#boba fett isn’t just some side character he is a legacy.

[auxxrat]

ALSO—

Star Wars community as a WHOLE needs to talk about the constant disrespect that Tem has gotten.

[abduloki]

Star Wars Alternate Universe

So I saw this Star Wars meme on 9gag with an interesting top comment in which he remarked about Luke going to the force sensitive rock where Grogu was kidnapped by the dark troopers. Here, Luke sees the future and get flashes of what might be, including the past where Yoda tells him that the future is not set and so Luke goes to prevent what he saw in those visions from happening. And so the sequels didn’t happen and an alternate sequel takes place from here on. 

Some of the comments even remarked about bringing back Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley on board the alternate sequel as what happened in the existing one isn’t their fault as they’re just actors. Now then I think about it, it would be cool if they actually make an alternate universe timeline based on the books where Adam Driver could be Jacen Solo, who turned to the dark side and was opposed by his twin sister Jaina Solo, who went to seek combat training from Boba Fett.

No, I did not make this up, it really happened in the books, Jaina Solo went to Mandalore to find Boba Fett to be his student so she could kick her brother’s butt back to the light side. You may ask why she needs to train from this bounty hunter when she’s already a student of her uncle, Luke Skywalker? Well, because she wants to be able to handle herself even without a lightsaber. 

Well, she is a Rogue Squadron pilot after all, and even so, she remained active in the Jedi Order, which goes to show how badass her character is. And an interesting trivia about the books is that both Jaina and Jacen commanded Rogue Squadron during a crisis, during which the two started to split away from each other due to Jacen’s increasingly aggressive actions. 

Adam Driver recast as Jacen Solo

Daisy Ridley recast as Jaina Solo

There’s more interesting things that happened in the books if you read them. So can you imagine seeing Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley returning as a much better written characters and story? Although it would definitely outrage the Reylo shippers since the two of them can’t have any romantic relationship now. 😆

Anyway, I recommend you start with The Thrawn Trilogy, which takes place 5 years after the ‘Return of the Jedi’, which is also the same time The Mandalorian takes place. In the novel, Grand Admiral Thrawn is gaining control of the remnants of the Empire in a bid to restore it to its former glory. Meanwhile, Leia and Han are busy running the newly established New Republic which isn’t as easy as their days in the Rebel Alliance due to the political bureaucratic crap. And Luke is busy chasing down a rumor about a Dark Jedi. If you must now, this novel is where Thrawn first appeared in the entire Star Wars franchise.

The next one you should read is the Legacy of the Force series, which is long but worth it. It takes place 40 years after ‘A New Hope’. Luke Skywalker is married to Mara Jade, whom he first met in The Thrawn Trilogy when she tried to kill him, yes, I’m not kidding, you’ll have to read to find out more and how she end up falling for Luke instead. 

Anyway, Han and Leia have twins, Jacen and Jaina, who are force sensitive. As mentioned earlier above, Jacen strays towards the dark side while Jaina remains in the light and opposed him. Jacen killed someone in the family, completing his journey becoming a Sith Lord named Darth Caedus. This is when Jaina finally decides to defeat her brother once and for all, went to Mandalore to find our favorite Boba Fett to teach her.

It’s very interesting that I don’t understand why the movie producers didn’t take some ideas here and there to make a good story. Once you read them all, I can guarantee that you’ll look at the existing sequels very differently. 

[aion-rsa]

The Mandalorian Season 2: Boba Fett’s Return Explained

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This Star Wars article contains spoilers.

From the very beginning, Boba Fett has inspired The Mandalorian. Showrunner Jon Favreau’s “toy box” approach pitched protagonist Din Djarin as a Boba Fett-like figure, and although the two are quite different in terms of personality and history, the iconic silhouette of the space western gunslinger is very similar. 

But now Boba Fett himself is back in The Mandalorian season 2, played by none other than Temuera Morrison in a very brief cameo. At the very end of the season 2 premiere “The Marshall,” we find Boba watching from a hill as Mando rides off with his old armor, a scowl on the old Mandalorian’s face that would silence a krayt dragon. With all the Mandalorian history and bounty hunting on the show, it was only a matter of time before we finally got to see Boba in the flesh!

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While new Star Wars fans may not be as familiar with Boba Fett, fans who’ve spent hours rewatching the Original Trilogy of movies likely let out a shriek when Morrison hit the screen on the live-action series. The helmeted bounty hunter first appeared in the Star Wars Holiday Special in animated form, but more famously in The Empire Strikes Back as a mysterious figure able to talk back to Darth Vader without consequences. Although he’s barely on screen and speaks very few lines in Empire and Return of the Jedi, his iconic look and intimidating swagger have made him one of the most popular characters in the saga. Most Star Wars fans will recognize his iconic T-visored Mandalorian helmet, jetpack, and gauntlets that can shoot either missiles or ropes for capturing bounties alive. His entire storyline in the Original Trilogy involved hunting down Han Solo for Jabba the Hutt, and he’d fit right in The Mandalorian’s Bounty Hunter’s Guild.

Morrison isn’t the original actor to play Boba Fett: that’s Jeremy Bulloch, who wore the helmet in the Original Trilogy. Other people helped bring the character to life, too. John Morton filled in as body double for Bulloch and Jason Wingreen provided the voice. But Morrison played Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones and is, therefore, the live-action face for all of Jango’s clones, including Boba. This is also why George Lucas later dubbed Morrison’s voice over Wingreen’s performance for the DVD release of the Original Trilogy in 2004.

Unsurprisingly, Boba Fett’s return has sparked a lot of talk among fans, who will likely spend the entire season theorizing how the bounty hunter was able to escape his fate in Return of the Jedi and what his arrival might mean for The Mandalorian. Let’s discuss…

Why Is Boba Fett Returning in The Mandalorian?

Disney has already tried to bring Boba Fett back to live-action twice since it purchased Lucasfilm and the rights to Star Wars in 2012. In 2015, Fantastic Four director Josh Trank was attached to direct a Boba Fett movie that was originally going to be announced as a third Star Wars Story standalone movie, along with Rogue One and Solo. According to an interview with Polygon, Trank “quit because I knew I was going to be fired if I didn’t quit” after Fantastic Four‘s dismal performance and the well-known behind-the-scenes drama during production.

