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{"id":75838,"date":"2010-04-24T18:10:46","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T01:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.org\/?p=75838"},"modified":"2012-10-07T15:50:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-07T21:50:36","slug":"an-important-anniversary-is-on-the-way-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/04\/an-important-anniversary-is-on-the-way-2\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Years Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

30 years ago this month, were you looking at the calendar, gnawing at your fingernails, and counting down the last 30 days until the end of your painful, three-year-long wait?<\/p>\n

I was.<\/p>\n

What am I talking about?<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

It was 30 years ago, back when Star Wars<\/em> was the big screen\u2019s most thrilling saga, that fans were pulling out their hair, counting down one last month until the release of The Empire Strikes Back<\/em>. The three-year wait for the sequel to the biggest movie of all time had been almost unbearable.<\/p>\n

But no one anticipated that The Empire Strikes Back<\/em> would become not only the best Star Wars<\/em> film ever, but the best *sequel* ever.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s my opinion, anyway. There have been great sequels. But Empire has been the most influential of them all, because it was darker, stranger, and it delivered surprises so jarring that fans would spend the next three years arguing about what they meant.<\/p>\n

Take The Dark Knight<\/em>, for example. Or The Godfather, Part II<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Nothing in either of those films comes close to the culture-shocking revelation that Darth Vader makes to Luke Skywalker near the end of Empire<\/em>. We take that kind of thing for granted now, but at the time it tore the audience to pieces.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll never forget how, right up until the day Return of the Jedi<\/em> arrived three years later, I had more friends who disbelieved<\/em> Darth Vader\u2019s surprising announcement than believed it.<\/p>\n

Further, nothing had prepared us for how the film concludes, with the film\u2019s most beloved (well, arguably) character frozen in carbonite and taken by the enemy.<\/p>\n

And then there was agonizing realization that we\u2019d have to wait three whole years to find out what happened next.<\/p>\n

It was like we<\/em> were frozen in carbonite for that amount of time.<\/p>\n

Today, that kind of cliffhanger is par for the course with franchises. But back then, The Empire Strikes Back was as exhilarating as adventure storytelling could be. And the thrills were all the more thrilling for having had to wait so long to experience them.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"