My study of the effects of Star Wars on kids

[Rogue II]

Well, just my daughter. Anyway...

My daughter turned 4 last week and she has some amazing opinions on things.

For the record, she does play with normal girl toys (Barbie, dolls, Care Bears, etc.), but she does like playing with my Star Wars toys as well. She watches normal kids shows on PBS and such, but every week or so she will ask if she can watch Star Wars (usually ESB because she likes the "monster robots.") It took me 4 attempts to get her to watch Episode 1. She insisted that it wasn't "real Star Wars." She aparently doesn't like remakes either. My wife thought she might like watching the Muppet's Wizard of Oz, but my daughter didn't like it and told her to turn it off. My wife was suprised how offended my daughter was at the the whole concept of puppets redoing Wizard of Oz. She did like the Clone Wars cartoons, even though I had to explain some of it to her. And, being the somewhat over protective parent that I am, she won't be able to watch ROTS until she gets a bit older.

She may have watched ESB a few too many times as she pointed out to me that there are 5 AT-ATs (which I never bothered counting before that point), and gave me her interperation of the Vader/Luke "I'm your father scene." She assured me that Luke would be okay because the doctor robot would fix him. This past Christmas, Santa brought my daughter 2 lightsabres (a purple one for her, and the blue one for me.) A while back, she brought her swords to me and wanted to "fight." During the ensuing battle, I said "I am you father." She said, "no you're not, daddy." So after a bit of discussion, I realized she had a real negative meaning towards the word "father" because of that scene in ESB. My wife and I were both suprised on how adament she was that I was not her father, just her daddy. Anyway, we straightened her out on the meaning of father.

Anyone else run into any problems like this?

[Cirielle]

Hello,

I have a daughter who is turning 3 in 1-1/2 weeks. I too am over protective of her - but I took her to ROTS anyways. I remember my first time seeing Star Wars in the theater - well it was ROTJ, but I didn't want her to miss out! I just couldn't help myself! Well being that she doesn't understand yet about certain things I found her point of view quite refreshing!
During the part when Anakin is burning and becomes blackened - my daughter said he was dirty and needed to clean up. My hubby explained to her that he was burned in which case she replied - "He should have worn sunblock - that way he wouldn't get burned." She didn't understand a lot that went on but like seeing all of it and didn't have a view of puppet vs. animatics vs. real actors. She likes it all. She loves to lightsaber duel as well. Heck she is getting good at blocking and striking!
She has seen ESB - but only twice and maybe once all the way through. She hasn't had a correlation between father being bad. She knows that Anakin is Darth Vader (also helped by BK and their figure!) and she doesn't mind this. She doesn't view Anakin as a bad guy or even Darth Vader as bad. She does view Palpatine as a monster and evil though.
I do think that she really has a crush on Anakin though. Heck she sleeps with the BK figurine!
She loves to do the Darth Vader voice and well I corrupted her a little because when she says Chewbacca she goes dun dun dun afterwards (it's a Clerks thing!)
I do think she likes the older Star Wars better albeit ROTS which she is actually looking forward to owning and asks for all the time!
As far as playing with the toys - well she understands that Mommy doesn't let her play with them and so she is not all about the toys. (I can say though that she loves the General Grievous gun b/c it has silly string! Heck I love it too! Particularly bad frustrating day with my daughter and revenge is mine with silly string and a plastic gun! She laughs, I laugh, it is totally my 10 seconds!).
I will watch her though and she how it develops!
Oh and my daughter loves puppet movies - but I started her with Dark Crystal so no Muppets yet. I am waiting for the Fraggle Rock set to come out next month and then I am sure she will love that too. Oh and of course she loves Sesame street - I am sure that is what makes her like puppets!
And lastly she is a normal little girl as well. She loves barbies and make-up, and My little Pony, Care Bears, Winx, Witch, and so much more! But the girl loves to watch Teen Titans, Justice League, Spiderman, and Smallville. She just amazes me!!!! (Oh and just to reiterate this we don't watch TV all the time either! She watches about 1 hour a night - maybe a little more with a movie and that is it!)
What can I say - I have corrupted my littlest one and well I am proud of it!

[master jedi]

My nephew will be 5 this fall and he really loves Star Wars. Almost as much as I love it. I don't get to see him that often because I live in Iowa and he lives in Missouri. Anyways, my soon to be 5 year old nephew has several lightsabers. Doesn't seem like a real big problem. But he knows I, and my twin brother, are huge Star Wars fans and he even thinks we're Jedi. Sound cute? No way! He acts like he's always hopped up on sugar. So whenever I get to see him he gets a few of his lightsabers and wants to 'play fight' with me. But since he acts likes hopped up on sugar all the time he just starts swinging away as hard as he can and he doesn't care what or who he hits. So whenever he starts "really" swinging I just grab the blade and say we have to calm down now before he gets in trouble with my sister and my brother-in-law.

[bobafrett]

I had hoped to take my son to see Star Wars, but just after he turned 5, his mom took him to Florida where he lived until he was 11. When I was able to start having a regular father/son relationship again with him, I found that he liked Star Wars. Then he was able to come to see me here in Illinois, and he saw my collection at first he was in awe, then one day he says to me, "Dad, I used to love Star Wars, but this (my collection) is just overkill". However, he tells me he wants to dress as a jawa, or a Tusken Raider. I think he just pretends not to like Star Wars just because I love it so much. He is more a fan of the PT, and I am a fan of the OT. We did watch ROTS together at a theatre, and he did enjoy it.

[DARKNESSETRNL]

Yeah my daughter loves Darth Vader. She has her room with Vader posters and her lightsaber and mask too. She also does the voice and repeats the lines from the movies. She also saw the movie at the theater as well. It was a bit loud and I had to make some makeshift ear plugs for her. Being that she's 3yrs old, she really knows her characters from all 6 movies. Well the ones she remembers anyway. She also has her own little collection that she shows off to her cousins and the rest of our family. People might think she's a tomboy but she's all girl, trust me. Plays with her dresses and shoes, barbies and any other dolls she can get her hands on. She just likes star wars that's all. Daddys little geek. Who's also daddys little princess.

[JimJamBonds]

My sisters kids love Star Wars, infact she has my DVD copy of the OT at the moment. I'm not sure if they have seen the PT (I doubt it) but I'll have to ask one of these days... and likely surrender my copies as well. Good stories from everybody though.