May The 4th Be With You All

   Well, it's Star Wars Day. A day to celebrate one of the most popular movie series ever. I have always been a huge Star Wars fan/geek, I was born a year before Return of the Jedi was released so I was just a bit of a late bloomer. I can still remember watching Star Wars for the first time when I was very young, mainly because the Jawas freaked me the hell out. As I grew up, I became to appreciate the movies much more. I began to see that the movie was trying to tell more of a story than just a bunch of rebels trying to usurp the Empire.
   Speaking of Empire, of course my favorite of the original trilogy was the 2nd one. The movie took the already established characters, and took a huge dump on top of all of them. Just about NOTHING went right for anyone in the movie; Luke goes from almost being eaten by a wampa to almost being stepped on by an AT-AT to crashing in a swamp and losing his X-Wing. But it's gets a little better for him; he starts his training and gets his ship back. But straight back downhill from there; loses his hand AND finds out Vader is his father. With what he went through in that movie, I'm surprised he didn't jump out an airlock by the end to end his misery.
   Another reason I loved The Empire Strikes Back is because it revealed the at the time mysterious Boba Fett, who of course instantly became my favorite character. Yes, he is a bandwagon character and I always seem to like the characters that eventually become listed as so, but come on, for what little screen time he had he was badass. The guy just swam in confidence and never showed any fear (excluding that whole Sarlacc incident). And the best part was, you had no idea who he really was or where he came from. He was just a cloud of mystery, and he became popular more so due to intrigue. And then of course I bring up Attack of the Clones which, to some people, totally bastardized him. I agree with that to a certain point. Yes, I was disappointed that Boba ended up just a clone, and I feel the whole Jango/Boba idea wouldn't have even been on the table if not for Boba's previous popularity. His inclusion was a fan service and the story would had gone a completely different direction had it not been for that. But his origin in no way messes with how he was or what he did in the OT. Boba to me will always be a badass. The only difference now is that he is a badass who happens to be a clone.
   Okay, kinda got on a rant there, and that's not what today is about. All in all, I love Star Wars. I even like the prequels for what they tried to accomplish. Are they bad? Kinda. Truth be told, I'd rather stick a lightsaber in my eye sockets than watch The Phantom Menace again. But as horrible as the presentation was, I do appreciate the story it tried to tell. It was a new breed of Star Wars for my generation, and I knew it was never going to live up to the magic of the originals, but that's okay. It's still Star Wars.
   So today let us raise our glasses of blue milk, let us fire our blasters into the air, and let us raise our hands and concentrate really hard and hope that all together we can successfully force choke George Lucas before he drives this franchise right into the ground. And may the 4th (and the Force) be with us all.