Author: Rocky Blonshine

What really makes a good villain? We’re surrounded by them, and in a galaxy whose defining conflict is that of good and evil, we need some adequate challengers from the dark side. Some villains are best defined by their over-the-top plotting, some are something of comic relief, and some are horrifying just by how familiar they are to us. We are surrounded by villains, and it’s time for a rogues’ gallery of the good, the bad, and the unintentionally funny.

A truly effective villain must straddle the line between ominous and omnipotent. A villain who is too good or too consistently out-thinks our heroes will soon be considered too strong, but one who can’t accomplish a single plot without being foiled is no better. The team of bad guys that we meet in the GFFA combines many types of villains, and they all have different motivations. We meet some who are just doing their jobs, some who believe in their evil, and some who believe their causes are justified. We all associate Darth Vader and the Emperor with evil, and seeing the shadowy machinations of the mysterious Darth Sidious keep us interested. The Empire themselves are often a more mundane sort of evil, as they just follow orders. The more morally grey parts of the saga also provide some heroes and villains, and some who even switch sides. We’re going to need an ensemble of enemies to populate Episode VII and beyond. Let’s find some ideas.

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Thirty years is a long time between Episodes VI and VII. The GFFA will have to completely rebuild its political systems and recover from a civil war, and the Jedi will have to find some way to continue. Now that all of this time is completely open, what are the possibilities for reestablishing the Jedi? Restoring order to the galaxy as a whole is a challenge enough, but the Jedi have been the protectors of justice and the Republic, and perhaps it just won’t be a new Republic without them.

In Heir to the Empire, Luke is reminded that he is “not the last of the old Jedi, but the first of the new.” Regardless of canonicity of this moment, this is a weighty charge. Giving one quickly-trained Jedi the responsibility of restoring the entire order is intimidating. So much Jedi history has been lost and destroyed to the point that Luke has literally no clue where to go from there, and there are no easy answers. In the Expanded Universe, Luke muddles through reestablishing the Jedi. Records appear, potential students come out of the woodwork, and it becomes clear that the Empire hasn’t been able to completely eradicate all non-Imperial Force-users. Some student succeed and become the teachers for the next generation, some fall to the dark side, some leave the order- just as the old Jedi order. Considering how little information Luke has to work with, it’s quite a miracle that the Jedi return and survive.

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It’s June, traditionally Pride month. It’s time to talk about queer fandom and mention the very fact that it exists and matters. Especially in Star Wars- a fandom whose diversity issues have recently come to light with a bang- queer fandom has a place, and deserves to be discussed.

With all the talk of diversity and representation in fandom, we’re finally hearing from those who feel marginalized by mainstream culture. Let’s face it, the Star Wars fandom has been traditionally very unfriendly to those who aren’t straight white men. For years on end, the rest of us were shunted off to the sides and seen as anomalies, but that isn’t so any longer. Internet fandom has changed recently, and now Tumblr is quite the space for fandom. It’s a space with many voices that aren’t those of the ‘mainstream,’ a space where we discuss the need for representation in fandom, the possibility of queer characters, and the problems of mainstream media’s relationship to queer fandom. Slash fanfic has been for a while one of the few major representations of queer fandom- writers, often female, and sometimes queer, explore the possibilities that the mainstream media wouldn’t give us. It’s become somewhat stigmatized in some circles; what does that say about mainstream fandom’s attitudes towards anything that isn’t straight? When fan culture starts hearing the voices of those who aren’t what people may think of when they hear ‘fans,’ suddenly diversity matters all the more.

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