#my favorite iteration of star wars is star wars rebels

[unavailable-fan]

Just thoughts on HPMA story

Finished probably all main stories currently in hpma (up to Year 4) Never was a big hp fan, loved first few movies as a kid and played the old games in its universe, so i do have fond memories about it, and first movies are still pretty cool production-wise, but with all the recent and not so recent author related things i get why people don't want to engage with anything hp-related Still i like the universe mostly how it was portrayed in the earlier movies and there's not much that fill that particular niche for me So i was interested in the game when i first heard about it like 3 years ago, mostly cause it's art-style is charming slightly dark but comfy Anyway, somehow i managed to participate in cbt, and i liked it a lot despite the game having lots of flaws It still is quite a mess in various aspects, but, oh, do i like its story, art style and voice acting It's still clunky, obviously, but it's also like the best worst fanfic ideas stitched together into a story with questionable tone and moral, but it's beautiful like this Instead of hp main trio we have: - a kid, who gets into dozen criminal offences a year, cause they try to help people around them, and some people use it to make the kid break laws for them, yey - an idealistic hothead girl with memory problems, who will fight you on sight, cause she loves her friends a lot and tries to protect them never thinking about the fact she's super capable of accidental mass-murder, also she's kinda awkward in some regular social situations, like her life can get any weirder than it already is - a very kind guy, who tries to act like the most cynic person ever, cause his every attempt of having a calm life fails miserably, has terrible reputation of being a criminal and one of the best potion brewers and for some reason dancers(!) in school, just let this guy rest, please They're miserable on their own, but together they're even worse, their interactions are the cutest, but the horrors they have to go through in the name of friendship are endless Among other things this story has: - Hagrid, doing his usual thing - Neville, being the best teacher in the whole school while still getting bullied for some reason - McGonagall, as a principal - a Slytherin bully/rival girl, who's actually kinda cool and pretty fun, once you get used to her attitude - an artist, a werewolf, a prophet and a play on "evil twins" trope all in one year - a pair of cute and hilarious polar opposites Gryffindor students, whose relationship is the talk of their whole friend group - an actual evil Gryffindor, can you believe this - a gay ghost guy who refuses to tell you how he died - a talking portrait, who makes you hoard stuff, in hopes it will somehow get the ghost guy to talk - a goth gardener lady, who casually reminds you of your mortality every day - a musician who makes kids jump into lakes at night, cool - a guy, who makes kids illegally raise dragons on school grounds - a group of poachers, who follow kids illegally raising dragons on school grounds And! At least two instances where physical violence is actually the answer!

I guess i just love the fact this story has pretty bold choices and doesn't treat source material too carefully, while having actually pretty enjoyable characters No idea how it will develop further, but i do want more people to know about this particular in-universe story to see more fan-takes on all of it like, go watch story letsplays of it or something, if you're interested love cool stories, hate when they belong to franchises with messy history

[gennianydots]

STAR WARS:

Animated vs Live Action

Characters from Clone Wars/Rebels in their live action iterations

Ahsoka Tano

Hera Syndulla

Grand Admiral Thrawn

Sabine Wren

And my favorite “no thoughts only war crimes” droid:

Chopper

[le--fruitcake]

In the meantime while I anxiously await your plentiful truths, might I ask for what cartoons you might recommend my humble self?

Ah, my vassal! I am neariy finished writing that essay, I promise. Just a while longer, I need to be sure my sources are accurate.

I will say you should watch Samurai Rabbit, despite it being almost painfully cringeworthy at times. It's surprisingly well-written, though! It's only on Netflix.

In terms of TMNT, the only one I can recommend with my whole chest is Rise of the TMNT. I like the others (mostly— 2012 is on Thin Fucking Ice with the Donnie/April thing), but Rise is the best by far! I am Extremely Biased and am going to say you should watch the Usagi crossover episodes of 2003 (S2E23-26, S3E01 [does not contain a whole lot of Usagi, but he and Leo uh. Exchange swords], S3E22-23, S4E13, and S7E13 [no speaking lines, appears as a background character only]) and 2012 (S5E15-17). The 1987 ones (S3E32/34) aren't as good, but you do get to watch Mikey slap Usagi in the face with a pizza. Fucking LMAO. All the TMNT is on Paramount Plus, but far be it from me to tell you not to hoist the colors, matey.

The Amazing World of Gumball... exists! It sure does. I really like the way they play with animation and art style, and it has some honestly amazing physical comedy, but it's very, um... 2012. I think it popularized a lot of tropes you see in more modern cartoons that make them borderline unbearable, but I found myself watching the entire thing and kind of wanting more! It's pretty good if you just want some batshit insane cartoon nonsense, but it has no story to speak of, really. The episodes are both startlingly interconnected and purely standalone. Anais is my favorite character, followed by Nicole, and honestly the men in that family are trash lmao. I think I watched it on Hulu, but it might have been HBO Max.

I like Star Wars, too, specifically Visions, Clone Wars (both 2003 and 2007), and, though I haven't finished it, Rebels. (I like the movies, too! Real shame they never made any past Episode VII. Had so much potential. Smh my head.) Visions S1E8 is my favorite thing Star Wars has ever done btw. Very Heavily Biased. All of this is on Disney Plus.

I have of course seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Legend of Korra, and recommend Avatar if by some miracle you haven't seen it, but tbh I don't know if I would recommend Korra. It has very interesting concepts, but the execution is um. Bad. Watching the Straights™️ frothing at the mouth over Korrasami was an Experience! "we poppin' the biggest bottles when Makorra happens tonight" is a regular part lo my vocabulary. Both are on Netflix, I think.

I like Teen Titans! I used to have the first two seasons on DVD. There are a lot of jokes I didn't get as a kid, and so rewatching it as an adult was interesting. I also didn't appreciate Cyborg enough as a kid, man has the best jokes. Robin was always my favorite, but on rewatch, I really can't say who's my favorite. I like Beast Boy's power the best, but Raven is p cool, and Starfire is wonderful, and Cyborg is funny. This is available on The Max Formerly Known as HBO.

I also watched all of the original animated Batman. Batman: The Animated Series, I think it was called? I really really liked that one, it was the perfect mix of edgy and funny, and is my favorite Batman iteration. Mark Hamill Joker also! That interpretation of Two-Face is my favorite, and made him my favorite Batman villain. I still want a silver dollar btw! I already have a $2 bill and several dollar coins, so if I get one of those and a half-dollar, I'll have one of every kind of defunct American currency. I think. I believe this is also available on The Max.

If you count anime as cartoons, Bleach and Fairy Tail are good, if you skip the filler. My Hero is... Pretty good. Mirko is of course my favorite character, and I am now only invested in the show for her sake. Crunchyroll is kinda the go-to for anime, but Hulu also has all three of these. I think Bleach might not be on Crunchyroll anymore also? Very Odd if so because it's one of the Big Ones, but I couldn't find it when I looked last.

Little Witch Academia is adorable! Lesbians abound, and features a surprising amount from actual Celtic lore. It's also quite possible the only anime featuring high school girls that doesn't make any blatant attempt to sexualize them, which is a breath of fresh air. The official anime is a Netflix original, but there apparently exists an OVA that I have not seen, and a movie, that I have, also on Netflix.

Castlevania is extremely good, but I guess it's technically an anime? It's originally in English and has some of the best lines I have ever heard come out of someone's mouth, ever, but it is heavily gorey, and S2 has some Unfortunate Rather Graphic Heterosexuality. Fortunately, one of the characters is confirmed bisexual! It is also a Netflix original.

This was a doozy to answer! I don't watch too many cartoons, per se, because I wasn't allowed watch most of them growing up. Never seen Spongebob, Powerpuff Girls, Phineas and Pherb, etc. etc. Despite that, I am a fan of animated shows over live-action shows, generally speaking, due to the liberties one can take, and the fact that you aren't limited by what you can achieve with human actors and such. The same goes for video games— I prefer heavy style to realism, though the GameCube/PS2 era games had the best of both worlds.

[knighta3]

I've created my own categorization of the various canons. It's similar but unrelated to the EU-days system.

Core Canon: Episodes 1-6. This is the base for everything else.

Lucas Canon: Anything Lucas directly participated in. Episodes 1-6 and Star Wars the Clone Wars(2008). I tentatively include the Dark Disciple novel and Son of Darhomir comics, since they were supposed to be included in the Clone Wars if it hadn't been canceled, but had to be reworked to a different format.

EU canon or Legends Canon: The old novels, video games, comics, etc. that are pre-Disney days. Such as the Force Unleased, Knights of the Old Republic, Republic Commando, Star Wars Clone Wars(2003), etc.

There are problems with this level. Such as some of them being created before the prequels existed, and thus contradicting core canon. Many authors contradict each other too.

Lucas himself rarely looked at any EU/Legends content. He'd give the authors and developers guidelines for what they couldn't touch on(he forbade the prequel era and Yoda's backstory, for example, because he wanted to tell those stories himself), and that was about it. So EU/Legends is basically just fanfiction Lucas could profit from. He was most likely to see things from the visual media and incorporate some of those ideas however he saw fit. Such as Quinlan Vos, Darth Bane, Darth Revan, etc.

Filoni Canon: the things Dave Filoni (who is regarded as Lucas's "padawan") worked on. So this level includes things like Star Wars Rebels, the Bad Batch, the Mandalorian, etc. The stronger his participation/influence on the work, the stronger its status as Filoni canon.

Disney Canon: Anything produced by Disney. Rebels, the sequel trilogy, the fallen order games, the various shows, Rogue One, Solo, etc.

Alternate Canon: mostly stuff like Star Wars Visions or the Lego iterations, where it is officially created content, but should not be regarded as actual canon.

Personal Canon: for clarity, this is different from headcanon. Individual fans just pick and choose whatever they want from any established canon and incorporate it into their personal canon. (For example, I reject the sequel trilogy)

Headcanon: fan interpretations that are not from any established canon. Things like fan theories and ideas of a character's favorite color. There are two main types of headcanon: 1. has a basis in canon, but isn't confirmed; 2. Has no canon basis, but it doesn't contradict canon either.

