Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Today, StarWars.com has broken the news that Steve Sansweet will be leaving Lucasfilm in April 2011. We’ve always been great fans of Steve, so I feel pretty safe in saying that all of Club Jade might be shedding a tear or two in tribute come spring.
He’s not stepping away from Star Wars entirely: “I intend to remain actively engaged with Star Wars and fandom,” he says. We’ll be sad to see him go, but I’ve no doubt that Steve will flourish.
I’ve never been big on the idea of Star Wars fiction having to be like movies: Novels are an entirely different format that requires different things. I don’t read Star Wars novels to experience the movies; I read them because they are different kind of stories. I’ve always been a reader above all else, and I don’t have any problem admitting that while it was the movies that turned me to fandom, it was the novels (and to some extent their illegitimate step-sisters, fanfic) that kept me here.
So if you really want to make me wince, you come out with a lazy, ill-thought-out list like Totalfilm’s 40 Star Wars stories that should be movies. Particularly when the list is inhabited by some of the worst stories the EU has to offer (Splinter of the Mind’s Eye) and things that are really only of interest to seriously hardcore fans (Luceno’s Millennium Falcon.) Hitting the random article button on Wookiepedia is no way to write a list.
Not all the stories on the list are from the EU, though that doesn’t mean they make any more sense as choices. Red 5 is a perfectly good web series, but I can see the concept getting old fast if you took it to two hours. Ryan vs. Dorkman doesn’t even have a plot.
I’m not completely against adapting the EU to other formats, mind. Splinter, Millennium Falcon or Rogue Squadron might might make good episodes of a Clone Wars-esque take on the OT period. (Let’s forget such a series would send the continuity-savants screaming into the night.) Knights of the Old Republic could function as an animated series or even a live-action mini-series. The concept of any Thrawn trilogy adaption makes me want to run screaming into the night (particularly if people start talking about live-action casting) but I could see it possibly working as serial animation as well. And I really hope that someone sent Seth Green some Star Wars Tales anthologies to mine for his upcoming humor series.
But as movies? A Star Wars movie should be epic, and the EU? Not so much. It’s there to continue the stories, let us know different characters and eras and cultures that we only get glimpses of (if that) in the films. It exists to build on the movies, not become them.
Do you want to make people smile? Get The Jedi Path (Vault Edition) and tell them to push the button.
I brought this to my local Star Wars club meeting, yesterday, and people actually squealed with delight when the vault opened. And when they calmed down enough to do it again and listen to the sound effects? Delighted claps that made them look like five-year-olds on their birthdays.
Going beyond the coolness of the vault, the book itself is fantastic! It’s designed as an orientation manual/text book for younglings at the Jedi Temple that has been passed from master to apprentice in a line descending from Yoda to, belatedly, Luke. (And, yes, they explain how this happens.)
As with many textbooks, it’s filled with notes scribbled in the margins. And I think this is my favorite part. It represents a conversation through the ages. And Dan Wallace really captures each owner’s voice in these notes. Of particular amusement, however, are Darth Sidious’ notes after he captured the book in the Order 66 aftermath.
There are also tons of keepsakes inserted by its various owners that are hilarious. My only complaint would be a coin that keeps falling out of the book and rolling across the room; a particular source of amusement for my dogs. I suspect that will make it difficult to keep this collectible intact in the future.
As to the book itself? It’s a brilliant compilation of thirty-three years of Star Wars lore in a spackle job at a level not seen since Michael Stackpole’s I, Jedi untangled the Bantam Era. Contradictions are explained. Disparate details from several different authors are melded into a coherent theory. And it’s all in the style of textbook; along with some stunning illustrations.
I’m no Santa Maul, but I would definitely add this one to your holiday/birthday wish list.
Darth Fairy strikes back. Booturtle created this striking Darth Fairy getup for her daughter to wear to Dragon*Con and for Halloween. It was, not surprisingly, a big hit! Be sure not to miss her Death Star cake, either. (Photo by ConventionFans)
Also in crafts… Make a stormtrooper helmet out of a milk jug. Just the thing for a Star Wars Halloween party. Not that you need the Halloween excuse to throw an awesome Star Wars party.
Original trilogy. Bryan Young has some interesting thoughts on releasing the OT in HD.
Listage. Chewbacca is the #1 sidekick for Hero Complex, while Anakin Skywalker is in suitably annoying company on io9’s list of the most obnoxious superpowered teenagers.
