It’s nice to see that Luke Skywalker isn’t such a whiny bitch in these later stories. One thing that really put me off of him initially was that. He wasn’t really what I would consider a strong character. He had detail and all that, was built up well, but he wasn’t strong as a character. He was weak. And complained too much.
I like that he’s grown out of it.
I still don’t like him though.
It’s already too obvious that Mara Jade has some issues with herself.
Things she wants to do versus the things that she follows through with. I wonder if this comes because of the downfall of everything she’d worked for.
I think I need to see if she’s in any other series that comes before this one, so I can gauge the differences if there are any.
I’m in the middle of reading the first book in the Heir to the Empire trilogy and I’ve just come upon the first interaction between Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker. Where Luke discovers that she hates him quite a bit, but has no idea why.
This is a little odd for me, because I have previous knowledge of Mara Jade from discussions and my own information seeking. There was also a story about her in Tales From Jabba’s Palace, which gave me a little bit of information on why she should have certain feelings about Luke.
It’s also a little odd because I find myself wanting to scream at Luke something along the lines of ‘You ruined her life, you ignorant ass’. Which is odd for two reasons. 1:It’s a little bit day time soap opera for my liking 2: I’m not the “screaming at” sort. I don’t yell at movies, or television, or anything else, so why should I want to yell at a book?
I don’t know, but I do.
What makes it worse is that (and oh yes, do I ever know what level of geek I have entered now) Mara Jade had everything she could have wanted, possibly she aspired to something a little more, but before she could even get that ball in motion, Luke destroyed everything that she cared about. Took away everything that she thought made her special. AND HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW.
I’m anxious to see if he finds out in this book, or if I have to wait until the next one. It is a trilogy, after all, so it could go either way. But oh, I can’t wait until he finds out. I hope she rips him a new one.
I’ve been looking forward to this movie for… I don’t know how long. I’m not quite sure how long it’s been since I heard that they were putting it out. It feels like forever, but it might not be as long as I think.
I have got to say that I’m quite satisfied with the outcome. Quite. It was typical Indy. Everything, from beginning to end. I was not in any way disappointed with this movie.
Of course, if you don’t like the other Indy movies, you’re not going to like this one any more than them. If you’re not a fan of pulp, you’re not going to like this movie. But if you’re neither of these things, I don’t know why you’d be going to see this movie in the first place.
Honestly, I was a little worried. I can say that. I mean, we saw how the last three Star Wars movies came out. How could I not be a little concerned with what might happen to Indy and his adventures?
Luckily, the bad didn’t happen. And there was no Jar Jar.
Adventure, badassery, the whip. It’s all there. All in the traditional Indy style with the traditional Indy wit.
I fully recommend seeing this movie.
Websters definition of “zombie”
Main Entry:
zom·bie Listen to the pronunciation of zombie
Variant(s):
also zom·bi Listen to the pronunciation of zombi \ˈzäm-bē\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Louisiana Creole or Haitian Creole zonbi, of Bantu origin; akin to Kimbundu nzúmbe ghost
Date:
circa 1871
1usually zombi a: the supernatural power that according to voodoo belief may enter into and reanimate a dead body b: a will-less and speechless human in the West Indies capable only of automatic movement who is held to have died and been supernaturally reanimated2 a: a person held to resemble the so-called walking dead; especially : automaton b: a person markedly strange in appearance or behavior3: a mixed drink made of several kinds of rum, liqueur, and fruit juice
— zom·bie·like Listen to the pronunciation of zombielike \-bē-ˌlīk\ adjective
The concept and story of this movie were pretty well done. I think the reason this movie came off badly was because of bad editing. Nothing more than that. Bad editing.
I’m a pretty big fan of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories, so it wasn’t really a stretch for me to seek this movie out to watch it. While I’m glad that I didn’t actually pay money to see it, I am glad that I saw it.
I feel like there was a lot that could have been explored more, but for the most part, everything that I was hoping for was delved into the way I wanted it to be. From the interactions between man and dog, and man and mannequin for that matter, to the way that he lived his life on a day to day basis.
The failings really began with the exploration of the creatures. I think more information could have been given about them, maybe not them as creatures because we had just as much information as the main character and I feel that is often sufficient enough for a story, but them as them. What they did in the darkness, the way that they interact with each other when there isn’t an outside influence there. These things could have given depth and dimension to the creatures as characters. I feel like the dog was more deeply explored.