Headcanons can be incorrect at times, due to fans misunderstanding or forgetting established canon.

Crack Canon: A secret 3rd type of headcanon. They are either absurd or contradict established canon, but it doesn't matter because it's not serious. Things such as Anakin/Vader being defeated by pocket sand fall into this category.

Fanon: headcanons that escalate to be widely accepted by many fans, despite there being no established canon to confirm or deny. Depictions of the clones often fall into this category.

Fanon can also be incorrect due to misunderstanding canon

Arguments about what's canon and what's not in SW fandom are kinda pointless, I know for a fact that every fan has their personal frankensteined version of canon based on what's best for their own blorbos. I love picking up a random licensed book to sneer at half of its ideas and then steal the rest. Some shows and books and comics and whole movies are simply not incorporated into my belief system. That's how we roll

[theultimatefan]

Tomei, Tudyk, Trejo, Swallow Among Additions to FAN EXPO Philadelphia In Next Wave of Celebrities

Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny, The Wrestler) and fan favorites Alan Tudyk (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, “Firefly”), Danny Trejo (Machete, The Book of Boba Fett), Emily Swallow (“The Mandalorian,” “Supernatural”) and Jeff Ward (“One Piece,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) are among the additions to the growing celebrity lineup at FAN EXPO Philadelphia, set for May 3-5 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Joonas Suotamo (Star Wars) and Diana Lee Inosanto (“Ahsoka”) round out the newcomers to the roster.

Marisa Tomei blasted onto the scene with her Academy Award winning performance as “Mona Lisa Vito” opposite Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny. After the Best Supporting Actress win, she went on to roles in Chaplin, Untamed Heart and the Paper, later appearing on Broadway before earning two more Oscar nominations, the third for The Wrestler. She also had a recurring role in the hit series “Empire” and appeared as “Aunt May” in three Spider-Man blockbusters.

Alan Tudyk gained fans’ attention when he starred as wise-cracking "Hoban 'Wash' Washburne" in "Firefly" and Serenity, and later grabbed the “Star Wars” fandom with his portrayal of “K-2SO” in Rogue One. He also appeared in Wreck it Ralph and 42 and has lent his voice to characters in hits like “American Dad,” “Harley Quinn,” “Transformers: Earthspeak” and “Star vs. the Forces of Evil.”

Danny Trejo has developed a prolific career in the entertainment industry with a hard-earned and atypical road to success. From years of imprisonment to helping troubled youth battle drug addictions, from acting to producing, and now on to restaurant ventures, Trejo’s name, face, and achievements are well recognized in Hollywood and beyond. He has starred in dozens of films including Desperado, Heat, the From Dusk Till Dawn series, Con Air, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, the Spy Kids movies, Machete and many more.

With her portrayal of “The Armorer” in “The Mandalorian” in the hit Netflix series “The Mandalorian,” Emily Swallow added another role to her growing resume. She also appeared as “Kim Fischer,” a regular on “The Mentalist” and as “Amara / The Darkness” in the 11th season of “Supernatural.” She also voiced the role of “Lisa Tepes” in the animated Netflix fantasy action series “Castlevania.”

Jeff Ward played “Deke Shaw” as a regular on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” from 2017-2020, and most recently appeared in the first season of the Netflix adventure/comedy “One Piece.” Fans will also recognize him from his work in “Brand New Cherry Flavor” and the TV movie Manson’s Lost Girls, where he gave an appropriately creepy performance as the cult leader.

Joonas Suotamo has assumed the mantle of the iconic role of “Chewbacca” in numerous iterations of the Star Wars saga since first appearing as the Wookiee in Episode VII – The Force Awakens in 2015. The Finnish actor also stepped out of the familiar character to appear in four episodes of the Disney series “Willow.”

Diana Lee Inosanto appears as “Morgan Elsbeth” in the Star Wars “Ahsoka” production on Disney+, opposite Rosario Dawson, David Tennant and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She originated that role in an episode of “Mandalorian” in 2020 after appearing in dozens of movies and shows as a stunt person and a variety of other entertainment jobs.

They join a lineup that already includes headliners Mario Lopez (“Saved by the Bell,” “Access Hollywood”), Sean Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, “Gilmore Girls”), Felicia Day (“The Guild,” “Dragon Age: Redemption”), Ben McKenzie (“Gotham,” “The O.C.”), Holly Marie Combs (“Charmed,” “Picket Fences”), Adam Savage (“MythBusters,” “Unchained Reaction”), Michelle Hurd (“Star Trek: Picard,” “Law & Order: SVU”), Sofia Boutella (Rebel Moon, The Mummy) and Jason Lee (“My Name is Earl,” The Incredibles).

Single-Day Tickets, Three-Day Passes, Ultimate Fan and VIP Packages for FAN EXPO Philadelphia are available now. Advance pricing is available until April 18. More guest news will be released in the following weeks, including line-up reveals for additional headline celebrities, comic creator guests, voice actors and cosplayers.

Philadelphia is the eighth event on the 2024 FAN EXPO HQ calendar; the full schedule is available at fanexpohq.com/home/events/.

[kareenvorbarra]

i’ve been going back and forth with myself a lot about whether or not to watch the mandalorian - it looks pretty good, the characters look cute, i think i would enjoy it on its own, but i can’t fully separate it from the other fictional mandalorians and based on the little i know about the show i’m worried that the mandalorians i care about might have been killed off in order to drive the plot of this new show starring a random man

i read a few episode summaries to see if that would help me decide, and tbh the stuff i read is making me even more nervous...this “great purge” thing really sounds like it could mean “all the interesting mandalorian women you love are dead” and i don’t want to get invested in the show if there’s a good chance that’s going to turn out to be true. can anyone who’s seen the episodes offer me any consolation or confirmation on this subject? is that how the great purge comes off in the show, or is it more ambiguous?

[quipxotic]

Tagged by @ecouter-bien, along with a whole bunch of our Elementary mutuals. 

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 66

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? As of this moment: 457,458

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Doctor Who (Classic, New Who, and Big Finish)

Elementary

Dark Matter

UNIT: The New Series (Big Finish Audio)

Highlander: The Series

Star Wars / Rogue One

Star Wars Rebels / A New Dawn / Kanan (Comics) / The Clone Wars

The Bad Batch

Midsomer Murders

Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)

The Haunting of Hill House (TV series)

Pathfinder (Roleplaying Game) / Pathfinder Legends (Big Finish Audio)

The Mummy (1999)

The Diary of River Song (Big Finish Audio)

Sherlock Holmes and related fandoms

The Expanse

NCIS

Sanctuary (TV series)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 

Star Wars Rebels Drabbles 

Thirteenth Doctor Drabbles

Unfinished Business (Rogue One)

Fifth Doctor Drabbles

 No Such Data Exists (Dark Matter)          

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not? Yes, although I’m not always very prompt about it because life sometimes gets in the way. But why wouldn’t I reply? I like talking about things I’ve written with other people who are interested in the same fandoms I am.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? I’m not sure I have a very good read on what rates as angst to most people. Maybe Destiny Deferred (Rogue One), although that’s just a sad ending not really an angst-ridden one. Maybe one of the stories in The Spy and the Time Lord series? Several people have said Death Comes to the Rocinante made them cry, but it’s not finished yet so I don’t know if it counts.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written? Not really. I mean I have stories that cross over related fandoms (The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, for example) because they all share the same timeline and universe. I also have AUs (Elementary but vampires, for example), but I don’t tend to like mixing different universes together.

As far as my strangest fics, you’ll likely find them in my Monsters and Legends AU series.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic? I’ve had a few grumpy commenters - people who don’t like that my drabbles are only 100 words even though that’s in the story description (and what drabbles actually are supposed to be) or who wanted a story to go a different direction than where I took it - but no outright hate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Ha! Let’s put it this way, I struggle to write flirting and an occasional kiss. So no, I think smut is a bit beyond my skills.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! A few chapters of Thirteenth Doctor Drabbles were translated into Russian, which was very exciting and flattering.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No.

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship? That I write, probably Hera and Kanan from Star Wars Rebels, who definitely fall into the #RelationshipGoals type of ship. I love reading Holmes/Watson and Moriarty/Moran (in all their iterations) as well.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? There’s always a possibility I will finish all of them, so I don’t consider any of them lost causes. That said, at the moment I’m probably least likely to revisit my Dark Matter stories. Sorry Dark Matter fans, I’ve just been out of that headspace for a very long time now.

15. What are your writing strengths? I think I do dialog pretty well. One of my favorite compliments is when people tell me I nailed a character’s voice or that a story sounds like one that could come right out of the media it’s based in.

16. What are your writing weaknesses? Finishing things. Early on I had a tendency to get really excited about an idea and start writing without a clue where the story was going. So I’d get to the middle and my enthusiasm would wear off, leaving me uncertain how to continue. Hopefully I’m a bit better about that now. Currently my main problem is just having the energy and time to write.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I think I did that once, maybe for a Rogue One fic? If I recall correctly, I asked @nairobiwonders to help me with a bit of Spanish.

Since I don’t speak or write anything other than English, I’ll stick to what I know unless a story absolutely demands it. If I do find myself needing to write something in another language, I’d do what I did before: reach out to see if anyone I know is a native speaker and run the dialog past them, if they’re willing to do that for me.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Dark Matter.

19. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written? Is anyone ever able to pick only one story? Usually I’m writing because I wanted to read a thing, found out no one else had written it yet (or written it exactly how I wanted it), so I wrote it for myself. Of course all of them are going to be my favorites, given that. If I had to name some specific fics, well...

I’m working on Lost and Found  (The Bad Batch) the most right now, although I’ve no idea if it’ll end up being among my favorites. Someone left a comment on A Face From the Past (Midsomer Murders) recently which sent me re-reading and enjoying it. Fifth Doctor Drabbles is a labor of love since I’m trying to write something for every piece of media about the Fifth Doctor. I’m very fond of The Cleverness of Women (Sherlock Holmes) and It’s Alive! Alive! (Elementary) although neither of them are very popular. The WIPs that I think the most about are Unfinished Business (Rogue One) and Hill House Five (The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Who which, come to think of it, might be the only true crossover I’ve ever written).

