The Lit Forum Social Thread: A Festivus for the Rest of Us

Nice stories Hav and Nick!!!!

Mine isn't that far off those. I remember being at my friend's house and not having seen Star Wars before. They thought that was strange so I was shown the first one and they sent me home with the others after that. I was totally hooked. I'm not even sure what it was. R2D2 was my favorite from the start. I then found out that my mom was a huge Harrison Ford fan and loved him in the role of Han Solo. My little brother and I were pretty much inseparable so this started a family obsession with Star Wars. His favorite was Yoda so there were tons of Yoda, Artoo, and Han action figures around the house growing up. We even had those cardboard cutouts of them. (Which ended up in my mom's classroom, all three of them).

On the other side of me, I've always been a horse nut. Growing up there are tons of kiddie horse books to read. So I grew up with Saddle Club, Thoroughbred, and Black Stallion books to read. When I was in 6th grade mom wanted me to branch out into more advanced books since I was consuming the little horse books in one night. So we went to the bookstore and were looking around. Now at the time there weren't very many adult horse book stories (a few have popped up since then). A Star Wars book caught my eye and my love of the stories in the movies couldn't be denied. So I started with HttE and was hooked. Quickly devouring any books my mom could find. I started the X-wing books soon after that and fell in love with Corran Horn. He was awesome and everything I wanted in a guy (hah! Tried that one when I got older, dumb idea!) Wedge was awesome. Janson never failed to crack me up. Face, Ton, Ooryl, etc. I went on each adventure with them.

Anyways, so I read the books and was in my own little world for over 10 years. It was my world, but I desperately wanted to share it with others. My brothers weren't interested in the Star Wars books and my mom, like any good mom should, read a few just to make sure they were appropriate for me to be reading, but hasn't read them all. She would patiently listen while I told her the latest gossip after each book came out, but it didn't give me any discussion on them. A few years ago when the second DNT book came out, my buddy picked it up at an airport and read it. He was so lost that he called me (because I never hid my Star Wars book obsession and can frequently be found with one on me) to find out what was going on. Another buddy of mine started reading Star Wars around that time as well, but conversations have been limited.

One day I read Outbound Flight, around when it had been released. I was...disappointed. I had heard of Outbound Flight mentioned in a different book so I had a very different expectation as to how the book should've gone and was highly upset that it was destroyed. Don't ask me which book gave me the idea that it succeeded, cuz I don't remember. So I googled Outbound Flight and found the thread on it from here. I was so lost in the thread, but managed to discover that the book wasn't out of nowhere and all along I'd had a wrong impression. I believe I asked a few questions, got some non-answers and some answers. Then I was hooked on this place. There existed more people who read these books that I loved! I could share my world with others!

I also was introduced to comics when I came here. I didn't even know Star Wars ones existed. So as soon as I discovered that X-wing ones were available I had to have them. Those pilots are my first EU love and will always be.

I do have to say its very different to experience the death of characters without a support group of fans who also can share those. In the horse books I read, a central character was killed off after a few books and I cried a lot. So it wasn't that I had never experienced it before, but my mom read that with me and we talked about it. The shock of Lujayne Forge dying in Wedge's Gamble hit me like a ton of bricks and I had no one to talk to about it. The shock of Corran almost dying had my in tears until I flipped a few pages and discovered he wasn

 

Horsey... Hence the nick!
Cool, these stories.

*breaks out the mike*'

I guess someone
Musta told 'em bout my little raid yeah
So now they made me a general... and I get paid yeah

To get the job done
Lando comes outta the shade yeah
I'll finish up with Vader
I've stopped being a traitor!

Yes people I used to sing in a college band, called Lando. This was 1994... When Star Wars was nowhere, at least not here. We took the Boba Fett carboard figure on stage as a fifth member. What can I say? It's in my blood.

Been a Star Wars fan since my dad took me to see ESB in 1980. I'd heard of it, seen bits of it on TV specials, and I was terrified of the AT-ATs. You can squeeze my hand if you're too scared, my dad said.

Then I looked through those binoculars... Saw those legs... Looked up... Saw the AT-AT. I said, Dad, I wanna get outta here. Can we please get outta here?

... So, long story short: been making up ever since! In '82, I had all the Kenner action figures. In '92, I had all the Marvels. In '02, I had all the novels. And as we move on... What will I have in '12? All the TV episodes?

