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Countless Mary Poppins Clones to Duel a Gigantic Lord Voldemort in Olympics Opener?

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Initial reaction: What? Secondary reaction: Oh that’s just frakking awesome. From Yahoo Sports:

The Sunday Times reports (subscription only) that a sequence featuring some of the best-loved literary characters in British history will climax when a 40-foot Voldemort, the notorious villain from the Harry Potter books, rises out of a bed in the center of Olympic Stadium and scares away representations of Alice from “Alice in Wonderland,” Captain Hook and Cruella De Vil. (Oliver Twist will presumably be waiting in a line at a concession stand.)

Instead of being done in by Harry Potter, Voldemort will meet his match in a British nanny with an umbrella and a penchant for melody.

To quote Dunc over at Club Jade, If this is true, “it’s going to be completely batshit” (in the greatest way imaginable). I agree, but I do hope they take it one step further.

You know you want this to be true, admit it.

Potent Potables: What’s In A Power Converter?

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It’s a slow day. Which means we’re liable to turn to our readers to crowd-source.

Okay folks, here’s where you come in. Just what should go into a drink called a Power Converter? We’ve collected some ideas below and we’re taking more.

To the jump for the suggestions! Don’t forget, tweet us your own ideas.

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Trope Tuesday: Xanatos Gambit

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I just plotted six ways to take over the world in the last five minutes.

After a week off (unintentional, mind), we’re back with another edition of Trope Tuesday, our weekly sojourn into the great timesink in the cloud that is TV Tropes. We’ve got another trope lined up that’s relevant to our ongoing X-Wing retrospective: The Xanatos Gambit.

A Xanatos Gambit is a plan whose multiple foreseen outcomes all benefit its creator. It’s a win-win situation for whoever plots it.

At its most basic, the Xanatos Gambit assumes two possible outcomes for the one manipulated — success or failure. The plan is designed in such a way that either outcome will ultimately further the plotter’s goals.

Since the Xanatos Gambit can involve an obvious goal’s apparent failure, this is a convenient device on an ongoing series to let the villain occasionally win (preventing Villain Decay) while still giving the heroes a climactic pseudo-victory. The only way to escape a Xanatos Gambit once you’re caught up in one is by somehow foiling both presented options and leaving the organizer thoroughly beaten.

One of my favorite examples of this trope takes place in The Krytos Trap. You would think that the Rogues capturing Coruscant would be a bad thing for Ysanne Isard, but no, you would be mistaken. That was just one way she could prove to be victorious, because on her way out she infected the planet’s alien species with a disease intended to create an unwinnable political disaster for the New Republic. That was just one of her contingency plans to ensure her victory. Unfortunately, she didn’t quite account for the Rogues knack for beating insurmountable odds.

You Can Play Bounter Hunter at Celebration VI

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The Celebration VI staff is promising a bunch of news about guests, events, and a surprise or two this week. Kicking things off is the announcement that the Bounty Hunt game will be back this year and registration is now open.

Ever wanted to be a bounty hunter? Think you’re as good as Boba Fett, Bossk or Cad Bane? The Bounty Hunters Guild is looking for the smartest and quickest trackers at Star Wars Celebration VI to compete in one of the Bounty Hunt challenges. Three different Bounty Hunt competitions will be offered at Celebration VI: Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Teams of two to four will compete to rack up bounties in each two hour event by solving clues and searching the Celebration VI grounds for their quarry. Now back for the third time at Celebration, the Bounty Hunt will put your Star Wars skills to the test!

Will you and your friends be counted among the galaxy’s most notorious bounty hunters?

For rules and to register, head to the official game page.

X-Wing Retrospective: Solo Command

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Everything comes to a head for the Wraiths in Solo Command, the final entry in the three-book Wraith Squadron arc by Aaron Allston. Do the Wraiths survive? Will Lara be unmasked? What will be the fate of the illustrious Lieutenant Kettch the Stuffed Ewok?

Most importantly, can a book succeed when the reader knows going into it that the villain will live to fight another day?

Our X-Wing retrospective continues with a look back at Solo Command below the jump. Beware of spoilers!

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Cosplay Monday: You Can’t Escape Heimdall’s Watch

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Welcome to another edition of Cosplay Monday where each week, we aim to highlight the efforts of costumers that go above and beyond the call of duty to celebrate fandom. This week, we’re featuring a brilliant Heimdall costume by SoloRoboto Industires.

Intricate helm? Check. Badass sword? Double-check. Incredibly detailed armor? Oh yeah. Friend-of-the-blog Bria sent this in, and we’re both in agreement. This costume is incredible. Be sure to check out more photos at the link above!

Tosche Station Radio #24: Flight of Romance

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On this week’s Tosche Station Radio, the hosts delve into the touchy subject of romance in fiction!