The Boba Fett project was revived in 2018, with Logan director James Mangold set to helm the movie, but this second attempt was also shelved after Solo‘s tepid turn at the box office that same year. Simon Kinberg, Rebels producer and Dark Phoenix director, would have co-written the movie.

In 2020, The Mandalorian provides perhaps the best re-entry point for Boba Fett. Not only does it star a main character with a similar occupation and a taste for carbonite, but it delves deeper into Mandalorian culture as well as what happened to places like Tatooine after the fall of the Empire. Even though Boba Fett isn’t Mandalorian by blood, the fate of Mandalore could still affect him personally, especially since his father was a member of that culture, even if Jango was treated like an outcast by the planet’s pacifist government. Would Fett still be an ally of the Empire after what they did to his father’s people?

The show first teased the return of Boba Fett in the season 1 episode “The Gunslinger.” That episode ends with a mysterious figure inspecting the body of Din Djarin’s latest target on Tatooine. When does this moment take place with respect to Fett’s timeline? Has he just escaped the sarlacc or has he spent the years since Return of the Jedi as a hermit in the desert? Has he been following Din’s tracks all along? The cameo seems to confirm Boba’s hermit status, as we see him wearing black robes and carrying a rifle as his own protection. (He very likely wants his armor back.)

But has he also been tracking Mando? When it comes to a bounty as big as the one on Din and Baby Yoda‘s heads in season 1, there’s no doubt that the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy would have heard about it. And if the underworld has forgotten him after he was swallowed whole by the sarlacc, what better way to reclaim his reputation than by collecting the bounty no one else could?

That’s not to say that the bounty hunter has definitely returned as a villain. For one thing, this could just be a cameo or perhaps the very start of an arc that will see Boba following our heroes around, waiting for the right moment to reveal himself.

However Fett’s story plays out, it could set up future adventures for the character, just like the ones he had before Disney erased the classic Legends continuity from canon.

How Did Boba Fett Survive the Sarlacc Pit?

Fett’s death in Return of the Jedi wasn’t the end for the bounty hunter in the pre-Disney Legends continuity. In fact, he lived a long life that stretched decades beyond the events of the Original Trilogy. But how did he survive a fate as gruesome as being slowly digested over a thousand years inside of the sarlacc?

Fans learned in the classic Dark Horse comic series Dark Empire by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy that Fett’s armor allowed him to survive inside the sarlacc and fight his way out, blowing up the creature in the process (a move very similar to how Mando escaped the belly of the krayt dragon in “The Marshall”). The novel The Mandalorian Armor by K.W. Jeter further explained that it was rival bounty hunter Dengar who found Boba Fett half-dead in the desert and nursed him back to health.

From that point on, Fett became a regular character in the Legends Expanded Universe, featuring in many bounty-hunter focused books. He also made a brief cameo in the 19-book New Jedi Order series and appeared in the Jedi-focused Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi books. In fact, Fett lived on until the very end of the Legends timeline, completely defying the odds after his initial demise in Return of the Jedi.

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Boba Fett eventually became the leader of the Mandalorians, which had a sprawling culture and even their own official language in Legends. Fett had a family and his granddaughter ended up assisting in the training of Jaina Solo, Han and Leia’s daughter.

As in the Sequel Trilogy, Legends included the continuation of the Skywalker-Solo clan, and, while Fett mostly kept to himself as the leader of a third faction sometimes opposed and sometimes allied with the Republic, he was involved with incorporating Mandalorian fighting into Jaina’s Jedi training. He also became a formal ally of the Jedi in the war against Jaina’s brother, Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus, in Legacy of the Force.

Will the Disney canon do something similar with Boba Fett’s post-Return of the Jedi story? We don’t know what the studio might have in mind for Fett, or whether he will eventually turn into a more sympathetic anti-hero character, but it wouldn’t be surprising if some elements from his Legends storyline were brought into the new canon. That’s exactly what Disney did with Grand Admiral Thrawn, another character whose Legends story was pieced together in a new way in the canon animated series Rebels.

How Boba Fett Might Connect to Baby Yoda 

Boba, as we all know, isn’t a traditional Mandalorian — he’s a clone. He wasn’t born on Mandalore, he wasn’t connected to a traditional cultural/religious covert like Din Djarin in The Mandalorian, and his father Jango, a killer willing to sell his clones to the Republic, doesn’t exactly seem like a traditionalist in the vein of the Armorer or Mandalorian leader Bo-Katan Kryze. 

There’s certainly some kind of cloning plot being woven into The Mandalorian. In season 1, Ugnaught hero Kuill suggested that Baby Yoda could be a “strand-cast,” a type of bio-engineered clone that Emperor Palpatine hoped to use as the perfect vessel for his spirit after his original body was destroyed in the Battle of Endor. We know that Dr. Pershing, an Imperial scientist, wanted to experiment on the Child before Din decided to rescue him. Was Baby Yoda part of the Emperor’s plan to find a new vessel or a clone of Master Yoda the Emperor planned to turn to the dark side?

Or is Baby Yoda the result of a separate strand-cast experiment that worked where so many of the Sith’s failed? If this is the case, the Empire would undoubtedly want to see how the Child not only survived the cloning process but also became powerful in the Force. As we learn in The Rise of Skywalker, the Emperor’s own clones were all massive disappointments on that front.

What if Boba Fett is hunting Baby Yoda for what’s left of the Empire? Would they feel any sort of affinity toward each other if they’re both clones, or would Boba Fett be the cold-hearted killer to Din Djarin’s heartfelt foundling? The potential clone connection could make for a captivating storyline in season 2.

Fans certainly have had a lot of time to come up with opinions, headcanon, and theories about the bounty hunter. Fett speaks sparingly and radiates intimidation, even if his most famous role features him falling into a large pit. Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars added to Fett’s backstory and showed him learning the ropes of the bounty hunting trade. All that could be paid off in The Mandalorian, depending on how the show incorporates Morrison now that he’s made his return.

