Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
The Star Wars #6 by J.W. Rinzler and Mike Mayhew hits comic stores everywhere today. We’re nearing the end of The Star Wars and our first draft heroes aren’t any closer to saving the galaxy.
They made it to space but that’s not enough to get free from the Empire’s grasp just yet whose ships are hot in pursuit. Fast flying and good shooting aren’t enough to save our heroes though. Instead, they make a crash landing on Yavin, the planet of the wookiees! And not everyone lands together…
The Lost Missions have been found and Season Six has finally arrived! Gosh, it feels like just last week that I finished watching Season Five. Up first, we’ve got the Clone Trooper arc. In the interest of saving those of you who didn’t marathon the episodes this weekend from spoilers, we’ll have the entire post beneath a cut.
The Lost Missions aka Season Six of the Clone Wars is out on Netflix today so it’s only fitting that I wrap up planned version of the Hondo Caravan today. And yes, I watched the entirety of Season Five in one week. But let’s be honest: this is not the craziest thing I’ve done for the blog.
Shades of Reason (DC)
On the surface, Maul’s plan to cause pockets of chaos throughout Mandalore and then have Deathwatch come in and arrest the criminals seems like a good one but I have to agree with Bo Katan: you can’t trust Maul. Actually, in a situation like this, no one should be trusting anyone. And honestly, doesn’t this plan run the risk of the criminal class squealing about how they’re all working together once they figure out they’ve been deemed the sacrificial lambs?
On a completely different note, Satine’s new outfit is pretty fabulous looking. It says serious and regal all at the same time.
I wouldn’t say that the Mandalorians were ever necessarily known for being the brightest crayons in the box but they (as a planet) seem to be kind of stupid right now. Did they really fall for Maul’s plan this easily? And we wonder why no one saw through Palpatine’s façade…
And now Vizsla is Prime Minister. That is a title that a) never sat well with me for a Mandalorian and b) sounds even more wrong on the shoulders of a member of Death Watch. First of all, he’s not even close to being subtle enough to be a leader. Immediately betraying Maul was probably not in his best interest.
I love the look on Bo Katan’s face as she tosses Maul his lightsaber. That’s the look of a woman who knows it’s going to be Prizsla’s funeral. And then the ladies can rule once they kill each other. Oh look. It is his funeral or rather his beheading. Actually, I’m seriously surprised that they showed this on a kids’ show.
Okay, I’m just going to come out and say it. Forget this Fett tradition, forget Satine, forget the black market Prime Minister, forget Maul. Bo Katan for Mandalore. Accept no substitute.
It’s a bit of a mixed bag on today’s edition of the Hondo Caravan. We’ve got one more episode in the Youngling arc, an arc that makes me want to take a nap, and then the return of the Brothers Sith. Buckle in, kids. It’s going to be a gif filled ride.
A Necessary Bond
Turns out there’s more bad news, folks. Ahsoka and the Younglings didn’t escape quite yet. Apparently they haven’t even made it back to the ship yet. It gets worse. You’d think that getting to the ship would be the hard part. Instead, merely getting on the ship is tricky especially when it appears to be crashing and burning.
In the previous episode, Obi-Wan was off fighting Separatist forces led by General Grievous. At the time, it felt like a superfluous plot line to just have Obi-Wan in an episode again. In this episode though, the Separatists invade Hondo’s planet and take possession of it. Apparently Dooku did not take too kindly to Hondo taking him prisoner a few seasons ago. Ooo. Grievous just tossed Hondo across the room to the floor. I can hear Jawa James shouting ‘Nooooooooo!’ from the past all the way across the country. As expected, some of Hondo’s pirate underlings have seen the light and have agreed to work together with the Jedi to get out of this sticky situation.
“I may be a pirate but I do not like taking children into battle.” I’m just going to leave that quote from Hondo there with no extra commentary. I bet you can figure out the quiet and pent up rant there all on your own.