Kicking off the show, the hosts highlight what’s new on the blog. Beth sent in a Replace Mara’s Catsuit art entry. Emily brought us back to the Coruscant Craft Fair with a look at some Marvel-inspired shoes. Cosplay Monday featured Nate and Heather from Zhobot. Brian looked into a game that John Rhys-Davies and Mark Hamill appeared in.

In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci had herself a good time at a Wizard Rock show. She’s also been re-reading The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn. She also appeared on the Wrong Opinions About Movies podcast to talk about the hilariously awful Batman and Robin. Look for a link on the blog! Finally, she’s almost finished with her original novel! Meanwhile, Brian’s in comic mode having finished the Dark Reign arc and buying Captain Marvel #1.

Deak’s Dirt covers a host of information from San Diego Comic Con this week, specifically news from Dark Horse, Del Rey, and the Clone Wars creative staff. Mark Hamill was announced for Celebration VI, and there’s a bunch of new casting calls and rumors for Catching Fire. The hosts also take some time to talk Troy Denning’s new novel, Crucible, and go off on a tangent over fans that want Luke, Leia, and Han to die.

This week’s Camie’s Concerns revisits an article featured on the blog a few weeks ago, Rethinking Romance. We brought in Maggie to talk about why she wrote the piece and why she thinks we need to reevaluate our knee-jerk dismissiveness of romance in fiction and literature. The hosts and Maggie also touch on gender issues in fiction.

In Wormie’s Works, Nanci links to the Star Wars Love Poster by Mark Elwood and Brian rocks out to Book Eight – Another Harry Potter Song by nerdfighter Hank Green.

Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of the Solo Sound network. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store or the Zune Marketplace. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree

 

A Giant Leap For Mankind 43 Years Ago Today

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I always get chills when watching this video. It may not have been readily apparent to those watching at the time, but Apollo 11 nearly had to abort the landing attempt on three occasions. The first two were caused by program alarms when the computer’s processor became overloaded. The third happened as the navigation system directed the lander towards a boulder-filled crater, forcing commander Neil Armstrong to prolong the landing attempt and find a safe landing zone. When you hear “sixty seconds,” it’s CAPCOM Charlie Duke alerting the entire world that if they don’t touch down in a minute, the abort sequence will initialize.

But they landed, thanks to the teamwork at mission control, the watchful eye of Michael Collins, the guidance of Buzz Aldrin, and the cool of Neil Armstrong. On July 20, 1969 with seventeen seconds of fuel remaining, humankind set foot on the Moon.

Don’t Mess With Myri Antilles in the Latest ‘Mercy Kill’ Mini-Excerpt

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Another week, another mini-excerpt from Aaron Allston’s upcoming X-Wing: Mercy Kill. Myri’s back and she’s not taking crap from anyone!

The trooper caught up with Myri after three steps, seized her arm, and swung her around to slam her into the side of a building. She couldn’t see his features in the deep shadow, but his voice was suddenly full of anger. He jabbed a forefinger at her. “You do not insult the—”

She put one hand on the back of his and seized his index finger with her other hand. She bent his finger up, a sudden, all-out effort, and bones snapped.

He started to look at his stricken hand, started to make a pained noise, but she immediately drew her blaster, thumbed its side switch to make sure it was still set on stun, and fired into his stomach. The stun bolt briefly illuminated the alley and his shocked expression. Then he fell.

She looked down at him and holstered her weapon. “Sorry, Army. My heart belongs to Starfighter Command.” Then she stepped over him and returned to the street.

Mercy Kill is set to hit bookshelves on August 7th.

 

Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, and Malcolm MacDowell Were in a Video Game no one Remembers

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Back in the 90s, there was a stupidly popular trend in video gaming: live-action, full-motion cutscenes. Often times developers would hastily put together a green-screen room, hire a bunch of actors from an area film school (or from the accounting department, whoever was cheaper), and throw together a poorly written script as an effort to slap videos in between gameplay. Lucasarts (in)famously did this with Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire: Death by Colons.*

*A game so terrible I’m going to have to do a writeup on it someday.

Origin Systems saw this trend and said to themselves that they were going to go big or go home. Presumably, they threw a ton of money at Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, and Malcolm MacDowell to appear in the FMV cutscenes for Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom.

Shockingly, when you bring in competent actors and work out a halfway decent script, the result can be positive. Wing Commander IV in particular was fairly well received by critics in 1996, praised for both its excellent plot and decent gameplay. Gamespot gave the game an 8.1/10 in its review.

Sadly this wasn’t a game that stood the test of time. Even the biggest Mark Hamill fans would be surprised to hear that he didn’t just provide a voice, but acted for a video game in the 90s. Largely this is because Origin Systems and Electronic Arts failed to keep the Wing Commander franchise playable as technology advanced. You can’t play any of these games unless you dig out your old Pentium 133 from the shed or tinker with a DosBox emulator.