I’m not going to tag anyone, but feel free to answer these questions if you’re a fan fiction writer and interested in doing so.

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars Toys Prove That the Legends Expanded Universe Isn’t Dead

https://ift.tt/38VmigA

Disney’s 2012 acquisition of the Star Wars franchise obviously proved consequential, especially after it redefined the Skywalker Saga with a Sequel Trilogy, two standalone films, a successful live-action series, and an array of animated shows. Yet, one sore point (of many) for longtime fans has been the company’s erasure of decades’ worth of beloved Expanded Universe Star Wars novels, comic books, and video games, which were relegated to the non-canon label Legends. However, said erasure doesn’t mean the old canon is gone completely, as exemplified this week by Hasbro, which is dedicating a whole new wave of action figures to the Legends Expanded Universe.

Hasbro has revealed an intriguing quartet for its 6” scaled Star Wars: The Black Series line: Jaxxon, Darth Maul (Sith Apprentice), Carnor Jax, and Luke Skywalker (Heir to the Empire)—each character—or character iteration—hails from the Legends lore that Disney unceremoniously scrapped. Indeed, the fact that an action figure is finally (after decades of niche fan demand) being made for Jaxxon, the space-traveling bunny smuggled from Marvel’s Star Wars comics of the late-1970s/early-1980s, is indicative of a reemergence of the Legends lore.

Moreover, Hasbro’s choices—notably approved by Disney—do not seem random. Rather, they seem complementary to the return of other blasts from the pasts, including Genndy Tartakovsky’s Star Wars: Clone Wars, Star Wars: Droids, and Star Wars: Ewoks to the Disney+ library as well as the debut of Clone Wars bounty hunter Durge to the Disney canon.

Why are these choices significant? Because they reflect a growing trend for the franchise—specifically in the aftermath of The Mandalorian season 2, which further embraced forgotten Legends story elements, such as the Dark Troopers.

The aforementioned characters—save for Jaxxon and the black-clad Heir to the Empire Luke—had been turned into 3 ¾” scale action figures in the years before 2012, and Hasbro has since sporadically released other Legends characters in the Black Series (Grand Admiral Thrawn, Jaina Solo, Darth Revan, Darth Nihilus, Tartakovsky Clone Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi et al). Yet, the act of dedicating an entire wave of the Black Series—Star Wars’ de facto current main action figure line—reveals a mainstream popularity for these characters that extends well beyond the realm of elegiac fanboys. And perhaps an interest in bringing more Legends elements to the Disney canon.

“I’ve been a fan of Star Wars comic books since the 1980s, so the very idea of having action figures based on Star Wars comics publishing is mind-blowing in the very best way,” said Jennifer Heddle, executive editor of Lucasfilm Publishing, in a statement on StarWars.com. “Seeing these figures takes me right back to memories of sitting on my bedroom floor, paging through the latest Star Wars comic, hardly able to believe I was reading original adventures about my favorite characters. Publishing’s ability to create those kinds of memories is a driving force behind what I do, and to have Lucasfilm acknowledge that legacy in this way is absolutely thrilling.”

In a divergence from Jaxxon’s classic cartoonish appearance in Marvel Comics or IDW’s current canon-adjacent Star Wars Adventures series, his debut figure is rendered in a quasi-realistic style, as if to emulate how he would appear in live-action form, a curious choice that leaves one to ponder if such a thing is destined to occur. (Don’t bet on it it.)

It’s no secret that Thrawn, who returned to canon as a villain in the acclaimed animated series Star Wars Rebels, now has live-action prospects glistening after being prominently name-dropped in a season 2 episode of The Mandalorian. It now appears that the evil azure admiral of Timothy Zahn’s classic novel trilogy will manifest in person for the upcoming spinoff series centered on Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano. Moreover, the inclusion of Luke Skywalker from Heir to the Empire is pertinent to this point, since he comes with Thrawn’s pet ysalamiri, a lizard-like creature that the villain kept with him at all times in the story—usually draped around his neck—because it has an innate property that nullifies a Jedi’s Force abilities. The existing Black Series Thrawn figure—which was recently reissued—was notably missing his pet (a 2017 SDCC exclusive deluxe version included his ysalamiri statues seen on Rebels). It’s possible this is all stage-setting for a future Thrawn live-action storyline.

Read more

TV

Could Durge’s Star Wars Return Lead to a Role in The Mandalorian or Book of Boba Fett?

By Joseph Baxter

Books

Star Wars: Great Legends Stories You Should Read

By Megan Crouse and 1 other

The shirtless version of Darth Maul is a nice post-Disney callback to Dark Horse’s 2000 comic series, Star Wars: Darth Maul, which showcased the double-blader’s time under the tutelage of Darth Sidious before the events of The Phantom Menace. This rendition of Maul, whose Legends lore resurrection was adapted by the Disney canon via animated shows Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and live-action movie Solo: A Star Wars Story, has always been popular, showcasing the fuller extent of his intricate body tattoos. It had already inspired multiple action figures in the 3 ¾” line.

Similarly, the inclusion of Carnor Jax revives the once-popular villain from Dark Horse’s 1997 miniseries, Star Wars: Crimson Empire. The character, who survived the destruction of the Second Death Star, is a would-be Sith lord who rose through the ranks of the crimson-clothed Royal Guards and was vying to fill the power vacuum left in the wake of the Emperor’s demise. The imperious endeavor would thrust him into a conflict with fellow former guardsman Kir Kanos, who eventually defected to the Rebels.  

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After the tumult that followed the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Disney has been doing some serious soul searching about its $4 billion investment, and as The Mandalorian has proven, a back-to-basics ethos is something that fans, young and old, can embrace. Likewise, the arena of toys has always been the franchise’s most reliable popularity metric ever since the 1977 marketing milestone in which kids were sold a piece of cardboard containing an “Early Bird” certificate for unproduced action figures from that year’s surprise biggest box office hit. It will be interesting to see if this Legends Expanded Universe wave of Star Wars’ Black Series figures proves indicative of the franchise’s live-action direction.

The post Star Wars Toys Prove That the Legends Expanded Universe Isn’t Dead appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3cOAGZ5

[legobiwan]

What do you think of Thrawn as a character? Tbh he's rightfully earned the spot of my favorite "bad guy" in Star Wars, even though he isn't an inherently evil or malicious person. Treason is AMAZING so far, I'd say it's a step up from the last book. I love your blogs, and your review of the book was very accurate!

First of all, thank you for your kind words, friend :)

Secondly, I love Thrawn, especially in this new incarnation. 

It’s been a long time since I read the original Zahn novels (like, probably close to 20 years), but from what I remember, Thrawn was a good villain then, someone to match Sidious’s level of threat while being a different type of bad guy for Luke and the gang to match up against, someone who wasn’t a Force user, which seemed to be the most important aspect of Thrawn in that iteration.

But with these new novels (and Rebels, to a degree)...it throws an entirely new light on Thrawn. Yes, he works for the Empire, but he’s doing so for a reason. He operates on his own plane of morality, which seems to be a mix of Chiss culture and Thrawn’s own idiosyncracies. He is highly logical, values loyalty, effort, and strategic thinking over many other characteristics and - this is what i find fascinating - creates a culture of respect and loyalty within the being that serve under him where they are free to express their opinions (within the proper boundaries) and even make mistakes, as long as they show effort to fix and learn from those mistakes. Like, I’m the kind of person who chafes under most authority figures but even I feel like I’d be okay working under Thrawn.

It’s funny, because he really exhibits a lot of the characteristics the Jedi purported to be their behavioral baseline (and I am certain this is done on purpose, especially in Alliances). Thrawn is able to - by and large - manage his attachments, he operates on logical and loyalty rather than passion, he sees the larger picture, and is rather dispassionate (which is not to say he doesn’t care, but rather he doesn’t exude illogical emotion). This, honestly, was what prompted my original ask if Chiss could be Jedi because if Thrawn were Force-sensitive??? He would wipe the floor with the Order, I’m certain. 

And the way it’s set up in the books, he works for the villains without becoming the villain himself, which I find fascinating. (Rebels is another story, but now I admittedly have to go back and watch it with this new information in mind.) Yes, he kills people and aids Palpatine and Vader but as you said, I don’t feel like he’s inherently evil, and not even evil in being amoral because he tries to avoid unnecessary loss of life in battle. He just...again, exists on a different plane where very few people get him. And I think a lot of us can, in a way, get that.

Plus, his relationship with Eli Vanto might be one of my favorite things in the world and I am going to have things to say about Treason after I go on my run today :D 

[koyacyi-vode]

Star Wars Ask: A, B, N, and Z. I love your content by the way; everything I've read from you is amazing!

aksjdhshkskh???! ahhh youre too sweet ;A; every time one of you guys say you like my stuff i turn into a puddle

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A:  Favorite character?

I answered this with a stupid non-answer, but i can answer it again with yet another non-answer!

I forgot about Luminara!!! She's SO COOL and i GASPED when i first saw her in tcw!!! She's a super interesting character and another Jedi that I really like. Her fate post Order 66 is EXTREMELY SAD and really shook me when i saw it in Rebels ;A; I would have loved to see her reaction to Bariss's betrayal as well.

Also, I have a soft spot for B-1 battle droids because theyre very cute and funny.

B: Favorite Jedi?

Already answered this one! But lemme think, Oh! I think Aayla is pretty neat! But I will never be happy with the way her actress falls during Order 66. It's like she was told to "die but make it pretty". Not really the place for this opinion. But I'm glad we got to know more about her in tcw! And I wanna read some of her comics with Quinlan as well when I can. I would also like to give her a shirt.

N.  An Underused Character?

Ohh. I think pretty much every character is underused to an extent. But that's what happens when you have hundreds of cool characters to utilize. But even the main cast sometimes I feel could have been developed more or at least in different ways.

This is just a bit of a re-iteration in different context of stuff I've said before, but personally in The Clone Wars, the most underused characters are the Clones themselves. Because look, if you think about it, us blogs that love tcw and clones make up a LOT of the actual content ourselves. In canon, the clones maybe aside from Rex aren't given much in actual development, which I think is a SORELY underutilized potential. The clones' roles were very pigeonholed into these perfect soldier archetypes when it would have been SO interesting to explore them as people. just like smh do we have to do everything around here?

