Apparently Saturday was Star Wars Night at the home field of the Arizona Diamondbacks and here’s the evidence. It’s really great to know that there is one piece of Sci-fi popular culture that extends so far into the popular consciousnesses that it even intersects our nation’s past-time. Follow the link for pictures and video from the event!
Category Archives: Star Wars
Trope Tuesday: In the Blood
It’s Tuesday, which means we’re delving back into TV Tropes to talk about an amusing or just quirky literary device that makes the entertainment we love work. This week, we’re investigating a trope called In the Blood.
Genealogy and Ancestry are really popular tropes in fiction. It makes a great Secret Legacy, a source of fraternal conflict, adds drama with an unexpected family reunion, and can set up a host of different conflicts and relationships. Just like in real life, a person’s ancestry can determine their genes and, to a lesser extent, their personality and even their talents; but in fiction this extends to skills, superpowers, and even moral alignment.
Sometimes even The Messiah and the most valiant Knight in Shining Armor are at risk of going insane, or over to The Dark Side, if a parent or grandparent was a Villain by Default or member of an Evil Race. This inevitably leads said character into a Wangstyexistential crisis that comes completely out of left field, since they rarely ever struggled against villainous impulses before this revelation.
Boy howdy, where do you even start with this one when it comes to Star Wars? You’ve got your various generations of the Skywalker and Solo bloodlines, all sorts of Hapan royalty, and who knows how many Fetts. Sometimes, there are certain traits that seem to carry on from generation to generation. Young Ben Skywalker definitely inherited his mother’s snark. If you look at the Antilles family, one daughter became a pilot like Wedge and the other daughter went into intelligence work like Iella.
Occasionally generational ties provide a familiar touchstone that can bridge from one age group to the next. Aaron Allston has said as much when he’s discussed the importance of the Antilles sisters in more recent Expanded Universe works.
X-Wing Retrospective Part 2: Wedge’s Gamble
Continuing into part two of our ongoing retrospective on the illustrious X-Wing series, we move past the introduction to the series Rogue Squadron and into Wedge’s Gamble. The second book of the series is less about letting the readers slip into the military pilot perspective instead of the farmboy, Jedi or smuggler, and more about exploring the characters and their relationships with each other.
On that note, there really isn’t even that much in the way of dogfights in this book. Whereas in Rogue Squadron there were at least three different blood-pumping, heart-pounding battles where the readers felt like they might lose the characters who they’re just starting to care about, we’re given the opportunity to fear for them in much different ways.
Be sure to check out the rest below the jump.
Suvudu Highlights the Best Star Pilots in the Galaxy
Paul Urquhart dropped by Suvudu today to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway in a somewhat unique way: talking about the snubfighter pilots as unsung heroes in the Galaxy Far, Far Away. Not only that, he teamed up with artist Frank-Joseph Frelier to illustrate some of the great combat pilots introduced via the Expanded Universe.
As Jason Fry’s authorial sidekick in Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare, I got the chance to write about the development of fighter tactics in a galaxy far, far, away and how the advantages and limitations of combat planes translate into the vast arena of space. Between us, we produced “biographies” for almost every major warplane type from the movies, novels and comics.
But last week was the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway, a decisive air battle with more than a passing resemblance to some stories in the Star Wars universe — and reading about the real-world fighter combat reminded me of another key component of any war: the people.
One of the pilots Urquhart and Frelier highlighted that might have gotten some audible noise of excitement out of me? Syal Antilles, daughter of Wedge.
And if you need a bit of heartwarming in your life today, take a look at the helmet Syal’s holding. That appears to be the one that belonged to her father.
Paul talked about a bunch of other pilots that have made their marks on Star Wars and the Expanded Universe and there are other great illustrations of some neat minor characters to go along with the post. Head on over to Suvudu to check the rest out.
Full ‘Scoundrels’ Cover Released
Star Wars Books released the full jacket cover for Tim Zahn’s upcoming novel Scoundrels this morning. Featured are Han, Chewie, Lando, Kell Tainer, Winter, and two characters new to the book.
Clone Wars Season Five Trailer
Let the rampant speculation commence!
Eleventh Batch of ‘EG to Warfare’ Endnotes: Rogue Squadron, The Rebellion Military, and the Executor
You all knew I wouldn’t pass up the chance to link to something discussing Rogue Squadron, right? Of course you knew that. The eleventh set of endnotes from Jason Fry hit this morning with a bit of roster goodness.
