Spaceport: Part 1

When R decided she really liked Star Wars, I gave her some of my old Star Wars figures from my childhood. And after time, she was starting to amass a bit of a collection of these and other small toys. And as toy collections grow, so does the mess of a child's room.

R also has a big dollhouse. A nice big wooden, handcrafted (as far as I can tell), dollhouse. It was a hand-me-down gift from a friend whose daughter no longer used it. R did like it and use it for a while. But eventually she stopped playing with it. It was too small for her stuffed toys and too big for her smaller figures. So it became a place for dirty clothes and toys she didn't use. It moved from room to room, taking up precious space in our London flat. So one day I asked her about it.

You don't really use your dollhouse. Do you not really like it?

(sheepishly) No.

How about we turn it into a space port?

YES!

That's where the Spaceport project began. Today it's gone well beyond what I had intended. The original plan was:

1. remove the top two floors of the dollhouse
2. turn the bottom level into a spaceport for her Fisher Price airplane (named Moya)to park inside

I took all the remaining parts of the dollhouse and put them in the bookshelf we used to store toys and stuff. Which had the nice effect of splitting the large shelves in two. Already it added storage and saved space.

I had some ideas of how to decorate the spaceport to make it more exciting, but I was hesitant to start. Partly because it meant making permanent changes to the dollhouse, and partly because much of what I had in my head was, if I was honest, beyond my skills. Turn out, when I did try enhancing it, pretty much everything I tried failed at first. Then I'd have to skill up to make it work. Repeat over and over for a year and you can imagine it's gotten quite elaborate by now. But I am getting ahead of myself…

The Falcon

She liked putting all her star wars toys together on a broken piece of styrofoam and saying it was either spaceship or a sofa. Usually the former. L and I talked about colouring and shaping the styrofoam to look a bit like the Millennium Falcon, but that never really materialised.

Time passed, as it does, and one day I was following links on the web, as you do. I ended up on the Star Wars site, on a page talking about the original Millennium Falcon toy. This bit struck me:

It measured about 53 centimeters long, and compared to a figure of Han Solo (about 10 centimeters tall) was almost four times too small. If Kenner had built the Falcon on a 1:1 scale with the figures, it would have been about 190 centimeters long. Hasbro almost achieved this with their “big” edition of the Falcon in 2008 which measured about 82 centimeters.

“Big” edition??? I'd never heard of that. A quick search on the web found a trove of reviews and pictures. This Millennium Falcon would be just the sort of dollhouse that she'd appreciate. But given that it was released in 2008 and there was no way it'd still be in shops, I dismissed it as just a fantasy. That was until L introduced me to the world of Ebay.

It took a couple of months of looking, but I eventually found one at a reasonable price (they usually go for at least £100 in reasonable condition, so I was lucky). When it showed up, it was, for starters, huge. L took some photos of me playing with it.

Are you sure it's for her and not for you?

Well… did I ever tell you about the time when I was a kid and I asked for a toy Falcon if I could keep my room clean for a year?

Did you manage it?

Are you kidding? I didn't last a week.

R loved the Falcon. It became the home for her Star Wars and other toys and lived on top of the spaceport. Where it lives to this day. But the spaceport itself has changed quite a bit. but that's a story for part 2.

Order of convenience

I introduced the daughter to Star Wars around two years ago. I think what first attracted her to it was it just being fun. The fact that it was punctuated with toys she played with at my parents' house helped make it a bit more personal. I've pretty much completely skipped that aspect of our lives, and at this point it's not insignificant. So with Star Wars Day upcoming shortly, it's as good a time as any to fill in the details.
There is so much out there on the web saying what order newcomers and children should see the Star Wars films. I had this dilemma, so I decided to discuss it with L.

Should we show R Star Wars by episode number or by release date?

You have to ask? Release date.

But we could...

Release date.

