Will You Marathon the Six Films?

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend a theater that has the full marathon running up to the first showing of The Force Awakens, so I'll be doing it myself at home.

It's going to be so amazing to not end with Ep VI. Mind-boggling for me, actually.

How about you? Are you going to be marathoning the movies, at home or at a theater?

Next Thursday Evening. It will be here next Thursday evening.

How unbelievably wizard is that?

May the Force be with you!

Venturing Into Twitter

You heard right. I'm stepping into a place I've never been before, and I'm still a bit disoriented. Social media is a strange beast. I don't think I'm as confused about what it is and what to do as Ewoks faced for the first time with a golden protocol droid...

Then again, that's my perspective and could be very, very wrong.

I'll figure it out eventually, I'm sure...

Anyway, it appears you can find me here: https://twitter.com/starwarssyl .The rest, I'm not quite sure about yet.

Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.

The End of Fringe

No.

Fringe is not Star Wars.

Yes.

I know this.

But, it is a show with plenty of Star Wars references, some of which are deeply hidden. Plus-- JJ Abrams. And, quite honestly, it's brilliant.

I've come to the end of it, having intermittently binge-watched it as I had opportunity. Though I was invested in the characters and story, I wasn't expecting the sudden tears-blurring-the-eyes response I ended up with.

Early in the first season I came to deeply respect Olivia Dunham. It was interesting to see different versions of her-- an alternate Olivia, a couple different options for Future Olivia, Olivia with a different history, raised by different people, past Olivias...

Recently, JJ said that the goal for Star Wars is to not just be something that fathers take their sons to see, but something mothers take their daughters to see as well. Star Wars has never been anti-girl, and there have been girl fans from the beginning, but I'm excited to see more and more awesome female characters as we continue with the new films and Rebels.

So no, Fringe is not Star Wars, but in a few ways it is close kin. Themes of hope and refusing to accept what seems inevitable, fighting instead for a better future, these things they share. I can't tell you how happy I am that JJ has been directing Ep VII.

And JJ? My Mom is taking me, her daughter, to see The Force Awakens as my Christmas present. It's going to be one amazing gift, and I can't wait.

May the Force be with you all!

The Force Awakens... Next Week!

I first became aware of "The new Star Wars movie" last year, right around Thanksgiving. I remember when we received a name-- The Force Awakens. I remember that first image released, and how we speculated as to what it might imply.


At that time, Ep VII felt so far away. I remember the excitement that exploded December 18, 2014 as we reached the "One year away" mark. The count-downs. Again, more speculations.

Now it's next week.

Next week.

I confess that it doesn't seem real. It probably won't seem real until I step into the theater and get in line.

It may not feel real until I'm in my seat watching trailers.

Of course... it may not feel real when the film is finally there, and we're seeing the logos at the beginning. It might not feel real until it's over, and I'm somehow walking out of the theater, trying to make sense of it all.

But what I can promise you is that I will enjoy every second of it.

The Prequel Trilogy was different from the Original Trilogy. That's good. It's right. It's wonderful. Though the Sequel Trilogy is being marketed as the Original Trilogy extended, I fully expect this new Trilogy to be its own, unique entity.

Which is also good, wonderful, and right.

Star Wars is many things, not just one thing. It has many textures and themes, and for each individual fan, Star Wars is something just a little different. Because of its intense diversity, from Originals to Clone Wars to Prequels to Rebels to canon to Legends, from zombies to witches to X-Wings to battle droids-- Star Wars has something for everyone. It is slowly reaching into every genre. The Clone Wars was a wonderful demonstration of that. Episodes ranged in feel from playful to very dark, and could be centered around good guys, bad guys, and every sort in between, younglings or droids, politicians or warriors, clones or crime lords. Adventures, missions, quests, or the more quiet home life of Anakin and Padmé-- windows into different aspects of the Star Wars Universe.

