STAR WARS!!!

I’ve been trying to write another blog for awhile now and have had so many topics to discuss—Doctor Who, NaNoWriMo, sports, etc. I’ve started all these and more, but never quite finished them.

And then Disney bought Lucasfilms.

And all other ideas went out the window.

Those of you that know me know that I am far giddier than a child in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory right now. Seriously, I am bouncing off the walls, smiling like crazy, and talking ninety miles a minute.

Oh yeah. And singing. Randomly and off-key and at the top of my lungs.

Though not publicly—I’m not that crazy. ;)

Very, very few things can turn me into a squeeing fangirl — in the most obnoxious sense of the word. A new Star Wars movie is definitely at the top of that list.

So clearly, I like Star Wars, but I am also a Disney fan, so mashing the two of those together? Heck bloody yeah.

To all the naysayers saying that Disney will ruin Star Wars, I have one word: Avengers.

If Disney owning Marvel brings around that sort of epicness, than surely Star Wars stands a humongous chance—especially with the fact that Disney has already been working with Lucas for years.

And while George Lucas may not be at the helm directing it, he’ll still be around for creative input and have some say in what happens. There are dozens of great directors that’ll want a piece of this movie and if Disney plays their cards right, it could be fantastic. Lucas also didn’t direct The Empire Strikes Back—arguably the strongest of the Star Wars movies.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve been a fan since the moment my parents picked up the VHS tapes when I was a child and first introduced me to A Galaxy Far, Far Away. I’ve read the books, watched the movies, played the games—I’m all for seeing another Star Wars movie brought to life on screen.   

Now, this is the part where I have to branch out into the realm of speculation. Let’s start with the easy one: What could this mean for Disney?

First off, I suspect that Star Wars might play an even bigger part in the Disney theme parks. I’ve only been to Disneyland, so it’s what I know best and it already has Star Tours and the Jedi Academy. Now that Star Wars is officially a part of Disney, it does open them up to potentially upping the marketing for that area and maybe even generating some new ideas for Tomorrowland.

Next up: Kingdom Hearts. Could this merger mean that we might one day get to see Sora (or another character) running around A Galaxy Far, Far Away? I mean, a Keyblade lightsaber? Jedi robes? Some sort of version of the Force? I’d totally be up for that! Not likely to happen—at least not in the near future—but still I’m just having some fun with the possibilities here.

Now, this brings me to a question that one of my friends joked about on Facebook: Does this mean that Princess Leia is now a Disney Princess??? Again unlikely, but I must admit that even as much as I love Belle, Princess Leia would probably become my favorite in a second if she suddenly becomes a Disney Princess. XD

(Wait…Does this mean that I can no longer say my favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast???) ;)

Disney managed to snag yet another huge chunk of pop culture history. There are loads of things that they could do with this and I’m interested in seeing where this goes.

Now, what in the galaxy could all of this mean for the Star Wars franchise?

Well, obviously, we finally get to see the constantly sought after third trilogy in the series—the movies that have had rumors swirling about them since, well, I imagine since Return of the Jedi debuted in 1983. So, what could be in the new movies?

For starters, as much as I love a lot of the books and despite some speculation about it, I highly doubt that we will be seeing any particular book (or book events) brought to life on screen—it just isn’t viable. People can just go out, purchase the book before the movie comes out, and know everything that happens—which happens quite often with books being turned into movies, but not with books that are already based off movies to begin with.

Lucas will want people to be surprised and even though he supports all of the creators in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, he has always maintained the opinion that the world (or galaxy, if you prefer) beyond the movies is its own separate universe. The movies and his creations are his and the other books/comics/games are people playing in his playground—what they create is awesome, but at any time, it may be thrown off balance if he chooses to create something new.

This branches off into some interesting territory: By creating a new trilogy, the entire post-Return of the Jedi canon could very easily be thrown out of whack.

When the prequels came out, it definitely changed some of it—things had to be retconned and if they couldn’t be retconned, they were no longer considered canon. For those that don’t know what retconning is, it stands for Retroactive Continuity and basically refers to going back and trying to fix things that have already been created in order to fit with the new source material and/or make things better. It’s kinda hard to explain, but it isn’t just something done in Star Wars.