The Star Wars franchise has been in a rather uncertain place since the Disney purchase, with movies doing well at the box office but cultural cache falling. The Mandalorian is one of the most unquestionably successful and high-quality parts of the franchise right now, so it’s a good business decision to bring a very popular character to the show. We’ll see what that means for the story. 

The Mandalorian season 2 airs Fridays at 12:01 pm PT/3:01 am ET on Disney+.

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[littlebitwriter]

12 DAYS OF STAR WARS: AN ORIGINAL FANBOY-DRIVEN BLOG SERIES “EPISODE 7: SOME OF MY FAVORITE STAR WARS EU CHARACTERS”

Here is a list not ranked of some of my favorite characters in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Both canon and non-canon. *Specifically not gigantically main characters in the mainline saga films and ones who often have extensive material in tie-in media.*

GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN

In terms of comparing Star Wars characters to archetypes, Grand Admiral Thrawn is the evil Sherlock Holmes of the Star Wars galaxy. The smartest, most tactical, perhaps the most shocking Star Wars villain is Grand Admiral Thrawn. A character with a unique philosophy and battle strategy. He looks at the art of a civilization or planet in the beginning of Heir To The Empire where he can tell/figure out something about that civilization/species through their art which is fascinating. He is a unique, evenly tempered character and listens to what people have to say if they have good ideas. Thrawn is a character who is evil who also has control of his emotions. He isn’t like Kylo Ren who flips out on his macbook pro or is like “Fire Everything!” Thrawn is ultimately the antithesis of that. He is the antithesis to Darth Vader and The Emperor in terms of their philosophy which is perhaps scarier and his philosophy is ‘don’t let your emotions consume you’ and is as level-headed as Darth Vader and is very much all about power. He is an incredibly unique character and villain unlike any other in Star Wars lore. There is so much rich Thrawn material out there, from the various novels by Timothy Zahn such as the original Thrawn Trilogy: Heir To The Empire, Dark Force Rising & The Last Command. As well as the Modern Thrawn Trilogy (set before the events of his appearance in Star Wars Rebels) Thrawn, Alliances and Treason. As well as many, many others I have not mentioned.

MARA JADE

She is a great character who starts from a very interesting place in Heir To The Empire who started out as a Force-sensitive Imperial assassin who is easily next to Thrawn, both are the best characters Timothy Zahn created in the Star Wars EU lore. She much like a lot of characters I will be talking about, are all truly authentic Star Wars characters. They all have the makings of a great iconic Star Wars character who went on an exciting redemptive journey across the EU from being an Imperial assassin who Palpatine wanted to kill Luke Skywalker to eventually become the wife of Luke Skywalker and mother of Ben Skywalker as a Jedi master. There was a lot that happened to her with the Yuuzhan Vong but everything about that outside of Mara Jade gives me a gigantic headache. Anyway she is a great character who should be integrated into the new canon and should be established to have been married to Luke. (In my personal headcanon Luke was married to Mara Jade in the gap between ROTJ and TFA) She just has one of the best character arcs in all of Star Wars and is a phenomenal character.

QUINLAN VOS

One of my favorite characters in the Expanded Universe is Quinlan Vos who has stories in the comics that came out during the time of The Clone Wars comics of the early aughts written by John Ostrander. The story of him really goes across The Clone Wars. He is an incredible character who is ultimately an exploration of the ideas of the Dark Side and the Light Side and the temptation of the Dark Side and he kind of rides that line between the two. He is very much a rogue Jedi and kind of goes with the dark and dabbles towards it but ultimately is a good guy. His story in the Clone Wars from Ostrander is very pivotal to his character. Also Dark Disciple is another Quinlan Vos story that is in canon that is based on unused scripts of the modern Clone Wars episodes and that is as well a good Quinlan Vos story with his unique relationship with Asajj Ventress.

CADE SKYWALKER

The main character of perhaps the best Star Wars things next to The Original Trilogy which is John Ostrander and Jaan Dursuma’s Legacy. He ultimately much like Quinlan Vos is an extremely fascinating character. He is a bounty hunter who has all but rejected his Jedi teachings and he does Death Sticks. He really dances on the line between Dark Side and Light Side in such an interesting way where there are things he does for good but he’s using Dark Side powers and bringing people back from the dead which is quote Palpatine in Revenge of The Sith “Unnatural…” He is a unique conflicted character and he is very much one of my favorite characters in Star Wars lore. He is very much like Quinlan Vos the archetypal John Ostrander dark Jedi character in a good way.

BOBA FETT

I love Boba Fett. He’s got a bad reputation now especially with a show about a super competent Mandalorian who is ‘The Mandalorian’ who is clearly not Boba Fett because of a thing that he does at the end of the pilot episode that Boba Fett would never do. Boba Fett ultimately unknown to the general mainstream public truly is not just a bum/incompetant clone/bounty hunter that ended up in Sarlacc Pit. He was once a and almost had a solo-novel written by Karen Traviss (A great Star Wars writer who wrote many great books such as The Republic Commando series, also has an obsession with Mandalorians) However in-canon as of now, Boba Fett died in Sarlacc Pit and ultimately the badass Boba Fett pre-1999 EU is now alive and well in The Mandalorian.

