Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

SPOILERS AHEAD -  It's been a while since I blogged here. A bunch of reasons I won't go into here but after seeing the first trailer for what they are billing as the last episode of "The Skywalker Saga". I thought it might be a good time to return....

    First off, I am one of the ones who disliked The Last Jedi. I find a lack of good editing and pointless plot twists to be at fault. In defence of Disney, if you have been around long enough how could you have missed the fact that George Lucas' original plan for Luke was to become a hermit like Obi Wan in A New Hope... but I'm not here to tear into what went wrong with that movie either. The question now is can Episode 9 get it's act together and be what the fans hunger for?

    A few days before the release of the first trailer and the title reveal I saw on Instagram a poster claiming to be leaked from the new film. I was skeptical. What a lot noticed was CP3O carrying weapons… yes, this is a poster for the new Star Wars film Revenge of the Droids!

    Ok, more serous though, I did notice what Rey is wearing in this. I had never seen it before which I thought was strange coming from a fan made poster. Where did that outfit come from? Well, we get to see a lot more of this outfit in this trailer! In fact at least the photo of Rey in this poster must have been leaked. The thing I noticed about her first outfit on Jakku in The Force Awakens is it is clearly made to resemble Jedi robes. So that begs the question, why is she wearing Jedi robes unless at some point in her life she was with a Jedi. That does not add up with Kylo's, you are nobody pitch. Also while remarking on her outfit the color tells you something if they are playing the same game as with the original trilogy. In that Luke's clothing symbolizes where he was in the story. You will notice in The Return of the Jedi Luke wears black until the very end when his shirt opens to reveal white. This symbolizes Luke's decision to not turn to the dark side. In The Last Jedi you will notice Rey's clothing darkens from her original Jakku outfit and like Luke is tested, tempted to the Dark Side but she as well chooses the light. We now see Rey dressed in all white. I don't know if that can give us info on the story line of The Rise of Skywalker but I feel it's an interesting detail.

    Now lets look at the title...
    When The Last Jedi was revealed it told a lot about where the story was going. Again another strike against The Last Jedi. At this title unveiling I expected something final like "Balance of the Force".But no, we get "The Rise of Skywalker"! I had a, are you kidding moment when I saw it the first time! It was obviously not what I was expecting. After it sat in my brain a minute. I started to get excited...what on earth does that title mean?!?!

    So, I'm going to throw a few ideas out there for you. Who is Skywalker? Well, at this point the one that we know of as "Skywalker" is Luke... who died in The Last Jedi. Luke is also speaking in the trailer telling Rey that she has been given all the knowledge and the fight is now hers. Luke is a force ghost at this point and I greatly doubt he is the rising "Skywalker".

    Who is Skywalker?
    Well, there is no one living that actually can go by that name that we know of... and my mind goes to Rey. Is she somehow Luke's daughter? I can argue more against this theory then for it. I'm going to have to force myself to sit down and watch The Last Jedi again to look for more clues but I think in one scene Luke flat out asks her "Who are you?" If he had a daughter out there somewhere he sure didn't look like he knew about it. There is that one scene where Anakin's lightsaber calls to her like she had some connection with it's past owners like possibly a blood connection but who knows what they were getting at there. It's possible she has an original Star Wars character parent but going on what we know so far it's unlikely it's Luke. Quite honestly Han Solo seems like a better candidate. We know he had a girlfriend who could be force sensitive going by her connection with Darth Maul in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Up to this date Rey is up in the air but unlikely a "Skywalker" more like a Solo.
    Lets look at Kylo Ren aka Ben Solo. Well, that speaks for it's self. Ben is a Solo not a Skywalker though he has Skywalker Blood in him. Can he come and claim the name "Skywalker" to spite his uncle? Guess it's possible but a stretch to title it, The Rise of Skywalker. One possibility that crossed my mind was if the Jedi end perhaps a new force wilding group could call themselves "Skywalker" in honor of Luke. Who knows... But it is a compelling title unlike "The Last Jedi".

