Despite what my good friend Anne-marie thinks, it is virtually impossible to not serve two masters when it comes to fandoms in this day and age. If you like Star Wars, you're bound to have a fascination with something of equal or stranger value!

One example is my Fanforce here in Provo, UT. Last year, the girls of the summer fanforce had activities dealing with our love for Star Wars (such as the infamous Star Wars LIFE game), but had two of our members convince the rest of us to give Firefly a chance. We have subsequently watched the entire series in 2 nights, gone to a pre-midnight showing of Serenity and are all reading a Star Wars/Firefly crossover. While we watched Firefly, every few minutes, Mal would do something and we'd yell "Han!"

We've also been to Narnia and Harry Potter midnight showings, love Lord of the Rings and have random private jokes about French translations of Phantom of the Opera. Half the fun of being a Star Wars fan is whatever else you can drag in!

On the other hand, I'd like to explain why my allegiance still lies with Star Wars, first and foremost.

Harry Potter is a wonderful series. While I don't think we're ever going to have a "Harry, I'm your father" or even "I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former room-mate," there is a lot of tension in it that reminds me of Star Wars. Harry is a disadvantaged young chap who knows who his enemies are or ought to be, but is wary of becoming that which he fights. He even has mean extended family and a bad haircut, a very adorable wise old mentor and two plucky comic relief sidekicks. What about this situation does not remind me of Luke, Han and Leia? Of course, most of it smacks of Joseph Campbell, as most good epics do, but let me ennumerate the advantages of each.

The Harry Potter series is inspiring to me because it shows heroism in a believable context at a young age. It shows how obstacles can be overcome without turning into one of those Jack Weyland stories that always seem to come with a title like "If you were a pizza, you'd be a supreme." Hermione reminds me of myself and I aspire to be the kind of friend that Ron is and, of course, I hope that I can have Harry-like fortitude when I go through trials.

On the other hand, Star Wars is something that I have never felt too young or too old to understand. I first saw it when I was 13 and felt that, even if the dream team was a lot older than me, they had a lot of the same concerns that I either faced or someday would face. In Harry Potter, there is conflict on the level of Darth Vader's inner strugglings, but it has to be spelled out for you. Harry's rantings in Order of the Phoenix don't hold a candle to Luke collapsed in a seat on the Falcon, whispering "Ben, why didn't you tell me?"

Next, let me consider Lord of the Rings, the movies, not the books. (The books will forever be on my favorites list.) This is the fandom that my aforementioned friend left Star Wars for (she claimed that Hayden Christensen had forgotten how to act between Episodes 2 and 3. I tend to disagree, but I like that I've inherited a good deal of SW memorabilia from her indifference). We've got the wise old mentor, the dark-horse heroes, the ultimate evil and the nasty minions. Let's go through each.

Wise old mentor--Gandalf or Obi-Wan. Gandalf seems to show up at the right time to do EVERYTHING just to tie up loose ends. Got problems with Rohan? Not to fear, here's Gandalf! Just as things really start to suck at Helm's Deep, here's Gandalf again! This tendency to do everything (in the immortal words of Bullwinkle) "In the TADA nick of time. The TADA!" irked me for as long as I can remember because it takes away from the individual growth of the others. It also kind of ruins the tension. "We're all going to DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cue dramatic entrance of Ian McKellan in 5...4...3...2...1..."

Ben Kenobi, on the other hand, follows the old maxim "Save a farmboy's life and you save him for a day. Teach a farmboy to kick some stormtrooper butt with a lightsaber and you save the galaxy." Or something like that. Granted, as a blue-ghostie, he could do little more by way of attack than making faces and lecturing his very young apprentice, but when he shows up in the "TADA nick of time," it's to delegate. He gives counsel, warnings and then either predicts doom or helpfully explains past doom. (This is also, by the way, a nifty trick of Gandalf's.) The point is, he lets the heroes face their challenges the right way.

Next, the dark-horse heroes. I love the hobbits and this is the one category in which the two fandoms seem to break even. They all seem to represent for me a stage in the development of Luke Skywalker. Frodo is Tatooine Luke, looking to the horizon and believing all things are possible. Sam is the Luke that risked life and lost limb at Bespin because he thought it would keep his friends from getting hurt. Merry is the sensible, passionate Luke who went to Vader on Endor. Pippin is Luke every time something just doesn't make sense despite his best intentions (Sort of like the X-wing-lifting scene). When you look at the hobbits and Luke at the beginning, you're hoping a Han Solo or Aragorn will just come along and get the exciting plot over and done with, but they prove themselves perfectly well in the end.

Ultimate evils: Saruon is basically a lot like Voldemort. He can work by proxy and has evil designs for all. Sauron, however, is virtually uninvolved. He looms, he makes weird scenes with fiery bowling balls worse, and he seems to have no motivation other than "MINE! MINE! MINE!" We can't count Saruman as an ultimate evil because it would be like Tarkin being considered the ultimate evil in place of Palpatine. It just doesn't work. Palpatine has an agenda, henchmen, minions and a cool wardrobe. Not to mention, we find out in the PT, he set it all up while fooling absolutely EVERYONE. I think that's pretty darn cool, dont you?

Nasty minions last and certainly not least. I remember hearing something by George that said he wanted the stormtroopers to be in that armor because it dehumanized them and those black eyeplates took away their souls. Well, George, it worked! The stormtroopers, who kill without question (when they can aim, that is!) and are always the ones "just following orders," creep me out like few other things can! That was a lot more creepy to me than the orcs or even the uruk-hai, who seem to be power-grubbing or just around to look impressive or deformed.

And finally, we come to Firefly. I think the attraction of Starwoids to Firefly is because it is so much like Star Wars, but with a specialness of its own. There's a wise old mentor named Shepherd Book, but no one seems to ever listen to that poor guy. Mal is always picking a fight like Han, but has the same inability to own up to his romantic side in a way that puts Leia Organa to shame. What nearly makes Firefly characters eclipse Star Wars, in my humble opinion, is the depth of the characters Inara and River. There is no psychological equal to them in the OT of Star Wars and no futile conflict to rival River's.

Well, hope you've all enjoyed this little rant. I'm off to write Star Wars fanfic and then corrupt a friend to Firefly. Are you surprised?