Author Archives: Nanci

Rebels Review: Legends of the Lasat

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This week on Star Wars Rebels, we finally got some backstory about our favorite grouchy muscle guy on the Ghost, Garazeb Orrelios. We also got a return of fan-favorite scoundrel with indeterminate loyalties, Hondo Ohnaka!

“Legends of the Lasat” features the crew’s mission to rescue two refugees, who turn out to be Lasat, aka Zeb’s species. Only thing is, Zeb thought he was the last of his species. So why isn’t he overjoyed to see more of his people still alive?

Turns out the two Lasats are kind of wacky, and you can’t fault Zeb for thinking they’re kind of crazy. They want Zeb’s help finding their new homeworld. Zeb hesitates at first; then the other Lasats defer to him as part of the honor guard, and refer to him as captain. That made me sit back and go, “aw, Zeb, you’re important!” I really need to know more about his history.

In the end Zeb uses his apparently magical bowrifle to send the Ghost into a sea of black holes to find the new home of the Lasat. Yes, you read that correctly: a sea of black holes. This is definitely one of those stories that puts Star Wars firmly in the “space fantasy” genre.

There’s a lot of mysticism in this episode, which can sometimes (*cough* Mortis *cough*) make me roll my eyes, but here it didn’t bother me. I like the idea of people other than the Jedi and Force users being spiritual and respecting the Force. To go along with the mysticism, the Rebels team really overdid itself with the episode’s visuals. The scene of the Ghost approaching the cluster of black holes was absolutely gorgeous (and I’m not the only person who thought of the Maw at first glance, right?). I’ll never grow tired of seeing crazy hyperspace shots, whether it be in Rebels or in The Force Awakens.  And the music…wow, the music was just incredible. Why is that not in my earholes yet?

We got a lot of nice character moments with Zeb in this episode, seeing him as a reluctant hero and then accepting his destiny to help his people find a new home. Turns out that there are already Lasats living on the planet when they arrive, which makes it easier for Zeb to return to the Ghost. He’s already found his new home with Kanan and crew, but he’s more than willing to help other Lasats they may come across find their way to the new homeworld. After all, they have the hyperspace coordinates now and don’t have to black hole diving again! (This also makes me hopeful that, maybe, perhaps Zeb can survive the Galactic Civil War and live in peace afterwards?)

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more Zeb episodes in the future. He’s a funny character, but with a lot of depth, and Steve Blum plays him wonderfully. I’m also dying to know what happens to Hondo! Last we saw him, he was with the Imperials, having sold out the Ghost crew. Does he get away? Do they kill him? They can’t kill Hondo, despite his questionable loyalties! Inquiring minds need to know what happens, Dave Filoni!

“Legends of the Lasat” was a solid episode, and I hope this trend of character-focused episodes continues into the second half of Season 2.

If you haven’t already, check out Rebels Recon for the best Pablo Hidalgo question yet.

 

The Fan Awakens

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Editor’s note: This is a guest post by our friend Shannon Donahue, who created our Tosche Station logo!

I’m hooked. I’m a fan. I’m a Star Wars fan. I am a science fiction fan. It’s a big deal you guys.

Confession… I hated science fiction.

Like, I really hated it. It only took one (kind of awful) person I knew as a child to ruin an entire genre for me. I was sure that I could never have anything in common with that person so I sure as hell wasn’t going to like “stupid space stuff”. Nope, not me.

To me, science fiction had nothing at all to do with my life. I couldn’t see how these people in weird costumes or freaky alien makeup had anything to do with me. How on earth could I have anything in common with these people/things? Not only that, but I failed all my science and math classes in school.  My brain just doesn’t think like that. I like music and art and historical costume dramas. I hung on to this as a part of my personality for a really, really long time. It was just a part of who I was. I didn’t like Sci Fi. I was NEVER going to like Sci Fi.

The problem with that was my best friend was a HUGE Star Wars fan. Growing up she had all the books, she had the posters, she had the 3 ft Darth Vader statue that she hand made. She made a fan video complete with costumes. I didn’t get it. I was never going to get it and I didn’t want to. But when you love someone, you pay attention to the things they love. As we grew up and changed I learned a few things along the way. I might not have seen any of the Star Wars movies, but I knew enough about them to understand and play along. I knew the characters. I had a basic understanding of the plots. Slowly I had more and more friends who were HUGE Star Wars fans. In my group of friends I was the weirdo that didn’t like this stuff. I slowly began to realize that maybe, just maybe I was holding on to hating something for no good reason. I found myself painting Star Wars art for friends all the time. It was beginning to feel like every day I was having another conversation about Star Wars.

