Category Archives: Star Wars

Survey Takers at Star Wars Weekends

Posted on by

For four weeks in May and June, the denizens of the galaxy far, far away invade Disney’s Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends. Special events include autograph sessions with celebrity guests, photo ops with Star Wars characters, shows in the Premiere Theatre, the Jedi Training Academy, and the Hyperspace Hoopla. One of the highlights is the Legends of the Force motorcade, aka the parade, featuring Star Wars/Disney characters, members from the 501st and Rebel Legions, and celebrity guests.

Yesterday while waiting for the parade, a cast member approached me, asking if I’d mind answering a few questions about Star Wars and Disney. I don’t think this lady realized how big of a jackpot she’d hit with me, or maybe my Her Universe Rogue Squadron hoodie gave it away. I said, “OF COURSE I WOULD.”

Questions included:

1. Was I aware that it was currently Star Wars Weekends? Considering I was waiting for the parade and wearing a Star Wars shirt, the answer was obvious. Yes.

2. Did I attend Hollywood Studios specifically for Star Wars Weekends? Uh, duh, why else would I be there ? (Here’s a helpful hint: if you don’t want to attend Star Wars Weekends, don’t bother going to Hollywood Studios those days, because it’s mobbed and you will have a terrible time.)

3. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being lowest and 10 being highest, rate your knowledge of the Star Wars universe, including films, TV shows, books, and video games. I said 10.

4. On a scale of 1 to 10, how big a Star Wars fan would you rate yourself? Again, I said 10.

5. A short (very easy) quiz to gauge my knowledge of Star Wars. I got 4 out of 4.

6. If I could visit any place in the Star Wars universe, where would I go? After thinking for a bit, I answered Corellia. Why? “Because it’s Han Solo’s home planet and it’s awesome.” The survey taker seemed satisfied with my answer.

After the survey, she said that nothing is in the works yet, but Disney will be putting together other research events in the future, and would I be interested? Heck yes! I gave her my name and e-mail address and am ready to tell them “I want more Star Wars at Disney!” Hell, I told her exactly that before she walked off.

I’ve been to Star Wars Weekends nearly every weekend during the past three years, and I don’t ever remember it being as busy as it’s been this year. Star Tours, which normally has 10 or 20 minute lines, had a 90 minute line at one point today. It seems that Disney is paying attention, and wants to please Star Wars fans when it comes to the inevitable expansion in Hollywood Studios. As a shameless theme park enthusiast and Star Wars fan, I can’t wait.

 

Celebrate Return of the Jedi’s 30th anniversary with Leia’s Endor braid

Posted on by

Did you know Return of the Jedi is soon to turn 30?

Did you know our staff writer Bria runs a geek fashion blog?

Did you know the above two abstract and seemingly random questions are actually related? Well they are.

To celebrate Return of the Jedi’s 30th anniversary, our own Bria put together a tutorial on how to make your own Endor!Leia braids. Provided you’ve got enough hair to pull it off. Head over to White Hot Room to see for yourself!

Review: Star Wars: Legacy #3

Posted on by

Ania Solo’s accidental adventure continues as things just keep getting worse.  Legacy: Prisoner of the Floating World #3 was released on Wednesday and Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman continue to deliver a solidly good book.

This review contains mild spoilers for the issue.

Continue reading →

The Waru Express: In Conclusion

Posted on by

Well friends, at last we have come to the end of our journey and what a long strange trip it’s been.  A weird thing happened this morning.  I woke up and for the first time in a very long time, there wasn’t a Star Wars book on my nightstand waiting for me.  I love the Expanded Universe but I am so incredibly relieved.  Over the past seven months, I’ve read 130 different books.  If my math is correct, that averages out to about a book and a half a day.  That’s a lot of Star Wars.  Guess how happy I am to be done.  Just guess.

So what have I learned from this experience?  First, that if your editor ever challenges you to do a project like this?  Run very far away.  There is not enough alcohol in the galaxy.  Second, you commenters and readers seem to respond more when I snark closely followed by when I gush.  More importantly though, I learned and confirmed for myself that there are far more good books than there are horrifically bad ones.  My sanity was hanging on by a thread and my liver was desperate for a reprieve at some points but I sincerely enjoyed reading so many of these books, even some of the cracktastic ones like Courtship of Princess Leia.

