My Star Wars Entertainment Update November 2025

Hello friends! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, if you celebrate that where you are. 🙂 A few things to get to, so here we go!

Warning: SPOILERS!!!

Visions Season 3. I’d really been looking forward to this edition of Visions, as I’d loved the first two, especially Season 2. And while this one offered some good, entertaining episodes, none of them really stood out to me and I didn’t absolutely love it like Season 2. I think, like Season 1, these were all Japanese anime studios, while Season 2 encompassed other anime studios from around the world, and I think I loved that kind of diversity. So there seemed to be a certain stylistic sameness here that didn’t resonate with me.

That being said, there were some good ones. The sequel to Season 1’s The Duel, with the Ronin (The Duel: Payback), was a favorite, as I love the style, and the character of the Ronin. (Someday, I’m going to read that Ronin novel!) The Bounty Hunters was great, with the droid with two personalities, lol. I think my favorite, though, was The Smuggler, with the exiled Prince and the secret Jedi with the lightsaber hidden in a prosthetic arm.

The other two sequels, The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope and The Lost Ones, were fine, but I feel like the Ninth Jedi one was holding back for the future series (although I did love that crazy ship, and the little droid who sacrified himself for Kara); F in The Lost Ones has to face her old master who has turned to the dark side, though it’s unclear how that came to be.

Yuko’s Treasure was kind of adorable with the big bear droid with a microwave belly, and the theme of found family is fitting for Star Wars. The last two episodes were my least favorite, though they were the most visually stunning. The Bird of Paradise was gorgeous, but the Padawan in question is unbearable, lol. I was left wondering how she got to be a Padawan in the first place with so many un-Jedi-like qualities–impatience, self-centeredness, self-pity, anger. I understand she had to work through these things to become more Jedi-like (and I’m not even sure if she survived or not by the end), but I had zero empathy for her. And Black is a psychedelic trip that is up for interpretation. Maybe it’s because I don’t do drugs, lol, but damn, it was just weird and alienating. My interpretation is that it’s a stormtrooper’s dying flashbacks to his life and the battles he’s fought. It’s an interesting premise, but I was glad when it was over, lol. Just not my thing.

I’m hoping that if we get a Season 4 we can get more of the anime studios from around the world, as I seemed to enjoy those most.

Master of Evil, by Adam Christopher. This book was much more satisfying than the last canon book (The Last Order). At first I thought, hmm, another Vader story? Do we need one? But I heard good things, and I’m happy to say that it was well worth the read.

The book takes place mere days or weeks after events of The Revenge of the Sith. The Empire is new, and Vader himself is new, so to speak. Sidious has not been forthcoming in his promise to teach Vader the secrets of the Sith and how to conquer death (although, technically, Palpatine promised the power to “prevent” others from dying, not bring them back from death, right?) Anyway, Vader is still obsessed with bringing Padme back into his life, and if Sidious won’t help him, he’ll figure it out himself. Sidious sends him on a mission to Diso, a distant planet, to investigate a Force shaman and the rumor of a Temple which holds a Force vergence.

Instead of being completely from Vader’s point of view (there’s a handful of short chapters from him, though), the main point of view is from Colonel Halland Goth, a member of the Imperial Royal Guard. He’s proud to serve, but the problem is, he’s dying. He’s got Kangly’s disease, which makes him feel like he’s burning up from the inside out, and will eventually kill him. He’s got his own personal droid, TC-99, who not only helps him with his medical needs, but is a good friend. Goth is tasked by the ISB to keep an eye on Vader, who no one really knows anything about yet, and he accompanies Vader to Diso. While on the mission, Goth figures out that Vader is probably Anakin Skywalker. As a good Imperial soldier, Goth swallows the propaganda that the Jedi were traitors and is glad to be rid of them, but he’s fascinated with Vader: he realizes the suit he wears is keeping him alive. He gets the crazy idea that Vader, and that kind of technology, might help him survive. He wants to live, and he wants to serve.