This means that depending on where Star Wars Episode VII begins and what happens therein, we could be looking at either loads of retconning or an entirely new Star Wars Expanded Universe timeline—all those Star Wars books I’ve read could, basically, become unofficial.

There are both good and bad parts to this idea. I know that for myself and many other fans, the further the books get from Return of the Jedi, the more frustrating they become. The works of Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole, and others are fantastic, but some of the more recently released stuff can be either frustrating or depressing, depending on what type of fan you are.

(Warning: Star Wars book spoilers to follow)

If they are no longer considered canon, here are some good things that could come of it:

•         Chewbacca no longer has to be dead after Sernpidal!!! :D
•          If the Solo children still exist:
•     Anakin Solo no longer has to die
•    We might not have to deal with the whacked out personality changes of the Solo kids between Young Jedi Knights and New Jedi Order (Seriously, if you’re going to write about already established characters, at least look at the already established source material)
•     Jacen Solo no longer has to turn to the dark side and, well, die.
•          Assuming she still exists, Mara Jade doesn’t have to die.
•          Should be able to smooth out some of the weirder details of the Expanded Universe—random out of character moments and such

(I know there’s a lot I’m missing here, but you get the idea)

Bad things:

•          Mara Jade might not exist at all
•          Han Solo and Princess Leia may have never gotten together
•          Many “Fan Favorite” stories may be de-canonized (Example: Thrawn Trilogy)
•          Lucas could totally mess with our heads and kill off one of the main characters A LOT sooner than the books do

(End Star Wars book spoilers)

I have no idea what the new movie could be about. We know that there are nineteen years between the Prequel Trilogy and the Original Trilogy. It’s too early to tell how much space there could be between the Original Trilogy and the Sequel(?) Trilogy. For all we know, we could start out the new trilogy following Anakin Skywalker’s great-great grandchildren.

Or they could choose to recast the main characters and start it days after the Battle of Endor for all we know. I really hope they don’t do that though (and really doubt that they will)—Han will forever be Harrison Ford and the same goes for the other characters. I’m sure the original characters will be involved in some capacity—we are talking about the story of the Skywalker family, after all—I’m just not sure how much. I also hope that if they do decide to set it further in the future, they can get Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill to make a cameo or two. Maybe have Luke at his Jedi Academy sending the next generation of Jedi off or giving final words of wisdom to an apprentice before he becomes one with the Force.  

I don’t know. There are endless possibilities for it right now, which is definitely awesome!

It’s just too early to tell, really, but I must admit that I am completely ecstatic. :D

All I know is that I’m ready for some epic lightsaber fights, sweet dogfights (with the Falcon, maybe?), and some more adventures in A Galaxy Far, Far Away.

I can’t wait!!!

It's Not Writer's Block...Right?

It’s common knowledge that I love to write—and if it isn’t than clearly we haven’t met, so let’s get that out of the way: Hello. My name is Steph and I have a problem: I like to compose an extraordinary amount of words into somewhat coherent stories in a very small amount of time. Nice to meet you.

Now that little problem of mine has evolved into a new beast of its own: lack of motivation. I have a myriad of words bouncing around in the back of my head and absolutely no outlet for them.

Why?

Because when I open whichever word processing program suits my fancy today, I just stare at the screen.

Awkwardly.

For several long minutes.

And then I say to myself, “Hey! I wonder what David Tennant is going to do next!”

And turn on Doctor Who.

Because I’m just brilliant like that.

Now, I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong: This is not the dreaded Writer’s Block demon that writers so often have to fight a grand battle against before vanquishing. And I am not pulling a Timothy McGee and claiming that it’s not because I’m too stubborn to admit it. It really isn’t Writer’s Block—or at least it isn’t like any sort of Writer’s Block that I’ve ever faced before.

I actually love my characters. I love my plot—heck, I’m even at some parts that I have been yearning to write for months. And the words are even there! I just can’t get myself to put fingers to the keyboard.

A part of me just feels like this trilogy I’ve started is never going to end. And I want it to end, so badly—not in a “I’m sick of this story! I hate it!” sort of way, but in a “Dude! I want to see how all of this looks on paper!” way.

But I’m never going to see it on paper if I don’t get it out of my head.

And I can’t seem to get it out of my head because I have this monstrous, infinite plot laid out in front of me.

Which just leaves me on an endless trip around the Monopoly board of life—constantly passing ‘Go’ but never quite being able to collect my $200 because I’m too busy watching Doctor Who to realize the banker is stealing my money.

