"Star Wars: The Monomyth Reawakens" Topic

I am a broken man. In preparation to bring my children to see "the Force Awakens" a month before Christmas I watched Star Wars Ep 1-3 (the prequels.) Then during the Christmas period I watched 4-6 in order. Again with my children. To great distress and personal disappointment (in fact to the realization of my total failure as a parent) it became clear that my three young children absolutely prefered the Star War prequels that they watched a month ago

Much worse than this; to my absolute horror my own children show serious signs of chronic boredom when they watch the original Star Wars Trilogy. As if things couldn't get any worse my very own offspring have chosen to lovingly adore the CGI creature known as Jar Jar Binks! In fact when we watched the originals recently they constantly asked their poor Dad, "Where's the funny guy with the floppy ears?"
I answered stoically, "He doesn't exist now. He never existed now."

Initially I blamed myself. I mused that I obviously introduced them to the Galaxy far, far away, far, far too soon.

It is true; I am ashamed of myself…I have ruined my poor children's ability to exercise any opinion of what's intrinsically and objectively good and have unintentionally led them to the Dark Side of judgement: They now revel in wall to wall CGI, convoluted political clap trap and the silliest and most racist slap stick humour since Mr Golliwoog and Zip Coon went to the zoo.

What have I done wrong? Was there something I could have done differently?

It even got as far as I questioning whether I was right to prefer the originals, whether I was right to prefer Han Solo to Jar Jar (obviously it never quite went that far)

What was it that the prequels replaced? Was it all that special?

Well before I attempt to answer what the prequels replaced you might wonder how relevant is all this. Well to examine what made the original so "great" seems not so strangely relevant right now. Firstly I have to mention that I have not seen the new one yet and so logically I would or should have no opinion on it at all… but of course I do (it's probably clear to most of you by now that I would never restrict my opinion on only things I know something about)

I might be completely wrong (ahem) but early this year it struck me that if they chose to retain the appearance of the original iconic space craft (x-wings and ties) and merely gave them a slight superficial rebooting negative repaint this could be quite revealing to their whole philosophy concerning how willing they would be to stray too far from the original. Of course there are obvious real positives that can be derived from keeping close to the "feel" of the original. But surely there most be a danger of too much fear of moving away too far too quickly from the originals. This would certainly compromise the creative juices of the production. To me the original Star Wars success was born from many factors but surely at its heart was the simple premise of getting some very creative and talented special effect people together and giving them the freedom to express themselves.

In my opinion the narrative required in Fantasy whether it's LotR's or Star Wars does not need to be complicated. The opposite in fact. The story's complexity should rely on the richness of the characters and how they relate to one another's morals, ideals or philosophical view. IMO this is the fundamental foundation that will lead to all companionship, conflict or drama. Of course this harmony or conflict is expressed in various ways; from comical or even violent. If you replace this means of drama with simple slapstick you end up replacing Han Solo's sarcastic witticisms and snaring digs at religion or notions of heroism with Jar Jar's ears getting caught in a super turbine engine.

What IMO the original Star Wars did magnificently well was providing the audience with a very originally repackaged monomyth. A monomyth which is at the core of every hero narrative that humanity has ever drawn into; from Jesus Christ to Luke Skywalker. They follow the same pattern: "A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow blessings on his fellow man."

Christ went to see John on the banks of the Jordan receiving the awesome power of the Holy Spirit before he is "driven" into the desert and faces the weakness of his nature. In the end it is the weakness of his nature that will bring victory when he faces down the very Powers of Hell.

Luke receives "the Force" after visiting Yoda in Dagobah before he's driven into battle with his own nature (his fallen father) Again it is this weakness that will ultimately allow him to defeat the forces of evil, the Emperor. —But in themselves these stories don't matter much. Unless you can get drawn into the drama of the characters. IMO any individuals Christianity is as functional as their relationship with Christ.

The narrative is as powerful as we can be drawn into a relationship with the characters. And if this is so, then as children of the eighties are we truly expected to replace our family that we were first introduced to in the dream like years of the 80's? Can we so quickly replace Uncle Han with Cousin in-law Poe?

Star Wars was better than most at drawing us into this relationship, better at reimagining this story. To quote an observer "By retelling it in a galaxy far, far away, they created an embodiment of the monomyth that was so powerful it instantly became mythological itself." We impressionable children of the 1980s found in Luke and Han and Leia and the Force, a place that while always strange, mysterious and mystical it somehow remained comfortably familiar. To accept it into our family seemed more than reasonable.

Now what to do with Uncle Jar Jar?

Apologies for the non finished sentences but due to the timelock bug I copied and pasted this from Word and have found that it wouldn't paste everything!?! And when I attempt to edit only half the script survives …

Two minor quibbles:

One – Luke did not "receive" The Force from Yoda. He already had it, Yoda just gave him some training.

Two – Luke DID NOT defeat the Emperor, Daddy Vader did.

And an observation: You're putting way too much thought into this.

Should have shown them in the Machete order… 4,5,2,3,6

Rolls eyes.

