Discussion Generation gaps among the fans

*waves hand* "This is not the Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity Breakfast you are looking for."

Born in '74 so a little young to see EPIV on the big screen the first time round. But I got a Millenium Falcoln and 7 figures for Christmas '80 and that piqued my interest. Saw EPV in the theatre and every one since... including the special editions and a fantastic EPIV, EPV and EPVI triple screening around '85. good times

I was born in 1994, and I had Episode I on VHS as a child, but it wasn't until I was 7 or 8 that I saw ESB for the first time and THAT is what peaked my interest in Star Wars. I had no idea that they were even related until my parents told me they were.

That Christmas I got all KINDS of Star Wars stuff. The Falcon, many, many action figures, the DVDs, etc. etc. Then somewhere along the line I played Knights of the Old Republic on the PC and loved it. Then after my 11th birthday my Dad took me to Celebration III, where I did watch ANH on the big screen for the first time (though I think I fell asleep, whoops!). During this time I researched as much as I could. I learned about Mara shortly after I wrote fanfiction when I was eight. I was/am someone that obsesses over something and has to know everything.

I believe it was the summer before sixth grade that Episode III came out, and my Dad and I went to go see it opening day. Then we went to Disney shortly after and my mom was with us when we saw it the second time. Star Tours was my favorite ride at Disney, until they changed it, I still like it but I don't love it anymore. >>

I went a really long time without watching Star Wars recently(okay maybe a year) and then when my dad got the Blu-ray release, I watched ANH and just fell in LOVE with the original trilogy again. After the announcement of the Sequel Trilogy, I decided that I had spent far too much time away from the Star Wars fandom and came back to it. My parents are getting me a ton of Star Wars stuff for Christmas (including more than 50 EU books) and I honestly can't wait, haha.

I saw Return Of The Jedi in theaters for one of my birthday parties as a kid. I think I was around 8 years old. Afterwards we went to the video game arcade and played "Joust" "Defender" "Pac Man" and so on....video game arcades...ah the good o'l days. The 80's. BMX bikes, Nintendo (legend of zelda), crappy Kirk Cameron TV sitcoms...ALF. Having a pocket comb sticking outta your back pocket....anyone remember the G.I. JOE animated cartoon movie?

EDIT: gotta love youtube

Yeah, but unfortunately for the G.I.Joe pic, those first three minutes at the Statue of Liberty were the best part of the movie!

I like the one GI Joe that came out in '09 where Snake Eyes has millions of tons of Flubber eat away at the Eiffel Tower.

@Valairy Scot. I also don't talk about my SW fandom because of my age. It doesn't seem fair though. If I painted my face with a football team's colors and wore a wedge of cheese on my head...that would be okay during a game. You can be as stupid of a football fan as you want without people thinking you are strange. But if you tell people you write fan fiction you are a nut job...unless you change the names and call your story Shades of Gray...then out are a hero to housewives worldwide.

I was born in 1993, but I saw the OT on VHS before TPM came out. I immediately fell in love with star wars! I like both the OT and the PT equally (I guess that makes me a saga fan?). I went to see TPM and ROTS in cinemas (unfortunately I didn't see AOTC until it came out on DVD ). I'm currently doing a Star Wars marathon atm, i've recently finished ROTS; now onto A New Hope!!.

Return of the Jedi was the first movie I can ever remember seeing. Hell - it's my first memory period. That said, I was a big enough Star Wars fan that I was first in line when the special editions hit theaters. Must've been in high school around that time. I definitely love me some OT.

I also hold the PT in just as high regard. I was out of college by the time RotS came out, but it was just as awesome for me as the first time I saw RotJ. I also enjoy TCW (love is perhaps too strong a word for that particular SW offering,) and many of the video games.

I don't consider the books worthy for even kindling or toilet paper. As long as they give that stuff as wide a berth as the other movies have, I'll be good. (I don't mind the use of "Coruscant," "padawan," or even "Master Vos has moved his troops to Boz Pity," but that's about as much as I can stomach.)

You're not referring to me there are you?

Nah, it's just the cheesehead is the most recognizable football fan costume I could think of. A fanatical football fan is completely acceptable. Star Wars fanatics though are often seen as weird or geeks...which is unfair considering all the stupid stuff Americans do that is considered normal. Next month if I froze my butt off at 6AM in Punxsutawney just so I can witness a weather perdicting groundhog...that's fine (okay, I admit I have done that). Or if I do a polar bear plunge in freezing weather that's cool. If I spend tens of thousands of dollars building a cannon to chuck a pumpkin...I may get a TV show.

I was 7 when ANH came out, loved it. We bought the toys, played SW non-stop in the yard and around the house, pseudo lightsaber duels with sticks, action figures, etc. I always drew SW spaceships on my folders at school.

I am not one of the elitists from this generation who try to overstate (or in some cases, totally create) flaws of the PT to sound fashionable or cool, i think that is as moronic as can be. I love the PT (I didn't like some of TPM, especially JJ Binks though), ROTS was better than ROTJ.

One thing that makes me doubt claims on here to actually be from my generation (another moronic way to sound cool, in this case for those way to young to have been around during the OT trying to make like they were to sound knowledgeable, I guess behind your keyboard on the net, you can be anyone you want): when I went to see ESB, I already knew that Luke's dad was Vader because EVERONE at school was talking about it. SW was huge in those days, and everyone talked about it; therefore, if your parents didn't take you on opening night, you knew already about the big secret, you were not shocked when it came. I doubt the autheticity of many of those who claim they found out in the movie theater.

