Like why a 30-minute animated series may be the best thing to happen to Star Wars since the double-bladed lightsaber.
My first encounter with Star Wars began when I was six years old; it was 1989, and all three movies were making the rounds on television. I sat transfixed as space ships, lasers and lightsabers filled our living room, and I was introduced to the Force. I grew to understand loss and heartbreak Luke lost his hand, and Yoda faded away. Darth Vader terrorized me with every rattling breath and stalking step, but in the end I saw that everyone can find redemption, if they're willing to throw everything they have away to get it.
And 10 years later, the Phantom Menace kicked me in the gut, took everything I loved about Star Wars like it was so much lunch money, and chucked it out an airlock.
In the years since, I watched Star Wars lurch and stumble its way toward its destiny; Luke and Leia were born, Anakin fell along with the Republic, and the Jedi left the stage to make way for Palpatine and his Empire. It all happened with such precision and relentlessness that at times, I just couldn't wait for them to get it over with so we could put that era behind us, and be done with it.
So why, then, do I find myself with a DVR-full of Clone Wars episodes that I've not only watched, but found myself re-watching?