So, before I attended my first DragonCon four years ago, I sat down and watched the original trilogy. Dude, I didn’t hate it. Okay, I didn’t love it either, but I didn’t hate it. This was groundbreaking psychological shit for me. I felt free somehow. I realized I didn’t have to know space or science stuff. This was mystical, not scientific. I could get on board with this. But I still wasn’t really a fan.

Then I saw the first trailer for The Force Awakens. I thought I was just excited for my friends. Then the second and the third trailer. Oh Boy! As each trailer was released and then finally the movie, I fell more and more in love and here’s why…

Rey

I am so in love with her. Rey is exactly what I want in a female character. She’s soft and she’s hard. She does what has to be done with strength and determination. It seems to me that she has every reason to trust no one, but she flies into a terrifying new direction with new people and places and she does it with such amazing grace. I am in love with the fact that I can turn to my nine year old niece watching the movie and know that she is seeing herself and seeing a woman full of strength and kindness.

Finn

There is so much to love!  He’s funny!  He’s interesting! I love that this movie made you rethink good and bad and black and white. Finn helps us do that. He is a stormtrooper; we are supposed to pull against this guy, but somehow from the very beginning we don’t. We want him to succeed. We want him to find himself away from The First Order. The moment that Poe renames him is brilliant to me. I love that Finn is scared and silly and that he has what seems to be a limitless kindness.

Kylo Ren

Adam Driver does something with his presence and his voice that is both completely and totally terrifying and also completely vulnerable and broken. We know nothing about his story except who his parents are. That revelation breaks us. It breaks us for Han and Leia, but also for Kylo. What sort of hurt, what sort of lies must he be holding on to for him to turn so dark when he came from such love? This doesn’t feel forced or contrived to me but very, very real. Our parents are a part of who we are, but more than that our perception of our parents is a part of who we are. I still find myself wondering about Kylo Ren and who he must think his parents are if he feels he must turn from them so violently.

Family

I was going to write about Han and Leia and what I loved about them. I was going to write about Luke. But what I loved about them and every character in this movie is this: it’s a movie about family, not just the family of your birth but the family of your choice. You can choose to walk away from the family of your birth. You can choose to find a new family with your friends. I felt this so strongly throughout the movie. Obviously the other movies have been about family, but that always felt like it was just the Skywalker family.

I connected so strongly with this movie because I felt the bonds of family in almost every scene. The family that is forged between lifelong friends like Han and Chewie. The family that can be instantly created between new friends as we see with Finn and Poe and then again with Finn and Rey. Our families, no matter how they are created, are our strength and our weakness.

The Look

I loved the look of the movie. I’m a visual person and this kind of stuff is important to me.  

  • BB8 is not only the most charming thing I’ve ever seen outside of a Pixar film, it’s also genius in its simplicity. It’s nothing but circles and a few rectangles and somehow it emotes better than most humans I know.
  • Maz Kanata’s Palace is another example of the look that I love. Flying into that land and walking up to the front doors felt real and magical. Then you find yourself in a dive bar! I loved it. Lupita Nyong’o was perfection as Maz. I want to sit and have shots with her, I want her to look into my eyes and see more than I see. I want her to teach classes at my local metaphysical book store.
  • The dreaded catwalk scene with Kylo and Han is pure lighting genius.
  • The last 5 minutes of the movie on Skellig Michael. Your heart is in your throat, your eyes are burning with hope and the unbelievable beauty of that place. Then your eyes are burning because of the unbelievable acting from Daisy Ridley and especially Mark Hamill.

I could never put my finger on what didn’t capture my interest in the original trilogy. It took this movie to show me. Just as a Jedi must not deal in absolutes, why must these movies? The Jedi and the Rebellion are good and everyone else is bad. The universe that has been expanded by The Force Awakens feels more real to me because there are no absolutes. A stormtrooper can be the hero. The villain can be a Skywalker/Solo. There is Darkness in the Light. There is light in the darkness. This movie perfectly captured that to me and I hope that it is indicative of how the rest of these movies will go.

