Parchment Paths

Working in retail can suck a great deal of the holiday spirit out you, especially after the Black Friday crush. But none the less,  Christmas is here and I mean to enjoy it. While, I've been Christmas shopping in bits and pieces every since August at the Renaissance Faire, today was the first day I went out with only Christmas shopping in mind, and it was wonderful. My dad and I went out to find a Christmas Tree. After having only real trees we decided to go with an  artificial one this year. We looked at the inflateable Christmas decoraions, including a singing fish and C3PO and R2D2 then picked out our tree. We found one that looks real and even has small pine cones placed on the prelit branches.  After stowing it away in the van, we visted another store where I found Christmas gifts for a friend and my brother and sister in law. Then we had coffee and looked around at Barnes and Noble.  While babysitting for my neice and nephew, I drove them around to look at the Christmas

The Revenge of the Sith is my favorite of the prequels. My father enjoys it so much it's his favorite of all six released films. While, I won't go that far, I get his point. It sets up the entire original trilogy. We see the formation of the Empire. The Clone Troopers becoming Storm Troopers, which now that I've begun watching the Clone Wars, is so much sadder. The clones were literally hijacked and forced to turn on the Jedi they served and befriended. But back to Episode Three ; We see the defeat of the Jedi and the birth of Darth Vader. This movie makes me cry a great deal. I get very emotionally vested in stories and this is no exception. The troopers turning on the Jedi is bad enough but then there's  Anakin leading clones into the temple, where they don't just kill the adults, or even the teen Padawans, no, they murder them all. It's horribly ironic that Anakin turned to the Dark Side to save his wife and child, yet his first task as a Sith

The movie may be called The Attack of the Clones but after re watching it today, I think a much better name would be The Shroud of the Dark Side. At the very end, Obi- Wan comments that without the clones, they could not have defeated the Separatists, to which Yoda replies that Clone War was begun and the shroud of the dark side has fallen. It's a great line that sums up the Revenge of the Sith. I have also decided that Yoda would make an incredible elementary  school teacher.  The scene where he interacts with the younglings at the Jedi Temple may be my favorite part of the film. He jokes with the kids, yet gives them a real problem to solve, that of Obi-Wan's lost planet, and then not only asks, but takes the kid's advice. The scene is adorable and a bit profound that way. One of the better aspects of the movie for me, is the the glimpses of life within the temple, the kid's training, the library. It all blends with what we know of the Jedi to give a be

  All right, I know, The Phantom Menace is the weakest of the six movies, even of the three prequels.  Too much Jar Jar Binks. A far too long pod racing scene. Jar Jar. Not nearly enough Darth Maul. Binks. The bad acting. Jar Jar... again, really he seems to take over the entire movie.  Maybe the crazy theory about him being a secret Sith has some validly after all. But despite all of the faults, I just can't hate the movie as much as my fellow Star Wars fan do. Maybe, it's because I still enjoy the good points of the movie. Darth Maul, aside from looking wickedly awesome he has some awesome light saber skills. I mean he killed Qui Gon Jinn played by Liam Neison, who usually is unkillable in his films.  Some people complain about his silence, but I think it adds to his frightening demeanor, and when he does speak it's in a quiet,  dark tone.  So my inner Goth may have a crush on him, but moving on. The light saber fights in this movie are pretty good. I agree