    Now lets get to the meat of the story. Where are they going with this?
    Watching the trailer the first time I almost did it with the sound turned down! I did not see that coming! I'm going to give you my theories as to what is going on. Some people find this plot twist silly and I bet some fans are not aware of it (I missed it for YEARS!) Apparently some fans hate it so much they want to pretend it is not there... but it is and it is a huge plot twist.
    In the Prequels Anakin is said by his mother that he did not have a father which fit with a Jedi prophecy that such would bring "balance to the force". However in Revenge of the Sith it is made fairly clear that Anakin may indeed have a father, from a curtain point of view... Darth Sidious's master Darth Plagueis had found a way to create life. Anakin is the creation of Darth Plagueis and is why Darth Sidious is so interested in him from the very beginning. In the same conversation it is noted that only one had ever gained the ability to cheat death. But it is un clear who that was...
    But back to Anakin. He is thought by several Jedi like Obi Wan to be the one who brings balance... it is assumed by many fans that is Anakin's roll as well... but what if that is not what is going on at all? What if Anakin and his descendants are just the results of a Sith science experiment with the force and Anakin was never the one they think he is?

    What if it's really Rey?

    I do believe Rey has been around Jedi due to her clothing and the fact she seems to be hidden here on a remote planet with the Millennium Falcon. So frustrating. So many variables! We do know many of Luke's students were murdered and some went to the dark side. In Rey's vision in The Force Awakens it looks as if Rey is being hidden from The Knights of Ren. 

Who hid her?
    I'm pretty convinced again that is wasn't Luke. Leia, Kylo, and Maz seemed to be the only one who has much of a clue as who she is and Kylo seems to be the only one who knows exactly who she is. Here's my thought, what if Kylo is the one who hid her? For some reason his relationship with her is so strong he wanted to spare her life? The only other he felt that way about was his mother. This is also shown when he turns on Snoke and saves Rey. This does not fit into my theory of her being the one from the prophesy but this would show a much closer connection to Rey then a fellow student in Jedi school. I would say it is more like they are siblings. That goes back to Han and Qi'ra. We don't know what went on in Han and Leia's marriage. Is there any chance he and Qira got back together? Maybe Ben's half sister? I believe if Han and Leia had another child together they would both realize it was Rey. However had it been a short affair Qi'ra could have never let him know... Rey belongs to someone even if it is the force or Disney messed this up good. I'll leave it at that.

    Insert evil laugh here... Did the Emperor really survive? This would not be a new idea as in the Old EU the Emperor did return by creating clones to live in. I'll say one thing about the trailer to this new and so called last installment of the Skywalker Saga, it sparked my interest which is surprising considering how bad The Last Jedi was. So I'm still holding on to a little "Hope".

Star Wars: Rogue One

    I had next to no interest in the new "stand alone" +Star Wars movie said to come out this Dec, 2016, Rogue One. My assumption was it was going to be a movie about a fighter squad like the X-wings EU novels. I've never read them. Reading about space battle just is boring to me! Give me some meat to the plot not battles! Actually I saw they canceled Rogue One.... (nice April fools joke) A few days later the first trailer came out. I ended up watching it, I was curious. I mean some fans just don't want Disney to over produce Star Wars. But then again....100's of books were written and I spent much time in the Star Wars EU..

    It turned out completely not to be what I was expecting! The first time I watched it I was a little... puzzled. Have I been way too into The Hunger Games lately? Did that look the way I thought it did.... I scroll to the comment and start skipping through them. One comment stated that it did not look like The Hunger Games (sorry fellow, you need to watch The Hunger Games!) SO, somebody made the connection as well! I re-watch it. I crack up laughing!

    Young rebellious girl with awful chopped hair... the scene that did it the most though was her dressed in a nice shiny black outfit turning around... it's the Mockingjay!!! NO, WAIT! This is Star Wars!

    I loved The Hunger Games novels. Not so much a fan of the movies. Really not a fan of Jennifer Laurance as Katniss.... So, Disney if you are really going for Katniss in space I might kind of want to see what you can do with it!

   But moving from The Hunger Games connection...

