A Star Wars Book Review Podcast: Kenobi

Here’s my latest book review podcast:

The Curtain Saga

So this is kind of off-topic for me, but I just have to comment on this. The other day I posted my usual Star Wars Weekend Update, where I just go over some of the stuff I’ve been doing, what I’ve been reading, what I’ve been watching, etc. And I just happened to mention that I was going to attempt to put up curtains in my daughter’s bedroom, just as an aside.

So when I went to put in my tags for the post, I put in my usual stuff, but then just for ha-ha’s put in “curtains.” Because I did mention curtains, right?

Well. A day later I noticed the traffic to my blog went way up. Like WAY up. I usually get a few dozen views, or maybe 40-50 at the very most. But it had gone up to 90, and I was like, wow! They really like me, lol.

Then today, I got up at 7:30 in the morning and just peeked around, and it was up to 317. Then later, 431. And it just keeps going up and up. And naturally, I thought What the hell? Lol. This makes no sense. I hadn’t done anything differently, really. All my post views were normal, and there were no additional likes or anything.

And then it hit me: curtains! It seems that a great many people are in need of knowing about curtains. Who knew? I didn’t. And I thought: I’m writing about the wrong thing! Curtains is where it’s at! I’d could make a killing on curtains.

Window, Inside, Interior, Building, Glass, Window Sill

The problem is, I can’t think of anything more boring to write about. Plus the fact I don’t know a darn thing about curtains. My daughter’s curtains? Well, they’re up, but when I bought the package, I thought there were two panels, but there was only one. So she’s got one panel up, and just barely. Apparently I needed a drill, which I don’t have, and so I had to MacGyver it. I managed to get the screws into the wall, but about halfway through they just stopped. Hit something hard and impenetrable. So the screws are only halfway in, but it’s fairly secure. I think. Still looks pretty. Just waiting on the second panel I had to order online.

Anyway, all of this is to say that curtains, while a very popular subject as far as I can see, is not my thing. Same with other popular blog subjects: cooking, gardening, travel, fashion, etc. I don’t give two hoots about that stuff. But Star Wars? Count me in! I’ll happily add my voice to the thousands of others who write about it, and love every minute of it. I’ll leave the curtains to those who get all giddy about curtains, and good for them.

Anyway, I feel a little bad that I put curtains in the tags in the first place, like it was a bit misleading. That all those people clicked on my post and thought, huh? This isn’t about curtains! Bye! Oh well. Maybe I caught a few people who are interested in curtains AND Star Wars, right? Maybe they’ll keep me in mind.

Have you ever had any weird blog traffic? Something that didn’t make sense or you didn’t intend, but the traffic went way up? I’d be very interested to hear about it! (Do I put curtains in the tags for this post? It’s ALL about curtains, lol. But not what people think, so maybe not. Maybe I’ll put NOT CURTAINS, lol.)

Star Wars: The Bad Batch–Replacements

The Bad Batch Spoilers Ahead!

The title of the third episode of The Bad Batch–“Replacements”–refers to several different things: the ship the crew are travelling on, the Havoc Marauder, crash land on a planet and need a replacement part; Omega is proving to be one of the crew and, in essence, she is replacing Crosshair as the fifth member; and finally, the Clones are slowly being replaced by enlisted soldiers in the Empire’s armed forces, in a project called War Mantle.

There’s a lot going on in this episode. Hunter and Omega go after the moon dragon that took their capacitator; Hunter gets knocked unconscious, and Omega decides to go after the part alone, down into the dragon’s lair. She finds it, but the beast gets vicious. I don’t know about you, but to me she seems to calm the dragon down (perhaps with the Force?) before throwing the flashlight so it will go after that instead (it feeds off the electrical power). She tells Hunter that she “tricked” it, and indeed she did. But how? Did she use the Force, perhaps even unknowingly? Maybe. Omega is still an enigma, and probably will be for some time.

Meanwhile, Echo is working on repairs to the ship, and Tech is working on something that will give them more information on the chip inside their heads. Which is a good thing, because Wrecker suddenly has a bad headache, right where the chip would be. He hit his head in the crash, and maybe it’s done something to the chip–I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this. Like Wrecker is gonna go Crosshair real soon, which is even more heartbreaking than it was with Crosshair. Crosshair was naturally stand-offish, but Wrecker is just a big kid, with a big heart–while confined to the ship, he makes Omega a little room of her own, and gives her his tooka doll (the fact that a big, tough man like that had a tooka doll in the first place speaks volumes about him).