I must admit, these kids are pretty good for never having used these lightsabers before. Obviously, this means something will happen to one of them. I also really appreciate the strange sort of friendship that seems to have sprung up between Hondo and Katooni. I’ve got head canon: Hondo’s going to somehow save her from Order 66 and she’ll become a pirate. She’s too cute to die, okay?
I’m fairly sure it wasn’t the intention but every time Grievous does the four/six legged crab scuttle, I laugh hysterically. You know what else makes me laugh hysterically? Hondo verbally tallying up his bill for saving the Jedi Younglings to Obi-Wan.
Grab your hat and hold on to your swears because Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion: Honor Among Thieves is out today! Written by the author duo James S. A. Corey, Honor Among Thieves turns the spotlight on Han Solo and Chewbacca as Princess Leia sends them on mission only a pair of scoundrels like them can successfully pull off.
Set before the previous Empire and Rebellion novel, Honor Among Thieves opens with Leia asking Han to go into the middle of Imperial space and retrieve one of their field agents. Scarlet Hark is a professional though so this should be a relatively simple mission. Too bad the bounty on Han’s head is about to catch up with him, adding in a slight complication. Oh. And not to mention that Scarlet doesn’t actually want to be retrieved quite yet. An Imperial astrocartographer is rumored to have made a discovery that could put him towards the top of the Emperor’s list of favorites and Scarlet wants to get her hands on it first with Han’s help. Nothing ever seems to stay simple for long when it comes to missions for the Republic.
It’s an extra long post today as the Season Five discs are supersized. It’s even an supersized Hondo week as I attempt to watch the entire season before Season Six drops on Friday. Can I do it? Will the Hondo Caravan beat me? Place your bets now!
A War on Two Fronts
This is the episode where we finally get to visit Onderon and I could not be more excited. It’s one of the planets that I really loved visiting in the Knights of the Old Republic games. Getting to see it approximately 3000 years later is really neat especially since we get to see Iziz and the jungles and the giant winged beasts. The animation and the background sounds are amazing because it feels like it’s right out of the game albeit with better graphics.
The Jedi have finally come to Onderon because they see the rebels here as a good potential weapon against the Separatists as they can distract and force them to split their forces. That means Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex are there to teach the rebels better techniques to combat the droids and to make them a more effective fighting group. So yeah. It’s exactly like this:
(Except Anakin keeps his shirt on.)
Of course, their training comes to an end when the droids find their hidden base and attack. Instead of letting the Jedi cover their retreat, they take the lessons learned and fight back and even win! The Jedi should write a handbook: How To Train A Rebel Group In Seven Days.
There is also the obligatory subplot with the romance between Ahsoka and Lux. It’s… sweet in its own way but I’m not going to sit here and ship them. Actually, out of these characters, I’m way more interested in Steela and watching her kick butt with her blaster rifle.
It’s a bit of a mixed bag of plot lines as Season 4 wraps up. Obi-Wan’s undercover work from the last disc continues, Asajj Ventress returns, and… well… so does someone else. I bet you can guess who.
The Box
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
(I have no idea. I just wanted to ask that.)
Okay Kenobi: I’m seeing a small flaw in your plan of going to Serenno. Just a tiny one. It involves you being face to face with Count Dooku. You don’t think that he might, oh you know, recognize your Force presence?
“Wrong to deceive you, it was.” “A powerful Jedi you are yet unpredictable and dangerous you can be to both your friends and enemies.” Your turn, Yoda. CLEARLY you recognize that Anakin is not the most stable of Jedi AND YET YOU WENT THROUGH WITH THIS PLAN ANYWAYS?
I’m getting the feeling that Cad Bane was strongly influenced by Captain Barbossa given his obsession with getting the best/biggest hat.
