Day 7: Following Up with Star Wars

I'm not normally a newsy type, but this article was sent to me in an effort (I believe) to placate me: http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/07/lucasfilm-story-group-to-ensure-star-wars-continuity-across-all-platforms.

Worst. Backseat driver. Ever.

This article explains that, all future Star Wars material will follow the strictest canon, meaning that everything that happens in the movies is on the same exact level of Star Wars lore as what happens in the comic books or novels. It's unlikely Jedi will be plucking any Star Destroyers from the sky anymore...

Previously, there were levels of canon, generally splitting things by how close Lucas had a hand in them. For the most part, I discarded this separation and viewed everything equally, excusing subjective story telling and some continuity blemishes as narrator error, breaking everything down to the least common denominator.

This new "pure" Star Wars line, aside from quite possibly getting rid of everything currently published (as canon, of course the works still exist), sounds as if it will be a lot more restrictive. Sure, it will be nice to have stories that don't completely skew the balance of power or make Jedi demi-gods, but the crazier things that happened in comics and novels is half of the appeal.

Still, I don't hate the concept. This just means that, not only will the lore need to be picked over carefully, the writers need to be chosen much more selectively. Current novels have a range of authors (lately changing every book even in a continuous series), and some have clearly been superior to others. Maybe the new dogma will reduce fluctuations in quality. Hopefully that bar, at least, is set high.

No matter what they say, Revan will always be canon to me...

Day 4: Current Events

For the actual events going on right now, I'm actual in bed and typing this up on my phone. I want to stick with the "Month of The Nerd," so I'll post this tonight and then add the appropriate links/images and such when I wake up.

For the actual news I wanted to discuss, I'm already unhappy (if unsurprised) with Disney and their decisions with Star Wars.

For those who don't already know, Disney will be taking the Star Wars comic license from Dark Horse and giving it to Marvel. 

If you've ever read my blog, my love for Marvel should be readily apparent. My issues arises from the fact that Dark Horse has been the driving force behind Star Wars' Extended Universe via comics for over two decades. Marvel may have introduced Star Wars to comics, but it was Dark Horse that has crafted the best stories and introduced the most interesting characters.

I don't know for sure what this will mean for current titles, but I assume they will all be cancelled and anything Marvel releases will be focusing on the upcoming movies -- I believe there was talk that these movies won't be following established EU canon, meaning that these comics will (more than likely) be a completely new universe from the rest of the comic series, and this means the recent rich titles will be left in the dust. The biggest impact for me would be the canceling of Legacy -- again! And no chance for more Zayne with Knights of the Old Republic. And more.

I'm not saying that Marvel's comics will be bad, they just won't be the same. And that's not nostalgia. They won't be the same characters or stories or potentially even in the same universe, and they won't have the past years and years building the intricate EU that has changed the face of Star Wars so many times today.

Bah humbug.

The Nerd's Bucket List

I know, I know, I should be working on my Pull List Review. I'll have another post up by the end of the week. For now, however, I feel like talking about me!

I discovered my birthday present a bit early (aka as the Wife showed me but told me I can't have it until February), and it was an item that I have always wanted. I jokingly said that it was something I could scratch off the ol' Nerd Bucket List. The Wife, doing what wives do, asked what else was on the list. And I said...

Nothing. I was stumped. Normally, I find the idea of Bucket Lists kind of silly (what are you supposed to do when you complete it, commit seppuku?), but a list of nerdy things I wanted to do in my life but hadn't done yet appealed to me.

And so I will (attempt) to start a Nerd Bucket List in this post. I'll add items in the future as they come to me (using the tag Bucket List so they can be quickly compared), but this will serve as the base:

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THE NERD'S BUCKET LIST

-Own Darth Revan 30th Anniversary Fan's Choice Figure 

First item on, first item off. I'm a HUGE fan of Darth Revan (from the Knights of the Old Republic video game, as well as The Old Republic MMO), and the Wife got me this figure, as well as Darth Malak (again, Knights of the Old Republic) and some other misc figures. She knows me so well!

WOOOOOT! One down!

-Go to a Star Wars Celebration
I've always wanted to attend one of these, but they always fell during important dates at school/work (working in Higher Education, specifically Residence Life and Housing, means we end up training every year around the Celebration). Hopefully next year the dates will align better! Also... hopefully Disney being on board doesn't change anything too much! Speaking of Disney (and Star Wars)...

-Go to a Star Wars Weekend at Disney World
This kind of goes hand in hand with the above, but the Wife and I love Disney World and I think it would be perfect to go on one of their Star Wars days. We haven't done it yet because A) it isn't exactly cheap and B) I really dislike crowds, and nothing draws a crowd at Disney like Star Wars days (or so the internet tells me).

I guess Disney doesn't like us as much as we like it...