I pondered this further for about 3 seconds. Do I show R Phantom Menace which is visually nice? Or do I introduce her via Star Wars which is just fun? This is what I decided. (Various spoilers follow)

1. Star Wars

I've described before how we first we sat down and watched Star Wars. I let her see it a few times after that. Sometimes she'd ask questions about stuff answered in other movies, and I'd just give some non-spoiler detail and say she'd see eventually.

2. Clone Wars: 5.10 – 5.13 (The R2-D2 set)

This is a set of 4 episodes of the Clone Wars where R2-D2 is on a mission with a few other droids and small Jedi. It's minimally violent and fun. It only has a few short scenes with clones and Obi Wan and Anakin, so no real spoilers there.

Between this and the movie, she enjoyed the idea enough that she started playing pretend with Star Wars themes.

You drempt about the move last night?

I had my own little save light. Like the one Darth Vader had.

Oh a light sabre. Would you like to have your own little light sabre? A toy light sabre?

Yeah. I had one in my dream.

well, I wanted you to have this pulls inflatable lightsaber out of the bookcase when you old enough but I wasn't sure if your mum would be up for it. inflates it

Your very own light sabre.

YES! I wanted one of these! I'm going to show mamma!

I got an inflatable light sabre on Star Wars Day a month previous and had stashed it in a bookcase in the living room waiting for the day she'd ask for one. I didn't expect ti so soon.

3. The Empire Strikes Back

She enjoyed the movie enough she demanded a Space Robots theme for her birthday. Which we obliged with Cyberman spacehopper Racing and an R2-D2 cake.

We also went to the Secret Cantina, which she loved and still talks about today. She played legos with a cantina band alien (a Bith) and loved playing with the Twilek dancers, who, in turn, seemed to really like playing with her.

4. Return of the Jedi

It took a while before we watched return of the Jedi. Mostly we could pace her. Partly so she'd have a chance to enjoy them more. And partly because I had to wait six years to see the 3rd film, and I didn't think it was quite fair.

We saw this after she'd already played with an Admiral Ackbar doll which said It's a trap when a string was pulled. So when that scene occurred, she said It’s a trap over and over for
quite a while.

At this point I decide to get tickets us to go together to see Star Wars Celebration in London for her 5th birthday present. I explained it to her as like the Secret Cantina but 100 times bigger.

5. Phantom Menace, anti-cheese edit

I did have a really big dilemma, about showing R the first of the prequels. Eventually, I found online a version which replaced all the racist caricature voices with subtitled alien speak. It also edited out some of the dafter parts. While it cut out more than I'd have liked, it seemed the best option out there. So in Feb 2016 I played the movie and within the first minute she'd declared, No! I want to watch real Star Wars! So we watched Return of the Jedi again, and that was that for several months.

Eventually I caught her in a good mood and she sat through it. So, with the goodwill I followed it up quickly with…

6. Attack of the Clones

I'd not really seen it since I saw it in the cinema. It was not as good as I recalled. But R was ok with it. We were on a roll, so I started her on…

7. Clone Wars, seasons 1-2

I started from the feature-length pilot and went on from there. I was careful to avoid creepy or overly violent episodes. Or anything where Jar Jar has more than 2 lines.

She loved Ahsoka. Really. By mid-March she'd stopped calling herself Elsa and started calling herself Ahsoka. She called me Anakin and L was Obi Wan. And she'd constantly tell me that Don't worry. I'll stop you from turning to the dark side!"

At this point she declared she wanted a birthday party with the theme Star Wars underwater and Octonauts in Space. Can you guess what her other favourite TV show is?

We'd watch an episode of two of Clone Wars on the weekends, with the occasional movie. But after a while she refused to watch any more. I think seeing one episode where Grievous kills a young Jedi was too much for her. So we took a pause away from watching Star Wars for a while. (I like it, but I don't like how it makes me feel.).

She still wanted to be Ahsoka and wanted to lightsabre spar with me as Anakin. She just didn't want to watch anything.

8. Rebels, season 1

Her reluctance lasted a month or so. When she was ready to go back, we started on Rebels. She had a Chopper doll, so it made sense to let her see Chopper in action. We watched some of the less scary, lighthearted stories from the start of season 1. She was very excited to find out Ahsoka was in Rebels.

