myOtaku.com: SomeGuy

myO Still <3's You

Vitals

Birthday
• 1983-08-05
Gender
• Male
Location
• Vancouver, BC
Member Since
• 2003-08-02
Occupation
• Writer; Part-Time Hero
Real Name
• James

Personal

Achievements
• Visiting eight different myO friends in person thus far
Anime Fan Since
• Winter 2001
Favorite Anime
• Neon Genesis Evangelion, .hack//SIGN, Naruto, Bleach, Beck, Peacemaker Kurogane, Ranma 1/2 (the guilty pleasure)
Goals
• Visit the myO friends I've missed thus far; complete a cosplay from 300
Hobbies
• Writing, Gaming, Kung Fu, Movies, Acting somewhat strange in general
Talents
• Can recognise most quotes from almost any movie/show on first listen; Can recite the entire 12 days of Christmas by memory

myOtaku.com: SomeGuy

Thursday, November 3, 2005

Consider this an Ultimate Trivia Post . . .
The brother: "Is Darth Vader a tragic hero?

Me: [shrugs]

The brother: "His fatal flaw . . . is that he's evil."

So, that made me laugh uncontrollably for a while. It's a stupid reason to, but what can I say?

So yeah, I bought "Star Wars: ROTS" and another disk of "Otogizoushi". Man, it's funny with me. For me and mostly likely my brothers as well, Star Wars is like, this old passion that just never really seems to ever die. I mean, we all grew up with the movies playing on video tapes in the living room while we just played around. Half the time we wouldn't even be watching it - it'd just be comforting to just have it playing, to have the dialog and music in the air . . . even to just see and watch anything from fan films to video games, just seeing other people's take on the world just makes you feel all good inside, I find.

I really do think it's disgusting as to just how much Star Wars knowledge the three of us have soaked up in our lives. I mean, I know I'm already pretty much a professed anime otaku (this site says that), but with Star Wars . . .

I mean, we know the make and model of Han Solo's blaster pistol (it's a "modified BlasTech DL-44 heavy blaster"). We know the characteristics of nerfs, gundarks, and wampas. I know the name of Luke Skywalker's son (Ben, whom he had with Mara Jade many years after the movies). No matter how long it is between watching these movies or reading these books, the minute we get news of a new Star Wars video game we immediately get into the research of it . . . that said, "Battlefront II" looks awesome!

In the movies themselves, we pretty much know when every instance of a Wilhelm Scream occurs throughout the entire series. We know that in Episode II, Jango bumps his head going into his ship because it's an homage to a famous mistake in Episode IV, where a stormtrooper bumps his head going through a door and falls down. We've probably caught each other saying "I've got a bad feeling" about this or that. We own at least half a dozen Kenner lightsabers . . . while on the subject, we're also aware that if we were to ever learn Kendo, we'd be that much closer to knowing how to fight with lightsabers.

So what did we do when these prequels came out and everyone thrashed them to pieces? Was it that we were so blind in our devotion that we couldn't see past the problems? Hell no! We're very aware that Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd set all sorts of new lows. We've quoted the line "One day I shall become the most powerful jedi ever!" with the whiniest voices we could ever muster. Yes, there are some definite issues with these movies.

But that's the thing. By this point in time, it's impossible to be objective about Star Wars. No one can look at it and make any sort of view of it completely without other views competing as well. Likewise as I have said once before, with the internet the world has fallen into all sorts of hyperbolic madness. These days, things can only be "the best ever" or "the worst piece of garbage I have ever sat through". There is no middle ground anymore.

People complain "he only cares about the CG effects." Yeah, they also happen to be insanely good CG effects that came out before everyone else's . . . that's the other thing that no one really appreciates. When George Lucas made these movies, he's always had another motive for 'em. With the original trilogy, he wanted to promote the idea of sci-fi adventure that no one saw before. In the new ones, he was promoting the use of digital effects and cameras as a legitimate means to the same end all filmmakers have been reaching since the beginning of the last century. But y'know, this is all technical stuff that I only ever bring up to make a defense, and I don't feel like defending for the rest of this post.

I'm gonna paraphrase something from an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" that I think explains my point of view really well . . . and yes, I'm aware of how cool I already look without adding Star Trek to it . . . . but anyways, check this out. So in this episode, Data the android has been composing really, really bad poetry all episode. People are going nuts with his attempt to understand poetry about how he appreciates his cat Spot. Later in the episode, he goes to his friend Geordi, who basically says,
"technically, all your lines had the right amount of lines and the best rhymes. But did it evoke an emotional response out of me? Sorry..."

And that's really all it is. When I saw these newer ones on the big screen, I was just soaking up the spectacle of it all. I was cheering and laughing with the rest of the theater as things happened. The technical aspects of what's good and what's not good just don't apply in these situations. You've got something in front of you that your spirit's getting a kick out of, and there's not a lot else that really matters . . . erm, or something.

So to sum it up for my trivia bit: I'm a fan of Star Wars. This affects my outlook on many aspects of life. 'nuff said.
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