Fatherhood in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Bail and Brea Organa, with their new baby Leia

For an epic tale like the Star Wars saga, which places plenty of importance on who

is who's father, there aren't a ton of great examples of day-to-day fatherhood to be seen. There are a few moments to be sure, but it's takes a little digging to see great moments in fatherhood in Star Wars.

Of course there’s quite a few examples of terrible fathers like Darth Vader. There's also completely absent parents like Rey’s, Han Solo's or Ezra Bridger’s. But on a positive note, here’s a few of our favourite examples of fatherhood in the saga…

Bail Organa and his daughter Leia are only seen on screen together when she is a baby, but clearly there is great love and mutual admiration between them. As a founding member of the Rebel Alliance, Organa obviously influenced Leia's world-view of politics, justice and rebellion. Bail even states in Rogue One that he trusts her with his life, and Leia soon after goes searching for Obi-Wan Kenobi because he served her father during the Clone Wars.

 
Galen Erso in Rogue One clearly loved his family and of course his beloved "Stardust", his daughter Jyn. Unfortunately to keep her safe from Director Krennic and the Empire he had to leave her to be raised mainly by Saw Gerrera. The two were never able to properly reconnect, but Jyn clearly inherited a spirit of rebellion from both of her parents.

Cleigg Lars seems like he was decent person and devoted husband, so presumably he was a pretty good dad, too. He freed Shmi Skywalker from slavery and then later lost his legs trying to save her from Tusken Raiders!

Cleigg’s son Owen Lars, though he probably only knew Shmi for a few years at most (and apparently only met Anakin Skywalker once), took on the task, with his wife Beru of course, to be guardians of Anakin's secret son Luke.

This may seen like an unlikely one, but arguably the most involved father shown in any Star Wars movie is Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones! While Boba Fett isn't technically Jango's son but rather actually a CLONE of Jango, Jango raises him as his son and seems to be teaching Boba many of the tricks of his bounty hunter trade along the way.

We never really got to see what kind of father Han Solo was when Ben (aka Kylo Ren) was a child but certainly at the end of The Force Awakens Han shows nothing but love for his son. Clearly by then Han has regrets about his life so maybe he wasn't the kind of father he wished he'd been, but it's easy to see the emotional attachment he shares with Ben. There are glimpses of what kind of a dad Han might've been when he interacts with Rey throughout the movie.

Near the ending of The Rise of Skywalker there is a hint that Lando Calrissian may be interested in learning more about who Jannah's parents are. The junior novelization and Visual Dictionary take this one step further by pointing out that Lando is indeed a father and had his daughter taken away to be part of the First Order. It is certainly possible that Jannah is the long-lost daughter he misses but that is not made completely clear.

Did you know that Jabba the Hutt is also a dad? That was a new revelation in the movie of The Clone Wars that preceeded the release of the TV series. Little Rotta the Hutt, nicknamed "Stinky" by Ahsoka Tano, was only an infant at the time and perhaps the rest of his story will be told at a later time. It's really hard to imagine crime lord Jabba as a father, but it's true!

Who is your favourite Star Wars dad? Who did we miss? Leave a comment below...

The Force Awakens a New Hope in Youngling's Cancer Fight

In December 2015, most Star Wars fans were eagerly counting down the days before the release of The Force Awakens. For one young fan and his family that month will be remembered as life-changing in many ways.

Callan’s story began, as most cancer patient’s stories do, with scary hospital visits and painful chemotherapy treatments. But his story changed after viewing a trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens – it awakened a determined little 3-year-old in his battle to defeat cancer.

Callan was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) only five days before Christmas 2015. Even though he had never seen a Star Wars movie, he was captivated by the trailer for the newest installment of the franchise, and quickly became obsessed with the Star Wars universe.

Callan the Rebel pilot and "friend"

For Callan, it became clear – he would use the Force to defeat cancer and now viewed his chemotherapy and port as good things, simply a part of his Jedi training. The Force is strong in this young one.

So strong that he’s transferring it to others by sharing his story of hope through the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a national charity dedicated to funding childhood cancer research as an Honored Kid.

By sharing his hopeful message with the world, Callan hopes to inspire others (and donors). To help, visit St. Baldrick’s Foundation here.

Do you know an awesome Star Wars Fan Kid? We'd love to share his or her story!

Review: Star Wars Cookie Decoration Kit

This Halloween I spotted a Star Wars cookie decorating kit from Leese Enterprises for sale among the treats available. It has nothing to do with Halloween but with only black, orange and white colored icing inside (the character cookies are a First Order Stormtrooper helmet and BB-8) presumably it seemed to be just Halloween-y enough to be a part of that display. 

That part didn’t matter to us, but the fact that it was 75% off the day AFTER Halloween was pretty awesome though!

With our very cheap, not-particularly-Halloweeny, cookie decoration kit we were ready to have some Star Warsy fun and enjoy some cookies. Here’s how it went…

 

There were eight shaped sugar cookies inside the box, a white icing pack, two icing tubes for details (black and orange), and for some reason a bag of rainbow candy balls.

Anyway, I haven’t decorated cookies in a long time but I make much of my living as an illustrator. I pride myself and depend on my artistic abilities. How hard could it be to work with icing? I was so naïve…

Another step or two would've been VERY helpful!

The first thing you notice in the box is the cookies have the character details etched right in so you can easily follow the pattern. That’s a really nice touch because without that all hope may be lost.

Next you realize laughably tiny amount of supplied white icing for eight cookies that – to match the box – each take up a lot of white icing. 

Not much left after just 2 cookies!

This kit is marked ages 3+ and even I was having a hard time squeezing the black and orange icing out of the “Icing Writer” in any kind of controlled way. There’s no way my 4 ½ year-old daughter would have the hand strength to make a design, let alone a continuous line. How you’re supposed to fill in the gaps I don’t know.

The white icing is too thick to come out in any fluid way either so making a slick looking BB-8 was not easy. Seriously, toothpaste would be easier to work with!

I think they turned out looking reasonably good. Due to the difficulty of squeezing the icing I did do most of - almost all - the work myself so as far as a “together” activity, this was pretty weak. 

Leese Enterprises made a Millennium Falcon kit at Christmas (akin to a gingerbread house) and that was much easier for us to do together AND it came with more than enough icing to make it look like the box photos.

We skipped the white icing for these ones.

But with any cookie, it really comes down to enjoying eating them. I must admit these cookies were really tasty! My daughter licked her BB-8 almost entirely clean before eating the cookie. When it came to the Stormtrooper she had black icing all over her face and hands. Her hands looked as blackened as a mechanic’s by the time her cookie was gone!

This used to be BB-8

I’m glad we didn’t pay full price for this kit because the frustrations were much more entertaining with only a few dollars spent. She got to enjoy watching me do all the work but we both enjoyed recreating AND eating these characters in cookie form.  

More importantly we found another way to enjoy Star Wars together! 

Troopers can take a few licks too!