Second Look: Legends: The Past Has Much to Teach

ValleyOfTheDarkLords-EGTF

Deep in the bowels of ETE we have—and I’m quoting—a Super Secret Site Schedule/Idea Board, for sorting out upcoming pieces and laying claim to/handing out concepts that aren’t quite ready for the schedule. A long time ago I jotted down “The Legends U as archaeological site – where we left it”, and as time went on, I totally forgot where exactly I wanted to go with that. I offered it up to the others, and Rocky Blonshine agreed to run with it—and run with it she did:

“In short, where did we leave Legends? As one reasonably complete story, to be honest. There are many time gaps still that could easily be filled in by other stories. Some of the earliest works do not make sense in the larger timeline simply because we didn’t have important pieces of the story. Nonetheless, there is a story that flows well together and allows for many new stories to be formed.”

As our token Crucible defender, Rocky also speaks at length about how that book, controversial or otherwise, serves well as a capstone to the entire post-Return of the Jedi EU, finishing on a thematic note that strongly suggests the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. And a new era was certainly what we got.

» Read more..

Second Look: Oh Captain My Captain – The Essential Role of Hera

rr-heratrayvis

With the late-season episode “Vision of Hope” as his springboard, in Oh Captain My Captain – The Essential Role of Hera, Ben Wahrman extolled the virtues of the Ghost crew’s real leader, Hera Syndulla. While lapsed Jedi Kanan stands at the forefront in many of their missions—and holds the designation Spectre One—it’s just a canny smokescreen for what’s really going on:

“Hera is the one not only calling most of the shots, but also keeping the team from flying apart due to mistrust, differences and the simple friction of five (six counting droids) beings rooming together and constantly in each other’s faces.”

And not only is Hera essential as a character, Ben also highlights voice actress Vanessa Marshall for being just as important to Rebels‘ real-life public image as Hera is in the story, and laments that this one-two punch isn’t reflected more in the show’s merchandise:

“Hera remains an enigma, mentioned but never featured, all but invisible outside the context of the show itself.”

Ben suggests that this might change with Season Two; only time will tell.

» Read more..

Second Look: Shrines, Temples, and Tombs – A Look at Existing Beyond Death in Star Wars

quighostjinn

In Shrines, Temples, and Tombs, a guest piece by longtime ETE follower John Gauthier, the mysteries of life beyond death as presented in the prequel trilogy are revisited in light of The Clone Wars‘ Lost Missions Yoda arc. Those episodes were not just bonus information, John said, but an essential part of the story:

“With Empire as the precedent, The Clone Wars did the legwork. Fans spent the years and months leading up to Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith speculating about the seemingly inevitable return of Qui-Gon Jinn, but it was The Clone Wars that explained the story – and significance – of his existence beyond death.”

He went on to take the Expanded Universe, and its somewhat more liberal treatment of Force ghosts, into account, concluding that where the Sith historically were able to retain their identities by attaching themselves to places (their own tombs, primarily), for Jedi these connections were instead with individuals. Will this conceit hold up in the new canon, based on what we’ve seen so far? John had a few thoughts on that as well.

» Read more..

Second Look: Shouting Into the Void: We’re Not as Important as We Think

Shouting

Every six months, once on Eleven-ThirtyEight’s anniversary and once at Christmas, I give the inmates a week off and run five days of the Second Look feature, wherein a highlight particularly interesting pieces; some that maybe didn’t get much attention the first time, and some that I think just warrant extra attention. While our anniversary isn’t technically until July 8th, that’s the week Dark Disciple comes out, so I decided to get this out of the way a little early. Yay, summer!

First up is Shouting Into the Void, by Alexander Gaultier. Partly a response to the volatile gaming industry, Alexander’s message here is twofold: firstly, internet-age fandom doesn’t have as much sway over the movements of its favorite franchises as it might think, and two, that’s not exactly a bad thing:

“Fan reactions are commonly heated, passionate affairs that make political debates look like bastions of civility and compassion by comparison, dominated by knee-jerk reactions and seething personal attacks directed at those they perceive as having wronged them. The human desire to find someone to whom they can attach blame is a strong one: it is unfortunate that, in many cases, due to the strength of their feelings outweighing their knowledge of the creative process, their target is the wrong one.

Remember, Second Look is a daily feature—so come back tomorrow for another piece!

» Read more..

The Eleven-ThirtyEight Gazetteer, Vol. V

republic-city

The Pithy Reader’s Companion

While Eleven-ThirtyEight has no formal relationship with TheForce.Net, we make no secret of the fact that most of us got to know each other on their Jedi Council Forums—in the Literature section, for the most part. Almost a year before ETE began, I started a thread there called One Sentence or Less, which harnessed the collective wit of the forums to summarize the plots of numerous Expanded Universe works in, well, one sentence or less. While I did my best to encourage brevity, each winner was chosen by popular vote, so in a way I had very little to do with the results—but that didn’t stop me from compiling the first year of winners into the three-volume Pithy Reader’s Companion here, named after Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion. While activity died down a lot in the second year of the thread, eventually enough new winners were compiled that I was able to put together Volume IV just a couple months ago—which took us all the way up to the reboot, so when and if I get to Volume V it’ll be all canon—how exciting!

Read More