How to introduce your girlfriend to Star Wars....

While Adam and Shelly have been away on their travels in England Paula and I have had the run of the flat to ourselves. Paula however has been quite busy with work so we probably didn't see each other quite as much as we could have. However starting on Sunday evening I decided to start to show her the Star Wars saga as she had never seen it before. So where to start? Well first off she really doesn't know anything about the story. The only thing she did know was that Darth Vader was Luke's father and that Luke and Leia were brother and sister. So that's the two major plot twists out of the way.

Because she did know this I had thought of watching it I, II, III, IV, V VI, instead of IV, V, VI, I, II, III. I decided against this however because there's probably more surprises watching it as they were released than chronologically. With this in mind we watched Episode IV: A New Hope on Sunday. We had a nice curry and rice dinner and settled down to watch it. I did have to bite my tongue a few times because there is so much useless information that I know about the movies that I could really annoy someone, especially if they're not interested. Thankfully she seemed to enjoy it. I had promised her that if she didn't enjoy it that I wouldn't make her watch the others so now she has to watch them.

On Monday I was playing football after work so I was back in the flat by half eight. Paula came over at nine and we watched Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. I told her before that this was considered to be the best of all the Star Wars movies and I wondered what she would think of it. She really liked Yoda and was laughing at most things that he said. The big reveal wasn't a surprise to her but she did seem shocked when Han was put in the carbonite. So that was two down with four more to go.

Tuesday I was working again but there was no football this evening. I did a bit of shopping and Paula again came over after work. She was staying the night too as she was working at nine this morning. So we had a chicken fajitas dinner and settled in to watch Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. It's only after watching a film with someone who has no idea of the plot just how many things you could give away. Like Leia in the bounty hunter disguise and how they escape the Sarlacc pit. So I had to keep quiet about those and even last night about who Yoda was at the start. So Paula was sad when Yoda died and she really liked the Ewoks and laughed whenever they were on screen.

So that brings us up to today and I was working for a bit and it really dragged on. Paula was working again but she did come up to the flat during her break. Adam and Shelly are back too and they bought me an old school Lando Calrissian to go with my Millennium Falcon. It's really cool. There's still episodes I, II and III to come and so far I think she's enjoying them. I don't know if she really cares about the action too much but she's definitely enjoying the story. I guess that doesn't bode too well for the prequels but there is a bit more romance in them so that'll make up for it I think.

So far the tactic is to just watch the movies, chime in with a few interesting facts but not too many as you'll just be talking all the way through otherwise and answer any questions as they crop up. Two important things though, don't give away any plot points (I nearly let the Yoda twist out of the bag before I realised) and enjoy watching it together! I'll keep you all posted when we get around to the last three....

Paddy.