Best SW Memories

[SOCL]

I started listening to me The Empire Strikes Back soundtrack and part of one of the songs got me thinking of 1997, when the Special Editions were released. Since I'm a shy too young to remember when the originals came out in theaters, I'd have to say that among my best memories of anything and perhaps all things Star Wars come from 1997. So figured, why don't we all share some our most fond memories of anything Star Wars related. It can be something quite specific, or can just be an overall feeling of a time or even a span of a few years! I suppose I do this also due to a lack of Star Wars-related conversation on these boards. Oh, and a fun little poll to go along with it.

 

 

So I suppose I should share my own opinion, eh? I did start it, after all...

 

Well, as mentioned, I don't actually remember the original trilogy's releasing seeing as I was too busy being not-conceived, so for me it would have to be the years 1995 to 1997 when the Special Editions were released, and then 1997 to 1999 when the long-awaited, though terribly disappointing The Phantom Menace debuted. In 1995, my parents purchased for me the entire trilogy on VHS, the old ones, mind you, which mostly the older fans (relative) will remember. They looked like this. That was my first real introduction to Star Wars. Sure, I'd known about Star Wars, though didn't fully understand it, before then when I'd sit up late watching old movies on the tele with my dad. I remember the first one I'd seen was Return of the Jedi where I'd learned one of my parents' first dates was to see that, to my mother's horror and dismay. I also thought it odd that the second Death Star and Vader's head looked alike...

 

That same year I made friends with a fellow named Matt who was a HUGE Star Wars fan, and he was the one who really got me into it, all out. He collected the Hasbro toys, had t-shirts, watched the movies, and read the "novels", albeit the junior ones--but I thought all of that was so awesome. We would walk to the local store on the military base and make a big fuss whenever one of us had enough money to buy another toy. I still distinctly remember when he called me up and had something scratching at the phone, which to my amazement was the action figure of Bossk, that lizard bounty hunter! I immediately went out and spent a week's allowance on the $5.99 figure. I can also remember at times going into insane "mind-fits" because I desperately wanted some of the micromachines, but hadn't the money for both figures and micromachines...so figures won out.

 

In 1996, I got my first Star Wars book: The Complete Guide to Vehicles and Vessels. An absolutely fantastic book I still have and covet as though it were some deity--much higher quality than the new one! I also recall how in the run-up to the Special Editions, Star Wars began to become popular in all circles of society, and yet how I was among the actually "cool" kids who was a fan before that! Ha!

 

1997 was the year to beat all years--I have only good memories of that year! Despite the fact I did not, to my own surprise, ever see A New Hope or Return of the Jedi in the theaters, I did see Empire, and that was all that mattered! Boba Fett was, of course, my favorite character, so everything he did I had to imitate. At the same time, my other great childhood love was fed when the sequel to Jurassic Park came out, The Lost World, which forced me into deciding between Star Wars toys or the new line of dinosaurs and human figurines. It was no competition, and some of you may be appalled to learn that I chose The Lost World. It was simply a matter of my love for my, by then, extensive JP toy collection versus my tiny (comparatively) collection of Star Wars toys. Luckily, my friend Matt was willing to trade my SW figures for his JP figures. Absolutely fantastic! We also can't forget the impression the whole Shadows of the Empires campaign made on everything related to Star Wars then: the Nintendo64 game, the novel (and junior novelization!), the comic books, the toy line... That fed my Star Wars addiction that year probably more than anything else, especially in anticipation that there would be a Shadows of the Empire movie... Damn Lucas for not doing that instead!

 

The thing that makes those years stand out in my mind most is the fact that I was really very much a Star Wars virgin then. Nothing was known and every experience, every moment, every bit was new! Unchartered territory not yet marred by Lucas re-releases (though I've come to prefer the original, original forms...) and the cynicism of knowing too much about the series and franchise as a whole. Back then, there was a sense of mysticism. The Clone Wars were a completely mystery, and all I know about came from a brief allusion in an old Marvel comic book that mentioned Boba Fett having fought in it. I had dreams of armies of Mandalorians invading Old Republic (not Galactic Republic!) systems, locked in combat with armies of Jedi and Republic forces--a titanic struggle that took dozens of years, not just three! Nothing was known then, nothing was revealed then, and Anakin Skywalker was actually a starfighter pilot--not a blond-haired, pod-racing brat who grows up to be a bad actor...

