ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how the potential for dark elements in children's play has been addressed in existing play research, and analyzes contemporary examples. It explores the analyses of Lego play videos created and shared by children and young persons and investigates the transmedial adaptation of dark themes in Star Wars and Lord of the Rings narratives into the children-targeting Lego series video games. There are over 280,000 videos shared on YouTube that fit the Lego Star Wars search description. Many of the most viewed videos are either commercially produced trailers, cartoons, or high-quality videos created by older fans. The videos feature the toy Star Wars characters, vehicles, and weaponry familiar from the games and films, and generally focus on play-acted battles. The dark potential of playing evil characters or even the anarchic pleasures of breaking and smashing become subordinate to the goals of gameplay achievements.
