Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
Our third installment in Tosche Station Radio’s live commentary track series brings us to Revenge of the Sith! Joining the panel this week are Meg and Travis.
Instructions!
Sit back and enjoy!
To celebrate Instagram’s new format change, the official Star Wars account released a very short (15 seconds) clip showing old and new footage from The Force Awakens. Among the old footage includes the reverse shot of Starkiller Base, first seen in the Korean TV spot, as well as Kylo Ren igniting his lightsaber from the first teaser. The new footage includes a shot of Rey, looking very distressed, with BB-8 in the background, and FINN IGNITING THE SKYWALKER LIGHTSABER AND PRESUMABLY FACING OFF AGAINST KYLO REN!
Ahem, sorry guys, that just makes me really excited.
Watch the clip on repeat here.
The second of two panels Bria featured on at Awesome Con 2015 was the State of the Star Wars Galaxy. Additional panelists include John Morton, Amy Ratcliffe, Anna Mitchell, and Jay Shah.
Enjoy!
Lando #3 by Charles Soule and Alex Maleev definitely left me wanting more when I turned the final page… and I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing. (Which in itself is about to be a confusing statement because I did enjoy the issue.) Heyyyy did you all see the rad cover with Lando Draper? (Dunnna Dunnnna Dunnn.)
This was clearly not Lando’s best-planned heist. They got the ship, sure, but that was the easy part. Now the twins are fighting two Royal Guards and Lobot’s down for the count and uhhh… what exactly is on the Emperor’s private yacht?
I love the Expanded Universe. I love that it exists. I love that there are books and comics and even video games to fill up my Star Wars obsessiveness in the absence of film and TV shows. I love that Heir to the Empire jump-started the fandom way back in 1991. I love that the barrage of books and comics kept the fandom going strong during the 1990s. I love that the EU always drove the Star Wars story forward, no matter what was happening onscreen. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: without the EU I would not have become a Star Wars fan.
I don’t always like the way people treat the Expanded Universe. I hate that people look down upon it. But I also dislike when fans treat it as just as important as what’s onscreen. This might seem odd, coming from an EU fan like me, but it’s true. I hate when people take something that happened in a book and assume it will have huge consequences for the Sequel Trilogy. Yes, everything is canon now, but that doesn’t mean every story holds the same weight.
Nor should they.
(spoilers for Star Wars #6 and #8 under the cut)
Earlier this year, Bria was a moderator and panelist at a pair of panels at Awesome Con. This week, we’re putting up the panel she moderated: Diversity in Pop Culture! Next week, we’ll post audio from the State of the Star Wars Galaxy.
Enjoy!
Bria’s fellow panelists were Esther Kim from Fantom Comics and Amy Ratcliffe. Thank you to everyone who came out for such a wonderful and positive discussion about diversity!
Kanan #5 by Greg Weisman and Pepe Larraz is out today and, well, you know what that means.
Character and/or relationship spoilers for several comics lay below. Be warned.
Several months have passed since my last list of excellent comics with excellent queer major characters for excellent younger folk and it seems long over to revisit the topic with three more recommendations! This time, by sheer coincidence, all three comics feature queer women of color.
To the comics! Continue reading
Star Wars #8 is out today. The bad news is that we don’t get the answers we’ve so anxiously been awaiting. The good news is that Stuart Immonen took over art duties and rocked the hell out of it.
Luke’s journey to Tatooine wasn’t as fruitful as he’d hoped. His next plan for learning how to be a Jedi is about to take him to a hive of even more scum and villainy. Meanwhile, Han and Leia find themselves caught between an Imperial patrol and a woman named Sana Solo who says she’s Han’s wife and hardly seems to be his biggest fan.
Somehow, Jason Aaron manages to keep a reader’s interest throughout an issue where we don’t get the answer we’ve been so desperately wanting for two months now. Actually, I may be even more confused as to who Sana Solo was than I was before. Is she actually his wife or not? Maybe next issue we’ll get some solid answers?
Character-wise, the two who stood out to me this issue were the Skywalker twins. Aaron really nailed how impetuous Luke can be at times especially right after he leaves Tatooine. On the flip side, we get to see Leia’s very no-nonsense attitude that rears its head so frequently when Han Solo is involved. I’m very impressed by how both writers Marvel has tapped so far have seemed to really get all aspects of Leia’s character.
Unsurprisingly, Stuart Immonen rocks his first issue on Star Wars especially when paired with Justin Ponsor’s colors. Everyone’s body language tells just as much of the story as the dialog bubbles which makes for a more dynamic book. Can we keep him on this book forever? I’d especially like to see him do an arc where he gets to do all of the artistic set up and come up with what the planet looks like and also what Leia’s outfit of the day is. (So sue me, I’m a geek with a weakness for fashion and costume design.)
Overall, Star Wars #8 was an enjoyable issue with some great art that has left me wanting it to be September already so I can have #9 in my hands. No seriously: who the heck is Sana Solo?
The announcement of Star Wars Land wasn’t the only big news to come out of D23 today.
The speculation begins in the comments section!