Duty Squadron: Rogue Squadron: Unlike with Red Squadron, I had a lot more leeway here. Get your continuity caps on and let’s go: Luke, Dak, Zev, Wedge, Janson and Hobbie are of course from The Empire Strikes Back. Kit Valent is from Inside the Worlds of the Star Wars Trilogy. Kesin Ommis is from Star Wars Insider #79. Tycho Celchu’s role in the Battle of Hoth is from X-Wing: Rogue Squadron. Samoc Farr is from Tales of the Bounty Hunters. Nala Hetsime is from Decipher’s Jedi Knights game. Zev Kabir is from
the old Star Wars Kids magazine. Tarrin Datch and Tenk Lenso are from Galaxy Guide 3. Dash Rendar got added (somewhat awkwardly) to the battle in the Shadows of the Empire video game. Tarn Mison is from Decipher, referencing an extra played by ILM’s Michael Pangrazio, but his role in the battle is new. Cinda Tarheel is from Marvel #64, the immortal “Serphidian Eyes,” after which she was never seen again. Stevan Makintay is from Star Wars Adventure Journal#8. Barlon Hightower is from Marvel #78, the equally immortal “Hoth Stuff.” Vigrat Pomoner, Stax Mullawny, Hosh Hune and Jek Puglio are all new characters.
This set of notes also dives into the the Rebellion military and digresses a bit to talk about Vader and Tarkin. For more, head over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr.
A Lannister Ponders the Skywalkers
Of course, now you have to wonder what Star Wars would have been like if it had been an HBO series …
Via Reddit
Dave Filoni Drops TCW News at Star Wars Weekends
Dave Filoni is at Star Wars Weekends talking The Clone Wars. Luckily for all of you, Nanci’s there to let us know what Dave’s got planned for season five. To the jump!
PSA: Your Blanket Expanded Universe Protest Isn’t Helping
There’s been a certain sentiment I’ve spotted around the interwebs lately in regards to a few Expanded Universe books that are coming out this year. People are unhappy with what has happened in recent series like Dark Nest, Legacy of the Force, and Fate of the Jedi. So unhappy they claim they won’t be buying books like Mercy Kill and Scoundrels because they want to send a message to the folks at Del Rey at Lucasfilm. They do this despite the claims that they’re legitimately interested in these books. At first I thought that this kind of thought was isolated, but I’ve seen it mentioned by enough people now to warrant some kind of analysis and response.
Now, surely, a lot of this is just hyperbole. I imagine a fair amount of the people making these claims are going to go right out on release day to buy both of these books, but for a moment let’s look at this claim at face value. I’m unhappy with the state of the Expanded Universe so, as a means of protest, I will not buy these books I’m legitimately interested in. I don’t mean to belittle you if this is a mindset you’ve taken up, but I feel it’s important to spell this out explicitly.
A blanket protest of the Expanded Universe will not help your cause.
I apologize for being blunt, but it’s a point that needs to be made (and there’s going to be a lot of bold text in the rest of this PSA to drive the point home in an over-the-top fashion). Here’s the thing, even though sales numbers of EU material are down, series like Legacy and Fate of the Jedi are still selling relatively well. Well enough that Del Rey and Lucasfilm can continue telling stories like that and still make money. Even if you decide to stop buying books, period. There are enough fans who are content with the state of the EU to continue the status quo without you. In fact, the vast majority of EU fans are content with the status quo. You and I make up a minority. A vocal minority, but a minority nonetheless.
Here’s what your blanket protest will accomplish. If you choose not to buy books like Mercy Kill and Scoundrels, the only thing Del Rey and LFL will stop publishing are books like Mercy Kill and Scoundrels. Tim Zahn said as much during Origins. While his standalone books may be more critically reviewed than a series like Fate of the Jedi, they do not sell as well. The same concept will apply to Mercy Kill.
If you want more books like Scoundrels, you had better buy Scoundrels. If you want more books like X-Wing: Mercy Kill, you had better buy the first X-Wing book published in thirteen years.
If you don’t buy these books, the takeaway on Del Rey and Lucasfilm’s part won’t be that fans are discontent with the state of the Expanded Universe because the EU is still selling relatively well. The takeaway will be that there isn’t a market for the books you are interested in and have been asking for over the last thirteen years. Now is the time where we, as fans, have to put up or shut up because we’re at a very critical juncture that will determine what kind of stories are told in the Expanded Universe moving forward.
If you’re going to vote with your wallet, you need to be smart about it. Buy the things that interest you, refrain from buying the things that don’t. That’s how you can send a clear message. A blanket protest doesn’t tell Del Rey and LFL anything useful. I can’t make this any more clear. If you are interested in books like these and you want more stories like them, you need to buy them.
