Category Archives: Star Wars

EUC Interviews Scott Biel, Proves We’re Not Crazy

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MUCH better.

It’s always nice to get a bit of vindication. As you might know, we’re running a contest that tasks you with replacing that gorram-awful leather catsuit artists are CONSTANTLY portraying Mara Jade in (seriously go check it out, we’ve already gotten some awesome submissions). Just yesterday, EUCantina posted an interview they conducted with Random House art director Scott Biel. One of the questions posed was quite relevant to what we’ve been up lately.

EUC: Mara Jade Skywalker is generally depicted wearing a catsuit. Why do you think that particular outfit is popular? If you could design a cover with a different outfit, what would Mara Jade wear instead?

SB: I’m not sure if it’s necessarily popular, but I feel it’s depicted like that because it’s become her de facto costume (similar to superhero costumes). On the paperback cover for Choices of One, Daryl Mandryk took the initiative and redesigned it in his illustration. By adding some armor and making the suit more functional it becomes a more practical interpretation.

(emphasis added)

See? SEE!? That catsuit is utterly impractical! Combat armor? That makes way more sense, and props to Scott and Daryl Mandryk for going ahead and portraying Mara that way.

To read the rest of the interview, head on over to EUC.

Second Set of Celebraton VI Exclusive Art Prints

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Another set of exclusive prints for CVI were released today. This time around, artists Brent Woodside, Marc Wolfe, John Carlisle, Tsuneo Sanda, Mark Raats, and Hydro74 are featured. On the downside, another Slave Leia illustration (we get it, she wore a metal bikini). On the upside, Ewoks!

You’ll be able to pick up these art prints at the convention. To see the rest of this batch, head over to the official site.

Kevin Smith Confirmed for Celebration VI

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Add another guest to the growing list of CVI attendees. The Orlando Sentinal reports that director and Star Wars fan Kevin Smith will be present and will be holding his own panel on the first night of the convention.

Director-actor-podcaster Kevin Smith has never worked on an official “Star Wars” project, but he’s enthusiastically talked about the films enough to be added to the upcoming Star Wars Celebration at the Orange County Convention Center.

“An Evening with Kevin Smith,” a question-and-answer session on Aug. 23, will be his contribution to Celebration, a four-day fan gathering that also will feature Carrie Fisher,Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Seth Green and other luminaries.

“I took my fandom of ‘Star Wars’ and kind of made it one of the cornerstones of what I do,” Smith said Thursday. Mentions of the films were worked into “Clerks” and “Mallrats,” two early Smith films.

You will need to purchase a separate ticket for the Q&A session, which will be held at 8PM.

(Via) 

New ‘Mercy Kill’ Mini Excerpt

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Star Wars Books released another mini-excerpt from Aaron Allston’s upcoming X-Wing: Mercy Kill just a few moments ago. This one features old fan favorites Face and Piggy.

A young human woman in clothes styled to resemble a starfighter pilot’s jumpsuit and jacket but made of crinkly gold cloth, her hair a more striking and unnatural red than Face’s, bumped into Face, made a vague noise of apology, and hurried past, continuing onward toward the exit.

Voort scowled at Face. “I saw that.”

“Of course you did.”

“What did she slip you?”

Face reached into a suit coat pocket and drew out a datapad. It was small, its once-gleaming surface scratched and dull. “This. It’s wired to overheat and ignite in about three minutes.”

“Well, then, don’t hold it in your mouth.”

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

More Bad News for ‘The Old Republic’ Publisher Electronic Arts

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While not directly related to The Old Republic, this bit of analysis by Games Industry is anything but good news for the floundering MMO. The stock trend for publisher Electronic Arts is not going in a good direction.

Electronic Arts’ stock has lost almost 40 per cent of its value since the start of this calendar year – and in fact, since the middle of last holiday season (around November 2011) the company’s stock has been in a steady decline which has now wiped close to 50 per cent off EA’s valuation. It’s not a decline as sharp as THQ’s, but it represents a much larger loss of value – THQ’s market capitalisation is only around $50 million, whereas even after this enormous loss of value, EA is still capitalised at around $4 billion.

