A Generational Gap of Lightyears

Yes, I am aware that a lightyear is a measurement of distance and not time.  If you read on, I think you'll find that the title is relevant and witty!

Not too long ago, in a home not too far from here.....

I was flipping through the channels and came across Attack of the Clones and, a short while after that, Revenge of the Sith on Spike TV.  I have to admit that the prequels did not impress me much and I only saw them once each in the theater.  Thinking that perhaps I did not give them a good enough shot, I decided to watch them again.  What bothered me most about them was that the worlds portrayed in these films seemed technologically more advanced than the the worlds portrayed in the original trilogy.  Perhaps an unfair reason to pass judgment, but life is not fair kiddo, get used to it.  That, and I really don't like Hayden Christensen as Anakin or that they put him in at the end of Return of the Jedi on the DVD instead of leaving in Sebastian Shaw, whom was originally present.

I seemed to have digressed.  I am not here to bash the Star Wars prequels.  That would be just absurd.  Not only has that been done before by many, many people far nerdier than I, it would be at the very least 4 years, if not 10, too late!

As I watched these movies my family gathered around me for various reasons.  Just to hang out on the couch, to talk to me and to watch me open gifts (as we were celebrating my birthday), you know, family stuff.  My father began to ask what was going on in the movie and I answered.  It seemed that the basic plot line of the prequels (Anakin goes to Jedi school and becomes Darth Vader) was not as immediately obvious to him as it is to me and my fellow 20-somethings.  Later that evening my mother looked at Hayden and with a perplexed look on her face she asked, "this handsome young man grows up to be Jabba the Hut?".  Her question was met with a draw-dropped expression of complete astonishment.  With an inquisitive scrunched face, I said, "uhhhh, Jabba the Hut?"  She quickly realized her error and said in a panic, "I mean Darth Vader!"  So she corrected herself but it caused all who were present to burst out into fits of laughter (my mother included).

My parents do know the general story behind Star Wars, but what surprises me is that if you ask people my age, at least in the social circles that I run in, there is no hesitation, no error, no way in hell that would happen.  Who is it really that put Star Wars on the pedestal that it is on now?  My parents were alive and probably saw them in the theaters when they were the ground breaking films praised today.  And yet, it seems that it is more people in the younger generations that idolize it and make it into more of a cultural movement.  When my parents went to the movies to see the films they probably came out and said, "well that was fun" and went on living their life not knowing (or caring for that matter) that some people would be living, eating and breathing it at an exponential rate for decades to come.