I started watching a Star Wars fan webshow called "
Jedi Alliance" in December 2014. Each time there is a guest on the show, the two hosts (Ken and Maude) ask their guest the Top Five questions to find out more about the guest's fandom. There are actually six questions...
...but they say that the second question is paired with the first. So there are five questions,
from a certain point of view.
The questions (restated in my own words for clarity) are:
1a. When was the first time you watched "Star Wars"?
1b. What is your favorite "Star Wars" movie?
2. Which "Star Wars" character is your favorite?
3. Do you have a "Star Wars" quote you use in everyday conversation?
4. Which Force power would you want to have?
5. Would you go to the Dark Side?
The hosts also ask their fans to answer the questions as well. So here are my answers:
1a. When was the first time you watched "Star Wars"?
My mom
1 bought the Original Trilogy boxed set that had a limited release in 1995.
She bought them either in late 1995 or early 1996, so I would have been five when I first watched the Star Wars movies.
2 I do not specifically remember my first time watching the movies
3, but I know I watched the movies many times before the Special Editions were released to theaters in 1997.
1b. What is your favorite "Star Wars" movie?
It depends on the era of my life. As a child, "Return of the Jedi" was my favorite and was the one I watched the most. Then "The Phantom Menace" came out when I was nine, and that became the movie I watched over and over. I completed my Star Wars on DVD collection in 2010. Over the last few years, as an adult, I now think that "A New Hope" is my favorite movie. As of this writing, I think I rank the movies like this:
"A New Hope"
"Return of the Jedi"
"The Phantom Menace"
"The Empire Strikes Back"
"Revenge of the Sith"
"Attack of the Clones"
For the most part my childhood opinions still factor in to how I rank the movies.
2. Which "Star Wars" character is your favorite?
I say this in all honesty with absolutely no irony: Jar Jar Binks.
I completely related to him as a child, and I relate to him even more now that I am an adult. Jar Jar is a sympathetic character. Instead, nearly everybody treats him the way the Gungans treat him, and they miss the point. He was banished by the Gungans because he is clumsy and annoying. You are supposed to feel sorry for him. I may be the only person on Team Jar Jar, but I am going to keep defending him the way AMC Movie News Editor-in-Chief John Campea defends the Ewoks.
3. Do you have a "Star Wars" quote you use in everyday conversation?
No, but I really should. Sometimes I say "okie-day" like Jar Jar, but that is not exclusively his. Lately when I mess up I catch myself merging "whoops" and "oops" into "woops" like 9-year-old Anakin says, and I hope that he is not the reason I subconsiously started doing that. As a Sweek
4 I really need to find a Star Wars quote to start using everyday (even though it will probably annoy my family).
4. Which Force power would you want to have?
If you learn to master the Force, don't you have all of them? Aren't they a package deal? I just want to be a Jedi and have all the force powers...and a lightsaber.
5. Would you go to the Dark Side?
No. I have always wanted to be on the side of good. I have never been attracted by anything on the Dark Side. The Rebel Alliance has cookies too.
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Footnotes:
1. Mom is Star Wars. Dad is Star Trek.
2. The videos began with Leonard Maltin interviewing George Lucas about making the movies. As I five+ year old I would fast forward through the "boring old men" talking so I could watch the movies. Now that I am older I am more interested in those interviews, but we no longer have the VHSs. Fortunately the interviews are posted to Star Wars' YouTube channel, so I am able to watch them now that I can appreciate them.
3. I do have one specific memory from watching the movies with my mom; I don't know if it is from the very first time, but it may be. During the infamous Han vs. Greedo scene, Mom pointed out how Han was tapping his left-hand fingers on the wall to distract Greedo as he was pulling out his blaster under the table. Even as a five year old I understood that Han was getting the drop on Greedo, so that is why I don't accept Lucas' comments about why he changed the scene in future editions.
4. Portmanteau of Star Wars Geek, as used in the May 13, 2005 "Heart of the City" comic strip.