I found out in the theater. It came out at the end of May during final exams. I don't think any of my friends saw it until the summer break or if they did they weren't giving out spoilers. Although if you were in elementary school I could understand little kids not being able to keep a secret.

I do remember not believing it. I thought Vader was lying.

I am an OT originalist and I don't think I saw ESB until July, maybe August...but quite frankly I don't remember and I don't remember being spoiled. I might have been - but early senility is setting in.

OT originalists consist of Baby Boomers and Generation X. Maybe Boomers were better at not giving out spoilers.

One of the most unique things about Star Wars is the way it has crossed over generations with new presentations of its story. Stemming from a 1977 release of the 4th part of a story, Star Wars has truly created a series that can be experienced, shared, and enjoyed in ways that no other creative work will ever duplicate.

Oh, I'm a boomer all right.

I think the circumstances made Boomers less likely to find out. When you are in school, you hear about that sort of thing, especially SW, which was all the rage with kids in those days.

I have REALLY fond memories of going to see the OT over and over in the theaters.

One thing that sucked, and I believe they outlawed- when ESB first came out (I lived in Eugene, Oregon back then, far from where I am now), the theater would stop the movie for a 10 minute break right after the Millenium Falcon flew out of the monsters belly inside the asteroid (a cheap and lame ploy to sell more food).

Does anyone else recall that?

Moment of clarity: I was in college, non-urban area and the movie wasn't released to the small towns at first. So when I returned to Seattle that summer, I was out of school and not interacting much with my peers.

I remember the very moment I was spoiled. My brother and his friend came up to me on the playground during recess and were like,"Hey, you won't believe it! Darth Vader is Luke's dad!"

I would be pissed about a spoiler like that now, then I was so excited to see the new SW, I didn't care that the big secret had been exposed to me before the movie.

I vaguely remember seeing a movie once where they did that. I can't remember where I was or what I was watching, but I don't think it was SW...and I don't think it happened more than once.

I remember being surprised when commercials started to be shown in theaters before the movie. Of course, I was so used to watching movies on a military base where they played the National Anthem before the movie and everybody stood and saluted or put their hand over their heart. I wonder if they still do that in military theaters. What was funny is when I saw the movie Poltergeist at a military theater a lot of people thought it was funny to stand at the opening of the movie (If you remember the National Anthem was playing on the TV set before Carol Ann heard the ghost. That was back in the time when TV wasn't on 24 hours a day and programing ended late at night until the next morning).

I tell my sons "These are the good old days". Being a kid in the 60's and 70's was definitely not as fun as it is now. My kids PS3 games look like a movie...I had freaking PONG!

Couldn't agree more. Kids today don't know how good they have it. Atari 2600 was what I had at home, and all the cheesey games in the arcades. I remember Pong, Combat, then when Space Invaders came out, it was like WOW! LOL

I don't have kids, but I got a PS 3, and have all these collections of old arcade games. Pac Man, Zaxxon, Joust, etc., lots of early-mid 80's stuff. Quite nostalgic. All the quarters we spent in the early 80's, if I could have seen that one day they would be free on my TV at home!

I haven't played a video game since the Atari 2600 days other than the Pac-Man game that happens to be at the laser tag place where I take my sons.

I can still kick ass in Pac-Man, but I'm reminded of Dave Barry's column about his son teaching him to play Nintendo. He said his Nintendo character would commit suicide at the 30-second mark.

I tried playing a video game last week. My sons handed me the PS3 controls. It had zombies in it and I had to shoot them. So I am pushing around the joystick and running into walls and for some reason my point of view is the ceiling. So I am wandering around looking at the ceiling. Then I hear something and they tell me to shoot. And I have no clue how to shoot. They are saying R1 or R2. So I end up unloading a clip at the ceiling. Then I pushed the wrong button threw two hand grenades at the ceiling. Finally I got my point of view down and I can see the zombie, but I don't know how to aim so I ended up shooting him in the ankle and he is still crawling at me. Finally my one son took the controller away and said "Epic Fail!" or something like that. They then made fun of my PS3 skills. I reminded them they don't have driver's licenses yet, so if they ever want to go to GameStop again they should cut me some slack. That shut them up.

I hate video games.

LOL, yeah, the new games are much harder to control than arcade-style games, that is why they have the tutorials on them. I haven't learned to really play them well yet (the new ones I bought), when I have a few minutes to sit down, I will usually play an old game (One of the ones I got is Namco classics, which has Pac Man on it, an exact hi-def replication of the old arcade game). The new games are very complicated, and there is only one game per disc. The old arcade games are so much less complicated, you can buy discs that have like 10-40 of the old arcade games on them.

I got my PS3 recently, actually more because of all the other things you can do with it than playing games (surf the net on your TV, play Blu rays, play MP3's digitally on your stereo, etc). I got up to speed on the games by help from the kids on the games section of this site, started a thread and got info from responses, the younger generation knows a lot about this stuff!. I got a couple of newer SW games, but had a similar experience to yours, really hard to control! One of these days I'll get time to sit down and practice them enough to be able to really play them.