The clones were used in the show a lot like they were in the actual narrative by the characters, as tools. We could have gotten squad dynamics and the lives of the clone troopers, their thoughts and feelings, and gotten to know them, but we really only saw them fight and die. And I know it's because it's about Anakin, and Obi-Wan, and fleshing out the characters from the Prequels. It was never about the clones. And I just think it could have been a really interesting thing to explore more than they did.

Oh well, more freedom to the fic writers!

Z. Best Friendship? 

I think the sweet kind of father-daughter friendship with Plo and Ahsoka is really lovely. I love the way they speak with each other and how she goes to him for guidance. And Plo is a wonderful caregiver and is kind and gentle and wise. And i just DIE when i hear him say 'lil soka' in that soft voice of his ;A;

[counterspelling]

Ahsoka Tano, Rey! (for that character ask thing!)

ahsoka

How I feel about this character: honestly one of my all-time favorite characters, i love her SO MUCH, she is incredible, to see how much she grows from her entrance to order 66........... perfection........ the best developed female character in star wars tv/movies

All the people I ship romantically with this character: literally every woman she comes into contact with lmao

My non-romantic OTP for this character: anakin!!!!!!!!!! the angst!!! the banter!!! the love!!! the faith!!! the family!!!!

My unpopular opinion about this character: aside from twilight of the apprentice rebels completely wasted her and it's pretty dumb that she's alive during the ot and yet never came forward

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: getting to see her return to the order as a jedi in a universe where anakin uses his brain and doesn’t fall😭😭😭

rey

How I feel about this character: she was so good in tfa, i had such high hopes for her :////

All the people I ship romantically with this character: finn

My non-romantic OTP for this character: also finn! and bb8! too bad she only ever had like 2 conversations with poe, the third member of the trio! too bad disney doesn't give a shit about its main characters!

My unpopular opinion about this character: rey died in tfa and got replaced by a shitty doppelganger for tlj and tros. that's the only explanation for how she's literally a completely different character with no personality or priorities other than the nazi who's only ever tortured and abused her

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: getting to see her and luke reunite as father and daughter at the end of tfa. spending the next two movies seeing her come into the skywalker heritage and understand that she finally has a blood family, a lineage, but with it comes all the baggage and horror of what's been done under that name, of her new responsibility not just as a jedi but as a skywalker to murder her shitty cousin

[tarysande]

Uriel Doing What has to be Done

“Just because he told us his plan doesn’t mean that’s his plan. It’s Uriel.”

I’ve been thinking about Uriel. And I’ve been wondering how much of the pattern he could see at any given moment. Because he’s an angel; an immortal. A human minute is not the same to an immortal being who doesn’t have to live within the concept of a lifespan of perhaps 80-90 years. Does Uriel see patterns of days? Yes; he claims pressing the key will kill Chloe in two days. Does he see months? Years? Is it a clue that, when talking about Mum, he says, “She’s been here, what? Three minutes? Now you’re already defending her.”

Because here’s the real question: Why does Uriel bring Azrael’s blade to Earth? (And why, for that matter, does Azrael let him? Death is always watching.) We, the audience, think it’s because he’s going to use it to kill Mum. We think that because it’s the conclusion Lucifer jumps to, and even though we have seen Lucifer jump to many many wrong conclusions in the past, we believe him. Not only that, Uriel’s very appearance, I believe, plays on audience-held prejudices and biases. 

Before Uriel, every celestial we meet is tall and strong and beautiful. We trust Lucifer because he’s our POV character, even though we know that his own feelings and emotions and history make him an unreliable narrator. We have seen the beautiful favorite son, firstborn angel Amenadiel fall in slow motion and then crawl haltingly back toward the light. We’ve seen Amenadiel do good things and we trust him, too, especially when Lucifer grows to trust him.

When Uriel shows up, he’s shorter and thicker than either Lucifer or Amenadiel. His human form is older; he is not young and beautiful, his clothes are drab and either too baggy or too tight. And if first impressions don’t ensure we already dislike him, Lucifer’s attitude toward Uriel takes us the rest of the way---disparaging Uriel’s trenchcoat as “pe/do/phile chic,” for example. That’s a laden word.

We, the audience, think we know what Lucifer thinks he knows: Uriel has come to hurt Chloe. Like Lucifer, we love Chloe and hate anyone who would hurt her. We distrust Uriel because his clothes, his appearance, his New York accent, his Mafiaesque vibe, like relying on ‘accidents’ to get what he wants and ensure his outcomes (Hell, the actor’s connection to The Sopranos) encourage us to. Kimo breaks legs for the Mob in the same episode we’ve got an Italian American actor known for major gangster-related roles pulling strings; these things are rarely coincidental with the Lucifer writers.

This episode is about appearances. Lying about them. Changing them. Pretending to be something you’re not. Amenadiel pretends to still be a powerful angel; Chloe pretends she’s not as upset about the accident as she is; Kimo pretends he still has movie star money; Jamie Lee pretends she still loves Kimo; the manager pretends he has Kimo’s best interests at heart; Kimo and Wesley pretend to be enemies; Chloe reads Coraline--appearances!!--to Trixie. What is Uriel pretending to be? How, perhaps, is his appearance at odds with his truth?

Uriel pulls out Azrael’s blade after explaining, “Dad’ll do the same thing [forgive Mum], he’ll let his guard down, and then she’ll destroy him. I need to make sure that doesn’t happen.” If we look at the events of “God Johnson,” this is exactly what happens. The God we see in God Johnson may not be the full power of the Almighty, but we know He has some of God’s essence, some of His memories. It’s not just the healing power of life; God knows Lucifer as Samael without prompting. And we know that iteration of God is willing to forgive. Mum is the one we know isn’t interested in forgiveness because she tells us again and again that she’s got an axe to grind and boy she can’t wait to get at the sharpener.

God, after all, is still an enigma---as “The Weaponizer” reminds us with Lucifer’s angry speech about how no one knows what He wants, and the various grace notes peppered throughout the episode reminding us everyone is essentially blind when it comes to God’s actual wants/plans/needs---”Nobody bloody knows because the selfish bastard won’t just tell us!” That this is immediately followed by “There’s my Lightbringer” in an episode that is going to introduce us to the flaming sword is not a coincidence. Mum means Lightbringer as truthbringer, I think; shedding light in the darkness. It’s one of the many meanings of Lucifer’s name and his insistence on never lying.

But back to Lucifer and Uriel at the church. Lucifer is the one who points out it’s Azrael’s blade; he explains its power; he says, “No Heaven, no Hell, just gone.”

Uriel replies, “Finally a moment of clarity between us.”

But is it the clarity we, the audience, think it is? Is it the death we (and Lucifer) assume Uriel is planning? Because when we get to the finale (Uriel says, “Maybe I’m working up to a big finale.”), isn’t that what happens? Lucifer slices open the universe and Mum leaves. No Heaven. No Hell. Just gone.

Lucifer, still assuming Uriel intends to use the blade on Mum, says, “You’ve gone completely insane, brother.”

And Uriel says, “I’m doing what has to be done, and you’ve run out of time. I don’t care about your deal with Dad, I don’t care about your little human, but it’s obvious you care for her a tad more than you do Mom. Now, all I need to do is hit this one little key, right here. A sequence will begin and two days from now, your cute little human will finally die. So, Lucifer, you can either let that happen or you can give me Mom. Last chance. You choose.” 

The bolding is mine; I’ll come back to it in a moment. But first, here’s the thing: Uriel doesn’t tell us what it is he cares about, not in so many words. What can we infer? That he doesn’t want Heaven to go to war. He doesn’t want the Universe to be destroyed by Mum and Dad fighting. He looked up to his siblings and kept trying to play with them, even when they rejected him, and even when, as Lucifer says, it was “strange, considering he already knew what the outcome would be.” So what is he doing here? Revenge? I don’t think so. That’s Mum’s thing. He could’ve killed Amenadiel. He could’ve used Azrael’s blade on Lucifer.

Why does Uriel bring Azrael’s blade to Earth? If it’s to “kill” Mum, why are his last words to Lucifer about “the piece”? If Uriel’s plan was to avoid Mum returning to Heaven, being forgiven, destroying Dad (and possibly the Universe in the process, including his siblings), why would he tell Lucifer what he needs to know to fix the flaming sword? The cut-through-the-gates-of-Heaven, maybe-Lucifer-would’ve-succeeded-in-his-rebellion-if-he’d-had-it flaming sword?

What if Uriel saw a different outcome all along?

Back to Uriel’s monologue, then, and his actions on Earth. These actions seem focused on Lucifer; he only deals with Amenadiel because Lucifer adds that variable. He doesn’t seek Amenadiel out. There, I think, we see the actions of the frustrated, stubborn, rejected little boy whose siblings never played with him. But I don’t think that kind of vengeance (or even justice, some might say) is why Uriel involves himself. I think, on some level, Uriel believes Lucifer is the only one who can come close to understanding him (though I wonder if Uriel and Azrael didn’t hatch part of this plan together, both being young and small and not the best or brightest or most beautiful). 

Think about it. If Uriel was always rejected and excluded, who of his siblings can now understand that best of all? He needs Lucifer to help him but he also knows he can’t just ask Lucifer to help him; Lucifer is paranoid and distrustful. Lucifer might say no. The pattern might change. Perhaps Uriel has seen all the ways it will never work just to ask.

So Uriel goads him. Finds his weaknesses. Plays on them. Exactly like Mum is doing to Lucifer. Only Uriel’s doing it to try and save everything, whereas Mum is doing it to get Lucifer and Amenadiel to help her “retake” Heaven; war is always implied. Death is always implied. Patricide is implied. 

In their fight, Uriel says, “Patterns are tricky like that; it takes time to get a real sense of them.” He looks Lucifer in the eyes. “I needed to study you a bit.”