It could have also made them all the more scarier to get into the fact that they were coming back around to awareness and knowledge of things outside of themselves, building a society. It’s not something that they explain, but you can see it. And if you know the clues to look for, then you can piece it together from what is said in the movie and what’s shown to us through the film.
If this area were expounded upon, and the editing completely redone, I really think this movie could stand up and be what it should have been in the first place. And who knows, maybe it was the editing that took away the greater story of the creatures. Us lowly movie-watchers will never probably know the truth of it.
All this said, I really did enjoy parts of this movie. I enjoyed Will Smith’s acting, and the way that he portrayed his character. I really believed that he was a slightly insane survivor of a man-made treatment turned virus. He did the things that I would have done in his situation, and built up his life in almost the same way that I would have.
I think it’s worth seeing. If only because you can then use your imagination to fill in the blanks and make the movie better.
Seriously, how do you make Star Wars any better than it already is? It’s really difficult. The Star Wars genre has pretty much everything that one could possibly desire.
So how?
Steampunk, that’s how.
Take a look at this guy’s website: http://www.sillof.com/C-Steampunk-SW.htm
And after you’re done drooling over what he’s done to your favorite Star Wars characters, roam around the rest of the website and bask in the glory of his awesome.
It’s one thing to know that Boba Fett doesn’t actually get consumed by the Sarlacc even though he’s dumped into it during the great escape of Luke, Han and Chewie as Jabba and his minions look on.
But it’s an entirely different thing to read the story and actually know what happens while he’s in the creature’s stomach. To find out what he finds out.
I have anticipated reading this story for… I don’t really know how long. A part of me knew that it was in Tales from Jabba’s Palace, but I suppose that I had forgotten or blocked it out so it would be a bigger surprise. Because when I came upon it, I got really excited.
Here was this story that would fill in the blanks between what I know happens before, and what happens after. AKA – Boba goes on to be a badass, and does really cool things filled with badassery.
It was only made that much better by the fact that the writer was really good. REALLY good. I didn’t find one part of the story boring. And I think even if it hadn’t had anything to do with Boba Fett, that I would have felt the same way. It was just an all around well done job.
Am I going to give away any of the secrets? Oh hell no. If you want to find out what happens to Boba while he’s in the stomach of the Sarlacc, you’ll just have to read for yourself. Besides, anything I would tell you would only spoil the whole thing.
Very rarely is it that I find a movie that I can’t find some redeeming factor in. Some small thing that makes it not a complete waste of what little time and energy and money it took to sit down and spend an hour or so watching it. This isn’t to say that I liked the movie, or enjoyed it. But that there was just something in it – a singular funny scene, that it was absolutely gorgeous to look at – something that makes not absolutely infuriating.
It’s also very rare that I’ll do my best to influence other people in seeing or not seeing a movie. Sure I’ll say “oh, it was so good, I think you’d like it” or the such, but almost never do I tell people to not waste their time. To not see a movie even if it’s free to do so.
With Eragon, there wasn’t one single thing that I found to make me feel even remotely okay that I’d sat through it. Nothing. It wasn’t even visually stimulating, because all the CGI looked like it’d been colored in with crayon.
I enjoyed the books, both Eragon and Elder. I went into them knowing they’d been written by somebody young, and indeed, they read like they’d been written by somebody young. But I found the story interesting, and I thought the whole concept was good. A new spin had been put on fantasy worlds, combining many elements that already existed and adding some new ones. Were they perfectly written? No. But I didn’t expect that. What they were, was fun, entertaining, and a nice read.
So I was actually quite disappointed with the fact that this movie – and the makers of it – completely ripped apart the story that had been written, took out all the interesting things, and shoved some of the pieces back together in the dark, while drunk and used crazy glue so other things – bits of dust and trash and the like – stuck to the new creation as well.
The movie I watched is not even close to the book that I read. It’s missing key elements. It’s missing HUGE AND IMPORTANT THINGS. It’s missing what gave the book it’s heart and it’s soul.
I wasn’t impressed. I wasn’t entertained. I wasn’t stimulated. I was sad and disappointed, and found myself the whole time feeling very badly for the poor author who must have seen this and just wanted to cry. Because I wanted to cry for him. And if it had been my story that had ended up like this, I would have cried. And possibly done some physical damage to somebody.
