Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
Amy Ratcliffe recently attended her first Star Wars Weekends and if her coverage is any indication, she had a fabulous time. Check out her write-ups of the Rebel Hangar lounge experience, all the tiny desserts, the plethora of specialty drinks, and meet and greets with Star Wars characters.
We also recapped our time at Weekend 1, and stay tuned for our recap of Weekend 2!
38 years ago today, Star Wars was born into the world.
1 year ago today, Brian and I got married.
The matching anniversaries are not a coincidence.
When Brian and I got engaged, we immediately knew we wanted to have our wedding on the real Star Wars Day, aka May 25. Given that date fell on a Sunday, as well as during Star Wars Weekends and Memorial Day Weekend in particular, it was the easiest decision to make of all the wedding planning. We were able to have our ceremony and reception in the morning/afternoon, eat delicious brunch foods, and then head over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the evening for James Arnold Taylor’s show and the Symphony in the Stars fireworks.
Anniversaries are a time for reflection, and since we never shared our Star Wars wedding photos on the blog, you’re getting them now. The official photos were taken by Brian’s brother, who is an amazing photographer, and the others come from my iPhone and Bria’s camera.
We’d also like to thank Robin Smith of Rhapsody in Blooms, our wonderful wedding planner, Shannon Donahue of Tulle Box Details for all of the fabulous artwork, Emily for serving as our officiant, and Shane for being DJ. Not to mention all our family and friends who celebrated with us and were in the wedding party.
Star Wars might just be a movie series, but the connections Brian and I have made through fandom have been invaluable. I don’t know what my life would be like without Star Wars, nor do I want to think about it. So thank you, George, for everything, and Happy Birthday Star Wars.
And Happy Anniversary, Brian. “I know.”
We’re starting a new series here at Tosche Station: Legends Recs. While we support the new Story Group era canon and are super excited for new stories like Aftermath and The Force Awakens, the old Expanded Universe holds a special place in our hearts. But we know that as long as we keep reading, these stories will never die. To that end, we’re offering recommendations for Legends stories based on what people enjoy in the new canon. Up first, we explore one of the best novel series in the EU that also paved the way for a new group of Rebels.
The second season of Star Wars Rebels premieres on June 20. The series has done extraordinarily well, and has surprised a lot of viewers (myself included) with how high the stakes have grown in just 16 episodes. I loved the Ghost crew by the end of “Spark of Rebellion,” and after “Fire Across the Galaxy” the Specters felt just as familiar to me as EU characters I’d loved for over 20 years.
One of the reasons Rebels resonates with me so much is the aspect of the crew as family. They’re together, flying across the galaxy, looking for different jobs and ways to fight against the Empire. And they remind me of another group of characters who excel at creating their own special brand of chaos: Wraith Squadron.
May 15-17 marked the first weekend of Walt Disney World’s annual Star Wars Weekends, held during five weekends in May and June at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. Given our love of both Star Wars and Disney World, our close proximity to the parks (about 10 minutes from our garage to the DHS parking lot), and our status as annual passholders, it’s a no-brainer that we spend at least some part of every weekend at the park.
This year Brian and I decided to take off work on Day 1 in order to kick off the festivities with a bang. Week 1 also marked the first ever appearance of Ian McDiarmid at Star Wars Weekends!
As part of the June cover story, Vanity Fair sat down with director J.J. Abrams to talk about his work on The Force Awakens. Topics of conversation include how he and the rest of the creative team went about setting the tone and referencing the other films, and what it was like working on Star Wars as a lifelong fan.
On the podcast we’ve speculated a lot about the state of the GFFA 30 years after Endor, and Abrams discusses the appeal of dropping in the audience into the middle of the action with little explanation.
What was incredible about Star Wars, among other things, was that in that first movie Vader could’ve been his father, but he wasn’t, you know. Leia could’ve been his sister, but she wasn’t. You didn’t really know what the Empire was up to exactly. You didn’t really understand what it meant that there was a Senate or the Dark Times or any of the references, and yet you felt the presence of all these things and you understood because it was all being referenced in a way that allowed you to fill in the blanks, and that’s a very powerful thing.
I’m not sure about anyone else, but lately I feel very comforted reading and listening to interviews with Abrams. There’s no doubt he understands the importance of Star Wars, and knows that getting the feel right is just as important as the story itself. Combine that with the amazing new teaser and set pictures, and I absolutely cannot wait until December 18.
Right after midnight, Vanity Fair posted their cover article for the June The Force Awakens issue, complete with a video and picture of Kylo Ren sans mask.
More photos were revealed this morning, including one of Poe Dameron looking super dashing next to his X-wing.
Also revealed was that Lupita Nyongo’s CGI character, Maz Kanata, is a pirate. A PIRATE!
Vanity Fair will be revealing one final photo tomorrow via their newsletter.
Update 12:05PM – Gwendoline Christie IS Captain Phasma/the chrometrooper
Prepare to be very, very tired on September 4.
Starwars.com has announced that all The Force Awakens merchandise — including apparel, toys, books, comics — will go on sale at 12:01 am on Friday, September 4. Retailers will participate in Midnight Madness events, just like during the prequel era. The mysterious villain Kylo Ren will feature on packaging.
Planning to purchase your haul on September 4? Be sure to document your experience using the hashtags #ForceFriday and #MidnightMadness.
Brian and I won’t be there, because September 4 is the first day of Dragon Con. I feel very bad for Brandy, the rest of the SWatDC volunteers, and all of the bloggers and podcasters who are going to have to read very, very fast when they get home.
Anyone know of good toy stores near Downtown Atlanta?
Just this morning we posted about the Rogue One news out of Celebration, and mentioned that Josh Trank was unable to attend. Now Lucasfilm has announced that Trank has parted was with Lucasfilm and will no longer be directing the second standalone film.
In a statement, Trank said:
After a year of having the incredible honor of developing with the wonderful and talented people at Lucasfilm, I’m making a personal decision to move forward on a different path. I’ve put a tremendous amount of thought into this, and I know deep down in my heart that I want to pursue some original creative opportunities. That said, the Star Wars universe has always been one of my biggest influences, and I couldn’t be more excited to witness its future alongside my millions of fellow Star Wars fans. I want to thank my friends Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart, Simon Kinberg, and everyone at Lucasfilm and Disney for the amazing opportunity to have been a part of this. May the Force be with you all.
Cue the conspiracy theories and replacement recommendations!
At Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, Del Rey announced a new bind-up of A New Dawn and Tarkin called Rise of the Empire, that will feature three new short stories bridging together the two novels and providing further insight into the power of the Galactic Empire.
Today Del Rey revealed the cover as well as the authors for the three short stories: first time Star Wars author Melissa Scott, John Jackson Miller, and Jason Fry!
Rise of the Empire will go on sale October 6.
One of my biggest regrets of Celebration Anaheim is being unable to attend the Gareth Edwards panel on Sunday morning. As everyone who’s ever attended a large convention knows, the schedule is a fickle goddess, and I suffered her wrath when she decided to place the “standalone” panel opposite Tosche Station’s live podcast recording. Thankfully, Twitter is a thing that exists, so I was able to learn about the panel as it was happening as well as from recaps on other sites. We didn’t learn a whole lot about Rogue One, but it was more than I was expecting at this point in time.