Again, we assume because Lucifer assumes that Uriel means he had to study Lucifer’s fighting style. But I don’t think that’s it---at least, not all of it. Uriel arranges the car accident; he watches Lucifer’s reaction to it. Uriel arranges the confrontation between Kimo and Chloe; he watches Lucifer’s reaction to it. Uriel gives Lucifer an ultimatum (Lucifer, who once rebelled against the Creator of the Universe because Lucifer asked, “Why can’t I choose my own way?” and Dad said, “Because I said so.”). 

Uriel goads Lucifer, knowing damned well that goading Lucifer is usually an efficient way to get him to do something. Tell him he can’t. Insult the things he loves to get his ire up; Lucifer is impulsive and protective. Uriel suspected Chloe was a weakness---or, perhaps, even a source of change that makes Lucifer better. So he insults her, belittles her, attacks her, knowing Lucifer will shoot from the hip. Uriel says he doesn’t care about her; he says he doesn’t care about Lucifer’s ‘deal with Dad’---we know Lucifer loves Chloe; we know Lucifer values the honor inherent in keeping his deals above all things. These words are very precise jabs at Lucifer’s weaknesses, his Achilles heels. Uriel knows what he’s doing. And Lucifer doesn’t see it; he falls for the “trap;” he lets his anger drive him. (Later, Uriel also mocks and insults Mazikeen---Lucifer’s favorite---but again, though he has the chance, he does not kill her. He’s still trying to push Lucifer toward an action.)

But Uriel does give Lucifer what he most desires; choice---at least he says he does. The thing Lucifer wanted so badly that he ended up rebelling and being banished from Heaven for it. Here, too, a parallel between Lucifer and Uriel: Uriel is making choices here, something that would never have happened Before. He still looks up to his brother, still wants to be like him.

Mum says, “He’s not going to give up until he has either me or that detective.” Asked to make this choice, Lucifer says, “I refuse to believe that. There is always another way.”

“If anyone can find it,” says Mum, “it’s you.”

Because hasn’t that always been Lucifer’s role? To find loopholes? Other ways? To do the unexpected?

And believe it or not, I think Lucifer’s ability to find other ways is what Uriel was counting on, too.

“Your pride was always going to be your undoing,” Uriel tells Amenadiel. (And doesn’t everyone think/know that pride is Lucifer’s thing too? Pride goeth, doesn’t it?)

Ultimately, pride is Uriel’s undoing, too. Like every other celestial we’ve met, Uriel underestimates the intensity of Lucifer’s loyalty to those he loves, human or not. Because the celestials don’t “get” Lucifer’s (or God’s!) fascination with humanity, relegating them to the equivalent of toys or pets, they do not understand the lengths Lucifer will go to in protecting them. When Lucifer kills Uriel (because it’s the only other choice he sees, and Uriel has goaded him relentlessly into thinking this is true), and Uriel says, “I didn’t see this coming,” it’s proof that Uriel---with all his patterns, all his prescience---still failed to accept that his celestial brother, his brightest brother, could possibly care enough about humanity to do the unthinkable.

Perhaps in the pattern Uriel thought most likely, Lucifer ended up working with him to build the flaming sword and banish Mum with it after they traversed this path. Perhaps he believed (wrongly, always wrongly) that he could manipulate Lucifer successfully (the way so many others have tried and failed to do). Perhaps he didn’t understand that his brother does not negotiate with terrorists, especially those who hold the safety of his loved ones hostage. Uriel says he will take both Mum and the detective; he says, “You can’t stop me, brother.” 

Getting Lucifer to act by telling him what he can and cannot do. 

And in that final moment, I think Uriel understands. In studying Lucifer, he missed the most important lesson. His brother isn’t the man he once was; he’s changed. And this changed Lucifer might have been reasoned with. This changed Lucifer might have helped. 

And so Uriel tells this changed Lucifer, “The piece is here,” hoping that Lucifer will pick up the thread of the pattern that should have been, the one where everyone is saved, where Mum gets her own universe, where his family doesn’t go to war with one another, where there’s no Heaven, no Hell, just gone.

Uriel just won’t be there to enjoy it. In this pattern, his is the sacrifice that makes the best outcome possible. Hell, maybe he did know that all along, too. How sad that would be. To be your worst self in order to make the best outcome happen. When Uriel says, “You’re lucky I would never use Azrael’s blade on you, brother,” is he planting the idea that becomes Lucifer using Azrael’s blade on him? How much of the pattern has he seen?

And I would like to believe, from one rejected brother to another, Uriel does see that his own actions led to this fratricide---and that he regrets it, because in making his brother a murderer, Uriel has potentially undone all the work that has gone into changing Lucifer for the better since last they met. (They call each other brother so often, even though they are, on the surface, enemies here. Brothers. Something that could have been and now never will. Even in dying---forever removed from existence---Uriel reaches for his brother, entrusts him with information. And somewhere in Lucifer’s subconscious this gets stored not as a lie, but as help---because otherwise, HellUriel wouldn’t be able to “tell” Lucifer what he needs to be thinking about.)

Pride goeth before the Fall, and in this case, the Fall is a very final one---and perhaps neither Lucifer nor his brother actually “got what they deserved,” no matter what Maze says. (“The prick got what he deserved.” Lucifer doesn’t think of him as a prick here, no. “He was my brother,” he says, tortured. “What have I done?”)

And in a world without Chloe Decker, without Linda Martin, without people who love him back, I think Lucifer might’ve fallen all over again after killing Uriel. But he doesn’t. And that’s a change, too. A really damned important one.

[jobrosupdates]

Nowstalgia: Jonas Brothers' Second Coming

Story by Jael Goldfine / Photography by Robin Harper / Styling by Britt McCamey

On a conference call, the morning after the Met Gala, Nick Jonas divides his and his brothers' career in two: before and after Disney Channel first aired the "Year 3000" music video in 2007. Before "things weren't working," afterwards "it all came together." In the infamous clip, a 15-year-old Nick, 18-year-old Joe and 20-year-old Kevin, dressed in Converse and graphic tees (Joe in camouflage, Nick and Kevin in Ed Hardy) fall into a portal in a suburban living room, shimmering with CGI sparkles like an Instagram filter. They emerge enthused to find that, among other developments, in the future they are rock stars wearing matching suits, with a pile of magazine covers and a new album that outsold Kelly Clarkson.

We are on the phone, along with Joe and Kevin, to talk about The Jonas Brothers' surprise reunion and their first album in six years, Happiness Begins. Much like the rest of the world, however, I am fascinated by their past.

Like The Jonas Brothers' second coming, "Year 3000" is an intoxicating orgy of nostalgia for anyone who lived through their genesis: malls were in their heyday, technology was magical, not terrifying, Instagram was a prototype on a jewel-colored Mac desktop in Silicon Valley, and Kelly Clarkson was the gold standard for album sales. The prophetic song feels self-congratulatory now, but at the time, it represented a fantasy. The Jonas Brothers didn't know that they'd spend much of their adolescence in matching suits, or that their next album would, indeed, crush Clarkson's corresponding My December in sales that year.

Without that video — a cover of British pop-punk band Busted, whose original lyrics envisioned a future full of triple-breasted women, instead of cute space girls with Star Wars buns — we might never have met The Jonas Brothers. Their debut album It's About Time had middled out on Columbia (it would later become a fan favorite), while they spent a couple years opening for their teen idol forbearers: Jesse McCartney, the Backstreet Boys, Jump5 and The Cheetah Girls. It was only after "Year 3000" went "viral" (in the way things did in 2007, conducted via hallway chatter and YouTube-binging sleepovers, alongside clips like "Salad Fingers," Shoes" and "Charlie Bit Me") that Disney realized Nick, Joe and Kevin, with their unthreatening good looks, nuclear New Jersey normalness, and formidable skills with guitars and microphones, were the perfect raw material for their cottage industry of boys and girls next door.

They released their breakout second album The Jonas Brothers on Disney's label, Hollywood Records later that year. Quickly, they saturated the Disney multiverse and the lives of early-to-mid 2000's suburban youth. They made a guest appearance on Hannah Montana that broke cable records. Their songs could be heard in Aquamarine, Zoey 101, on Cartoon Network's Friday program, and leaking out of iPod minis, mall speakers, high school gyms and 100,000-seat stadiums. The Camp Rock series, entanglements with other famous teenagers, various concert films and their sitcom, Jonas, followed.

Nostalgia is an inescapable fog hanging around Nick, Joe and Kevin, as the world watches them tease each other on TV hosts' couches and jump around in matching suits again, for the first time in six years. It's not just about them. That bedazzled, low-rise moment is on everyone's minds. An avalanche of blog posts about their reunion begin with some iteration of the pseudo-incredulous question: "Avril Lavigne, JoJo and Ashley Tisdale are dropping albums, Amanda Bynes is back, Lindsay Lohan is making TV and The Jonas Brothers are getting back together. Is it 2019 or 2009?" PAPER recently debuted a column, called "This Week In 2009," to feed our appetite for photos of Rihanna with a momager haircut, andSpencer Pratt and Heidi Montag making out in surgical masks during the swine flu panic. The Jonas Brothers have already made it into several installments. The guys confirm they did not engineer their reunion to sync up with our cultural nostalgia cycle, but due to it, talking about the good old days will be an extra compulsory aspect of their press tour. At 26, 29 and 31, The Jonas Brothers aren't unwilling, but a bit ambivalent about rehashing their adolescence.

"We're not really defined by those years," Nick claims, when I ask the trio about how they look back on the fever pitch of the JoBro craze. But when I nudge, he admits the period was undeniably influential. "We had a lot of fun... you know, it was sort of a rocket ship to the moon during that time. When Disney played our video for 'Year 3000,' everything changed. It all started to happen when Disney got on board. Our years doing Camp Rock and TV shows were really formative."

