FIRST IMPACT

Children are like sponges; at an early age they absorb everything around them. That is why major events in their childhood could haunt them as adults.

Since LOST was a character study, what were the first major impacts on the main characters?

For Locke, it was being told that he was "a miracle baby" but abandoned by his parents. It was this paradox that led Locke on a futile quest to find a family.

For Kate, it was stealing in the rural general store and getting caught. But the consequence was that she got off (a stranger paid her debt) which led her to a life's belief that she could get away with anything; no accountability or responsibility for her actions.

For Jack, it was a school yard fight. He intervened with bullies were taking on a student. Jack got beat up and when his father told him he was stupid and not a leader, it put a permanent scar on Jack's self-esteem in that he could never live up to his father's expectations.

For Hurley, it was the day his father left. He was a happy kid until that event. It traumatized him to the point of eating to hide his pain for he believed that he was the cause. This would lead to a life of self-blame, isolation and self-doubt.

For Sawyer, it was hiding under his bed hearing his father kill his mother and then himself. This turned Sawyer into a vigilante, on a quest to find the con man who destroyed his family. And in this quest, he was twisted into the thing he hated most: he turned into a murderous con man.

For Ben, it was his birth that caused his mother's death. His father constantly blamed Ben for killing his mother. He was constantly told he was a monster. As a result, he kept his emotions inward to the volcanic point of rage - - - and then actually turning into that monster by killing his parent during the Dharma purge.

For Sayid, it was taking the place of his older brother who could not get a grip on killing an animal for the family meal. When Sayid took control of the situation and took the animal's life so easily, it turned the young boy into a stone cold assassin and torturer because he could tune out his emotions.

For Jin, it was watching his aging fisherman father struggle to survive. He resented that he was poor and that he had no mother. He had a dream to leave poverty for the city where he would not have the daily dirty grind of trying to survive. When he was in the army, he got the taste of a bigger world than his fishing village. So he vowed to do whatever necessary never to go back there - - - and that would include compromising all his morals and beliefs.

WONDER TO GO

In 1977, I went to a large suburban theater to watch the first Star Wars movie. I do not recall what actually motivated me to see the movie, except that that was what kids did on Saturday afternoons.

The old theater had a monster screen and new Dolby sound. It could fit three current theaters into it. It was the last arc of the grand movie palace experience, where the characters and action on the huge screen was larger than life.

I remember it was a very good action-adventure movie. So much so, that I made a point of seeing the next two sequels.  But then after that, I had no interest in George Lucas' prequels. It came mostly from negative reviews and the lack of the original characters involved in the movies.

And that is a point of franchise stories: people get personally invested in the characters that they are drawn to . . . in such a fashion to follow their stories to the bitter end.

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I can guess a couple of major plot twists because I know that Hollywood rarely has a totally original story idea. I have been spoiler free in internet surfing so if I make the commitment to elbow through the mobs this holiday season to see the picture, I will get the full effect of re-boot.

But I am thrilled with JJ Abrams at the helm. As a loyal, old school Roddenberry Star Trek fan, I was disappointed with his franchise reboot to the point of not watching any more of his "alternative" universal thought. It seems the younger generation does not care about alternative canon story lines since the major comic book makers seem to re-boot their franchise characters every couple of years, to the point of total confusion of character roles and motivations. Example, is Batman good or bad?

So I wonder if the new Star Wars movie will hold to Lucas' vision, or will it be a tale of Hollywood Disneyification profiteering, or a mixed bag of hope dreams bruised by formula pole tent movie making.

Great science fiction charges one's imagination. Poor sci-fi clouds the mind.

This new Star Wars movie is supposed to break all box office records. But industry insiders think it will be a commercial flop if it does not make $1.5 billion at the box office. Reports indicate that Disney has strong armed many theater chains to pay higher ticket gate percentages in order to show the film. To be super successful, Disney hopes for multiple viewings by fans and a huge rush of merchandise purchases.

But let's hope the old characters can gracefully hand over the story to the new, younger Jedi characters. Because in the end, it is still the story that counts the most.