Coruscant Craft Fair: Star Wars Snowflakes

We’ve featured Star Wars snowflakes on the Coruscant Craft Fair before, but in preparation for the holiday season, we’ve found even more. Matters of Grey not only updated the original patterns, but they’ve created new Star Wars snowflake patterns based on the ones we originally featured.

You can now download snowflakes that feature Darth Vader, Clone Troopers, Han Solo, X-wings, Star Destroyers, and Princess Leia! This might be perfect for your windows, especially if you’re getting ready to pull out all your Star Wars ornaments for the tree as well.

Star Wars Ladies Go Disney!

Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm was approved today which means one thing: there will only be more Disney-Star Wars mash ups in the future.  We may outwardly roll our eyes but inside, I think we can all agree that if we don’t see Jedi Princess Jasmine or Disney Princess Leia or some combination of Aurora and Amidala in one costume around conventions next year that we shall all be disappointed.  Endless possibilities, folks, endless possibilities.

I’m going to go ahead and publicly blame Brian for this post.  I’m a bit obsessed with messing around with doll makers and he decided that I should share these designs with you.  So the short version is that while I did make these, it’s not my fault.

And with that, I shall simply present my answer to the question “What would the ladies of the Star Wars universe look like if they were part of an animated Disney film?”

Princess Leia Organa Solo

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The Way is Clear: Anti-Trust Regulators Okay Disney’s Lucasfilm Purchase, Netflix gets Disney subscription rights

Via Yahoo! today: The AP reports today that Federal anti-trust regulators have given the all-clear for Disney to buy out Lucasfilm. Disney’s stock prices closed up .02% on the news.

What is of other interest in Disney news is that Netflix has grabbed the subscription rights to Disney films, starting in 2016, also according to the AP, and The Wall Street Cheat Sheet notes that this includes movies from Pixar and Marvel. However, with Disney’s newest acquisition, a question might be whether or not movies from Lucasfilm will show up on Netflix as well.

Star Wars: Legacy to Return in 2013

Undeterred by the announcement of Episode VII, Dark Horse Comics has announced today that Legacy will be returning in 2013. CBR has the exclusive:

Next year, fans of the “Star Wars” franchise will still be reading comic stories set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but the latest round of stories from Dark Horse will be set a little less of a long time ago.

The publisher today revealed exclusively to CBR News that “Star Wars: Legacy” will return in the new year. Set over 100 years after the events of the original “Star Wars” trilogy, the newest iteration of the book will be written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, best known for their well-received run on BOOM! Studios’ “Planet of the Apes” comics.

Here’s the relevant bit that will get comic fans excited:

Detail are scarce on how this new series will follow up on that previous, popular “Legacy” series, which lasted 50 issues with an additional mini series wrapping in early 2011, but one solid piece of info provided by Dark Horse is that this comic will carry the Skywalker bloodline in a new way. Namely, the series lead will be a young woman who is the great-granddaughter of original movie characters Han Solo and Leia Organa! While the pair have born twins in the previous expanded universe tales, the status and the outlook of this new face remain unknown.

In addition, Dark Horse also revealed the Dave Wilkins cover for the first issue.

 

Cosplay Monday: The Wampug

No, I’m not Bria. I might have begged Bria to let me have today’s Cosplay Monday post, because this was just too good not to share. I might be a newbie at cosplaying (I just bought my first pair of cosplay boots over Thanksgiving), but I can certainly appreciate a good cosplay when I see it.

But why should we limit cosplaying to humans? After all, dogs can cosplay too!

Presented by YouTube user StarWarsChick01: The Dread Wampug!

Look at this! Perfect fur, perfect horns, and putting this costume on a pug was a great choice–after all, that squished wrinkly face looks a lot like a wampa, and anyone who’s ever heard a pug snore can certainly hear the resemblance between their pup and Hoth’s snow terror. Apparently, she’s also made a bantha costume for Chubbs the pug.

My first thought was “I wonder if I could get Bria could make one of those for Truffles.” Because really, my brother’s pug needs a wampa costume. Don’t you agree?