 

Lujayne died in Rogue Squadron! What kind of fan are you, anyway!

But, yeah, my mom is a huge Harrison Ford fan too. I think that's why the Han Solo Trilogy was one of the first sets of books she got me.

 

Nice story, Horsey. Since everyone else is, might as well do my own too. No time like the present. Warnings for Imperial bias and length.

The year? Approximately 1998. The biggest difference between now and back then? Back then, I despised Star Wars. Hated it, hated it, hated it. Couldn't stand even hearing the name. But then again, you probably would too if all you ever knew of it was endless Little Anakin and Jar Jar images. Time passed. This brings up around the year 2000. The season was fall, it was mid to late afternoon, and I was flipping through the television channels in search of anything that even looked remotely interesting. Flip, flip, flip, stop. Something interesting had finally appeared. What appeared to be a large, triangular, elegant starship was crossing the scene. Curious. It was firing on a smaller, rather odd-looking ship. Interesting. A bunch of men with odd-looking helmets were standing in a white hallway performing what appeared to be an extremely poor imitation of looking for cover. Interesting declining rapidly. Explosion. Shock troops clad in magnificent white armor moving swiftly through the hallway and taking out the tactically-inept defenders? Absolutely fascinating. Incidentally, if you haven't already guessed, this will also serve as an explanation for my name.

And so, it had begun. I watched the rest of this gripping movie, enjoying some parts (Vader, Han), somewhat ignoring others (Luke, Leia). And then, of course, the movie came to an end. But what was this? They were making an announcement! The week after this, they would be airing the movie's sequel on the channel at the same time! Of course, I immediately marked this down on my personal schedule, making sure that nothing else would interfere with my viewing of the next great event in galactic history. I was an orderly little fellow. Then came ESB, at the time the greatest movie I had ever seen. Almost every single moment of this movie, I enjoyed (exclude the green gnome here). Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened next. End of the movie, another announcement. A third movie being broadcasted the week after this one!? Of course, I had to watch that one too. Which I did.

Now comes the link to the EU. You see, RotJ was a bit of a disappointment for me. The Emperor's finest troops getting annihilated by a couple dozen stuffed animals with sticks and stones? The death of Vader and the Emperor and the defeat of the Empire? The survival and escape of Luke and his fellow rebels? Talk about a downer ending. But then, months after, I discovered something! There were books! As someone who had read out all available books of interest in three separate libraries, this rather excited me. What book did I start with? Vector Prime. Not realizing the time difference between the NJO and the movies, I was understandably confused. Star by Star did little to clear that up for me. And so, my interest dwindled, leaving Star Wars alone for a time. Then I finally managed to pick up the Black Fleet Crisis books. Once figuring out the timeline, things became a whole lot clearer for me. Ah, I see, there are two decades between RotJ and VP! My first instinct was, of course, to simply acquire every story in that time period, which I'm to this day still working on accomplishing. After a few years, around 2004/2005, I discovered this place called TheForce.net, which turned out to be an excellent source of information for the new books I was hunting for. Shortly after, I found somewhere with even more information, much to my liking. It was called the Literature board of the Jedi Council Forums.

The sheer amount of information here amazed me, and even better, much of it was written out in an intelligent and logical format. Information was gathered, and theories proposed. A thread for everything and everything in a thread. I'd hit the jackpot, this was exactly the kind of thing I enjoyed the most. For years, I would read every new thread, all new posts, collecting every detail and bit of information that

 

Brilliant story, Loyal! Bit worrying, but perhaps that's what makes it brilliant.

 

Thanks, I think. Worrying?

 

Don't get me wrong! It's a nice change to hear the good guys reffered to as tactically inept and green gnomes.

 

Why am I looking at that picture and suspecting the moggy is thinking: You will, of course, die for this? Must be too familar with cats, I trust you know your place in the reationship with your cat Horsey?

Hmm, a story, you say?

Well, it was kind of interesting transferring to mainstream schooling at 8 just when SW was at it's height with a name like Ben, wouldn't you say? The strange thing is, a few years later, I came to merit my nickname of ObiWan. Why? Vid games. The old games are really memory tests, know the sequences of what comes from where and you slaughter the computer - guess who remembered it all?

