By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff
I like to say that I'm good at trivia. I'm an avid fan of Trivial Pursuit, I used to play those little trivia games on Facebook, and I occasionally help my parents out during their trivia nights.
I also enjoy Star Wars. I know the iconic lines. I've watched the newest trilogy at least three times. I personify my anxiety as the sounds R2-D2 makes throughout the films. So I thought attending Star Wars Trivia Night, hosted by the Westwood Public Library on Zoom, would be a good idea.
On June 24 at 7:00, more than two dozen Star Wars lovers eagerly awaited for the game to start, establishing their team names. I decided on “I crashed the Falcon,” based on a memorable experience riding Smuggler’s Run at Disneyland, where I did, much to my friend’s amazement, crash the Millennium Falcon.
As everyone picked their name, it became very clear that I was, without a doubt, going to lose at trivia. Hard. The Trivia Brothers, who were running the event, pointed out how families were dressed up, and using different backgrounds themed around the epic settings of Star Wars. I was playing with some dedicated fans, and I was by myself. I knew there was no way I could even make the top 15.
The Trivia Brothers quickly ran through all the rules about the different rounds and challenges during gameplay. Each team would use a phone to answer questions, while occasionally using the Zoom chat to answer challenges. Each regular round question was worth 3 points, with round ending challenges adding 6 points to each team’s total if they answered correctly.
The first question was a doozy: What did C-3PO do at his first job? Now, the C-3PO I know and love seems to be supremely good at translating and communicating. So I answered "Interpreter."
"He programmed binary loadlifters!" one of the Trivia Brothers answered. Surely, I'd get the next question. Nope.
The rounds seemed to fly by. "What are the approximate odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field?" The Trivia Brothers showed a clip from one of the movies, showing an exasperated C-3PO noting that Han Solo had a 3720-to-1 chance of flying them out of the asteroid field alive. Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure those were my chances of scoring enough points to get to a double digit score.
If there were ever a trivia game about my life, one question would surely be “What epic trilogy have I never actually completely watched?” The answer is the original Star Wars trilogy. With that knowledge in mind, I’ll let you guess how I was doing by the halfway point. The answer: not great.
By halftime, I had guessed one or two questions right, and had somewhere around 6 points. Amid the break, I ventured downstairs, plopped myself in a chair next to my Star Wars-loving brother, and did something I never thought I would do: asked him for help.
“What?” he asked as I listened to the next question.
“In which mainline Star Wars, film did we first see Boba Fett?” I repeated. My brother looked up like I had two heads.
“The Empire Strikes Back. Why?” he asked. I explained to him that I was participating in some Star Wars trivia and could use some help. Slowly, with my brother’s much-needed assistance, we started gaining points. I scored questions about who wrote the music for Star Wars, and what the newest Star Wars ride at Disney was (I’m actually quite good at Disney trivia). My brother got everything else right. The questions we got wrong were the ones where I hesitated and clicked what I thought was the right answer.
Finally, we made it to the final question. It was worth 20 points. “The original concept for the Millennium Falcon looked completely different than what we know today. It had a different name, as well. What was it?” I had utterly no idea. My brother seemed a bit concerned as well, but eventually answered.
“Blockade Runner,” he said.
“You sure?”
He explained to me that it resembles a vehicle used in a different Star Wars series, and how it seemed more likely than “The Eagle,” or “Khetanna.” I clicked on it, knowing full well that it honestly didn't matter; I was losing by a lot of points, and I doubted 20 would make a difference. Seconds later, we found out that I was right, but so was my brother. Somehow, we avoided the asteroid field of questions and escaped with 20 more points. I couldn't help but feel a bit prideful over that.
We didn't even make it into the top ten, but I couldn't help but feel like I had fun the entire time. Sure, I didn’t complete the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, but I did manage to bring my score up more than 20 points by the end of the game while bonding with my brother over Star Wars. And isn’t that what trivia is all about?