-Get Published in a Fandom 
One of the blog writers I follow, Amy Ratcliffe from Geek With Curves, just got published in Star Wars Insider #138. I wouldn't mind being published in a magazine of a fandom I relate to, but even more I'd love to get a fiction story published -- say a Star Wars novel or the like. First, I'll need to finish and get something of my own published, but I'm hoping my MFA Thesis course next semester will get me pretty close to that goal. Then I'll work towards this step.

-(UPDATE!)Play Star Wars Battlefront 3
This is kind of a risky one, simply because there's no confirmation the Battlefront 3 will ever come out (no matter how much I pester Lucas Arts Games on Twitter). That being said, I loved the originals and think, with today's technology and game comparisons, a third installment will be amazing and a matter of time. Update: Battlefront 3 was announced! Yes! This is totally going to happen!!!

And now that it's on my Bucket List, I guess Lucas Arts needs to get on this, or won't they feel silly?

-Go to San Diego Comic Con
I love Boston Comic Con (I've been several times) and enjoyed NYCC (I went once), but San Diego seems so far away that I never really imagined I'd make it. Then, to my surprise, the Wife said she was sad we missed it -- she had seen some new and events at the convention and was actively interested (NOTE: the Wife is NOT a nerd, despite all my attempts to turn her to the Nerd Side). So this is making it on the list with hopes for a future SDCC!

If you're asking why I wouldn't go by myself... Well, I REALLY don't like crowds, but I feel marginally better with a friendly face.

Nathan Fillion!

-Get Retweeted by Nathan Fillion
I love that guy.

-See Star Wars Episodes 7-9
I mean, I know they're coming out now and I know I'll see them... so let's get something I can definitely mark off this thing.

-Watch Every Episode of Star Wars with my Children
I don't have any children yet but, one day, they WILL watch Star Wars.

-Own Every Issue of Amazing Spider-Man
This got infinitely easier now that the series ended.

You know, unless it starts back up. Again. Which I expect (hope) it will.

-(NEW!)Play a boardgame with Wil Wheaton
I see no reason why this would EVER come to pass, but I enjoy everything Wil Wheaton has done recently and I especially love his YouTube show on the Geek and Sundry Channel, TableTop.

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That will have to do for now. As I said before, I will continue to add to this as time goes on, so if any suggestions that you feel fit here, let me know in the comment section below!

I'm actually looking forward to crossing these off. I rescind my previous opinion on Bucket Lists.

P.S. I wonder if almost knocking author Nick Flynn over at a reading should go on here... It WOULD be nice to have another item crossed off my list...

Friday at the Movies: Star Wars Episode VII-IX

Hi all,

Sorry I'm late again with the Friday at the Movies post! I was at a wedding this weekend and didn't take the time to write a post out. This is a place holder that I'll finish tonight, as soon as I finish the grad school work I was supposed to have done for tomorrow...
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Ok, this is being posted Monday because the internet is horribly slow. This weeks Extra! Extra! will be postponed (assuming it isn't cancelled due to my frustration over more internet woes). For now, Star Wars movies!

My reaction to Disney buying Lucas Arts was immediately positive, simply because my response to Dinsey buying Marvel was so negative, only to be proved wrong. Also, Disney has already had a working relationship with Star Wars that I've enjoyed in the past (who doesn't love Star Tours?).

When they announced Episodes 7-9, I became optimistically excited. This changed to ecstatic when I got official word that George Lucas is NOT directing them. YES!

Now, as long as they don't screw with established canon, I think I'll be able to appreciate the films (again, I withhold judgement until they are released, I made that mistake prior to Episode I). The big question is, what will the movies be about?

First, the actors are simply too old to do something that directly followed Return of the Jedi without re-casting or switching to CGI (or something). So that's confusing.

On top of that, and this is something that WASN'T an issue with the prequels (technically), there are already a ton of novels, comics, games, etc... which have established the official canon for Star Wars. These take place from moments after the destruction of the second Death Star up until several generations down the line 100 years later.

This would be Nerd-Approved

Will the new trilogy follow one of these, or go off on its own? If it goes off on its own, will it follow the established continuity, or will it alienate fans? I'm... well, hoping they choose to go from something already set up.

That being said, I think their are two good options for the new trilogies. First, and I believe most Star Wars fans have considered this, would be to make film adaptations of the Thrawn Trilogy. The trilogy takes place only five years after the last film, so there would need to be some work done with recasting or excessive use of CGI. Because of this, I'm concerned about them following so closely after Jedi.

What I personally think would be best is an adaptation of the Young Jedi Knights series for the first film, which grows into some of the earlier exploits in the second film to introduce the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, which the third film will see ended.

This way, the main characters are the children of the old cast: Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin Solo, Ben Skywalker, etc... and the original cast can be brought in appropriate to their age (though that may be too optimistic as well, considering the state of some of the original cast).

