Star Wars overload

Okay, I think we have officially hit the limit for the week at the Corner Haus in Star Wars consumption.

And it’s only Tuesday.

The kids have been listening to the original Star Wars trilogy in the car – thanks to the audio CD rip that the Webmaster made for us. Ane has been asking a million and five questions while she’s listening: “Where’s Anakin? He turned into Vader, right? Why is he a bad guy now?”

I was having to explain it EVERY SINGLE TIME we got in the car.

Oh, yes, I’m taking it out of the CD player TODAY.

But to finally solve her questions, we let her watch the climactic fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan from Revenge of the Sith. Now, she has actually seen the fight before. Her father let her watch it about a year ago (at which time she excitedly said to me, “Mommy, Anakin got FIRED!”), but this was the first time that she’d seen it in context.

This time, she burst into tears. “I don’t want Anakin to be Vader – I want him to be good again!” she cried. Then she was really interested in the rest of the movie (including the twins’ birth, which she had not seen before, and actually watching Vader’s mask being put on and hearing him starting to breathe), but she was still teary-eyed at the end.

We had to pull out Return of the Jedi to show her Vader’s redemption, and how he turns back into Anakin (and thanks to George Lucas tweaking with the end scenes of the movie, you actually do see Hayden Christiansen), which did make Ane feel better. “He’s not Vader anymore,” she said, wiping her tears away.

So, yes, she may be young for all of this. But it wasn’t the immolation itself that had her upset – it was the emotional connection that she’s developed with these characters. She was heartbroken to see her hero fall to the dark side. You can make up your own mind when kids are ready to see certain scenes from movies, but I think she was ready for this.

Though she was still very quiet when Jedi ended. “What’s the matter, honey?” I asked.

“I don’t like Anakin being Vader,” she repeated. “I’m sad.”

“What would make you happy again?” I asked her.

She paused for a second, then smiled brightly. “A pony!”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 1:15 am and is filed under Children, Media.
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