I’ve also learned that no matter how much everyone tries to peer pressure you, livestreaming yourself reading The Crystal Star with a six-pack of hard cider at the ready only leads to bad things.  We will never again discuss my Han Solo voice.

I’ve reaffirmed for myself that Aaron Allston and Matthew Stover are my favorite Star Wars authors followed closely by Mike Stackpole and Timothy Zahn and I’ve gained an appreciation for James Luceno that I didn’t realize that I had before.  I will also be sitting here impatiently awaiting the day that we get more X-Wing novels from both Allston and Stackpole, the story about how Mara and Mirax got arrested, a political Padme novel from Luceno, a short story about Mace Windu and Nick Rostu set after Shatterpoint, the We, Jedi book about the Horn siblings, some sort of closure about the Skiarta clan, and a new Revan book.  Yeah, I know.  Those last two are never going to happen.  No but really, Del Rey: More X-Wing novels.  Pleeeeeeeease?

Honestly though, I just want to reiterate that there are a ton of good and enjoyable books out there.  The next time you’re wondering what to read, branch out and try a book out of your Star Wars comfort zone.  You might be pleasantly surprised by what you find.  I might’ve snarked a lot along the way but I love Star Wars and I can honestly say that there are probably only a dozen or so books that I have an active dislike for and that’s a pretty good ratio!

As promised, I’m going to answer some of the questions that you asked me on Twitter!

Continue reading →

EU Retrospective: Fate of the Jedi Part 2

Posted on by

Well.  It’s done.  I’ve finished reading these books and I’m ridiculously relieved to be through with Fate of the Jedi.  To be completely honest, even though there are a lot of things in Legacy of the Force that upset me, I’d rather read a series like that than this one.  I hated the character derailment that some of them were subjected to but I prefer that series as a whole to reading about anything with Abeloth ever again.  No more tentacles please.  There were a lot more high points in that series than this one.  To top it off, I just never felt as invested in these books.  There was both too much and too little going on.  I know that sounds impossible but I don’t know how else to describe it.   Basically, the majority of the series made me do this:

At least there was Mercy Kill waiting for me at the end.  Observe my Wraith Squadron related tears of joy.

Warning: There are some NSFW words on some of these gifs

Vortex
My sentiment about having to read this book again can be summed up in one word: Ugh.

This book is bad.  It’s not Jedi bug sex bad because I didn’t cringe and resort to drinking but it is bad.  I literally just finished it and tossed it down and said “Stupid.  So stupid.”  Was half the galaxy replaced by Skrulls?  Honestly, I’m running out of reasons for why so many people acted the way they did.  Everyone makes bad decisions that in turn make me want to bash my head against a wall.  I can’t even rage like I usually do.  It’s just all so gosh darn frustrating.  We’ll go down the list.

First and foremost is everything involving Kenth Hamner.  I have yet to understand why “The Villainization of Kenth Hamner” had to occur and I think it’s ridiculous.  While I don’t think that he (or anyone in the order really) is looking at the situation from an entirely rational point of view, I also don’t think that anything that happened with his storyline was logical.  I especially disagree with how he dies.

That brings me to point two which is Saba.  I liked Saba when she was originally introduced.  I really did.  I feel like I’m not dealing with entirely the same character anymore.  It’s nice that she doesn’t take any pleasure in killing Kenth but it doesn’t change that she did and the last time I checked?  You don’t reward someone for that by making her the new Grand Master.  Seriously, Cilghal and Corran?  Seriously?  Kyp Durron or Kyle Katarn would’ve been better choices.  I’ll agree about wanting someone who’s more of a warrior in charge but I certainly don’t think that staging a kriffing COUP is going to help things.  There’s general distrust of the Jedi Order because they’re too powerful and act only as they see fit.  Clearly the best way to counter this is to remove the Chief of State from office.  EXCEPT NO.  NO IT IS NOT.

