I watched it in the theater as a teenager on initial release, and the Ewoks made me cringe. But at the start, seeing Luke as a mature badass was satisfying and exciting.
I was a kiddo and i loved the ewoks. I even watched the terrible, terrible ewoks cartoon and Loved it. Eeeecheee waa waa baby!
Sorry, Lucas did that shit for lil babies like me and i ate it up.
It feels weird to reply to myself but I keep thinking about Luke’s development. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I saw this guy that was like a cool older brother go off and do exciting adventures but then some jackbooted thug killed his older buddy who lived down the road. Then in Empire , when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I saw him train hard but still get totally wrecked in the end. Then finally when I was about 13 years old, I saw him come into his own.
It really felt deeply satisfying after waiting like one third of my life to see this guy not get kicked around. I had forgotten how good that felt. And what a long wait.
Some dude a couple doors down was obsessed with Star Wars, and this was before Return. He rewatched Empire so many times. Even I didn’t like it that much. Imagine how he must have felt.