Still beyond a couple of exploding speeder bikes, few figures I got into the game quite late and then forgot about it....Until a few years later....

1993: I walk into a newsagent, this is back when UK newsagents sold comics and I see a SW one, with a Dorman cover, looks quite good. Open it up and read the intro blurb, hit a bit about Luke serving the Emperor....WHAT THE *&^%$? Buy. went home, read it, was hooked, tracked down the back issues then saw references to others. They were the US issues, which a local comic shop imported, so found them there - ended up buying comics from the same guy for the last 13 odd years as a result. (Which is the story of everyone else there I'd say - if you have a local comic shop that is good - SUPPORT IT OR LOSE IT!)

At the time they released the widescreen videos, this is when widescreen was a big deal and me and a mate started noticing the details of the new shots, what was changed, shots etc. So bought 3 vids, sat down and watched them, was impressed and then somehow got a copy of Heir To The Empire.

The rest is history, well....not quite. Bored at Uni as I'm approaching the end of a Masters, I stumble on a SW website, they have forums, I register and here I remain!

 

I agree but his profile say he 118 years old?

 

Fascinating. So many similarities, and so many differences. My story is an interesting one, actually, because of the ups and downs I've had with the franchise. See, I'm a passionate person... you'll see what I mean.

My parents had a VHS of ANH that they'd recorded from a TV showing of it. I don't remember how old I was the first time I watched it. I do remember the first time I watched it. The image was grainy, the video had skips in it... and it was brilliant and amazing. I couldn't have been more than about five, I don't think. Shortly after that, my parents rented TESB and ROTJ from the local video store on VHS, watched them because they hadn't seen them since they were in theaters (about ten years earlier in the case of Jedi). I overheard a conversation I wasn't supposed to hear about whether I was ready to watch them - the mysticism associated with Yoda and all that in Empire. My parents were and are extremely discerning Christians and taught me a lot that way, so I don't mind (and didn't then). So I subsisted on ANH for a while.

Fast forward to about 1995-96. I don't remember where in there it was exactly, but it was the big "One last time" release. (I had that speech pretty much memorized at one point, incidentally.) My grandmother was in town visiting, and as grandmothers are wont to do, bought us stuff. She and my mom came back from the store with the box set, and I was... hmm. I believe the proper word is giddy. I watched them all in short order. And, in short order, my mom was thoroughly sick of Star Wars, I'm sure, though she never said anything - because I watched them all the time. My sisters, too. And that was it... for a short while.

I read Lord of the Rings when I was in fourth grade, fell in love with it. At the time, while in school, I went through The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in two months. So that gives you context with me. That summer (this is probably 1997, after the SE release, which I saw and loved) a neighbor lent me Heir to the Empire. At which point I devoured the entire trilogy in about a month. And the race was on. A little while after that I started hanging out with some friends at church who were as into SW as I was, and we were all working our way through the EU of the time as quickly as we could. I was behind the curve, and too young to be using the internet much, so my awareness of books being released was limited to what I saw in the stores. We started physically role-playing - made lightsaber props, and storytold and acted in backyards and in greenbelts.

I saw TPM when it came out and loved it. I thought Jar Jar was funny enough, but mostly the Jedi were what did it for me. Qui-Gon was awesome. I had a birthday right after it came out, and went and saw it with the aforementioned friends. My parents got me an Episode I cake. (How cool was that?) Roleplaying (not RPG-ing) continued. Book reading continued. I think I found TFN in 2001 or so. I'd started the NJO in 2000, and again was still only picking up books as I found them in the store. I'd long since been on top of things at the library, and being an allowance-less kid, that was how I got most of my books. That and my grandmother, when she was in town. In probably 2001, I found TF.N and started using it to keep tabs on events and books when I could. But I had no community. I was simltaneously working my way forward in the NJO and filling in the gaps. I've never actually managed to read book 2 of the BFC, and I only read book 1 of the Bounty Hunter Trilogy. I read pieces and parts of the Han Solo trilogy; our library never had the whole thing, unfortunately.

