Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
So here we are, in the post-Legacy of the Force Expanded Universe. And, as we learned at Celebration, one of the first things out of the gate will be a trilogy focused on Jaina Solo. Fans of the only remaining Solo kid greeted the news with boundless enthusiasm – and just a hint of trepidation. My feelings are less clear. On the one hand, I think it’s long past due. On the other hand… No one has really managed to make me actually care about Jaina yet, and I think it’s probably long past time.
Gearheads With this week’s release of The Millennium Falcon Owners’ Workshop Manual, you’ll see the folks behind it are all over the place. Roqoo Depot has an interview with Chris Trevas, Ryder Windham, and Chris Reiff; Suvudu talks to Windham.
Fate of the Jedi. The third mini-excerpt of Denning’s Apocalypse features actual Skywalker-Solos!
War! Also on Facebook, two new images from The Essential Guide to Warfare, both featuring the Falcon: The first with another YT-1300 and another in a scene from Aaron Allston’s Legacy of the Force: Fury
Review. James takes a look at Dawn of the Jedi #0.
Inspired by remarks by @bantamspectra and @brownjawa on Twitter, I’ve been thinking about Star Wars book covers. What works? What doesn’t? Clearly this is subjective, but here’s my take. Continue reading “Nitpicking the Star Wars novel covers”
Nonfiction corner. StarWars.com talks to Ryder Windham and Pete Vilmur about The Complete Vader. On a related note, take a peek at Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Death Troopers. Did you catch all the Purge letters? No? Well, here are the direct links: DeathTroopers.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Action News, NJOE, RebelScum, TheForce.net, and ours.
Podcasts. Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace are on the latest Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib. (Warning: auto-pla.)
Blogsided. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on the pool of knowledge and Star Wars as part of the vernacular.
Ye Olde Databank. New or expanded entries for Jocasta Nu, Cad Bane, and Cato Parasitti. And hey – Ben Skywalker is in there now. That’s new! Newish. Wait, don’t tell me: They added him with the Backlash cover, didn’t they?
Sweet mockery. Checked in with We Hav to Take a Trip with Jacen Solo lately? Havac is currently working his way through Legacy of the Force.
At the Fate of the Jedi panel, Troy Denning talked about a plot point that the Legacy of the Force authors were kicking around, and naturally, fandom took it and ran with it.
At StarWars.com yesterday, Denning addressed the squee and concerns:
Yeah — what I said was that we considered a way to use flowwalking to bring back Anakin. I also said that just because we consider an idea doesn’t mean it should be done.
When we began to explore what bringing Anakin back might mean for the rest of the EU, we decided the worms in the can were just too big to let loose. So, we decided to weld that can closed by making explicit the limits on flowwalking we had already been using informally since Dark Nest.
The idea of bringing Anakin back didn’t even make it past the “what if” stage — it was just one of a thousand things we considered that never saw ink (even in an outline).
So basically, kids, don’t get too excited: It was just an idea. (And I, for one, am happy it never got any further than that.)
UPDATE: Bioware has lifted the topic ban and Dahlberg has apologized. And Penny Arcade weighs in.
So, the latest kerfuffle in the saga of gays in Star Wars comes out of Bioware’s forums, where community manager Sean Dahlberg shut down a discussion of possible gay and lesbian relationships in The Old Republic with the phrase:
As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars.
Thread closed.
Well, as any crazy obsessed EU fan will tell you… He’s half right. In recent years, Star Wars has played host to a single gay couple – Goran Beviin and Medrit Vasur in Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice – but they’re fairly easy to overlook if your eyes glaze over at the very mention of Mandalorians. And the terminology ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’ is never used: One point for Dahlberg. They’re just there, without comment, just like any other couple. (Which is as it should be, IMO.) Though as subtle as it was, the inclusion still proved controversial in the fandom.
Of course, the real issue here: Will this message board mishap continue to get play in the blogs? Will that prompt Lucasfilm to finally up and address the issue of homosexuality in the GFFA? It’s not going to be a fun time for the message board moderators either way.
Star Wars has been named the #1 toy license for 2008, thanks to sales that exceed $450 million: It was the year’s most popular licensed toy property. The success of The Force Unleashed and the appearance of 14 Star Wars titles on New York Times bestseller list contributed as well. And StarWars.com has seen a 30% jump in site traffic.
EUC nabbed Lucasfilm Licensing editor Sue Rostoni to talk about Legacy of the Force, Fate of the Jedi, and other EU works past, present, and future.
Daala, of course. It honestly wasn’t much of a contest – everyone’s favorite KJA-spawned Imperial psycho and her new job as (LOTF spoiler) the Galactic Alliance Chief of State (aka President of the Galaxy for our less EU-oriented friends) took an early lead and kept it, although Ahsoka made a strong showing. But she’s young, and while it’s hard to imagine that The Clone Wars could top a surprise apprentice for Anakin, this is Star Wars. George will certainly think of something! Hell – she might even survive.
What will the 2009 hold for the Warus? Not much… We hope. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, tell us why you voted for, why, and what would you have nominated for the 2008 Warus?
You do want to vote for the Expanded Universe’s wackiest moment of 2008, right?