DARTH MAUL

One of the boldest creative decisions in all of Star Wars was in the fourth season of the modern Clone Wars TV Show which was a moment I remember seeing on television for the first time which is… The Return of Darth Maul. This led to what I call the “Maul Resurgence” where after I watched that story arc in television I was obsessed with Maul and had a connection to Maul outside of the double-bladed lightsaber and the spiky horns I was fascinated by his rivalry, connection and hatred of Obi-Wan Kenobi. I read the novel by Michael Reaves that was a prequel to Phantom Menace which was Shadow Hunter. Which established his backstory as being raised by Palpatine and was inflicted with Sith tattoos and was originally a Zabrak (which changed due to The Clone Wars he is now a…Dathomir. He is ultimately an assassin told he’s a Sith, not really a proper Dark Force user, he was a mad dog on Palpatine’s leash that became used everywhere. He is very much the prequel’s Boba Fett where he looks super cool and most of the public doesn't know he survived after his initial cheap death where they got a comeback and more development. In The Clone Wars He spent years in shame and squalor and when he gets power back and gains composure you see he learned the lessons Sidious/Palpatine taught him and that’s what makes his duel with him, Oppress and Sidious/Palpatine so impressive is that you can make the argument that Maul was legitimately a threat to Sidious. He is capable of being a thrilling and terrifying threat. As a Maul fan My favorite scene in Solo: A Star Wars Story is when you learn he is the head of the criminal organization of Crimson Dawn and the idea of him being a crime lord is genius. His story is ultimately perfectly wrapped up in Rebels in perhaps my favorite and in my opinion the most epic lightsaber fight in all of Star Wars which is his last battle with Kenobi. It’s an old-school epic samurai fight with such ambience and power and perfectly ends Maul story and captures the evolution of Obi-Wan and Maul’s relationship.

THE CHILD

The social media phenomenon himself gets what he / she deserves and is perhaps my favorite youngling in Star Wars lore (sorry, no disrespect to characters like Ashoka). It may seem like I’m hopping on the bandwagon but I really am not, outside of Yoda and Yaddle I believe, there is one other character who is of the same species who fans often mention and even casual or non fans mention a lot who is The Child. There is ultimately I think going to be a solid reason as to why he is such a phenomenon. Much like these other characters this is something about The Child that is distinctive and unique in that all of these characters are wholly their own and go on their own journeys and I’m sure The Child will be one of them. He is young for his species only fifty years old and has a long, long life ahead of him in a galaxy far, far away…

-LilBitWriter (12/19/19)

[sleemo]

Stardust

[ Translated from Spanish to English by @sleemo and @nightblossoms-and-spinebarrels ]

Two years after ‘The Force Awakens’, the Imperial March plays again. The galactic saga returns to the big screen with ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’, a movie that promises to be quite unique. Director Rian Johnson and his protagonists tell us what this new stellar adventure will have for us, at least as far as Kathleen Kennedy allows them.

— Cinemanía | December 2017 - Janire Zurbano

“I don’t want Disney princesses, I want Leia,” said the little Rey in costume who was standing in front of me in one of the booths for Funko Pop figures in D23. Now that the success of the saga is measured in mind-blowing figures, the Disney convention has become a coming and going of Gamoras, Méridas and Thors, carrying bags full of Funkos. 

“Before, the fans used to tell me how they met their wives because of Star Wars and now they show me the toys they’ve bought for their children,” Mark Hamill tells us. We met with the director and part of the cast of Star Wars: The Last Jedi after the hangover of D23. “I appreciate all this as I never would have been able to at 20. People ask me: ‘Doesn’t it bother you to be remembered for a single movie role?’ I never expected to be remembered for anything. And now someone has a doll with my face!”, adds the actor.

In all honesty, the merchandise for Star Wars: The Last Jedi has given us more clues about the future of the saga than any trailer or official photo of this new release. In February, a toy box made all the galactic alarms go off by showing an image of Rey with what looked like a padawan’s hairstyle. She just needed to say: “I am your Jedi apprentice”. “I cannot talk about that,” laughs Daisy Ridley.

Everything is kept under wraps in the mysterious universe commanded by Kathleen Kennedy, as the cast well knows. “At the beginning of rehearsals, we didn’t know the plot. I remember being with Mark, making conjectures all the time,” says Ridley. “We could not take the script outside Pinewood Studios,” recalls John Boyega. The newcomers also did not get any special treatment. “That room in Pinewood was like a cave,” says Kelly Marie Tran, to which Benicio del Toro adds with laughter: “I read the script with a timer.” It is not surprising that the Puerto Rican actor speaks cautiously about the film: “Star Wars was the first science fiction film that I felt was mine. I don’t want to be the first to ruin something for the fans.” Without Funkos to dissect and now that Kennedy can’t hear us, let's put them to the test.

New King of the Galaxy

It’s been two years since J. J. Abrams expanded the universe created by George Lucas, this time for Disney. The Force Awakens revived the essence of the original trilogy, far from that attempt to renew the prequels. Many specifically criticized that it was a copy of A New Hope. However, what struck Mark Hamill was something else: “Twice a week, for 50 weeks, I was tortured. They called it physical training. I even did a diet of ‘If it tastes good, don’t eat it’. I lost 20 kilos! Then I discovered that I only appeared for a few seconds at the end looking like a grumpy neighbor.”

Now, to Hamill's good fortune, Abrams has handed over the controls of the Millennium Falcon to Rian Johnson. “I remember asking J.J. if it felt like when, in a divorce, your children go to live with the new cool guy. He told me that it was fine with him but I know he thought: ‘I’m going to miss them,’” says Boyega. The creator of Lost will return to lead Episode IX, but before that Johnson will have to prove if The Last Jedi, which promises shocking revelations, is as “unique” as the cast assures. For now, it will be the longest film in the series, with two and a half hours. But will it be up to the much acclaimed The Empire Strikes Back?

“No comparisons,” Hamill says: “This movie is different from the others in Star Wars thanks to Rian. If it had not been for him, I would have dreaded coming back... I wasn’t sure I wanted to be part of the new trilogy. I thought Harrison Ford wouldn’t come back, he was my savior. But then he accepted and I felt trapped. Since I was the only one who wasn’t here, I would’ve been the most hated.”

The Return of the Jedi

“The Last Jedi starts right where we left The Force Awakens,” Ridley tells us, something unheard of in the saga. We will reunite with Rey the scavenger delivering the lightsaber to Luke Skywalker in Ach-To, after having spent the previous film on his trail. “I don’t remember what Luke says when he takes the saber, but he should have said, ‘That came with one hand, did you bring it too?’, jokes Hamill. 