    What I understood was this movie is taking place right before A New Hope. Did anyone notice Mon Mothma? She looks so young! She looks more like she did in the Pre-quells. What is up with that? Jyn stressed her out so much it aged her 20 years? :-)

    I also spotted someone that looks a lot like Biggs Darklighter. He's kind of funny looking so I doubt he just happens to look like Biggs.

     Another thing that left me scratching my head is the Samurai guy. I've noticed in the past that Jedi are inspired from Samurai. But to put a character in that looks like he is a Samurai just doesn't look right. I laughed at one comment on YouTube "Why is Jackie Chan training stormtroupers?"

    So now we have Katmiss Everdeen and Jackie Chan in the new Star Wars film! Excited yet?
Did you see this latest news about the Han Solo movie? Yeah.... with Disney's trend here this could almost be true! ALMOST ;-) LOL!

Tees from another Galaxy... Star Wars Haul!

Tees from another Galaxy...

    So last Christmas was a huge time for the Star Wars Galaxy! Never would have dreamed I would see this much Star Wars merchandise in the stores in my life! I treated myself to a few things at full price I really wanted and then wait to see what I could snap up when the clearance sales hit!

    Here's my T-shirt haul! Found at Wal-mart marked down to $3 each!

The Millennium Falcon and the Death Star

 

Very Classic Star Wars graphic. Luke, Leia, and Han, company. The shirt is a long underwear type fabric. Long Sleeves.

Awe BB-8 is so cute! :-) The socks are not from Wal-mart but Michael's Craft Store where they had their Star Wars stock marked down half price. So this was a pack of 3 pairs of socks for about $3



The Force Awakens! I was thrilled to find this! Great graphics on this one including Rey! Get those female characters in there! Thank you Disney!

Allegiance

    How did I miss this book before now?! The reason I have a copy is that when I find a EU Novel at a good deal I'll will buy it knowing I'm going to read it eventually. This has been a good practice and saved me the time and the pain of cliffhangers due to having to track down the next book! (I'm currently dealing with a cliffhanger in the New Jedi Order! Till I get my hands on a copy I picked up this one.)

   Really I started off reading Choices of One. I had been looking forward to reading it. I knew it was about Mara Jade when she was working for the Emperor as "The Emperor's Hand". It takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. About 2 chapters into Choices of One I realized I was missing something! Something came before this book... characters I have never heard of were too well established. It didn't take me long to figure out it was Allegiance. And as I said before I already had a copy. I had not looked at it sooner being the cover of storm troopers and I had never seen anything about the book being about main core Star Wars characters. I thought it was about some pack of random storm troopers. But it was a Zhan novel so I picked it up at some point in my adventures of Star Wars book hunting.
 
  The only other novel that takes place in this time period is Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Splinter of the Mind's Eye is a good book. I recommend reading it if you're a Star Wars Fan but it was written as an alternative sequel had A New Hope not done well in theaters. It's a good "what if" but doesn't work with Star Wars as it later became. I have to wonder if the next movies by Disney are going to turn this EU into something similar... we shall see...

   Why is it that Zanh is the only writer that is able to capture Mara and Luke dead on. I mean yeah, Zhan created Mara Jade but other writers can not capture her spirit, fire, and strength very well. He seems to understand Mara and Luke so well. I love the super hero type character Mara is in this novel. In the Thrawn Duology a point is made that Mara believes Luke has willfully gone to the dark side in the past and therefore effected in his life up to that date. But you're thinking, she has a lot of room to talk! She was the Emperor's Hand! But she claims she never willingly went for the dark side. The explanation seem to be that she is young, idealistic, and ignorant about what is going on around her. She repays kindness with kindness... you have to wonder if Darth Sidious is aware of Mara's rebellious nature for doing good.

 And what about Vader? They went to all that trouble to destroy the Jedi but now Sidious is training this young girl. Could the plan be to use her against him to take his place or at least make him uncomfortable that Vader could be replaced. After all he used Luke against him later on... and hey, they are Sith, they like mind games. It is clear Vader does not like the girl but there is no clear answer as to exactly why.

