Star Wars kids
The girls have really gotten into Star Wars lately. As a Star Wars fan myself, I was hoping this would happen eventually but I didn’t want to push it. But when they both started expressing interest in watching Star Wars in November, I was ready. Their initial interest was in watching Star Wars Rebels - an animated show that is currently popular. I explained that they should really start with the movies, and they excitedly agreed.
I first showed them A New Hope (Episode IV). We watched it together and I paused whenever they had a question. I started off getting them to close their eyes for the dark parts, but they quickly decided they didn’t need to do that. At the end, they said they loved it and wanted to watch the next one. Thankfully, Thanksgiving vacation was quickly approaching, giving us some free time to watch movies.
We then watched The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V), and then Return of the Jedi (Episode VI). Then we went back the prequels and watched The Phantom Menace (Episode I), Attack of the Clones (Episode II), and Revenge of the Sith (Episode III). They loved them all. They said their favorite was Return of the Jedi.
We then watched the first season of Star Wars Rebels, which they also liked a lot. We’ll probably watch season two sometime after it finishes airing. Then we moved onto The Clone Wars. We began by watching the movie, then moved on to the series. We’re still in the middle of season one, and looking forward to watching it all eventually.
This all led up to going to the theater to see The Force Awakens (Episode VII). I knew it would be too crazy to try to go before Christmas, so I bought tickets for a 2D matinee on the 27th. Jen and Grams came too (though they didn’t make it into the picture and didn’t have Star Wars apparel on). Here we are in our Star Wars shirts upon arriving at the theater.
We got there an hour and twenty minutes early. I knew this was probably overkill, but wanted to play it safe. It meant we were at the front of the line (all by ourselves for the first twenty minutes of the wait). There ended up being a very long line by the time we were let in to the theater, but we got perfect seats for the film.
The movie was great, and the girls really enjoyed it. They now say it is tied with Return of the Jedi as their favorite movie (it’s tough to compete with Ewoks).
The girls show no signs of slowing their Star Wars excitement. They ask to watch an episode of The Clone Wars every day, and are really looking forward to all the Star Wars stuff in Disney World (we’re going in February). There’s also been discussion of Halloween costumes, though that’s a long way away. They’re also talking about looking forward to Episode VIII, but 5/27/2017 is even further away (though it is already on my calendar).