Crosshair, meanwhile, has been put in command of some non-clone soldiers and given the same mission the Bad Batch had failed: take out Saw Gerrera’s insurgent group on Onderan. One man gave Crosshair some lip on the way to the planet, mocking his clone status; but he was the first to refuse the orders to kill the people in the group. Crosshair kills the soldier, and when the other soldiers hesitate, he turns and kills Saw’s group himself (Saw wasn’t even there). “Good soldiers follow orders,” he says. Chilling. And a taste of the Empire’s war crimes to come. Back on Kamino, however, Crosshair sits on his bunk after the mission, as if regretting what he did. Or at least questioning his own actions. As Omega told Hunter, it’s not his fault, it’s the chip. And she tells Hunter that maybe because of that, they can get him back. I really hope so, because it’s heartbreaking to witness Crosshair’s manipulation. I’m hoping Tech’s contraption will have a role in bringing him back.

We’ve been introduced to General Rampart, who is in charge of transitioning from clone soldiers to a volunteer military force (Project War Mantle, first heard about in Rogue One, when Jyn was naming off various projects while looking for what turned out to be Stardust). This force will be trained by clones, and then they’ll be transitioned out completely. The Kaminoans, of course, are alarmed by this development, as their entire business is dependent on the government needing–and paying for–their clones. Lama Su and Nala Se talk about creating an even more enhanced clone, with abilities that would make the Empire want them. I’m guessing they mean the enhancements that the Bad Batch have, and they say that they already have one to use–Crosshair–but I’m also suspicious that they may want Omega, too, for her mysterious powers. So they’ll be hunted for even more reasons, is my guess.

So there’s a lot to chew on in this 25-minute episode, and I can’t wait to see where it all leads!

What did you think of “Replacements”? Let me know in the comments, and we’ll talk about it!

My Star Wars Weekend Update

Hello, and happy weekend, dear readers and Star Wars fans!

So I’ve finally done my first podcast, and it turned out…not bad, I guess, lol. I put it up last Tuesday, and I’ve had 14 listens so far. More than I thought! If you’ve taken a listen, I thank you. I’m going to do what I do with the blog, and just be patient with it: just keep doing what I love, putting it out there, and see what happens. I think it may naturally evolve over time, as the blog has, and hopefully for the better. So we’ll see. I’m planning on doing one a week; the next book I’ll cover is the Legends book Kenobi, by John Jackson Miller.

I’ve finally finished the Aftermath series and will be posting a review of Empire’s End sometime this week. It took me a long time to get through these books, even though I loved them. For one, they’re big books, at least for Star Wars, 400-500 pages each. And I’ve just been busy in every day life, too, as we all are. I’ve been trying to redo my daughter’s bedroom, and spent a day putting a bedside table together, lol. And I only made a couple of mistakes–the worst one was nailing the back onto it, and then realizing I put it on the wrong side…and then spending another hour pulling out all 20 tiny nails again. It was sweaty work, lol. And tomorrow I’ll be working on putting new curtains up. It’s an understatement to say that curtains aren’t my thing. Tacking up blankets was my usual go-to. But my girl deserves real curtains, and so curtains I shall put up, lol. Wish me luck.

At any rate, once I finished Aftermath, I picked up Clone Wars: Wild Space, by Karen Miller, a Legends book. This one focuses on a mission with Obi-Wan and Bail Organa, and I can’t wait to see what it’s all about. It takes place almost immediately after the Battle of Geonosis.

17) Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Wild Space by Karen Miller

I’ll also be posting my usual review on the latest Bad Batch episode. These shows continue to be excellent, and it’s hard to wait for the next episode every week! I’m also about halfway done with Season two of Resistance, and I have to say it’s pretty darn good. The stakes have gotten higher, it’s starting to sync with the first two movies, and the characters have been challenged more, and so have gained a bit more depth. I’m actually kind of sad there are only two seasons.

That’s really about it this week. I haven’t had much time for any non-Star Wars indulgences, as I’ve been trying to do. Believe it or not, there are other movies and entertainments besides Star Wars I enjoy, lol. And I think it’s important to find balance, and look up and away from the galaxy far, far away once in a while so I don’t get completely swallowed up, lol. And so my dreams don’t start looking like this:

r/PrequelMemes - My Friend: I had a dream I was dating my crush My dreams: — Ever have any weird Star Wars dreams? I’m surprised I haven’t yet, lol.