    I wish I could recall if Mara had a light saber ever before Luke gave her his father's. In this book she does carry one. The color being magenta. An interesting color choice being she's sort of a bad guy cause it's in the red spectrum but yet it's not red either. Ah, symbolism!

Mara Jade

    One inconsistency I noticed, correct me if I'm wrong, was Mara being able to put herself into a healing trance. In the Thrawn Duology Mara is injured but she was unable to put herself into a healing trance so Luke had to put her in it. As he does so she remarks that is something she needs to learn how to do.

    There were a few other flaws in the story but hey, don't really care. That was just the one that really jumped out at me.

    So... is Disney going to do away with Mara??? She is one of the most loved EU characters in the Star Wars EU galaxy! And she is such a strong female hero... I don't know if Disney will use her but it's a sad for those of us who love her if they don't. We can only hope they can create an equally dynamic female to replace her with... let's have it Disney.... gives us what you got!

Disney, My Other Love - Tangled Review

  First off, I lost the next book in the Corellian series! All this AL/NY back and forth I finally lost it. It was bound to happen I guess… I know I didn’t leave it anywhere so it’s not lost for good… just very misplaced :-P

  I am quite annoyed with this and hopefully it will show up sooner than later but till then I got a hold of some movies I have never seen so here we go…

  If you didn’t already know I grew up with Disney and it probably played a huge role in my love for acting and singing, but anyway… I stopped watching Disney movies after The Lion King so I never saw Pocahontas and so on… I have seen some of Hercules which was awful. After around 96 Disney just went downhill. They brought in the Pixar stuff; again as I keep saying I hate computer animation! I remained a huge fan of the “Golden Era” (The Little Mermaid – The Lion King) but had no interest in Disney’s new work.

 A few years ago Disney brought out a line based solely on the “Disney Princesses”. I’m like, WHY did you not have this when I was a kid?!?! I bet you can guess I have bought a few Disney Princess things ;-)

 I also like to pin pics of Disney art on Pinterest. I started noticing new “Princesses” joining the club, haha, even Leia when the news was announced that Disney was buying Star Wars! I love that! Other new princesses who have joined the club in the last couple of years have been Tiana, Rapunzel, and some red headed Irish girl I’m not sure of her name… It finally accrued to me to maybe watch the new ones and see what Disney is up to lately…

I picked Tangled. (2010)

  I was quite taken by the animation! Some of it was quite beautiful… to be computer generated. Disney has improved computer animation to the point of near watchable. The thing that bugged me the most was there was such detail and realism that I found myself staring at not only Rapunzel’s hair but the rest of the character’s too! It was fascinating to a fault. I would have preferred to be looking at their faces rather than their hair but it was so real looking I was in awe of it!

  For once a Disney Princess looked her age or maybe younger then. I did not like the way she was portrayed though. The modern teenage slang did not merge well with the surroundings. I also felt like characters weren’t originals but bad knockoffs from here and there. Flynn clearly was fashioned after Errol Flynn. For a while there I was really thinking Rapunzel was Taylor Swift! The wicked mother, Bernadette Peters? Is this just me here?

Well, looks I'm not alone here...

  Otherwise the story was cute, not partially clever, but cute. Could not compare to the grand movies of the 90’s but it wasn’t bad. What was bad was the music. I know they sang a couple of songs but not one that would stick in your head and come close to finding yourself walking around singing. The movie would have been just as good without them. If I recall correctly, Disney didn’t use to put songs in unless it moved the story forward… obviously they have abanded this rule. These little ditties where pointless and didn’t even have a catchy tune!



Concept Art

  As with most Disney films it’s a little different than the classic tale. Personally I don’t think they improved it any. It’s a good little movie but not a master piece unless you’re looking just at the animation which as I said before is quite lovely for computer animation. One thing about this film that first caught me was the concept art which was done by hand! I came across some on Pinterest and that was when I actually gave this movie a 2^nd thought! They are pretty enough to make you want to frame and hang them alone as art.

  I think I see Disney could make a comeback! They just need to find the right recipe again. They found it when they created The Little Mermaid and kept it going through the 90’s. We can only hope Disney can do a repeat one day!

