Wednesday, May 4, 2011

May the Fourth

May the fourth be with you. Happy Star Wars Day!

Yeah, I totally outed myself as a Star Wars fan. But honestly, this is an astronomy blog, so it can't be that surprising. Though people have pegged me for a Star Trek fan instead. Star Trek is good an all, but I ain't no Trekkie. Give me mystical space wizards with laser swords over super-intelligent space elves with autism any day.

Both have fascinating and complex galaxies, and I guess the biggest difference is that Star Trek is us in the future, in our own galaxy and exploring. Star Trek is more based in reality I'd guess. Star Wars is totally out there with anything possible, an entirely different galaxy with a different history built from the ground up. Having an entire galaxy to work with leaves for a fantastical amount of space for the expanded universe.

And though the expanded universe is pretty deep (and I've read a good chunk of it since the 5th grade, and not the little kids books, I started with the Hand of Thrawn) I don't keep up with it much anymore. After the whole 20 years later thing with Luke having a kid, I kinda got outta it. Occasionally I'll catch the Clone Wars cartoon, but I just feel meh about it.

The real draw of Star Wars are the movies. The original trilogy. It wasn't an overly complex story, and the basic use of character archetypes was enough to suck my in as a kid. That and the sights and sounds were believable, compared to the other stuff in the day. Star Wars made special effects what it is today and was able to get all the sounds for that world perfect. I love my dad for showing me those movies as soon as possible.

The new movies aren't too bad, I like them, but they don't quite live up to the original's standard. All the CGI felt like plastic molding over everything. But, I have to admit they were still better movies then most of the other crud Hollywood has been churning out.

I have to be honest, the prospect of exploring and studying the distant reaches of the galaxy helped inspire me to pursue studying astronomy. With out Star Wars I probably would have become something silly like a business or government major, maybe Biology or English? Heck I have a minor in international relations, I could have go on to international law. But the Universe is out there waiting to be seen.

So that's it for today. No astronomy stuff, just praise for Star Wars, cuz ima geek like that.

Also, my favorite is Return of the Jedi. Don't hate, people get so stuck up on the Ewoks.
But lots of awesome things happened: Jabba's palace, Yoda reveals truths on his deathbed,
huge space battle between good and evil, It's A Trap, and the Empire is finally defeated.


33 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh I loved all the Star Wars movies, even the new ones. I hope to be alive when they release episodes 7, 8 & 9.

Anonymous said...

I love both, but definitely more of a Trekkie. Some of my earliest memories are of watching TNG. Regardless of all that, Happy Star Wars Day!

Unknown said...

I was at the store the other day, and they had Star Wars lightsaber chopsticks on sale.

Luke & Yoda sets were $40. Darth Maul and Mace Windu sets were $25. I lol'd.

May the 4th be with you, good sir.

Biff Tanner said...

GO geek go!

VenomForMasses said...

I dunno why people hate the Ewoks..That is my favorite childhood cartoon, lol

-E- said...

star wars was just a morality play. star trek is the most significant humanistic work of art since ww2.

A Beer for the Shower said...

Hayden Christensen can burn in the furthest corner of hell. Outside of that, May the 4th be with you as well!

philmin9 said...

everyone is a star wars fan. some people just cant admit it yet

G said...

happy star wars day!

Electric Addict said...

i had no idea today was a special day lol

The Lazy Geographer said...

Huh, never heard of these films. I'll have to check them out.

Jay said...

twilek girls. that's the only reason why i like star wars. ;)

mamtc said...

post interesting is this one.
Day happy wars star!

Malkavian said...

Hell yeah BrO may the 4th be with you Always

RedHeadRob said...

You may be excited then, tomorrow's review on my blog is of the original Star Wars! lol I've been celebrating all week, watched all the movies, I'm watching Fan boys right now, and I watched spaceballs last week lol. No shame in star wars love!

Unknown said...

My take on technology is that it all pretty much would look like magic to a cave man, and in that way I'm OK with space opera and even prefer it, since in 300-400 years I'd pretty much be like that cave man anyway. We have no way of knowing what the future holds.

Matt said...

Great post! I, too, celebrated May the fourth! I also liked Jedi best, and I get putting that in the smaller text. I feel your pain!

Melanie said...

THE FOURTH WILL BE WITH YOU...ALWAYS...

Rachel Neilson said...

I love star wars lol

Ed said...

I've been watching Enterprise again, probably the most likely of any of the Star Wars/Trek series.

Lhosreiff said...

Another stupid made-up day, like we haven't got enough of those.

The Game Store Guy said...

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this today.

JayPower said...

Starwars rocks!! ;D

mindph said...

Now I finally got that Star-Ways-Day thing hehe!

BigMike said...

I love them both ;)

Happy star wars day!

Kicking Rocks said...

I love the Rancor scene!

T. Banacek said...

Strange. My love for Star Wars as a kid just made me want to join the military.

**Hype.Planet** said...

starwars ftw

Robert Fünf said...

With the exception of the new movie, I could never get into Star Trek. I've just always bee a Star Wars fanboy.

Dave said...

Starwars forever.

Anonymous said...

I didn't even nkow it was the star wars day. Star wars > star trek though :D

Anonymous said...

Nothing beats the first three Star Wars! May the force be with you and Happy Star wars day :D

Skimbosh said...

I hope the fourth was with you. I also hate it when people peg me for the wrong 'Star' fanboy.
"Star Wars? That's the one with Klingons, right?"

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