A couple weeks ago, I was hanging out at my friend Jay's house while he worked on repairing a set of clonetrooper armor for a fellow 501st member. The armor belongs to Jon, whom I've come to nickname "Frosty" because of his screename on the various message boards is just too damn hard to call out in a large crowd. Well, as tends to happen at these type of armor parties... Jay works the dremel and I start telling stories of past local Star Wars events like I'm "Kup" from the animated Transformers movie (more on that in a bit). In the middle of remembering which (no longer there) movie theater both of us saw ROTJ as kids, "Frosty" pointed out that his first Star Wars theatrical experience was TPM... he hadn't experienced that period between 1985-1991, when there was no new Star Wars that most Original Trilogy era fans know as the dark times.

I've had many of these converations with my younger sister Emily (aka: "Snips" ) when we'd sit around and talk about things Star Wars fans do. She is about the same age as "Frosty" and she doesn't always see why many fans my age are so devoted to the OT, or why they think ESB is the greatest of all 6 movies. Basically, why the cast of "Fanboys" are the way they are...

First thing you have to keep in mind is that we didn't have the internet, and that amount of media coverage on the entertainment industry wasn't nearly the 24/7 news cycle it is today. "Spoilers" meant the kid who got to see Transformers: the movie (before you did) who came home ran outside yelling "Oh, my god... (back then we spelled it out) they killed Optimus Prime!"

Next, it's important to realize that having beg our parents to buy us every Star Wars action figure, vehicle, playset, pajamas, coloring book, story book, story book with record (think BIG CDs) and Luke Skywalker Underoos (shut up, ya'll had them) ... now that Star Wars had seem to run it's course, the toy companies came at us with all kinds of new products; most of which had their very own half-hour TV show either on Saturday morning or weekdays after school. With that, I give you "Captain Power: and the soldiers of the future". Whoever came up with this must have been some kinda genious, because not only could you watch the TV show and buy the toys (based on the show) but the toys could fire/interact with the images on the screen.

You want to talk about a franchise that learned how to market to kids in the post-SW world... "Go, go Power Rangers!" (TM) I remember taking Em to see the Power Rangers movie (helped that the Pink Ranger was a lil hot) and buying her all the toys, McDonalds "Happy Meals" and wondering why my parents were laughing with a sense of poetic justice.

Few years later, most of us were entering high school and it was time for us to "grow up" and focus on things besides our childhood love for Star Wars. Pretty soon, we were trading posters of Luke Skywalker for Bo Jackson, Metallica, or even Cindy Crawford. Pretty soon, you weren't going "Ewwwww!" watching Han and Leia have their 1st kiss (Luke and Leia, yeah that's still "ewwww!" ) and you couldn't wait to be all "I know" smooth the first time a girl sent you a note saying she loves you. (yeah, that one didn't go over well)

Finally, came the release of the now infamous "Zahn trilogy" of books and the "return of the jedi" (and sith, and troopers, ect). "Heir to the Empire" was one of the 1st books you read that wasn't part of your school's list of manadtory reading; and it was still safe to think of yourself as a teenage Star Wars fan, because you could be in study hall making the "snap-hiss" sound of a lightsaber in your head as you were reading without anyone knowing! You were reading, which meant your parents were happy... and you got to found out what ever happened to to Luke, Han, Leia, and all your childhood heroes.

Eventually, GL announced that he was going to go back and tell the prequel trilogy (and in so doing) run into the paradox that is 15 years of fan's imagined expectations... I'm a fan of what GL did with the PT, even if it wasn't what I expected. The rest you know.

Now that the Star Wars movies are complete, and we have Star Wars: the Clone Wars to enjoy for however long they can keep this next genreation of SW fans interested in it... I don't know what the next "Dark Times" are going to be like? The next time there is no more new Star Wars... that could be all she wrote for the GFFA? With the virtual universe of SW fan sites and groups like 501st and Rebel Legion, I'm sure there won't be a shortage of troopers, rebels or just plain old nerf-herders in our world anytime soon. And once you step back from all the online politics and drama that goes on within the SW fan groups, and you start to notice more and more of your friends posting pictures of THEIR newborn sons and daughters while you've been chasing around the SW fan universe. You start to realize that our lives are running parallel those of our fictional heroes... or as my dad put it:

"Han Solo's got kids?"

This little green guy once said, "difficult to see, always in motion is the future" and I guess that is true for the future of Star Wars fandom and whether or not there will ever be another period of "dark times." I guess the important thing for this younger generation of fans to understand is that there is life after Star Wars.. but that doesn't mean you have to give up loving Star Wars!