“Rey must accept that she has power and begin to show her potential,” explains Johnson. She and Darth Vader's son will be the focus of the film, although for now nobody dares to say whether the last Jedi master will train the young woman in the art of the Force. It is as if every time a journalist mentioned the word “Jedi”, a fairy died. “Jedi training? That remains to be seen,” says Ridley sounding mysterious, and adds: “In The Force Awakens, Rey was out of control, but now she will learn from Luke and from herself. She will experience growth.”

Her friend, John Boyega, insists on the novelty of the project: “Rian has done something very different. We wanted Finn to have an identity, like Han Solo or Leia. He supported Rey and the Resistance in Episode VII, but now he must decide if he is willing to fight a battle that is not his. His relationship with Rey and now with Rose Tico [Kelly Marie Tran] will push him into action.” The stormtrooper who deserted the First Order will thus find a new ally in this Resistance mechanic. According to Tran, she is “a nobody” that will star in “several fun moments” with Finn.

And what awaits us in the Dark Side? “Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is as important as Rey in this new film,” says Johnson. After killing dad Han Solo, the pupil of Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) will threaten the Galaxy again, with a new ship like that of his grandfather Anakin. Another who will be back, to Finn's disgrace, will be his former superior in the First Order, Captain Phasma. “I cannot confirm if her face will be seen, but we will learn more about her and she will leave an impression,” says Gwendoline Christie.

DJ, the hacker who Benicio del Toro gives life to, is one of the great mysteries of the film. Will he brandish a lightsaber? “No”, says Del Toro. And does he look like some other character in the saga? “He has elements of Boba Fett, maybe Jabba the Hutt,” the actor replies. According to Boyega (official spokesperson of the Galaxy), DJ resides in the casino planet of Canto Bight, where Finn and Rose Tico will go looking for him because “they need a codebreaker and he is the best”. 

“The interesting thing was being able to propose things to Rian and that he was open to my suggestions, even if they changed the story,” Del Toro assures us. Another fundamental issue for the Puerto Rican is the diversity that exists in the saga: “I saw that Oscar Isaac joined Episode VII, and that Diego Luna appeared in Rogue One, and I thought: ‘They already have two Latinos, I don’t think they need three’, but they called me. It's also great that there are women in leading roles.”

The Girls Are Warriors

And speaking of women... Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), princess-turned-general, marked a before and after between the heroines of the cinema of the 70s, a legacy that the saga has continued to reinforce. “They told me that a child wanted to run like Rey because, apparently, she is running the way she should,” Ridley recalls, adding: “The reaction of many parents made me realize what Rey means to them. They told me: ‘My daughter has something to wear now that isn’t sexualized.’” The actress is aware of how much Star Wars does for the empowerment of women, although she believes that “as long as we keep talking about it, there will be work to be done. If there was equality, we wouldn’t be repeating that Wonder Woman is starring and directed by women.”

For Gwendoline Christie, this "feminist” aspect of the saga is fundamental: “We live in a patriarchal society, so being able to play the leader of an army is a luxury. Kathleen Kennedy showed me the results that appear when you google ‘female heroines’: many women with barely any clothes.” 

The actress still remembers the impact Princess Leia had on her: “I was six years old and seeing that Leia was smart, funny and did not look like other female characters made me question how women are portrayed in movies. I hope Captain Phasma will also help change the concept of femininity.” In addition to Rey, Captain Phasma and Rose Tico, Episode VIII will feature Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern), Vice Admiral of the Resistance.

Goodbye Princess Goodbye

Among all the star warriors of Star Wars, General Leia continues to shine more than any other. Outside of the screens, with no Skywalker brawls involved, the cast makes for much closer family: “Mark is the father. Adam is the serious one, but he has a great sense of humor. Oscar is the charmer, John is the fun one, Carrie is the hilarious one, Benicio the cool, and I'm the one who always sings,” sums up Ridley. 

Therefore, the premiere of this film is a bittersweet experience after the death of Fisher in December 2017. For the British actress, “it is strange to be together again without her”. Little did Johnson imagine that he would direct Carrie Fisher’s last film: “We have a beautiful and very powerful performance from her. We have not changed it.”

The one who gets most excited when talking about the actress is her ‘brother’ Mark Hamill: “I keep missing her. I keep talking about her in the present. Selfishly, I’m so angry. She should be here to share Episode VIII and shoot Episode IX.” The Last Jedi is the farewell to an actress who, 40 years later, continues to make us want to be Leia princesses, not ‘Disney princesses’. The Galaxy will not shine the same without her.

[rebelsofshield]

Panels Far, Far Away: A Week in Star Wars Comics 1/09/19

In addition to the regular Star Wars releases, this week I also bring reviews of IDW’s graphic novel adaptations of A New Hope and The Last Jedi. Don’t procrastinate kids.

Star Wars #59 written by Kieron Gillen and art by Angel Unzueta

The long, emotionally complicated vacation our team of heroes enjoyed on Hubin appears to be coming to an end. As Leia and Luke’s personal secrets and schemes along with Han’s recklessness begin to overstay their welcome, outside forces arrive on the pastoral world bringing danger and violence.

There is a general strangeness to writer Kieron Gillen’s script here. Whether it’s from a rather bloodthirsty turn by Leia or from the number of secret agendas and double crossing in the script, the strong characterization, which has been the highlight of this story arc so far, feels more distant and stilted than usual here. This may be a simple matter that at this point in the arc’s narrative we are supposed to begin to see the edges of the trio’s time on Hubin fray. We see how they have betrayed the trust of their hosts and that their hosts have been suspicious of them at the same time. It makes sense given the set up and themes of this story, but there is a certain awkwardness in which these events are revealed that is absent from most of Gillen’s other scripts.

Unzueta’s art also feels a little off here. While it still isn’t nearly as hampered by it as Larroca’s was at its worst, the reliance on photo referencing is still present and at times just as distracting.

Regardless, the ending is tense and exciting and reintroduces some fan favorite villains from Jason Aaron’s run that haven’t appeared in quite sometime. Next issue looks to be the sort of fan servicey action fest that Gillen has been waiting on for a while.

