably sometime in the early 1990s, or late 1980s.

Between 4-7 years old

Yeah I was a big Star Wars nerd for a lot of my childhood and adolescence.

Right now my Star Wars enthusiasm is around a 6, putting it as something that I like, but am not very passionate about. This can occasionally spike up to around an 8 when a big new Star Wars thing comes out.

Honestly I love Ewoks.

Jar Jar is a bit of a horror show but honestly there’s worse shit in the Star Wars EU