 

It was that feeling of everything is new, everything is possible, of letting my imagination run wild because no one would mar it with stupidity (damn you Lucas!!!)--that is why I loved 1997.

[BrianLara]

Ive picked 97-99.

 

This was when I found Star Wars (about 11 years old), watched them all to death, then found out about the prequels!

 

The internet was becoming the world wide tool it is today and Star Wars was yet to be saturated in every market.

 

It was a damn exciting time, I think we all just built it up a little too much for poor old George to live up to.

[SOCL]

Ive picked 97-99.

 

This was when I found Star Wars (about 11 years old), watched them all to death, then found out about the prequels!

 

The internet was becoming the world wide tool it is today and Star Wars was yet to be saturated in every market.

 

It was a damn exciting time, I think we all just built it up a little too much for poor old George to live up to.

Yes, 97 to 99 were exciting times! Damn nearly competed for my personal slot, and yet... I don't know. George didn't have to live up to anything, in my view--he could have just left it alone, a disappointing mystery rather than a disappointing...disappointment.

[BrianLara]

Just to elaborate on your Anakin rant..

 

George could not have been more wrong with how he developed that character.

 

Why turn him into a whiny little bitch with all these faults? What kind of climax does that leave you when he turns evil? Oh wow! that little whingy brat turned bad! Didnt see that coming!

 

Why not have Anakin be this really great character sitting on some kind of jedi pedestal? That would have made his fall to the dark side so much more dramatic and exciting.

 

I don't have the same hatred some do towards the prequels I just wish that George Lucas didn't direct them. The main character came across terribly, even after 20 years to think about it, the story line was filled with holes and contradictions. Revenge of the Sith almost made up for Attack of the Clones (what kind of a title is that!) but people must understand, without Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Chewie it was ALWAYS going to struggle.

 

I know George would never do it in a million years but I would love to see a Yoda series. Just as long as he's not directing

[budious]

1991-1997 era I suppose. I probably saw them as early as 87' or so but don't recall the first time. I just remember watching the Battle of Hoth over and over and that was my favorite Star Wars battle scene. Special Editions marked the beginning of the trend to diminish the franchise and Phantom Menace was the nail in the coffin. Star Wars officially died with Episode 1 release.

 

R.I.P. Star Wars Episodes IV - VI: 1977-1997

[SOCL]

I think most, if not all of us can agree that if George Lucas had taken a role like that he had in Empire and Jedi during the prequels, the movies would have turned out at least 100.1% better than they did. Then again, the plots were rather weak and revolved too much around the activities of politics and politicians rather than the characters themselves. Institutions dominated the first two prequels and one in particular came to dominate the third one! (can you guess which?) The Simpsons did an episode on just how bad Episode I was, commenting on the plot, lack of acting, lack of plot, and the overuse of CGI. They have an especially funny scene wherein the Senate has roll call that lasts something like an hour with no action, and then later Groening presents Lucas writing the script for the next movie with a bit of a dialogue between characters about a bounced check! They weren't too off the mark with any of that!

 

I always imagined Anakin as a failed Jedi Luke, the antithesis of what we saw in Return of the Jedi. I also imagined someone with a much more complex background, namely because it was shrouded in complete mystery as it wasn't bloody relevant! Not of the immaculate midichlorian conception! And Yoda didn't fight with a lightsaber...neither did Palpatine. Anakin was older, much older, and aged at the same rate everyone else did, not faster (and Obi-Wan didn't age drastically in three short years). I also imagined the first movie taking place towards the end of an aging Clone Wars in progress, with the Republic at last on the verge of defeating victory. This way the Clone Wars remain mostly a mystery (giving much more room for imagination) and developing the reasons for the Republic's conversion to the Empire.