The Temple in question turns out to be on a Separatist ship stuck in hyperspace somewhere (it’s a long story involving Count Dooku, lol), and that’s where the climax of the story happens. The vergence in the Force emanating from the Temple causes Vader to have some interesting visions; the shaman’s wife and daughter have gotten involved, and want revenge on Vader; there’s a couple of droid scientists from a former Techno Union Corporation on board who want to utilize the brain of a super-tactical droid running ship; and Goth is near death, just trying to keep everybody alive, while realizing he himself won’t be getting any miracle cure from Vader. He understands that it’s not just the suit that’s keeping Vader alive, but the Force itself. And he realizes that the Empire he’s so loyal to is not exactly what he thought it was.

Goth is a likable Imperial protagonist, and his friendship with TC-99 is touching. The theme of “masks” runs throughout the story: TC-99 has data matrices from many other droids he can insert into his chest plate to learn whatever specialty he needs to, but sometimes the personality of the droid is very strong and takes him over, as if he’s a completely different droid. The natives of Diso wear masks in their Force rituals; Jarvic, one of the droid scientists, has a wrap-around cyborg implant in his head (like Lobot) and the tactical droid ends up plugging into it and taking him over; the evil entity from the Temple (the dark side itself) temporarily takes over the shaman’s wife; Goth himself wears the red mask of the Royal Imperial Guard, but is he loyal to the Emperor, Vader, the ISB, or himself and TC-99? It shifts throughout the narrative. And of course, there’s Vader himself and his iconic mask, representing the split between himself and Anakin Skywalker, who he battles in one of his visions.

I loved this book, and though maybe we didn’t “need” another Vader story, I’m glad we got this one.

Comics:

Han Solo: Hunt for the Falcon #3. Han and Chewie continue to search for the Falcon, as the Irving Boys point them in the direction of Unkar Plutt. There’s another flashback to Han’s past, with young Ben wanting to spend time with his dad, tinkering with a landspeeder, and Leia scolding him for not finishing his studies. Han and Leia then argue about the whole thing. (I feel like Leia is being a bit unreasonable here; geez, let the kid spend some time with his dad, lol). Han and Chewie end up arguing, as Han discovers that Chewie has been speaking with Leia without telling him. Anyway, Ducain gets back into the picture and decides to warn Plutt about Han and Chewie coming to look for the ship. There’s only one issue left, and I’m eager to see how this concludes, as we already know they don’t get the ship back until The Force Awakens.

Legacy of Vader #10. Kylo, back on Mustafar with Vanee, goes into Vader’s meditation chamber to see if he can find Luke Skywalker. The man is dead, and Kylo is still obsessed, lol. At first he sees weird snake-like creatures with the heads of his family, and he spends time cutting them down. Then, he finds himself somewhere that looks like Force Heaven or something, and a Force ghost tells him he shouldn’t be there. But Luke’s Force ghost comes over and chats with Kylo. Kylo wants to know how he died, who killed him and how much he suffered. But Luke tells him no one killed him. He sacrificed himself for those he loved. That’s what his life was for. “What’s your life for?” he asks Kylo. And of course, this enrages him. “Stop trying to teach me!” he yells at him. Luke points out that he shouldn’t have been able to access this place, and Kylo should think about how he did. (There’s still Light in him, if you haven’t figured it out, lol). Then Kylo is punished by some darkside creature for (unconsciously) accessing the Light to go there, and he comes out of the meditation chamber terribly wounded. I really liked this issue and his conversation with Luke, but as we know Kylo doesn’t really learn anything from it.

Non-Star Wars pick of the month:

Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo del Toro. Frankenstein has always been a favorite of mine, meaning the book and any movie adaptations that come along. I loved the Kenneth Branagh adaptation from 1994, and I think it’s still my favorite, but this one is a close second, although it’s very different in style and tone. Director Guillermo del Toro has a very distinct style and that comes through in this film very clearly. The subject matter is naturally gruesome, but it’s brought to a level of grotesqueness that’s more creepy than bloody (though there’s plenty of that, too, lol). There’s always a ton of stuff you can break down in this story, but I’ll just briefly touch on my thoughts here, since I think we’re all familiar with the basic storyline.

