The Road to Episode Infinity: April 2017

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Forces of Destiny

One of the announcements from Star Wars Celebration that really excited me was “Forces of Destiny”. “Forces of Destiny” is a TV series that will focus on the female heroines of the Star Wars universe and will be rendered in 2D animation. Star Wars hasn’t been animated in two dimensions since the highly-acclaimed amazingly-awesome Tartakovsky's Clone Wars that aired between “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith”. Like Tartakosky’s “Clone Wars” series, the “Forces of Destiny” episodes will be quite short (Three minutes in length). It is set to premiere in July on the Disney channel. Sixteen total episodes will air in 2017. Here are the announced characters and voice-cast for the series:

Ashley Eckstein has been voicing Ahsoka Tano since 2008 in television shows, videogames, and audiobooks. Many fans have followed Ahsoka’s adventures for years and she has become a fan favorite. If I’ve learned anything in my years of Star Wars blogging- it is do not make fun of Ahsoka Tano if you don’t want to piss off fans. The comment section of a video that I posted on Youtube last summer is evidence for this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU33mX9mKJc

Ashley Eckstein first appeared on television as a contestant on Nickelodeon Guts, and had a recurring role on “That’s So Raven”. With “Star Wars: Rebels” in its last season, it’s going to be interesting to see if Eckstein / Ahsoka has any future in the Star Wars franchise.

British actress Daisy Ridley is the first actress to play the lead character in a Star Wars film. Director J.J. Abrahms thought it important to cast an unknown actor for Rey. In addition to the Star Wars sequels, Daisy has voiced Rey in “Disney Infinity 3.0” and “Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

Since the release of “The Force Awakens”, internet has been buzzing about Rey’s parentage. Is she a Solo? A Skywalker? A Kenobi? Is her parentage important or mundane? We are certain to learn more in “The Last Jedi”.

British actress Felicity Jones is the second actress to play the lead character in a Star Wars film. Jones was nominated for an Oscar for playing Stephen Hawking’s wife in “The Theory of Everything” in 2015 and began filming Rogue One later that year. The character of Jyn Erso is the newest character to Star Wars that will be featured in “Force of Destiny”. It is safe to say that fans don’t connect to the character in the same ways that they connect with Ahsoka or Rey. Although I’m sure this has more to do with the often-somber Rogue One script than the amazing acting abilities of Felicity Jones. It’s hard to see Jyn Erso playing much of a role in the future of Star Wars, but it will be interesting to see what “Forces of Destiny” does with her.

Shelby Young is new to the role of Princess Leia. I’m not sure why Julie Dolan (who voices Leia in “Rebels”, “The Freemaker Adventures”, “Disney Infinity”, “Star Tours”, and “Star Wars: Uprising”) did not return to voice the Princess again. Shelby Young has done some minor voice work in the past, but this would seem to be a break-out role for her, especially if Disney uses her talents for Leia in the future.

Leia has always been a symbol of female empowerment. She not only paved the way for female Star Wars characters, but strong female action stars in general. I could easily name 100 amazing female Star Wars characters off the top of my head that would not exist if not for Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia. Leia’s last theatrical Star Wars film will be “The Last Jedi”.

Vanessa Marshall first voiced a Star Wars character in the 2002, video game “Jedi Outcast”. She has voiced Hera Sendulla for “Rebels” and “The Freemaker Adventures”. She also voiced a female rebel pilot in “Rogue One”.

Hera is probably my favorite “Rebels” character. She is the calm rational cool-mom character who is not afraid to jump into a fight. Her secret / not-so-secret romance with Kanan Jarrus is really the highlight of the show for me. Actually I would be elated if all the other characters were killed off and the show just focused on Hera and Kanan. Since it is known that Hera pilots The Ghost in the Battle of Scarif, it actually seems quite promising that we will see more out of this character in the future.

Catherine Taber voiced Padme in several seasons of “Clone Wars” and is back to voice Padme in “Forces of Destiny”. Other than Padme, Taber voiced a Twi’lek named Mission Vao in the 2003 game “Knights of the Old Republic” and also a Twi’lek named Numa who appeared in both “Clone Wars” & “Rebels”. She also voiced Princess Leia in “The Force Unleashed” video games.

The character of Padme has been largely ignored by Disney since the acquisition. In fact most prequel-related items has been largely ignored by Disney. I think Padme’s legacy is a tricky one. She is the mother of Luke and Leia and is another example of a strong female presence in the Star Wars franchise. She was originally played by Natalie Portman who has since been nominated for three Oscars and won one for Black Swan. However, the character was a bit tainted by the prequels. The love scenes between Natalie Portman and Hayden Christenson are some of the most mocked scenes of the franchise. Personally, I wish Padme would have gone out on a high note, instead of dying in childbirth of a broken heart. That wasn’t very feminist of her, was it?

