Day: May 7, 2023

I go through this thing during any significant transition where I shut down and find excuses not to do my work. When I received an email the other day notifying me of the arrival of a new Pokémon TCG for my phone I knew exactly what would happen next. I’m presently 12-6 with a trash deck filled with the best trash cards I could find on short notice. I’m learning how to play the game again and successfully avoiding being productive. It can’t last because I cannot allow that. Pokémon is too addictive for me to keep up this pace. I’ve struggled with it in the past. Fortunately it sucks up battery power to the extent that I cannot play for long without draining my phone down to nothing. Still, 18 games in, I’m still excited to keep going.

Looking back at it, I should’ve known it was Cinco de Mayo today. I’ve lost all track and context of dates, but I did know about may the fourth and the 10+ movie marathon going on to commemorate the happening. So, instead of reflecting on how I overstuffed myself with Mexican food, I thought I’d take a minute to reflect on the Star Wars phenomenon.

To begin: Star Wars is Fantasy. It isn’t science fiction–even with the retcon of midi-chlorians or whatever proxy they have for magical God energy. Star Wars can be sci-fi. The Clone Wars and specifically the Bad Batch try to speak to that with the social focus on clones and the outcomes of that when they ask the question what do you do when you’re done with the clones? This goes pretty well in the series, but on average it is really just space adventure with the magical stand in of the force.

Still good though. Seriously. I love the series. There is a part of each of the movies I’ve seen that I can hold on to and call worthwhile. Films 7-9, widely panned as the worst, offer moments of pure joy. There was new lore tackled. The force dyad idea was put to the forefront, which was great to see. In the end, I’d like to see many of the movies again, and if I fast forward… so be it.