Why Can’t I Be Princess Leia?
We interrupt this Rotary mission of culture building and goodwill for a rant. My rant. Because Star Wars Episode VII is being cast, and I just want to know………why can’t I be Princess Leia?
It’s not a stupid question.
Really.
I spent much of my upbringing being foiled by Princess Leia. While all my friends were going to see Star Wars, I could not. Someone might see all eight years of me in line at the movies and think I was going to see Desires Within Young Girls, and because of what other people might think, I could not see banal movies like Star Wars.
Still, I craved the John Williams soundtrack with the black-and-white cover. I convinced my mother, aka Santa Claus, to give me the Princess Leia Barbie doll for Christmas. Not because I knew anything about the movie, mind you.
I said it might be fun to undo her star puffs and fix them back. It might teach me dexterity. Or how to do my own hair. Or something.
Coiffure being a huge part of Southern Female Development.
I got my Princess Leia.
I never saw Star Wars until I was grown.
I did not get it.
But I lusted after Han Solo.
Which is probably why I was not allowed to see the movie when I was eight.
Anyway.
My brother had a visceral reaction to Star Wars.
Yes, I have a brother.
He identified with Luke and Leia, Darth and Yoda in a mystical, cosmic way I will never understand. The Force was with him.
And the action figures. And the Darth Vader action figure case. And the tie fighter models. And the R2-D2 model with a billion tiny choking-hazard pieces. Oh, and the glue I sniffed while I tried to rip said tiny parts from the delicate skin of my hands.
When I ventured into my brother’s room and had to part the Red Sea of Star Wars Crap to navigate, I never understood how smart he was. When he giggled with glee over acquiring the original Chewbacca doll for a decent price, I cackled at his abject insanity. The day he called my mother to announce the sex of his male child by breathing into the phone and saying, “Luke. I am your father,” I knew I was the superior sibling.
I had won.
Because I was too cheap to buy him anything that Christmas, I gave him my Princess Leia Barbie doll. From 1977. With everything but the box. And, I LAUGHED AT HIM. How pathetic was it for a grown man to slobber all over a stupid old doll???
If I ever have a hope of matching my brother’s earnings on his Star Wars Collection, I must BE Princess Leia in Episode VII. I MUST. Otherwise, I might just mimic Carrie Fisher and engage in Wishful Drinking for the rest of my life.
I never got it either, maybe because I never saw it completely. I saw bits on TV as our children watched and always thought that George Lucas didn’t have a difficult route to stardom ( that is not funny, Roger). Selling the toys for a huge amount of money makes me more interested, but only in the way that a man dying of thirst thinks of an oasis.
I have always been astounded at the loyalty that Star Wars fans have for the series, especially the original. Over on Google+, they have Death Star ice molds and Death Star lollipops and all manner of geegaws. My brother even had a Star Wars Party once, and every food was prepared from the Star Wars Cookbook, and every person came dressed as their favorite character.
I mean, I love the movie The Princess Bride, but not THAT much.
Um . . . you can be whoever you want to be, I think?
In this picture, I am……….
Oh man, bringing back memories…of just yesterday!!! Only difference is my Michael always says it’ll be worth a lot someday, but he’d never sell it anyway! Ugh. *sigh*
I liked Star Wars but it was never that big of a deal to me…Now…Rocky I saw 15 times at the movie theater and yes, I paid each and every time (and went by myself – which was/is unusual for me). Oh man did I crave me some of Rocky, even had a poster of him (you know the one, the one with his hands on a bar up over his head – I cannot believe I still remember that). Ha. Wow! I was a Junior in High School. Mmmmm, Rocky.
Don’t say never. MTM is unloading his massive collection of bike parts as I type.
Yes, I loved Rocky also. It took me a very long time to realize Rocky-types were bad for me.
i don’t understand people who don’t understand star wars
I understand what the movies are about. I’ve just never understood the devotion. But, I am equally devoted to things that no one understands………
My Mom nursed my sister to a pirated betamax copy of Empire Strikes Back. True story. I grew up on Star Wars, though I really only got into it in my teens. I watched episode I with disgust a few years back, then refused to see II and III. I have hopes for VII. I want, so much, for Disney to do it RIGHT, in a way that Lucas didn’t because he was too busy sniffing his own glue (and utterly failing to get it off his fingers.
Like you, I simply could not do the first three. I didn’t even see Episode I. I might see VII, if Harrison Ford stops insisting that Han Solo die in it. I want to look at him for as long as possible, even today. Not watch him die.
You will always be our princess!
Should I admit that when my father calls my iPhone, it announces “Luke, I am your father…”? Yes, my father is on the dark side.
That? Is the best ringtone option I have *ever* heard. Ever. Seriously. Ringtones are done now, and can go home.
You are wrong, Carnell. Just so wrong.
Until I researched this story, I never knew that Darth Vader does not actually say, “Luke, I am your father.” He just says, “I am your father.” I even have a link to it in this post.
And when my sister calls it plays Daleks from Doctor Who going “Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!”
That’s funny.
I admit to loving the movies more now than I did as a kid. All that corny, awkward dialogue wrapped around emerging special affects and creature tech, and HARRISON FORD’S SMILE. Lord, get me a fan. Pilfered archetypes in space and Carrie Fisher’s hair? How can you not love them?
It was all Harrison Ford for me. When my brother showed the movies to his daughter (over and over and over) to teach her the stilted dialogue, I only paid attention during the Harrison Ford scenes.
I watched them all…I always thought she looked ridiculous with those cinnamon buns on the sides of her head! You’re way prettier lady.
Carrie Fisher thought those were ridiculous, too. When I was eight or nine, I actually tried to make them on my head, but I did not have enough hair.
