Tag Archives: Star Wars

Jaegers In Star Wars

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We’re a sucker around here for not only a good crossover but also for Pacific Rim.  With the awesome kaiju versus jaeger film out this week on DVD, it seemed like a good idea to ask those of you on Twitter just who you all thought would be drift compatible if there were jaegers in the galaxy far far away.  (Before anyone asks, my contribution was a joke.)


And because some of you had locked Twitters… a few last entries via copy and pasted:

@[locked user 1] Ultra Thunder Music Cloud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figrin_D’an_and_the_Modal_Nodes …
@[locked user 2] idk but the wraiths definitely have like five and are always altering the way they work and pissing everyone off
“YOU CAN’T HAVE A FIVE PILOT JAEGER GOD DAMMIT TAINER.”
but kell and shalla would probably have one and they’d want to call it Facepunch Bam but command probably wouldn’t go for it so
it’d be like Restless Rager or something everyone could agree sounded violent but also someone dignified (which is no fun).

Have some of your own thoughts about what Star Wars characters duos (or trios!) would make a good Jaeger pilot team?  Let us know in the comments!

Star Wars: Rebels Weekend Roundup

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New York Comic Con was this weekend and among the events was the first Star Wars: Rebels press panel of sorts. While we don’t have a release date or any animation from the show yet, new information and artwork was revealed. Most importantly, we learned that Rebels is set to take place fourteen years after Revenge of the Sith and not the eight years that was originally rumored.

Dave Filoni also checked in with a video and made it clear that a large number of The Clone Wars creative crew will be returning for Rebels.

He also introduced the series’ new villain tasked to hunt down the pockets of Jedi that survived Order 66, the Inquisitor.

Rebels Inquisitor

 

There was also a look at some concept artwork, such as this great look at the interior of a TIE Fighter.

One sight you may want to keep an eye on moving forward is SienarFleetSystems.com. That certainly is some pretty propaganda material.

Fore more details and artwork, be sure to head over to Club Jade to check out Dunc’s Storify compiling tweets from the event.

Review: Star Wars: Ewoks- Shadows of Endor

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Sometimes, a comic book is exactly what it reads on the label and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Out today is Ewoks- Shadows of Endor; a new Star Wars graphic novel for the younglings about everyone’s favorite fluffy little terrors.  Penned and drawn by Zack Giallongo with colors by Braden Lamb, it’s an enjoyable little tale about how Endor is turned on its head when the Empire arrives to build the shield generator for the new Death Star.

This review contains mild spoilers.

Continue reading →

Star Wars Rebels teaser trailer

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And here’s your fifteen second teaser trailer for Rebels on Disney XD.

The one line that caught everyone’s attention on Twitter last night was “The Jedi will rise.” Marketing buzz, or was Order 66 the least effective genocide ever? Who knows! Just keep in mind this was a fifteen second announcement for a show that is still in development, so the only thing anyone knows is that it’s called Rebels and that it’s airing on Disney XD.

There Is Still Good In Him

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“There’s good in him.  I know… I know there’s still…”  “There is still good in him.”  “I’ve got to save you.”

It’s not a stretch to say that redemption is a main theme of the Star Wars films and neither is it a stretch to say that the same theme continued through the Expanded Universe.  The story of someone’s fall to the dark and eventual redemption to the light has been repeated countless times throughout.  This is, afterall, a franchise built upon the story of the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker.

So why, in recent years, have we seen stories go against this?

I’m talking, of course, about Jacen Solo and also Vestara Khai.  How did we get to a point in the Star Wars universe where Luke Skywalker, Dark Side Redeemer Extraordinaire, isn’t consistently giving it his all to try and bring back his nephew or a young girl from the dark side?  But before we get there, let’s look back at redemption throughout the rest of the Star Wars Saga.

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Review: The Star Wars #2

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The Empire Strikes in the second issue of The Star Wars as Jonathan Rinzler and Mike Mayhew continue to tell and adapt the story of George Lucas’s original draft.

That’s no moon that’s rapidly approaching the planet of Aquilae.  The Empire has made its move and now General Luke Skywalker is scrambling to get the war codes from King Kayos so he can mount a proper defense.  Meanwhile, Annikin Starkiller is sent to retrieve the recently departed Princess Leia and bring her back safely from school.  General Darth Vader presses the Empire’s attack and things are not looking well for Aquilae or for two familiar looking droids who’ve found themselves in the middle of the space battle.

One of the things that makes this book fun is how Rinzler isn’t afraid toss in a familiar iconic line or at least an incredibly strong allusion to one.  The story feels distinctly different enough from the A New Hope we all know and love that the sly little nods are a nice little tie back instead of feeling groan worthy.  We also get to see snippets of scenes that survived from the rough draft into the final film which are another element that helps readers remember that this is a sort of alternative universe Star Wars.  Overall, Rinzler’s writing is a definite check mark in the positives column.