 

I can only hope that in Heaven, among the Thursday night taco bar and the Sunday ice cream parties for the best kickball team, there will be screenings of Star Wars: What it SHOULD Have Been.

[BrianLara]

I remember the Simpsons episode you speak of. It was a classic accurate jab at what Star Wars had become. (The ATAT crashing into the senate, then sitting down to listen capped it off)

 

Without turning this into a love fest (who am I kidding!), I couldn't agree more with just about everything you said.

 

Unfortunately, his image of the clone wars and prequels was different to every single one of his fans.

 

Oh and in Heaven, Han shoots first too

[budious]

I agree with most of what you say.

 

Yoda - should have been a permanent resident of Dagobah , not playing with lightsabers and riding his hoverboard around Coruscant. CGI yoda had very little character, no actor behind the puppet per say. The actors had nobody to reference for their lines. This contrasts to the actor who played Gaulum in the Lord of the Rings. The actor's voice was used and acted out his parts, the CGI was then supplanted onto his performance. Lucas could have brought back the puppeteer and Yoda to perform the scenes and then generated Yoda onto the puppet. This would have at least given the human actors a more seamless environment for their performances. Even a talented actor such as Samuel L. Jackson was portrayed as amateurish and bland.

 

Vader - I discussed this just a month ago over on the neowin forums. I'll qoute from my post their - "...Casting was a horrible call on the prequels. Take a look at the cast for the originals. David Prowse (6',7") wore the towering dark suit. James Earl Jones provided voice over. Then you cast this tiny runt as the lead role in the prequels. Not to forget mentioning Sebastion Shaw's short role as the unmasked Vader in RotJ, who gave us a last redeeming moment for the antagonist."

[SOCL]

And don't get us started on the DVD versions! Hayden Christensen is NOT old Anakin Skywalker!!!

[budious]

Yeah, that would be freaky for Luke and Leia to be speaking to their dead father when he appears in a form younger than them. I'd ask for the old man back or at least stick the helmet back on his face.

 

Speaking of such, here's my post ewok victory party morning after conversation deleted from the RotJ:SE DVD.

 

Vader(Hayden) appears... stage left:

Luke sits stage right:

Vader approaches Luke.

Taps Luke on the shoulder.

Luke: "$^@! DAD, Cut that $#!% out!"

Vader: "Luke, Das ist mich! Diene Vatter!"

Luke: "At least have the decency to put the helmet on..."

Vader puts on helmet.

Vader: "Pssh... Pssh... [Voice of James Earl Jones] ... Luke, what do you want to do today?"

Luke: "You were never here for me... and now you want to hang out with me..."

Vader: "I'm sorry son... but after I slaughtered the younglings the court ordered a restraining order from me just before I force chocked that bitch @$$ mother of yours... I don't see her spirit here!"

Luke: "So what, you think you can show up here with that blue tint youthful anakin and mack on my sister because she reminds of you someone that you once force choked to death? Even after I told you who she was you still told me you'd hit it with both ends of twin bladed lightsaber... I don't even know what the #@$% that is suppose to mean..."

Vader: "We have a lot of healing to do, you and me. Tell you what, lets head on over to Toschi station and pick up some new power converters, on me..."

Luke: "So you think pimping my ride is going to fix everything between us?"

Vader: "I'll even pick up some chrome spinners for that little astrometric droid of yours..."

Luke: "OK... well, lets do it then..."

 

Father and son descend from the Ewok canopy to the ground below.

 

Luke: "What's going on here..."

Pan left: X-Wing is mounted in a trebuchet.

Vader: "It's time to pimp your ride..."

X-Wing sails through the air crashing into the forest beyond. *some panicing beeping from R2-D2 is heard from far beyond*

Luke: "Dad, why?!"

Vader: "VW - Oh' Snap!"

