Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
A new year, a new arc for Star Wars: Legacy as Issue #11 by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman hits stores today. Just because our heroes escaped danger in the last issue doesn’t mean they’re any closer to stopping Darth Wredd.
This review will contain a few spoilers but no more than you’d learn from reading the solicit.
We at Tosche Station haven’t been shy with asking for more racial and gender diversity in entertainment. One of the arguments we often hear is that the gender and race of characters shouldn’t matter. The most important thing should be the story. The rest should be inconsequential. The best actor for the part should be cast in that role.
That would be all fine and dandy, if most entertainment already portrayed a diverse cast of characters. But it doesn’t. Continue reading
It’s all about arcs with today’s disc of episodes as we dive first into Dathomir and the Nightsisters and then into the Mortis arc. My reaction to the two was… well, let’s just call it varied for now. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise for you.
Nightsisters
The idea of Sidious being mad at Dooku for having his own apprentice is rather hilarious given that he did the exact some thing with Maul to Plageuis. This is basically the way of the Sith, after all. But hey! Sidious is going to be a hypocrite so now Dooku has to dispose of Asajj. This will clearly end well.
Being a sucker for Dathomir and how it’s portrayed in the Expanded Universe books, I was unsure if I was going to like how the Clone Wars portrayed it but so far, I find myself intrigued. It’s an interesting take on the established Witches and Nightsisters that is actually able to work within the existing canon. Planets are quite large after all so it’s not difficult to believe that there would be different sects in addition to different tribes.
If nothing else, the flashbacks that explain Asajj’s history make the entire episode worth it. It adds some depth to her character that was previously lacking within the show. Actually, the entire episode is a great showcase of the show’s villains who are albeit fighting each other instead of our heroes. The movies definitely showed it off but it’s near to see what an incredibly master duelist he is. There aren’t that many people who can fend off three invisible assailants by themselves. Plus, I appreciate that he looks so dapper even in his pajamas.
I’m intrigued to see how this quest for revenge plays out in future episodes.
Let’s start out with the actual news-y things, because there hasn’t been enough of that pertaining to Episode VII of late. According to USA Today, J.J. Abrams has confirmed that the script is finished and that filming is slated to begin in May. But what’s the script about? Well…
“We can’t talk about story yet,” said the director, who plans to travel to England soon to begin work on the seventh film in the long-running saga. As far as casting, he had no details but said they will come “soon, and I look forward to that so that we can get past it and we can get on with it.”
No surprise they can’t talk about it yet. At least we’re starting to get some rumblings that casting will be coming soon. We’d like to get past it as well, J.J.
Meanwhile in a separate report from The Wrap, Abrams says that there have indeed been talks with Jesse Plemons, despite the latter denying there was anything there.
Over in the rumor mill side of things, the popular weekend rumbling was that Lucasfilm has approached Judi Dench to play Mon Mothma. Again, this one is a rumor. For my take, if you can get Judi Dench, go for it, but it would be cool to see her play something other than the obvious aged up Mon Mothma. How about a female Jedi Master with more than two lines of actual dialog?
And finally, Carrie Fisher told TV Guide that she, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford will be starting work on Episode VII in March or April.
Tosche Station Radio is back with our first episode of 2014!
Kicking off the show, the hosts highlight what’s New on the Blog.We posted our Holiday Special. To round out 2013, Brian posted Tosche Station’s year in review. Bria’s been very busy riding along the Hondo Caravan with Welcome to Mandalore, No One Saw That Coming, The Clone Wars’ Greatest Hits Album, and Ziro’s Last Hurrah. Women of Odd Enthusiasms 4: The Game is Afoot with guest host Steven hit the web. Nanci gave a Go/No-go on The Jupiter Pirates by Jason Fry. Brian offered Six Thoughts on Marvel Getting the Star Wars Contract. In a special shout-out, we wanted to also highlight Club Jade’s Top 50 Star Wars fan freakouts, in gif form.
In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci’s been busy reading The Jupiter Pirates and Honor Among Thieves. Both the hosts enjoyed a Star Wars marathon on Spike. They also went to see Saving Mr. Banks and Frozen.
No Camie’s Concerns this week because there’s just too much stuff to cover in Deak’s Dirt. Simon Kinberg discussed Rebels on a video on the Official Site. Some Clone Wars news? Maybe? Jedi News obtained and translated a German press release stating that next month, German channel SuperRTL will be airing arcs of the remaining Clone Wars episodes on Saturdays beginning on the 15th. In Episode VII news, Kathleen Kennedy recently stated that spin-off characters won’t be in and out of Episode VII. The rumor mill starts with rumblings of a Fett spin-off film? Latino Review claims to know all. The Hollywood Reporter claims to know the reason behind the Michael Arndt split. In comics news, Dark Horse to Close Out Darth Maul Arc with a Comic Series. And speaking of comics…we all knew it was coming, but now it’s official: Marvel will be publishing Star Wars comics beginning in 2015.
Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.
This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and Audible.com.
Bria’s snowed under with work, so Emily’s brother Steven steps in for a very special Sherlock Holmes themed episode – and we host a giveaway! Season 3 spoilers for Sherlock and season 2 spoilers for Elementary abound, so take heed as we tackle the mystery of the great detective.
Emily: Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova.
Want to win one of two copies of Mastermind? Leave a comment on this blog post, and Bria and I will randomly select two winners to receive a copy from our friends at Penguin Random House! Please note, this contest is only open to U.S. residents over the age of 13. Contest ends 11:59 pm, EST, January 31, 2014.
You can contact Bria on Twitter @chaosbria, and Emily @carrkicksdoor. Women of Odd Enthusiasms is part of the Tosche Station Radio Network and affiliated with Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and Audible.com.
Well here’s something. Jedi News has obtained and translated a German press release stating that next month, German channel SuperRTL will be airing arcs of the remaining Clone Wars episodes on Saturdays beginning on the 15th.
Additionally, StarWars-Union.de has descriptions of some of the episodes. Snippets below the cut to avoid spoiler-y things.
Bounty Hunters, Ziro, and Bad Decisions! (Oh my!) As we reach the halfway mark, it’s a handful of episodes filled with both Ziro the Hutt and a fair amount of politics. Make of that what you will.
Assassin
I sincerely appreciate how at the start of this episode, they animated Obi-Wan stroking his beard. No insinuation, no joke there. I just really appreciated the attention to an actor’s mannerisms.
Once again, we’re starting off the episode with Anakin and Ahsoka being separated from one another. Honestly, when does he ever get to teach her anything? On the other hand, at least we’re getting to see more of Padmé and Ahsoka together being friends. They’re evolving towards such a wonderfully sister-like relationship and it makes me happy.
You know what else makes me happy? Seeing Alderaan for the first time and hearing Leia’s theme as the musical cue in the background. No wait, did I say happy? I think I misspelled ‘emotionally destroyed.’
I’m not surprised that Aurra Sing is back though. After all, this is the Greatest Hits of the Clone Wars. What’s next? Another Ziro episode? For all my ribbing though, I did enjoy the episode. It’s nice to see Ahsoka work her way through figuring out her visions and then figuring out how to act on them. Padmé, on the other hand, must be 300% done with all the attempts on her life.
Okay, I need to clarify that I made that Ziro quip before Ahsoka had her vision at the end of the episode. Honestly.
The title on this Newsarama post is incredibly misleading, so here’s the gist: Dark Horse will be creating a comic arc to wrap up the Darth Maul story seen in the fifth and final Clone Wars season. Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir will be a four-part mini arc based on unused screenplays and plans from The Clone Wars. What this won’t be is the series finale that Newsarama claims it is. For clarification, Pablo Hidalgo and Jen Heddle took to Twitter.
The Maul comic is very cool, but it *wasn’t* the series finale. It was a 4-part arc that fell beyond what was already in production.
— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata) January 8, 2014
If there’s still confusion: the new Dark Horse miniseries only deals with a Darth Maul arc from near end of the series. Not a series finale!
— Jennifer Heddle (@jenheddle) January 8, 2014
So again, this is not the series finale and that’s probably not something you should expect from any of the tie-in or bonus content. Functionally, the season five finale is the series finale. We may get some closure to smaller character arcs from the bonus content, but I wouldn’t expect anything more definitive than the finale we’ve already gotten.
Aaaaaand we’re off with Season Three of the Clone Wars!
Clone Cadets
I’ll admit that when I saw the episode title that I was worried that I was going to start screaming about how won’t someone think of the children again but no, there was no need for that. Instead we’ve got an episode about some clones nearing the end of their training and who aren’t quite measuring up.
I get what they were going for with this much older clone that washed out of training and is a janitor now. However, it just doesn’t work out mathematically. Clones age at double the normal rate and there’s no way he could be quite as old and decrepit as he’s depicted here.
Also, I swear that one of the Domino Squad clones sounds vaguely more Scottish than the others. Not that the clones are supposed to sound Scottish to begin with. One of them just sounded like he had a bit of an accent. It’s so strange.
Even though it’s predictable, this was an enjoyable episode. I’m a sucker for seeing the apparent underdog figure out how to succeed especially when the secret comes down to teamwork. I also can’t recall if this is the first episode where we saw Shaak Ti but if not, it’s definitely been a while. I like her as a character and I like that she seems to have a good handle on being the General in charge of training. She should be around more often.