It’s been six years of waiting. Six years of carefully keeping the secret. Carefully and casually announcing to anyone who started a Star Wars conversation around him that he only saw the first one and to please be careful. No one ever questioned. Everyone understood. Six years being surrounded by Star Wars hype, figures, games, quotes, and culture, carefully maintaining the perfect bubble around him.
He knows some things. He found out through careless packaging who Anikin is. Or rather, he knows who he will become, but not who he is.
It started when he was five. I had wanted to wait a year or so longer, but as he got deeper into Angry Birds Star Wars and other toys I thought it time to watch A New Hope. Instead of going right on to Empire, I wanted it to sink in, to let him delight in the Ep. IV, and to let him grow just a little more so his attention span and worldview could expand so that he’d really understand the characters. After that, every day it came up was a pins and needles risk. Star Wars is everywhere. Would someone in school spoil it? Would overexcited friend’s kids let it slip? Would someone’s casual remark or joke spoil the ultimate drop?
I would have waited even longer—I was his age when I first saw Star Wars, but a couple years older when Empire came out. But with the new movies premiering and the series’ almost omnipresent existence everywhere we go, the timetable had to be once again moved forward.
Last night we re-watched Star Wars for the third time. We’ve talked about the characters and plot, and he is fully aware of who is who (or so he thinks) and what is what (or so he thinks). Tonight, all that changes.
To answer a probable question: we’ll be watching the films in Machete Order. There’s always time for Episode 1 if I want to ruin his childhood.
The holy sacrament of parenting is watching IT with your daughter, who is afraid of clowns (oh, I’m sorry. She’s NOT afraid of clowns, she just doesn’t “LIKE” them. Which I will be doing Friday night. Bwaahahahahaaaa
I did something similar with my son. He was taking karate classes, and we watched The Karate Kid. You should have seen him jump up and shriek at the “wax on wax off” scenes with “He’s teaching him blocks!”
It’s fun watching a classic movie with a child. It’s like enjoying it for the first time all over again.
I can remember way back when they first showed the movie on TV. My dad spent the first part of the movie, fiddling with the TV, trying to find out where the color went, dammit!
A man after my own heart. So far, my son (7) has seen A New Hope, ESB, and Attack of the Clones. He’s really excited about the new movie coming out, and he needs to be prepared.
Are you watching the original original, before they started numbering them?
Sadly, my interest in the series died with*** RotJ***. I saw TPM when it first came out, just out of curiosity. Haven’t bothered since, though I still wouldn’t mind seeing the first two films again in their pristine, untampered-with state.