Vader removes his helmet to reveal an aged hayden christianson resembling that guy from the VM commericals

Luke: "$*&%, I should have seen that coming!"

 

Perhaps Jahled can make one of his animated comics from this

[nordwindranger]

i think Lucas miscalculated the core audience. Most people think of Vader as being pretty cool, but instead Lucas cast someone who could only portay an impatiend dumb teen.

 

I think Lucas tried to hard. There were too many corn jokes in the new movies-- it was like he was trying to make a disney movie. I've always thought Star Wars should be more hard core, but he was clearly shooting for a younger generation.

 

Even so, I still enjoyed the new movies. They were different, but they were still a lot of fun

[SOCL]

I believe that this is a very relevant moment to show everyone

.

[Darth_Rob]

I was born in 1982, so I missed the theatrical releases also. But my parents (my dad in particular) were huge fans, and had seen the movies in the theatre. So growing up I saw the films many times on VHS. Then of course there were childrens books and such. I never got the action figures myself, but I played with my older cousins collection (hes about 7 years older than me, so he had all the figures from the movies). But as I got older, my true playtime passion was video games, and the NES delivered with the original Star Wars and Empire Stirkes Back games.

 

But it got better as I got older. I got truely excited for the re-release of the trilogy and for Episode I. I started getting the "Stae Wars Insider" Magazine delivered to my house. But one of the biggest things for me in Star Wars was the release of the card game. The game had the people, places and things from the movies-in card form. My friends and I loved the game, and played it alot. The game came out around '97 or so, and I spent oh so much money on that. Back then, a Darth Vader card was worth like $50-60. But alas, today the same thing goes for like $3 on ebay, which is why I will never sell my collection.

 

So in summary, yes that magical time of hype prior to the re-releases and Phantom Menace were the best for me.

[Eagle]

I thought you all wanted to share the nicest moments of star wars here.

 

Ohh, you guys are all that young. Best Star Wars year = 1997?? No way!

 

Of course the Special Edition was nice to watch when it just came out. After watching it a couple of times, you got mad about of what he did with the movies and how irrelevant all these changes were.

 

It was so amazing seeing all these creatures in 1977/78. That was just a real blast! Nothing comparable was ever shown before in cinemas across the world. Young cool guys with blaster pistols and lightsabers fighting amoured robotlike soldiers led by the darkest evil villain ever seen before. All took place on strange planets or places, crowded with the strangest creatures and robots ever. Than these dogfights in space with all these cool fighters above the Death Star. Oh, my...

 

Than the second part, which was just as cool as the first one plus even darker. The third part was great but also a bit disappointing about all these silly bears.

 

It´s hard to explain it to people who grew up in a world where CGI-effects are just that common what status these movies had in the 70s and 80s for lots of people.

[Jahled]

I, like a few older lurkers I guess, voted the 1977 option. I'm a 30-something and there will never be the original sense of magic and wonder seeing Star Wars for the first time had. Remember, there was simply nothing like it before, on silver screen or TV.

 

I'm not knocking any developments since, personally, I consider ESB the best of the lot; but for sheer personal experience seeing it the first few times was for me the fondest of memories..

[budious]

So which was the worst Star Wars moment.

 

Phantom Menance

 

Attack of the Clones

 

Revenge of the Sith

 

or

 

Star Wars Christmas Special - The 5-Minute Version

[Sinister]

My favorite era was probably 91-97. It was during that time that I developed a deep love for the series. I watched the movies, bought some of the new action figures, and some of the comics too. The Special Editions weren't that bad either. When Lucas announced that he was making a Prequel Trilogy I was excited.

 

The PT left much to be desired. There were a lot of things about it that I thought could have been better. I fail to see GL's logic in some of his decisions concerning the PT and trying to fit it with the OT. It seems like he could have made it more seamless so that they would fit together better. He went back to the OT, changed it up, added and subtracted, to make it fit the PT. It should have been the other way around.

