Author: Ben Crofts

So, once upon a time you watched a Star Wars movie. You got hooked and starting seeking other tales, books, comics, video games and time went by. Years later you’ve changed, as has SW, and new films are coming out, with their own spin and there was a reboot no less. Amid all of this, what’s an old fan to do? The answer is surprisingly simple – no matter what, you hold onto that which got you into the story in the first place, regardless of what that may be.

It can’t be that easy, right? No. For instance someone may think it a great idea to kill off characters like Chewbacca because no one was using him. Or that it’s a great idea to put an ex-Imperial with untreated psychotic and megalomaniacal tendencies in charge of the galaxy. Or that there must be one unchanging Jedi Order across millennia with no variation permitted. Any long-running franchise will throw up challenges to the perspective of the long-time fan, which they must decide how to respond to. Often people look at development X and conclude whatever drew them to the story is no longer in place and it’s time to go. Others seek to sideline and mitigate the effect of development X.

And then, of course, there are the new fans. The ones who’ve just found it and are full of bubbly enthusiasm and think it’s all wonderful and not at all cynical about crap story development or high-handed corporate moves. Still, they’ll learn better, won’t they? Really? A better question to ask is why should they do so at all? If you look at an enthusiastic post about SW and are cynical about it, then you ought to consider that the problem is with you! New fans are fun and they bring new insights, new perspectives – and part of being a long-time fan successfully is embracing this, not resisting it. Read More

In recent years the video game industry has sought to present their products in a more sophisticated light, to demonstrate as it were that they have ‘grown up’. The option gone for, in these cases, is the bleak ending, with the notion that, in the end, all your hero character can do is choose how to fail, not how to win. Mass Effect 3 is one well-known example, but the recently released Batman: Arkham Knight is an equally worthy, perhaps worthier, contender.

Say the words ‘narrative of failure’ to a Star Wars fan and two options spring to mind – The Empire Strikes Back and Revenge of the Sith. Yet, though both tend to get lumped into the category of ‘bad guys win’ stories, do they really? ROTS ends on a hopeful note for the future and while they’ve been blasted by their experiences, no one is dead at the end of ESB.

It is important to recognize the importance of the medium used. There are notable differences between film and video games, particularly with regard to the user, that suggest that film can get away with certain narrative moves video games cannot. The principal difference being activity. While the audience may indeed become emotionally or intellectually hooked on a film’s plot, they are still essentially passive in the sense they are the audience and cannot impact the tale. In contrast, video games require a level of active involvement with, in the best games, an ability to affect the plot outcome. At its most basic, this is simply in continuing the game and not being killed, but has gone much further with games having multiple endings that are chosen by player choices. Read More

Late last week, an excerpt from the upcoming Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig was released. To say it proved divisive amongst fans would be an understatement, but disliking a particular writing style is hardly a big deal, no? If only it had stayed at that. No, some of those who greatly disliked it felt a need to add a qualifier to their criticism, that clearly the book was written for a younger and dumber audience, demonstrated by its short sentences and use of present tense. To these people, the excerpt was proof that their beloved Star Wars was being hijacked by short-attention-spanned Twitter addicts.

I would not begrudge anyone the right to dislike something on personal aesthetic preference. How a story does and does not appeal to an individual is going to be a highly subjective matter, that’s fine. What is not is slagging off a entire generation in a bid to give your personal criticism a perceived sense of greater legitimacy.

What set off this particular firestorm? Based on the excerpt, Wendig has opted for a quick, staccato rhythm to his prose which places the reader in the heads of the character as they respond to the situation at hand. It gives the reader an immediate sense of time and place, but with a corresponding level of chaos and incomprehension. In this respect, for me, the prologue set on Imperial Plaza in Coruscant was the more effective sequence. The rest of the excerpt is concerned with Wedge Antilles basically getting into deep shit with a couple of Star Destroyers. Yes, those are not good odds for anyone, Corellian or not. Read More

With the recent terrorist attacks, I’ve been noticing an increased amount of online belligerence regarding matters like the Islamic State. The line tends to be that ‘we’ should do more, but rarely goes further to say ‘what’ that is and what ‘our’ ownership of it and the consequences would be. At the same time the recent release Lords of the Sith attempted to ask what committing to a rebellion actually means and what guerrilla warfare entails. Some found the notion of a Rebel cell ambushing Imperial medical personnel disturbing, which I’d be inclined to say was the point. But they’re medics, you object! Yes, but they are also medics who patch up the stormtroopers and play a role in keeping the Empire going. Does that mean they deserve death? Deserve likely has little to do with it!

Ever since the first Gulf War, politicians and generals have tried to sell the idea that war can be somehow rendered more civil, more clean. Smart bombs will only kill the bad guys, their shrapnel won’t hurt anybody who doesn’t deserve it. It’s a nice picture, but an accurate one? Not really. The problem with accounts of war, as I’ve found when reading World War II accounts, is what they depict is unimaginably vicious. Not even the best and most skilled film-making will bridge that indefinable gap between fiction and reality. It can be argued it should not try either.

In the end though, I am a civilian, I have not, nor would I ever have the skills to, go to war. At least not without being a liability to everyone else! In this strange world of more restrained media reportage of real wars, while entertainment creators strive to render war in their stories more accurately, I wondered what someone who has been to war would make of all this. I asked a poster on one of the message boards I’m active on if he might, as a military vet, be interested in doing a brief Q&A. He was, on condition of remaining anonymous. My thanks to him for his time and answers. Read More