On the other side of the galaxy, we’ve got Skrull!Luke Skywalker.  Everything about this Luke feels wrong.  I don’t know what else to say except that this isn’t the Luke Skywalker we know from the films and previous books.  I’d also really like to know when his storyline went from ‘Retrace Jacen Solo’s Force Odyssey’ to ‘Retrace Luke Skywalker’s Love Life’.  Oh and hey!  We can throw in some Sith while we’re at it.  😐

Fourth, I still don’t get Abeloth.  If I could never read again about her tentacles and giant mouth that eats people or whatever, I’d be happy.  She is ridiculous.  Everything about this storyline is ridiculous and I want it to end.  I’m so done with all of this.

This next one doesn’t anger me as much as it annoys me.  I honestly don’t get the point of including this slave uprising storyline.  I know it gets used more later and does tie into the overarching story but it feels overall like wasted page space to me.  Sorry.

Finally, who thought this Barabel nest thing was a good idea especially when it comes to ending a book?  No, don’t answer that.  It was rhetorical.  On a scale from 1-10, this ranks an 8 on the Unnecessary Scale.

Continue reading →

LEGO builds full-sized X-Wing, staff writers suddenly overcome with envy

Posted on by

There are not proper words to describe the amount of WANT I am feeling right now. LEGO has gone and built a full-sized X-Wing.

If you’re in Manhattan right now, you can see it for yourself. The X-Wing is on tour as part of a promotion for the upcoming Yoda Chronicles on Cartoon Network. For more shots, head over to Jedi News who have gotten their hands on a bunch of detailed pictures!

EA teases new Battlefront game

Posted on by

Fans have been clamoring for a new Battlefront game for ages. For a long while, it seemed like it was never going to happen thanks to troubles within LucasArts. Now that EA has the Star Wars IP? Well, things are looking up according to Gamespot.

Electronic Arts has teased that one of its multiple in-development Star Wars titles is an all-new Battlefront game. Speaking today during the Stifel 2013 Technology Conference, CFO Blake Jorgensen offered the hint.

“The opportunity to do a new Battlefront, for example, which is one of the very popular Star Wars games, or some of the other traditional games that were made, is very exciting.”

Star Wars: Battlefront III, despite never actually being announced, was reportedly 99 percent complete, though this claim was contested.

Me? I’m hoping it gets made just so people stop asking for it at completely unrelated Star Wars event panels at conventions.

Lucas and Kasdan discuss the Prequels. In 1981.

Posted on by

As many are aware, Return of the Jedi turns 30 on May 25th. To celebrate, the Huffington Post has posted a transcript of a story conference for the then-titled Revenge of the Jedi in which Lucas goes off-topic with Lawrence Kasdan to discuss a macro take on some Prequel Trilogy plot elements.

The Skywalker line is very strong with the Force, so Ben says, “I think we should protect the kids, because they may be able to help us right the wrong that your husband has created in the universe.” And so Ben takes one and gives him to a couple out there on Tatooine and he gets his little hideout in the hills and he watches him grow. Ben can’t raise Luke himself, because he’s a wanted man. Leia and Luke’s mother go to Alderaan and are taken in by the king there, who is a friend of Ben’s. She dies shortly thereafter and Leia is brought up by her foster parents. She knows that her real mother died.

A remarkably different fate for Padme. Perhaps a preferable one to dying of a broken heart? There’s a lot more interesting details on Lucas’ early thoughts for these stories, so head to the above link to read the rest of the transcript.

Knights of the Old Republic being ported to the iPad?

Posted on by

Well this could be interesting. According to IGN, an accidental promotional mailing from Aspyr suggests that fan favorite title Knights of the Old Republic may be heading for the iPad.

A KOTOR port for iPad isn’t too much of a stretch considering Aspyr’s history. The company is responsible for the original Mac port and has been increasingly active on the App Store. Although there have been some other fringe Star Wars RPGs over the years, KOTOR seems like the obvious bet.

Additionally, this newsletter slip-up confirms previous KOTOR rumors we’ve been hearing. For now official confirmation from Aspyr, or any details regarding a launch date or price, have not been announced. We’ve reached out to Aspyr for comment.

While I’m not sure how they will work out the control scheme yet, the iPad seems like a fantastic destination for Knights of the Old Republic. It’s an older game that doesn’t need a boatload of system resources and being able to take this on the road would make for hours of mobile gaming fun. Count me in as someone hoping it happens.