Why do I call myself the Star Wars Medievalist?
I was born in early 1974 and, according to my parents, I saw Star Wars in the theater in 1977, although I think they are wrong. I think it must have been 1978, during the re-release, because my memory of the event is so vivid, I can more believably attribute it to the memory of a four year old. Either way, thus began my journey in the late 1970s and through the ’80s and ’90s, as a devoted Star Wars fan.
I saw Return of the Jedi at the Continental, a massive one screen theater in Denver (it has since been converted into a multiplex, but the original giant theater is still there). The entire lobby was decorated for the movie. It was awesome! But it was also the end of Star Wars, and I knew it. Sure, George Lucas talked about how he would like to tell the story of Anakin’s fall to the dark side, but I never thought it would be a reality. But that was okay, because the Star Wars universe was so rich and deep, the imaginations of kids everywhere were free to run wild.
And if your imagination needed help, it was available, from books, toys, games, TV specials, scale models and much more. You could re-live the movies through various storybooks, audio dramas, film strips (remember those from elementary school?) It seemed like forever until Star Wars finally premiered on network television (CBS, 1984). If you were really lucky you could rent the movies on VHS from your local video store. I got even luckier when my video store was selling a used set of the trilogy, which I quickly bought and eventually wore out.
Supposedly, the prequels became a reality to Lucas around 1994, but I would have to see it to believe it. So, I continued living in my own Star Wars universe, inspired by the mythos that had been passed down through the years.
Part of this mythos was invented by Lucas, who, as part of his creative process, outlined backstories to flesh out the world his characters lived in. We learned about these backstories in books like “Skywalking” and “The Annotated Screenplays.” Another part of this mythos was created through Lucasfilm’s licensed products, especially story related items like fiction and games, which further built upon the original trilogy and Lucas’ backstories. It was this Star Wars mythos that gave fans the background stories, like how Kenobi defeated Vader in a lightsaber duel, causing Vader to fall into a lava pit (obviously, the prequels held true to this), or how Palpatine took control of the republic by rising from Senator to President of the Senate, eventually declaring himself Emperor..
So, I call this time, from the final theatrical showing of Return of the Jedi, until some time between 1995 and the release of the Special Editions in 1997, the Star Wars Dark Ages, or, to complete the historical analogy, the Star Wars Middle Ages, i.e. the medieval period. And it’s what I learned during this period that shaped who I am as a Star Wars fan today. It has colored every new Star Wars experience I’ve had, from seeing the prequels, to playing video games, to seeing The Force Awakens.
If a new Star Wars experience doesn’t fit into my medievalist viewpoint, then I tend not to like it. And it’s what this blog is about- explaining my views on Star Wars from this perspective.
The star wars medievalist 