The Secret of Darth Vader

“How does Darth Vader die?”

“Are Anakin and Obi-Wan brothers?”

These are the questions Calfgrit7 asks me about Star Wars. I’ve been planning to sit down with CG7 to watch the Star Wars movies when he’s old enough — I was 10 when I saw A New Hope — but his interest in Star Wars is growing faster than his age.

I have the original VHS versions of the first three movies (Eps. IV, V, VI). They were given to me as a Christmas gift back in the 90s, before there was even any talk about the special editions or prequels.

I was hoping for him to experience the magic and surprises of Star Wars with me, but with all the Star Wars paraphernalia in the world, he’s learning so much about it without ever even seeing the movie package. He has asked many questions about the different characters, and some things I’ve had to refuse to tell him — like Darth Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader, etc. I haven’t told him why I don’t want to tell him.

Then the other day he brought home a book he checked out from the library at school: The Secrets of Darth Vader. “Ha, Dad, I’m going to know how Darth Vader dies,” he said. Damn.

Well, I talked to Cowgrit about this — she’s known I want to watch the movies with CG7 — and we’re going to make time this weekend. She’ll take Calfgrit4 off somewhere for a couple of hours, and CG7 and I will sit and watch at least A New Hope. I’d like to watch it on Saturday, and then watch The Empire Strikes Back on Sunday, and then squeeze in Return of the Jedi Monday evening, but we don’t know if we can work in six hours like that.

If I’m going to do this, I have to do it now, or he’ll learn too much before seeing the movies. The hard part is doing it behind CG4’s back, and keeping it all a secret from him. CG7 will want to talk about having seen the movies, and CG4 will be upset if he knows he’s missed something like that (but 4 years old is too young for a PG movie).

Now if I can just “misplace” his The Secrets of Darth Vader book for a few days.

Bullgrit