It's not that The Jonas Brothers are at odds with their origin story. They'll soon release a glossy Amazon documentary reliving it, and this past weekend, gave a euphoric rendition of their 2008 hit "Burnin' Up" at their first SNL performance in a decade. But they've previously indicated otherwise. "I don't feel as frustrated now as I did then," Joe says of a candid as-told-to essay he gave New York Magazine in 2013, a few months after the band's break-up. He wrote then, "Being a part of the Disney thing for so long will make you not want to be this perfect little puppet forever." He detailed an authoritarian, image-obsessed company culture (recalling that High School Musical's Vanessa Hudgens was put on lockdown in the Disney offices after her nude photos were leaked), and how the band became stifled under Disney's tutelage, forced to maintain an increasingly awkward and false teen marketability as they grew eager to sing about more complex topics than crushes and homework. Joe and Kevin were required to shave every day, and allusions to anything sexier than a kiss or darker than a minor bummer were "sugar-coated." The essay is emotional, but not scornful, simply trying to make people understand the many factors that led up to 2013, when The Jonas Brothers cancelled their tour, scrapped their fifth album, and stopped being a band.   

Joe doesn't walk back anything he wrote. But with the anxiety he faced back then as a newly unemployed solo act now largely evaporated, he speaks to the same topics with adult, big picture complexity. "We were having to censor ourselves, I think any artist could relate. That's not fun. We were at a standstill with our TV show and the movies. We were young adults, having to pretend like we're young teenagers," he reiterates, but explains that to be frustrated with the company was "such a weird mindset to get into, because we have Disney to thank for so much, they got us started in our career."

Nick bristles at the cartoonish idea that he and his brothers were victims of Big Bad Disney, or anything besides mutual investors in their image and success. "Before this becomes an indictment of Disney and Disney culture, I think it's important to say that, though we felt limited at times, bottom line, Disney was really good for us; really good training wheels for anybody that wants to become a musician or entertainer, as far as work ethic and all the rest. There was a balance to it all, and we could have had it a lot worse." They seem acutely aware there was no cost to their relationship with Disney more valuable than what they gained: "[Those years] are a major part of our story and a big way that our fans connect with us and continue to today." If it were the case that the world couldn't move on from their childhood, Nick says, "It might be tougher to accept... But we have to continue to make new statements and push ourselves to create who we are, every day."

"We were young adults, having to pretend like we're young teenagers." — Joe Jonas

Why would they be inclined to dwell on the past? Since their break-up — when Nick was 21, Joe was 24 and Kevin was 26 — each Jonas has transitioned into an entirely new life. Following his Married To Jonasreality TV show, Kevin retreated into his family and pursued real estate development, satisfied to spend his days as a non-famous. Joe and Nick each rebelled, a little. Joe, "the bad boy," experimented with the archetype he'd been cast in as a teen by dating famous models and growing a beard. Seeming to find the role ill-fitting, he then opted to become the frontman of fun dance-pop band DNCE, of "Cake By The Ocean" fame. Baby Nick tripled in girth, made a vulnerable, sexy R&B record, landed a few underwear billboards, and emerged as a Hollywood heartthrob following his effective performance in blockbuster Jumanji. As you might have heard, the latter two have also recently gotten married, attaching themselves to famous and successful women who, aside from appearing to make them genuinely very happy, also brought them back into the fold of A-list celebrity even before the reunion was announced.

Instead of reminiscing about the highs and lows of their days sketching Mickey Mouse's ears with a CGI wand or picking at scabbed-over angst at the behest of a pesky writer, The Jonas Brothers would rather talk about all the good things in their lives, now. For instance, how sublime it feels to be The Jonas Brothers, again.

"It's been incredible, being back together after the longest time apart and spending this amount of time together in the studio, not to mention actually announcing this stuff and the response to the music," gushes Kevin. "It's been so overwhelming and so exciting. It means so much to us to be able to do this again as brothers. It's just beyond..." The words "incredible," "exciting," "amazing," "overwhelming," as well as "crazy" and "surreal" are repeated over and over in our conversation, as they describe getting to know each other as brothers and musicians again. "It had been four or five years since we spent any time by ourselves, you know, just hanging out."

Today, The Jonas Brothers are poised to become a bigger force in music than they ever were in their Disney days. They've achieved this — despite re-entering a radically different pop landscape than the one they departed, now ruled by rappers making country, bearded scumbros making rap, and teen girls making ASMR — by doing exactly what first made them a sensation: clean, universal, good vibes pop songs.

"We take what we do seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously." — Nick Jonas

Both of their new singles, "Cool" and "Sucker," radiate an unforced joy and playful confidence that seems to be the defining quality of The Jonas Brothers' second coming. "It's all about having fun," says Nick. "We take what we do seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously."

The sound of The Jonas Brothers not taking themselves seriously is so pleasant that "Sucker" — a carbonated love song that sounds the way Pop Rocks fizzling on your tongue feel — has become their first ever No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It doesn't sound like old Jonas Brothers, but it also doesn't sound like much else in pop right now. With the help of OneRepublic frontman, songwriter and producer Ryan Tedder (as well as popcraft overlords Max Martin, Greg Kurstin and Justin Tranter), The Jonas Brothers have shed their pop-punk-curious crunch and Disney sing-along sugar, while staying faithful to the drums-and-guitar roots and tactile storytelling that made a generation fall in love with them. The effect is a flavor of blissed out pure pop, that both sounds both refreshing next to today's deluge of morbid pop cyborgs and comfortingly familiar.

"We had a real sense that it was important for us to stay authentic to who we are," Nick explains when I ask how they resisted the urge to abandon their rockist roots for pop's current greener, genre-scrambled pastures. "When you go back and and listen to Jonas Brothers records, they're written and produced as rock and roll records." However, he says "that doesn't mean that we can't try out other sounds, or go on a journey to get there," and promises there's at least one trap beat and one yeehaw moment on Happiness Begins.

Despite the above, let's be honest: a No. 1 Jonas Brothers single in 2019 doesn't make complete sense (a glitch in the simulation, as they say). The Jonas Brothers belong in the past: in the childhoods of a generation now in their mid-twenties, and in a normcore, suburban fantasy that feels like it should have lost its appeal in our increasingly conscious times.

Plus, boy bands don't often get number ones. The last time one accomplished the feat was in 2003, when B2K's P. Diddy-assisted "Bump, Bump, Bump" hit number one (overtaking Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" and Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River), according to Billboard. Even unfathomably famous ones: One Direction's highest entry on the Hot 100, 2013's "Best Song Ever," peaked at No. 2, lagging behind "Blurred Lines." Their own hits, 2008's "Burnin' Up," "Tonight" and "A Little Bit Longer," never made it past No. 5 during the reign of Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" and Rihanna's "Disturbia." Their new trophy signals the JoBros have begun to transcend the silos of a traditional boy band audience, and thus, our general disdain for the culture young women tend to love.

So how did they do it?

There's a strong cinematic mythos to The Jonas Brothers' reunion story, which, indeed, will be soon available to stream. It went like this: Nick, the architect of the reunion, had started occasionally slipping JoBros songs into his solo sets and realized he was craving their brotherly magic. As they began spending time together on the set of their documentary, the seed in Nick's brain broke ground, and became an explicit conversation. Then, there was the spontaneous jam session of "Love Bug" in Cuba that reminded them of the magic of playing together. Then came the "intervention," when Kevin and Nick flew to Australia where Joe was hosting The Voice to address the baggage left over from their last run as a band, which they'd realized would be a prerequisite for a successful reunion. They did so with a series of conversations that Kevin describes as "the kind probably only brothers can have without wanting to throw a table at each other" ("they're in the doc, and they're heavy," he promises). During these talks, they decided that this time around, it would be all about having fun. Kevin adds: "The choice to do this wasn't out of need, it was more, 'This is something we really want to do together.'"

The Jonas Brothers' break-up went like this: the flame was Nick's solo ambitions. The gasoline was burn-out, the colliding egos of a band with two frontmen, diverging tastes (evident in the forked road of DNCE and Nick Jonas), and general paralysis. "We lost touch with what we wanted to say, because we were trying so hard to say something different from what we said in the past, musically and creatively," Nick explains. Plus, instead of becoming deluded by their preternatural fame, it had given them imposter syndrome and anxiety. "We understood that our level of success and fame had reached a point, where our musicianship and writing and performing abilities needed time to grow and catch up to it."

When I ask what kept them humble enough to realize this, Nick admits: "I think it was a combination of humility, and just being scared that it was all going to disappear." He references what he recalls as a Coldplay soundbite, that helped them through that choice: "I don't want to misquote, so you might want to fact check, but something about the fact that, they had become too big, you know, for their level of musicianship, so they worked harder than ever and went even deeper creatively. We really related to that." I'm unable to confirm the words belong to any member of Coldplay, but wherever The Jonas Brothers came across it, it must have been a comfort to know they were navigating charted rockstar waters.

Listening to the brothers reflect, it seems that the pyre underneath The Jonas Brothers' flame-out was simply the reality that Nick, Joe and Kevin are genuinely skilled, creative musicians, who were always going to clash with their cramped confines. Maybe the demises of commercial boy bands aren't a product of personal dysfunction at all, but rather, of their artistic health — evidence that they're composed of living, breathing human beings, rather than attractive androids positioned in the right spots on a music video set. If a group of kids in The Jonas Brothers' position forge ahead cheerfully into the complex chaos of their twenties without craving autonomy from each other or Disney's iron fist, someone should probably check under their curls for lobotomy scars.

"I think it was a combination of humility, and just being scared that it was all going to disappear." — Nick Jonas

"It really took the last six, seven years to figure out who we were as people and what kind of music we wanted to make." Nick says. He mentions tactfully that "a lot of young performers find this transition into adulthood really challenging," and implies pushing the bounds of their wholesome, juvenile aesthetic while still operating as The Jonas Brothers might not have been pretty: "If we had continued to try to push things forward the way we were operating, it might have been difficult. Perhaps we would have had to make bolder statements... shocked people into understanding who we are. I think the world is more accepting of us as adults than they would have been if we insisted, 'This is who we are now, accept us.'"

If they hadn't abandoned their spot at the top, and taken the time to grow up and chill out, avoiding many of the more excruciating personal and professional pitfalls of young pop stardom, The Jonas Brothers might have found themselves somewhat tragic figures in 2019, doomed to a career mired in nostalgia. Instead Nick, Kevin and Joe are having the time of their lives on their prodigal pop homecoming. I doubt they'd have this moment if they'd staged their return, however, by attempting to make the world see them as more than "just a boy band." With no ambitions beyond "trying to bottle happiness" and bringing "positive vibes to the world," as Nick explains of the album title inspiration, The Jonas Brothers, against the odds, have plucked themselves out of our "Week in 2009" column and earned a place in the living, breathing cultural fabric of 2019.

