You call yourself a geek?

[Mi Gin Gonn]

I'm just curious. we're all Star Wars geeks here (otherwise we wouldn't be on this site in the first place)... what made you become a Star Wars geek? for myself, I'd have to say that growing up I wasn't allowed to watch R-rated movies (not even "Bull Durham"). in other words, every weekend trip to the video store was SW (once my dad tired of seeing the original trilogy over & over again and rented us "Explorers", which was awful and we demanded that he never rent something like that again). but I never tired of Sw, and was absolutely stoked when technology finally allowed for LED sabers (growing up in the 70's meant the only sabers available were those yellow inflatable ones). so what made YOU a Star Wars geek?

[je-rel drood]

hard one for me. ANH came out when I was four. I saw it 7 times in the theatre because I couldn't understand why I couldn't have a Wookiee as a pet. The Blonde kid was whiny, the Girl was bossy, and the tall guy was funny - but HE had a Wookiee, why couldn't I have a Wookiee?

Ever since that first time I saw SW, it was such a part of who I was that someone might as well have asked what it was about me that made me an American. *shrug* can't put my finger on it, it just is.

(and I'd like to say that while I still don't have a Wookiee as a pet, I do have one as one of my very close friends.)

Oh, and then there's the lightsabers. Everyone who has known me longer than 5 minutes will know that my passion is light sabers. check out my desk at work, my bookshelves at home, my fb page, I even have one or two rolling around my trunk most days.

[Causa]

it's hard to place, I was born in 84, so I grew up sort of in a star wars lul...but there were the paper back books, the movies, the X wing and TIE fighter games (and X wing vs TIE fighter), so I followed it and I sort of felt special that you had to "work" to be a fan...there weren't any movies out and it wasn't too popular. The kids who were into star wars were die hard fans, including myself.

Then the 20th Anniversary editions came out...then the NEW trilogy during high school/ early college, Star Wars got a shot in the arm and suddenly I was pretty cool (in a nerdy way).

My level of fandom has changed...I am not as big a fan of anything these days, as I was when I was in junior high and high school, but I can do stuff now due to income that I couldn't then...like spend 300 dollars on a toy lightsaber :p

[ARKM]

I saw Star Wars (back when it was just called Star Wars) in a drive-in theater in 1977. I was 8 years old. I have been hooked ever since.

[Shadar Al'Niende]

I saw Star Wars (back when it was just called Star Wars) in a drive-in theater in 1977. I was 8 years old. I have been hooked ever since.

Man... i wish i could say i lived that dream. *sigh* For me it was the Force, the Force and Lightsabers. They embodied everything magical and geeky i loved, and still does. My favorite thing to do is play games where i can truly BE a jedi... training, fighting etc. RPG's like KoTOR I and II make me a very happy boy.

And yes, i taught my son how to force push... :D

[sks1138]

I too enjoyed Star Wars in a drive-in, and Empire as well I think, Jedi in a theater. I remember getting a Kenner Star Wars book from the drive-in displaying all the figures and ships. I thought it was the coolest thing. Since then Star Wars has always been there. From getting all the figures and a few ships, to playing endlessly with all those toys, and later collecting a lot of things I didn't have while I was little. Out of all the toys I had I never got rid of any of my Star Wars toys when I reached that "I'm too cool for toys" stage. I liked it originally for the ships and blaster and of course lightsabers, and later when I was older I was able to understand the story more. I've read all the books, most of the comics, played all the video games. I can't think of a time in my life that Star Wars was not there. Now with the help of this forum I have my own lightsaber. If only it were real.

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

I will admit I was a "geek" before Star Wars existed [back then it was called being a "nerd"].

I grew up on Star Trek and Space:1999 and 2001: A Space Odyssey and a LOT of science-fiction BOOKS [paper things that preceded .pdfs and .docs ;-)] by Heinlein, Niven, Clarke, Asimov and Bradbury and I liked the fascinating futures they proposed...but I noticed they were mostly 'shiny' technocracies many of which were lacking in 'spiritual' elements [Dune being a notable exception]...

...then at 13 I took my first long 'all alone' Grey Coach bus ride from my small Nova Scotia town to the 'Big City' of Halifax to see a new movie that was being raved about in Starlog magazine [at that time about the only mag there was for nerds/geeks]...stood in my first 'lineup' that went all the way down the block and around the corner and another corner and people kept coming BACK in the line AFTER having already seen the movie [had never heard of such a thing way back then]...finally got in...and then the lights came down...the 20th Centure theme came up and THEN...

