This post contains major spoilers for Star Wars Rebels: Twilight of the Apprentice. You have been warned.
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Category Archives: Star Wars
Review: Darth Vader #18
It turns out that all Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca had to do to keep me happy while Dr. Aphra is in mortal danger is have Vader be involved in a plot line that has royal intrigue. I didn’t even worry about her once during this issue! Out today is Darth Vader #18 in which everyone’s favorite Sith Lord must battle the enemies of Shu-Torun’s Queen and Cylo’s apprentices while simultaneously keeping the murder bots in check. Who says that Sith Lords can’t multitask?
As per usual, spoilers and discussion after the jump. Continue reading
Rebels Review: The Secret of Chopper Base
The Mystery of Chopper Base has the distinction of being an episode that I was enjoying but mostly ambivalent towards for most of it but had me completely hooked by the end thanks to a very well placed musical cue. Kevin Kiner continues to nail it this season. That last slowed down version of the Imperial March? Perfection. That Big Damn Heroes moment? Also perfection. But let’s break down the rest of the episode.
As mentioned in Rebels Recon, this episode served a sort of season finale for most of the crew of the Ghost. They found a new base for the Rebels and complete their mission. For the Jedi amongst the crew, we’ll continue to follow them next week so it was nice to get one last team up and see them work together to save Rex from the spiders on the planet. Sabine in particular gets some solidly good moments and even saves the day. If the Ghost family had been relying on their Jedi to save them, they never would have survived. Speaking of which… Continue reading
Review: Obi-Wan and Anakin #3
Everyone’s favorite Master/Padawan team is back in Obi-Wan and Anakin #3 by Charles Soule and Marco Checchetto. It’s a little more of everything that’s made this book so gosh darn good thus far.
Palpatine. We’re going to start with Palpatine. Look, I know I said it last time but I’m sad that we can’t get a Palpatine ongoing from Soule. He is so clearly having the time of his life getting to write these Palpy Flashbacks in this book. I know he’s already writing the Poe book and a zillion others for Marvel but… oh you mean that even writers have to sleep sometimes? Alas. Getting back to the point, it’s fun to watch Palpatine and Anakin interact because while he clearly has an agenda, he doesn’t have to be nearly as subtle because Anakin just doesn’t pick up on the manipulations. It’s simultaneously delightful to watch Palpatine be the Puppet Master and incredibly sad to watch Anakin be manipulated by someone he trusts.
Back in the current time line, Obi-Wan’s brokered a temporary truce between the waring groups but… okay can people please stop taking advantage and twisting Anakin to their goals? If you’re not careful, you’re all going to turn that poor boy to the dark side and then you’ll– Oh wait. Crap.
Checchetto’s art paired with Andres Mossa’s coloring continue to be drop dead gorgeous, by the way. This is an amazing team who puts out some really gorgeous work. I hope we get to see more from this pair in the Star Wars universe.
Obi-Wan and Anakin continues to be so enjoyable that I can’t stop wishing it was an ongoing. (How’s that for an endorsement?)
Review: Star Wars #17
Jason Aaron and Leinil Yu are back with Star Wars #17 in which the boys get into trouble and the ladies team up while also in a lot of trouble. Okay but actually… are our heroes ever not in trouble?
Spoilers after the jump. Continue reading
Star Wars News from C2E2
Star Wars fans didn’t have to wait very long to get comics and books related announcements from C2E2 out in Chicago but it was all rather vague. At a retailer breakfast this morning, it was announced that Marvel will be releasing a three issue comic plus a standalone issue in October that will be related to Rogue One. No writer or artist has been announced yet. We don’t know any other details but it’s likely filling a similar role to what Shattered Empire was for The Force Awakens. The Star Wars Free Comic Book Day offerings will be $1 a pop copies of some of the previously released books, mostly #1s.
At the Star Wars books panel this afternoon, the big announcement was Star Wars: Catalyst. Arriving on October 4th, the novel will be a prequel to Rogue One… and that’s all we know. Author announcement is forthcoming. Start the betting pool.