Maybe the key is simply prioritizing what's always been at the core of The Jonas Brothers: the fans — their palates and desires, giving them new lyrics to tattoo on their ankles, Easter eggs to mine for the details of their lives, and concerts to scream at with their friends.

"The reunion... felt like getting my best friend back after a long time," one fan, whose handle is @jonasbr0, says on Twitter. Another, whose display handle reads "Kat LOVES the Jonas Brothers," claims "I'm the most excited that anyone has ever been about anything," revealing "When I graduated high school I decorated my cap to say "I'd rather be at a Jonas Brothers concert." "Their music has brought some of my best friends into my life. We've all grown up together with the boys" says @taylaxo, whose pinned Tweet is a photo of herself in a sweatshirt printed with a Tweet from Joe announcing the reunion.

Nick muses, "The best part of this go around, is the fact that those fans have lived with our records for so many years that they're part of their lives, and they're really meaningful to them. We can feel that energy. All those years of fearing it was going to disappear are now kind of..." he trails off. 

Source: PAPER Magazine

[kensingtonbooks]

A Case for Space, and Mars by John Andrew Karr

The following is a guest blog by MARS WARS: DETONATION EVENT’s author @johnandrewkarr.

People of Earth. 

You know the phrase. 

Unless you totally eschew science fiction or science fantasy in all its forms, you know the phrase. If you have disdain for the mind-expanding genres, then you probably fall into the space and Mars haters club despite indulging in space-related technologies, i.e. satellites, portable computers, computer mice, artificial limbs, camera phones. There’s a bunch more that can be found by searching, but this link has a good starter list: https://go.nasa.gov/2Gbxecu

As for the famous Tang—for those of us in our fifth century of existence, or beyond—it was not developed for space travel, but the moon missions made it a big star.  

If you’re less seasoned, send a mindtext to your favorite search engine on the galaxynet.  

No access to galaxynet?

That’s okay—thirty years ago only a few innovators had access to linked servers that would someday grow to become the internet. 

Galaxynet is internet for the solar system. It will have satellite boosts between Earth and Mars, Earth and Jupiter’s moons, and any place we deploy large-scale space stations such as the Mars Orbiters in my Mars Wars series, part of the Rebel Base imprint from Kensington Books. 

The timeframe for Mars Wars is near-future, approximately two hundred years from now. MOS-1 and MOS-2 are host to workers and vacationers of around ten thousand people, and serve as forward operating bases to colonization. Self-sufficient, they manufacture air, water, food, clothing, energy pellets, and hydrogen propellant for its nuclear fusion engines and those of the planetary shuttles. The latter are used to fly missions to the Martian surface, or back to Lunar One or Earth. 

No story is entertaining without some form of conflict.

The conflict in Mars Wars involves two parties. Those people who want all resources for the Earth, and those who are space and Mars colonization proponents. Such a scenario will hopefully remain fiction, but glimpses can be had on a . . . less dangerous . . . scale in human societies now.   Back to current day, liberty has been taken to toss the internet into space-related tech. Mostly because Elon Musk’s Space X are creating a satellite internet that may ultimately lead to WiFi availability in the most remote crack of Earth’s continental crust. Others have also started in on similar ventures. More later on billionaires making a play for serious and profitable expansion beyond Earth.

People of Earth.  

If you’ve ever had even a slight taste of science fiction, you know the phrase. Usually its uttered by some alien who’s come to our beautiful blue planet for war, to pilfer our resources, or simply snatch a few dozen of us to make people patties, under the guise of a beneficial meet-and-greet. 

Cunning aliens. 

Isn’t it enough to reduce our scientific and engineering advances to stone tool status in comparison with alien tech?   

The Peeps of Earth phrase can also be extrapolated to encompass all humans, ever, throughout time. That’s every human born, ever. All who inhaled air, drank water, felt the planet’s mass beneath their feet, gazed up the glorious sun and stars and someday later, died. Of these billions, every single one lived their lives bound to the Earth.

Question: Besides the same relative arm strength, what do Tyrannosaurus rex and Homo sapiens have in common?

Answer: Extinction impotence. 

Even non-sci-fi types know how vulnerable we are as a species, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it. 

By the way, the latest thinking for T-Rex is that it could actually rip a human’s arm off in an arm wrestling match, provided it could move its teeny arms side-to-side. So don’t go up to one and call it an arm-wuss or something.   

Let’s go ahead and summon one of the first things that come to mind whenever dinosaurs are evoked: asteroid. One big enough to eject millions of tons of ash and dust into the atmosphere, all but blocking out the sun and creating a perpetual ‘asteroid winter.’ A certain percentage of the population might be able to survive the apocalypse for a while, but it could take hundreds or even thousands of years for the skies to clear. 

Humans, along a huge percentage of other terrestrial and aquatic life, would most likely perish from famine, disease, and war. There’s a good chance asphyxiation has a role; immediate dispersion of breathable air erupting through the magnetosphere and lost to space. Darkness then  withers plant life en masse, along with their oxygen-creating capabilities.

Maybe it won’t be an asteroid for humans. Maybe it will be the very real threat of nuclear war, standard war, or disease. Dinosaurs as a species lasted millions of years. Humans have come far in a blip of comparative time, but we’re also prone to war.    

Regardless of method, both species met or will meet their ultimate end on Earth.

Is it of any consolation that astronomers will likely be able to track the instrument of our demise through space as it hurls toward us?

Question: How much does Earth care about the life that clings to it?

Answer: Every bit as much as any other rock in the universe.

Snark aside, only life cares about life. 

Obvious, yet worthy of a moment of reflection. Despite radioactive cores that provide a magnetosphere to prevent the escape of air and water to space, Earth and every other planet, moon, asteroid, comet, and yes, even the stars, are not alive. None of the aforementioned are thinkers. They have zero intelligence capability. They do not feel anything. The earth is a fantastic and sometimes terrible host of abundant life, but it lacks the capacity to acknowledge anything, and therefore has no care whether life exists or not. 

It has no care whether it exists or not.   

Grass has more regard for its life than a planet has self-awareness. The roots will grow toward moisture, the blade toward the sun.   

The life forms of Earth care—at least on some fundamental level—but not the planet itself.

Question: What is the only life form that could prevent a total extinction event? Answer: Look in the mirror.

Probably not you specifically, or me, or anyone alive right now. But perhaps our descendants, unseen over our shoulders in generation after generation on an extended scale, reaching centuries into the future. They could have some contribution toward preserving our species, or the next iteration of it.  

The obvious difference between humans and all of the extinct, single-planet-dwelling species that have come before us is that we can build upon current technologies to at least try and thwart the inevitable catastrophe.  

Humans alone—unless cockroaches or some other species survive our warring nature and evolve to our current levels—have the means to bump our potential survival rate by 100% by colonizing another planet.  

For that, the red planet is a beacon in the night sky. As with any venture into space, the mission is fraught with danger. But Mars as a cold and rocky planet is still preferable to an ice-encrusted moon of Jupiter. 

If we ever do figure out a way to kick-start the Martian cores into creating a magnetosphere, as I write of in Mars Wars, or thicken the Martian atmosphere enough to hold air and water, the potential for agriculture is there because of soil. We may need to scrape off the solar wind-pounded surface material and turn it over, but ice, with Jupiter as a backdrop, isn’t going to be kind to the roots of space tomatoes. 

Perhaps we’d even import some of the massive sandworms from Frank Herbert’s Dune to help fertilize. Everyone knows Dune is easier to reach from Mars than it is from Earth.  

To perform more space outreach, we’ve got to go faster at a sustained clip. Warp drive would be incredibly convenient, but we’ve got a huge knowledge gap between chemical rockets and light speed. If I had to choose a single category to improve immediately, it would be propulsion. It takes us too long to reach anything, and that’s just in our own backyard. 

In Mars Wars, planetary shuttles and remote orbiters make use of nuclear fusion for propulsion. It is a cleaner, more sustainable burn that can use hydrogen as a propellant. They can reach Mars in a month, as opposed to nine. Not warp speed or hyper-drive, but a big step in the right direction.

Think how far we’ve come in the preceding two centuries. Who knows where we’ll be two centuries from today, if we make concerted efforts. 

But what to do once there? Live forever inside enclosures, or take steps to terraform Mars so it is not immediately hostile to life? 

Some space advocates want to keep Mars as a planetary park, unchanged by human hands.

There is no reason to keep Mars in its current state of death. Billions of years ago, Mars once held water and therefore some form of air. There are many reasons to resurrect it. 

As seen in Mars Wars, Mars has threats beyond the frigid temps and lack of air and water. What we might find in the soil could be positive or negative, for instance. Click here: http://bit.ly/2GblvKU

Question: What about caring for the earth? Answer: The two are not mutually exclusive.

Of course we should care for the mother planet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t expand into space and Mars at the same time. Resource drainage from Earth can be limited, and life on Earth can improve with technological advances. 

Space expeditions must be commercially viable, or at least self-sustaining. NASA and other government agencies have done great pioneering work, but taxes alone cannot continually fund space exploration. We're already seeing private ventures from billionaire visionaries like Musk and Bezos and Branson attempting to bring the space flight industry into a more “mainstream” focus. Bringing rare metals back to Earth could lead to more technology bursts.

Harvesting resources from asteroids would be easier from Mars, since it’s closer to the Asteroid Belt, the farmer’s market of asteroids. A dwarf planet in the belt is blasting water vapor into space for some reason, and it may hold more water than Earth. Amazing. And available for harvesting. Asteroids can be encased in water ice. Others have ammonia ice that could be beneficial in thickening the Martian atmosphere. 

It’s a process, but water can be harvested from minerals on asteroids. Comets would take less processing time, but they’re free spirits and not clustered nicely in a band like their rocky counter parts. Formed outside our solar system, comets that can provide immediate water ice are not subject to the same relative orbiting plane as the planets and Asteroid Belt. These may be more attainable from Mars due to readiness more than location.