What I learned about Star Wars and about science fiction is this: it isn’t necessarily about space. It isn’t necessarily about war. It isn’t about science and it doesn’t feel like fiction. These stories are about people dealing with life. Life with some crazy shit going down. Just like my life, minus the hyperdrive.

** edited to leave out the three pages of POE IS HOT! SNAP IS THE BEST! X-WINGS, YAY!

New Poe Dameron comic coming in April!

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USA Today announced yesterday that a Poe Dameron ongoing, written by Charles Soule and art by Phil Noto, will begin in April. And there was much rejoicing at Tosche Station! It’s described as a Mission: Impossible style story, with Poe on his mission to find Lor San Tekka, and will feature BB-8 and some of the other X-wing pilots we saw in The Force Awakens. Since it’s an ongoing, can we expect to see the story go past the events of TFA?

(In case you were wondering, yes, this is the way to get Nanci interested in subscribing to an ongoing comics series.)

Our 2015 Star Wars Superlatives

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2015 was a banner year for Star Wars. From Celebration to Comic Con, from Lords of the Sith to Aftermath, from Rebels to The Force Awakens, 2015 had something to appeal to every Star Wars fan. A bunch of us were lucky enough to travel to Anaheim back in April for Celebration, an event that jump-started an already furious fandom. And what better way to end the year than with an all-new Star Wars movie? It doesn’t get much better than that.

Since it’s the end of the year and we’re a website on the internet, we’re obligated to present a list of things we liked best about 2015. We’re pretty sure our list would be “The Force Awakens” a bunch of times, so we decided to mix it up a bit and offer our favorites in different categories, such as books, comics, games, and Rebels episodes. After the jump, we present our 2015 Star Wars Superlatives.

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Our 2015 Superlatives – Movies Edition

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It’s the end of 2015, which means it’s time for Best of Lists! Here at Tosche Station, we thought we’d break up our lists into categories, and post a different topic per day.

In this installment, we discuss our favorite movies of 2015.

Nanci – I went back and forth on my favorite movie of the year (other than The Force Awakens, of course), but in the end I had to choose Mad Max: Fury Road. (My other option was The Martian.) What can I say? This movie is so shiny and chrome. I didn’t catch this in the theatre (along with being lax in reading books, I was very lax in going to the movies this year), but I really wish I had. I was glued to this story from the first scene, and couldn’t take my eyes off it while watching it at home. Usually I’ll be watching a movie or TV show while surfing the internet, but Fury Road captured my entire attention. Imperator Furiosa is such an amazing character, and I was not expecting Nicholas Hoult to make my cry.

Saf – This is hard, because though I adored Mad Max: Fury Road and think it’s a cinematic masterpiece, Mockingjay Part 2 is the film I’ve gone to see the most (other than TFA, obviously) and will continue to watch a lot once it’s out on Blu-ray. The Hunger Games basically owns what life I have outside of Star Wars already, so I think Mockingjay wins out for me.

Bria – By far and away, my favorites this year were Ex Machina for completely blowing my mind and Man from UNCLE for being so gosh darn delightful.  I can’t pick between them because I loved them both for completely different reasons.

Brian – Easy choice for me, The Martian. In what was a thoroughly amazing year for science fiction in the cinema, this one stood out. The hopeful tones, the brilliant one liners, the funny to balance the dread. Wonderful return to form for Ridley Scott.

Our 2015 Superlatives – TV Edition

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It’s the end of 2015, which means it’s time for Best of Lists! Here at Tosche Station, we thought we’d break up our lists into categories, and post a different topic per day.

In this installment, we discuss our favorite TV shows of 2015.

Nanci – I know I sound like a broken record, but I don’t watch a lot of serialized TV shows. I still haven’t watched The Man in the High Castle, or Jessica Jones, or Daredevil, or…take your pick. (I did finally see some episodes of Supergirl and loved them, but I need to catch up.) Anyway. The one show I did watch religiously was unfortunately one of the shortest–Agent Carter. I love Peggy. I love Jarvis. I even love to hate Howard. Everything about this show spoke to me on a spiritual level. Yes, there’s lots of room for improvement–the diversity on the show is lacking, and will hopefully improve in Season 2. But Peggy is such a well-rounded character, and we need more women like her on television. I’m so glad Agent Carter is coming back for a second season next month. Like Peggy, we all know her value.