As you may know, I’m a fan of Oscar Isaac, and he did a fine job as the obsessed Victor Frankenstein. To be honest, I thought Mia Goth’s character as Elizabeth was just weird. In this version, Elizabeth is Victor’s brother William’s fiance, instead of Victor’s eventual bride, but there’s a sexual tension between her and Victor. I like that she has compassion for the Creature, but there’s something weird about it. She’s just weird, lol. Maybe it’s the actress, I don’t know, I haven’t seen her in anything else (I hope I like her better in the upcoming Star Wars film Starfighter). We’ll see.

Speaking of the Creature, I think Jacob Elordi does a fantastic job with him. I always love the Creature in any version, and this one was especially child-like and sweet (until he’s not, of course, lol). My sentimental mother’s heart always breaks for this child that is rejected by its parent; in other versions, it was fear that caused Victor to reject him, but here it’s more disappointment. He doesn’t learn to speak properly right away, and Victor, aghast that his creation is so dumb, is pretty damn mean to him and it’s clear that once again, Victor is the true monster here. Of course, it mirrors Victor’s father’s disappointment in him, a cycle that he doesn’t even realize he’s repeating.

I do like that the two forgive each other at the end, which does not happen in the book (not really), but instead of them both dying, the Creature in this version cannot die and must live alone forever in the Arctic wastes, which is the saddest thing I can think of.

So, an interesting and unique interpretation of an eternally fascinating story; not perfect, kind of weird, but definitely entertaining.

That’s it this month. What’s been entertaining you lately? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Entertainment Update for March 2024

Hello friends! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying whatever it is that entertains you. Quite a bit to get to this month, so here we go:

Defy the Storm, by Justina Ireland and Tessa Gratton. This is the YA novel of the first wave of Phase 3 High Republic books, and centers around the characters from Phase 1’s Out of the Shadows: Vernestrah Rwoh, Avon Starros, Sylvestri Yarrow, Jordanna Sparkburn, and Xylan Graf. On my reread of that book, I really came to love these characters, so I’m happy to get back to them and see how they’ve fared since the Stormwall went up.

I’m not done with the book yet, so I’ll have more to say next month, but I’m enjoying it so far. Avon Starros is the daughter of Ghirra Starros, the ambitious Senator who has aligned herself with Marchion Ro, and Avon is none too happy with that. She strikes out on her own (with the help of Deva Lompop, a Nihil who has come to be Avon’s protector) to find vengeance against Dr. Mkampa, a Nihil scientist who stole her work to create the Stormwall, and to try to destroy the Stormwall itself. She seeks out Venestra, who has been on Sabbatical, of sorts, since the fall of Starlight Beacon. Vern believes her Padawan, Imri Cantaros, died on Starlight, but Avon knows he’s alive and wants to reunite Vern with him (and also get her help without letting her know about her plan of vengeance).

Jordanna and Sylvestri have been doing jobs for Maz Kanata and helping the Republic in any way they can against the Nihil, but Jordanna wants to do more, and find her brother and his family on the other side of the Stormwall; while Syl is still struggling with the death of her mother, Chancey Yarrow, and the part she played in the fall of Starlight.

They get mixed up with Xylan Graf, who is “working” for the Nihil in a guest/hostage sort of situation on the Lightning Crash, which is where the technology for the Stormwall originates. I can’t decide how I feel about Xylan; he’s both interesting, if flamboyant, and exceedingly annoying. But I can never quite figure out what he’s got up his sleeve, and where his allegiances lie, so he keeps me guessing. There’s a lot of backstory that I’m guessing went on in some comics, which always irritates me since I don’t read the comics, but it’s not that hard to catch up. I’ll give my final thoughts on the book next month.

