I was in first grade when Star Wars was released in theaters, and it shaped my life going forward. The whole franchise has had its ups and downs, 1 but the original trilogy was like nothing that had come before and was copied, poorly, so many times after that.
Luke was dreamy and all back then, but Han Solo was definitely the cool one when it came to the guys in the movie. But even better than Han, who, come on, we all know was the coolest, was Chewbacca. Wookiees, for being walking carpets, are badasses, basically the Vikings of Star Wars. He could rip the arms off of anyone he lost to playing Space Chess, he could put C-3PO back together, he carried a gun that no one else had, and he was an amazing pilot. But the best part about Chewbacca was that he was completely different than the Core 3 – hairy, 7 feet tall, he wore no clothes. He was not human, and I loved that.
All of the aliens in Star Wars have their cool factor. Greedo, even though he’s a terrible shot, was interesting looking. Walrus Man, Hammerhead, 2 Yoda, Rancors, Ugnaughts, Nien Nunb, anybody that wasn’t human in Star Wars was cool to me. Even Bib Fortuna, probably the lamest of the Star Wars aliens, probably had his good qualities, even if he did lasciviously, and very sexually, stroke R2D2 3 at Jabba’s palace.
So I religiously watched every one of the movies, TV shows, or comics with aliens in it. I was obsessed. In book form we had the Mysteries of the Unknown Time Life book series. Aliens, the Tunguska Blast, Ancient Astronauts, telekenesis – I ate that shit up as a kid.
But a weird thing happens when you get to be an adult – those things gradually become less cool and, sadly, more scary. It’s probably the child-to-adult ability to lose the wonder of those far fetched things and see that, much like Whitley Strieber sees them, aliens are freaking scary. Just ask Fox Mulder.