Lucas Clarifies (Or Muddies) Consultant Role

Since the news of the Lucasfilm sale and new Star Wars films broke a month ago, fans have speculated just how much George Lucas would be involved. Despite selling off the company and story treatments, I’d gotten the impression that the fandom seems to think Lucas will remain heavily involved in the development of the new films. What does the man himself have to say about all this? Access Hollywood asked:

“[If the filmmakers ask],‘Who’s this guy?’ I can tell them,” he told Access at the event in Los Angeles. “I mean, they have a hundred encyclopedias and things, but I actually know a lot. I can say, ‘This is this and this is that.’”

But answering questions about the more remote characters of his beloved galaxy may be where George’s involvement ends.

“Basically I’m not — I don’t really have much to do,” he said.

Of course, the risk in reading too much into this particular quote is the same risk you have when reading into any quote from George Lucas. The man is notoriously snarky and sarcastic. Take him at his word and he apparently isn’t all that involved with Episode VII. If you read that as snark, who knows?

It’s going to be a long three years, folks.

(via)

EU Retrospective: Attack of the Clones

I took a few days off for Thanksgiving (and so I won’t completely kill Brian with my fast reading speed) but we’re back with more Prequel Era books!  This time, half of the books were obvious tie-ins to books from much further down the timeline and two of them were, well, Attack of the Clones based.  This one’s a bit more of a mixed bag than before.

Rogue Planet
Okay so you know how some people hate Boba Fett and get annoyed by how fans adore him and he gets all these appearances etc etc?  Yeah, that’s me except with Tarkin and the building of the Death Star.  Honestly, what is this obsession that EU authors have with him and the Death Star?  I mean, I know it was a cool looking space station that blew planets up but can we not credit everyone and their mother with its construction?

Overall, the book’s okay but it’s so obviously there for the New Jedi Order that it feels far too much like an extended short story sometimes.  Character-wise, it’s good.  I actually really enjoyed getting some insight into the early years of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s Master/Padawan relationship.  I also rather enjoy Thracia Cho Leem because anyone who can out sass Mace Windu and have his respect deserves your respect.  It’s too bad that she leaves the Jedi Order because wow is he going to need her in about a decade when Shatterpoint happens….  The only thing I’m really not fond of is getting beaten over the head with “Oooo Anakin’s going to fall to the Dark Side one day!”.  I get what Greg Bear was doing but at times, it felt like a bit too much.  Also, I will be forever sad that Anakin didn’t get to keep his ship.  Poor baby.

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‘Winner Lose All’ Available December 10 for $1.99

Excited for Timothy Zahn’s upcoming Scoundrels? You’ll be able to whet your appetite with an all-new ebook novella on December 10:

Star Wars: Winner Lose All-A Lando Calrissian Tale” by Timothy Zahn is a special eBook original novella. The tale is a prequel of sorts to Zahn’s upcoming novel STAR WARS: SCOUNDRELS (available in hardcover, eBook, and Audio on Jan 1) and will be available for all eBook devices on December 10 for only $1.99. Pre-order now for this fun adventure and don’t forget to begin 2013 with some scoundrels!

That certainly sounds like some great fodder for your e-reader.

Trope Tuesday: Off with His Head!

It’s Tuesday. A post-holiday Tuesday, which is the worst kind of Tuesday. How does a bit of a distraction sound? Up this week in our regular trope feature is a look at one called Off with his Head:

If you’re dealing with any sword-oriented media, whether it be fantasy, medieval, kung fu, or something else, and it’s more violent than a PG-13 rating, chances are, someone is going to get his head chopped off (and it may not even need the R rating if you’re dealing with nonhuman enemies). One of the most common methods of execution back in the medieval era next to hanging, decapitation is usually one of the surest ways to ensure someone is Deader than Dead barring some very potent magic or divine intervention.

Any Ridiculously Human Robot or other decidedly inhuman being will probably be capable of surviving decapitation, and will do so at some point either for a joke or as a plot point. In less serious series, the body will even continue to walk around bumping into things.

It is nearly always depicted as being surprisingly easy to do, even in one blow to a moving target. While Anne Boleyn did get beheaded with one stroke, most pre-guillotine beheadings took at least three strokes (plus, Boleyn’s executioner was — by request — a professional swordsman who would know how to cleanly behead someone).

Sword oriented media, you say? Yeah, this trope has definitely happened in the Star Wars universe a few times. Leia executed (pun fully intended) the trope in Fate of the Jedi: Conviction. Shimmra lost his head to Luke Skywalker in the New Jedi Order. Then of course, there was the case of Jango Fett versus Mace Windu. It didn’t end well for Fett.