The Pitch – Rebels Bottle Episodes

A handful of you will find this hilarious.

While we’re only a couple of weeks away from the official premiere of Star Wars Rebels, it may be a while yet before we really know on a macro level what the show is about. The Inquisitor, after all, doesn’t even join the party until later on—and it remains to be seen just how big of a presence he’ll be in the first season as a whole, to say nothing of future seasons. The same goes for Lothal—it’s the heroes’ base of operations for now, but forever? I doubt it.

So with that in mind, I asked the others to pitch their ideas for what you might call Rebels “bottle” episodes. Colloquially, a bottle episode of a TV show is a standalone story designed to be produced entirely using existing sets and contracted actors, meaning it can be produced for a bare minimum of expense—often these will show up to allow for something particularly extravagant elsewhere in the season.

While I didn’t hold them to the “cheap” part, I did mandate that the story be entirely self-contained, so it could theoretically go anywhere in the first season without getting in the way of whatever the larger arc turns out to be. Here are their ideas. Read More

Sacred Shaaks – Eleven-ThirtyEight Goes Negative

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Despite all the hay I’ve made over wanting this site to be a source of positivity, I belong to the school of thought that says if you’re not making anyone angry, you’re doing something wrong. Between my natural contrarianism and a nagging aversion to treading the same ground as every other fan blog under the suns, now and then I’ll go out of my way to highlight a point of view purely because I don’t hear it very often. Even if I don’t personally agree with something, if I feel like there’s a fair point to be made that’s being denied a seat at the table due to nothing more than aggressive common consensus, I consider it our responsibility as a soapbox to expand that conversation rather than condense it.

While that philosophy has poked its head out at least a handful of times already, its most blatant expression on this site is one I haven’t really addressed overtly before—the phrase “no sacred shaaks” in our tagline up top. Totally aside from whatever my actual opinions are, nothing gets my back up more than a reasonable person being shouted down because their opinion is unpopular. One of the things I love about Star Wars is that it can be interpreted in so many different ways; nothing about it is wholly good or wholly bad, and to orthodoxically condemn or defend any one element is to reduce it by definition—but ask some fans and you’d never know it. Read More

Phineas and Ferb Star Wars: A Reaction

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“And none of this is canon so just relax…”

Disney Channel’s Phineas and Ferb Star Wars was a delightful take on A New Hope that kids and adults can enjoy. With little in jokes like the quote above even a pretty serious Star Wars guru will be able to find enjoyment in this cartoon. In classic Disney fashion they include some fun songs like “We Love Tatooine” and “In the Empire” that also include some pretty clever references and some hilarious rhymes if you listen closely. I will admit that I have watched quite a bit of Phineas and Ferb before I saw there was going to be a Star Wars episode so it is possible that I found more enjoyment in their take on Star Wars because I know the characters involved on both sides. I can’t guarantee that if you’ve never seen an episode of Phineas and Ferb that you’ll enjoy this as much as I did but really this is worth watching for the songs alone.

The basic premise follows A New Hope by intertwining the Disney channel characters into the story. Three of the young characters are in the Empire, one is a smuggler, Agent Perry is part of the Rebellion, Phineas and Ferb play their usual selves only they are force sensitive friends of Luke Skywalker. This spread of characters allows the show to cover all aspects of A New Hope. Phineas and Ferb run into R2-D2 and the death star plans fall out of him. The two heroes then decide to embark on an adventure to get the plans back to R2-D2 and the Rebellion. Read More

The Pitch – Marvel Star Wars, The Next Generation

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In our first “The Pitch” piece way back in November, we submitted some ideas for new Star Wars novels we’d like to see. At the time, the only books known to be forthcoming were Maul: Lockdown and Honor Among Thieves, and with the canon situation unresolved, no one really knew what to expect from Star Wars novels in 2014 and beyond—or whether there’d even be any.

Shortly afterward, the announcement came down that the Star Wars comics license would be transferring from Dark Horse to Marvel at the end of 2014. Now, six months later, we’re in much the same position with comics as we were back then with novels—the last of DHC’s new offerings will be along next month, and as yet there’s been no information of any kind on what Marvel will be releasing next year (though with San Diego Comic-Con in a few weeks, I suspect we won’t be in the dark much longer).

So this time, I asked the others to pitch their own Marvel comic series. This being our first Pitch article post-reboot, I also made it clear that ideas didn’t need to fall in line with the existing Expanded Universe. Here’s what we came up with. Read More

What Star Wars Can Learn From Arrow

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For those not in the know, The CW’s Arrow is arguably one of the best shows on TV. If you haven’t watched it you really need to do so. The writers, creators and actors are encompassing everything I’d hope to see out of a superhero show and it makes me hopeful if Star Wars ever decides to produce a live action TV show. From being light on romance to unique flashback scenes to a fantastic hero’s journey and even to the pure escape of everyday life for the viewer there is much that Star Wars can take from the success of Arrow. Read More