There is no reason for this, either. Saying that they needed to trim it down so it would fit into a certain time slot doesn’t work anymore. Especially after the Lord of the Rings trilogy. That franchise just threw time constraints right out the window. They don’t even have the excuse that kids won’t sit through that, because I know plenty of kids who will sit through multiple screenings of all three movies. They can’t cite replayablity issues, because people world wide will sit and have LOTR parties, where again, they watch all three. Possibly all three in their super extended extra special format.
If you do a movie right, people don’t care how long it is.
And this movie wasn’t done right. It couldn’t even stay consistent in and of itself. There are issues where what the people are doing, or the way they’re acting or the things they’ve said aren’t the same a few minutes later. Not to mention the problem with the dragon armor being different from one scene to the next. I swear that it’s different armor when it’s being shown to Eragon than it is when it’s actually on the dragon. I swear it.
I watched this movie really hoping for a good fantasy movie. Especially considering who some of the cast members were. I would have thought that at least these people, certain ones in particular – such as John Malkovich – would have fought for the integrity of the story. Would have fought to protect the young author’s ideas.
Instead what I got was this piece of trash that I’ve told everybody who will listen not to watch. I can’t let this be supported. I can’t allow such rape of good concepts to happen.
Really. Do not watch this.
Tales From Jabba’s Palace has a lot of dealings with the B’omarr monks. They’re a relatively normal looking bunch, until they’ve reached enlightenment. Then they remove their brains from their bodies and put them into jars. Eventually the brains have gained enough power to summon giant spider-like walkers so they can move around their spaces with no problems.
This is not where my issue comes in.
My problem is the fact that the majority of the people who encounter these monks are freaked out about them. They don’t like the idea of disembodied brains. And to go a step further, there are those that the monks take into their order and make into bodiless brain jars. Now, it’s not the idea that they’re being forced into this religious order against their will that terrifies and disturbs these certain members. It’s the losing of the body.
Personally, I think being granted immortality without having to worry about one’s daily bodily restrictions while still holding onto full consciousness and mental capabilities would be freaking fantastic.
I say, sign me up.
It’s that forced part that I wouldn’t be too comfortable with. I don’t particularly like the idea of somebody wandering up to me with brain removing tools on some random day and telling me that it was time for me to become enlightened.
I think that I would rather undergo the process of getting there. Doing what they did. Or becoming enlightened in my own way first. Let me in on the idea that my brain is going to be put into a jar first. I don’t want a surprise brain jar party.
So why are none of the characters in Tales From Jabba’s Palace concerned about this? Maybe for some of them it’s because at that point they’ve got no more choice? But what about the others? What about the ones who have been courted – so to speak – by the B’omarr monks previously? It’s not like they don’t know what the monks want to do. They’re just freaked out about losing their body.
The body really isn’t so great. It breaks. It does disgusting things. It grows old, it dies.
Let it go.
Yeah. I said it.
Oh shit son!
Leia has three kids.
But Han has four.
It’s a common, and somewhat painful, misconception that the Sith and the Dark Jedi are the same thing. While there are many Dark Jedi that follow Sith guidelines and beliefs, it doesn’t make them Sith by any means. “Dark Jedi” is a broad sweeping term that embraces all dark practitioners, while “Sith” specifically refers to a definite ideology.
Dark Jedi don’t even have to be particularly evil. Sometimes, a Dark Jedi is just a Jedi who has given up on adhering to the Light Side of the Force. Even occasionally, a Dark Jedi refers to somebody who hasn’t gotten any formal Jedi training, but somehow began careers under another Dark Jedi. And even rarer, but still occurring, is the subset of the group of Dark Jedi who aren’t Force sensitives at all, but they serve the Dark Side.
More generally speaking, a Dark Jedi is a fallen Jedi. It’s the most common usage. A Jedi who has taken to the Dark Side and embraced it.
It’s pretty simple.
But then we get to the Sith, and things get more than a little bit complicated. The term “Sith” refers to at least 14 different factions. Including the original Sith (not to be confused with True Sith), the species. The Sith as a species were a little bit timid and meek, and were enslaved by the Dark Jedi. Through Sith Alchemy, the Sith mated with the Dark Jedi and formed a kind of entirely new species.
No matter which way you look at it though, all 14 or so of these different Sith-name-holding groups adhered to the Dark Side. They had a belief system in place, just like the Jedi. They are, for all intents and purposes, the opposites of the Jedi. They all, these Sith, have the same ideals and powerful abilities. The differences mainly come in the rankings and the leaders of the time.
After the rise and fall of the interbred original Sith and Dark Jedi species, the name Sith stopped referring to species at all and turned into an identification for those who were dedicated to the ancient Sith philosophy.