From A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back. While I was waiting for Defy the Storm to come out, I kept busy with this book’s short stories. All the FACPOV books are by various authors and tell a story from that movie from the point of view of a minor character. I never finished the one for A New Hope; most just didn’t grab me that much. This one turned out much more interesting, and there are some good stories in there, although I’ve only read the first 6 or 7 tales, and we still haven’t gotten off of Hoth, lol. I think it’s a book I’ll read in between other books while I wait for them to come out. The Return of the Jedi version recently came out, and I really think that one will be good, too, but I’m going to wait for it to come out in softcover so my copies will be consistent.

Dark Disciple reread. So I debated re-reading this one ever since we found out Asajj Ventress will be making an appearance in The Bad Batch, and finally decided to dive into it again (the day before her appearance in Ep 9 The Harbinger, so last minute). But it really is a fantastic book, and I’ve put down Defy the Storm a few times to read large chunks of this one at a time. It’s one of the first few canon books I read when I started on this journey and remains one of my favorites. It tells of how the Jedi Council decides to assassinate Count Dooku to end the war and chooses Quinlan Vos to do the job–and that he should connect with Ventress for help. This opens up a whole can of worms, as Vos and Ventress fall in love, Vos falls to the dark side, and the Jedi continue down a questionable path. Spoiler alert: Ventress dies at the end of the novel, protecting Vos from Dooku’s Force-lightning. She sacrifices herself to save the man she loves. But, lo and behold! she’s not dead, apparently, as she makes her appearance in the Bad Batch.

TBB showrunners promise that her appearance does not contradict the events of Dark Disciple. As Ventress was “buried” on Dathomir in the same manner as her Nightsister family–from which they can be “resurrected” through Nightsister magic–I don’t have a problem with this, but it will be good to get some details about it when the time comes. Of course, the Fandumb Menace are up in arms about this, a la “Death doesn’t mean anything in Star Wars anymore!…blah blah blah.” Look, it’s overused, I get it, but in this case, it’s totally plausible. Witches, you know. Anyway, I’m happy to see her back.

One of the awesome posters for Season 3. This one of Crosshair with his helmet is my favorite.

The Bad Batch Season 3 so far. I’ve been loving the new season so far and have managed to post my thoughts on the first five episodes. I had a plan to post every week with my thoughts on each new episode, but you know, life, lol. At some point I will do a catch-up post. As it is, I think this season so far is fantastic, and I’m loving the little moments between Crosshair and Omega, especially, and just how he’s trying to adjust being back in the squad. I’m curious to see how this whole M-count thing with Omega turns out, how they’ll find Tantiss, who will help, and who the latest clone assassin is (so many theories! And honestly, it could be no one special, like the infamous Marrock, but I highly doubt it). And I just know Pabu is going to be attacked by the Empire (there are clues in the trailer), and I’m sick about it. 😦

Anyway, it’s agony waiting an entire week for 28 minutes of story, but I’m not one who can wait for them all to drop and then binge. It’s hard to believe we’re halfway through the season already and I have a feeling that things are going to ramp up big time after a foundation of quieter moments. So I’m getting ready for a wild ride, and I’m here for it!

Dune Parts 1&2. So I had every intention of going to see Dune Part One in theaters when it came out, but I just didn’t get there and then it fell off my radar. When Part Two came out, I was determined to see it on the big screen, so I rented Part One on Youtube to catch up, and boy, I’m glad I did.

Ever since I heard of Dune, I’ve wanted to love it, to know it, to understand it. I tried to read it many years ago, but for some reason, I had no idea what the hell was going on and couldn’t get into it. Then the 1984 film came out, and I thought, here we go, this will make it easier! Well, no, not really. It was pretty bad, lol, and I just didn’t “get it.” But a stubborn part of me held onto hope that someday, the light switch will go on. I think it was because I knew that Star Wars takes a lot of cues from it, borrows from it, while certainly being completely different from it.