So I'll say it again. Star Wars isn't just one thing. It is many, many things at once. Whether certain fans like that fact or not, it is a beautiful reality.

Whatever this new Trilogy ends up being, I will love it. Not because it matches some preconceived notion I have in my head about what I think Star Wars "should" be, but because it is Star Wars. It's the continuation of the mythos. It's canon, and I can't wait for the new vistas it will open up in books, comics, cosplay, Anthology films, TV series, discussions, and of course, brand-new Star Wars fans who join the giant Star Wars family because of the Sequel Trilogy, and who will prefer it to Originals and Prequels. I greet you ahead of time!

The Force will be with you, always... and especially next week!

New Picture By My Brother Rex Logen!

My brother and I have been absolutely loving the new episodes of Rebels! Here's a bit of fan-art Rex put together. --Syl

Credits:

Darth Vader model and base textures by: MConDA4ever. (http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/73635)

Ahsoka model and base textures by: MConDA4ever. (http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/75563)

Posing, lightsabers, extra textures, mesh optimizing, rendering, and compsiting by: Rex Logen

Made in Blender Render.
Rendered in Blender Render.
Taken with a 80mm lens

May the Force be with you : )

Cheers,

Rex Logen
 

Lego Star Wars, Gambit on Geonosis

I must say, the latest Droid Tales episode, Gambit on Geonosis, is my favorite! I had the opportunity yesterday to see it for the first time.

I absolutely loved the old Yoda Chronicles and the New Yoda Chronicles. Gambit has a wonderful surprise-appearance by Jek-14 from that older series, a reference to Lindo Calrissian and his Falcon nightclub, complete with the music (also from the Yoda Chronicles) plus a TFA female characters joke, a Boba Fett-sarlaac joke, and the all around lego fun many of us have come to love.

I don't know if it was intentional or not, but the Boba Fett joke could be taken to be very in-depth. In the Legends- verse there are two accounts of Boba Fett escaping from the sarlacc, vastly different from each other. The one you can find in the short story collection Tales From Jabba's Palace, and the other is in the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy. Some have speculated that this can be explained by saying Fett fell in twice, at different times, therefore getting out two different ways. Now maybe that's not what Gambit was referring to, but I'd like to think it is.

It would be hard to decide what my favorite quote was from this episode. Perhaps Han's "I feel a disturbance in the Falcon," or Vader's "It's a little tricky."  Hm. I'll have to think about that.

So Soon...

The Force Awakens in a month and a half! Do you remember when we were celebrating because Episode VII was a year out? Wow. We're so close now...

Do you have your tickets yet? I do, and my whole family has decided to go with me, so they have theirs too.  Who are you taking to see Ep VII, or are you going to experience it first by yourself?

Clone Wars Inquisitor

Dave Filoni said something very interesting in the latest Rebel Recon, which you can watch on www.starwars.com.

Remember "The Inquisitor" from Rebels season 1? Filoni said that we've already seen him before. In the Clone Wars. We just didn't know it.

Am I the only one who is going to go through Seasons 1-5, the Lost Missions, Son of Dathomir, the Utapau and Bad Batch story reels, and Dark Disciple again, searching the backgrounds for possibilities?

The Utapau arc is the one that comes most forcibly to mind, of course, given his species... but he could be in some cantina somewhere, I suppose. Or the Senate. We really know very little... make that almost nothing... of this guy's past. Have you spotted him or have options on who he could be? I'd love it if you'd share your theories in the comments below!

Shinbone!

Guess what's arrived from the library?

Adventures in Hyperspace 2: Shinbone Showdown!

With Rebels and the new TFA trailer and tickets on sale, there's so much new to explore... but the old is new for me too, at this point in my explorations!

Now I'll finally be able to learn what this Shinbone business is about...

I'm curious to find out whose shin is important here; Han's or Chewie's, because Jabba doesn't have any.

We Have a Trailer...

... And what a trailer it is!