There is the problem of those stories taking place over the course of many books instead of just three, but I think compression would work, relying on gaps between the movies for the novels to fill in (as Shadows of the Empire was written to fill a gap). Still, I think it can be done and I really think it's time for a new generation of Star Wars characters, preferably ones that have nothing to do with Vader.

The story arc could potentially follow another Anakin (Solo) for the films, and that'd be fine, or they could even jump a bit further into the future, when Jacen becomes Darth Caedus, though then the time jumps may be disorienting.

Go from this...

... to this!

Those are my two cents, anyways. I'd love to see some other thoughts in the comment section below!

First Impressions: Sleeping Dogs and Baldur's Gate

Welcome to this Wednesday's Hunting Game(s) post! I'm going to create banners for my weeklies soon so I can stop including them in the title (which I'm trying to do now...), so look forward to that!

Obviously I still have power and wasn't swept to Oz by Sandy, so that's a plus. And that means I get to right my double feature of first impressions!

First: Sleeping Dogs! I had wanted to pick this game up at release but chose to save my money. Fortunately, GreenManGaming.com had a sale and I had credit (due to buying XCOM from them), meaning I got Sleeping Dogs for $5.00 (I think. If not, it was close!).

I honestly expected it to be a Grand Theft Auto knockoff set in Hong Kong. While I got the setting correct, I was otherwise wrong. This IS a free roam game, but it is set up much differently than GTA. First, I've been playing for a couple of hours and have YET to see/use a gun. Instead, the fights I'm being thrown into are Batman: Arkham Asylum style fights where I have one attack button, one block/counter button, and a ton of enemies that glow when they're about to attack.

Seeing as how I loved combat in Batman, I'm loving it here. It helps that the fighting feels more fluid than any combat I've ever seen, moving seamlessly from a roundhouse kick to catching the attacker behind me's foot and dropping him to the ground, hard. It's not particularly difficult, but it is enjoyable. And, so far, I've met three kinds of enemies - basic thugs, brawlers that can't have their attacks interrupted, and grapplers whom you want to avoid... well, grappling.

Grappling is a key element in the fighting, as it allows you to get through blocking opponents and use the environment against them (my favorite so far has been throwing people into phone booths and then kicking them in the chest, hard.

Combat looks and feels awesome.

There are weapons here and there, but your character is more lethal without them, at least in the beginning.

The story is decent -- under cover cop having to balance personal issues while gaining the trust of the gangs and remaining on the good side of the police. This is visually represented by two experience bars, one for the triads and one for the police -- the more missions/actions you take that reflect each side nets you experience for one or the other (and sometimes both). This isn't a good OR evil setup, you can level both at the same time -- triad exp allows you to unlock more combat effectiveness, while the police exp gives you extra tools/abilities for the job.

That's just a quick rundown, because there is more I could talk about. Maybe I'll do a full review once I complete the game. For now, know that I'm really enjoying the game, even the driving aspects (which I normally hate). I'm really looking forward to see what else can come from these developers.

Pros: story, driving, combat, city feels alive, collectibles, mission variety, movement fluidity
Cons: I've got nothing at the moment...

I've also finally started Baldur's Gate. I'm using the Trilogy mod, which combines both the games and expansions as a seamless game (all done in BG2's interface). It is awesome, but I do have a warning for new players -- DON'T use a mega-mod/mod-pack! I used BiG World, which made the setup easier, but it also installed a ton of things that I just don't know about and it's hard to tell what's been included. I ran into an issue where a high level encounter was added in the middle of an important town, preventing me from accessing the area that I should have been able to use from the get go.

That being said, I'm really enjoying the game. I love the D&D aspects and I think the difficulty is just about right (I'm playing it on Core and it's hard. I MIGHT drop the difficulty down in the future, but for now it works). Anyone who's started a D&D character at level 1 knows it's difficult, more so when there isn't a DM (Dungeon Master) to spoon feed you the first few levels.

I made my main a Beserker (fighter specialization), and I'm really wishing I went mage. You find plently of NPCs to join your group throughout the game, but so far I have found any good-aligned or decent mages (that fit with the story -- currently I'm using a mage from a mod, and she's pretty terrible). My next character will definitely be an evil sorcerer.

The Sword Coast

I'll do a full review once I finish the game (the first time), AND I'll do an updated guide to modding it appropriately -- after this, I better damn well be an expert.

Alright, that's all for now. Just some first impressions as I promised, and both good so far. I also picked up Pokemon Black 2, but I don't intend to play it much until this weekend.

Friday's post will be featured around the big news we got yesterday in regards to Disney buying LucasArts (you know, in case you didn't hear). I'm going to do a write up on the Star Wars story/stories  I'd like to see make it into the next trilogy (looks like Monday's post was just in time).




See you then!