Saf – I watch a lot of things, but at the same time feel like I watch nothing. My favourites would be Brooklyn Nine-Nine for its humour and characterization; iZombie because everyone is super cute and it’s just super fun; The 100 because, damn, that story is so good and there are also queer ladies; and How to Get Away With Murder because that is one heck of a twisting drama story with a lot of really interesting characters.

Bria – Oh yeesh.  I watch too many darn shows.  Agents of SHIELD continues to thrill me to no end and Marvel certainly didn’t slack with Daredevil or Jessica Jones.  As far as new shows go, Quantico turned out to be oddly addictive and the fight scenes in Into the Badlands were rad as hell.  The dark horse though was definitely Fresh Off the Boat.  It’s funny without making Chinese people the butt of the joke.  Actually, more than a few times, I would watch an episode and then call my mom and go “Oh hey Mom so Jessica did this in the episode tonight and it was so you!”

Brian – Pretty much echoing what Nanci said. I don’t watch a whole lot of TV either, but what I did watch was great. Peggy Carter was the highlight of the year for me for all the reasons Nanci said. I also got into Supergirl and Man in the High Castle. While I’m not caught up, I love both of those shows tonally and can’t wait to see more of them.

Our 2015 Superlatives – Books Edition

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It’s the end of 2015, which means it’s time for Best of Lists! Here at Tosche Station, we thought we’d break up our lists into categories, and post a different topic per day.

In this installment, we discuss our favorite books of 2015.

Nanci – My reading tends to go in cycles; some years I read a lot, and sometimes I only finish a handful of books per year. This year, most of my reading was focused on Star Wars, especially after September 4. My to-read list seems never ending, especially with Kindle sales, and I’ve resolved to read more in 2016. That said, there were a couple of books I read this year that really stood out.

  • Liesmith, by Alis Franklin – a queer urban fantasy set in Australia that tells a modern version of Norse mythology, focusing on Loki in particular. I’m not a huge fan of Loki, but I loved this story and especially the characters. Sigmund is an utter delight.
  • Under the Empyrean Sky, by Chuck Wendig – this is the novel that convinced Del Rey to hire him to write a Star Wars book, and I can definitely see why. Wendig has described it as John Steinbeck meets Star Wars. It’s the story of a young man named Cael who lives in the Heartland, which is ruled by the Empyrean, a totalitarian regime that floats overhead in flotillas in the sky. I really enjoyed the setting–cornpunk is definitely a different genre for me–and Wendig’s prose is a breeze to get through.

Saf – Boy, I’ve been so overwhelmed with Star Wars books this year that I’ve barely read outside of them, except for a few others. There were two I absolutely adored, both by my two favourite authors since high school.

  • Tigerman, by Nick Harkaway – a British sergeant is sent to the island of Mancreu, a place that is slowly ticking down to an apocalyptic event. It’s filled with Harkaway’s throwaway line worldbuilding and typical flare, and builds up a lovely, but sad story about a man who just needs a long, long rest.
  • The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness – in a world where young heroes save the world on the regular, the rest of the kids at their schools just want to survive their normal, drama-filled teen lives. Ness always tends to have two things in his stories: LGBT people, and a lot of feelings. The Rest of Us actually helped me get through some rough things in my life, just because Ness really seems to understand how young people think when writing his YA fiction, and I adore him for it.

Bria: THANK GOD FOR GOODREADS.  Look, I read a lot this year and can’t remember everything but there were some standouts. I’d also like to mention both Passenger by Alexandra Bracken and Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel which are both due out in 2016.  I was lucky enough to advanced copies of both and they were both AWESOME.

  • The Bloodbound by Erin Lindsey hit all of the right notes for me that a Tamora Pierce book does while having its own vibe.  Lindsey created a neat fantasy world that simultaneously plays by the rules and break them.
  • Finishing School Series by Gail Carriger is about a finishing school for young ladies who are also assassins in a steampunk fantasy version of England.  Is it ridiculous?  Yes.  Is it delightful? Absolutely.
  • Lightless by CA Higgins was just plain neat.  It gave me Leviathan Wakes vibes at times.  I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about this science fiction book with its very contained cast at first but once it really kicked into another gear in the second half, I was completely enthralled.

Brian: Like Nanci, much of my reading was focused on Star Wars this year, especially with the Journey to TFA stuff taking up all of my post-September reading time. That said, I did have some time to read a couple books outside of the Galaxy Far, Far Away.