Games Business put together a rather telling graph comparing EA’s performance to the NASDAQ index and another pair of publishers. It’s not pretty.

While Electronic Arts isn’t alone in the downward trend (Hello, Take Two Interactive), it’s not keeping up with one of its chief competitors in Activision-Blizzard. Worse, it’s not keeping pace with the NASDAQ composite index. But here’s the scary thing, see where the downward trend begins for EA? That’s right about when The Old Republic debuted, the most expensive undertaking in EA history. How much of TOR’s stumbles have fueled EA’s trouble isn’t fully known, but it certainly has contributed.

X-Wing Retrospective Part 3: The Krytos Trap

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Quite honestly, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed The Krytos Trap.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve always known this book is quality. I just had it in my head for a long time that of this four-book arc, Wedge’s Gamble was my favorite of the bunch. That changed about two years ago when I went back and re-read through a bunch of my favorite Expanded Universe novels from the Bantam Spectra era. It had been a little while since I’d read through the X-Wing books* and my memory was a little fuzzy. Suffice to say, the third entry in the X-Wing series was significantly better than the already positive memory I had in my head.

*College. Instead I got to read fine literature like “Cybersecurity Ethics.”

(Head to the jump to continue reading)

Continue reading →

Replace the Catsuit: Art Entry from Blizz

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Reader Blizz sent in a piece of artwork (and functional diagram!) for our Replace Mara’s Catsuit Contest. I have to say, I’m really digging this entry.

I’ll let Blizz describe it for you:

You want practicality? I offer an outfit that I tried to keep compatible with novel descriptions, Star Wars paraphernalia, and basic Stormtrooper and Jedi equipment.

I kept some elements of her “canon” appearance. The belt and knee pads, for instance. I did away with the shoulder harness. Why, oh why, is Mara always portrayed with a shoulder harness with no holsters? What is the point? What does it do?

Anyway, I think this fits a balance of traveling light but being prepared. Thank you for your consideration.

Ink on paper.
Digitally colored using GIMP

Thanks for sending this in!

For more information about the contest and to view the other entries, head to the contest page.

Karen Miller Discusses Being a Female Star Wars Writer

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As a fandom, we’ve had plenty of reminders that there’s often a stark gender divide in Star Wars. Emily and I have sounded off on the topic in the past. It can be tough for female fans, but it’s just as tough (if not worse) for writers. Expanded Universe author Karen Miller sat down with Tor’s Liz Bourke to talk about that and other topics today.

The Star Wars fan audience, on the other hand, is overwhelmingly male. At least as far as I can tell. The vast majority of writers who do the tie-in novels are also male. There is a definite predominance of male voices and male POVs in Star Wars novels. And that makes a huge difference in the reception of the material.

Everything I write is grounded in character. Everything. It’s the people that make a story for me. So my Star Wars work is as much a character study or exploration as it is an action adventure romp. For some readers, that was brilliant. For others, it wasn’t. For a lot of Star Wars fans—the guys in particular—the story is about fighting and space battles and stuff like that. For them, that’s the whole point. For them, the intricacies of psychological investigation are boring and unwelcome. And I completely accept that. But it’s not what floats my starship—and I felt strongly that I can’t be the only one who is in love with the story because of the characters, not despite them. Or who wants to take a breath and spend some time with them as human beings, who wants to explore what makes them tick, the relationships between them, the strengths and fragilities they contain and share.

She is onto something there. It’s a big reason that things like Fate of the Jedi sell well while more intimate books in the same universe struggle to keep pace, despite the fact the former books aren’t as critically well received as the latter. Another key quote from this interview:

Looking at this, thinking about it, there’s a temptation to castigate the fandom as being unwelcoming to female writers and, by extension, female fans. And to an extent, I think that is the case, which breaks my heart. Some of the vitriol and virtual violence flung at Karen Traviss, for example, is horrific. Absolutely, there is a segment of the male fanbase that resents any incursion by a woman. But since that’s true on a wider societal scale, really, all that proves is that fandom is a microcosm of society.

