Club Jade

Nonfiction corner. StarWars.com talks to Ryder Windham and Pete Vilmur about The Complete Vader. On a related note, take a peek at Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Death Troopers. Did you catch all the Purge letters? No? Well, here are the direct links: DeathTroopers.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Action News, NJOE, RebelScum, TheForce.net, and ours.

Podcasts. Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace are on the latest Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib. (Warning: auto-pla.)

Blogsided. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on the pool of knowledge and Star Wars as part of the vernacular.

Ye Olde Databank. New or expanded entries for Jocasta Nu, Cad Bane, and Cato Parasitti. And hey – Ben Skywalker is in there now. That’s new! Newish. Wait, don’t tell me: They added him with the Backlash cover, didn’t they?

Sweet mockery. Checked in with We Hav to Take a Trip with Jacen Solo lately? Havac is currently working his way through Legacy of the Force.

At the Fate of the Jedi panel, Troy Denning talked about a plot point that the Legacy of the Force authors were kicking around, and naturally, fandom took it and ran with it.

At StarWars.com yesterday, Denning addressed the squee and concerns:

Yeah — what I said was that we considered a way to use flowwalking to bring back Anakin. I also said that just because we consider an idea doesn’t mean it should be done.

When we began to explore what bringing Anakin back might mean for the rest of the EU, we decided the worms in the can were just too big to let loose. So, we decided to weld that can closed by making explicit the limits on flowwalking we had already been using informally since Dark Nest.

The idea of bringing Anakin back didn’t even make it past the “what if” stage — it was just one of a thousand things we considered that never saw ink (even in an outline).

So basically, kids, don’t get too excited: It was just an idea. (And I, for one, am happy it never got any further than that.)

UPDATE: Bioware has lifted the topic ban and Dahlberg has apologized. And Penny Arcade weighs in.

So, the latest kerfuffle in the saga of gays in Star Wars comes out of Bioware’s forums, where community manager Sean Dahlberg shut down a discussion of possible gay and lesbian relationships in The Old Republic with the phrase:

As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars.

Thread closed.

Well, as any crazy obsessed EU fan will tell you… He’s half right. In recent years, Star Wars has played host to a single gay couple – Goran Beviin and Medrit Vasur in Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice – but they’re fairly easy to overlook if your eyes glaze over at the very mention of Mandalorians. And the terminology ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’ is never used: One point for Dahlberg. They’re just there, without comment, just like any other couple. (Which is as it should be, IMO.) Though as subtle as it was, the inclusion still proved controversial in the fandom.

Of course, the real issue here: Will this message board mishap continue to get play in the blogs? Will that prompt Lucasfilm to finally up and address the issue of homosexuality in the GFFA? It’s not going to be a fun time for the message board moderators either way.

Star Wars has been named the #1 toy license for 2008, thanks to sales that exceed $450 million: It was the year’s most popular licensed toy property. The success of The Force Unleashed and the appearance of 14 Star Wars titles on New York Times bestseller list contributed as well. And StarWars.com has seen a 30% jump in site traffic.

EUC nabbed Lucasfilm Licensing editor Sue Rostoni to talk about Legacy of the Force, Fate of the Jedi, and other EU works past, present, and future.

Daala, of course. It honestly wasn’t much of a contest – everyone’s favorite KJA-spawned Imperial psycho and her new job as (LOTF spoiler) the Galactic Alliance Chief of State (aka President of the Galaxy for our less EU-oriented friends) took an early lead and kept it, although Ahsoka made a strong showing. But she’s young, and while it’s hard to imagine that The Clone Wars could top a surprise apprentice for Anakin, this is Star Wars. George will certainly think of something! Hell – she might even survive.

What will the 2009 hold for the Warus? Not much… We hope. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, tell us why you voted for, why, and what would you have nominated for the 2008 Warus?

You do want to vote for the Expanded Universe’s wackiest moment of 2008, right?

A good number of you probably don’t need me to tell you that Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor will be in stores tomorrow, but so it is. Also, the paperback of the Legacy of the Force finale, Denning’s Invincible.

Comic fans won’t go empty-handed this week, either: Arriving in comic stores on Friday (not Wednesday!) will be The Clone Wars: Crash Course and the Vector conclusion, aka Legacy #31.

I originally meant to do a big year-end poll on the year’s EU offerings, but time flies, so we’re just going to have to settle for this: The The Crystal Star Memorial Award for Expanded Universe wackiness, aka the Waru. This award is given to the one Expanded Universe event (both in-universe and without count) that made you go ‘What?’ The one event that most shocked, confused, or even amused you in a deeply sarcastic way. Think hard. Award ironically. (more…)

Lots of tidbits: Sue Rostoni has continued posting bits and pieces about the new contract on StarWars.com boards and blogs, including the timing of Fate of the Jedi and Blood Oath (apparently Seeley’s cover art has Zekk “in a very manly pose, looking ruggedly handsome.”) Meanwhile, the first FOTJ cover will feature Luke, although no artist names yet, and the manuscript for Shadows of Mindor is 419 pages. And she’s updated her book schedule entry with a few new dates (already reflected in our schedule) and the news that the Reaves/Bonhoff ‘holostar’ novel is set two years before the Battle of Yavin. And today we swing right back to Fate of the Jedi: It “will continue to be a mix of characters.”

• Comics: StarWars.com has Dark Horse’s January 2009 solicitations, but it looks pretty slim: Just Knights of the Old Republic and the beginning of Legacy’s first post-Vector arc.

• The Force Unleashed: Sean Williams shares his piece from the Adelaide Advertiser on writing Star Wars.
• LOTF: io9 features Jacen and Jaina as one of Science Fiction’s Fiercest Sibling Rivalries.