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Bloodline posters, Propaganda pages give us hints of The Force Awakens background

IGN has debuted four new posters for the upcoming Leia Organa-centric novel Bloodline that will be given out at C2E2 and “other upcoming conventions.”

Bloodline poster #4The posters also give us some hints at the book’s plot. Leia is a candidate for First Senator, a position I’ll allow the more politically motivated to debate. What I find far more intriguing is the graffiti: Are we finally getting a book that actually explores the political ramifications of Leia’s parentage? It’s a ball the old Expanded Universe material dropped – Luke and Leia being twins and Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker’s kids became public knowledge somewhere along the line, but it was rarely treated as big deal, at least for Leia. (And she was Chief of State – aka Chancellor – for several books. Maybe we’ll even find out what she’s Senator of this time! Ahh, ’90s EU. I love you, but you had issues.)

We know, thanks to Before the Awakening, that the twin issue is already public – Leia refers to ‘my brother’ when Poe Dameron meets her for the first time, and he knows she means Luke – but nothing about the Vader connection until now.

Bloodline, by Lost Stars author Claudia Gray, is our first look at the galaxy at a midpoint between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Given where we end up in The Force Awakens, this is a pretty intriguing thread to pull…

Speaking of the New Republic and potential problems, some sample pages for Pablo Hidalgo’s Star Wars Propaganda have been spotted (via Jedi Bibliothek) on Edelweiss. It’s not the easiest thing to read at the size provided, but if you can manage the spread on the First Order is the clearest account thus far of how the underlying situation in The Force Awakens came to be.

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Bloodline is due out in hardcover and eBook on May 3; Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy is currently scheduled for October 25.

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Video: GMA offers another look at ‘Secrets of The Force Awakens,’ reports from the SXSW screening

tfa-bts-gma

Good Morning America has another sneak peek at ‘Secrets of The Force Awakens,’ the documentary from the upcoming Blu-ray.


StarWars.com has posted a somewhat more streamlined (and higher res) version of the footage as a teaser.


The doc debuted at SXSW this afternoon, and Entertainment Weekly has the highlights (some of which we’ve already heard,) while Making Star Wars has a breakdown.

The Force Awakens Blu-ray will be out April 5 in the U.S.

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Video: Unboxing Star Wars: TFA Visual Dictionary, Rey’s Story & Rebels ‘Shroud of Darkness’

Unboxing Star Wars 3-13-16 title card

Time for another episode of Unboxing Star Wars with Baby Jawa, Yowie, and me! Yowie and I discuss the Star Wars Rebels episode ‘Shroud of Darkness’ and then review two recent books: The Force Awakens: Rey’s Story by Elizabeth Schaefer, from Disney-Lucasfilm Press, and Pablo Hidalgo’s The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary, from DK Publishing. Meanwhile, Baby Jawa does baby things.


Quick reviews
→ The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary – An enjoyable must-have guide for all Star Wars fans!
→ The Force Awakens: Rey’s Story – A great retelling of TFA from Rey’s point of view. Intended for young readers, but can be enjoyed by any fan. Love that artwork by Brian Rood!
→ ‘Shroud of Darkness’ – Thumbs-up! Force visions reveal some interesting secrets for our characters, and provide for some cool scenes and the return of several legendary SW voices.

Get more info on Wear Star Wars Every Day or make a donation at GoFundMe. Check out my article on the best quotes from Hondo Ohnaka on StarWars.com, and Hondo’s take on this year’s ‘This is Madness’ brackets.

Note: Disney-Lucasfilm Press provided a copy of The Force Awakens: Rey’s Story for review.

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The weekend in VIII: Actual filming begins in Dubrovnik

viiiActual shooting for Episode VIII has begun, and sure enough, pictures continue to leak. They do mostly seem to be extras, or at least unknown actors, as well as props. The most curious addition seems to be someone riding a creature. Speculation has it that the rider may be another ‘stunt double’ for an actor who isn’t (as far as we know) present.

In other news, Billie Lourd will be back, and her role will be at least a little larger this time. No word if she’ll still be sporting the hair buns.

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TheForce.Net shuts down flagship ForceCast podcast

ForceCastTheForce.net shut down their flagship podcast, the ForceCast, yesterday. The actual announcement from TFN content manager Dustin Roberts is brief, but almost all the background on what led up to it has played out on Twitter and Facebook, with the relevant bits helpfully gathered up by Brian over at Tosche Station.

UPDATE: Ex-manager/host Erik Blythe gave his side of the story in a live Q&A last night. You can listen to that here.

The whole situation is pretty odd, to say the least. The ForceCast had long since ceased to be the podcast for the fandom, but it is certainly the end of an era.

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Team Hondo rages on This Is Madness 2016

ThisIsMadness2016

Hello again, my friends! This is your old pal, Hondo Ohnaka. It is that time of year again, when StarWars.com does their annual “This Is Madness” character picking tournament, and for this fourth year, they have decided to not invite me to their competition at all. They even accused me of trying to rig the game last year, with that Jar Jar Binks auto-robot-stuff. Scurrilous lies, I tell you. I am outraged. I would never rig an election – it’s too time consuming, a pirate like myself would simply declare Hondo Ohnaka the winner and have enough big guns handy to get everyone to agree.

team-hondo-2014Anyway, it also appears that my big guns are gone – have you seen my predicament on that Rebels show now? Ezra is a fine lad, and may make a great pirate Jedi yet, but he’s no replacement for a crew. Or a base. Or a ship. At least I have my memories of good times. Some of them might even be true. Speaking of memories, please take this trip down memory lane with this great article of my personal wit and wisdom. The author of that piece clearly knows a man of keen intellect and business sense, and I hear he is also a Team Hondo supporter and is also very handsome.

Onto this year’s “This Is Madness.” It starts on Monday at starwars.com/this-is-madness, and there’s some sort of contest for correctly picking the winners in each round. Nonsense, I say. That’s too much work for so little profit. Also, I am still angry that I was not invited this time. What did I do to those StarWars.com people, anyway? It’s not like I stole their droid. I don’t even like droids. Where was I? They added some new characters to the brackets this time, based on the latest season of Rebels (which I am in. Twice! And yet I am not included! Very well, I will not include them! Is there an opposite to include?) and from the new movie, The Force Awakens. I hear it made a kerjillion credits, but I haven’t seen it yet. So to help me with those picks, I’ve recruited Bala-Tik of the Guavian Death Gang to fill me in. In years past, those voom-voom Jedi and Sith have won, but I think this year, it is time for a real hero to win. Me! Ha-ha! Okay, not me. On the light side, I predict going into the finals will be Han Solo versus Rey. And on the dark side, it will be Darth Vader (who won last time) and Kylo Ren or Agent Kallus. In the end, the light side will win, whether it is that Solo guy or the newcomer, Rey. I hear she knows how to do a mind trick.

Stay tuned for my individual round picks. I am too indignant right now at being not invited to consider who Team Hondo should vote for in each of these starting rounds.