Presenter Dustin Diehl uses his five minutes at Ignite Phoenix to enlighten the masses on little-known (to mundanes) Expanded Universe lore.
Much detail is included. Mundanes are amused. Hundreds go home and dust off their copy of ANH.
The fandom minute: Of parties and fan tributes
Woe be unto you, Club Jade fans. Dunc is having a real life this week and has left me to round up the news for you. So, sorry. She’ll be back soon! So let’s round up some bits and bobs in the world of Star Wars, shall we?
- That awesome fan project, Star Wars: Uncut, is now cut. And we have a trailer!
- Speaking of fans, the University of Georgia paper profiles a member of the 501st Georgia Garrison. Yes, Athens fans, there are others near you!
- And they’ll need all the help they can get. Star Wars Weekends is cranking up again.
- The 501st even helped Lando, um, I mean Billy Dee Williams, arrive in style to the Sunscreen Film Festival. I bet he’d love to have Colt 45 can greet him, just once.
- We’ll move from that The Empire Strikes Back actor to StarWars.com’s review of Empire cast and crew swag. (I’ve always wanted one of those passports.)
- And finally, from the film that inspired it all, Kurosawa Hidden Fortress action figures. Awesome!
Dunc will be back soon. Promise!
The fandom minute: ESB in Entertainment Weekly, TPM/AOTC reviewer speaks
On the newstand. The 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back (and the upcoming Making of The Empire Strikes Back) lands the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly. The issue will be on stands (and hopefully in subscriber mailboxes) on Friday.
Prequel madness. With the release of his Attack of the Clones review, MTV has a an two-part interview with Mr. Plinkett/Mike Stoklasa of Red Letter Media for a sitdown on the reviews, copyright, mocking, and backlash. Meanwhile, Bryan Young continues his defense of The Phantom Menance.
Chartage. It’s equal mockery under the law for Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Avatar and Lost fans in the sci-fi superfan reference manual.
Younglings. Head over to Offbeat Mama for Darth Aesop’s Death Star party. The balloon sabers are particularly brilliant.
Cake! Neatorama spotlights Star Wars cakes.
GateWorld declares “no more” for the haters
In a move long overdue for those Stargate fans who have long avoided the Wild West atmosphere of the GateWorld forums, founder Darren Sumner is making some changes.
- The forums will be more distinctively split between series to better coral the fans of each.
- Moderators will be less tolerant of disrespect and those who just appear to be wanting to pick fights to see how much they can get away with.
- Some articles will not allow comments.
As someone who ran from those boards a long time ago because of this kind of behavior, I’m glad to see this move. Here’s hoping it’s enforced well so that people who, oh, actually like the show, can gather with others who feel the same.
Bravo, Darren!
Video: Galactic Empire State of Mind
I suppose this was inevitable.
Quotable quotables: Ackbar rules
It really was a trap, you know? LT sometimes likes to harsh on Admiral Ackbar for so theatrically pointing that out, quite a while after the fact, but I always tell him fuck you. Ackbar rules. He had the balls (figuratively, at least; anatomically, it’s unclear) to say so out loud! Plus, so dashing in the white uniform.
– Mimi Smartypants, ‘as discriminating as a goat’
Gate Geek: We have aliens!
One of the complaints original Stargate fans have had about Stargate Universe is that they miss the whole alien action thing.
Wait no more, people. (Um. Spoiler at the links.) What was a mere glimpse in the 1.5 trailer is now a close-up picture on the official MGM Stargate website.
Season 1.5 kicks off this Friday, April 2nd, on Syfy.
Browncoats: Redemption is a fanfilm with a cause
Star Wars fans are familiar with the sad time of little official activity. (Remember the Dark Times?)
So Bart tells us that some Browncoats, not ones to sit around and wait for the occasional awesome comic, are making their own story to bide the time called Browncoats: Redemption. In order to avoid painful imitations of beloved characters, they’re creating an all new crew.
And to keep this in the spirit of Browncoats, they’re going to be collecting for charity, including: Equality Now, Kids Need to Read, Dyslexia Foundation, the Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center, and the Marine Corps – Law Enforcement Foundation.
Good luck to them!
Sunday reader: Star Wars as an Icelandic saga
Image: Parque sulfúrico by Jozelui. Used under the Creative Commons license BY-NC 2.0.
Jackson Crawford is ‘translating’ the Star Wars saga from Old Norse. Here’s a sample from the introduction:
Víga-Óbívan waits for Lúkr to attain manhood, and by now is himself an old man. When young Lúkr follows some lost sheep onto Víga-Óbívan’s property and is attacked by his retainers, Víga-Óbívan defends him and later tells Lúkr (who in a dream has been given his father’s byname, “himingangari,” by a dís, but is unaware that his father also bore it), that Lúkr’s father Anakinn was slain by Veiðari, the great captain of King Falfaðinn of Kóruskantborg.
It seems seems to be ongoing, and currently up to Chapter 6.
TGIF: Fast enough for you, old man
Cole Henley’s Millennium Falcon birthday cake, from the always-excellent Growing Up Star Wars pool on Flickr.