Turns out that it’s not what in the box but rather ‘Who will make it out of the box?’ that’s the real question here. My bet was that it would be Obi-Wan and Cad Bane. This is the problem with the Dark Side: their quest to figure out who’s Top Dog basically involves killing everyone else. This is not the best way to encourage growth. Unsurprisingly, they both made it along with a few others.
This is not a post any of us ever wanted to have to write. Aaron Allston, prolific Star Wars author and all-around awesome human being, passed away last night after apparent massive heart failure.
It’s safe to say that without Aaron, many of us wouldn’t be SWEU fans. It’s also safe to say that several of us wouldn’t have stayed SWEU fans without Aaron. No matter what he was writing, he had the ability to make you laugh and cry, sometimes on the same page, and then make you laugh through those tears. He created some of our most favorite characters, some of the SWEU’s best moments, and kept it fun through dark times. Several of us name Starfighters of Adumar as our favorite SWEU book of all time.
Aaron was a presence at many conventions, including Celebration and Dragon Con, where he ran writing workshops with Mike Stackpole. I participated in several of his seminars; not only was the man a great writer, but he was a great teacher, too. He always treated everyone like a friend, whether you’d known him for ages or had just approached him to ask him to sign one of your books. Aaron also contributed to several of my favorite panels at Dragon Con, where he had the audience in stitches. As Timothy Zahn said last night on Facebook, “The Aaron, Mike, and Tim show, as we called it, has come to a sad close.”
Brian and I had the honor of interviewing Aaron on the podcast, only our second interview (after Stackpole, fittingly), and were quite nervous to do so. He put us at ease and, needless to say, the interview ended up being informative and full of laughter. Probably my favorite interview we’ve ever done.
Star Wars will not be the same without Aaron Allston. Yub Yub, Commander. The Wraiths are flying in formation in your honor today.
edit: Brian posted his own thoughts here.
Ania’s been kidnapped by someone she thought was a friend! Issue #12 of Star Wars: Legacy by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman is out today and now almost everyone in the galaxy is looking for one Ania Solo. (Honestly, can this woman’s life get any worse?)
Betrayed by her friend Ramid, Ania Solo finds herself stuffed unceremoniously into a storage locker with no comlink and therefore no way for her real friends to track her. Ramid, on the other hand, is holding a grudge against her for leaving him for dead outside a prison camp and he’s happy to hand her over to the Triumvirate in exchange for a sizable bounty. Across the galaxy, Master Val learns that he’s not in nearly as much trouble as he expected for his actions on Dac and that the Imperial Knights have a new mission he doesn’t quite agree with. Meanwhile, Jao, Sauk, and AG-37 are doing everything they can to find Ania and get her back but they aren’t the only ones in pursuit.
I feel like I should say this right off the bat: this is a disc of episodes in which people make really stupid decisions. Like… really stupid. But it’s okay. Our heroes survive. More or less. We pick up with the story arc from the last episode of the previous disc which means… slavers.
Slaves of the Republic
I love this episode purely because it’s the reason why we get to hear Obi-Wan use the words ‘High Class Scum’ and also because Ahsoka got to throw some subtle shade at Anakin about him not being very convincing as a Master.
I would “never” question the wisdom or the judgment of the Jedi Council in all their… uhh… wisdom but could they really not find anyone better to send on this mission than Anakin Skywalker? Why on earth would you put a former slave on a mission to a planet full of slavers? Anakin is far from being the calmest Jedi out there and putting him into an emotionally charged situation like this is just plain stupid.
And while I’m on the subject on ranting, why did it have to be Ahsoka who was put into the slave girl role? More specifically: why does it have to be the show’s lone female lead who is put into a slave girl outfit? So help me, this had best not happen in Rebels too.
At least we got a fun parallel to Return of the Jedi with Artoo tossing lightsabers to the Jedi on command. At least.
Other things happened in this episode such as the plan failing miserably but I’m honestly too off put by Ahsoka being dressed up as a slave girl and the Jedi Council putting Anakin into a situation like this to have really took notice.