Back in the day, I used to think Star Wars was “science fiction” because, you know, space, so I looked for more of the same in things like Dune and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books. I was sorely disappointed in them, because where were the space battles? Where was the swashbuckling? Why were they so damn philosophical and heavy and, well, boring? Lol. When I finally figured out that Star Wars was space fantasy, things clicked, and I found other books and films that gave me that same sense of wonder. Science fiction, not so much (I do enjoy a good sc-fi book or film these days, though). It’s a different animal. But Dune? I wanted to love it and get it.

And, thanks to director Denis Villeneuve, and the absolutely amazing cast of these movies, I can safely say that, finally, yes, I get it! Maybe not all of it, but I’m totally enthralled and impressed and just blown away by how good this story, and these films, are. It’s complex and weird and visually stunning, and Paul Atreides’ hero’s journey from boy to man, from young nobleman to messiah, is captivating. At the end of Part Two, it seemed that it was going to be a trilogy, but I’ve heard a Part Three hasn’t been greenlit yet. Seems to me, though, it’s inevitable, and I’ll be in the theater with my popcorn, excited to see where this all goes.

The Acolyte trailer and release date. We’ve finally gotten a trailer and release date for The Acolyte, and I’m hyped! The trailer looks awesome, and the show will premiere on June 4th. Ever since its announcement, I’ve been intrigued by the premise of this show, which has been described as a kind of dark side whodunnit thriller. Yaaass! And as a High Republic fan, I couldn’t be happier to see it come to life in live-action, even though it’s the tail-end of that era. Basically, the High Republic is the Golden Age of the Jedi and the Republic (about 200-400 years before the events of The Phantom Menace), but here, about 100 years before that film, it’s the beginning of the end. As it states, a darkness is rising.

It’s hard to say off of the trailer alone, but evidently someone is killing Jedi, and the answers surrounding this mystery are not going to be good. The presence of a red lightsaber suggests the Sith are stirring after a thousand years of the Jedi believing they are exctinct. Which of course we know, they are not. I believe the Jedi’s experiences with the Nihil a few hundred years before have changed the Jedi and weakened them in a fundamental way, and the Sith are going to take advantage of that and plan their eventual return, which we see in the Prequels.

Anyway, totally excited for this one, despite the exhausting comments about “wokeness” from the afore-mentioned Fandumb Menace. What a complete and utter bore they are. I think it’s a sign I need to get off social media for a while and take a break from the toxic trolls, lol.

What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Entertainment Update for November

Hello friends! As I was busy in November doing my NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) Challenge, I waited until the end of the month to post my Entertainment Update, instead of mid-month. There’s a few things to talk about, so I’ll be as brief and to the point as possible.

Crimson Climb, by E.K. Johnston. At the beginning of the movie Solo, a young Han Solo attempts to escape the White Worm gang on Corellia with Qi’ra. He succeeds; she doesn’t. She gets dragged back to the White Worm lair and faces the consequences. This book covers the first year after her failed escape attempt: Lady Proxima punishes her and sells her to a violent criminal; she’s then plucked from him by an associate of Dryden Vos, and becomes a member of Crimson Dawn. The book tells of her rise in that criminal organization to Vos’ lieutenant, the Qi’ra we see later in Solo when Han meets up with her again. I enjoyed the book, though it wasn’t a page-turner for me. I get the feeling we’re going to get a Qi’ra trilogy from Johnston, in the same way we got a Padme trilogy from her. I do like this idea. I wouldn’t say I like Qi’ra; she’s done some pretty bad stuff. But I do admire her smarts and her drive to survive. I was going to do a post on other Qi’ra-related content (comics and books, etc) but got side-tracked by the Chat Pack, so maybe I’ll do that next.