Sith, unlike Dark Jedi, have no real use for Lightsabers. They use them in a way to mock the Jedi. But their powers are generally such that they could overcome any opponent without the use of one. Both the Dark Jedi and the Sith are prone to using artificially made red crystals in their lightsabers, but the Dark Jedi have also been seen using the more traditional colors.
The Sith also had a habit of using Dark Jedi for their own gains. Seducing them and persuading them to do the dirty work, while never really sharing the Sith secrets. Luckily for the Sith, the Dark Jedi were glad to serve for the most part and saw it as a way to expand their knowledge of the force, even without the Sith techniques being taught to them.
The Sith that people are most aware of are the Sith from the New Sith Empire. This is some time after the Sith Lords started adding “Darth” to their new Sith names, and we start seeing the likes of Count Dooku (Darth Tyranus), Emperor Palpatine (Darth Sidious) and Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader). The Sith line, however, is long and vast and holds names that perhaps people wouldn’t expect to see, including Jacen Solo (Darth Caedus) – the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa.
I was watching The Hour (a Canadian talk show) not too long ago and they had an interview with a man named Sebastian Horsley. I was absolutely fascinated by the man, and did everything I could to find out more about him. But the more I discover, the more curious I become. There doesn’t seem to be any real and complete info about him anywhere.
The interview itself can be seen here – http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1983
Through the entire thing you can see how uncomfortable he is with the general audience. His shyness comes out and is made obvious by the fact that he very rarely even looks in the direction of the people, and never directly, and never for very long.
I was thoroughly impressed, however, by his eloquent speaking and the sly humor that he easily slid into everything that he said.
More incomplete information can be found on his Wiki page here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Horsley
Now, admittedly, I’m only dipping my toe in to the vast ocean that is Star Wars EU so far. I’m not even up to my ankles yet.
There’s just so much info packed into each little short story that it seems absurd to call them that – short stories. I’ve learned a great deal already. Things I didn’t know. Things I would have never thought of. I guess that’s why there’s authors out there doing this, though, they have thought of it.
It’s just amazing to me.
I’ve wondered quite a bit recently if Lucas had any idea what he was doing when he started this franchise. I don’t think he did. I think it surprised him just as it surprised everybody else.
It sure as hell took me by surprise.
I have to say, and I know it sounds odd, that I feel like a completely different fan now that I’ve gotten to see into the more in-depth lives of some of these characters. I went from ‘Hi, I’m a fan, fuck yeah, Star Wars’ to babbling incoherently (at times) to or at people who even bring up one minor thing. And it’s like I can’t even stop my mouth. Like it just all comes out and I don’t realize what I’ve done until I catch that look in the eye of whomever I’ve spewed all over.
That look. You know that look. That “WTF are you even talking about” look. That look that says they probably couldn’t even care less what you’re saying if you just started actually vomiting on their lap.
And the more I read, the more I WANT to read, even NEED to read. The more I want to know. The more I find out about one character, I feel like I should know about another. Or they’ll bring up somebody else, and I’ll feel like I’ve gained a new mission to discover all I can about them.
In some ways, it feels like enlightenment.
In others, I feel like I’ve condemned myself to a worse fate.
My geekery is not singular. I have many things that I like to nerd out about. LOTR, Star Wars, Star Trek, video games, cartoons, online roleplay, tabletop roleplay, books, movies, quantum mechanics, steampunk, Ren Faires. I don’t have one main focus. I like to branch out and put my fingers into many pies.
Never LARP though. Never LARP. No offense.
However, it may seem singular here for a while, as I’ve been reading Star Wars extended universe stuff, so that’s where most of my thoughts go a lot of the time. While there’s room in there for other things, it’s being lorded over by this one particular. It’s an abnormal thing for me, and I’m just getting used to it.
Just wanted to give a bit of a heads up.
Where my brain’s at. What can be expected.
Though if I jump ship and switch gears, don’t be surprised. See above.
I have a lot of really strange, very geeky thoughts, and sometimes I feel like I need a place to just jot them down where they’ll go out and be a part of the real world, where others will see them and it won’t just be me, sitting at home, nerding at myself wondering why I can’t talk to anybody about these things.
Why? Because you can’t have an intelligent discourse with another being when you’re writing everything down in Mead notebooks and stashing them away in your desk.
No more!
Here shall be the space to stretch my limbs and proclaim loudly:
I am nerd. Hear me roar.