If you are as excited about The Force Awakens as I am, then you probably watched the trailer a whole bunch of times in a row. I sure did.

If you haven't seen the clips of John Boyega and Daisy Riddley watching the trailer, you should find them (starwarsunderworld.com has them). They responded like fans, which was utterly awesome.

The music! The lighting on the bridge of that destroyer-- the red glow! BB-8! Han and Leia and Chewie! X-Wings and TIEs! It's so hard to pick what was my favorite moment because the whole thing was utterly incredible.

I should go watch it again, try to pick out some highlights...

It's less than two months  until that Awakening we've been feeling comes. Oya Star Wars!

Padmé Foster

Contains no spoilers



Yes! I am running through Avengers Phase 1 again, just because, and I am watching Thor right now.

Of the Marvel (Avengers-verse only) characters, my favorite superhero was Thor. I liked his character-change arc, as he goes from overconfident and self-focused to something more.

And then a certain new character in Age of Ultron happened. Who has a yellow stone in his head. I think I may like him better.

Watching Thor again for the first time since Ultron is interesting. I'm seeing things differently now.

Which is always fun.

Would Clone Wars-era Anakin have liked Thor, had the two met? It would probably depend on who Natalie Portman was playing at that moment.

2 Days to Rebels!

My brother made this...

Credits:

Made by Rex Logen  in Blender v2.76(https://www.blender.org/download/) Rendered with the Blender Internal Render Engine.
A 50mm lens was used for this shot.
Check out more of his work here: (http://www.blendswap.com/user/CaptainRexhttp://)
 

New York Comic Con

It's here! Finally here! Today, fans will get to see two new episodes of Rebels season 2! Those of us not there, of course,(including yours truly) have to wait another week, but congratulations to those of you who ARE there-- to sort of quote Queen Amidala, our hearts go with you.

Also, I just discovered a countdown on www.starwars.com for Rebels... watching seconds tick by....

Have Interdictors Come?

It's in an officially released trailer, so I'm not counting any of this as spoilers.



It sure looks like they may have-- to Rebels! If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can watch the TV spot HERE.

I would love to see Interdictor cruisers. Not only is it a great nod to Legends fans, the idea in and of itself is awesome.

First Time Through: Gathering Shadows

Conains a mild plot point






I'm working my way through Tales From the New Republic, a little bit at a time. The short story Gathering Shadows, by Kathy Burdette, is the latest little bit.

The characters were definitely intriguing, as was the attitude towards the New Republic. I'm still in the first few years after Endor, timeline wise, so I'm not really sure how it turns out in the Legends-verse. When I finally get there, the new canon may be more fleshed out, and it'll be fun to compare the two.

I didn't recognize any of the characters, but from the feel of the story, I'd be surprised if they're not in something else too. That means I've either forgotten meeting them, or I haven't run into them yet.

I mean, if that planet and its zombie problem isn't important somewhere else...

The whole 'walking dead' concept seemed a little random and pointless for the overall story of two captured individuals and those wanting to break in. That's mostly what suggested to me there's more to all of this than the one short story.

Favorite Quote:

(In response to a plan that is now irrelevent)
"Yeah, see, that's the hitch."
[To explain further here would be a bit of a spoiler-- read it and you'll know what I'm talking about]

Sharing Heir

No spoilers





No, I don't mean Heir to the Jedi (which I haven't read yet), or even Heirs of the Force (which I have read), but Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn.

Up until the announcement that VII, VIII, and IX were actually going to be made, the Thrawn trilogy was fans' VII, VIII, IX.

Because of that, it's not only a good story, but a valued part of our history. The Force Awakens is not going to be Heir, it will be new, and that is wonderful. But so is where we've come from.

