Star Wars vs. Unicorns

To say that Star Wars fever has invaded my home would be an understatement.  Actually, the fever includes Star Wars and Clone Wars.

Last night at dinner, my husband busted out a Yoda impression.  My husband.  Yoda!  Even Luna can do a Jar Jar Binks impression.  "Me-sa have a question!" she chirps.  Wolfie and Tulip engage in these really animated and poignant discussions about the movies and the characters.  Today at lunch Wolfie was holding a baby carrot.  He showed it to Tulip and illustrated how the way he held the carrot in his hand made the whole thing look like a Gungan.  Obsessed much?

It makes sense that Wolfie likes Star Wars.  He's seven.  Tulip?  Well, in her special Tulip manner she has found a way to enjoy Star Wars and Clone Wars movies.  She looks for the cute stuff.  And she has found it - baby Ewoks, cute aliens, baby aliens.  

I was ready for this.  I mean, I saw those Star Wars movies in the 70's when I was a kid.  So, I totally know all those movies.  Right?  Um...not so much.  Apparently there is a big difference between watching those movies as a kid and being the adult involved in the life of the kid watching those movies for the first time and becoming totally immersed in the thrill of discovery this whole new galaxy far far away.

Well maybe I'm being a little too hard on myself.  I can talk about the movies with my children.  There are some pretty big important themes there, and because of my job I'm pretty good at talking about themes and character relationships.

But here's the thing I can't do well.  DRAW Star Wars.  And I can totally draw!  You plop a still life in front of me and I can render it beautifully.

Wolfie has been drawing these:

He has about 8 of these large posters lying around the house.  He draws on both sides!  He draws scenes from the movies and other scenes he has made up.  He drew Darth Vader's surprise birthday party - I'm serious.

Below is a detail of one of his drawings.  I think this is a clone building factory.  Apparently that is a Geonosian in the upper right watching over the process.  See, I know my Star Wars.  (Or Clone Wars - see, now I'm getting confused)

So Wolfie will ask me to draw Star Wars with him.  He'll say I should draw the Death Star or the Millenium Falcon.  I'll tell him that I don't really know what they look like; I'll need to look at a picture from one of his books.  He gets a little exasperated and says, "How about you draw something a little more easy, like a Droideka."  I'll tell him that I don't know what that looks like either and he'll say, "Don't you recognize it from the movie?"  I want to say, "Just because you have extremely vivid images of every single scene from Star Wars and Clone Wars rolling through your memory 24/7 doesn't mean I do." But I don't say that of course.

I draw a space ship.  I just make it up.  When I sit back from the paper and look at my space ship I realize that I haven't drawn anything at all in the style of Lucasfilm.  I have drawn a rocket ship.  I might as well have written NASA on the side of it, it's so lame.  Wolfie says, "Oooookaaay..." trying to spare my feelings.  He's so considerate.

Tulip asks me to draw a unicorn.  YES!  I shout it before she even finishes saying "unicorn".  I can totally draw unicorns.  I've been drawing unicorns since I was seven.  I can draw a unicorn walking, galloping, standing still - I can even draw a unicorn flying.  I can draw a unicorn with its tail flickering this way or that.  I can draw a unicorn's mane blowing in the breeze.  I can draw flowers in the unicorn's mane and, most importantly, I can toss a rainbow in the background.

She's impressed.  For about three minutes.  Then she says to Wolfie, "Wolfie, did you ever notice that the baby Ewoks don't have to fight in the battles?  They get to stay home."