I was planning to write about how Star Wars films have been inspiring a new generation of filmmakers to tell visual stories. However, I must honestly admit I’ve never been a massive fan of the franchise, so I know very little about all that inspiration filmmakers feel while watching or analysing it. I felt that writing about that would be somehow dishonest. However, what I do know for certain is that Little M. has been hugely inspired and influenced by the Star Wars.
Before we started home-schooling Little M. attended a Steiner School, and Steiner education is in strong opposition to a modern day entertainment. Of course, he watched films, videos, and TV shows, we weren’t Amish, but for a very long time, I thought that Star Wars was too violent for his developing sensitivity.
However, when he started coding and animation classes as part of his home-schooling education, I didn’t want him to feel left out since all his new classmates knew the films well. So finally I allowed him to be introduced to the Star Wars Universe.
Once he started watching Star Wars, he loved it so much that soon enough he became obsessed and started collecting Lego Star Wars and Star Wars magazines.
Now he makes Lego Star Wars animations; he’s got quite a diverse portfolio of animations already, which is expanding on a weekly basis. I know that he has been living and breathing Star Wars for quite some time. However, I didn’t know how much of a detailed knowledge he has about Star Wars films and Star Wars Universe.
On Sunday, the November 11th as a family we decided to celebrate 100 years of Polish Independence (just to let you know I’m against the Polish government marching alongside the right-wing fascists and aligning with the right wing hooligans) and Big M.’s parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. That day also marked the end of the WWI and central London was in a very festive mood.
We ended up going for Asian food, and one of my new friends from work joined us for the celebration dinner. There Little M. being Little M. hijacked the conversation the moment it diverted towards Star Wars. It turned out my friend D. is as geeky about Star Wars as the Little M.
The Little M. was in heaven, being able to join the grown-up conversation by finally finding a grown-up, who could understand his obsession and see all the differences and tiny details in helmets, ships, troopers, etc. The two of them exchanged opinions, observations, and ideas for an hour.
Big M. and I were speechless, realising how much detail knowledge the Little M. has about the Star Wars. I’m still so impressed and in such awe of him. Of course, I knew he was, but I didn’t think he knew all of that and can hold this information and use it with such confidence and ease when he needs it.
He is a dyslexic learner, and when his test results came back, we were told that his memory is frail and it will make his learning and holding information very hard. It wasn’t entirely accurate. Now Little M. tells all his friends about my new friend and all his Star Wars ship designs, modelling, and knowledge. D. has been given an award for the coolest grow-up in the history of grown-ups. Of course, now his Star Wars obsessed friends want to meet D. so they could all be crazy geeky together.
I bet Little M. and D. will have many more conversations and notes to swap about this phenomenal cultural franchise that connects generations and cultures.