Lit Eleven-ThirtyEight and stuff

So we've stumbled into something that I'm going to loosely classify as Continuity Week--starting with this piece by Jello today, continuing with a piece from myself tomorrow, and concluding with something special on Friday. Hav has a piece on Thursday but it's unrelated, technically.

 

Well, in line with the thread title, and your contributor, why don't you humbly declare it:

Jelly Stuff Week

 

Because he only wrote one piece.

 

Unacceptable... I demand more jelly stuff!

 

Me, too, believe me.

 

I, personally, love the webpage and it highlights a problem I have with the literature forum. A lot of really great articles are never found out by the fandom at large because the internet is horrible at advertising the really good stuff. I would LOVE for the posters of this forum in this thread to include links to their essays and the "gold" that they are bringing to discussions. I'd love to discuss it in this thread too.

Ignore the fact I, too, post Star Wars essays. I can't be suffering some sort of BIAS here.

http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2013/08/politics-and-the-expanded-universe-part-ii/

For example, this article really stood out for me. Sadly, I disagree with every bit of it. It assumes the Separatists should be Plucky Rebels rather than Space Slavers. I took the "heroes on both sides" thing to be somewhat generous as the idea I took from the movies is the Confederacy was meant to terrify the average Republican citizen into throwing more powers to Palpatine because peace as well as surrender were impossible. That's why it's composed of greedy self-interested scumbags, Grevious, and the apprentice Palpatine intends to dispose of.

Likewise, this is an awesome review.

http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2013/08/kenobi-roundtable-reactions/#more-1197

 

Cooper, the leading vote is the hero option.

I hope you have gotten in contact with Marvel Studios...

 

Really happy with this.

 

And in 2002!!

 

Wellllll, I don't think it necessarily has to be one or the other. Yeah yeah, films are a visual medium and it's arguably easier to suggest large scale conflict through it, but I believe that type of thing can be conveyed through books just as well. I know I felt the scale of the conflict in Stover's ROTS adaptation than I did from the movie (though I will admit, William's score does do well in adding teh dramaz). Similarly, Shadows of Mindor is practically a sweeping epic, and I have no problem considering it the best post-ROTJ novel.

Ideally, we'd be able to get both without the authors feeling like they have to "go big or go home" and utterly destroy the galaxy from the inside for the sake of drama.

 

Well I don't mean to suggest that novels inherently shouldn't do big stories--just that that may not be their ideal function in SW, given what we're currently facing. In a perfect world, I'd like to see them go off and do big, epic stories about stuff that's barely been seen and the movie people don't care about--Pius Dea, NSW, DotJ, etc.

 

In which Nick and Jason Fry go all fleet junkie on each other, and I coin the term "reference porn".

 

Fleet Junkie is supposed to be capitalized.

It was great fun chatting with Jason. He really is a great guy, a true fan, and rather funny to boot!

--Adm. Nick

 

I don't believe in enabling junkies.


...except for, y'know, the interview.

 

Dude, I can quit whenever I want. I am no junkie!

(Glances around)

(Lowers voice)

I need my fix, man. You know I am good for the money. I just need a little hit. Just one MC80B cruiser. Or a few X-wings.

--Adm. Nick

 

YOU'RE TEARING THIS FAMILY APART

 

Welcome to http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hutt_Space were they service such needs.

Only if he sells several members of said family.

 

Love the essays so much!

MOAR!

MOAR!

 

I was tempted to post this on my blog but I figured this thread was a better place to do it.

http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2013/09/firing-the-canon-its-the-caliber-that-matters/#comments

I really liked this essay and wanted to say it's the kind of quality I enjoy from the 1138 site. I will say, however, that I am fully capable of disagreeing with some of the points raised therein and hope the writers don't mind me saying so.

I dunno, I have a certain fondness for the video games as literal stories in-between the actual stories involved. Yes, it doesn't make sense in "The Old Republic" that our heroes slaughter thousands of sentients even if they're Jedi but KOTOR shows how this can be cool as well. The game was excellent in it's pacing and the slow movement from where Revan and company were intimidated by a single lone Darksider on Taris to slaughtering the entire of Darth Malak's Dark Jedi Army on the Star Forge resonated with me thematically.

I also like to think that Carth Onasi wracked up a hefty Sith kill count.

"The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

"Size matters not."

“Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally different!”
“No! No different, only different in your mind.”

Starkiller is a figure who displays exceptional Force powers unleashed against hordes of Stormtroopers, including the ability to smash around TIE-fighters and create storms of force-lightning. However, this is fairly small potatoes compared to the other Force abilities we've seen in various mediums. There's Emperor Palpatine's Force Storms and the ridiculously over-the-top abilities of Darth Nihilus. The Sith Emperor has also displayed the power to destroy an entire world with the Force.

Starkiller's abilities are consistent with the kind of abilities Sith Lords display. He simply is better at using them than the vast majority of Darksiders we've seen. It should be noted Darth Vader, himself, displays all of these abilities in "The Force Unleashed" opening section--showing that Starkiller has learned these devastating powers from the Dark Lord himself. Qui Gon and Obi-Wan, furthermore, display the ability to hack and slash their way through entire armies in the Prequels (albeit, Droids).

As for defeating Darth Vader? Starkiller is Vader's apprentice and motivated by an emotion which provides a Force-User potentially unlimited power.

Love.

Starkiller is Luke Skywalker's dark counterpart. The fact he's retconned in as having a major narrative role in-between the movies does not necessitate that it's undermining him. Rather, it's underlining Vader's redemption and how love is the redeeming force.

Pun intended.

Here, I actually think that The Force Unleashed plugs a plot hole leftover from ROTS. The Rebellion was fairly inactive for about twenty-years so it was obvious something was needed to galvanize our heroes into actually waging a war. It's also less pathetic for our heroes to have not managed to get a victory in 20 years (mentioned in the opening crawl) than in a couple of them.

As for Leia's secure position, it's entirely possible the Senate really WAS a hotbed of Rebel support at that point.

Palpatine, also, may have simply let it simmer as justification for disbanding the Imperial Senate as well. Given Leia's father WAS a traitor -- using her as justification is a masterstroke on Palpatine's part.

This is fine for *ALL* EU works. At the end of the day, they're just stories.

But that doesn't mean they're not as important to some posters as the most important are to others.

Thanks for writing this!

 

I'm very excited to see some Potentium-hater take issue with this.

 

I'm glad that I finally have the opportunity to get that essay out into the Vergere conversation. I've been sitting on it since Dr. Snow's class two years ago.

 

A great essay! Looking forward for part 2

 

Awesome essay.

 

Thanks guys! I'll have the second part up next week.