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Pete Morrison Breaks Down The EU Gender Numbers

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There’s been a whole lot said in the last week or so about the need for better developed female characters in Star Wars and the Expanded universe. Over at Lightsaber Rattling, Pete Morrison decided to look at EU novels since 2006 and crunch some numbers.

Some figures Pete unearthed:

  • Male Character Per Novel Average: 9.9
  • Female Character Per Novel Average: 5.13
  • Ratio of Male to Female Characters: 1.93 to 1.

It’s important to note that this isn’t a look at the quality of female characters written into these books (which is another topic entirely), just the quantity. However, it seems that even on the strict numbers front, fans asking for more to be done with female characters have a point. Female characters are nearly outnumbered 2-to-1 in the Expanded Universe since 2006.

In addition to breaking these numbers down further by year, Pete has also written a great editorial to go along with this piece. Go to the link above and read through his excellent post.

Joss Whedon Sits Down With Fansite, Thanks Fans and Answers Questions

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It’s been a long road for Joss Whedon, but with the Avengers blowing up the box office, it seems like he’s finally achieved the mainstream recognition fans have long thought he’s deserved. To thank his long-time fans, he did a Q&A with fansite Whedonesque and opened it with a letter.

Dear Friends,

Well, it’s been quite a weekend. Someday, long from now, I will even have an emotional reaction to it, like a person would. I can’t wait! But before I become blinded by this “emotion” experience, there’s a few things I’d like to say. Well, type.

People have told me that this matters, that my life is about to change. I am sure that is true. And change is good — change is exciting. I think — not to jinx it — that I may finally be recognized at Comiccon. Imagine! Also, with my percentage of “the Avengers” gross, I can afford to buy… [gets call from agent. Weeps manfully. Resumes typing.] …a fine meal. But REALLY fine, with truffles and s#!+. And I can get a studio to finance my dream project, the reboot of “Air Bud” that we all feel is so long overdue. (He could play Jai Alai! Think of the emotional ramifications of JAI ALAI!!!!)

What doesn’t change is anything that matters. What doesn’t change is that I’ve had the smartest, most loyal, most passionate, most articulate group of — I’m not even gonna say fans. I’m going with “peeps” — that any cult oddity such as my bad self could have dreamt of. When almost no one was watching, when people probably should have STOPPED watching, I’ve had three constants: my family and friends, my collaborators (often the same), and y’all. A lot of stories have come out about my “dark years”, and how I’m “unrecognized”… I love these stories, because they make me seem super-important, but I have never felt the darkness (and I’m ALL about my darkness) that they described. Because I have so much. I have people, in my life, on this site, in places I’ve yet to discover, that always made me feel the truth of success: an artist and an audience communicating. Communicating to the point of collaborating. I’ve thought, “maybe I’m over; maybe I’ve said my piece”. But never with fear. Never with rancor. Because of y’all. Because you knew me when. If you think topping a box office record compares with someone telling you your work helped them through a rough time, you’re probably new here. (For the record, and despite my inhuman distance from the joy-joy of it: topping a box office record is super-dope. I’m an alien, not a robot.) So this is me, saying thank you. All of you. You’ve taken as much guff for loving my work as I have for over-writing it, and you deserve, in this our time of streaming into the main, to crow. To glow. To crow and go “I told you so”, to those Joe Blows not in the know. (LAST time I hire Dr. Seuss to punch my posts up. Yeesh!) Point being, you deserve some honor, AND you deserves some FAQs answered. So please welcome my old friend and certainly not-on-my-payroll reporter/flunky, Rutherford D. Actualperson!

For the Q&A, head on over to Whedonesque.

The Star Wars Avengers

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So, hypothetically speaking, Nick Fury shows up in the Galaxy Far, Far Away and makes some allusions to an all new Big Bad looming out of the distance. He says he’s putting together something called the Avengers Initiative and needs five heroes to form a team with a high badassery quotient. We asked you who you think should make the cut. You delivered.

See the suggestions below the cut!

Continue reading →

Timothy Zahn’s ‘Icarus Hunt’ Coming To Ebook Readers

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Let’s hear it from the man himself!

Over the past few months several of you have asked about ebook versions of The Icarus Hunt. I’ve just learned that it’s going to be released for Kindle and Nook (and possibly other platforms — my information source was a bit vague) on May 23.

Thanks to all of you who pushed for this for your help in making it a reality.

