Glad to be out of the carbonite & rubbing the hibernation goo from my eyes.

In a surprise move last weekend, Padawan-Wan decided he wanted to watch the entire Star Wars Saga from beginning to end. Hubby-Wan & I were stunned: Spider-Man has ruled the roost for the last 2 months. What is this Star Wars you speak of?

We began, of course, with Phantom Menace. And with it began the constant onslaught of questions. The biggest question of the night was, "Is he a good guy or a bad guy?"

Unlike the OT which has clear cut "good" or "bad" characters, the PT is peppered with "grey" characters who challenge our ideas of good vs. evil. Like Palpatine! When he's "Senator" Palpatine he appears to be good, when he's Darth Sidious, he's bad. But how to do you explain a dual personality to a kid? Well... you don't. You let the kid logic kick in & you sit back and enjoy the insanity!!

"But if Palpatine is bad and Sidious is bad then how come no one knows he's bad? Maybe because Palpatine does good stuff for people they think he's good but he's really doing bad stuff. And is Assaj Ventress in this movie?"

Attack of the Clones is even harder to rationalize when your concept of good & bad has more to do with the color of people's Jedi robes than with their actions. "But Mom, Anakin isn't a good guy, he's wearing black." And the argument that ensues is epic.

Revenge of the Sith is easier for him to grasp. Anakin's fall to the dark side is a bit abstract for my son right now: the idea of loving someone so much that you would throw your life away is less tangible than say if Anakin has said, "I LOVE YOU!" and thrown himself into a lava floe. That's something the Padawan can sink his teeth into: dying for love rather than dying because of love. Does that even make sense? It would if you were only 6!

The OT used to be so much more enjoyable to watch with the Padawan before we introduced him to the PT. In the OT, Darth Vader = Bad Guy, Luke = Good Guy. Leia = Good, Tarkin = Bad. Black/white. No problemo. But now? It's a nightmare.

"Darth Vader is really good when he's not in his helmet in Empire Strikes Back but when the helmet goes back on then he's bad again, but Luke doesn't know he's his father so he thinks Darth Vader is bad but he doesn't know that Anakin is a good guy so he wants to kill him so that makes Luke a bad guy if he wants to kill but Leia is really good except when she's Boussh because then she's a bounty hunter and bounty hunters are bad just like Boba Fett who was good when he was a kid until Mace killed his dad and then he was bad and Mace shouldn't have killed Jango because that's bad...." and on & on & on & on.....

So enjoy the simplicity of the OT and even the simple goodness of the PT for what it really can be. It's not hard to just sit back & enjoy the movies without over thinking them. I think that's what happened to me: I thought too hard about what I was seeing, got emotionally invested in these characters and forgot how to just enjoy good guys vs. bad guys.