Will the Force Live Long and Prosper?

 Just when you think things can't get stranger in the Star Wars World. Disney buys Star Wars... 3 new movies are ahead... NOW the director has been selected! And that director is the JJ Abrams, the director of the latest Star Trek movies!!! Yeah, Star Trek!!! I personaly really like Star Trek and grew up watching it. I even bought a copy of the last Star Trek movie made cause I found it for $5 but never got a chance to watch it... well, maybe I should now...
 To be honest I am trying to not read much about what the new movies my be about but this news did reach me. I haven't seen his Star Trek film but I did read he was a Star Wars fan and that was part of the reason he DIDN'T want to director a film but I guess he gave in. But that gives me hope that someone who respects the Star Wars Universe will do his best to make it the best he can...
 That's all for now....

A Long Time Ago in the Near Future

Disney + Star Wars = ? 

So in the mist of going through what is now being called the worst natural disaster in US history (what is with me? I went through Katrina as well!) I received news that I last received something of the like over ten years ago! 3 NEW Star Wars movies are going to be in the making! Along with this news was a strange twist… Disney was buying Star Wars! At first it was a tad bit shocking but after I thought about it made since. Three or four years ago I came across a video on an event at Disney World called Dancing with the Star Wars Stars. At the time it kind of made me scratch my head a little at the fact Disney was hosting a Star Wars event… :-/ But I found the dance off pretty funny! I always was amused at a little icon that read “Star Wars the Musical – No, seriously. Tap Dancing Storm troopers.” Yes, very amusing yet on the other hand bazaar, but such a funny picture it created in my head. Since then I have been hearing about these “Star Wars Weekends” at Disney.



Revenge of the Sith Concept Art of Padme' and Anakin

  How do I feel about this news? I don’t know… You see, when it was announced that the prequels where coming out some younger than me might not realize that I grew up in a world where there was only A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. This means you only know of this dark large monster like creature that somehow has two kids he didn’t know about and you have no idea how any of it happened! Yeah, if you were a Star Wars fan then you wanted to see those prequels! I remember even coming up with stories in my head of how it happened. I mean, like who was their mother? I came up with some story of a young woman watching her husband going to the dark side and having to escape. She didn’t even have a name! I don’t recall if I made one up. All you had was what was in those 3 movies and at the time I got into Star Wars it was a bit of a forgotten saga that I had little hope that after like 10+ years after the last film that they would ever bother returning to it.

 I really didn’t know till recently that so many hated the prequels! I mean how can you hate it completely? It filled in so much that you didn’t know that added to the first films. I will agree that the casting/acting may not have been as perfect as the original but the story was there. But to be honest I hated Harrison Ford as Hans Solo! Only till I saw the actors that he got the part over did I first started thinking… well, maybe he wasn’t THAT bad! ;-) Since then he has grown on me.

Art by Robert Shane

 As with the first time around, I had heard that George Lucas did want to make 3 more but AGAIN it’s been about 10 years since the last one (I’m seeing a pattern here!) and he was downed so much for what he did with the prequel that I didn’t think they would try again…

  Now again… how do I feel about this… well, the thing is it’s not like before because we don’t have unanswered questions as to what happened. This movie by what I understand will be after Return of the Jedi. So unless they decide to completely ignore all the novels and get new actors to play old favorite I think that just after Return of the Jedi is out of the question. Ignoring the novels and or recasting would be HUGE mistakes.

  I did come across an interview online with the author of some of the most popular novels, Timothy Zahn. READ HERE Apparently Zahn knew something at the time about these new movies. This is interesting because that means they were being careful at the time to not block themselves in. This gives you a clue to where it could go. If they were smart they continued to watch what was written.

 

There are some real spoilers ahead that have already been spoiled for me but just warning you in case you don't want to find out what happened yet.

