Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
From Dragon Con Day One is the big Speculating on The Force Awakens panel. Panelists include Brian Larsen, Nanci Schwartz, Shaun Rosado, Bethany Blanton, and Riley Blanton. Moderating is Bryan Young.
Speculation was based off of official releases only, so this panel is spoiler free!
It’s our first new taste of post-Return of the Jedi galaxy. Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig hit bookshelves and eagerly awaiting hands at midnight. No fear though: this review will be spoiler free.
It’s been several months since the Battle of Endor and now the Rebel Alliance is attempting to establish itself as the New Republic. Wedge Antilles goes on what should be a simple scouting mission but soon finds himself captured by the forces of Admiral Rae Sloane as he stumbles into the location of a high-level Imperial summit. The only person to hear his distress call is Norra Wexley who just wants to be reunited with her son but she can’t abandon one of her fellow Rebellion pilots no matter how dangerous this new rescue mission might be.
Brian and Nanci run through a quick episode while on the news to catch up on the news, Force Friday, and let you in on where you can find us at Dragon Con!
This week, Brian, Nanci, and Bria are off to Dragon Con! The annual convention, held each Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, is a highlight of the con season. The Star Wars at Dragon Con track, led by Brandy Roatsey and a team of intrepid volunteers, puts on the best Star Wars panel content outside of Celebration. And we at Tosche Station are lucky enough to participate in some of these panels.
Here’s where you’ll be able to catch us at the convention!
Brian and Nanci:
In addition, Nanci will be moderating the Aftermath panel with Chuck Wendig (Friday, 8:30 pm, Marriott A706).
Bria:
You will likely be able to find us hanging around or near the Star Wars track room (Marriott A706), so stop us and say hi! We’ve got buttons, wristbands, and other neat swag for you.
For those of you who can’t make it to Dragon Con, don’t worry. We’ll be recording panel audio and posting recaps throughout the convention, so keep an eye on the Twitter feed and be sure you’re subscribed to Tosche Station Radio on iTunes and Stitcher.
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!
