My brother’s laughter rings from the kitchen as I, pajama-clad, trudge downstairs. James, perched on a barstool at the island counter, leans over my mom’s iPad. I plop down next to him, wondering what the seven-year-old could possibly be laughing about before sunrise on a Sunday.
“Good morning, honey. What’re you looking at?”
“It’s Angry Birds Star Wars 2!” He pushes the iPad in front of me and taps the screen. “Here, watch.”
The teaser trailer opens with Ian McDiarmid’s iconic Emperor voice. Seated in his mechanized throne, Emperor Palpatine’s Angry Birds counterpart attempts to recruit viewers “to the pork side.” In keeping with the game’s endearing goofiness, the filming of the villain’s campaign video goes awry. The trailer gives little detail as far as what the new game is featuring and who, besides the Emperor, the characters are, but I have to laugh. After hearing the Emperor himself exclaim, “Oh, for pig’s sake!” how could I not?
Still giggling, I ask James, “So when does the game come out?”
“September 19th.” As he opens the original Angry Birds Star Wars app, he adds, “There’s new characters, and you get to play the pigs!”
“That’s pretty cool. Are you getting the game when it’s out?”
Without looking up from the iPad, he emphatically replies, “Well, duh!”
I watch James as he, for the fourth time in five days, begins his mission to help the Rebel birds defeat the Imperial pigs. While he saves the galaxy, I fix him a bowl of cereal. After I set his breakfast in front of him, I ask, “So are you going to play the birds or the pigs when you get the game?”
“The pigs, of course!”
Looks like my little brother is joining the pork side.