Score: B-

Star Wars Adventures: Destroyer Down #3 written by Scott Beatty and art by Derek Charm and Jon Sommariva

IDW’s rerelease of Destroyer Down, like most of their Adventures brand, has been a delight so far. Being able to tell a Rey centric story on Jakku and bridging it to the Galactic Civil War has allowed for a fun sense of era hopping and a bigger scale narrative than the ones that we usually see out of this side of Star Wars comics and the result has been one of their better projects offered by IDW so far.

As has been the case in the previous two issues, Rey’s segments prove to be the highlight. Derek Charm’s art as always is visually charming and also skillful in its layouts and action choreography. It may be relatively light on plot, but it makes for a fun conclusion that ties together both narratives well. In particular, the relationship that develops between Rey and Sarco Plank is fun and oddly heartwarming. Maybe I’m just a sucker for rivals becoming friends narratives but the final pages of Destroyer Down put a smile to my face.

The backup story detailing the doomed destroyer’s crash into the sands of Jakku may be less strong in comparison but the result is still very fun. In particular, writer Scott Beatty’s sense of humor shines through here delivering a heavy dose of chuckle worthy stormtrooper banter.

Overall, if you haven’t had the chance to check out this miniseries in Loot Crate then I highly recommend giving it a shot if you are a fan of Rey or want a low stakes but fun Star Wars adventure. Between the strong art and colorful setting and characters it is more than worth your time.

Score: B+

Star Wars Age of Republic: Jango Fett #1 written by Jody Houser and art by Luke Ross

Despite the importance that his legacy has on the Star Wars saga, Jango Fett is probably one of the least explored characters in the current Star Wars canon. Outside of a strangely noncommittal stance on his being a Mandalorian, Lucasfilm has offered little in the way of Jango material since, well, Attack of the Clones.

Writer Jody Houser takes this opportunity to expand on the one real thread we have on the infamous bounty hunter: his fatherhood. Although we get flashbacks to Tyrannus’s hiring of Jango and his time on Kamino, Houser’s script frames the entire narrative on the titular bounty hunter’s fathering and mentorship of the next generation of Fett.

Fittingly then, this issue ends up being more about Boba than his father. While in some ways this may feel like a wasted opportunity, Houser still crafts an undeniably intriguing look into the value Jango places on the only legacy that matters to him and how it shapes Boba as a result. It shows the ruthlessness instilled in the young boy and the level of esteem he held his father to and ends up giving us a more exciting look at the early days of this iconic mercenary than most other canon material including The Clone Wars.

Luke Ross’s art also proves to be a strong fit. Playing off some of the shadowy work he did on the galaxy’s scum in 2017’s Darth Maul limited series, Ross excels in bringing to life Jango and his bounty hunting cohorts.

Score: B+

Star Wars: A New Hope: Graphic Novel Adaptation- manuscript by Alessandro Ferrari and art by various

As was the case with its adaptations of The Force Awakens and Rogue One, IDW offers up a similarly visually slick but shallow, bite sized version of this classic tale.

By now it’s clear of what to expect through these comic book realization of the various Star Wars films. They more or less function as abridged versions of the events of the films with colorful cartoon inspired art with the hope of appealing to a younger audience. This sets them apart from Marvel’s film adaptations in that they serve a function outside of being a collectible item or by providing footnotes to the film itself. In a way, they have the same mission as the Galaxy of Adventures cartoon shorts in repackaging classic characters and stories for fans that are just dipping their toes in the water.

In this case, Alessandro Ferrari’s manuscript and the work done by the art team accomplish this goal for A New Hope fairly well. Igor Chimisso’s character designs may favor some characters better than others (Luke and Leia have large rounded faces that give them more than a passing resemblance to chipmunks), but overall the look is more often than not visually exciting and fun to look at. Ferrari’s manuscript moves along at a fast clip, but occasionally it does get ahead of itself. Certain lines of dialogue are remixed or dropped and in context certain plot beats are glossed over and a few of the character moments lack the punch they have in their original form. The 90 page runtime also presents some of the film’s highlights like the beautifully executed Battle of Yavin feel mostly glossed over.

Overall, it works and for the $9.99 price tag, is a cheap enough gift to give a younger fan that wants to reexperience the magic of the classic film in a new way.

Score: B-

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Graphic Novel Adaptation- manuscript by Alessandro Ferrari and art by various

The sequel trilogy may just be the best suited stories for IDW’s mini-graphic novels. With their dynamic characters, fast paced plots, and colorful scenery, it is often easy to abridge these narratives and still offer an entertaining package.

The usual missteps still arrive in that certain pieces of dialogue are dropped and a few emotional or character moments are paced awkwardly and lack the impact they had on the big screen, but as a whole The Last Jedi is the strongest work that the IDW team has produced so far.

Much of this is due to Igor Chimisso’s character work which is a particular standout. It may be that he also does the inking work here, but the exaggerated and cartoony style feels more natural here and accomplishes the aesthetic goals of the project.

It’s still a product that is best suited for younger readers who don’t mind that outside of its visuals the product has little original content to offer, but it is still a vibrant little book that is fun to read.

Score: B

[warrioroftheinfinite]

some critical TLJ thoughts below the cut

this is all over the place because I’m still processing it. TLJ was very different and subversive, and I’m still thinking about it today to wrap my mind around it and come to terms with it.

-Are we never going to find out who/what Snoke was? How he came into contact with Kylo in the first place and seduced him to the dark side? How he came to be Supreme Leader? I guess it doesn’t matter now....but it’s still irksome because effectively he’s just some rando

-speaking of randos....I refuse to believe Rey is one. I never liked the idea that she was a random person. I know some people were into that idea. I think there is a possibility Kylo told her that to manipulate her. If not, then Rian purposefully subversed tropes and stereotypes. I’m still holding out that in 9 we will get a true answer. If she truly is just a random person....that’s hard for me to accept. I, like so many others, am so attached to the Skywalkers and their legacy. I, like so many others, have great emotional investment in the Skywalkers and the Chosen One legacy. However, so much of TLJ is, as Kylo says, killing the past and creating the world anew. If Rey truly is a random person, I think it will take some time for me really accept that. I know the message that comes from that is supposed to be a positive one--that you can come from literally nothing and still be great, but I just can’t/don’t want to let the Skywalkers go yet. (I still don’t care about Kylo. I still don’t have an emotional investment or attachment to him.)