The Eye of Darkness, by George Mann. The long-awaited first book of Phase 3 of the High Republic released this month, and I tore through it pretty quickly. After a detour into the past with Phase 2, we now go back to the Phase 1 characters we know and love: Avar Kriss, Elzar Mann, Bell Zettifar and Burryaga. I was particularly happy to see Avar Kriss as a main protagonist; after meeting and really liking the character in Light of the Jedi, the first High Republic novel, she then retreated mostly to the comics for the rest of the saga so far. I loved seeing her in action again in a novel. Another character I haven’t seen in a novel since LOTJ and whose been in the comics is Porter Engle, who is also one of the main characters here. Both he and Avar are trapped behind the Stormwall, an impenetrable barrier put up by Marchion Ro, leader of the Nihil. Ro has claimed a large portion of the galaxy, calling it the Occlusion Zone, and the people who live within it are at his mercy. Boiling it down, Avar and Porter are trying to find a way out, while Elzar Mann, and Bell and Burryaga, are trying to find a way in, but of course it’s much more than that. This book really deserves its own post, because it’s fantastic and I loved every minute of it.

Star Wars Myths and Fables, by George Mann. I downloaded this to my Kindle because I needed something to read there, and it was free through Prime, lol. And I’d just read George Mann’s High Republic novel and loved it, so why not read him again? This was very different from that, of course, as it’s set up as a telling of, well, myths and fables. These stories are straight exposition, as if told around a campfire or as a bedtime story. They’re fairly entertaining, and Mann does a good job here, but not my favorite type of story. Just something to read between the major Star Wars reads. I love the cover and wouldn’t mind having the hardcover on my shelf, though.

Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler. This is a dystopian novel published in 1993, but remains relevant and frighteningly prescient, considering the events of the book take place in 2024-2027. Lauren Olamina is a precocious 15 year old who lives with her family in a walled community in the suburbs of Los Angeles. It’s walled to keep out the thieves, beggars, homeless, drug addicts, and other desperate people who are willing to kill to survive. It’s not easy living within the walls, but it’s a death sentence outside them. Society has broken down to a point where there aren’t many jobs that pay decent money, or money at all, for that matter; some work for food and board. Some flee to corporate-owned towns and cities and basically become slaves to the corporations. Lauren’s father is a preacher, and teaches at the local college (who he’s teaching, I have no idea; illiteracy is running rampant), though it’s precarious travelling to and from work. One day he just doesn’t come home. That’s after her 14 year old brother runs away and decides to try to make it outside the walls; he’s found dead later, horribly mutilated. The police and fire fighters charge fees for their services, which most people can’t afford. Their community is destroyed by “pyro” addicts, who smash through the gate and set fire to the houses, killing people and stealing their things. Lauren, whose remaining family is killed, is set on her journey north on foot, with a few survivors, to try to find a new, safer life. She’s been preparing for this, and has ideas about a new way of living, a kind of new religion called Earthseed, in which “God is Change.” Life on the road is dangerous and heartbreaking, but she meets people willing to join the group and protect each other. I found this book engrossing and terrifying, mostly because it has elements that we already see in our society, but on a larger scale. I can totally see it happening if we’re not careful, if we don’t pay attention and take action. Anyway, there’s a sequel called Parable of the Talents, which I want to read, but I don’t know how much more human suffering and tragedy I can take right now, lol.

Loki Season 2. I’m going to be honest and say I didn’t enjoy this season as much as I did Season One. I started out with “I’m so happy to see these characters again!” to “I have no idea what’s going on” to “This is okay but not great” to “All right, this is pretty good” to “I have no idea what’s going on” again, to “This is really good but now I’m sad.” In other words, it was uneven for me. However, I loved the character arc that Loki went on during the entirety of Seasons One and Two. He’s come full circle, from his arrogant proclamation of “I am burdened with glorious purpose,” to his acceptance of the actual burden of his glorious purpose. In finding that purpose, he had to understand himself, find his heart, make some friends, and realize he needed to give up the people he loved in order to save them. To see him transform like that was very satisfying; I love a good redemption arc. But I was kind of hoping he was going to lead the TVA, not have to sit on that throne all by himself for eternity. But he’s doing what gods do, I guess. Or what they’re supposed to do. At any rate, I have mixed emotions: I’m glad he’s found his glorious purpose, but I’m sad by how lonely it must be. Will this be the last we see of Loki? It seems that way, but I wouldn’t count on it. I also watched Assembled: The Making of Loki S2, which I always enjoy watching.

