Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Folks, WonderCon was, as always, awesome fun this year, but it was also the most crowded I’ve ever seen it (I hear tickets sold out for both Friday and Saturday). This is my 6th non consecutive year in attendance and I was hit by so many backpacks I’ve come to loathe them. Lucky for you, I survived a near fall into a vendor’s booth to bring you this vital information. Continue reading “WonderCon report: The Clone Wars panel”
If nothing else, Season 3 certainly has lived up to its tagline. Secrets were revealed all over the place – secrets about the Sith, secrets about the Separatists, secrets about the Hutts, the Clones, and of course, the Force. There’s also been some cool action, some very impressive animation, and a whole bunch of memorable new characters. (Are you there, Hasbro? It’s me, Stoogey. My request is the same: an Arok the Hutt figure.) The one thing that’s been missing has been emotion, and if it takes a death or two for me to feel something like I felt in Season 2… well, bring on the carnage. And spoiler alerts – bring those on, too. ‘Cause they’re needed. Continue reading “The Clone Wars review: ‘Citadel Rescue’”
We’re just under a week out from the Clone Wars finale on April 1. I’m sure the media blast has only just begun, but here’s what we have so far.
Lucasfilm held a screening of the season finale at the Presidio Friday evening. Jeff Ellis send the ForceCast a spoiler-free report.
There have been a number of interviews: Dave Filoni in USA Weekend, head writer Christian Taylor at Hero Complex, Peter Mayhew with the Daily Record, and Chewbacca himself at Yahoo.
And over at Big Shiny Robot, Bryan Young talks about getting rid of his cable and (mostly) the annoyance of different air dates and times. It’s certainly made a lot of folks cranky this week!
And after the finale, if you happen to be in San Francisco and/or attending WonderCon, there will be a panel there on the 2nd with Filoni, Mayhew, and Ashley Eckstein! Rumor has it they might show a peek at S4. And Pablo is hosting it.
First of all, big thanks to the Star Wars Action News folks for live-tweeting the news out of yesterday’s Star Wars novel panel with Paul S. Kemp, John Jackson Miller, and Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss.
It may not be a surprise, but The Making of Return of the Jedi was officially announced – as confirmed by J.W. Rinzler this morning on Twitter. Look for it in Fall 2013.
The ‘big’ news here seems to be all short-story related: The next two Insider stories will be ‘First Blood’ by Christie Golden (about Vestara Khai) and ‘Buyer’s Market’ by Tim Zahn, which features Lando. TFN reports that the Zahn will be an Original Trilogy era story to tie in with Choices of One, as well as comments from Schoeneweiss that at least three more Insider shorts are in the pipeline.
The shorts with the reissued Phantom Menace and Shadow Hunter paperbacks will both feature a new Darth Maul story by James Luceno. (Also noteworthy: Luceno has finished his Darth Plagueis novel.)
And here’s a tiny bit of hope for those yearning for more Tales of books: There’s nothing planned, but Del Rey would like to do one.
Here’s a puzzling one: “Big things” coming after Fate of the Jedi? “Conversations have been had” on linking the Legacy comics? Hmm… As long as it all happens in standalones and single trilogies.
Naturally, the events of ‘Citadel Rescue’ were discussed. The Clone Wars “is making glitches in the canon.” But “nothing that can’t be fixed.” I remain shrugful at the whole issue.
Ad finally, if it’s comic news you want, Dark Horse has announced Knight Errant: Deluge. Newsarama has an interview with John Jackson Miller. Dark Horse’s Star Wars panel is tomorrow so we may hear more then.
Why was the Riptide cover changed? Sue Rostoni answered a reader question on this the other day, saying “The sales folks at Random House weren’t sure it was strong enough — not as dynamic as they’d like.” Not sure I see it, but okay. (Personally, I’d rather they change up the Choices of One cover.) Compare them for yourself by clicking on the thumbnails at right.
In the future… J.W. Rinzler tweeted and then deleted about prepping for “a sequel of sorts” to The Jedi Path. Not a huge surprise in any case, though we all eagerly await details.
Canon, continuity, and The Clone Wars. A certain controversial event happened on last week’s Clone Wars. Leland Chee explains. (Spoilers for ‘Citadel Rescue.’)
Atlasery. Behold the sectors of the Mid Rim in the latest Essential Atlas extra.
Statistics 101. EU Cantina has a new staffer, Andrew, and for his first column he’s taken a look at the complaints that we’re getting less EU product lately.
Comics. Dark Horse’s solicitations for June include Lost Suns #1, Jedi: The Dark Side #2 and trades for Knight Errant: Aflame and the fourth A Long Time Ago omnibus.
On that note… John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant novel answers, part the second.
“This is some rescue. When you came in here, didn’t you have a plan for getting out?” Last week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, entitled ‘Counterattack’ shows what happens when the best-laid plans of mouse droids and men hit reality. As the middle story in the Citadel arc, its parallels to Leia’s rescue on the Death Star build up – and then take a different route as the Sith hits the fan. Continue reading “The Clone Wars review: ‘Counterattack’”
Turner has released its recent viewership for its different cable channels, including Cartoon Network, and no surprise that The Clone Wars continues to grow in its audience.
Compared to this time last year, the show, TCW has increased its hold of kids 6-11 by 34%, but has really grown in the 9-14 age range, by 83%. No word on how many adults are also watching, although I do feel the urge to buy more Nerf and Lego toys while eating Fruity Pebbles. Last week’s overall viewership according to other reports is 1.8 million viewers, beating out other Friday night cable fare as Merlin, The Soup, and Say Yes to the Dress, tying one ESPN NBA game broadcast but losing to two Disney channel shows and a later NBA game.
The problem with the whole “Secrets Revealed” idea is that the marketing campaign feels compelled to reveals all the secrets before the show gets a chance. This episode is a good example – the late introduction of Captain Tarkin was clearly supposed to be a surprise, a sudden twist that makes the story seem much more important… at least for us old-school fans. (Despite everything I hear about The Clone Wars being the only Star Wars kids know – and it’s true, if my daughter and nephews are any indication – this season proves that the writing staff also cares about the older demographic. The past seven episodes, for example, only make sense if you’ve seen the movies and read some EU.) But because the Cartoon Network promos decided to spotlight Tarkin, and the news broke online even before that, it wasn’t so much of a Big Reveal as a Big Wait For The Reveal. Continue reading “The Clone Wars review: ‘The Citadel’”
There’s no new Clone Wars tonight, but there are several tidbits of news.
First off, there’s another Chewbacca video and some finale rumor dispelling (Spoilers? Sort of?) going around.
On Twitter, an actress you might recognize reveals that she’ll be voicing a character… But given the lead time on these things, I’m guessing we probably won’t hear much more until next season.
More imminent is Free Comic Book Day on May 7 and StarWars.com has a preview of Dark Horse’s Savage Opress offering. (Psst, Avatar: The Last Airbender fans… That preview is over here.)
Two weeks ago, Star Wars: The Clone Wars wrapped up the three part story arc involving the Father, Son and Qui-Gon’s Ghost. Do good things come in threes? We’ve got three episodes, with three Jedi, and three Force wielders (err… two now!). ‘Ghosts of Mortis’ closed up the story of the Chosen One doing what a Chosen One does best, bringing balance by killing things. I guess important deaths do come in threes.
Continue reading “The Clone Wars review: ‘Ghosts of Mortis’”