That Rebels Cosplay Family is Exactly as Awesome as You Expected

Posted on June 2, 2014by

GhostCrewA couple months ago, WonderCon finally gave fans their first serious taste of the upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels. The big news out of the show’s panel was Kevin Kiner’s return as the show’s composer (including a sneak peek at the show’s theme music) and for the first time, a look at a completed action sequence from the series itself.

But the most memorable moment, at least for some of us, was the appearance of the Perales family of California, fully and immaculately costumed as nearly the entire cast of the show we were just then really starting to learn about. Mom and dad Liz and Sal Perales played the roles of Sabine and Kanan, respectively, accompanied by kids Lizzy and Axel as Hera and Ezra, and even their teddy bear joined the fun with her own Chopper-inspired cap. The whole thing was perfectly amazing—so much so that they were invited onstage at the panel to show off, prompting a nervous “hope you like the show” from creator Dave Filoni.

Sometime later I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Liz and Sal on Twitter, and I finally had the opportunity to learn more about the family that launched a thousand snapshots. They were gracious enough to answer my questions, and even provided some exclusive photos to accompany this interview. For more pics be sure to check out Rogue Rebels, their official cosplay Facebook page. When not running from the Empire, Sal also works as a musician, and his personal website can be found here. Read More

Everything Disney Needs to Know, It Can Learn from Greg Keyes

Posted on May 30, 2014by Guest Editorials

keyescover

This is an unprecedented era of change for Star Wars, with whole new vistas of storytelling possibilities opening up in every medium. One author who needs to be at forefront of this brave new world is Greg Keyes.

With the new sequel trilogy and the slew of books, comics and TV shows sure to be produced as a result Disney seeks to tap into a new audience while appealing to the core fan base. They seek to elevate a whole new generation of heroes to the pantheon of our film and ‘legends’ canon favourites. To achieve this Disney need only look to the blueprint set out by Keyes in his Edge of Victory series and The Final Prophecy. Read More

Do Droids Dream of Electric Nerfs?

Posted on May 29, 2014by

star-wars-r2-d2-and-c-3po-fototapetertapeter-176x176

As one might reasonably assume from the name of the genre, advanced technology capable of (currently unachievable) wondrous feats has been an integral part of science fiction since its inception. Though Star Wars draws from numerous and varied sources of inspiration, and its primary story is one deeply rooted in fantasy and mythology, the basic building blocks of the universe are very much taken from how we once imagined the future would look.

Many aspects of the setting can be found in our own times, but have been subtly (or not so subtly) altered so as to give them a more futuristic look and feel. As substitutes for guns, we have “blasters” that shoot lasers instead of bullets. Duels are fought with superheated laser swords rather than metal blades. Naval and aerial warfare are merged and relocated to outer space, where “starfighters” fill the role of fighter aircraft and titanic battleships fire broadsides against each other with lasers, not cannonballs.

In some franchises, the science is the focus of the fiction, particularly the implications of the technology particular to a setting on the lives of its inhabitants. While new discoveries can make life easier in many ways, it’s equally possible for them to have unpredictable (and unpleasant) side effects, to say nothing of the ways in which it can fundamentally reshape a society if the new invention is sufficiently revolutionary. For the most part, however, Star Wars has thus far demonstrated little interest in seriously pondering such questions.

Whatever advanced technology the galaxy far, far away possesses is merely a means to an end – pieces chosen to form a puzzle that suits the creator’s aesthetic preferences, regardless of how well they actually fit together. New technology is created as the plot requires, and specific details are often vague and fluid enough that the characters will rarely find themselves backed into a corner by the limitations of their equipment (except when dramatic tension calls for it).

While this sort of casual disregard for logistics worked well in creating a fresh and memorable universe for the Original Trilogy, few reasons come to mind that would require the Expanded Universe to always follow suit. We have many more novels than we do films, and any one of them contains a far greater amount of information than any movie script – there’s certainly no shortage of opportunities to more thoroughly explore the impact different types of technology can have on our fictional setting of choice.

Why this would be beneficial is fairly self-explanatory, I think, as most things involving the expansion of horizons are – in this new series of articles, what we’ll be looking at is how. How we’ve used technology in the past, how other works and franchises have handled similar themes, and how we might use it in more effective and interesting ways going forward.

Read More

Storytelling and Perspective: History in the GFFA

Posted on May 27, 2014by

Jedi Archives

One of the many things that drew me into the Star Wars universe was the detailed worldbuilding. For many of us, we started by seeing Tatooine and the idea of a fully desert planet with two suns, and then saw the coldly artificial Death Star and then the vibrantly alive jungles of Yavin IV. The prequels brought us Coruscant and many other worlds, and we saw not only the geography of planets but also customs and culture. There comes a point when it’s nigh impossible to keep track of the immensity of the GFFA without a few reference guides, and sooner or later, we run into guides written from an in-universe perspective. How their stories are told is in itself a telling view of how the GFFA views its own history.

We are all aware that our GFFA has witnessed years of catastrophic warfare. A common thread in warfare, real and fictional, is the loss of history and the challenges of telling the stories afterwards. When Luke first meets old Ben Kenobi and hears about the Jedi Knights, we realize in retrospect that thousands of years of Jedi history has indeed been utterly destroyed in only twenty years. Has the Empire really been in power so long, and so firmly, that the younger generation know nothing of the past? Real-world historical revisionism is a well-known phenomenon, and controversial subjects are often glossed over in the name of politics.

Read More

So You Think You Can Internet: On Argumentation

Posted on May 26, 2014by Scotch Tape and Popsicle Sticks
Credit: xkcd, of course.

In my recent interview with author Jason Fry, I asked him about his personal reaction to the reboot announcement—and Jason took that ball and ran with it, commenting not just on his own reaction, but his perspective on others’ reactions, and what they said about internet culture overall. Some fans, Jason felt, were too quick to see ill intent in the news; a “plot against EU fans, or something Lucasfilm did casually or dismissively.” He went on:

“This is probably too kumbaya, but it’s just the latest thing that makes me wish we’d take it easier on each other, particularly online. It’s like we’ve been primed to assume that faceless person we disagree with is malevolent or incompetent. I don’t know why we do this (I’m certainly not innocent), but it doesn’t win arguments, it doesn’t elevate our discourse, and it sure doesn’t make us happier. I wish we would all try assuming the other person’s acting in good faith, attempting to understand their perspective, and if we’re still at odds, accepting that we just see things differently.”

For my part, I’ve long been a devotee of something called Hanlon’s razor—“never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” That works pretty well for politics, I’d say, but when dealing with the ins and outs of major franchise fiction, one might go a step further and say “never attribute to malice or stupidity that which is adequately explained by changes in circumstance”—Fry’s razor, if you will. Nine times out of ten (give or take a David Goyer), the people responsible for producing the media we fans consume are genuine fans themselves, or at the very least, doing the best job they can within a given set of constraints to produce something they honestly believe people will like. Read More