CAN IT BE!!!??? Insider 96: The Imperial Issue

It's just sad to see Insider ceasing to become an outlit for new EU information. At one point we had a decent Who's Who, HoloNet News, and a short story. And sometimes we'd get a really cool article like History of the Mandalorians or what have you. That was worth laying down the $30 bucks for a subscription. But why would anyone cough up that much money now?

I just wonder what their market is. These fan magazines (I'm including LOST, etc) don't exploit their officialness in order to bring new content (stories, articles with new stuff), they don't come out often enough to have timely information, all of the big news is either released online or at comic conventions, and the articles are too short to cover a subject in-depth. Who pays $30 a year for this?

I can see the literature community abandoning Insider entirely, now that Hyperspace is a separate deal with far more goodies. And I guess that's OK. Maybe we just don't make up a significant portion of the readership. But I'm curious: who is buying this magazine?

TC

 

I really don't see how they can keep a market by only talking about movie stuff though. That gets old pretty fast. There really isn't that much to go in depth about in the movies...

 

Speaking of who's buying, who's writing them to begin with? Don't the folks who work at Titan Publishing (or whoever the publishing company is now) get bored writing/editing the same stuff every issue? I mean, what is their definition of "interesting"? Even the regular joe on the street doesn't want to read about some random prop that was used in one of the movies, or how much some fan in Kentucky likes Bantha Tracks. The publishers can't possibly expect fans to want to read that kind of mindless fluff, either. Even the people writing these articles must be bored out of their minds.

 

The last good issue was the one with Abel and Ryan's smuggler article in it. Or the sith one, whatever came first.

 

Tell me, is there a letters colume in these Insiders?

 

You bought the Insider AFTER HNN?

Oh you poor soul...

 

Anyone remember Star Wars...Galaxy, I think it was called? The precursor? That had some good stuff.

 

Galaxy was an awesome magazine. I don't think it was a precursor though, that was the Lucasfilm Fan club mag (I still have them around here somewhere ). But yeah, Galaxy had some good stuff while it lasted.

 

If there's still a letters colume then why don't you fellas just send your complaints? LFL license will listen if you bitch enough. Trust me I know.

Good old Strad once informed me that my Mandalorian rammblings had even reached high places in the LFL arena.

You all just need to do it at once. Get in there and don't let the enemy breath.

 

We don't want them to put in a pile of dead EU authors, though.

But I think your point is well made, and I definitely agree. I know Abel has recommended before that we email Insider and make our feelings known, too. Currently, I believe the Insider mailbag feature is called "Comlink." The email address is starwarsinsider[at]titanemail.com, or starwarsmail[at]titanemail.com. They request that you mention Star Wars in the subject, and that you include your full address in the email (though they'll only print it if you ask them to.)

 

For those in the UK, this should be on the shelves soon if not now. The postman brought my subscription copy this morning. I've only taken a quick flip through but it looks pretty good.

 

This issue was very dissapointing, and it appears that the clone wars era is almost basically the only one to have mutiple short stories in the Insider. Lately, the Insider really....sucks. Not too thrilled with the info on the live action series. My take is this, if your going to spend all that money and talent on that, might as well do three more movies. I don't really like the way LucasFilm is thking on the live action series. Sorry, but it ain;t going to be no Lost or Hero.

 

Heh, a twisted part of me missed your frequent comparisons to other pop-culture franchises that have nothing to do with anything being discussed.

Anyhoo...

I'm wondering if Insider is the way it is right now just because of the timeframe -- that is, it's the 30th Anniv year, so that encourages them to print a bunch of OT production stuff. We're also a little early for real info on the two TV series, so that limits any potential articles about those. And i can see that, with an emphasis on the 30th Anniv, they may decide to downplay any EU features out of a (misguided) belief that EU stuff may turn away old-school film-only/OT-fans who may pick up the mag for the Anniv stuff.

And of course, Titan's just starting out on the mag; doesn't surprise me that they'd go with "safe" (read: boring for fans like us) material in their first bunch of issues.

 

The 'field guide' is pretty lame.

The information on tech, weapons and vehicles is very basic and often played for laughs - the AT-ST walker is described as 'not Ewok-proof' and rumors of the MSE droid being 'timid in the presence of Wookiees.' Groan.

 

...wow...

 

Well, I flipped through the issue today, and it's safe to say that I've gone from "can't-wait-to-buy-it" to "not-wasting-my-money" to "well-maybe-later". The aliens in the Empire article does have some new info after all, like the timing and reasons for Mas Ammeda's conversion to the Dark Side, and Sly Moore's possible Sith impersonations. Didn't really get to check out Who's Who. Not at all up to the standards we've come to expect from these authors, but I'm willing to have another look.

TC

 

DETAILS, PUNY MORTALS! GIVE ME DETAILS!!


Oh, sorry. Uh, does someone have details on that, please?

 

Ammeda is a little more complicated than the old "he was in on the plot all along" thing we saw with, say, Sate Pestage. Palpatine revealed his true Sith self to Ammeda right after the destruction of Outbound Flight. I didn't get to read all the details, but apparently Palpatine applealed to Ammeda's better nature in order to corrupt him.

Sly Moore's entry was shorted, it pretty much just said that it was rumored that she had black mailed her predecessor into stepping down and that she may have impersonated Sidious when he and Palpatine had to appear in two places at once.

TC

 

Interesting. Very interesting. So Palpatine pulls the risk of a reveal with Amedda -- presumably the guy was becoming too key to operations for deceit to be worthwhile anymore -- which is the first time such a thing has been established, IIRC. And Moore is a big part of the plans and even gets to play Sith -- a little detail that makes the deception all that more believable. I like it.

Thanks, Talon.

 

An interesting retcon for the fact that Amedda was, at least for gameplay purposes in the SWCCG, considered a light side character at the time of The Phantom Menace.

 

Amedda calls Palpatine 'Master' in ROTS. I always thought that was odd.

 

Especially since he says it exactly like Darth Maul....

 

I don't know if anyone has said, but it mentions Motti and Tarkin wanting to rule the Empire using the Death Star.