 

Now what has happened in the novels? Well, this is what I have gathered by what I have read thus far... I know there is a lot out there that I haven't read but this is what I have right now... in Zahn’s novel Leia and Han have twin children. A boy and a girl. Well, obviously this did not affect or counteract what George Lucas had planned since we know he talked to Zahn right before these events were written. You will also notice that Zahn said it would be about Luke’s children… That’s interesting since Zahn was the author that gave Leia children! Is Leia’s children unimportant to the movies or did George Lucas have the twins in mind for the movie as well? And what of Luke? What do the novels reveal of his future? Oddly enough a big event in Luke’s life was also written by Zahn but this time George Lukas wasn’t as crazy about the idea. George Lucas did not want Luke to marry Mara Jade… the fans won out though. Sort of. Zahn has Luke marry Mara but I was quite surprised when I found that she eventually dies! So far none of the 4 main original cast has died (Chewbaca has) in the novels though they are really getting up there in age now. This is total speculation but I wonder if they allowed Luke to marry Mara as long as they eventually kill her off as she will not play well into the sequels. Zahn said the sequels will be about Luke’s children. As of now in the novels Luke has one son that I am aware of. Now if they killed off Mara, what of Leia’s son Anakin? I just recently heard he also eventually dies! Made me sad because I like the kid, but anyway… I’m wondering if the novelists are having to kill off people to lead the stories into the right direction? We still have Ben, Luke and Mara’s son. Now will Ben be one of the children in the new movies or will he get killed off before 2015 as well and we discover Luke has other kids… one that he doesn’t know about, or his kid/kids have kids? Hmm… where was George Lucas going with this if in fact he is molding the novels towards the final sequel and how much did they let authors stray through the years? We just don't know...

 

 I’m feeling two ways at the same time with this… it could be good which makes me excited… or this could be AWFUL which makes me cringe! But one way or the other at least Lukas isn’t giving up. He created an amazing world that has kept me entertained for hours on end for YEARS!

 The fact Disney is getting involved gets me excited because my second love is Disney. I have not cared for some of their movies in the past years but they were the makers of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King… and now they will own Star Wars! Now that’s a little cool to say the least! Time will tell the outcome…

Art by James Silvani

Sandy and The Clone Wars 2/3

  What a month Oct ended up being! So much I can’t even remember it all at this point! As I said in my last blog post, I was up in NY working a show in Sleepy Hollow. Well… the show went well. Sold out nights, fairly warm weather for most of it, and good being with my Horseman’s Hollow family again. BUT then came the last week…

 You see, last year the last two nights of our show was canceled due to the freak Halloween Blizzard of 2011. So the chances of that happening again plummeted even lower! At least this year, our busiest night did not have to be canceled as it was last year but that Sat. night leaving I left with the mindset that I was not coming back for the next show… and I didn’t. The show was canceled the next afternoon. That night I found myself trying to find a hurricane shelter… The following week was full of firsts and hopefully LASTS… like finding out the Red Cross has MAJOR PROBLEMS! (If you want to give to help those effected by Hurricane Sandy this is not the group to go too sadly… basically they give you money and kick you out to the streets… it was a bazaar experience! I don’t want to put down all Red Cross volunteers as I’m sure some have their heart in the right place but some do not and sadly they seemed to be the ones in charge and making the rule and breaking them at will.) Maybe should take a hint with the color, red *sith*? JK... ;-) but I do hold some bad feeling towards the Red Cross.

I spent the actual storm in a shelter in a local Highschool. I went through
Katrina but this storm sounded so much worse noise wise. I ended up
sticking my earbuds in and watching Clone Wars.

 I ended up spending Halloween in a shelter on top of an ice rink. This is the first year I was unable to dress up for Halloween :~( It did help though that a young girl volunteering at the shelter gave a whole bunch of candy and Halloween bags were handed out. (You know you’re having a hard week when you nearly break out in tears when finding Star Wars goodies in your Halloween bag!

 With the events of Sandy and an oncoming blizzard I decided it was time to return to AL for a little while. On the drive back I finished up watching the 3^rd season of The Clone Wars. As I have said before, watching the show took up all my reading time, I didn’t get to read any in Oct. though I did bring a novel to do so.

