Category Archives: Star Wars

I Hate to Be ‘That Guy’, But I Don’t Like the New Star Wars Title

It was revealed yesterday that principal filming is over for Star Wars: Episode VII, and with it we learned the title: Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I have no idea who comes up with this stuff.

So look, I hate to be ‘that guy’, that geek who can’t accept change or new ideas with his franchises, but I don’t like title. I’m sure it fits the movie fine, it’s just that I don’t like the word ‘Awakens’. It’s such an awkward word. I write crime stories for my local newspaper for a living, and sometimes I have to write about people being woken up by a crime, and the word ‘awakens’ is all manner of cumbersome and ungainly.

So there, I have a very good reason to dislike the new Star Wars title. Maybe George Lucas will now read my blog and change it!

Beyond that complaint, though, it’s probably fine. I mean, ‘Return of the Jedi’ would seem to imply that the Force was coming back. But I guess it meant ‘Jedi’ singular, as in just Luke.

6 of My Fictional Mary Sues

I make no bones about my life as a young fan fiction writer. I am actually quite proud of the work that Young Sean churned out at such a young age – even if I can rarely bring myself to go back and read the stories I wrote. You can check them out at FanFiction.net. Those stories laid the groundwork for the Sean you know today.

And one of the things I loved more than anything else was creating my own Mary Sue characters in popular fiction. Though back then, I had no idea what a ‘Mary Sue’ even was.

Nope, that’s Mary Jane

According to TVtropes.com, Mary Sue is the derogative term for an original fan fiction character inserted by the author into an already popular series, usually to serve as some kind of wish fulfillment. Mary Sues typically have dramatic backstories, awesome names, unique looks, and more often than not, upstage the main characters. For example, say you wrote a Harry Potter fan fic and inserted your own original Hufflepuff wizard, and the story was all about how your wizard fell in love with Draco Malfoy and turned him into a good guy with the power of love. It’s that sort of idealized character inserted into pre-existing stories.

I don’t think I was ever that bad, but I loved creating my own original characters for all my favorite cartoons and movies. Join me after the jump to take a look at just a few of them, and feel free to share some of your own in the comments! No judgement.

Also, as Google has revealed, I was not the only person in the world to come up with these exact same ideas. But I was young, and the Internet wasn’t a thing yet, so forgive me if some of these ideas aren’t 100% unique or original. They were to me at the time.

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Star Wars Rebels Looks Fine, I Guess

A new trailer has been released for the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels cartoon, though it’s pretty much just an extended version of the last trailer. Still, it’s got Obi-Wan Kenobi in it, so that makes this trailer better by default.

I’m still very hesitant about this show. I finished watching Clone Wars a few weeks ago, and while that show was fun, it wasn’t the best thing since sliced bread. I also rewatched the original Star Wars trilogy a few weeks ago, and those movies really are surprisingly good films. I don’t think I’d seen them in years, but sitting down and watching them back-to-back was a real treat.

At any rate, this new Rebels cartoon looks to be about as cliche as you’d expect. It’s got the Luke character, it’s got the Han and Chewie characters, it’s got its own Darth Vader, and it’s even got its own R2-D2. And do they really want to put a Jedi into the Rebellion from the very beginning? Why wouldn’t you want to keep Luke Skywalker as the only Jedi in the Rebellion, who comes along at a time when they need him most? But that’s just my opinion. If you guys and gals are going ga-ga for Rebels, by all means!

He Did It Again! The Star Wars Prequels By Way of Guardians of the Galaxy!

Close down the Internet for the rest of the year, The Unusual Suspect has won the whole darn thing. Less than a week after his amazing first video – a trailer for the original Star Wars trilogy done in the style of Guardians of the Galaxy – Unusual Suspect has done the same thing for the prequels. It’s not as good, but it’s damn good.

Genius! If anyone asks you the point of the Internet, show them these videos. We obviously did something good recently, because these videos are our karma. They are glorious.

Star Wars By Way of Guardians of the Galaxy

Some Internet genius mashed up Star Wars with one of those awesome Guardians of the Galaxy trailers. The result is nothing short of brilliance.

Someone give The Unusual Suspect a medal, because he (or they) have won the Internet for today. That was probably the best trailer mash-up I have ever seen. And it makes me re-appreciate Star Wars like never before!