A meet-cute with Mando
Or how our daughter fell for Star Wars.
Tonight, our daughter finished The Return of the Jedi for the first time, after watching The Empire Strikes Back on Saturday, and A New Hope a couple weeks before.
We have been building up to this for a while. It’s become this big thing hovering over our family: when are we going to show her Star Wars?
I admit that most of this is probably my fault. I made it out to be this huge, cultural milestone for which I must be present. No watching it while I’m puttering around in the kitchen, this is a rite of passage that we must experience together. And I was wishy-washy about it for a while: is it too intense? is it too violent? (Stormtroopers and rebel soldiers die within the first few minutes of the first movie, which is something our daughter really hadn’t seen before.)
But she’s 12. It was time. To the point where her babysitter/bestie every visit would ask “has she seen Star Wars yet? When is she going to see Star Wars??”
But which one?
Then there was the question: where do we start? I of course, thought it was obvious. We start with Episode IV: A New Hope, as the wife and I did back when they were…new. But the wife brought up an interesting question: what if we start with Episode VII: The Force Awakens? Our daughter’s main exposure to the Star Wars universe has been at Galaxy’s Edge at Disney, where most of the featured characters are from the final three films (Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren, etc.). And one of my daughter’s exercise therapists posited yet another option: he introduced his girlfriend to the franchise with the Attack of the Clones animated series, putting Anakin and Obi-Wan at the center of the universe, rather than Luke, Han, and Leia.
We decided to try A New Hope, and if it was not to her taste, we would pivot to Force Awakens. But A New Hope was a hit and we were off.
All of the big moments hit the way we’d hoped, particularly the one that every parent whips out their phone to capture.
When Darth made the big reveal about Luke’s lineage, our daughter didn’t react at first, then slowly turned to look at me as if to say, “whaaaaat?”
A tall, metallic stranger…
But it wasn’t the original trilogy or the final trilogy or any of the films that were the foundational spark for our daughter to become Star Wars-curious. It was an unexpected meeting with the franchise’s newest star.
On a trip to Disney World last year, the kiddo and I were looking for an out-of-the-way place where she could have some lunch while Mom and her favorite auntie went on Rise of the Resistance. As we tucked ourselves away in a little corner, we were surprised to see a crowd slowly gathering near our lunch spot. We were even more surprised when the Mandalorian appeared. A Disney cast member who was accompanying him made a point of asking if our daughter wanted to meet him, in which case he would make a special point of encouraging Mando to come say hi. I told him thanks but no thanks, the kiddo wasn’t yet into Star Wars and wouldn’t know who he was.
And that was fine for a few minutes until Mando turned, fixed his eyes on my daughter in her wheelchair and growled in his best Pedro Pascal, “you!” He approached and observed that she obviously had special skills that would be vital for his next mission. Eventually, he moved on, leaving my daughter with a stunned look on her face that spoke volumes—who was that?
Needless to say, when the trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu played on our last trip to the movies, the kiddo nearly leaped out of her chair with excitement.
Why does it matter?
As my daughter begins her Star Wars journey, I find myself ridiculously excited. And I’m not sure exactly why.
How did you introduce your kids/nieces/nephews to Star Wars? Did you care this much about it?
I didn’t have this level of concern and dedication towards any other pop culture that she’s absorbed. I didn’t need to be in the room the whole time when she first watched Toy Story or Aladdin or Hocus Pocus. But for some reason, I want to be there with her, for her, as she experiences these stories and characters for the first time.
I’m beyond grateful that I was there for
“Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”
and
”Who’s scruffy-lookin’?”
and
“I love you,” “I know.”
and
”Let me look on you with my own eyes.”
Something about these stories, particularly the first three, is so steeped in my bones that I desperately want our daughter to feel the same way. To have every line, every shot, every cut be part of her that she can call up in an instant when she needs a smile or a laugh or an escape from her challenges.
And that may be impossible. These movies are coming at her amidst a dizzying amount of other stuff. When they came at us, we had…nothing else, really. No IG stories, no TikTok memes, no streaming, no phones. Just Luke, Han, Leia, the droids, and the Millennium Falcon jumping into hyperspace on an endlessly big screen.
Will our daughter feel she has a home in a galaxy far, far away? Or will it be just another place she visits before moving on to the next dazzling destination?
❤️
Adam