Tosche Station Radio #18: Cut Short

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It’s a brief episode of Tosche Station Radio this week, but the hosts still pack in the snark.

The show kicks off with a bit of housekeeping. First, Nanci recorded a guest spot on the Star Wars Beyond the Films podcast, so listen for her on a future episode. The Replace Mara’s Catsuit contest has also gotten an extension to August 15th to give costumers enough time to put an outfit together for convention season.

On the blog this week, we received two art entries for the contest from Victoria and a costume submission from Blizz. We asked for your snarky suggestions on what the new Star Wars videogame franchise that will be unveiled at E3 might be. Shane discussed the stagnation of technology in the Star Wars universe. But the big news, however …

On Wednesday, June 6th, Tosche Station Radio will be interviewing Expanded Universe author Aaron Allston! Be sure to send us your questions.

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We Dreamed a Dream!

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And it is nearly a reality!

Cameron Macintosh has released the first trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical Les Miserables. Those of you who listen to the podcast know that this is my most-anticipated movie of the year – yes, even above The Hunger Games and Prometheus and all those other movies everyone else is freaking out about. You see, I was a drama nerd in high school, and thanks to my teacher, I fell in love with this musical. I’ve seen it five or six times, and I’ve always wanted to see it turned into a film. (The version with Liam Neeson just did not do it for me.) Also, the idea that Hugh Jackman, one of my favorite actors, is playing the role of Jean Valjean fills me with absolute glee.

The trailer features Anne Hathaway’s version of “I Dreamed a Dream,” and, let me tell you, I got chills. Chills, people. I’m not a huge fan of Fantine (Eponine is my favorite character by far, with my favorite song of the show being “On My Own”), and I wondered how well Anne would portray the role, but now I’m completely convinced. And everything else looks absolutely amazing – the scenery, the costumes, the actors. Man, I cannot wait for this movie. Is it Christmas yet???

 (Thanks to the Big Shiny Girlcast for the link!)

Origins Game Fair Coverage This Week

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The Origins Game Fair in Columbus is this weekend and as it so happens, I’m going to be there. Keep an eye here on the blog and on our Twitter account for news, tidbits, and fun from the convention.

Notable guests in attendance include actors Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day. There’s also a host of great authors in the lineup such as Bryan Young, Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole and Origins Guest of Honor Aaron Allston. All of them will be holding reading sessions to show up new and upcoming books and will also be part of several panels throughout the event.

Dear Nanci: Snarky Advice for Geeks

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Sometimes, my brain works in odd ways. Earlier, Emily posted about the Droid Factory at Hollywood Studios and entitled her entry “Dear Nanci.” When I first saw her post, my mind immediately flashed to “Dear Abby” and all those other advice columns in newspapers and magazines. And then I thought, what would a geeky advice column be like?

Well, now is your time to find out, because that’s what I’m starting! Once a week, on Tuesday nights, I will answer (with large doses of snark, of course) your geeky questions about love, life, and fandom. So leave a question in the comments below, tweet us a question, or post on our Facebook page.

It’ll be fun – I hope! May the Force be with me!

Dear Nanci-

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Please go to the Droid Factory the next time you go to Hollywood Studios and then mail one to me. One with Mickey Mouse ears.

Seriously, though, how did I not know about this? I just have this vision of a shelf full of little astromech droids going up against my friend’s shelf full of Daleks. Hmm. Dalek versus R2-D2. Who wins?

Personally, I’m thinking R2. He’s sneaky.

Ninth Batch of ‘EG to Warfare’ Endnotes Talks Baron Fel

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Author Jason Fry released the ninth set of endnotes from Essential Guide to Warfare this morning. This week he discusses being in the Empire’s Service and dives into the War Portrait of Baron Fel as well as what went into the Han Solo section of the book.

Fel’s one of the more interesting EU characters, and I struggled with how to do justice to him, worried that a recitation of his career would be flat and dull compared to Dark Horse’s X-Wing #25, which I think is one of the greatest tales of the EU. I cracked the puzzle – or at least I hope I did — with the by-now-familiar tactic of taking a step back and seeing him through other eyes. Wedge was the logical choice to tell Fel’s story, as he’s not only a fellow pilot but also a fellow Corellian.

For more, head on over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr.

Replace the Catsuit: Costume Entry from Blizz

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Over the weekend, we got our first costume entry for the Replace the Catsuit contest. This one comes from reader Blizz. She says that this outfit was based on Mara’s appearance at the end of The Last Command graphic novel.

Lightsaber? Functional yet good looking jacket? Coruscant background? Nanci and I talked about this entry on the latest podcast episode we recorded and we both agree, this costume is great.

Thanks for submitting, Blizz!