A couple of fun informative links to check out:

http://bit.ly/2Gbn4bK

http://bit.ly/2GbFrgH

Mars itself may have tons of water trapped in its crust, as was recently postulated in a finding on Earth. 

This has touched on a few hints about transforming Mars—terraforming it—into a habitable planet. It could take centuries, or less, or never work at all and we end up creating subterranean cities or honeycomb surface ones encapsulated in redundant plexiglass bubbles threaded with titanium strands. 

(That last part is a glimpse of the Lunar One base on the moon in Mars Wars.)    

Mars needs heat, water, and air, and we’ll move in. 

It’s not been tried by humans, but the powers of the solar system have done it. It may be possible to crash asteroids into Mars, set off a bunch of thermonuclear bombs, create vast mirror farms to reflect more sunlight, or use other methods to greenhouse the atmosphere so it can hold air and water and heat. 

There may be enough nitrates on the red planet to use for breathable air, since oxygen is the lesser component. Or maybe there’s some rip asteroids to mine for it. 

A lot to cover there, for another time. 

If Mars does become viable as a self-sustaining colony, and then network of colonies, and then perhaps the entire planet, wouldn’t it also provide relief to overpopulation on Earth?

For those who want to focus solely on Earth until the extinction event(s) strike, don’t we have a duty to future generations to begin the process of increasing survival odds? 

The universe is mind-blowingly vast. Where is the spirit to attain knowledge? To push the boundaries of what viable life can be had beyond Earth. Exploring has dangers, but it can also lead to the betterment of Homo sapiens.

Pre-Order/Buy MARS WARS: DETONATION EVENT here→ http://bit.ly/2GbEWmN

[theantisocialcritic]

Archive Project - October 28, 2014 - Marvel Phase 3

I've been meaning to write a new article lately. I was planning to write one today on how the Inquisitor in Star Wars: Rebels has in just one episode become the best villain in Star Wars lore since The Emperor in Return of the Jedi… but……. The Marvel just announced all their Phase 3 movies!!!! Ant-Man:                                        July 2015 Captain America: Civil War:            May 2016 Doctor Strange:                    November 2016 Guardians of the Galaxy 2:             May 2017 Thor: Ragnarok:                             July 2017 Black Panther:                      November 2017 Avengers: Infinity War, Part 1:        May 2018 Captain Marvel:                              July 2018 Inhumans:                            November 2018 Avengers: Infinity War, Part 2:        May 2019 Wow… That is wonderful!! I was a little disappointed that we didn't get Planet Hulk, Iron Man 4 or Black Widow, but there is always time to do those down the road after Infinity War. Lets explore each movie! Ant-Man Originally set to be directed by Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim alum, Edgar Wright, Ant-Man has been a highly controversial movie following a long series of firing and people leaving the project. If the concept sounds a little bit silly, watch this test footage revealed at Comic Con last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-pFrplmexo Silly? Yah! Ant-Man however has a lot of hype being built around it and a lot of anxiety currently stands on Marvel's ability to pull it off after having a great director like Wright leave. I could do a more extensive article on that but I won't do it hear. Needless to say, this movie will be fascinating when it comes out. Captain America: Civil War The second Captain America movie took the series in a much darker direction under Community Alums the Russo Brothers. Now it appears they wish to do it again with a sequel, co-starring Iron Man that is centered around the controversial Civil War storyline from the comics. To sum it up quickly, the government forces superheroes to register with them and publicly reveal their identity and Captain America and Iron Man get into a war over whether or not the law should be enforced. Its a preachy, albeit powerful and memorable one that caused ripples in the Marvel universe. Doctor Strange You may remember this character being name dropped in The Winter Soldier. Steven Strange is a doctor that gets into an accident and is granted the powers of the Sorcerer Supreme, which basically turns him into a dark wizard that serves as Earth's defense against the powers of magic… This movie will be interesting… And hey! Benedict Cumberbatch is playing him! REAL TALK TIME!!! Several people I have heard have been mad that Cumberbatch has received the role and to that I would like to make a rebuttal. Yes. He is overrated. However he is overrated for a reason. His performances in Sherlock, The Hobbit and Star Trek into Darkness, as well as some artier productions such as 12 Years a Slave, have all been very good! He's a really good actor and I trust Marvel Studios at this point with the judgement to make an appropriate decision with casting like this. He might be a really good Steven Strange! Guardians of the Galaxy 2 This summer's Guardians of the Galaxy movie has become one of the most successful blockbusters in recent years, miraculously outgrossing the cynical money printing machine of Transformers: Age of Extinction. The inevitable sequel is shaping up already to be pretty fun! James Gun and the entire cast are returning and rumors suggest that Adam Warlock will be joining the cast. Thor: Ragnarok In the lore of Thor Comics, Ragnarok loosely translates to the Norse equivalent of the apocalypse. That alone sets the profile for this movie pretty high. The Thor movies in my opinion have always been at the lower percentile of the series, mainly due to the poorly executed, but well intentioned first movie and good but not great sequel. Given that this movie in particular is being sold as the Winter Soldier of Phase 3, we can expect a lot of big, universe changing events to pop up in this iteration. Please this will be the fourth canonical appearance of Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is always something to look forward too! Black Panther There have been several black supporting characters in the Marvel movies thus far like War Machine/Iron Patriot and the Falcon. Black Panther will be the first time however that any of them have been the front runner for an entire movie. Don't get me wrong! There is nothing wrong with the Avengers line up as it stands. I for one would just like to see some non-white, non-dudes lining up amongst the group, other than Black Widow. Girls and Black people are awesome and they deserve their own Superheroes too! Given the important of Vibranium and a possible appearance by the villain Klaw in Age of Ultron, its safe to say at this point that the nation of Wakanda and the Black Panther won't be on the sidelines for much longer! (This probably needs explaining to non-Comicbook readers). In Marvel Lore, the nation of Wakanda is an isolated tribe in Africa. They'd developed super advanced technology rivaling that of humanities and possess the Earth's only Vibranium mine, which is what Captain America's shield is made from. The Black Panther is the prince, and eventually becomes king of Wakanda. He is a part time member of the Avengers and has consistently made appearances as part of the team's cycle since his debut. This movie is shaping up to be really awesome! Captain Marvel I've been personally hoping for a Cpt. Marvel origin movie amongst this series for a LOOONG time now!! Carol Danvers has a long, sordid history in Marvel comics and at times has been on of the most underused and abused female characters in comic books. At her best though, Ms. Marvel or her current iteration Captain Marvel is an incredible female superhero. Once just a secretary on an Air Force base, she was given powers during a battle between the Kree turncoat Mar-Vel and joined the Avengers. She can fly and shoot laser beams out of her hands. Her incarnation in the Avengers: Earth's Mightest Heros cartoon is my favorite iteration of the character thus far, a strong, hardworking woman that stands up among the best superheroes that makes her way not only as a full-time SHIELD operative but a full time Avenger. Heck! She even made a cameo recently in the Guardians of the Galaxy comic books! Along with Iron Man, Agent Venom and a character from Spawn… This movie could be great and i'm super excited for it!!!   Inhumans                           This is definitely gonna be a strange one. The Inhumans in Marvel lore are a group very similar to that of the X-Men in terms of their roster and place in the universe. Early in man's evolution, scientists from the Kree came to earth and exposed specific humans to a substance called terrigen. The substance casted strange mutations in humans and gave them superhuman abilities. In modern day, the Inhumans live together in the hidden city of Attilan, which houses the entire Inhuman population away from the eyes of the world. Their leader is Blackbolt, a superhuman with the ability to control energy with his voice. Vin Diesel is rumored to be in talks to play Blackbolt! Avengers: Infinity War And of course we get to the big final of Marvel's Phase 3! I've been awaiting an Infinity Gauntlet storyline since the end credits of the first Avengers movie and this confirmation was no surprise to me personally. Given that we've already seen Josh Brolin suited up in Guardians of the Galaxy, its only a matter of time before he takes to the screen in a more physical role! We'll probably get to see him again in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 or maybe even Thor: Ragnarok. His big payoff is set to be great though! The plot is likely to involve the Mad Titan Thanos combining all of the Infinity Stones from the first three phases of movies (including the Tesseract, the Ether and the Orb) into a glove that gives him the ability to control time and space. And since he is a nihilist with a romantic attraction to the embodiment of Death (literally…) that doesn't say good things about whats yet to come. Rumors are that we will get a full team up of the Avengers, all the new characters and the Guardians of the Galaxy in this movie as well as the likely demise of a number of major cast members. Words cannot express my excitement!! There yah have it! Prepare for the next 5 years of your life!!! Thank you for reading! Live long and prosper!

[happymeishappylife]

27 of My Favorite Storylines (in no particular order)

Star Wars

One of the most exciting and adventurous sagas of all time that now transcends beyond movies, television, books, comic books, and video games to expand upon a universe from one man’s imagination. It’s full of good versus evil, war, sacrifice, love, betrayal, and redemption and each iteration has some fun while dealing with very complicated issues.

As a reader/audience member: When first introduced, we experience one of the classic hero’s journey storylines set in a new fantastical universe of space somewhere in the very long forgotten reaches of space. We meet Luke, Leia, and Han who fight as rebels against a tyranical empire. We learn of their family’s history in the making of this empire as well as their connection that then jumps into vast tales of their future, past, and present in books to form a more complete universe. We also get iterations of different characters within the universe who played critical roles and became so beloved that we just want more and more.

As a writer: There were definitely some stumbles here and once it got past the original trilogy the ideas for the universe we found out that the ideas for the universe were vague and not thought out clearly. Still Star Wars actually provides a great example of why reaching out and collaborating with others is a great way to expand the universe. Letting people like Timothy Zahn create characters like Thrawn and A.C. Crispin give Han an incredible backstory shows that one person can’t do it by themselves if they want a living breathing universe. So many spin offs or takes on the universe have become staples to its base and each one still embraces that fun space adventure that A New Hope introduced which should make George Lucas proud overall.