9. Clone Wars, season 2

Watching this after starting Rebels was actually a good idea, since I could point out young Hera in Liberty On Ryloth.

10. The Force Awakens

We got ten minutes in when we first tried, when she said it was too much. So we tried again a month later. We just needed to make sure she saw it before she went to the Celebration in July, so she wouldn't have big reveals ruined for her.

The second time she tried to watch it she was happy to see the whole thing. We just had to skip over the scary roller monster parts, the torture bits, and some of the light sabre fights.I didn't think it made much of an impression on her, but to this day she gets excited when she sees Rey or even Ben.

11. Clone Wars, seasons 3-4

First, she saw 4.01-4.03, the Water War episodes as a birthday present (the only real underwater episodes, so it fit the theme). We skipped a good chunk of these to avoid overly scary things, like the Maul brothers and witches episodes, and the Mortis episodes which are too spoliery for Return of the Sith, and for some reason she didn't want to see the ones where Obi Wan goes undercover.

At this point we get her the I Am a Princess Little Golden Book. I was reluctant at first, but the more I read it, the more I like it. It’s all about the noblesse oblige that is so missing from princess stories. I am a princess. I look after others and keep them safe

The only quibble I have with it is that I feel I have to insert "queen" before Breha every time I read it, because she is and that's the reason she's a princess, not her birth mother's early employment.

12. Rebels, season 2, first half

She loves anything with Ahsoka, so the second season of Rebels made her happy. Initially she'd not watch any episodes with Inquisitors. And especially not the one where they kidnap children. But she really like the one with young Leia (A Princess On Lothal), the one where Hera gets a B-wing (Wings Of The Master), and most of all, The Lost Commanders episodes. The latter she demanded every weekend to the point that we’ve put them on her iPad and she'll watch over and over whenever she wants/can. Even though Ahsoka is only in a couple of scenes, she can't get enough of watching Rex's Moving Castle.

13. Clone Wars, 5-6

It took a couple of months to get through season 5, but season 6 was over in 2 weekends. For some reason she didn't want to see the banking clan episodes, and the Jar Jar ones are still censored by me. When we got to the end we could finally watch…

14. Revenge of the Sith

We had to skip some of the scarier bits, but she'd been wanting to see how it played out, and was sufficiently warned of the scariness. It did give her a chance to put 2 and 2 together on so many things, so it was nicely closureific for her.

15. Rebels, season 2, the rest

After seeing Revenge of the Sith R was much more up for dealing with the scariness of the Inquisitors. So we watched all of season 2 (still skipping The Future Of The Force). She dealt with the last episode better than I expected, despite it being a bit emotionally traumatising for me when I first saw it. But I suspect someone must have spoiled it for her in the year which has passed between it showing and her seeing it.

16. Clone Wars, Mortis episodes

As I said above, the Mortis episodes were a bit too spoilery, so I held off showing them until after she'd seen Revenge of the Sith. We had a nice chat afterwards about how Anakin would always turn dark to save those he cares for, and what that means in terms of the greater good.

17. Rebels, season 3, in progress

We just started season 3, and have seen the first 2 episodes. She's not showed much interest in seeing further – she just wants to see the Rex’s Moving Castle episodes again and again.

She mentions The latest movie occasionally and asks if Ben and Chewbacca are in it. I keep telling her, no, it's essentially Rebels: The Movie, but without any of the characters you know in it. Except Chopper. So I’m putting off her watching it for a while, because it is so very bleak. It's good, but oh so very dark, and R might not be ready for that plus the added lost-little-girl factor. So we'll just wait and see when she seems ready.

Beyond all that, I've been debating over whether I should introduce the Ahsoka novel. I've read it myself, and I think she's ready material-wise, but she is only 5¾, so reading a novel of that level is beyond her. Audio book? Read it to her myself? I'm not sure yet.

So this is my what order to see Star Wars list. I'll just put this out there as another drop in the web’s overflowing bucket of opinions.