I was surrounded by a group of middle-schoolers on a field trip, and three of them were trying to discuss Star Wars

I was in WalMart a few weeks back, and I heard a father explaining things to his barely school-aged kid. "Then Luke had his hand cut off by Darth Vader." "But Vader's Luke's daddy!" "Well, he's not a nice guy, is he?" "No . . ."

And I thought, "My god, Lucas did it, created a mythology for a new generation." I'm not sure the father was old enough to have been born for the first Star Wars.

I can't remember the title, but there was a movie in the last couple of years featuring dragons taking over the world and nearly exterminating mankind. One of the last communities was holed up in a castle. Two of the older men were acting out stories for the kids, and the story they showed was the scene where Vader cuts off Luke's hand. No explanation, none needed.

There's a lot of limb chopping in these movies, I've noticed. I think Lucas has issues with the loss of limbs.

I think Lucas has issues with the loss of limbs.

I think he did it once, and then thought it would be cool to reference it in every other freaking film he would ever make. Like 1138, but gorier.

Reign of Fire, connie. I loved that scene.

They then proceeded to have a conversation about the appropriateness of the phrase "back then," with one girl arguing that it took place in the future, and the other arguing that, no, it was just on a different planet.

Wasn't it a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away?

Wasn't there a new species of rodent discovered recently?

Well, there is a new species of monkey too!

Thanks for the congrats!

I think for most people spaceships + past = confusion.

I can't remember the title, but there was a movie in the last couple of years featuring dragons taking over the world and nearly exterminating mankind. One of the last communities was holed up in a castle. Two of the older men were acting out stories for the kids, and the story they showed was the scene where Vader cuts off Luke's hand. No explanation, none needed.

Reign of Fire. Pretty much the only redeeming scene in the movie.

X-Posty, of course.

I'm amazed at how much of those movies I remember considering I think I only saw them once (in their entirety) with my dad. It must have been at a later run, as the first came out when I was 2.

No desire to see them again or any of the new stuff. The original 3 exist happily in my childhood, complete with memories of non-steriod poisoned action figures and Han Solo's head glued back on kinda wrong (he got run over by the lawn mower. And we lost Bobba Fett's arm to Foxy.) And playacting probably the whole damned thing with my best friend Caleb on the swingset.

playacting probably the whole damned thing with my best friend Caleb on the swingset.

Goodness yes. Matt and I (at Grandma's) and Brooke and I (at home) must have done the whole trilogy dozens of times through. No VCR - we had to make our own fun. (Not to mention our own live-action fan vids.)

My Star Wars action figures saw much use too. They also had many makeshift starships made out of cardboard.