 And I failed to mentioned somewhere in all that was the announcement of the NEW Star Wars movies 7, 8, & 9 and the merge with Disney! What a month… but I’ll save my thoughts on that news for another post! For now, on to my thoughts on The Clone Wars Season 2 & 3…

 I have noted that the first season of The Clone Wars, Anakin was portrayed as… well, too nice. The 2^nd season brought a darker Anakin for the first part of the season. I also noticed the animation improved a slight bit as well. But the ‘nice’ Annie returned for the rest of the season.



Padme' and Satine Kryze
Season 3 #05 - Corruption

 It was nice though to bring in an old love of Obi Wan! That’s right! Obi Wan had a girl as well! I would like to know if there was ever a book to cover the story behind that? You know, that is what I like about this show that it gives you a better insight of the characters and back stories that the 3 movies didn’t/couldn’t give you. You see the likeable qualities of Anakin and Obi Wan. Maybe it’s just me but Obi Wan never had much of a character… I mean not with a whole lot of depth…
 In the season #3 finale we get to see a familiar face! Chewbacca makes an appearance!

Captain Wilhuff Tarkin makes
an apperance in “The Citadel”

  The one question that kept eluding me about this show was when watching the first and even the second season was, is this show more for kids then adults? I think I’d have to say the first season is quite geared to kids and the 2^nd bringing more of the Star Wars Saga into the stories but still a bit kid’s adventure feel to it, then we get to the 3^rd season… WOW, George Lukas goes wild! The 3^rd season is not for kids… well, let’s rate it at PG. It gets more violent and the stories darken. And put your palm to your face and say “WHY?”! Of all the characters and worlds and beings brought to the Star Wars Universe, why did they embrace the Witches of Dathomir from The Courtship of PrincessLeia?!?! That book was about the worst! Witches just don’t seem right in the SW Universe! While I’m glad they are bringing the books into the stories, WHY the witches??? Ugh! They greatly annoy me if you haven’t noticed! But it is interesting that we find out that Darth Maul was one of them! Also there is a hint that Darth Maul is STILL ALIVE! They only hint at it and so I don’t know if that is the case (I’m guessing more will come in season 4) but it fits into a comic I recently got my hands on where Darth Maul was still alive when Luke was a baby… again another book/comic ties in? Interesting.

  In another 3 set of episodes in season #3 Anakin ends up on a very force strong world with this family, a daughter who leans to the light side and a son who leans toward the dark side and their father who keeps them in line… It was quite weird and honestly didn’t make complete since but in it Anakin learns what will happen to him and those he loves in the future, an interesting concept even though the episode didn’t make much since otherwise. What does Annie do? He sides with the dark side to try to save the day… this fellow has some personality flaws that luckily his son does not inherent!

This funny remake of a classic SW shot was found on
 http://starwarsprequelappreciationsociety.wordpress.com/

 I have to admit, the computer graphics are bugging me! The shows are good enough in story to keep me watching but I just don't like computer grapics.

 So now I’m finished with all three seasons and looking forward to season 4. I think I heard it was just released on DVD in Oct. and season 5 is now airing.

The Clone Wars - Movie and Season 1

 

This is me, and yes, it scares even me!





Actors have such crazy lives! I am currently working at a premier haunted house in Sleepy Hollow NY. As a child I did not even know there WAS a REAL Sleepy Hollow! Before I moved up here my mom was looking at a map of NY and said something about Sleepy Hollow and I was like, there is really a Sleepy Hollow?! I remember the cartoon and could hardly watch it when I was little! I found the ledged of the Headless Horseman a tad bit too scary for me! I’m not a lover of going to haunted houses either even today.  It’s interesting how I’ve come to now to specialize in them! Well, make that haunted houses based on history, the scary side of history… but that’s a long story… but oh the irony!

  Anyway, I spent part of this summer in my home town and returned for the show in Sleepy Hollow which meant a long road trip from AL to NY! I came across a copy of The Clone Wars (Movie and TV show) before I left and put them on my computer to watch if I felt like it. I knew nothing about the whole Clone Wars deal. I knew there was a show and a movie but otherwise that was about it. Oh, I can thank the movie for sparking them to sell lightsabers at Halloween some years back… oh if they had those when I was a kid… wait, what am I talking about, it’s fun to play with now! ;-D Better late than never?

