Iron Man at the Park

Kid #2 was putting his Iron Man action figure on the tree so I took a couple shots of it.

Star Wars 7 Teaser Trailer 2

Yeah, so it's out. The 2nd trailer for Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens. I told myself I'd wait until it came out on the Avengers 2, but, I've already watched it about 15 times. And will continue to watch it for a couple of days, I'm sure. I grew up, like most of the other people putting out volumes of writing on the new Star Wars movie, with the original trilogy. I spent my youth playing with action figures and wishing I was in an X-Wing fighter battling the Empire.

When Disney bought Star Wars, I had many a conversation with people praising the move. Defending it, mostly. I had only to point to two facts: Star Wars at Disney World, and The Avengers. Star Wars has been at the theme park for a couple of years (I've never been, myself) and they did a great job incorporating the characters and representing them. And the Avengers - holy hannah! How many great Marvel movies has Disney given us since they started? Too many for one hand to count.

So I've been really happy with the information I've found as far as potential spoilers and leaks. And the 2 trailers - man oh man, are they giving us what we want! Below I'm going to give my own theories on what's going on in the trailer, based on what I've read and seen online since this whole hubbub started. A lot of what I am going to talk about is potential "too much" spoiler, so stop reading now if you're trying to steer clear of any hints of the plot.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW

There will be enough scene-by-scene analysis of the 2nd trailer, so I'm going to focus on a couple of points that are interesting to me. I'll start out with what many are already calling the greatest single scene in a Star Wars movie: The opening shot of the crashed Star Destroyer. And continuing with the other shot of a Star Destroyer, which SlashFilm points out is a Super Star Destroyer - not the Imperial Star Destroyer from the first shot.

Add into this a crashed X-Wing fighter, and it ties into a specific rumor about Luke Skywalker. Luke apparently went into hiding years ago to protect the galaxy from himself, after a horrific event where he did something really really bad with the Force. Seeing not one, but two Star Destroyers crashed on apparently the same planet, and also taking into account the wrecked AT-AT picture that was leaked around the internet a couple of months back makes me wonder if the "Bad Thing" that Luke did was on this very planet. Perhaps he finally got sick of the Empire trying to resurge, and took out an entire Imperial fleet from orbit - crashing multiple Star Destroyers and also Republic ships into the surface of the planet, killing thousands of people in a single anger filled Force moment.

The 2nd scene with the Millenium Falcon also brings up a question: In Return of the Jedi, Han says "I got a funny feeling, like I'm not going to see her again." This was originally supposed to foreshadow the destruction of the Falcon and the death of his "friend" Lando. That scene was changed, and Lando ends up speeding away from the Death Star unscathed (The Falcon only losing its radar dish, but why quibble over a little dent like that?). There are rumors that Han is going to die in Episode 7. Could they be setting us up for a repeat of the Death Star superstructure chase scene, only ending it the "right" way - in the destruction (gasp!) of the Falcon and the death of the most beloved Scoundrel with a Heart of Gold?

So the last thing to theorize about is Kylo Ren, in his Darth Revan style mask and his very cool lightsaber. Just to note: I love the lightsaber. There's a great video here of a guy showing that the crossguard is not a silly idea, and will probably help Darth Ren be a much deadlier foe than someone without the guard.



Anyway - back to the theory. Which is probably not too novel, but I haven't done a lot of reading about this particular character so forgive me if it's been done to death already. Revan lived 4,000 years before the Star Wars movies, and was by turns a warrior for both the Light side and the Dark side - as a Jedi and as a Sith. He was eventually defeated and became one with the Force - which was a rare phenomenon in the later years of the Jedi Order. His mask, robes and lightsaber were left behind when he finally became one with the Force. And where did this happen? None other than Yavin - the site of an ancient temple, a Rebel base, a destroyed first Death Star, and by all accounts a prominent locale in the new Star Wars movies. With the Force Awakening, will this include either rebirth of old Jedi that became one with the Force, or possibly guidance from these spirits?

Is Kylo Ren the apprentice of a Force Ghost Darth Revan? Did he delve too deeply into the Temple on Yavin and stumble upon the mask and robes, and keep them for himself? I don't know how far back the lightsaber technology goes, but apparently older lightsabers did not have the same type of force field holding them together, so bled out more power - which would explain the different style of lightsaber blade that Kylo Ren is using. Possible a four millenia old lightsaber.

  

That's about it for my theories. I've drawn on movie rumors, as well as materials from the Expanded Universe (which is officially Non-Cannon now, but they have said that some aspects may still be drawn into play in the new movies). Hope you like them, and feel free to rebut or share your own!

Star Wars Titanium - AT-AT & Snowspeeder

Buy them at Amazon:

Captain Picard and Doctor Fate

Best of friends together at last!

The Ed and Roid Show

Tron - Quorra Action Figure

McFarlane Dragons Berserker Clan 3

Star Wars Titanium - Best of The Return of the Jedi - Small Ships

Let's face it. The Ewoks overpowered the second half of the movie, and overshadowed the real action going on in the Rebels darkest hour. That's right - the Ships. Not the big, bulbous Calamari ships. Nor the Executor. Return of the Jedi gave us some of the finest small ships the galaxy has ever seen, and I believe they hold up against the best the new eps have to offer.

Let's take a look.

Imperial Shuttle and TIE Interceptors

First off, the Imperial Shuttle. Simple, elegant, sleek. Capable of hauling a Dark Lord of the Sith or a band of Rebel Scum. And look good doing either. I realize there is nothing overly unique about this ship, but something about the lines has always gotten me.

Then, to complement the shuttle, we get the latest version in the TIE series - a TIE Interceptor. It's like everything cool in a dark grey TIE that was exactly uncool about the first dark grey TIE variant we saw. Keeping the best part (the bent wings), they proceeded to make a vehicle that was truly worthy. Sorry, but Darth's TIE just never did it for me - it was too bulky and cumbersome looking. I guess kind of like Vader, but we won't get into that here. Let's focus on the wonderful goodness of the sleek TIE Interceptor.


Not to be outdone, the Rebels got a nice little boost to their available starfighter reserve. I never really understood why they called it a B-wing other than alphabetical bias, because really it should have been a T-wing or I-wing or IT-wing. But hey, I was only 13 at the time so I didn't really care what they called it - just that it was super cool and the cockpit on the toy stayed level as you spun the ship around it, and the wings opened and closed. It was the latest in modern toy miracology. So, the B-wing got a lot of play time.

The A-wing is a lately come favorite of mine, surprisingly. I never had one as a kid so I never really developed an attachment. But when I recently picked up the Titanium version I did the unthinkable and I actually opened it to display. And I fell in love with it. Again, simply sleek and realistic for a space jock to hurtle around in.


So in conclusion, I have to say these four ships are probably the finest to come out of the original Star Wars trilogy, and hold their own easily with higher tech wonders like the Venator-class Star Destroyer or the Jedi Starfighters. I'd take a spin in them any day of the week.

Here Be Treasure...

The Goblin collects many things. Here is but a Sample.

Wallpaper - Star Wars Clone Wars Collage 010 - Jedi Crash

Aayla Secura rescued, the Republic Heroes now face a new challenge - saving Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, injured during the mission and in need of medical assistance.