Anchorhead

Ripplin said:

Anchorhead said:

It would probably be easier to make mine in my riding gear.

If by easier you mean harder and far more time-consuming, then yes. ;)

Oh.  Sorry, wasn't sure how you were making them.  I like the everyday me better anyway.

Ripplin said:

I always leave the top piece on bald heads. :)

 

Yeeeeeess!!  Love it.

I don't look happy.   Have we met before?  ;-)

Bingowings said:

Bullocks or Bollocks?

One of my favorite EU characters.

...

;-)

That dalek thing is way weird, by the way.  ??

Outstanding! 

The Library Of Congress is now directing people to you for the information on the history of the film they are archiving.  That is quite an honor, sir.   And a well deserved one.

xhonzi said:

http://www.amazon.com/Terminator-Six-Disc-Limited-Endoskull-Blu-ray/dp/B001RIY49C/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1308601614&sr=8-4

Interesting - a director and a studio releasing films and extras that the fans want, in a high quality format, so that the fans are happy.  What a novel idea.

Tobar said:

Anchorhead said:

Role-playing and cos-play are an attempt to make the film (any film) into a sort of reality, for lack of a better term.  To me - that takes away the magic of the film.  I don't want the film to be real, I want it to be an escape from reality.  A chance to be transported.   That desire for the film to be an escape from reality is the same reason I don't watch behind the scenes documentaries.  Just a personal choice.

This statement doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I personally don't roleplay as it's not my thing but I do read all of the old WEG books as they're great for filling in the gaps of....

Let me see if I can elaborate on a few of your points.  I read EU novels because they are good stories, just as a well made movie can be.  Pretending, getting lost in, escaping to - whatever it can be classified as - is why I read novels. So, I'm with you there.  Don't know what WEG books are, but it sounds like it's just a different sort of escape\story\emotion\etc.

roleplayers are doing the exact same thing.

I don't see it that way.  Reading a story is different than creating an alternate identity and actively pretending to be part of the story or the world it takes place in. Roleplayers\cos-players are trying to make the fiction exist in our non-fiction world. 

They may have differing degress of seriousness, but it's still a breaking of the fourth wall that I have no interest in. Pretending (acting\writing) for the sake of telling a story  is just a method of conveying the story to make it more clear.  To me, that differs greatly from pretending to live within the story.

I don't want to live in those worlds.   I want to escape to them occasionally.

They just like to take an active part in the galaxy.

They can't.  It's not real.  For me, pretending that is real ruins the magic. It ruins the special place that the movie\book\play is.

Whenever you read or watch something you're being transported into that work's reality, I don't really see that big a difference between that and pretending you're a part of it too.

I feel there is an enormous difference between becoming immersed in a work of fiction through film or novels - and stepping out of your XTerra dressed as a stormtrooper or Boba Fett.

And I really can't see any connection between behind the scenes docs and what roleplayers do.

There isn't one.  I just failed to be more clear.  I don't watch them because I don't want the fourth wall broken.  Interviews with actors are fine, but I don't want to see the plywood bolted to the side of the 18-wheeler that I previously thought was a landing bay or Mayan temple.  It takes me out of the film the next time I watch it. 

Davnes007 said:

Man...your feet are HUGE!**

 

** Compared to the shirt and funny shorts.

You know what they say, man.

;-)

Throwing my hat in the ring.  You guys know what I look like - bald with a goatee. My daily clothing is almost always this;

My several pairs of old camo shorts are at least that faded, I seldom wear anything other than an Astros shirt, and the shoes are the classics.

I know, I probably didn't make any friends with that statement.  ;-)

If it pleases the court; 

Role-playing and cos-play are an attempt to make the film (any film) into a sort of reality, for lack of a better term.  To me - that takes away the magic of the film.  I don't want the film to be real, I want it to be an escape from reality.  A chance to be transported.   That desire for the film to be an escape from reality is the same reason I don't watch behind the scenes documentaries.  Just a personal choice.

When The Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper's Tale, by Doug Beason

Before I get into my review, let me state up front - I really liked this story.  That was a big relief to me as a fan because, as I've mentioned before, the central character is someone from one of my very favorite scenes when I first sat in the theater in 1977. 

Not sure why.  Something about the seriousness, the desolation, the voice, the chain of events his very short scene causes - just something about it struck me as a kid.

In fact (unrelated to this review), on my Google Earth install, I have some filming locations set as places (M*A*S*H, Star Wars, Dances With Wolves, etc).  One of them is the shooting location for the Dune Sea.  The name I gave the marker? - "Look sir, droids".  But I digress.

This story is a longer one.  It begins somewhere other than Tatooine and is unrelated to the movie for a while. The story starts when he's a recruit and we get a look at boot camp for the Imperial Army.  He eventually ends up as a stormtrooper assigned to an outer rim post, where he makes that now famous discovery.

The character is well developed and goes through an interesting arc through the course of the story. You get a good look at how different these guys all are (the stormtroopers) - their different ideals, backgrounds, ambitions, etc.

As with the others I liked the most so far, this one has little to do with the movie until much later in the story.  Other than the obvious, it doesn't cross deep into or change what we know about Star Wars77. It's just the story of one of the stormtroopers.

