Parental Milestone

Greetings, Gentle Readers,
Well, last night I had a remarkable experience. I showed Star Wars(ep. IV, if you must) to our 7 year old for the first time. I was somewhat skeptical about her ability to sit through it(she got scared during the freaking SpongeBob movie) but she said she wanted to try. So after dinner I made some popcorn, popped the DVD into the player, and sat back to see if it had as much of an effect on her as it had on me. Much to my surprise she didn't get scared, even when Darth Vader interrogated the captain of the rebel blockade runner. She asked what the interrogation droid was going to do to Princess Leia, and I told her it was just going to give her a shot to make her talk, and that seemed sufficient. She laughed at Chewbacca a lot. The best part was during the final battle, after Red Leader made his failed attack run on the Death Star trench, she turned to me and said very seriously, "they're not doing so well anymore." It was all I could do to not burst out laughing. She was very happy when Han Solo came back to help Luke destroy the Death Star.

I asked her tonight, as I tucked her in, what her favorite part of the movie was. She said that she liked it when Darth Vader's planet was destroyed. I was puzzled, and then asked her if she meant the Death Star. She said yes, but she forgot what it was called. I then asked her who her favorite character was. She said that Princess Leia was the prettiest(an important distinction to a 7 year old girl) and of the men she liked Luke, because he was very good, since whatever ship he was in never got blown up.

If you ever have the chance to be present when child views A New Hope for the first time, I highly recommend it. It's almost like seeing it for the first time yourself.

Good night.
Marius