Bonus: Star Wars - The Force Awakens

We were raised by Star Wars. Many of us were also raised by parents, but to our recollection, it was Star Wars first and foremost. You’re probably a lot like us. Maybe you are part of our generation, young enough to approach the films without any cynicism. You were obliged (forced) to improvise a lightsaber to duel with, making your own sounds- The best one we ever came up with was made of a flashlight and some cellophane. You reenacted scenes, you role-played the characters in your backyard before that was a thing you were allowed to do at conventions. You might have even been blown away by finally seeing the letter-boxed editions of the tapes, catching that frog-lizard dude just on the left of the frame on the way to Jabba’s palace. Tyler can’t remember first watching Star wars, only the feeling of having watched it for the 20th time, over and over on those VHS tapes. Imagine Tyler as a child, still somehow a beardy photographer, tucked away in a cozy cabin in the woods, staring at a tiny department store-brand television, preparing himself to be a Jedi. Rob had some dubs- Illegal Beta dubs, or maybe taped off the TV? Movies took decades to hit the small screen, as far as he remembers. Rob did catch Return of the Jedi in the theatre, already so very familiar with the Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, but too young to realize what was waiting for him on the big screen. Despite graduating film school, and being a supposed cynical artist, Return of the Jedi remains one of his favourite films, a narrative and visual aha moment. For people like us particularly, but for all ages of unabashed fans of the Galaxy Far, Far Away, the news a sequel to Star Wars was coming was secretly what we’d been hoping for all along. The theatrical rerelease of the original trilogy was fun (Technically Han didn’t shoot first, because Greedo never shot, so, Han just shot. Bad Han!), and the news of the prequel films was exciting (Rob was not auditioned for Anakin), but not exactly what you’d been wishing for. You’d probably made so