Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Daisy Ridley discussed her reasons for leaving Instagram this week, saying she had a “lot of growing up to do” and that it was an “extra pressure.”
Ridley deleted her Instagram in July amid harassment over an anti-gun violence message. She currently only has an official Facebook page.
Yesterday, we first heard of threats from some members of the so-called ‘Bring Back Legends’ movement to spoil The Force Awakens on public Facebook pages. Apparently some of them made good on their threats, because the folks at Del Rey have deactivated their Star Wars Books page. They explain their decision – no, it’s not gone for good – on their Tumblr:
We don’t want to give people who wish to spoil the movie for others a platform to do that and we are under no obligation to do so.
The ‘Bring Back Legends’ (or ‘Give Us Legends’) movement is a rather scattered gathering of fans of older Star Wars novels and comics – almost everything published before September 2014, including several decades of storylines that continue past Return of the Jedi. Last year, Lucasfilm announced that the older fiction would stay in print as ‘Legends’ – but as an alternate universe that doesn’t count towards the new films. Most Bring Back Legends fans want the older storylines to be continued, but there is a rather wide spectrum of opinions and attitudes on how and why.
My policy has been – and remains – to not cover them, for the most part. Most of them seem rather harmless – bitter, sometimes annoying, but harmless. But this is not the first incident where they’ve crossed a very distinct line, and that I will not ignore.
This is not going to change anyone’s minds about Legends, and spoiling people for a hotly-anticipated movie may be skeevy, but this is not a matter of life and death. Still, no one should have to invoke the nuclear option because of what is and isn’t canon in tie-in fiction.
Meanwhile, look for Del Rey to publish Alan Dean Foster’s The Force Awakens novelization as an eBook on Friday – Facebook or no Facebook.
→ ANH set decorator Roger Christian, who came up with the first lightsaber, thinks the broadsaber is “an older laser sword.” He says that while it doesn’t seem to be practical, “there has to be a reason,” and that J.J. Abrams “would have considered every visual in this first teaser.” I think it’s just as well that we’re seeing it so early – it gives fandom time to get used to the idea. (Though of course, complainers are going to complain regardless.)
→ The Force Awakens got a ton of attention on Facebook – 16.7 million from 8.4 million unique users. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
→ Rumor Time: Brandon Rhea at Fanpedia has a bit on Han and Leia’s roles in the film.
→ And finally, the 4chan/Reddit “Spoiler Man” is back with a third and presumably final installment. Here’s a non-spoilery tidbit: “Han does not have any Force-sensitivity.” Really. (Are they rumoring from 1981? Is Han “the another?!?”) There are also “script” pages with dialogue that makes “I don’t like sand” look like Shakespeare, though to their credit even Reddit is calling BS on them.
After venturing onto every other form of social media (Instagram, really?) StarWars.com has finally joined the rest of us on Tumblr. Rejoice and follow!
Social. Star Wars has officially joined Instagram. Will they drop something fresh soon? What social network will be next?
Mystery box. J.J. Abrams has admitted that keeping Khan ‘secret’ for Star Trek Into Darkness maybe wasn’t the best idea. Hopefully no outright lying for Episode VII? (Yeah, right.)
Derumored. Actress Emmanuelle Chriqui, who was named as an Episode VII contender by Jedi Master SQL last week, said on Twitter that she hasn’t auditioned (the convo started here.)
I’ve been on Tumblr for a while now, but somehow Friday’s stirring GIF party disappointment ended up with me creating a Club Jade Tumblr. I know! This is madness!
Fear not – most of the stuff I’ve been posting so far aren’t really things that would make it all the way to the blog in a timely fashion, and more stuff from the blog will make it out there throughout the week.
But, of course, I blame Stooge.
With the Star Wars Blogs in their final days, The Stooge has moved his Star Wars Joke-A-Day, a long-time staple of the Blogs, to Tumblr. So fans, be sure to either bookmark StarWarsJokes.tumblr.com or, better yet, create an account and follow him!
Here a few other Star Wars Tumblrs you might want to follow to get started: Distracted by Star Wars, Professional Geek Girl, Star Wars Backstage, Retro Star Wars, Purple Lightsaber. And you can always poke around the tags to find other stuff you’ll like, though beware spoilers (and/or occasional random nudity.)
Samuel L. Jackson – aka Mace Windu, Nick Fury, Jules Winnfield and a host of other iconic characters – has joined Twitter as (what else?) @SamuelLJackson. Yes, the account is verified, so it looks like the real thing. With The Avengers gearing up, I’m sure he won’t run out of things to say.
You can find more Star Wars names with our handy Twitter list.
Yes, Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, is now on Twitter as @HamillHimself. (And yes, it’s been confirmed.) You can’t say he doesn’t have excellent timing!
As soon as I hit the button on this post, I’m off to add him to our Twitter guide, which already includes several Star Wars pros and alumni like Carrie Fisher (@CarrieFFisher) and Anthony Daniels (@ADaniels3PO.)
Lucasfilm’s Leland Chee, the Keeper of the Holocron, has started a new Facebook fanpage in the wake of Monday’s announcement that the StarWars.com forums are not long for this world. You can ask him questions, join a discussion, or find out how this stuff works.
Fear not: If you’re not a fan of the site, you can still bookmark and read the fan page. You will need an account to ask questions or join discussions, though.
Chee has also been on Twitter as @HolocronKeeper for some time now.