A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

A couple weeks ago, my love and I became the proud owners of the complete Star Wars movie series (with the exception of the Clone Wars movie, which I had heard absolutely nothing about, good or bad, and thus it didn't seem worth getting). Since then, I've been on a bit of a Star Wars kick. I've watched the movies multiple times, looked into certain things about the universe I hadn't before, and have had a very strong desire to play the roleplaying game (or Knights of the Old Republic).

Star Wars has always been one of my favorite things, ever since I can remember. One of my earliest memories is in fact playing with some of the old Star Wars action figures my aunt and uncle had. I was privileged enough to actually get an opportunity to see the movies on the big screen. Though I saw the edited versions of the films, they were no less wonderful and it was amazing seeing them on the big screen. I was also privileged to get to see the prequel trilogy in theaters as well.

Many people have derided the prequel films. While there are certainly problems with the films (*cough*Hayden Christensen*cough*), I really enjoyed them, and still do to this day. They helped fill in the blanks of some parts of the original movies, as well as gave a greater depth to some of the characters, particularly Darth Vader. My love, who had never seen Revenge of the Sith, was absolutely appalled when she saw that he had killed the children in the Jedi temple. She had never thought Vader was -that- evil.

The Star Wars universe was my first real brush with epic fantasy. You may say that Star Wars is really more science fiction than fantasy, but it does have many, many elements of fantasy. The Jedi and the Force are very much like wizards and magic respectively, Obi-wan is even referred to in A New Hope as "that old wizard." It features the classic battle between good and evil which is far more central to fantasy than sci-fi. And of course, it is set a long, long time ago, (in a galaxy) far, far away, which is a classic element of fantasy as well. There is certainly some advanced science in the movies (laser swords, interplanetary flight, etc.), but it is my opinion that it falls more into the fantasy genre than sci-fi.

Oh, and for anyone interested, I've been reading a wonderful webcomic called Darths & Droids. It's a screen-cap comic about the Star Wars movies, and is very funny. I recommend it.