Also, a mea culpa if I may.  I've known for a long time that there were back stories to just about every character in the trilogy.  I've been somewhat critical of that sort of exposition because it seemed unnecessary.  What I didn't know - and didn't bother to find out - was that some of that back story came from published novels. 

I just assumed it was some silliness belched out on the "bio" pages of the Lucas Franchise machine.  Which to me, has always felt weirdly uncomfortable, a sort of role-playing extension that is so fleshed-out that it borders on disturbing.  Particularly for adults.

I was wrong about the back stories, or at least some of the ones I've read so far.  These stories are from some very talented writers and some of them would make interesting novels on their own. Once again, this board grows my Star Wars universe.

Two more.

Swap Meet: The Jawa's Tale, by Kevin J. Anderson

Basically a day in the life of some of the Jawas in that area.  I liked this story.  It had an interesting twist that I've not encountered in the others, at least not to the same extent.  The main character interacts directly with some of the film characters - away from the film as we are familiar with it.  As with the others, it eventually synchronizes with the film.

I have heard some harsh criticisms of Anderson's work, but this seemed well done to me.  Maybe because it's a short story he didn't venture into what so many fans dislike about his take on the Star Wars universe.  It didn't ruin anything for me. Just a Jawa story peripherally related to Star Wars77.

Trade Wins: The Ranat's Tale, by Rebecca Moesta

This is another interesting twist of a story because it's sort of a prequel\sequel to the story preceding it.   Sort of a back story to a back story. This one is very short, maybe 6 pages, so it's hard to explain without spoiling it.

ray_afraid said:

I've avoided this thread because outside of the OT (well, just SW and ESB mostly) I don't really dig on Star Wars. I'm not much of a sci-fi guy. I love spaceships and aliens and ray guns and all that, but hate all the babbling tech-talk and stiff characters that inhabit almost every sci-fi movie or tv show I've ever seen. So, anything that captures the feel of the original Star Wars film is something I'd be interested in checking out.  Anymore suggestions?

Man, I'm a new recruit myself.  My only experience up to this point had been Splinter Of The Mind's Eye and the Han Solo novels from Brian Daley. I enjoy all four because of either the connection to Star Wars77 universe (Splinter), or their lack of it (Daley\Solo novels).  The four are free of Jedi & Sith, so they're more story-driven as opposed to Franchise-driven. 

Regarding the rest of the EU, I'm just starting on the course the board has chosen for me  ;-)  based on my desire to read non-Jedi\Sith based stories or anything prequel.  So far I'm digging it, but I'm nowhere near qualified enough to recommend much at this point.

Ripplin said:

That  -  is genius.

TV's Frink said:

Am I wrong, or is there no actual RP-ing going on at the site?

I was wondering about that myself.  I've never been into the whole role-playing, cos-play thing (takes the magic away for me), but if I'm understanding the basic idea - aren't you supposed to log on as a character from the world within a film and speak as though it were all real?   I'm not seeing that on her site. 

Not that it matters, you could still have interesting film conversations.  Maybe they would have liked it here if things hadn't gotten off to a weird start.

Bingowings said:

     WALK NOW WALK NOW WALK NOW WALK NOW WALK NOW WALK NOW

 Well done, sir. 

There would be no way to quantify it after all these years, but it's possible that I've seen Blade Runner more than any other film.  If not, it's one of the top five for sure.

CP3S said:

...adventure cartoon where the main character's hero he had always looked up to turns out to be a disappointingly mean murderous asshole and tries to kill him.

Jesus!  Does he really try to kill that Boy Scout?  That's messed up, man.

Went a second time yesterday...

Third time for sure.  Waiting on June 28th for the soundtrack release.

Empire Blues: The Devaronian's Tale,  by Daniel Keys Moran

I found this one to be one of the better stories.  Not so much because of the character, but because of the story itself and the way it is written.  Kardue is as evil and rotten as there is in that town, which is saying something in Mos Eisley, so he's not someone you take a liking to.

The story is written as a first person narrative, which I thought made it much more engaging.  He tells how he came to live on Tatooine (which would make an interesting novel itself) and why he stayed. 

You learn a lot about his daily routine and how he spends his free time, etc. He has a low opinion of just about everyone, including himself.  For me, his cynicism is what makes him so interesting.

He's a big collector of music and part of the story is him trying to arrange to see the cantina band, who he thinks are fantastic. 

Obviously all of these stories have some relation to the cantina scene from the film, but this one has almost no connection to the movie story, other than part of it happening on that day.  I found that to make it even more enjoyable. It was nice to get away from the film for a while.  This is another good example of expanding Star Wars, not relying on it.

BloodnoseThePirate said:

TV's Frink said:

Cheers Fate Foretold :-)

This.

Make that two.

timdiggerm said:

Ohmygodmycursor

Literal LOL

Nightlily: The Lovers' Tale - by Barbara Hambly

This is about Trevagg, a tax collector.

I actually found the part of the story dealing with his job and co-worker more interesting than the Nightlily portion. 

If I have any one criticism of it, I think the author crossed into the movie story too much.  By that I mean the main character heard too much of the dialogue from the film.  Some of the other stories were just as tied-in, but still remained observational. Without spoiling - the reason for this was addressed in the story and the character, but personally I've enjoyed the others more.  I find the stories more interesting when the events of the film are just casual observations by bar patrons.