Episodes IV and VI are both celebrating birthdays today; 35 for Star Wars and 29 for Return of the Jedi. Per usual, the Tumblr is locked and loaded and will be flooding your dashboard with plenty of relevant content (mostly pictures, honestly; I’m visual like that.) But the entire internet is getting on the action, so check back here for updates.
Over at the Huffington Post, Jon Favreau, Jon Favreau, Gary Ross and many other filmmakers talk about how Star Wars and George Lucas influenced them.
At Underwire, they profile visual effects guru Phil Tippett, talk to Ben Burtt about sound, and in an opinion piece, y Cade Metz bemoans how digital effects let Star Wars down. Plus, the 35 greatest tributes.
Newsarama looks back with a graphic timeline of 35 years of Star Wars. Is this the cliff note version of Year by Year?
At 2:00 p.m., Mashable will be holding a live blog to celebrate. What will happen? Who will show up? We’ll be there… Or just hear about it later, probably.
Also: A different take on the Slave Leia outfit from author Olivia Waite.
The Return of the Jedi novelization delves a little deeper into Leia’s strangling of Jabba: suggesting that she unconsciously uses the Force to kill him, her body weight not being enough to do the job by itself. That’s pretty dark-side.
I’ve always imagined that Leia carried a far greater load of anger than Luke does (watching your home planet being vaporized will do that) and Luke knows it. This explains his reaction to Vader’s statement “If you won’t turn to the dark side, perhaps she will.” Yes, she would.
Any excuse to celebrate The Wars is good with me!
@WFDT, it would also explain why she never hesitates to shoot someone, even when she knows that their blasters are set to stun.
Still, I think she is perhaps stronger than Luke – remember, she went through days of torture on the Death Star and managed to not crack, even after seeing Alderaan destroyed. Maybe she has the potential for going dark, but she wouldn’t do it under Vader or the Emperor.