Oh well, maybe next week. I’d LOVE to watch Halston on Netflix (but does that count, as it has Ewan McGregor in it? Lol). What non-Star Wars stuff have you been watching? Let me know in the comments!

Star Wars: Minor Character Showcase–Beaumont Kin

Star Wars star Dominic Monaghan talks working with Taika Waititi in future films | Films | Entertainment | Express.co.uk — Dominic Monaghan as Beaumont Kin

One of the minor characters in The Rise of Skywalker that I noticed right away was Beaumont Kin, the Sith expert who commented on Palpatine’s return with the dread words, “Dark science. Cloning. Secrets only the Sith knew.”

This was, of course, Dominic Monaghan, who played the Hobbit Merry in The Lord of the Rings, and Charlie Pace in Lost, characters that I love. He’s instantly recognizable; and that usually means I can’t get into any new character an actor plays because I’m seeing their iconic roles instead.

But Beaumont Kin was a small enough role that I could get on board, and I wanted to know more about him. Most of what we know about him is from the comic Ghosts of Kashyyyk Parts 1-3. Kin takes part in a mission to free Kashyyyk from a First Order blockade (why does everyone pick on poor Kashyyyk? The Wookiee homeworld got stepped on during the Clone Wars, by the Empire, and by the First Order).

Anyway, we find out that Kin joined the Resistance after his parents told him he was “useless.” Before that, he was an historian, and was particularly interested in the early Republic era after the vanquishing of the Sith. He visited many ancient Jedi and Sith sites in his quest to learn more about them. This is how he was able to help Rey translate the ancient Jedi texts she’d taken from Ach-To.

He was fluent in nine languages, and was on track to become the youngest professor at Lerct Historical Institute. When Hosnian Prime was destroyed by the First Order he abandoned education and became a captain in the Intelligence Division of the Resistance.

Kin, as seen in The Rise of Skywalker, took part in the battle of Exegol in the ground assault on the Star Destroyer Steadfast.

Beaumont Kin, Star Wars Adventures — Ghosts of Kashyyyk, by John Barber.

Monaghan got the role of Beaumont Kin in a rather unorthodox way: he won a bet against J.J. Abrams on the FIFA World Cup. So Abrams wrote the part of Kin with Monaghan in mind.

I just love that Monaghan was in three of my favorite stories: LOTR, Star Wars, and Lost (I don’t care how it ended, I love it, lol).

A Star Wars Book Review Podcast: Bloodline

So here’s the podcast I’ve been yapping about lately. It’s short and sweet, basically just me reading off a tweaked hard copy of my review that I posted on The Star Wars Reader. I’m hoping to get better and a little more interesting as I go along, lol. Somehow.

What do you think? Any advice for a newbie podcaster? Be honest, I can take it, lol.

Star Wars The Bad Batch: Episode Two–Cut and Run

Welp, it looks like we’ve got another space dad on our hands, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

As soon as I knew the Bad Batch we’re going to visit Cut Lawquane, I had a feeling Hunter would try to leave Omega there. It’s the whole Mandalorian thing all over again, when Din Djarin wanted to leave Grogu with the pretty lady on the nice planet. The would-be father doesn’t believe he can–or should–take care of a child, so he wants to leave said child with another who has children. Problem is, the kid doesn’t want to leave, and in fact they and the child are meant to be together. Just as Din was the only person that could lead Grogu to his proper destiny, Hunter and his crew are the only ones who can lead Omega to her own special destiny. Both Din and Grogu are orphans; both the BB and Omega are modified clones. Makes sense for them to be together.

That’s the main idea of Episode Two, and I’m glad they got it out of the way early on. Other than that, it was fun to see Cut and his family again (I just loved how tender he was with Omega after the Nexu attack; I hope Hunter was taking notes, lol). Interesting that Rex had just been there, and that he, too, sought out the only clone deserter he knew. Clearly the BB will be running into Rex soon, and I can’t wait!

Initially I had questions about Cut and his chip and Order 66–if he ran into a Jedi, would he immediately want to kill them? But after reading a bit about it on some fan groups, it seems the answer is that Cut would need to hear the actual Order to initiate it, which he did not. So I guess any wayward Jedi is safe from him.

The idea of the chain codes was interesting. The only time I’d heard of it was in The Mandalorian, when Boba showed his chain code in his Mandalorian armor. I’m not sure if such a thing had ever been mentioned before, but I suppose it makes sense–kind of like a galactic social security number. The people of the galaxy–like the clones–are being reduced to a number, one that can be tracked. Sounds pretty Imperial to me.