Yeah, I’m not quite sure what I meant by that either. Maybe it really is Writer’s Block.

Or maybe I just need school to start.

The words seem to flow more easily if I’m squeezing them into margins and half-covered notebooks while the professor strolls about class droning on about history and the government. They even flow better when I’m writing in between the spaces of the fifty trillion things on my “To Do” list.

Either way, it seems like a waste of perfectly good writing time to not write during summer.

So, I’ll just sit here, staring stubbornly at my computer screen until my characters cooperate and the words come out.

Or maybe I’ll just go watch some more Doctor Who.

;)

Thoughts on the Batman Movie Massacre

In the aftermath of watching a great trilogy come to a close, my thoughts have been spiraling back to the victims of the Batman Movie Massacre. I was one of many who walked into a theater teeming with excitement, ready to catch a glimpse at all the awesome costumes and see a thrilling action/adventure movie unfold on the screen. I was not disappointed. I sat riveted to my seat throughout the movie, elated to see Anne Hathaway give a great performance as Catwoman, thrilled to see Liam Neeson’s cameo, and grateful to experience both the melancholy and the delight of the series’ conclusion. There really is nothing like seeing the end of a movie with dozens of other people screaming and cheering at all the right parts.

I left the theater at 3am completely oblivious to the tragedy that had occurred just a couple states away. It wasn’t until much later that morning that I found out.

At first, I was confused. Too little sleep and too many thoughts spinning through my head made me slow on the uptake. An idle remark by one close friend was responded to much more seriously than usual by another and it was then that we found out about the shooting. We were all half-asleep and I know that at least for me, the gravity of the situation didn’t sink in until I got home an hour later and saw the news.

Even now, a part of me is still confused, but this is a different kind of confusion. This is the kind where I find myself asking, “Why?” No matter how hard I try, I can’t figure out what would cause a person to walk into a movie theater and choose to maim and kill dozens of people. I’ve tried to see his side of the story like I so often do with the villains in the stories I write and the characters in the movies I see, but I just can’t comprehend it. No matter how many scenarios I go through trying to find some reason for a man to go that mad, I just can’t. No amount of grief or frustration or sorrow should lead a sane person to causing so much harm to people they don’t even know.

Ironically, as I write this I find myself thinking about a quote from Alfred in The Dark Knight, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” And maybe that’s exactly what this tragedy is. Maybe that is the only explanation that I will ever be able to understand. Sometimes, things just cannot be explained away with logic and the simple truth is that human emotion is illogical.

On another level, I’m frustrated, knowing that so many people will try to blame the violence in the film for the tragedy. However, I feel like the people who are staking these claims are missing a key point from not only this trilogy, but many other movies as well.

Batman is one of those characters who avoids killing, refuses to even use a gun—as he mentioned so many times to Catwoman throughout this movie. The killing was always a direct result of the villains’ actions and Batman only let characters die when there was no other choice—and even then he wasn’t usually the one who killed them.

Yes, there is violence in this series and yes, characters die, but seeing a film that contains violence is not in direct correlation to violence in real life—if that were the case, the millions of people who have viewed this series would be wreaking a lot more havoc on the world. There just have to be more contributing factors to provoke a person to violence—and especially to senseless violence of the caliber demonstrated by the man who caused this massacre.

Another part of me is just angry. Angry that he caused so much harm and people are suffering for no good reason. Angry that he ruined the movie for so many people. On a far more superficial level, I’m angry that the memory of such a great trilogy will be forever scathed by this awful tragedy. And I am especially angry that people had to die to fulfill some twisted fantasy or another that this man had to have had.

The last and most prominent emotion I’m feeling right now is sorrow. I will not pretend to comprehend the grief and terror that the victims and their families are feeling right now. No words can truly describe just how terrible this situation is, nor can any words I have to say assuage away the pain. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. And my heart also goes out to all involved in the production of this film, for many are doubtlessly dealing with their own demons in light of this catastrophe. I hope that those still seeking family and friends find them soon and that those in mourning find peace.

This is a disaster that no one should have had to suffer through and no one’s fault but the man who thoughtlessly chose to commit such a horrifying transgression. The best that I can hope for is that justice is rightfully served and that the man one day understands just how much harm his actions have caused.