 

Don't get me wrong, I like the PT to an extent. But for all of its razzle-dazzle, it can't compare to the awesomeness of the OT (unedited version of course).

[SOCL]

I won't say that anytime following 1977 can ever compare to anything following, but for those of us too young for that era, the pre-97 era I think was a time of reinvigoration of Star Wars, bringing in a generation of fresh blood. Personally, I loved the Special Editions at the time of their release, but it established a dangerous precedent which gave us the rubbish on the DVDs. So then LucasFilm turns around and tries to re-release the original trilogy, unedited, on DVD...which apparently turned out badly since the quality doesn't even come close to the quality of that last, unaltered VHS version. Pity, really. I'm going to go out and buy myself some device to convert my unaltered VHS's to DVD.

[Sinister]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone else get annoyed with how ever since the PT has come out some people love to bash Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader? They especially seem to like to go after Vader, saying anyone from the PT, including a padawan could mop the floor with him in a fight. Yes, his lightsaber duels aren't as flashy, but the movies were made almost 30 years ago.

[SOCL]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone else get annoyed with how ever since the PT has come out some people love to bash Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader? They especially seem to like to go after Vader, saying anyone from the PT, including a padawan could mop the floor with him in a fight. Yes, his lightsaber duels aren't as flashy, but the movies were made almost 30 years ago.

Haven't heard this before, but I must admit, those Jedi from the prequels did seem to move faster than in the original trilogy. Then again, they weren't human, they were CGI. I just ignore them and ignore the differences. Look at Ben aboard the Death Star. Some Jedi master he was with his little spin. I'll just pretend that it's all been dumbed-down for us since it was so fast and so amazing, we couldn't even comprehend the very thought of the fight.

[Darth_Rob]

Meh. Lucas probably felt he had to make things flashier and faster paced for a new generation. He was in it for the $$$, and thus had to get a larger target market than the die-hard fans from 20 years ago. I love the lightsaber duels in the OT. I must admit that the first one in ANH between Ben and Vader is a tad slow, but ESB and ROJ got it right.

 

As for my favorite, its gotta be ESB, hands down. I would have loved to have seen that one originally in the theatre, having this explosive battle, Han captured, Luke is Vader's son, and then the movie ends. What a cliffhanger it was!!!

[SOCL]

Rob, you may get your wish. Supposedly the movies are all going to be re-released in theaters this summer for the 30th Anniversary, and in 3-D. It's a long-running rumor, but as the date gets closer, the less we hear about it... Then again, it won't be the original since it'll probably be the DVD version nonsense. I just hate the fact that we know that Vader knows about Luke being his son. Sure, we know it's coming, but it's still so much better without Lucas spoon-feeding it to us! I don't need to hear the Emperor tell Vader, say "Search your feelings" and then Vader say "How can this be?" AH!! It makes me want to scream!!

[Sinister]

Things that make me want to scream:

 

- Boba Fett's altered voice. The original voice was better and menacing. Just because he's Jango's clone doesn't mean he has to sound exactly like him.

 

- Vader's pink lightsaber. Some parts on there it doesn't look bad, but there are others where it looks horrible.

 

- Hayden Christensen replacing Sebastian Shaw as the ghost of Anakin Skywalker.

[DarthTofu]

I was denied the shock of ESB's huge, monumental surprise. I saw Return of the Jedi first, and so knew that Luke was Vader's son before I even knew about Bespin. Stupid Thanksgiving special- why couldn't it just be the full trilogy?

 

Oh, right, my favorite years- erm, I wasn't alive for very many of them... Prob'ly about when the special edition was released, since that was when I got into Star Wars, even if I didn't know the original magic. Thus, the late nineties...

[Defender_16]

I wasn't even old enough to remember seeing it until about 90-91ish. In the 91-97 period I watched the movies enough that the version my Parents had taped off TV wore out.

So we got our VHS box set.

 

I can't seem to find any pictures of that version. It wasn't the enhanced version I know that.

I'd take a picture of it with our digital camera but my Dad took it with him on his latest trip to China.