Tiya Sircar was first brought into the limelight for her role in the 2013 comedy, “The Internship”. In 2014 she starred in a CBS pilot called “How I Met Your Dad”, a spinoff of “How I Met Your Mother” that CBS ultimately passed on. The Star Wars community of course knows her as Sabine Wren.

Sebine’s character starts as little more than a graffiti artist in the early seasons of Rebels, however her role becomes a little more interesting after she acquires the Darksaber and returns to Mandalore. Like many of her crew members, Sabine tends to change her hairstyle from season to season. With “Rebels” ending next Spring with Season 4, it seems that the fate of this character is questionable- although I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney used Sabine as the face of Mandalore for Star Wars stories in the future.

Lupita Nyong’o is the first Mexican actress to win an Academy Award. Nope, that isn’t a typo. Although Lupita was born in Mexico City, she grew up in Kenya and her parents are Kenyan. Lupita voices Maz Kanata in the Star Wars sequels and also voiced Maz in “Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

I think fandom is still skeptical of Maz. Many fans think she is simply a “New Yoda”. Yet it is important to note that Maz is the first major female alien of the Star Wars films. I think it’s important that females can be the wise Yoda / Obi-Wan types and not only the kick-ass Leia / Rey types. Maz is a bit of an enigmatic figure. She has been called “The Pirate Queen” and is over a thousand years old. Maz will serve as the narrator to “Forces of Destiny” and can be seen in concept art stirring some kind of soup next to a tiny bulbous creature.

Strong female characters in Star Wars have been plentiful in The Expanded Universe since the early nineties, although it wasn't until the Disney Acquisition that we saw a big migration of female roles into the films. When Lucas was in charge we pretty much had Leia then Padme, but with Kathleen Kennedy now the President of Lucasfilm it is exciting to see a Star Wars universe almost driven by female protagonists. I think many female fans of Star Wars came for Princess Leia, but they have a lot more to stick around for these days. I, for one, can't wait for this series!

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Young Jedi Knights

It is amazing that the Star Wars franchise speaks to so many across multiple generations. It is an all-ages franchise, and nothing demonstrates this fact better than the works of Kevin J. Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moesta.

Anderson is most remembered for his work on The Jedi Academy Trilogy (novels that are now in the “Legends” canon), which saw Luke Skywalker rounding up brand new Jedi in the years after the Battle of Endor.

The Jedi Academy trilogy was published in 1994 and a short time later Anderson and his wife also worked on the Young Jedi Knight series and the Junior Jedi Knight series.

The Young Jedi Knight books were a YA series featuring 14-year-old Jaina and Jacen Solo (Han and Leia’s twins). The twins were born in the 1993 book “The Emperor’s Last Command” so seeing them go from newborns to teenagers by 1995 was a bit weird. The twins trained on Yavin 4 under the tutelage of their Uncle Luke and the other Jedi in the Jedi Academy. Fourteen books were published in total.

Other important characters in the series were Tenel Ka Djo, Lowbacca, Em Teedee, Zekk, and Raynar Thul. Lowbacca was, of course, the nephew of Chewbacca and Em Teedee was his translation droid that he wore on his belt.

The stand-out character for me was always Tenel Ka Djo. Tenel Ka was the daughter of a Dathomari witch and the Prince of Hapes. Tenel Ka rejects her royal linage and embraces her mother’s warrior culture. Tenel Ka lost her arm in a light saber accident whilst sparring with Jacen Solo. Unlike Luke Skywalker, Tenel Ka chose not to have her arm replaced with a bionic one. Much later in life Tenel Ka would have a child with Jacen Solo, (Han and Leia’s first grandchild, Allana Solo). I know... the Skywalker / Solo family history if complicated.

The Young Jedi Knight series spoke to me, because I was a pre-teen when they were being published. I even met Kevin J. Anderson at a book signing in Stevens Point, Wisconsin at and got him to sign a copy of the ninth book in the series “Delusions of Grandeur”. Apparently he was born in Racine, Wisconsin, but currently lives in Colorado.

The Junior Jedi Knights was a series of books for very young readers (that I never read). It was probably written for the 2^nd – 4^th grade level. This 6-book series features Han & Leia’s younger son, Anakin Solo- who is about 12 when these books were first published in 1995. Yet, he was born only a year earlier in the 1994 novel “Dark Apprentice”.