Somewhere in the midst of all of that, I got completely obsessed with Star Wars. It was all I read. It was all I talked about. It was all I thought about. That's... bad. My parents wisely intervened. I took a year off at one point. I don't regret it at all, because I came back no longer obsessed, and I enjoy Star Wars a lot more. At the time, not having it was one of the hardest things in the world. Now, I love i

 

This is my most recent, from January:

[image=http://a570.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/78/l_373e7218240b54fe57b0362b814e7369.jpg]

The snow, by the way, eventually became this:

[image=http://a214.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/17/l_f9c36647226f563272a35ea5e79fffc5.jpg]

My "getting into SW" story is pretty simple - started with the SEs in theaters at fourteen (my mom was more a fan of Billy Dee than Harrison at the time, as I recall), got Paradise Snare for my fifteenth birthday (probably for the same reason Havac did). Next thing I know, it's eleven years later and I need more shelving.

 

Is that a lightsaber on the ground behind your foot?

Keralys

 

No, it's the broken shovel handle that eventually became the antenna. Any serious snow sculptor will tell you that using a lightsaber is just asking for trouble.

 

Nice. Lightsabers have this annoying tendency to melt things, it's true. They're good for icy slick finishes, though.

EDIT: ACK. Speelngi
- Keralys

 

Maybe it's the time but I read that as: "They're good for icy stick fishing, though".

I was quite puzzled, let me tell you, and actually gave a go at working out how that could be possible... but to no avail.

As for everyone's Star Wars stories... darn, I wish my mum had been a fan of Harrison Ford, instead of Patrick Swayze. Then I might have grown up on Star Wars instead of Dirty Dancing and Ghost.

 

It´s beginning to sound like everyone´s mom is my age....

Which makes me realize: I only started coming here when I was getting too old for clubbing. What's everyone else's excuse for being here instead of in th pub?

 

A solution to your problem Sinny: Find a better pub!

 

That's really cool, man, that you've still got your first post.

 

What? You didn't volunteer?

 

Ben-

My cat and I are still fighting for who is in control. We're both stubborn creatures who refuse to give an inch. I pick him up and cuddle him when he wants to be left alone and he throws things off my desk at night to wake me up. I have ultimate control with the laser pointer though. He loves the laser pointer.

Nice story, hun! I'm amused that SSD's brought you here and no the least bit surprised. Did you ever find 'rocket man'?

 

If only he was a few years older I think I've found him for you.

---

My SW story.

My first encounter with SW was as a 5 year old. My parents used to tape a lot of movies off the TV, and on one of the many weekends when we used to watch something after dinner they put on a movie called Star Wars. I loved it, and being a bit of a smart-arse even that young I said that if this was Episode 4, where was the rest? My parents allowed us to watch ESB and RotJ and then a few weeks later when visiting my grandmother and aunt in Sydney I was given the original novelisations that my aunt still had, along with another book called [i]Splinter of the Minds Eye[/i]. These already damaged books got a lot more marked as I read them over and over again.

Then about 5 years later, my brother came back from a racing trip with our dad with a book called [i]Heir to the Empire[/i]. Waiting for him to finish it was painful. My brother was never the quickest of readers. Suffice to say that I then rapidly got through the book, and then the next time I was near a book store I saw DFR. That was read rapidly also, and then the rest is history. I'd head to the town book store every month or so after hockey or softball practice and every time a new SW book came out, it was bought. Having already begun reading through books quickly, my SW addiction fed this to the point I was usually finishing the books about 4-5 hours after starting them (and remembering all the details, yes my memory is like that).

Getting the chance to finally see the original movies in the cinema in '97 was an absolute thrill, and then keeping up with all news SFF related I found out that Lucas was heading back to do the prequels. This lead me to the net for the first time, and I frequented a few different SW sites just to get news back when the net was still fairly new.

[i]Vector Prime[/i] came out as I was getting ready to sit my HSC exams (high school finals, kinda the equivalent of the SATs I think), and then with the excitement that I got from that, and moving to university in 2000 I started to frequently read what was going on a this little board called the Jedi Council. Finally finding something worthwhile to post about I registered, got noticed by a few specific people and the rest is now JC history.

 

Laser pointers + cats = cruel!

Then again... The dead bird that Johnny brought in the other day wasn't so nice either.

 

I'm careful with it. I make him take breaks by hiding it and stuff (cuz the darn thing knows what the laser comes out of!)

DINGO!!!! You were almost my favorite person there for finding me a Cade! He's gotta be too young though, so alas my search is still on.