John Williams spectacular music [in brilliant MONO sound - the theatre didnt even have stereo back then much less THX lol]...the old serial style narrative 'crawl'...then that little ship being chased over the planet by a triangle...that grew into a big triangle...that grew into a bigger triangle...that grew into a FREAKING HUUUUUUGE triangle-ship...and 'starship troopers' in white spacesuits and Pr!ncesses [in the future?] and shiny gold robots out of Fritz Lang's Metropolis and a AWESOME REALLY SCARY GUY in all black Samurai armour...

...and wee brown Munchkin traders on a 'used' looking [realistic] future desert world with Quest-ioning farmboys and flying/hover cars and tusk-masked sand warriors straight out of Dune and a Crazy Old Wizard and...whats this now? A "light-SABRE"???

OOOOOOH!!!

Jedi KNIGHTS? Clone Wars? old Republic? Dark Times? Empire? Hmmmmm seems like there is a lot more going on in this 'used' future than appears...

...these arent the droids you're looking for? How did the old man DO that?

...oooh look at all those ALIENS in that space pirate bar that DON'T look like humans with pointy ears or goatees...

WHOA so THAT'S what a "light sabre" does...OOOOOOH AWESOME I WANT ONE SOOO BAD!

Han shot FIRST...hes NOT a 'nice guy'...

Hmmm..."the FORCE...[of] living things...binds the Galaxy together"...hmmmm so this Future has some sort of 'god'/'religion' in it? hmmm most OTHER sci-fi futures onscreen don't...

That's NOT a Moon! Its that thing that BLEW UP the PLANET!

SAVE the Pr!ncess...KISS and a swing...trash compactor!...OOH "light-sabre" DUEL!!! Where did the old guy GO?

Here come the fighters! Aha secret plans revealed! Trench run...Use the Force...Trust your feelings...lets blow this thing...WOOHOO...Medal from the Pr!ncess!!!

More great music!

DANG - NOW I know why people were coming out of the theatre and getting back in line...there has NEVER been a movie like this before!!! I'm telling EVERYONE how GREAT it is!

And thats how I became a "Star Wars Geek" in 1977, and I wasn't alone! :-)

[Caine Drathul]

I grew up on Star Wars...that's one of the main toy franchises I remember I had as kid...I don't remember seeing it for the first time, but I do remember ALWAYS loving it...I can't remember 'the beginning' :cool:

I was HUGE into ROTJ...it came out when I was 6...but I had playsets and action figures from the ESB era as well...

And now, Lightsabers are now a part of my business....how cool is that?

Good times...good times..gonna raise my son the same way. :D

[jjshumpert]

did anyone else terrorize their neighbors with the flashlights with tubes and whistlers in the end? thats my first star wars memories, along with droids and ewoks on saturday mornings.

[Vlad Doon]

Well, maybe because we were LUCKY to be kids at that time and each generation has its stuff, sw is our precious, ours. IMO, it may also be because at the time, there wasn't any other universe as rich as the SW one to make us dreaming. The LOTR was only in books, and the sci-fi movies were great but not especially for kids. And I think we want our childhood to last forever, so...

[The Grey Elf]

My earliest memory is seeing A New Hope in the theaters in 1977. I was three. So yeah, Star Wars has quite literally been with me my entire life. It's shaped who I am in many ways. And far from being one of those "Lucas raped my childhood" people, I really enjoyed the prequels because I was able to tap back into that wonder of being a three-year-old when I was watching them.

When I was a kid I had Star Wars wallpaper in my bedroom, Star Wars curtains, Star Wars sheets, blankets and pillowcases, and yes (of course), Star Wars toys. I sincerely wish I still had those Star Wars toys, though I doubt they'd be in any shape to be worth anything. I remember the original licensed lightsaber toys that didn't light up--they were just hollow tubes that were red, blue, and green, and whistled when you swung them around. Many were the beatings my friends and I doled out to one another with those. I remember even then fighting over who got to be Han Solo when we played Star Wars, because we all thought Luke was whiny.

I got to meet Darth Vader at Kaufmann's department store in downtown Pittsburgh in 1980. That was too awesome for words. He told my friend Chris to behave or he'd come for him.

Today I am a freelance tabletop rpg designer and a fiction writer (my first novel to be released this year) and it's because of Star Wars and Robert E. Howard that these things are true.