 On the road I watched Episode 1 & 2 cause I haven’t watched them in a long time. I’m wondering if I had ever seen all of The Phantom Menace before because I didn’t remember the beginning. The Clone Wars movie comes in between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith so since I like to watch/read things in order I started up the movie not sure what I was about to see.

Not putting The Clone Wars down, but this is kinda funny!

 George Lukas must be having a grand time! Maybe it’s because of my interest in movie making since the age of 8 that I feel for him and his ability to make these movies with all the technological advances made since A New Hope in the 70’s. I grew up with a computer in the home (I remember having a Commodore 64 playing some sort of space ship war game on it) At the age of 8 I thought computers could do a whole lot in film making that they really couldn’t do. I wanted to upload videos and edit them on one, I wonder now what I was thinking because that was not really quite the way it was done back then but it was a good idea and did eventually come to pass… While today I am not a fan of computer animation (I feel there is something in hand drawn work that can’t be done with a computer, (life and emotion one can pick up from the work of a fine artist’s hand) I have to give them credit that computers somewhat worked with this. I didn’t completely hate it! There are some Disney (big Disney fan here)/Pixar movies that I cringe at the sight of because they made a mess out of it by using computer animation! In most cases I pretty much hate computer animation! I’m sure in time computer graphics will improve, it’s not perfected at all, if it ever can be. I do understand why Lukas has gone this route. For a galaxy far far away it gives much freedom! The battle scenes can be done with unlimited imagination! The cost of makeup artists, costumers, and numerous actors are cut along with fighting weather and Murphy’s Law on a film shoot. On the other hand emotion is limited on the human computerized form. It was much like watching the graphics of a video game like Knights of the Old Republic which I really enjoyed and have played all the way through twice. Playing KOTOR did help me except the computerized forms in this, if that make any since… anyway…

  The movie wasn’t too bad. It took Anakin’s story in a direction I wouldn’t have thought. The thought of Anakin teaching another padawan is weird for lack of better word to express it.

 I have all three seasons of the TV show and since I kinda liked the movie and was interested in where they were going with this I started on the first season.

 It seems I found at a young age that Star Wars is a great way to de-stress. I get caught up in it now and then at various times in my life. When they pulled it out of the vault in the early 90’s to show on TV is when it started, then they announced there will be three more made in the late 90’s, then when those three finally make it to TV… This last kick I’m on of Star Wars is combined from a number of things. Partly fueling it is that the internet has made it so much easier to find thing such as the novels and movies. Curl up and chill with Star Wars, nerdy? Don’t get me started… and I mean it!

 I just finished watching the last episode of the first season. Watching the show has basically taken up most of my reading time so I haven’t started on a new novel yet since I finished Shadows of the Empire before I left AL. Due to being busy it took me a while to get my review of it up in case you notice the date I published it was very resent. I actually finished it a while back.

  One thing that got me with this show was the showing of the good side of Anakin Skywalker. This is not the Anakin from Attack of the Clones! At times you wonder if this character is slightly based half on Luke. Ha! I actually like THIS Anakin and see why Padme does! At first it’s hard to see how you could ever get Darth Vader from this …well, hero! As the shows go on they do start the show his weaknesses, mostly centering around Padme.

Yes! Someone else had the same idea!

 Really, you have to wonder if at any time Leonardo Dicaprio was ever considered for Anakin?! Some reason I have ALWAYS thought Anakin should be Leo, I don’t know why… but yeah, going off subject a bit too much here… :~)

 I particularly liked E13 Jedi Crash & E14 Defenders of Peace which deal with Jedi’s struggle with attachment and a village of peaceful village who refuse to fight. And also E17 Blue Shadow Virus & E18 Mystery of a Thousand which are obviously about a deadly virus. The show seems to gain more depth as the shows go on and I hope as I start on the next season it will only get better!