I’m still wondering about Omega’s jewel piece–in the episode, during a sad moment on the ship, she takes the jewel off her head and doesn’t put it back on. I’m wondering if she’s simply missing the only home she’d ever known (although I loved her reaction to the planet’s dirt, lol) or if it’s something else. Burning questions!

The Bad Batch continue to endear themselves to me, and I’m looking forward to what’s going to happen next, where they’ll go, who they’ll meet, and what they find out about Omega and themselves on their journey.

My Star Wars Weekend Update

Hello and happy weekend everyone!

I hope you all had a fun Star Wars Day this past Tuesday, May the Fourth. I didn’t do anything Star Warsy in particular, except to watch the first episode of The Bad Batch, which I just loved. You can check out my review of the episode here. I just finished watching the second episode tonight, and I’ll be posting a review of that one probably on Monday. I’m really enjoying this new Star Wars content, as I suspected I would.

I also checked out the two Star Wars specials on Disney+ that dropped on the Fourth: Biomes, and Vehicle Flythroughs. Biomes is about 20 minutes long, and takes you on a tour of several Star Wars worlds, like Hoth, Tatooine, Crait, and Mustafar. It’s really cool, and I can picture just having it on in the background while working on some Star Wars project. Vehicle Flythroughs are two five-minute shorts that take you on a tour of the Millenium Falcon and a First Order Star Destroyer. Again, really neat and fun to get a close up look at these ships. Check them out if you have a few minutes.

I also (finally) finished Season One of Resistance. It got much more interesting during the last few episodes, and I’m hoping the second season will continue this. I don’t think I’ll do a review of each season; probably just a quick overview of both seasons when I’m done.

From the Star Wars Resistance animated series — Commander Pyre of the First Order

I’m planning on recording my first podcast this coming week, probably Tuesday when my daughter will be doing school (she’s still doing school remotely even though we had the choice to send her back to school–but we weren’t comfortable with that yet. Though on the bright side, both my husband and I have gotten our first Covid-19 shots, and will be getting our second ones in a couple of weeks). My husband will be working all day on Tuesday as well, so I’ll have a nice chunk of quiet time to figure the whole podcast thing out. It seems pretty intuitive and easy for a newbie to do; I think the hardest part will be accepting how my voice sounds on the recording, lol. I don’t think I have a terrible voice, I just think we all believe our voices sound weird on recordings, like the answering machine and voicemail, etc. But I’ll get over it, lol.

So I decided some time ago that for my fiftieth birthday this year (in June), my birthday present to myself will be a Star Wars tattoo. I’ve never gotten a tattoo before; it’s kind of a thing for the younger ones, I guess, but I never even gave it a thought until now. I wanted to do something wild and crazy, lol (for me, anyway). I want the big 5-0 to be something fun and to be celebrated, and not something to be dreaded.

You’d think my first tattoo would be my child’s name and date of birth, or my husband’s name and our wedding date, something like that. Nope. I decided to commit to my inner nerd and get the Jedi Order symbol, probably on my right shoulder.

I just love this symbol. Not only do I think it’s beautiful, but it’s the symbol of the Jedi Order, and I’m a Jedi girl all the way, lol. If I manage to get through the process without fainting, I might even add the Rebellion firebird symbol on my left shoulder. But we’ll see, lol. Of course I’ll post pictures when it happens.

Finally, for my non-Star Wars indulgence this week, I watched the movie Tolkien.

(Hyper venolates) EEEEEEEEEK!!! Omgomgomgomgomg! Yay!! I'm sososos watching this!!

My viewing of The Fellowship of the Ring last week in the theater reminded me that I had wanted to see this movie when it came out, but I had never gotten around to it. So I watched it last night, and it was wonderful. I don’t know how accurate it was, and I think I saw somewhere that the Tolkien family didn’t like it or approve of it (not sure why) but I thought it was great. An amazing man, an amazing life, and an amazing story. Tolkien influenced so many creators that followed him, including George Lucas, and for that I’m grateful, not only for Middle Earth but for a galaxy far, far away as well.

Star Wars The Bad Batch: Episode One-Aftermath

When Disney+ announced that a new Star Wars animated series would be based on the Bad Batch, or Clone Force 99, from Clone Wars, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Like a lot of other people, I wasn’t particularly crazy about them, though I didn’t hate them, either. I was more like, meh. I could take them or leave them.

