So today is May 4th, and as all you geeky people out there probably know, it is Star wars Day. May the Fourth Be With You! I had planned today on doing the Lego competition (http://us.starwars.lego.com/en-us/creations/default.aspx?domainredir=www.starwars.lego.com) but with wanting to do something new, we do not really have the money for me to go out and get a set to do to upload. I did scour the sales racks at local stores in hopes I would find something but it was a disappointing selection. With Lego being out of the day, I was able to get my son dressed in his Star Wars t-shirt with the original trilogy montage on it and we proceeded to go to the book store and our favorite local comic book store, the Comic Cellar. Got my son his first comic book today and he enjoyed reading it while we waited on dinner. Currently am waiting on him to wind up watching his Elmo for the day and then putting him to bed to watch Episode 3 with my wife who has never seen it before. All in all a pretty fun Force Day.
About Star Wars; if you have been born any time after 1960 and have not seen these movies you have got to have lived under a rock. These are excellent movies. Sure Lucas gets his complaints for the prequels and his snobbishness towards the fans in the expanded universe, but in all honesty, if he did it any other way a whole new group of people would be complaining. That is the price of creating one of the greatest universes and sagas our world has ever known. Creative genius at its finest and I, for one, mostly enjoy the prequels. Jar Jar can rot in hell however and should have never been in more than a spot scene in Episode I.
George Lucas does not get nearly enough credit in how he has enterprised the Star Wars franchise. He knew he had a cult following and bought the rights to his masterpiece from 20th Century Fox. There is a reason Fox no longer sells licenses to anyone on any of the projects they do anymore. They lost entirely too much money allowing Lucas to take Star Wars and run it under Lucasfilm. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in those board meetings afterwards and seen the heads rolling.
In owning the rights to Star Wars, Lucas has made way more money in the expanded universe and merchandising than he has done in the movies. By allowing others to write novels and stories, which he still has final say on creative license, he allows others to spread his vision while doing minimal amount of work. It’s pure genius and obviously works as you can see from the hysteria of Star Wars fan boys and geekdom in general. I know I am not the only person who wishes they had been the one to originate the Star Wars universe, nor are we the only ones who dream they might be able to come up with a mythos than can rival it.
I know this is not a book review as normal but with it being a special day, Force Day, I thought it deserved its own entry. Heaven knows if I ever get back to reading the Star Wars novels we will have plenty of entries to peruse and there is no penalty for not sticking strictly to book reviews. May the Fourth Be With You all and pleasant role-playing, reading, constructing, mmorpging, or tabletopping. This is truly our day and I wish the best on everyon
Midlife Musings 