-Phasma only got like 2 minutes of screen time again. She really is the new Boba Fett in terms of being a glorified background character. I loved that we saw her fight and saw a spark of her humanity when we saw her eye. I really hope she isn’t dead foreal, but I guess she might be :/ Also the fight was pretty short and literally after it I was like, that’s it?

-Leia wasn’t really written off. Whoever writes 9 is going to be in a pickle with that one. It’s so sad we won’t see Leia in 9, because she really would shine in it in presumably rebuilding the Resistance/Rebellion/New Republic. Unfortunately, I think in 9 they’re just going to be like, “oh she’s off rebuilding shit” and that’s it. Just an off screen conclusion.

-all in all, I feel like Rey didn’t have much screen time? Or is that just me?

-Some of the CGI looked weird at times (I’m looking at you, fight between Kylo and Luke)

-It was still not explained who the Knight of Ren are/were. Are we to assume they were the group of students Kylo fled the destroyed temple with? If so, where are they? Did him and Snoke eventually just kill them all?

-IT WAS STILL NOT EXPLAINED HOW ANAKIN/LUKE’S LIGHTSABER WAS SVAED FROM BESPIN. OMG COME ON.

[gojira-kingofthekaiju]

Despite being quite disheartened at the TLJ haters, I can see why some people are reacting harshly to the movie. I think it’s because they aren’t thinking critically about how the actions tie to the thematic elements or because they’re focusing on how “different” it was.

I’m gonna compile a list of things I thought I were mistakes and things I thought were great in TLJ. Maybe some haters read it. Maybe they don’t. I’m open to discussion on this.

TLJ Spoilers under the cut

Mistakes in The Last Jedi

-Finn/Rose plotline didn’t finish strong and didn’t really go anywhere besides Finn realizing he is in fact a member of the Resistance.

-Finn/Rose kiss was awkward despite their previous encounters

-Canto Bight was cool but not finessed enough or hashed out enough

-Parts of Poe’s development could of used a little work, namely why Holdo wouldn’t tell him the plan

-Luke’s mistake in going after Ben should have been told as the dark side pulling on him as well

-Too many jokes. Some were good, but there were just a few too many.

-Luke should have had a few more impactful lines

-Leia shouldn’t have been fully sucked out of the bridge. It would have looked cooler if she extended her hand at the last second and held on using the force instead of nearly dying and then flying to safety.

-DJ’s betrayal and knowledge of the Resistance escape plan was a little confusing, we could have used a scene that better set this up

-Maz’s “cameo” sucked. She’s a good character a deserves better

-Phasma is just a slightly upgraded Boba Fett now. Exactly what we DIDN’T want.

-The fight with the Praetorian Guard should have happened in front of Snoke. Then Snoke would congratulate them on becoming powerful and try to tempt them again. They kill him together, with difficulty.

-No LGBT+ representation. This sucks. It doesn’t feel like Rian though, it seems more like Disney being afraid of marketing a huge product. C’mon Disney. That’s bullshit. You’ve put LGBT characters in other media you’ve produced, now just grow a spine and put us in Star Wars.

GOOD things about The Last Jedi

-Luke being bitter. It’s good to see a character we know and love acting differently, it gives them a chance to develop. I understand this was strange, but Luke offered strong critiques of the Jedi

-Luke trying to kill Ben. Normally I would say this sucked and was out of character; however, Luke had minimal training and it had been years since the conflict with the Empire. The dark side in Ben was clearly also affecting Luke. ALSO! Luke decided in the act that it was wrong, which is VERY much in character. Luke has always been about figuring out the right path and drawing lines in the sand. This time, he got too close to making the wrong choice and was caught in the act of rescinding it. Ben reacted without letting Luke explain and let the darkness consume him.

-Killing Snoke. We’ve already had a plot about an Emperor-type character leading bad guys and using force lightning. Kill the past. Let Kylo become the villain he wants to be. Let the story be new and different. We need conflicted and interesting villains instead of Emperor clones. It doesn’t matter who Snoke was (it also didn’t matter who the Emperor was until the books and prequels came out.). Kylo is the focus.

-The theme of failure. This is so important to becoming a hero. Heroes have to lose! This makes the story interesting and let’s them learn from their mistakes. Luke and Yoda embody this. Yoda failed by turning the Jedi into an army and Luke failed by trying to kill darkness before it was truly born. The Resistance fails over and over trying to escape but when they succeed it’s brilliant and beautiful. It makes the story of their escape so much more powerful because of the impossibility of it.

-The themes of legacy and how to make your own story. People keep thinking this movie hates the original trilogy for some reason. It doesn’t. It tells us to remember the good parts of their legacy while reminding us that our heroes are human and make human errors too. They aren’t gods to be worshipped, they are symbols of hope that guide us to our own path to victory.

-The lack of Lightsaber on Lightsaber action. The only time a Lightsaber touches a lightsaber is in a flashback between Ben and Luke. The conflict between Kylo and Luke at the end was wonderful because it boiled down the fight to what it really was: a dispute of personalities. Luke didn’t need to be there physically to confront Kylo. It was about being a symbol of a Resistance.

-Luke’s death. With Luke dying, we can finally move on from the Original Trilogy and make something new. This whole movie was making choices that took us in new directions to give us something unique, which is exactly what the original trilogy did! It follows the OT without entirely copying it. The movie only reuses some beats from those movies like the Return of the Jedi and Empire Strikes Back. It never is on a leash, like The Force Awakens was. Luke died at peace and gave himself to the force so Star Wars could finally let the Original Trilogy go.

-Poe’s development showed him he isn’t just a fighter, but a leader. He has to occasionally make choices that protect the group instead of defeating his enemies.

-Yoda. He looked a little odd at first, but it was great having him back. He is both knowledgeable and mischievous, just as he was in Empire. It was great seeing him troll Luke once again.

