So as many Star Wars fans know, today Solo comes out... and a majority of the world is boycotting. Their reasons are valid. TLJ kinda sucked. And the way the franchise handled fan criticism and how they handled the cannon... yikes.
But Star Wars premiere day has always been a family tradition. When we rescued parrots and learned they too, were big fans (mostly of Chewy & Han), we all had that one thing in common. Tbh, my birds arrived from the #ThugLife and we have some creative differences on music choices. So every premiere week, we never missed a new Star Wars movie... and rewatching the old ones together. It’s a special time for us.
Boy was I unprepared for what would happen if the family chose to boycott this one and I had to follow... and the tradition changed.
With birds, once you have that special bonding thang, you simply DO NOT change tradition. Even more so than your traditions and daily routines with your stubborn cat. It’s just not done. And aside from some annoying “pew pew” random sound effects coming out of birds once in a while, and sometimes being told which characters to put into battle in SWGOH (which btw the whole family, birds included, love! This post is not to piss off disney cuz we’re big fans of them too... just not on this one.)
I woke up. “STAR WARS DAY!!! AAAAHHHH!!!” 😱😜✊🏽 The parrots were excited and prepared. The energy was high... the constant reminders were higher. Some people might not know, but parronting birds this smart, capable of speech and learning colors and numbers, is very much like having a toddler... who never grows up. They’re smart enough to understand more than we humans realize. I try to treat my birds with this respect for their intelligence. They get daily language lessons in THREE languages, are learning their ABC’s & 123’s like most kids do. For more info on this topic of bird intelligence, see vids about Alex the African Grey Parrot & Dr Pepperberg’s amazing university studies on bird intelligence. I have a bird like Alex. He knows children’s songs. He knows popular movies and music. I have to censor a lot of that, or else, one late non rated version of Get Him To The Greek will have him asking what a Jeffrey is and singing the Furry Wall song while laughing hysterically for weeks... yes that resulted in a letter to Comedy Central. Except this phase of repeating what they learn never stops.
So I check my feeds for Star Wars news... welp, we’re all boycotting this year guys. So we will watch a few well informed youtuber fans explain their reasons for their decision, and decide if it’s the best decision for us personally.
The vids didn’t help the situation cuz now I was horribly conflicted between being a huge fan who never misses this day and feeling things weren’t right and fans had a point. The way George looked so sad in that interview really got to me. And my loyalties as a childhood fan are with him, first and foremost. He was the creator after all.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t love Lion King, Pirates, and other Disney productions as well... remember I have what is essentially a family of toddlers-aged peeps here to keep happy, even if they’re birds. We especially love their nature films, which are an ongoing source of comfort for my birds seeing wildlife. I’ve heard horror stories about the franchise going after fans, so I wanted to make that clear. We love both. We just don’t love both in this way. And I think it’s a personal decision for everyone. We’re not trying to convince anyone to boycott or not. It’s not my way anyway to shove beliefs down others throats.
By noon: “SQUAAAAAAWK!!! CHEWWWYYYY!!!! STAR WARS!!!” 😜✊🏽 Crap. Things were intensifying in the household.
I know! I’ll distract them with lunchtime and educational cartoons! That always works! This worked for only 10 minutes however. This was gonna be a loooong day for all of us. It seems Star Wars day could not be forgotten around here. And I was feeling it too. I LOVE this universe in the stars. And I had made my decision.
It was time an explanation was owed. Let’s see if this goes better than the annual “Tupac is probably not coming back” discussion. I gathered my words, for once at a loss to say to these disappointed parrots so excited their eyes lit up like kids at the idea of movie day.
“Sorry guys, not this time. There’s some controversy with how the franchise has handled Lucas and fellow fans feedback regarding ditching the cannon. Fans are mad... so we’re NOT going buying it today. And it sucks for me too.” 😔
A litany of swearing followed for THREE HOURS! (Yeah they’d learned some not-so-good words before they came to us) Treats could not abate their wanting their fav movie day. Play time could not abate it either... neither could distraction with cartoons. These birds were getting antsy. Maybe we shouldn’t have started this premiere week tradition? Where did I go wrong here? How many parents (& parronts) have found themselves saying this at some point?
By 4p: I patiently sit and explain, keeping many YouTube testimonials handy for reference, the situation to the parrots.
Their response: “WHAAAT?! I wish you would have told me!” 😤 *thumps beak on cage in anger.”
“Do you understand why we can’t support this one lil guy?”
Tantrum continues... sigh. 😔 I felt bad for them.
#CleverIdea: how about we watch some old Star Wars movies together and whatever else, with some movie snacks instead? Then maybe down the road if a friend choses to buy the dvd and can come over for a movie night, we can see the new one then?”
“Yeah Yeah!” they yelled. “Absolutely!” (One of their fav 4-syllable words of agreement) WE HAD A WINNER!!! Huzzah, I was getting worried for a moment. I wonder if this could work for other families with real human kids who are too young to understand? Let me know. Cuz I know I can’t be alone here. I assume I’m not the only one posting about this issue today. I also assume most of you fans are familiar with the issues surrounding the franchise so I don’t want to make this a post about that, just how one parront had to deal with it. Eventually we’ll probably see it. Just can’t contribute the box office for this one on premiere week.
“No you cannot have your own lightsaber... you’re a bird.”
Currently still in the midst of a day-long retro family movie night... Will Update!
#Parronting
#Birds
#Amirite
#animals
#pets
#movies
#favmovies
#swgoh
#starwars
#trilogies
#parenting
#thingskidssay
#thingsbirdssay
#tantrums
#wecantagree
#familylife
#jedi
#usetheforce
#newbiepost
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