You may well be overthinking, but I have a sneaking suspicion that episode 7 might just be the point where you and your kids come together…. :-)

Should have shown them in the order the rest of us grew up with. I did this with my five year old a month ago and he's a fan of the original trilogy.

After seeing episode 7,he wanted to see episode 4 again.

You blew it, I'm afraid 😉

This is why my kid remains unaware that the prequels exist. Some day, she will thank me.

Just remember, kids (and many adults) also love Chicken McNuggets. There is no accounting for taste. So you might as well embeace it. :-)

Just like BaldLea says. The first exposure to SW is what it counts.

Have you written a will?

Because there's no law saying you have to leave them anything.

And they are minors, you can legally change their names.

Yep, the order is 4, 5, 1 (optional), 2, 3, 6 and then take them to 7.

Don't sweat it, you've established the interest. Over time they will make their own mind up as to which they prefer.

My eldest kind of likes the look of the prequels as they resemble more modern movie making, but since seeing 7 in a theatre both my boys are nuts for that over all others. Reality for today's kidsnis that ep7 onwards is their Star Wars, everything else is just old movies.

War Panda for myself I would welcome Uncle Jar Jar if your kids like him so be it let them like what characters they want just my humble opinion.

Not sure how old your children are War Panda but my son thought Ep IV was kind of boring. Too much talking. Ep VI was his favorite. He thought Ep I was pretty exciting but he was 5 when he saw it. He is 8 now. He has not seen II or III. I probably won't show him III until he is at least 10. He liked Ep VII well enough but still prefers Ep VI.

I was warned by a friend that much of the humor and plot would go over his head. Not liking Ep IV kind of confirms it.

I would not sweat it. I suspect your kids are experiencing the same "problem." With a few more years of growing, they will likely understand the movies better and discover the prequels for the garbage that they are.

Really? Why the angst? You have kids, they like Star Wars, they are happy. You should be happy. Don't overthink it, it's not the end of the world you know……

the prequels were never intended to appeal to those of us who experience 4-6 as they were released.

Little Elmo watched Ep 4 in preparation for the Force Awakens. He liked it all so much we went back to watch 5 and 6. (1-3 do not exist in my reality).

RavenscraftCybernetics I'm trying to figure out what you said but I can't.

All I can say is that in 1977 I saw Star Wars when I was 19 and I did like it and later with episodes 5 and 6.

But I must say that I also liked the Prequels and I know they're not perfect by any means but they weren't Garbage as others have said and in my reality 1-3 did indeed excist.

Thanks for the replies :) To clarify my post was very much "tongue in cheek" I'm not at all upset that the younger ones enjoy Jar Jar and in all fairness the first episode does follow the child Anakin so it would have a more obvious appeal to a younger audience.

My kids haven't seen ep 3 either (I thought it too dark)

but like "Joker" my kids found IV a tad boring and lost interest but did enjoy V a lot more.

@Jericho Smith That's not a problem they've been all put up for adoption after episode II ;)

@Captain Gideon I enjoyed the prequels to an extent (especially the lightsaber duels) but my kids especially appreciated them :) Uncle Jar Jar is always welcome for a couple of hours every now and then ;)

@BaldLea Yep…you get one chance with these kind of things and I dropped the ball :)

@tberry7403 No, no … I think you'll find not enough not nearly enough :)

@ Captain Gideon
You and I are not the intended audience of the prequels.
Eps 1-3 were specifically intended as a marketing tool for the toy sales.

@ RavenscraftCybernetics you may be correct but for me I still like them and that's what counts when it comes to me liking a film whatever it is.

It's only to be expected. Movies are more fast-paced today and have spoiled the younger generation, making Episodes IV to VI seem molasses-like (as Kurt Russell says in 'The H8ful 8') slow by comparison.

If all else fails, embrace the gungan. Captain Gideon has a point that he's not much more annoying than a certain gold-plated diplomat droid. And he's certainly a lot less disgusting than Jabba the Hutt.

For me the Clone Wars series goes a long way to redeeming the faults in the prequel trilogy, even to the extent of making Jar-Jar more interesting because it becomes obvious that he knows he's a bit of a buffoon but he has just to get on with living his life like everyone else.

Then there's the music.

I can forgive he prequels for the amount of pleasure of listening to the music has given me over the years.

Jar Jar Binks was the only high point in the prequels! They crushed every interest I ever had in Star Wars. Loved the first three, absolutely detested the next three. I refuse to see any more Star Wars movies. All interest is dead and I blame George Lucas!

You can show them 1, but make sure it is one of the fan edited ones. My favorite is MagnoliaFan's edit. Hard to find now I think. Look for Balance of the Force as a torrent.

There was also the Phantom Edit. link I haven't seen that one.

Good luck!

CorpCommander why show them an edited version of Episode 1?

I've seen a few of the edited versions and I can say that I don't like them one bit.

If you show Episode 1 you show the unedited version then people can decide for themselves.

The prequels were all eye-candy. The writing was vapid and shallow, the acting sub-par, and the directing almost nonexistent. But since those three things are largely going to be beyond the notice of small children, it's only natural that the eye candy will be what they prefer and remember.