-The cinematography. Just brilliant.

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars The Bad Batch: Who Is Omega?

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This Star Wars: The Bad Batch article contains spoilers.

The newest Star Wars hero is a bit of a mystery. Omega, a young clone who joins the titular heroes in The Bad Batch, is a mix of audience surrogate and riddle. She’s eager to join the fight, and has some skills of her own, but she’s obviously not cut from the exact same cloth as the other clones. That serves her well as she escapes Order 66 from the clones’ side, with her and the Batch some of the few residents of Kamino who don’t go all-in on the Empire’s slaughter. So, who is Omega, really?

At a press conference held over Zoom last week, lead The Bad Batch actor Dee Bradley Baker described Omega’s relationship with the other clones of the Bad Batch as familial. “It’s a fascinating relationship that unfolds,” he says. “Because at first of course the team [is] their own sealed unit not used to having anyone along or working with everyone else.” Ultimately, Omega does end up joining the Bad Batch, and this newfound friendship among “genetic mutants” will inform the 16-episode season as a whole.

“It’s interesting in terms of the story and the writing to have this kind of personal relationship with a younger character and to see how that changes and how they accommodate that,” Baker says. “It’s more of an uncle-niece or father-child dynamic, but not entirely, because Omega has her own potential powers maybe. It’ll be interesting to see that unfold. It connects you to the story in a personal way.” 

There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to Omega’s origin and potential enhancements, especially after the series premiere, “Aftermath.” Here’s what we know about Omega and what she might mean for the future of The Bad Batch.

Just the Facts

Omega, played by Michelle Ang, follows in the tradition of protagonists like Ahsoka Tano, Ezra Bridger, and Luke Skywalker himself as the audience’s eyes into a new world. She’s also plainly familiar with the Bad Batch, knowing them by name even though they aren’t familiar with her.

We’re first introduced to her as a “medical assistant” for Nala Se, the Kaminoan scientist seen often in connection with the Republic’s clones. Omega is confirmed to be a clone, but what exactly that means lives in the realm of theory for now. More on that later.

What we know for sure is that she certainly doesn’t look like Jango Fett, the template for the Clone Army, which seems odd since the deceased bounty hunter was the only genetic template the Kaminoans used…right? Another mystery.

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One clue as to who Omega is seems to be in her headpiece, which looks like Lama Su’s. Omega’s jewelry holds something hidden in a locket that’s important to her, but as of the first episode, the audience (and the Bad Batch) don’t know what that is, either. It could be a personal curio or a key to a larger story. We’re going to bet on the latter.

Producer and head writer Jennifer Corbett told us that Omega’s character didn’t go through a lot of different iterations when she was being developed. “We started by thinking what challenges would push the Batch out of their comfort zone. A young child would challenge them at every turn. We didn’t go back and forth much. She just fit the story, and when Michelle came in and read for her, we knew we had it.” 

Is She “The Last Clone”?

Omega being the final clone ever produced from Jango’s genetic template has been a popular fan theory over the last few weeks. It stems mostly from her name: Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet and an evocative symbol for finality, opposition, or a complete set (as in “the alpha and the omega.”) As of now, this is entirely speculation.

There’s nothing in the show that suggests she’s the final clone, and, in fact, you can see Jango clones of Omega’s age or younger in the background of some shots. There’s also no precedent for it, no clone named Alpha, at least not in the current canon. There were a few clones named Alpha in the Legends continuity, though, including one introduced as a clone of Jedi Master Kam Solusar in the novel Crosscurrent by Paul S. Kemp. Interestingly enough, that Alpha traveled with a female clone named Hunter… Strange coincidence coming from Corbett and Dave Filoni, a veteran Star Wars creator who loves re-canonizing elements from Legends in new ways. We won’t jump to any conclusions just yet, though.

But going back to the meaning of Omega’s name, there are already a line of canon “last” troopers, the Purge troopers “from the very last production line,” who look like the usual Jango template. Their existence isn’t proof that Omega is one of them; in fact, we’d argue it’s the opposite. But again, that’s all speculation.

It is canon that Jango Fett’s DNA is being “stretched” thin by the cloning process. This bit of pseudoscience explains why the Bad Batch themselves are different, which Omega seems to relate to. So the theory that she might be one of the last because the science simply can’t produce that many, or that the Kaminoans had to make changes in order to make it possible to create more clones, isn’t totally impossible, either.

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Is She a Clone of Palpatine?

Is Omega’s history more ominous? Emperor Palpatine has cloned himself before. Depending on which story you’re experiencing, the clone might be a shell for his Force presence to ooze into after his own body’s death or a brand new person. In The Rise of Skywalker, we learned Rey’s history is closely intertwined with cloning. Palpatine created a clone body for himself to carry on his legacy, but the science was inexact and the body weak. One of his many other plans resulted in the creation of a strand-cast(different from cloning, but it hasn’t exactly been detailed how.)

This strand-cast was Rey’s father, intended to provide Palpatine a Force-sensitive genetic match Palpatine could transfer his own spirit into. But now we’re getting a bit far afield. The point is that Palpatine was trying all kinds of things to figure out how to extend his own life past death, and needed a Force-sensitive vessel to do it. Could Omega be an early prototype?

While she doesn’t show any Force-sensitivity outwardly, she does seem to have remarkable empathy. Her knowledge of the Bad Batch could come from her fondness for them, or it could be something more supernatural.

Even if she isn’t Force-sensitive, there would be plenty of opportunities for her to be an offshoot of Palpatine’s plans. As seen in The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker, when the Emperor starts a project, he makes a lot of backup copies. Omega also looks a lot more like Palpatine than like the Jango clones, although her face shape is reminiscent of the young Boba Fett’s character model in The Clone Wars, but the blonde hair and light skin might suggest something different.

There’s sure to be a lot more information about Omega as The Bad Batch goes on. Will she be as much of a mystery as Grogu and Rey, or will we learn her history sooner rather than later? The 16-episode first season of The Bad Batch will tell.

The post Star Wars The Bad Batch: Who Is Omega? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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