Category: Opinion

In Defense of Superweapons

Posted on January 16, 2014by Obiwomble's Outlook

Ah, superweapons, Star Wars would not be the same without them! Despite this, they have a vexed reputation within the Expanded Universe. The frequent accusation is they cover for author laziness, need a SW story fast? Whip up a superweapon! But before that charge is investigated in more detail, what is a superweapon, one definition is this:

“A weapon, especially an extremely destructive one, based on highly-advanced technology.” (http://www.answers.com/topic/super-weapon)

And arguably one against which there is little or no defense! Certainly the Death Stars qualify, despite suffering reactor overload due to some really inconveniently placed torpedoes and missiles!

So, to the initial charge: Is the insertion of a superweapon really the result of author laziness? Or can it be said to instead represent the villainous heart of the story’s adversary? After all, only villains use superweapons? Don’t they?

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Escape Pod: Matthew Stover

Posted on January 14, 2014by This Belongs in a Museum

There are few Star Wars authors (none, actually) more universally revered than Matthew Stover, the author of Traitor, Revenge of the Sith, Shatterpoint, and Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. Stover writes his novels with moving prose, fantastic characterization, snappy dialogue, and generally an inspiring passion for the Star Wars universe. Some of the most memorable entries in the Star Wars Expanded Universe are the product of Matthew Stover, and Disney would be making a grievous mistake in not inviting him to play a role in any sort of EU 2.0. Throughout his involvement with the Galaxy Far, Far Away, Stover has demonstrated a fantastic capacity for utilizing the Star Wars setting to its utmost potential, and for crafting stories that inspire the fandom.

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Bottomless Cliffs: On LucasArts and Loose Ends

Posted on January 13, 2014by Scotch Tape and Popsicle Sticks

CliffhangerTribute02-Small

As the evidence starts accumulating that Star Wars is in for, if not a total reboot, at least a big, clean break from the past, it can be easy to lose track of how many existing stories in the Expanded Universe never quite wrapped up. It’s a tough bar to set, of course—every time I see someone ask “what loose end do you want resolved?” one person inevitably confuses “loose end” with “lack of information” and says something like “what happens to the Big Three after Crucible?”

So when I started formulating this article in my mind, I knew I had to focus on some of the best (read: most egregious) cliffhangers the EU had to offer; stories that really did leave characters in life-or-death situations with no easy resolution, only to meet untimely ends as the franchise moved on without them.

And then, as I started making a list, something even more interesting occurred to me—this isn’t really an EU problem as much as a video game problem. Sure, there have been some comparable situations in the larger body of material, but the only item I considered that came from the “modern” era of the last decade or so that wasn’t from a video game was the Galfridian family of the comic series Invasion, which was put on indefinite hiatus after its third story arc—a hiatus which, between the comics license leaving Dark Horse and writer Tom Taylor becoming something of a powerhouse over at DC Comics with Earth 2 and Injustice, I think it’s safe to say is now officially infinite.

But as much as I’d have liked to see more of the Galfridians, their last appearance offered far more resolution than some of LucasArts’ finest could claim. So I figured, if a theme emerges, might as well embrace it. Let’s talk about the three great dangling threads of the late, great-ish LucasArts era of Star Wars video games.
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What Star Wars Can Learn From The Jupiter Pirates

Posted on January 10, 2014by Imperial Court Circular

We’ve got a bit of an interesting case on our hands in that the “What Star Wars Can Learn From . . .” series here at Eleven-Thirty Eight generally tends to focus on other franchises entirely disconnected from Star Wars. The Jupiter Pirates: The Hunt for the Hydra is a brand-new novel by veteran Star Wars writer and esoterica enthusiast Jason Fry, who has written in his own original world but is definitely a player in the Expanded Universe that we all know and love. To that end, this article may well have been named: “Reasons why Jason Fry should be allowed to write a Star Wars novel.”

We shall try to maintain a dignified and discreet air about all this, though, because that suits our style better. But please imagine a subtext running throughout this article that amounts to a wink and a nudge to Lucasfilm and Del Rey to give this man a novel. We – that is, we ourself and not ETE proper – can also give our approving endorsement of this novel and certainly encourage our readers to give it a look.

This novel is kid-friendly in the best way: it’s written for a young adult audience (aged 8 to 12, according to Amazon, though the young adult label on the official website would suggest to us the ages of 13-18) and balances action with thoughtful world-building. It’s set in the future, but influenced by familiar history in a way that leaves the story grounded. That future is still plagued by some of the problems of today, but despite the historical tinge it’s not mired in backwards gender structures. These are all things we could stand to see more of in Star Wars.

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The Case Against Photoshop

Posted on January 9, 2014by Cry Havac
Honor Among Thieves: bad Photoshop in action

Recently, Mike made his defense of “ugly” art. By and large, I agree with his point that unusual or highly stylized art should be valued rather than simply dismissed. But I do take issue with his defense of Photoshop. Not because Photoshop is inherently bad — I enjoy many of the Fate of the Jedi covers he cites, and there has been other good artwork produced using photo reference and photomanipulation — but because I don’t agree that “people are much too quick to dismiss Photoshop as ‘lazy’ just because it’s not necessarily time-consuming.” Generally, people are right to dismiss Photoshop as lazy.

In the realm of art, both interior illustration and cover art, Photoshop has become increasingly prominent. The use of photomanipulation to create art pieces is common — and almost uniformly lazy. Even when it isn’t flagrantly work-on-the-cheap, photomanipulation’s effect is harmful because of its insidious tendency to substitute for classic artistic talent. And from a purely subjective point of view, I must say that it just never seems to look quite as good as good old-fashioned art.

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