Outside of the Rogue One pattern, we did learn from Claudia Gray that a character from Lost Stars will make an appearance. You may also start the betting pool on this one. Claudia Gray also mentioned that the reason for the Bloodline’s delay was that she wanted to see The Force Awakens before finalizing her draft but also that this is a book about Leia herself and not Leia defined by her roles as wife or mother. For fans of Mark Waid’s run on the Leia comic, it sounds like Gray had the option to pull from the book but didn’t so don’t expect Queen Evaan to appear.
The Star Wars books panel featured Claudia Gray, John Jackson Miller, Jeffrey Brown, Adam Bray, and Elizabeth Schaefer. You can read Newsarama’s liveblog here for some of the more fun tidbits that panelists mentioned throughout the hour.
Review: Kanan #12
It’s nothing short of a crying shame when a good comic comes to an end but Kanan #12 by Greg Weisman and Andrea Broccardo is a well written finale that not only lets the book go out with not only a bang but includes a fantastic character appearance.
Spoilers after the jump. Continue reading
The Last Days of The ForceCast
In the interest of full disclosure, former ForceCast hosts Saf and Megan are contributors here at Tosche Station by way of hosting Western Reaches, one of our network’s podcasts. Because of that, I don’t want to speculate on any motivations as to why things unfolded the way they did. I want to cover the timeline of events as they unfolded as this has caused a tremendous amount of confusion among fandom. Additionally, I want to use the readily available information to pinpoint where things went wrong.
Logging this timeline gets tricky, because in addition to announcing the end of the ForceCast, all of the shows social media touchpoints were deactivated. Still, this is important to write down and have a history of. The ForceCast was one of the most important fandom touchpoints in not just Star Wars fandom, but all of genre entertainment. As such, there’s a need to document what led to its demise.
Ed. note 3/14: There’s been (understandably, I might add) some confusion over how this post was written. This post is broken down largely into two sections, a recap of the events and a post mortem analyzing why those events happened. The first section contains posts, tweets, images, and verbiage from the actors involved. The post mortem are my thoughts.
Star Wars and the Lightsabers of Storytelling
Perhaps better than any other Star Wars film so far, the lightsaber duels in The Force Awakens tell a story and establish who the characters are in that moment. Only the duel between Luke and Vader in Return of the Jedi even comes close to telling this sort of tale via clashing blades. At first glance, the duel between first Kylo Ren and Finn and then Kylo Ren and Rey is brutal and it doesn’t get any less brutal after repeat viewings. Gone is the elegance of the Prequel Trilogy and with good reason. Kylo Ren doesn’t have the benefit of training with a Jedi Order who has perfected the weapon over millennia and Finn and Rey have never even held a lightsaber before that day. Every swing of a saber has meaning and you don’t need to have seen a single other frame of the film to get what sort of people these three characters are.
Finn has the least training with these sorts of weapons and it shows. He gets in a few good blows but it comes off as more beginner’s luck combined with a Kylo who is far from being at his best. (More on that last part later.) With any sort of sword fighting, a raw beginning can sometimes have more luck than someone who has trained, as they do not react in a way that is expected. In other words, someone who has even basic training will be more likely to attack and block in a way that utilizes more standard stances and responses that will be easier for someone else with even more training to counter. Unfortunately, it’s just not quite enough to help Finn last more than a few minutes despite his determination to help his friend.
Kylo Ren’s responding actions speak louder than any words could. He doesn’t take Finn as a serious threat. A traitor? Sure but he’s clearly familiar enough with Hux’s training program to know that there’s no way FN-2187 knows enough to be more than a nuisance and it shows. He toys with Finn especially at the start, dodging some of Finn’s more wild swings with a distinctive ease and even knocking him to the ground and turning away instead of pressing his advantage and ending it. Turning your back to an enemy is an insult. It’s not until Finn lands a blow that actually hurts him that Kylo steps up his game and decides to end the fight now. This time, he’s not content with disarming Finn and follows it up with an injury that ensures the former stormtrooper will stay down.
Review: Darth Vader #17
Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca are back with the next installment in the Darth Vader as the book takes its turn as a political maneuvering story. Or rather, it’s a story with political maneuvering and a wrench called Vader in the middle. Despite his history with Shu-Torun and Queen Trios, Vader doesn’t really care about the planet and its unique political system. He’s more concerned with making sure it remains loyal to the Empire and that he gets the job done. Everyone is working around him towards their own goals with varying levels of success.