Trope Tuesday: Deadpan Snarker

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"Two fighters against a Star Destroyer!?"

Another Tuesday, another highlighted trope. Every week we venture into the black hole that is TV Tropes and investigate a theme or device that makes the entertainment we love work. Up on the docket is a favorite of mine: Deadpan Snarker.

A character given to gnomic, sarcastic, sometimes bitter, occasionally whimsical asides.

The Deadpan Snarker exists to deflate pomposity, point out the unlikelihood ofcertainplans, and deliver funny lines. Typically a Deadpan Snarker isthe most cynical supporting character. In most cases, it is implied that the snarker would make a good leader, strategist, or consultant given their ability to instantly see the flaws in a constructed plan. More often than not, their innate snarkiness is the only thing preventing the other characters from comprehending this for themselves. In other cases, the Deadpan Snarker resorts to sarcasm because they’re the Only Sane Man.

The Star Wars Expanded Universe has a number of these characters. Most notable is Mara Jade, the snarky foil that Luke Skywalker so desperately needed in his life. Of course, their son Ben takes after mom. One of my favorite lines from him in Fate of the Jedi occured after Luke had relayed some stories of personal failure.

Ben: You know, it gives me hope that you screwed up so badly and so consistently as a kid, Dad.

From the X-Wing novels, you’ve also got Ton Phanan and Hobbie Klivian. The latter of which played the role of Deadpan Snarker perfectly in Starfighters of Adumar. A non-Star Wars example I’ve enjoyed lately was the character Fran Kranz played in Cabin in the Woods. That’s a case of mixing genre savvy with deadpan snarker.

Star Wars…and Wales?

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The BBC has put together an interesting little slideshow discussing the Welsh background of Star Wars, which includes a couple of really interesting pictures of the construction of the Millennium Falcon from The Empire Strikes Back–interestingly, the only point at which there was a full-scale model of Han Solo’s ship during the entire trilogy. Compared with this picture of the Falcon in the Hoth hangar bay, it’s pretty interesting to get a sense of the ship:

Hunting down a picture of the Falcon in the hangar bay, I found a particularly interesting project afoot to build a full-scale Falcon by some fans. This, in turn, led me to a book I’d not heard about that’s been out for about a year that puts together sketches from the planning stages of the movies: Star Wars: The Blueprints. It’s a limited edition run–only 5000 copies, and the cheap version runs $500 a copy, so it’ll remain a book we all lust over for now. They still seem to have plenty of copies left, though, so if you have a spare chunk of change, I can only imagine that this would be an really interesting visual experience.

Star Wars and Stagnation

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No, no I’m not talking about how it might appear that the longer the series seems to go on, the worse it gets, although that argument can certainly be made. No, what gives me pause is the recent popularity of the Old Republic series, the old RPG’s (KOTOR and KOTOR 2) and the new MMO.

I want to go ahead and make the statement that I have only played a touch of KOTOR and none of the MMO at all. This is not a critique of the gameplay or even the plot of the games. All of that is fine. This isn’t even a statement regarding the continuing breakdown of complexity in the expanded universe, where we once had characters like Thrawn that were not simply evil for the sake of being evil and all we seem to have left at this point is new Sith Lord with a really stupidly evil name.

No, I’m talking about the kind of stagnation we talk about when we mention it historically. To be succinct, what I’m referring to is a state in which a culture ceases to develop in meaningful ways, culturally and technologically. Culture stagnation generally occurs when no new material is being introduced and instead all that seems to appear is derivative of already existing works. Technologic stagnation is essentially the same.

So, Star Wars, the prequels and the trilogy, there is an established setting that has a diverse population of humanoid and completely alien life and two different ruling bodies, one a tyranny and the other an ostensible democracy with a single legislative and executive office combined into a senate, so essentially a parliamentary body instead of a separation of powers. There’s a lot of history regarding a body of enforcers that are separate from the government (and apparently derive their authority from a genetic mutation and have no oversight). Faster than light travel not only exists but is easily obtained by civilians and what is likely to be plasma based weaponry, again easily obtained and common technology.

This is where my problem starts. The Star Wars setting gives us a huge, interconnected galaxy related through conflict and trade. Now, if we’re willing to set a few things aside, like how does Thyffera supply literally thousands of worlds with a miracle drug, we end up with something not altogether outlandish considering the technology. Except for one thing.

What is that issue? Alright, I don’t have a problem with the Clone Wars or Galactic Civil War eras, it’s the KOTOR era stuff that’s causing all the problems. All of the technology seems to be the same, the FTL, the weaponry, lightsabers, Jedi, everything, it is all the same. And here’s the real kicker, this setting is supposed to be 5,000 years prior to the events of the movies.

So, nothing has changed in 5,000 years except governments. What is wrong with this galaxy?