Let’s just get the Traviss thing out of the way first. The only issue I take with this entire interview is that Miller misses the mark on why there was fan backlash towards Traviss. It was largely to do with Traviss’ professionalism towards fans and her employer, but in fairness to Miller, I have no doubts that there were a minority of fans that did take issue with her gender.

But the macro point Miller is making is spot-on. As a fandom, Star Wars hasn’t felt very welcoming towards female fans and authors. The mere suggestion that the EU creative staff needs to do a better job crafting and utilizing its female characters incited an over-the-top defensive firestorm from fans and necessitated a bunch of followup retorts to illustrate that, yes, there is a problem with how female fans, writers, and characters are treated (see the links above).*

*Required reading: John Scalzi’s post entitled “Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting“

What’s the takeaway here? I don’t know. When in doubt I usually go with the philosophers Bill and Ted. Just be excellent to each other, okay?  If what Miller said gets a knee-jerk, negative reaction from you, take a minute to analyze why that is. Nothing she’s said here is particularly inflammatory. They’re issues that we, as a fandom, need to discuss and take seriously.

Trope Tuesday: Ascended Extra

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Status: Ascended

Welcome to another edition of Trope Tuesday, where we dive headfirst into the land of wasted productivity and tab explosions: TV Tropes. This week, we’re investigated a trope called The Ascended Extra.

A minor character who is given a greatly expanded role in the later part of the series, a new adaptation of a story, or in the Expanded Universe. It is usually safer to do this with an otherwise obscure character without much depth, since the likelihood of creating plot contradictions is lower. On the other hand, the character may or may not be allowed to have a huge effect on the plot depending on how much the writer is trying to follow source material. Can lead to some bizarre incongruities in planning (e.g. Overtook the Manga, Restricted Expanded Universe). Sometimes the minor character becomes an Ascended Extra just so the writers can immediately turn them into a Sacrificial Lion.

This naturally occurs as a series goes on for long periods of time and useful for filler, technically not requiring you invent someone whole cloth. Be warned however that this character might be more liked by the fandom than the writers, who may have no compunction with getting rid of them when convenient.

This also happens somewhat regularly in Fan Fiction. Stories about a minor character who is given his own subplot (or prequel, sequel, or AU) seem to be ‘training wheels’ for writers who don’t quite trust themselves with original fiction yet and are re-using the setting, but basically making up new characters.

Happens a lot in fan fiction, eh? Let me tell you about the 600 pages of writing I’ve devoted to this character …

But yes, the Ascended Extra is a trope that is absolutely vital to things like the Expanded Universe. Occasionally you need a familiar tie-in to the source material in the films, but squeezing Luke, Han, and Leia into yet another novel doesn’t quite fit the story. This is where authors might look for a minor character from the movies that they can bring to the forefront. You’ll see varying degrees of success. Sometimes the guy who says “stand by” when the Death Star is about to fire gets the Ascended Extra status, leading fans to scratch their heads in confusion and ask “Why?” Other times, however, the minor character becomes a key component of the Expanded Universe.

You’re probably aware that we’re doing a summer retrospective of the X-Wing books. This trope was practically built for it, folks. Take Wedge Antilles (you know, fighter pilot, survived three movies) and put him at the forefront of a nine-book series. Sounds like a terrible idea, right? Wrong. When the Ascended Extra trope is executed well and with the right character, an author can craft something that truly resonates with readers. There’s a reason Wedge Antilles, Hobbie Klivian, and Wes Janson are fan favorites in the Expanded Universe. It’s a combination of the familiar and new, characters that tie into established material but have enough room to be fleshed out they almost feel new to the universe.