I am Nightlily; a Norwegian woman who works as an IT consultant and lives somewhere north of the Arctic Circle. I have been contributing to Wookieepedia for many years, and I've written most of the content in the Legends versions of the articles on parents and tattoos. And yes, I have a tattoo myself; a beautiful bird on my shoulder.
Unused concept art of gunship nose art – Aurebesh reads "BOOT GUNRAY"
In case you wonder: I did not name myself after M'iiyoom Onith, aka Nightlily, from Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina. I actually took the name from Night Lilies, a 1998 album by a Scottish singer named Jackie Leven, whom my mother is a fan of. It is such a beautiful word.
I've been a Star Wars fan for many, many years. I was introduced to Star Wars as a child, when I watched A New Hope on television with my family. I forgot most of it later, and I'm not even sure if I watched the whole film. The only moments I remembered, was Darth Vader snapping Captain Antilles' neck, Ponda Baba's arm being cut off (I did not remember the circumstances, or who did it), Luke entering Leia's cell on the Death Star, and a tall, hairy being. Later, I watched The Phantom Menace; I'll confess that I thought most of the story was quite boring at the time (I'm more fond of it today, though), but I liked the beautiful images (like the underwater city Otoh Gunga), and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's duel against Darth Maul was fantastic (the music, the lightsabers, the beautiful Theed Generator Complex).
This picture of Allana with little Anji is one of the most adorable Star Wars pictures ever – despite all the sharp teeth...
At the time, I wasn't too familiar with Star Wars: I knew that Anakin Skywalker would become Darth Vader, but I didn't know that that Luke was his son (I don't know why it never occurred to me that they might be related, since they shared the same last name), until I watched a television program where a person told the viewers that we were going to see when Luke's parents fell in love, before cutting to to a clip of the meadow scene from Attack of the Clones.
Later, I read in a magazine that both Luke and Leia were Anakin and Padmé's children, but it did not tell that Luke and Leia were twins. And I still didn't know the circumstances; that Luke didn't know that Vader was his father...
Later, I watched a television program about science fiction movies. A clip of the end of the duel on Bespin, from The Empire Strikes Back was shown. Luke and Vader fighting, Vader cutting off his own son's hand (father of the year...), Luke screaming in pain, Vader revealing his true identity, and Luke's reaction (the clip ended before he let himself fall into the abyss). Sometimes, a dramatic movie scene gives me a kick – hopefully, you know the feeling😀, and this was one of the greatest kicks of my life. I knew I just had to watch that film.
Soon afterward, I got the opportunity to watch The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and I was hooked. I then got hold of a copy of A New Hope and watched it again, after all those years.
When The Force Awakens premiered, I happened to be in London (the greatest city in the world) and I watched the premiere at the BFI IMAX cinema, the largest cinema screen in Britain. Oh gosh... It was definitely one of the greatest experiences in my life. The film was just... perfect! It was everything a Star Wars fan could dream of. (George Lucas, I'm looking at you: Selling the Star Wars rights to Disney was the smartest thing you could have done.) As the credits rolled, a man in the audience stood up and shouted "Star Wars is back!". I wholeheartedly agreed with him.
Okay, from now on, every lightsaber duel should take place in a winter forest. It creates the most beautiful backdrop.
The movie also gave me something I've always wanted to watch on the big screen, but never thought I would get to see. It's always annoyed me how the participants in the awesome lightsaber duels in the previous films were always men (the duel between Asajj Ventress and Obi-Wan in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie does not count – it was animated). The Force Awakens gave me what I've always wanted to see: A live action lightsaber duel between a man and a woman. And that duel in the snow was epic...
Fast forward to two years later. After the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story one year earlier (a great movie), The Last Jedi was released in December 2017. Once again, I was in London – and I broke my previous record of the number of times I've watched a movie in cinema (I watched it ten times). Holy sh*t – some of the critics thought it was the best Star Wars movie, and I agree with them. Sheer perfection 🙂 The haters don't know what they're talking about – the movie is FANTASTIC!
Two more years passed and I returned to London for The Rise of Skywalker (alright, I confess: I love to travel 😉). Once again, I loved what I saw and I ended up watching that film ten times as well; the film is a great ending to the Skywalker saga. And we finally got a kiss between the heroine and the villain, something I had been rooting for since the first film (I have a thing for the bad boys 😉).
Wow, there are so many Game of Thrones actors in Star Wars! Here is a list that I'm making; new names are added as they come along: Every Game of Thrones actor in Star Wars.