I realize that the internet is a wild and crazy place, populated by people who are perhaps a little unknowledgeable abut the basics of a civil society. So I was only a little surprised to run across a site that copied and pasted items directly from us and other sites – without permission. Now, this happens – someone thinks that pulling in an RSS feed entitles them to reskin it as their own. Most of the time, the audience for such sites is so small that it’s not even worth the trouble.
But there is an actual human running running swtorstrategies.com, and over the weekend I discovered 17 posts from clubjade.net – all written by me – copied and pasted on their site. To their credit, I contacted the webmaster and they removed or replaced the offending posts overnight. But there is still plenty of plagiarized content on the site.
Some of the posts did indeed link back to us, but not as a credit. A ‘via’ or ‘source’ link, as used by many blogs in these parts, does not mean this post is by [source] (Particularly when someone else – sQren – is the post’s ‘author’.) A via link means I discovered this information thanks to [source]. You take that information, write your own post, and as a courtesy link back to where you you found it.
(The only posts that contain proper credits do so because EUC and NJOE contacted the webmaster after he took their posts.)
Further study found posts pinched from TheForce.Net (original / plagiarized,) SF Signal (original / plagiarized,) and of course countless selections from StarWars.com. A few other examples I found last night and tweeted about have also vanished, so I encourage fansite folks to take a close look at the site and contact them if you find anything of yours.
At least some of the stuff on the site is semi-original – take a look at this post on gaming action figures, which sandwiches an (attributed!) ForceCast quote in-between text swiped from Kotaku. Or not… The middle part is actually swiped from Ask a Jedi.
Some of the site’s content – many of the gaming posts, of course – does look to be all-original. Which makes the decision to swipe all this other stuff just lazy. These are not the most extensive of posts they’re taking. No one really cares if you embed the same video or videos or use the same (attributed) quotes. We’re all covering much of the same news, so these things do happen. (Though, of course, a linkback is good manners.) All ‘sQren’ had to do was write their own text. Their own sentence, in many of these cases. A paragraph. Hell, they could do a bullet list instead of lifting 11 of my new release posts.
Is this a huge deal, these tiny posts? Maybe not. We all exist at the mercy of LFL, after all. But it’s not just about copying and pasting – it’s about having the decency to not take someone else’s work and pass it off as your own. And I’m not going to let that fly just ‘because it’s the internet.’ It doesn’t matter what the subject is: There’s no suitable excuse for plagiarism, particularly when it’s this pathetic.
It’s a known fact that Halloween brings a brigade of cheap, ill thought out, hilariously ‘sexy’ character costumes for ladies. (News? Learn from Cleolinda, my friend.) Previously, we hoped that maybe it couldn’t get much worse than Sexy Optimus Prime.
We were wrong. Behold: The Sexy Chewbacca. Yandy.com calls it the ‘Sci-Fi Furry Costume,’ like that’s any better. I don’t think it’s quite enough to not get their nearly-bare butts sued… (It saddens me that I know this – thanks, Internet! – but that girl is showing far too much skin to be an actual furry.)
Also in the offering is a ‘Sci-Fi Commander’ and ‘White Soldier,’ but been there, done that.
On the other hand… At least it’s not yet another slave Leia? (via)
The economics of Star Wars. This infographic that’s been circling around the interwebs breaks down just how much money the Star Wars cash cow brings in. To which we say: Damn.
Interviews. Ashley Eckstein turns the tables on the fans! She talks to our pal Mandy from TheForce.net, plus costumer Vera Campbell and EU fan Erin Kelahan.
Listage. Totalfilm includes four Star Wars movies in their 40 baffling movie plot holes, and Darth Vader as one of their 30 most influential movie characters.
Fanmade. These super-adorable Star Wars amigurumi almost inspire me to learn how to crochet. Almost.
Video. Chad Vader identifies costumes and meets George Lucas at Dragon*Con.
Her Universe is now host to a message board, furthering Ashley Eckstein’s mission to give female fans spotlight and community. Head on over to forum.heruniverse.com to register and take part now!
Y’all loved ‘Midichlorian Rhapsody,’ so here’s another Star Wars selection from Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff’s Grated Hits. You can buy the songs individually now, too.
On a related note, I hear that the manuscript for Holostar has been turned in.
Geek and Gamer Girls Song – Watch more Funny Videos
I’m beyond sick of the ‘California Girls’* filks, but y’all are sure to get a kick out of this. (And how can you not love Seth Green in the Snoop Dogg role?) Already seen? Bonnie interviews Team Unicorn.
* Yes, I know that’s not how Katy Perry spells it. I guess they don’t have spell check in Candyland.