In these books Anakin befriends another Jedi Apprentice named Tahiri Veila who was raised by Tusken Raiders on Tatooine. I guess she walked around the temples with her shoes off because she liked the stone floors, because they reminded her that she didn’t have to walk on sand anymore. Yep, Tahiri is another Tatooine native that hates sand. It gets everywhere, you know. Also, the Jedi master who trained them was some sort of small rabbit thing.

Because I never read these books, I didn’t connect much with the character of Anakin Solo. He was killed off in the 2001 novel, “Star by Star”. I guess Tahiri fated a little better. She lived on and was featured in many Expanded Universe books up until the Disney acquisition.

I know that many Star Wars fans grew up with Jaina and Jacen Solo. They first fell in love with the characters through the Young Jedi Knights adventures and continued to follow them into the New Jedi Order series. People only a few years younger than I would have grown up following the adventures of Anakin Solo and Tahiri Veila. Those only a few years younger still, would have first been exposed to Star Wars with The Phantom Menace and the adventures of Anakin Solo’s grandfather, Anakin Skywalker. Kids born after “Revenge of the Sith” may be currently falling in love with Star Wars through “Adventures in Wild Space”, a young readers series with six entries published in the last few years.

It’s odd to think that the piece of Star Wars that mattered most to me in my preteen years, hasn’t been read by 99% of Star Wars fans. Yet- despite being de-canonized- Jaina, Jacen, Lowbacca, and Tenel Ka will never truly be gone. There are many of us who still hold these characters near and dear.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

The Aftermath Trilogy

The Aftermath Trilogy is the first set of novels to explore the Star Wars timeline just after the Battle of Endor. Chuck Wendig’s series takes place the morning after the destruction of the second Death Star and finishes about a year later with the birth of Ben Solo. Yet this series focuses very little on the Skywalker/Solo gang and almost exclusively on a new cast of heroes (and villains).

Norra Wexley could be considered the main character of this trilogy. Norra is a Y-Wing pilot and a survivor of the attack on the second Death Star. After the Battle of Endor, Norra heads home to Akiva to reunite with her son Temmin (Later called “Snap”.)

Snap Wexley is, of course, the X-Wing pilot featured in The Force Awakens played by Greg Grunberg. Temmin is a teenager during the fall of the Empire and he has made his living as a junk dealer whose clients include underworld gangsters. Because his father has disappeared and his mother has joined the rebellion, Snap’s main friend is a B-1 Battle Droid named Mister Bones. Temmin has heavily modified Mister Bones since its Clone Wars days and the droid is a herky-jerky killing machine with a loving- albeit socially awkward- personality.

The two Wexleys and Mister Bones team up with an ex-imperial named Sinjir Rath Velus and a bounty hunter named Jas Emari to run a series of missions for the rebellion, (missions that aren’t always fully sanctioned).

Sinjir is the Star Wars equivalent to Sayid from Lost. Sinjir use to make a living torturing Imperials whose loyalty was being questioned. He is often a curmudgeon and usually drunk. Yet he is one of the most interesting and loving characters in the new expanded universe. Sinjir is also one of the first examples of a gay Star Wars character.

Jas Emari is a Zabrak whose Aunt Sugi is featured in several episodes of Star Wars: Clone Wars. She prefers to work alone and spends her time trying to pay off the debts that Sugi owed to various organizations before she died. Jas struggles to fit in with her team of Rebels and ex-Imperial because she doesn't really do teams.

The final central character in this trilogy is Grand Admiral Rae Sloan, who was first featured in the Rebels spinoff novel “A New Dawn” (although back then she was Captain Rae Sloan). Rae is in command of a large part of what is left of the Imperial Navy. Although her grip on power wanes when a mysterious figure named Gallius Rax is slowly gaining more and more control over the remnants of the Empire. Eventually Sloan becomes only a figurehead and must solve the mystery of Gallius Rax so that she can get her Empire back. Sloan sometimes serves as an antagonist and sometimes a protagonist in these novels. She is certain to be a reader-favorite.

Disney has been building the new Expanded Universe for only a few years now, but The Aftermath Trilogy is certainly a bright spot. The trilogy paves the way for a whole new age of Star Wars novels, in a way that is reminiscent to how Timothy Zahn’s “Thrawn Trilogy” set up the old Expanded Universe. These books are sort of a must-read for anyone who is interested in the greater mythology of Star Wars, specifically how the Empire became The First Order. As an added bonus this series ends with the Battle of Jakku.

Remember that The Aftermath Trilogy is available in many formats through your local library. Happy Reading Star Wars Fans!