The Star Wars Experience

Last Friday, I took my daughter to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The movie was amazing and there will be no spoilers in this post, though I think you all should go see it as soon as humanly possible!

But seeing this movie that is part of a fandom that was and still is huge for me in the theater on opening day with my daughter was an amazing experience. We went to an afternoon showing in 2D but the theater was still packed. We had gotten there really early so we were able to get great seats.

With popcorn and drinks, we settled down to watch the first new Star Wars movie in a decade. As the words "Star Wars" burst onto the screen, I got a little teary eyed as I watched my daughter getting excited to see the movie.

Emily enjoyed the movie as well. Her favorite character was BB-8. She is also a big R2-D2 and C-3PO fan. We laughed, I cried as we watched the movie and I look forward to seeing the upcoming ones with her as well.

Star Wars is a family experience for me. Like my father before me, I love sharing this universe that I love with my child.

Happy Star Wars Week!

Image: need2read9.blogspot.com 

I love Star Wars! It was one of my first fandoms as a kid. I had some really awesome Star Wars toys and I remember seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater when I was six. 

My love of Star Wars stayed with me. It was because of mutual love of Star Wars that my college best friend and I became friends. We would have marathons of the original trilogy on some Saturdays. We'd always order pizza between Empire and Jedi.

Like most Star Wars fans, I was super excited for the prequels to come out. I saw them all in the theater multiple times, I think hoping they would get better. I also kept hoping that the next movie would be better, but in most cases, they weren't.

The prequels haven't diminished my love of Star Wars, but I tend to ignore them. Since Emily hadn't seen any of the movies, we've been watching them. Originals first and then the prequels. We still need to watch the last one, hopefully we will get to it this week.

Thankfully Emily found the originals more exciting and I'm super thankful that she didn't really show any interest in Jar Jar. Her favorite characters are R2-D2 and Darth Vader.

Even though the prequels were not good, I'm very optimistic about the sequels. Disney plus no George Lucas seems to be a good combination to me. My husband is more of a realistic and he's not so optimistic. But we shall see and soon!

I have tickets for me and Emily to go see an afternoon show on Friday. We aren't the only ones excited because quite a few shows are already sold out. Thankfully Emily gets out of school early on Friday for the beginning of Christmas break so we can go to an earlier showing. 

For Star Wars week, I hope to watch "Revenge of the Sith" with Emily. I also will probably play a lot of "Knights of the Old Republic" on my xBox 360. I'll be avoiding spoilers too on Friday, since the internet will start filling up with them.

Happy Star Wars Week! And may the Force be with you always!

How I Became A Whovian

Image - http://en.wikipedia.org

I like fandoms and I have several that I consider myself to be a part of. I’m a Browncoat, which is a fan of Firefly / Serenity / Joss Whedon. I’m part of the Tolkien fandom, especially when a new movie is coming out. And in the last few years, I became a Whovian which is a fan of Doctor Who.

Since today is the Day of the Doctor and the 50^th anniversary episode is airing later this afternoon, I thought I’d talk about how I became a Whovian.

When I was small, I remember seeing Doctor Who on TV and thinking that it was strange. I was a geeky child but the British program was a little out there for me. My dad, the major geek in my family, didn’t watch it regularly which is another reason I didn’t get into Doctor Who as a child.

I grew up and several of my friends were really into the new Doctor Who. I’m a little OCD and I like seeing any series from the beginning. With Doctor Who, I put off watching it because I was tempted to start from the 1^st Doctor. Several friends convinced me that I just needed to start with Nine, at the point of the New Who reboot.

I started watching it on Netflix, and I found the first few episodes a little cheesy. As Nine’s season progressed, I enjoyed it more but I didn’t really become hooked until Ten came along. Ten is my favorite Doctor but by the time I had gotten to his seasons he had already been replaced by Eleven. It took me a while to get caught up. Partly because I didn’t want Ten’s time to be over, and partly because I wasn’t a big fan of Eleven.

Finally I was all caught up and fully a fan of Doctor Who. Even though Eleven isn’t my favorite character, still enjoyed the show because I liked the companions. I was very excited to hear that Twelve would be replacing Eleven during the Christmas episode.

Even my daughter is a Whovian. I have watched some episodes with her, trying to pick the ones that aren’t too scary. Though she picked the episodes that took place in the Library one day, and I was afraid that they would scare her because it had freaked me out. She thought it was funny and kept walking around the house saying, “Hey, who turned out the light?”

Emily’s favorite Doctor is Ten as well and her favorite companion is Donna. I probably won’t watch the simulcast this afternoon while it’s on, but wait until Emily is up from her nap. That way we can enjoy our Doctor Who fandom together.