Hondo Caravan: Time For A Thrilling Prison Break

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The good news is that I’ve recovered from that bad taste Mortis left in my mouth.  The bad news is that I am somehow already at the end of Season Three.  How on earth did that already happen?  Well, I guess that’s only really bad news depending on your point of view and whether you wanted these posts to go on forever or not.

The Citadel
Is this the episode that made the internet scream about continuity and Even Piell?  I feel like it’s going to be judging from the previous clip.  No really.  I’m kinda excited to see this happen.  It’s much more fun to observe these things when I’m not invested in the outcome.

Anakin Skywalker.  You have a lot of bad ideas but this one probably takes the cake.  Carbon freezing your team so you can sneak into the Citadel without any life signs being detected is a TERRIBLE idea.  (And yes, all the tongue-in-cheek references to Empire Strikes Back were amusing but that’s really not the point here.)  This is going to go badly.  It must go badly.  If this idea works, I’m going to be really disappointed.

It didn’t go badly.  They didn’t even get hibernation sickness.  This is not fair.

At least he’s getting his comeuppance with Ahsoka sneaking onto the mission.  At least.  You’d think he would’ve learned that ‘do as I say, not as I do’ doesn’t work very well but nooooo.

I definitely need to give this episode applause for surprising me in a way that I absolutely did not expect.  It turns out that Tarkin is the Captain in question here.  I didn’t expect him to show up here.  Well done, show, well done.

And now the group is splitting up to try and make it out of the Citadel which OBVIOUSLY means that we’re about to end an episode.  I’ll admit it: I’m intrigued to see what happens in the next one.  Good thing I don’t even have to wait.

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Introducing Chopper: The Grumpy Astromech from Rebels

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How about a bit of behind the scenes material from Star Wars: Rebels? Meet Chopper, the grumpy astromech.

In Star Wars, droids are always eager to help out their human masters, drop whatever it is they’re doing when called upon, and sometimes even sacrifice themselves to save others. Right?

Not quite. Introducing Chopper, a lazy, cranky (if ultimately goodhearted) astromech droid, and the latest character revealed from the highly anticipated Star Wars Rebels animated series. “If Artoo is the family dog,” said Dave Filoni, executive producer of the show, “Chopper is the cat.” Chopper is an essential crew member of the Ghost, tasked with keeping the starship running and operable for its band of heroes. In reality, thanks to his many “unique” upgrades and customizations, no other alien, human, or droid could handle the job.

Review: Maul: Lockdown

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MaulLockdownCoverIt’s a dark side sort of day with the first Expanded Universe book release of 2014.  Out today is Maul: Lockdown by Joe Schreiber. What happens when you send one of the most dangerous beings in galaxy on a do-or-die mission?  A heck of a lot of carnage for starters.

Cog Hive Seven has a new inmate: Darth Maul.  Sent by his Master Darth Sidious to infiltrate the prison and find the elusive Iram Radique, a legendary arms dealer.  What might seem like a simple task is layered in complications.  No one’s actually seen Radique and lived to tell the tale.  Some think he’s just an urban legend.  On top of his mission, Maul must survive the nightly fights to the death organized by the warden and the gamblers across the galaxy want to see their newest champion fight.

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Diversity Amongst the Stars (And the Royals of Alderaan)

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There are some films that you can watch a dozen times and always notice something new and there are others where you pretty much get it on the first try.  Sometimes though, you watch a film, notice things subconsciously but it just doesn’t click into place until several viewings later when you sit up straight in realization.  I had one of those moments a few months ago while watching Revenge of the Sith.  The realization?  The Royal Family of Alderaan is not white.  The Royal Family of one of the most well-known and powerful planets in the galaxy does not fit the typical white human mold.  It’s funny how long it took me to come to this realization that the royal house of my favorite planet was more diverse than I’d previously realized.

brehabailWhile not every Alderaanian that we saw in the films fell into this category, a fair number of the ones of note in the Prequel Trilogy did.  The actors who played Bail and Breha are both of Hispanic and mixed descent.  A Brazilian actress played Bail’s aide, Sheltay Retrac.  While three might not be a huge number, it’s rather significant when we consider how few Alderaanians we saw in the films.

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Golden: Sword of the Jedi is on hold

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This isn’t exactly news, but it was a slightly more official confirmation of something we’ve known for a while. For a bit of clarity, this isn’t confirmation that the continuity is changing (though let’s be honest, it’s quite likely that will happen). If I were to wager a guess, Sword of the Jedi won’t be released unless LFL decides to go with a split canon that allows the legacy Expanded Universe to go it’s own direction.

Deconstructing Four Arguments Against Diversity in Media (That my Stupid Teenage Self was Guilty of Using)

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If there’s one thing we do with frequency here at Tosche Station, it’s discuss the importance of diversity and representation in media. Hell, we did just that yesterday. It’s something I do pretty regularly.

I haven’t always, though.

At some point I’m going to have to write the column discussing how the Star Wars fandom made me a feminist and much more socially aware than I used to be. The younger me was often flat-out dismissive of the need for better representation in fiction and fandom, and I went to some pretty great lengths to try and argue that those asking for more diversity in characters and better representation for other demographics were off-base.

I’m not particularly proud of the arguments my teenage self made to try and support what I firmly believe now was an erroneous belief. Again, there could eventually be another post as to why and how fandom changed my thinking about this particular subject. Suffice to say, I’ve learned that diversity and representation for people that don’t fit traditional character types is extremely important.

As I learned just how important the call for diversity was, I realized just how wrong the arguments I used against it were. Four in particular stand out. Four arguments that I was guilty of using thanks largely to how frequently others around me said the same thing. The one thing all of these arguments have in common is that, on the surface, they seem generally positive and fair and in no way designed to personally offend or attack those asking for better representation and diversity in media.

I would learn in time that they were anything but fair and were incredibly offensive.

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Review: Star Wars: Legacy #11

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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.

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Diversity for Diversity’s Sake Is Not a Bad Thing

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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 →

Hondo Caravan: Dathomir and Mortis

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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.

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Episode VII Roundup: J.J. Abrams says things and stuff

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JJ AbramsLet’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.