I have started reading the Zahn books to my Mom now, so she can experience them too. Heir was the 7th Star Wars book I'd ever read, and it was hard for me back then. I didn't know who Wedge was, was fuzzy on who Mon Mothma was, and Karrde, Mara Jade, and all the others made it beyond confusing for me. My Original Trilogy knowledge wasn't very strong. At all. You could say it was almost nonexistant.

Now, as I'm reading it again, I'm picking up on so much more. I know who these guys are. And the fun thing is, that means I can help my Mom figure it out too.

We're using the 20th anniversary edition, with all of those wonderful margin notes, and we're about 200 pages in.

I confess to being a big Thrawn fan. What can I say? He's good at what he does. Of course, because of the Prequels, I've grown to like Luke too... and then there's Mara.... and Karrde is fun and who could hate Lando? And in the wake of reading the first few X-Wing books, Wedge is awesome too.

It may no longer be canon, but it's fun, it's intricate (the whole Thrawn legacy, over all his books and short stories), and it's well loved. I don't like the legends of King Arthur any less because they aren't acurate history, and the same can be said here.

First Time Through: Fire Ring Race

Contains no spoilers



I know many adult Star Wars fans sort of ignore the "kids books," but my goal is to be familiar with every story, no matter who it was aimed for.

Adventures in Hyperspace. It's a series you may or may not have heard of. By Ryder Windham, it features Han and Chewie before A New Hope.

The series appears to have been intended to run longer than it did-- lasting only two books. Fire Ring Race, and Shinbone Showdown.

I just completed Fire Ring Race. Smuggling, space fights, tricky flying, Han being arguably mean to a droid-- it wasn't Scoundrels in complexity, but it was fun. The twist at the end, even more so.

The book was written in 2010, and isn't canon. That being said, it's still Star Wars, and I'm glad I read it. Now I'm off to see if I can get Shinbone from my library...


Favorite quote:

"I am the Royal Margravine Abominelle of Vena! How dare you spoil my holiday!"

Han's response: "I don't dare nothin', Your Abominableness; you're spoiled enough already."

Lost Stars

This post contains no spoilers.




Yesterday evening I finished reading Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray. It was my 191st Star Wars novel, and I really enjoyed it.

It took an in depth view of not just the Rebellion, but Empire as well. Plus there were references to Star Wars Rebels, the prequels, the Originals (of course) and...

Yes! The Force Awakens!

The back cover of the book had promised all-new post-Return of the Jedi content, but getting there... wow. With the EU no longer canon, every description of the new system and new scape of politics was breathtaking for me. Not everyone revels in Star Wars politics. I do. Naboo's importance, who's in charge after Endor... what Mas Amedda's up to... so much amazing info.

But not just that.

Jakku.

And a certain crashed Star Destroyer we've all seen in the trailers.

If you haven't read Lost Stars yet, I'd highly recommend it. Whether you enjoy the style of the book or not, the Jakku info means going into the theater this December and having that planet and that crashed destroyer mean something.

Mean a lot.

May the Force be with you!

In the Wait for Rebels Season 2

Warning: Siege of Lothal spoilers




Star Wars Rebels is finally returning, and I, for one, am beyond excited! Although we'll soon have new episodes to watch and discuss, the wait is still hard... so I went back to The Siege of Lothal.

There were so many amazing moments! Vader menacing Minister Tua, and Vader's cat and mouse game with the Ghost's crew- that maze leaving them only one logical place to go... and then being there, waiting, at the end.

That fight between Kanan, Ezra, and Vader? Wow.

Vader, taking on the fleet by himself just felt so right, considering who he once was, and apparantly spinning is still a good trick.

I'm thrilled to see Ahsoka, and the fear of the Imperials when they miss their intended catch and instead capture someone else is priceless.

But then there's that crowning moment.

You know the one I'm talking about.

The Apprentice lives.

That moment sends chills down my spine, even though I've seen it I don't know how many times.

Clones, new Inquisitors, Hondo (Yay!), and more await us in Season Two. So awesome! Think I'll go and watch one of those trailers again...