If there is one non-Star Wars novel of Zahn’s that you absolutely must read, it’s The Icarus Hunt. Nanci, Emily, and myself fully endorse it and if you need a bit of persuasion, you can read my spoiler-free review of the novel here. Or you can just take our word for it and pre-order your copy from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Trope Tuesday: Darker and Edgier

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It’s Tuesday, which means I’m about to bludgeon you over the head with another entry from that great timesink in the cloud, TV Tropes. This week, we’re examining one we like to call Darker and Edgier.

A Tone Shift that seeks to make a work of fiction “more adult”. Usually, this is practically interpreted as “add more sex, profanity, heavy violence, and controversial content”.

This trope usually means that a show will attempt to shift towards seriousness, cynicism and grit. In theory, archetypes which we are usually accustomed to acting in a more noble setting will have to act in one where they must think and act grimly in order to make progress, thus forcing re-examination of the tropes involved and making a different sort of character. In practice, though, writers often are too lazy to make use of what most of those words mean, and ending up randomly “spicing up” a work with gratuitous gore, cursing, and sex. See Not A Deconstruction

When a show uses this trope as a tagline, expect anything that can go wrong will go wrong, the setting to be a World Half Empty, everyone to be bastards, lots of unpleasant things happen to the characters or backstories giving the characters a particular issue they can spend time angsting about.

As we can expect, this is fairly easy to screw up and poor use of these tropes can just result in Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy and Narm instead.

Thankfully, the Expanded Universe hasn’t fallen victim to this trope. I mean, it’s not like fans are keeping a running tally of how many major characters get killed, abandoned the tone and philosophy of the source material, or shifted the villains from tactical geniuses to more trite Eldritch Abominations or any…

Erm…

Cat Taber Confirmed for Star Wars Weekends

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Rancho Obi Wan publicist and all around awesome person Consetta Parker announced another guest for Star Wars Weekends, Clone Wars voice actor Cat Taber.

If you’re in the Orlando area that weekend, you can catch Taber and other guests at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Maurice Sendak Passes Away

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Beloved children’s author Maurice Sendak passed away today at 83.

Known for breaking children’s books norms by incorporating somewhat dark illustrations and tone into his works, Sendak was considered by many to be the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century. Many of us are familiar with perhaps his most famous work, Where the Wild Things Are.

I loved this book growing up, but I admit this isn’t my fondest memory of Sendak’s work. For me, it was December every year when my family would go to Benaroya Hall to watch the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s world-class production of The Nutcracker. It was Sendak’s costumes and sets that transformed the classic production into an extraordinarily visceral event.

Sixth Batch of ‘EG to Warfare’ Endnotes

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Author Jason Fry released another batch of Essential Guide to Warfare endnotes on Monday. This time around he’s covering the Separatists and Order 66.

Order 66: The Road to Empire: Lucasfilm passed on a very cool diagram drawn by Dave Filoni of the galaxy’s powers and institutions and their role in Sidious’s plot; it was extremely helpful in seeing this section clearly. Making Kol Skywalker the narrator seemed like a natural move, helping tie the Legacy era into the more-familiar era here and adding a poignant note to the story of the Skywalker clan.

Finally, I like the point that Sidious was telling the truth when he accused the Jedi of plotting against him, trying to kill him and scheming to take over the Senate. He’s leaving out some key details — such as, oh, being a Sith Lord — but he isn’t lying. The best plots depend not on lies, but on manipulating your opponent to do what he’d rather not.

For more tidbits from this batch, head on over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr.

‘The Old Republic’ Loses 400,000 Subscribers

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Bad news for Electronic Arts, Bioware, and Lucasarts. Their massively-online Star Wars IP is having a very hard time retaining subscribers as 400,000 have left the virtual universe according to an EA earnings statement.

To put this into perspective, subscriber totals peaked around 1.7 million and have crashed down to 1.3 million. Nearly 25% of subscribers have bolted since the game’s launch. Those are numbers that no one involved with the development of the game ever wanted to see, especially this early in the game’s life.

You have to wonder, would a proper Knights of the Old Republic III have been a better choice in the long run?

Via Kotaku

Roqoo Depot Interviews Timothy Zahn

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They’ve got five questions with one of our favorite Expanded Universe authors, Timothy Zahn.

What’s the best Mara fan experience you’ve ever had?

TZ: Best (and most gratifying, humbling, and on-going): The various women who dress as Mara at conventions, and who thank me for creating her.

Second-best: *All* the readers — in costume or not — who appreciate her. (I’m pretty easy to please.)

The interview is part of their month-long celebration of Mara Jade. Keep tabs on them all month for all content Mara.