I loved the original Star Wars. I think i saw it three times in the theater – of course back then movies stayed in the theater forever – so you saw the good ones more than once anyway. I remember my little mind being blown by the flight sequences and the garbage compactor scene was AMAZING! I did not carry that fascination much past high school though. Although Han Solo still makes me swoon.
In a way, life was more interesting when we HAD to go to the movies to see a film.
This is hilarious to me, Andra! On so many levels. Judging by your photo, you’d make a wonderful Princess Leia. I can’t quite picture the original cast doing anything that wouldn’t come across as campy, unless that’s the whole idea?
When the first movie came out I didn’t care that much about the story, as I recall, but we’d never seen filming like that before. It was a movie experience, more than the story. The sound, the visuals, the speed–breathtaking! My son was born in 1977, and I don’t know how it developed, probably just good marketing, but he, like your brother, had every action figure, book, stuffed animal (we still have a Wookie stuffed animal and boxes of the original figures). He remains devoted! I even bought Star Wars cookie cutters at Williams-Sonoma a couple of years ago.
I was in my 20′s and I did have a little “thing” for Han Solo…I’m still very fond, shall we say, of Harrison Ford!
Like you, I am having a problem picturing the original cast doing anything. But, if it means watching Harrison Ford run around and shoot things, I am in.
It’s funny how the toys and accessories took hold. Everybody wanted them, whether they saw the movies or not. Your son and my brother should compare collections. The last thing I gave him was a Darth Vader Mr Potato Head.
Star Wars was the last movie Tom and I saw before our older daughter was born in ’78! She was born a week or two later and it seems we didn’t see any movies after that for the longest, longest time and all we could remember was all that action and those special effects, and R2D2 and how it was so different and new at the time. Harrison Ford had already stolen most of our hearts on American Graffiti, so his Hans Solo and that crooked smile was captivating. Yep. Star Wars followed by first baby.
I think you would make a great Princess Leia, Andra …
. . . and now I’m laughing at Lou taking his four your old daughter to Alien, We almost took our eldest to see the first Indiana Jones when she was four, decided not to, which was a good thing. She’d still be having nightmares over those snakes.
It took a while for movies to be available after they were released, didn’t it? I remember movies on cable, whenever that came out, but it used to be a lot harder to see movies, didn’t it? What a great memory, though. I don’t think it’s bad that you saw an iconic movie at that time in your life, Penny.
Ooops. Meant ’77. Those Leia Sausage Roll Up curls made me say it.
OK, pay attention here, I am actually agreeing with Carnell for the 2nd time in four years….you are absolutely our Princess Leia.
I took my nearly 4 year old daughter to see the first Star Wars in 1977 and she loved it. The rest of the story is that I started seeing these silent TV ads for another Star Wars like movie (I thought) so I took her to see what I thought was going to be a great fun movie. Yikes, a 4 year old at ALIEN!!!! OY!
Oh my. Alien? Really? Was you daughter warped for life? That move still scares me, and I’m grown.
I recognize that picture! Awesome!
As you know I am a huge Star Wars guy! It is a classic mythological tale, except it came out at a time where people knew it was fiction, but the same ideals run throughout it that the Greeks and Romans and others throughout history.
It is exciting and heroic and just plain fun. And some of the other ideas they work in about politics, the nature of good and evil, and the different ways you can look at destiny/fate.
And also there is this:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lngin6S4W21qa3ssoo1_500.jpg
AWESOME!!!
I wonder how they will recreate Sir Alec in Episode VII. It’s really creepy to me that they can probably just string together footage of him and make him say and do whatever they want………
The won’t need to. At the end of VI they all rejoin the Force together so no need to try to drag Alec through it!
But, some CGI person is going to want to try it……..
luckily a buddy of mine works in post production for them and hopefully won’t let that happen!
I remember being taken to watch Star Wars back in the day, Andra. Although I enjoyed the movie, I wasn’t entirely sure what exactly was going on. I still to this day have no recollection as to why the whole crew ended up in the waste disposal crusher. They did, didn’t they?
By the way, you’d make a good Princess Leia.
Yes, they did end up in a galactic garbage compactor, on the Death Star, I believe, when they were trying to get back to the Millennium Falcon and fly away.
I see.
I think I’ll have to watch the movie again to find out why they were on the Death Star to start off with. Thanks, Andra!
About two times a year, some one of the TV networks on our satellite feed has all the Star Wars movies on back to back. And Bill will frequently watch them. I flit in and out. I love Star Wars, but I was a “woman fully growed” (name that movie!) and so my children love it more than I, though I do really enjoy them. I’m just not a fanatic. My younger son red all the Star Wars novels one after the other…and there were a bazillion of them. Some one asked me why I let him read them, and I told them it’s reading, right? Nuf said.
Why can’t I get a gig, just ghost writing Star Wars novels? I am tired of writing for free…….
Anyway.
Like you, I cannot sit still during those movies, but I can just see Bill enjoying the heck out of them.
If you do I HAVE to proofread those!
I really enjoyed that Carrie Fisher book
Having a family emergency? Just call Ava Gardener!
She’s a great writer. Very witty.
I enjoyed the first Star Wars trilogy but that might be due to the period, the originality of them and my positive memory of it.
I can understand that seeing them later, as an adult, it might be less exciting.
I wonder if the Hunger Games trilogy books and film plus films to come will be as interesting in 15 – 20 years. The NYC library sent an email stating that, for 2012, Hunger Games took the crown as most checked out book and for DVD’s it was Midnight In Paris.
I’ll be interested to see, Rose. I cannot fathom how to create something destined to be that popular.
God! Your poor brother.
He agrees with you, Ted.