Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
While at Celebration VI, Erich Schoeneweiss of Del Rey was kind enough to show Nanci and myself a laser print of the upcoming Essential Reader’s Companion by Pablo Hidalgo. I’ll just get right to the point: this book is an absolute must buy for any Expanded Universe fan. The art is gorgeous and plentiful. Pablo’s writing is fantastic. This is a book that needs to be on your bookshelf.
Need a little more incentive? If you pre-order ERC now, you can get it for only $20.
After a few weeks off, Trope Tuesday is back! Each Tuesday (provided I’m not being lazy) we dive into that time sink in the cloud known as TV Tropes and investigate a literary theme or device that makes our favorite entertainment chug along. This week, we’re looking at how a character can Become Their Own Antithesis.
After Character Development, some people regress into a vulnerable state. Others become betterpeople, somebecome much worse, and others turn into a fragile, highly poetic and a bit irrational version of themselves.
Another group of people tend to reject everything that seemed to define their identity for the viewer, their appearance, their values, their main quirk, and their general attitude towards The Hero, Save The World, and Good Versus Evil. Then, they manage to become a negative picture of themselves, the complete antithesis of what they formerly were known for. This is this trope.
The trope is mostly used to make a Face Heel Turn more dramatic, using The Dark Side Will Make You Forget, but can also serve the other way around, to prove how much someone can better himself when under the influence of Good.
Now who can relate to this trope? Someone that was compassionate at one point, but became a vile and inhumane person? Someone whose love of all living things was tossed away? Someone who …
Well that works.
You’ve heard us talk about it before and you’ve even seen a teaser picture but now, direct from Dragon*Con, we bring you the Gender Swapped Wraith Squadron featuring, yes that’s right, some of the Tosche Station staff! We had an absolute blast getting the group together especially since we got to chat with the one and only Aaron Allston after a panel as the Wraiths.
The Wraiths with their creator! Check out the rest of the photoshoot after the jump!
Cosplay Week continues here at Tosche Station with not one, not two, but three costumes today! Not only are we featuring one of the best Tenel Ka costumes but also a Teneniel Djo and a Ta’a Chume! That’s right: the entire line of Hapan Queens live and in person! Heather, one half of Zhobot, as Tenel Ka Djo, Jesse as Teneniel, and Jean as Ta’a Chume.
Kicking off the show, Nanci highlight’s what’s new on the blog. There was all sorts of convention coverage that you can find in the archives. Brian bought a toy at Celebration VI that made him cry. Meanwhile, Bria looked into gender-swapped cosplay. Yes, there’s even a picture of us in costume at Dragon*Con.
In Deak’s Dirt, news dropped that ABC has officially picked up a pilot for a Joss Whedon-led S.H.I.E.L.D television series. In other TV news, The Clone Wars is heading for syndication and airing in chronological order. Finally, Lucasfilm President and COO Micheline Chau is retiring and will be replaced by Kathleen Kennedy on an interim basis.
This week’s Camie’s Concerns looks back at the hosts’ visit to Dragon*Con 2012, highlighting the sights and sounds of the four-day fan convention. They spend a lot of time talking about three Expanded Universe panels featuring authors Aaron Allston, Michael Stackpole, Timothy Zahn, and Kevin J. Anderson. Will they ever go to back-to-back conferences again? Listen in and find out!
Wrapping up the show, the hosts dive into the Trope of the Week and answer questions from listeners and readers.
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.
Jawajames over at Club Jade noticed that fans of Darth Maul may want to visit Target on September 11th to pick up an exclusive Director’s Cut edition of the Darth Maul Returns episodes from The Clone Wars. You’ll be able to pick up the four episodes for $10 through Target’s online store.
Season five itself will go onsale on DVD and Blu-ray on October 23.
After nearly two decades with Lucasfilm, President and COO Micheline Chau is retiring. The Wrap reports that Kathleen Kennedy will serve as interim president and by the sounds of it, a reorganization of the company will occur on at least a temporary basis.
Kathleen Kennedy, who joined Lucasfilm as co-chairman in June, will serve as interim president. The heads of the various departments, such as Industrial Light & Magic animation, LucasArts (gaming) and licensing, will report to Kennedy for the time being.
The company has no plans to name an immediate replacement for the COO position.
If I were to wager a guess, the Interim tag will be removed from Kennedy before long.
And frankly, neither are we.
Earlier today, the good folks at the Star Wars Report alerted me to some rather lousy behavior by WPLG Local 10. Suggesting that someone dressed up in Jedi robes has their schedule built around Dungeons and Dragons. Really clever.* Sadly, I think as fans we’re all used to this kind of dismissive treatment. Even though I wrote about how baffling the disconnect between sports fandom (socially acceptable) and geek fandom (shun the weird people), this sort of behavior is something I just come to expect. That’s wrong of me, of course.
*And so what? Dungeons and Dragons is fun.
Edit: This story has gotten long and crazy, so continue under the cut.
At Celebration VI, it was announced the first two seasons of The Clone Wars would be moving to syndication. Yesterday, Keeper of the Holocron Leland Chee dropped an interesting tidbit regarding the move to broadcast television:
First two episodes to air are “Cat and Mouse” (S216)and “Hidden Enemy”(S116).Mull that over for a little bit.#tcwsyndication
— Leland Chee (@HolocronKeeper) September 4, 2012
Well how about that, it looks like TCW will be airing in chronological order. Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network appeared to have learned their lesson about airing things out of order a while back, and it’s good to see that’s going to be translating into the move to syndication.
No release date has currently been given for the syndication premiere of The Clone Wars. The Clone Wars moves to syndication on September 16.
Dragon*Con might be over, but we still have one last recap for all of you. The final event we attended was a Q&A with Expanded Universe author Aaron Allston to talk about his latest book, X-Wing: Mercy Kill. Highlights and commentary under the cut!