Episode IV: A New Hope

While Julie was typing those last two posts, she heard Joe pounding about downstairs (oh--in his underwear only, of course) and then pausing to say, "I'm Batman!"  This pronouncement reminded her to report that Joe had announced that he would like to be "a bad guy!" for Halloween.  Later he clarified: he would like to be Batman.  We had to clarify: Batman is a good guy.  Other things Joe learned this morning over hot chocolates and milk chocolates at Starfoxes:

Batman has a car.  It can fly!  (Right?)

He also has a motorcycle.

He parks them in the Bat cave.

He has a cape.

Batman and Superman are not related in any way to Star Wars.

Darth Vader is a bad guy.

His space ship is the Death Star.

The good guys are Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, the Wookie Chewbacca, and two robots: C3-PO and R2-D2 (R2, or "Artoo" to his friends--who are legion).

There are more good guys than bad guys and, their space ship, the Millennium Falcon, is way cooler than the Death Star.

"She's the ship that did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs."

The good guys also fly X-Wing Fighters; the bad guys also fly Tie Fighters.

The bad guys also have Imperial Walkers which are, admittedly, grudgingly, pretty cool.  (Joe: "They shoot fire!")

Occasionally, Joe talks in big gushes about super heros and Star Wars.  Let's just say that in today's weekly class update from his teachers, we were not surprised to read the friendly admonition to remember that weapons of any sort, or books featuring weapons of any sort, were not appropriate choices for show 'n' share.

It is still, admittedly, a little unsettling to hear one's four-year-old speak with such zeal about bad guys--who do seem to have cooler stuff (save the Millennium Falcon of course).  But one learns that "gun play" and the like is natural, and how to talk about it with one's would-be gunslingers such that they will not, in fact, be gunslingers.

This is also true: some of Julie's fondest memories are of watching Star Wars with her mom and she will admit that she is excited to watch it with Joe and Clara for the first time.  In the meantime, no child of hers is going to wander about talking nonsense about Batman being in Star Wars and she will hold out hope that she hears Joe inform someone, in all of his four-year-old wisdom, that the Millennium Falcon is the ship that did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.