Star Wars, Nothing But Star Wars

R2D2 trashcan

My son is finally getting to see Star Wars. As his 6th birthday present. Star Wars, the movie. Uh, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, as he will always know it? Which is the proper entrance, but is not his entrance into the Star Wars property. Primed by the Star Wars Legos video games and various toys and the school yard misinformation, my child already knows the Death Star explodes. He knows Anakin grows up to be Darth Vader. He sees Luke as a one-handed gimp of a hero. As soon as he hears Lord Vader intone "Luke, I am your Father" it is game over. I understand no one's entrée to the world of Star Wars can be as pure as those of us who were blessed with experiencing the original movie as an pure childhood event, miraculously untarnished by the promotional campaign. I will refer to us as the First Generation. Unlike the clarity we experienced, the new entrant is faced with a tangled web of storyline tangled beyond recognition.

Star is now entered into as a multi-generational, multi-threaded morass of characters and events scattered upon an vague time line. This is the way the Star Wars generation entered other adventures, including Star Trek and Lost in Space. But TV shows are ahistorical. There is simply a creation myth and an endless series of repeated adventures, all ending back in the spaceship. History never occurs, nothing ever really happens. Episodes can be viewed in any order and nothing changes. Star Wars is historic and needs to be viewed in sequence.

The biggest loss in all this mess is the primacy of Han Solo is overshadowed by Anakin/Vader, Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda, the characters who endure all the episodes. Han Solo is the decisive character in Star Wars. He is the only one who is capable of independent thought and who can choose his own destiny. All those around him are compelled by their character, their upbringing, their temperaments to choose good or evil. Han is conflicted. He values both self preservation and grudgingly the good of all. He has to balance these two impulses, which is the root of the conflict of man and society. He is also a shoot first, ask questions later badass, or at least he was until Lucas has Greedo shoot first in Star Wars.

First Generation Star Wars fans of the male persuasion had to choose: Han or Luke. Cool guy or good boy. Fonzie or Richie. That is the choice that has been taken away from the youth.