Category: Simple Tricks

According to My Design – The Staff Re-Revisits Infinities

Posted on May 23, 2014by , , , , and

obi-pit kenobi

Shortly before continuity exploded, the staff of Eleven-ThirtyEight gathered to ponder some of our own “what if” ideas for the Original Trilogy, in honor of the classic Star Wars Infinities comics of the early aughts. I’m now proud to present round two, in which we push further than Infinities ever did, by which of course I mean go backwards, into the great goldmine of ill-considered decisions that is the Prequel Trilogy.

You may notice a new name below, so let me also take this moment to welcome Rocky Blonshine, she of our recent feature article on the Rule of Two, and now our newest full staff member here at ETE! Welcome aboard, Rocky—you break it, you bought it.

Jay: After watching Revenge of the Sith, we’d all wondered how it was possible that Obi-Wan could jump over Maul without injury while the same maneuver pretty much destroyed Anakin. As everyone knows, possessing the high ground gives you a +5 attack bonus. Suppose, then, that Kenobi was the one diced in half at the end of The Phantom Menace instead of Darth Maul — what changes? Read More

One Sith Two Sith: Evil and Sustainability

Posted on May 9, 2014by Feature Articles, The Holocron

onesith

The Sith are the iconic antagonist of the Star Wars galaxy- black robes, red lightsabers, some cackling laughter and lightning- the very image of evil. We first meet them with the condition of one Master and one Apprentice, and later find out that they have a much richer history. This Rule of Two is perhaps the riskiest idea for long-term Sith survival, as their very nature would make it far too easy for just one overly ambitious and underpowered apprentice and one overconfident master to both end up dead, almost ensuring the extinction of the Sith. However, a large group of constantly infighting Sith could cause the death of many valuable Lords. Throughout Sith history, they tried several power structures, and their newest was perhaps the most sustainable and threatening. Who wouldn’t want a good villain that could sneak up on us at any time?

As we all know, the Sith began as Jedi who explored the Dark Side more deeply and were banished from Republic space for doing so. They found the Sith species in the Unknown Regions, and through a blend of alchemy and interbreeding plus years of isolation, became a powerful empire. We start to see the Sith again in the Great Hyperspace Wars, when the Sith accidentally find the Republic again and general chaos ensued. Every time we see the Sith of the Old Republic, the constant infighting and plotting amongst themselves is a common theme- sometimes to the point that we have to wonder how they get anything else done. We meet several versions of the Sith- the Hyperspace War, Revan and Malak creating a new Sith Empire, the triumvirate of Traya, Nihilus, and Sion descending into a civil war that nearly consumes the Sith as well as the Jedi, and the treaty of Coruscant that ends with a cold war between Jedi and Sith. Throughout this, the pattern is of a large group of Sith Lords, often plotting against each other to the detriment of their fellow Sith. However, the Sith still manage to survive and often win, constantly bouncing back and doing damage to the Republic and the Jedi. Read More

Checking in with Jason Fry, Part Two: Rules of the Road

Posted on May 6, 2014by Interviews

Last week, I spoke with Jason Fry, longtime Star Wonk and co-author of the brand-new Expanded LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary. If you missed it, head here for Jason’s thoughts on that book, his own Jupiter Pirates series, and his initial musings on the new landscape of Star Wars canon.

In Part Two below, we get a little more into the nitty-gritty—in particular, how the current Story Group-coordinated status quo has—and hasn’t—changed the process of writing new Star Wars books. Jason also shared some thoughts on the recent April Fools fiasco over on Wookieepedia, and his own experiences at the site.

Getting back to the 500-pound gorilla, you and Ryder Windham were actually known to be writing Star Wars Rebels tie-in books well before the recent announcements; as one of the first people to write for the “new” canon, how has the process changed and how has it stayed the same? You’re known, of course, for working well with the EU, but is there more scrutiny on those little details now that they’d constitute a sort of “recanonization”? Read More

Checking in with Jason Fry, Part One: A Certain Point of View

Posted on May 1, 2014by Interviews

When Eleven-ThirtyEight was starting out last summer, Jason Fry quickly became one of the first Star Wars VIPs to agree to talk to us. We were already familiar with Jason from his frequent visits to TheForce.net’s Literature forum, and I’m happy to say that his frank, easy-going and accessible manner carried over into our new relationship with him as—and picture air quotes as I say this—journalists.

So when the reboot hit the fan on Friday, I knew immediately that if there was one person whose reaction I wanted to hear, and who would actually be kind enough to offer it, it would be Jason. Also, he’s got a little thing called the Expanded LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary coming out today (and a new Jupiter Pirates book on the horizon), which I’m sure didn’t hurt. He had so much to say, in fact, that I’ll be saving the second half of our talk for next week. Enjoy! Read More

Das Reboot – The First 48 Hours

Posted on April 28, 2014by , , , , , and Not A Committee

confused stormieSo that happened.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about you probably wouldn’t be reading this site, but so as not to confuse the aliens who exhume the internet a million years from now: Star Wars continuity has done the unthinkable and performed a hard reboot.

Going forward, the only “canon” Star Wars material is the six films and the Clone Wars TV series; everything else is out unless drawn directly from said material—even novelizations are currently a question mark. New novels, comics, etc. will be written with the oversight of Lucasfilm’s Story Group, and for the first time ever, be considered equal to the films—as, naturally, will the new TV series Star Wars Rebels.

All the old stuff, however, is pretty much staying in print, and being rebranded under the shiny new “Legends” banner, an example of which you can now see at the top of this site. I stuck it there partly as a lark and partly to commemorate the wonderful (and wonderfully exhaustive) universe we here at Eleven-ThirtyEight have been mired in for most of our lives, but I should add that we aren’t going out of print, either. What exactly this means for the site going forward is something I’ll get into later this week, but first I wanted to share our immediate reactions—and in some cases, our second thoughts as the weekend went on.

Serendipitously, the finale of Alexander’s A Case For Starting Over series was already scheduled to run tomorrow, so stay tuned for that, and much more over the coming weeks. Read More