A long long time ago in a state not so far away (from me at least). I was living in a town called Sterling. This town didn’t have many people living in. When I was growing up, it was definitely under 15,000 people. It was one of those “everyone know your face and your business” kinds of towns. There wasn’t a lot to do in my hometown. You could sneak alcohol from your parents and meet up at the park with your friends, or you could invite friends over to hang out and play video games at your house. I’m thinking you can guess which one I did, mostly.
My dad introduced us to Star Wars at a pretty young age. I’m pretty sure we wore out the tape on a few Original Trilogy VHS box sets. I loved Star Wars. Growing up in a small farming community and realizing you don’t want to be a farmer, can make you feel stuck. As I grew older I felt myself identifying more and more with Luke. I wanted something more than the life I had and Star Wars was my escape for many years. I’d play games like Knights of the Old Republic, Episode I Racer, Super Star Wars, and other games just to feel an actual sense of belonging. I would check out books from the expanded universe from my middle school library and rack up late fees because I would try to hide how much I really loved Star Wars.
When I became a parent, one question started rolling through my mind. When is the right age to share my love of Star Wars? I wanted J to be old enough to understand some of the dialogue while being old enough to ask questions. How would I introduce him to Star Wars? I thought the easiest way would be to listen to the soundtrack over and over again. So, after I became an at-home dad, I would turn on the soundtrack while I was doing the dishes or the laundry. Then, I started buying the Jefferey Brown “Darth Vader and Son” books, waiting for the day that J would know the characters and want to know more about the stories. When it was announced that Disney was purchasing Lucasfilm, my heart jumped for joy. I remember thinking to myself, “my dad was able to see the original trilogy in theaters, I got to see the prequels in theaters and now J gets to experience the same feeling we had all those years before.” I decided that J needed to see the Original Trilogy before we went to see The Force Awakens. He was 4, and I was surprised by how much he sat through in his first screening. He recognized every song that we had been listening to for years. His eyes lit up with the first ignition of a lightsaber and he’s never looked back.
After we watched the original trilogy, we ventured into Episode I and Episode II. J loved that Anakin was so young when the Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon found him. He loved the creatures, and yes he even loved Jar Jar. We took a break after Attack of the Clones so we could watch clone Wars. After watching every season, we jumped right back into the prequels. J saw the struggle in Anakin and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was in awe during Obi-Wan and Anakin’s battle on Mustafar and after the battle was said and done, he simply said, “well Anakin had to get robot parts somehow.”
Then came Rebels. A show that we could start together and finish together. We watched every episode we could together. Sometimes I watched ahead because I can admit that I have little self control when it comes to watching my stories. Rebels was a show that we could talk about and (even though he youngling) have meaningful conversations about. We talked about light, dark, and balance. It’s amazing to think that so many wonderful memories that I will have for the rest of my life with my son revolve around Rebels.
At this point you are probably bored out of your mind at my babbling, so we will move on to Rogue One. I have a rule about making costumes for J. He has to ask me to make them. I will not force a character’s look on him. Rogue One was a movie that I wanted to see before taking J, I wanted to see if it would be “okay” for someone of his age. During the credits I leaned over to my wife and said, “I hope he asks for a Cassian cosplay!” She agreed. After watching Rogue One, my wife and I agreed that the movie was no more violent than anything else in the Star Wars universe, so I immediately purchased tickets for J and myself. When J and I were in our screening, he leaned over and said, “daddy, can you make me a Cassian cosplay?” Immediately my heart began racing at the thought of how adorable J would be as Cassian. I never thought it would take the internet by storm. Because of that costume, he was on the Reddit front page, he had an article written about him on starwars.com, and he’s had the chance to meet a few actors from various Star Wars films.
Now onto the conclusion of this piece. If you’ve hung on this long, you deserve a solid answer. Why Star Wars? Star Wars is a connection. It connects 3 generations of fans all over the globe and I am lucky to be apart of that statistic. Some of my fondest memories and friendships have happened because of Star Wars, and I will never be able to thank George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, the actors, the writers, the directors, the production teams, and everyone else who has ever been involved with Star Wars enough for all the memories that you have helped create for my family with the stories you tell.
Nerdy at Home Dad 