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!

Pinteresting...

So I thought I'd share some good Star Wars pins I've come across Pinterest lately...

 This one makes me laught and I find to be one of the better one of the "I just met you and this is crazy... " song craze!

At the right is a beautiful portrait of Padme Amadalla I did not find on Pinterest but wanted to share cause it's so well done. The artist is Erik-Maell click on his name to visit his site!

I love realistic fine art so I'll stick to that theme. Here we have a fine image of the Millennium Falcon. Don't know who the artist is for this one, I went to the site it was pinned and it seemed to be a place selling art not even in English...



Luke Skywalker wielding his father's lightsaber. Artist Unkown.

Have to laugh at this one cause the expression

so reminds me of my 6 year old nephew!

A touching image of the death of Darth Vader done by Jeff Carlisle

 To the right going back in time to Obi-Wan's battle on Mustafar with Anakin, whom by now is going by the name Darth Vader. Artist unknown.      "YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER FROM ME!"
"Your anger and your lust for power have already done that! You have allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind until now… until now, you have become the very thing you swore to destroy!''"

―Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi

Below, the rise of Vader. Again artist unknown. These pics are reposted over and over until you don't know who did them!



                                    



Revenge of the Sith

My Copy with holographic cover!

Wow... this book was pretty intense! Really love the authors approach in getting into the minds and feelings of the characters! A very important thing to me. I love depth! Long drawn out battles can be a bit boring partially when there is little depth but this author kept a fairly good pace with the action scenes adding the emotions and mind sets of the players in the scene.
Very different and dramatic writing style with a lot of insights in things there is no way you could spell out well in a movie. Too bad this author did not write a novelization of Return of the Jedi because I think he could do it justice! Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi are my favorites of the films. ROTJ being the top on my list which I have now watched it countless times. The official novel for ROTJ is not very good. I would love to see an updated one now that Darth Vader's story is known!
I haven't seen Revenge of the Sith in a number of years and not nearly as many times as I've seen ROTJ. I don't remember a quarter of this book even being in the movie... guess I'm going to have to go and watch it again now. But that was a good thing that I didn't remember a lot of the movie cause it made the book even better not quite knowing what was coming next.
The author sets a very dark mood with poetry and the book is segmented in three parts with a poem starting each one. The chapters are also named! Something I haven't seen in a book in a long time! In my own writings I have always liked to name chapters... just a personal thing maybe, I don't see it done much.
This has to go on my list of the best SW novels I've read so far!
By the way, I finished it on May 4th... May the 4th by with you! And this is being blogged on the Revenge of the 5th!

Return of the Jedi

UPDATE; I have rereviewed Return of the Jedi...

HERE 

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(This review needs to be updated since I have reread some of it after reading Return of the Sith and Dark Lord... coming soon...)
My question is, did the writer watch the movie?! I mean for the most part it was OK but there were some spots left out of this book that I feel are very important to the story that are not there! One being when the Emperor is killing Luke and Luke calls out to Vader for help. The cry for help is not in the book. In my opinion that was a very important moment in the story. This was part of what brought out the good in Vader! His sons desperate cries for help. If a parent can’t come to the help of their child with that, they are lost. Otherwise your left there wondering… why did Vader change his mind there and not the other times Luke almost dies when he’s around :-/ Well, unless you think that maybe Darth Vader never wanted to kill Luke in the first place which I think could be likely and seems to be a trend in all the movies and even noted by Luke in this book but according to this author Darth Vader was quite willing to kill his son up to the very end… I don’t know what was up with the author of this one. I do under stand sometimes these authors have to work more with a script the watching the finnished movie... but still! Being this is my favorite SW movie I was very disappointed. But anyway, this is a different author then The Empire Strikes Back and the writing styles are quite different. Not in a bad way though, other then my issues with the above...

Top; the way I saw it as a kid
Bottom; The same scene as kids see it today!

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On to; The Truce at Bakura

The Empire Strikes Back

Moving all my past reviews from Pinterest onto my Blog. In case your wondering, I am reading throught the Star Wars Saga and trying to do so in as close to order as I can though, I do have to jump to the Old Republic stories from time to time due to not being able to get my hands on the next book but other wise is pretty much in order as they should be read.
I have been a Star Wars fan since I was little and they showed the movies on TV and my mom recorded this one and ROTJ for me. As a teenager they started talks of making the prequels and I again I found my VHS of the movies and started watching them again! I've never been too out spoken about my love of the movies untill recently and I discovered there is a HUGE library of novels! I wondered where these books had been all my life! First one I ever bought was on clearance for $5 at Books-a-Million.
Now with that said, let's star here...
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I read The Empire Strikes Back in under 2 days. Yes, I would have started with Star Wars: A New Hope but I have yet gotten my hands on a copy! But being I pretty farmilar with the movie, it wasn't a huge big deal though I would like to read it! Anyway...

My Copy

This was well writen and easy to follow. The thing that bugged me most was it didn't have the classic...
Leia - "I love you!"
Han - "I know!"You have to realize that these type of movie novalizations are often written before the movie is released so should a line be throw in there that is not in the script it could quite easily be left out of the book.

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On to; Return of The Jedi