  • Under the Empyrean Sky by Chuck Wendig. Nanci and I read this about the same time, and like her I really enjoyed this book. I thought I had burned out on post-apocalyptic YA, but this was really a fresh take on the genre. Set in what was once the heartland of the USA, Wendig self-describes this book as cornpunk. Read it and you’ll see why. I actually picked up this book because I wanted to get used to the third-person present writing style Wendig would be utilizing in Aftermath. Let’s say I got a whole lot more than just a style choice primer. This was an excellent read and one I’d encourage everyone to pick up.

Looking? Found someone you have I would say, hmm?

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thumbnail_21381“Where’s Luke?” That was the question on everyone’s lips during the lead up to The Force Awakens. We all wanted to know why Luke wasn’t on the poster or the trailers. What has he been up to the past 30 years?

A few seconds into the movie, during the first line of the opening crawl, we (sort of) got our answer. Not to mention a hell of a lot more questions.

We also got a new cast of characters who, for a couple of hours at least, made me forget about the search for Luke Skywalker.

(Spoilers under the cut.)

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Our 2015 Superlatives – Comics Edition

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It’s the end of 2015, which means it’s time for Best of Lists! Here at Tosche Station, we thought we’d break up our lists into categories, and post a different topic per day.

In this installment, we discuss our favorite comics of 2015.

Shoshana: There were a lot of comics I really enjoyed this year, many of which are aimed at younger audiences. As far as continuing traditionally published comics go, Lumberjanes continues to be one of the most fun and diverse adventure comics around and Ms. Marvel is still as great as ever. There were a lot of great new comics, too, with the magical girl series Zodiac Starforce really standing out with its fun writing and art and memorable characters. Other new comics I had a blast with this year include Squirrel Girl, a very fun and wonderfully silly comic following the exploits of a superhero who can talk to squirrels and who absolutely beat Doctor Doom in her first appearance, Jem and the Holograms, the comic reimagining of the 1980s cartoon, and Raven: Pirate Princess, a spin-off of the also wonderful comic Princeless that follows Raven, a lesbian pirate princess seeking to build a crew and reclaim the fleet that her brothers stole from her.

On the webcomics front, this year I discovered the joy of Band Vs Band, about the two very different lead singers of two very different bands, neither of whom seems to have quite figured out that they’re totally into each other, and the wonderful pain of Witchy, following a young witch who tries to hide her long hair in a magical kingdom where hair length equals magical power and too much power equals a potential threat to authorities.

Bria: I could talk about Ms. Marvel or Saga (which are both fantastic) but those are on everyone’s best of lists.  So instead, let me just put in some applause of Sam Humphries’ Planet Hulk which featured GLADIATOR CAPTAIN AMERICA RIDING A T-REX and also the newly started Doctor Strange by Jason Aaron.  I’m also mourning the loss of the fantastic Elektra which lasted only a dozen or so issues.  2015 was the year when I finally got to start reading Gillen and McKelvie’s Wicked + Divine and it blew me away.  Also on the indie front, Monstress and Invisible Republic rock my socks more than I could possibly say.

Our 2015 Superlatives – Games Edition

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It’s the end of 2015, which means it’s time for Best of Lists! Here at Tosche Station, we thought we’d break up our lists into categories, and post a different topic per day.

In this installment, we discuss our favorite games of 2015!

Nanci: It’s no secret I don’t play a lot of games, but the one Xbox game I consistently enjoy is Just Dance. I received Just Dance 2016 for Christmas and can’t wait to get back into it after too long being a lazy bum.

I also discovered a card game called Slash this year, which is basically a game in which you ship different fictional (and some real!) characters with each other. It’s fantastic for fanficcers!

Saf: I didn’t really get the chance to play many AAA games this year because of not having a new console (haha), but I did get the chance to play a lot of little indie games, and one I absolutely can’t get over is Blake Wood’s Dolly. It’s a short game, but the art and the music both combine to deliver an emotional punch. Bonus: it’s made by a Kiwi!

Brian: Star Wars category, it’s Battlefront. Super immersive. Flying an X-wing never gets old. Non Star Wars video game front, it’s Fallout 4 because no one does open world like Bethesda. On the tabletop gaming side, another vote for Slash. Play that game with the right company and it’s a blast.