But I also knew that, given the chance to expand on the characters in their own show, Dave Filoni and crew would do a great job and I’d probably love it.

Well, my intuition was correct, and I just loved the first episode, “Aftermath.” I’m not going to do a plot synopsis, but just make a few remarks about what I thought.

One big question that was answered was: will their inhibitor chips work? Will they feel compelled to execute Order 66 or question it? Turns out, none of them were aware of the Order at all, proving that they’re chips did not work. All except Crosshair. Though his teammates didn’t know it, it was clear to us viewers that his chip was working at least a little with his “Good soldiers follow orders,” bit. Crosshair is my least favorite of the group, so I’m okay with him being the bad guy here and going over to the Empire (though in his defense, it was the chip, after all, and one that got ramped up by Tarkin’s orders). But the fact that one of them had a chip that worked and the rest didn’t makes for a more interesting story.

As far as the characters go, Wrecker, Tech, and Echo remain pretty much the same as we saw them in Clone Wars. But Hunter–who seemed the least interesting character in CW–turns out to be the one who gets more depth. Makes sense, since he has to make some tough moral decisions in the show, and I approve of every one of them.

Concerning Omega: again, I wasn’t sure how I was going to react to her. When I saw the trailers, I thought, oh, okay, a kid to appeal to the younger audience; but what surprised me is that I absolutely fell in love with her, lol. She’s just so darn adorable and sweet, following the BB around like an adoring puppy. What’s really interesting about her–aside from the fact that she’s a female clone–is that she seems Force-sensitive. A lot of fans have been floating that theory around, and I have to agree, that’s what it looks like. If so, that would be fascinating. Is it chance? Or something more–we know that Palpatine likes to tinker with the Force and cloning, but how early did he start? Hmmm….and that stone on her headpiece–is it just decorative, or does it mean something? Questions…

Anyway, I love that Hunter goes back to Kamino for her. He couldn’t save one child, Caleb Dume (more on him in a minute), but he can save Omega. I was a little surprised that the BB didn’t know at once that she was a clone; except Tech, and as he said, “I thought it was obvious.” Obvious to us, I guess; but they weren’t expecting anything like her. By the way, I thought it was interesting the way the clones on Kamino all looked the same again after Order 66. There’s no individuality, something the Jedi encouraged in them; but now they have no use for it. It saddens me. They seem to be meaner, too, the bullies, lol. But I really am curious to know what becomes of them in this new order, how they adapt, both the BB and the “Regs.”

So let’s talk about the appearance of Depa Billaba and Caleb Dume at the start of the episode. They’re on the planet Kaller, fighting against the Separatists when Order 66 comes through. From what I understand, this scene was already done in Canon in a comic; here, some details were changed but the main idea is basically the same.

Was it necessary that it be this particular Jedi and her Padawan in this scene? I don’t think so. They could have put any other Jedi in there, and it could have worked fine. I’ve heard some fans of the comic complaining that they’re changing something that was already Canon, and what was the point? It’s just “fan service.”

On the one hand, I get it. It was unnecessary. It most certainly was fan service. On the other hand, am I upset about it? Not really. Aren’t the creators of the show doing their job with “fan service”? Showing something the fans love to see? I, for one, thought it was kind of cool to see Depa and Caleb (I haven’t read the comics, you see, and I’m betting plenty of other fans haven’t, either), even though we already know what happened to the Padawan who becomes Kanan Jarrus in Rebels. At any rate, I don’t feel strongly about it one way or another. It was neat (if heartbreaking). Let’s move on.

Everything about the episode is great, from the stunning visuals to the score to the fact that we can just jump right into the story without having to learn about who the characters are and where we are in the timeline, etc. It’s a great ride from beginning to end.

I’m really looking forward to seeing where this show is going to go, and from the track record of both Clone Wars and Rebels, I’m guessing it’s going to be spectacular.

What did you think of “Aftermath”? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Star Wars Fan Art: Mosaics

I found this fan art last week on Pinterest and thought they were wonderful. At first, I got a bit confused because the artist goes by several different names, but after a bit of digging, I do believe they are the same person.

The artist goes by Scadam or mandal0re on Reddit, and also Scadarts on @scadarts on Twitter. He’s an Australian artist who uses Photoshop to put Star Wars characters and images into classical art. He does a lot of different things (seriously, check him out) , but I just love the mosaic art.

Take a look:

Looks like Luke is holding one of the ancient Jedi texts.