Mike Mayhew continues to be the perfect choice to draw this book.  His clean lines and overall art style give that slightly retro feel to it.  It meshes well with its status as the adaptation of a rough draft.  The costume design is also quite fabulous.  In particular, General Skywalker’s uniform stands out. It’s not terribly similar to the Jedi robes but still manages to have a similar feel while looking cool.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a cosplayer or two sporting the look at future conventions.  Leia’s outfit is another standout with a corset element to her look that almost feels like a steampunk influence but still fits with the overall outfit to give off that ‘Princess of Aquilae at her university’ vibe.  There is nothing negative that I could possibly say about this art.

The characters are definitely one of the most intriguing aspects of the book though.  We’re only two issues in and I’m already finding myself to be quite fond of this older Jedi General version of Luke Skywalker.  He’s definitely not a farmboy but rather an established and respected leader.  Princess Leia is perhaps the least changed from the films and is her usual stubborn yet sassy self and is a nice thread of continuity.  On the other hand, we have Annikin Starkiller who is, for a lack of a better term, infuriating.  His people skills seem to be a bit… ahhh… questionable.

Above all though, it was fun to see Threepio and Artoo for the first time.  It’s really quite strange seeing Artoo with dialogue instead of beeps and deets.  We seem to be heading towards a part of the story that we’re more familiar with so I look forward to seeing how their part in the story changes with no Obi-Wan Kenobi and no farmboy Luke Skywalker to carry the story along.

Again, I recommend picking up this book if the concept even remotely intrigues you.  Rinzler and Mayhew are making it worth it.  (And hey: if you needed another reason, context clues indicated that we’ll be meeting Han Solo soon.)

Rebels, Live Action, and Episode VII Rumor Roundup

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rebels logoAnd here we go.

First up, the big Rebels rumor right now is that the series may have a timeline placement. Making Star Wars (via the Bleeding Cool podcast) puts it around 8 years after Revenge of the Sith. Is this true? Who knows, but perhaps clarification is coming out of New York Comic Con next week.

Meanwhile in Episode VII land, Jedi News’ insider claims that Pinewood Studios will be handing the Cinderella stages over to Lucasfilm in November.

Rounding things out, a live-action Star Wars rumbling. According to Blue Sky Disney (via Club Jade), the success of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has Disney thinking about reviving the long-in production, long-on-the-backburner live action Star Wars television series. The trick? It would have to be retooled to be less dark so it could air on ABC.

UPDATE: Apply your grains of salt, but it’s rumored today that Saoirse Ronan, Ben Kingsley, and Sullivan Stapleton have read for Episode VII parts.

Kotaku profiles LucasArts’ collapse

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LucasartsThe shuttering of LucasArts still stings for a lot of fans. Many hold Disney accountable for closing the venerable game studio, but did problems for the developer begin before the sale? According to a Kotaku profile by Jason Schreier, LucasArts was in trouble years before Disney came into the picture.

Over the last five months, I’ve talked to a dozen people connected to LucasArts, including ex-employees at the company’s highest levels, in an attempt to figure out just how the studio collapsed. Some spoke off the record; others spoke under condition of anonymity. They told me about the failed deals, the drastic shifts in direction, the cancelled projects with codenames likeSmuggler and Outpost. They told me the stories behind the fantastic-looking Star Wars 1313and the multi-tiered plans for a new Battlefront starting with the multiplayer game known asStar Wars: First Assault.

All of these people helped paint a single picture: Even before Disney purchased LucasFilm, the parent company of LucasArts, in November of 2012, the studio faced serious issues. LucasArts was a company paralyzed by dysfunction, apathy, and indecision from executives at the highest levels.

It may not have been just 1313 and First Assault that wound up meeting untimely demises either:

In news that will certainly crush anyone who enjoyed LucasArts-branded adventure games, the team at LucasArts Singapore was working on a remastered version of the classic point-and-click game Day of the Tentacle, according to three people familiar with that project. Like the special editions of the first two Monkey Island games, released in 2009 and 2010, the remastered Day of the Tentacle would be pseudo-3D, with remade background art and cut-scenes redone to run at 30 frames per second…

…The list of cancelled projects goes on and on. There was Smuggler, a game designed for cross-platform multiplayer that would let you play as a customizable character within the Star Warsuniverse, smuggling and trading between Facebook, tablets, and consoles.P

There was Outpost, the Star Wars take on Zynga’s FarmVille that would let players build empires, one click at a time.P

There was Death Star, the iOS game in which you’d get to control your very own version of the Empire’s iconic space station.P

There was the online service that would be LucasArts’ very own version of Origin, EA’s network for distributing games and servicing online multiplayer. Like Origin for EA, this LucasArts-branded network would help the company distribute Star Wars games and in-app purchases. According to one person familiar with plans for this network, it would have launched alongside Star Wars: First Assault, which would have had some sort of microtransaction store.

Shortly after LucasArts closed, I cautioned fans not to blame Disney. The anger was understandable, the studio closure came right on the heels of The Clone Wars getting cancelled. From my outside perspective, it looked as if LucasArts had been in trouble for years and issues had cropped up almost a decade earlier. This piece by Kotaku lends more to the idea that the company had merely been on life support from Lucasfilm for some time.

Be sure to read the entire Kotaku profile, there’s a whole lot more there that paints a much clearer picture that the problems that befell LucasArts come from within, not from Disney.