Snowpiercer. I’ve had this in my Amazon Prime queue for a while now, and decided to finally watch it at the beginning of the month. The premise is this: the world has frozen solid from some last-ditch experiment of launching something into the sky that presumably would “fix” climate change. Instead, it turned the world to ice. The last fragments of humanity are travelling around this ice globe on a train that never stops, circling the world on an endless track for years and years. The problem is, the train is divided into the haves and have-nots. At the front of the train are the haves, I’m guessing the people who originally paid for a spot on the train at the beginning; while the end of the train is for the have-nots, who I’m guessing were desperate people who fought their way onto the train when things went south (or should I say north?). These poor souls are locked in the back cars, cramped and nearly starving, at the mercy of the will of the creator of the train, Wilford. Chris Evans is great as Curtis, who decides to lead a rebellion and bust his way through the train cars to the very front, where Wilford, and the engine, are. It’s quite a journey, and very violent, which I suppose makes sense. Interesting premise, and entertaining.

Whew! It seems like a lot, but I’ve been reading and watching these things since mid-October. What’s been entertaining you lately? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Latest Entertainment Update

Hello, friends! I haven’t posted for a while, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading and viewing. There’s a lot here, so I’m going to be brief. Here’s the latest:

Rebel Force: Trapped (Book 5), by Alex Wheeler. I’ve been enjoying this junior novel series, and I think Trapped is my favorite. It deals with X-7 trying to figure out who he used to be before he was brainwashed to become an Imperial assassin. We never find out who he really was, which is a disappointment, but over all this one was good.

Star Wars Rebel Force: Uprising (Book 6), by Alex Wheeler. This is the final book in the Rebel Force series, bringing the story to a fairly satisfying conclusion. Luke is drawn to a cold desert moon by the Imperial who brainwashed X-7 (under a project that is called Project Omega, btw). Luke is caught, of course, and begins to undergo the same sort of brainwashing X-7 did (in other words, torture), but because he has the Force or something, it didn’t quite work. His friends hatch a plan to rescue him, and it works, but we lose Ferus Olin and Lune Divinian, which made me sad.

The Last of the Jedi Book One: The Desperate Mission, by Jude Watson. After reading the Rebel Force series, I wanted to learn more about Ferus Olin, Lune Divinian, and Trever Flume, characters that I first met in that series; turns out these characters are also in The Last of the Jedi series, by Jude Watson, which takes place twenty years beforehand. I also get the feeling Ferus is also in the Jedi Quest series that comes before that series, so the character has a long history in Legends. This first book has us meet him as a young man, who has been taken prisoner by the Imperials on the planet Bellarasus for leading a rebel group called The Eleven. Obi-Wan Kenobi gets wind of this, and decides he must go help Ferus, who he remembers as a feisty young Padawan who left the Order. A young Boba Fett makes an appearance here, hired by the Imperials to find Obi-Wan and Ferus.

The Six, by Anni Taylor. Off and on, I’m part of a book club that includes me, my sister, her husband, and their daughter. We decided to start back up again, and picked this book to read. It’s a thriller, and a fairly gruesome one, at that. Evie, who has a gambling problem and has racked up a ton of debt, is desperate and agrees to go to a monastery on a Greek island for a chance to compete in six challenges, the winner of which will win money–enough to pay off her debt. But she can’t tell her husband or two small children where she’s going, and Evie has no idea that what she’s signed up for is a game of horror. Not my usual fare, but it did draw me into its mystery, and had plenty of surprising twists at the end.

Disney Gallery: Mandalorian S3. I’m going to say it: Season 3 of Mando is not my favorite. I really liked the dynamic and relationship between Din and Grogu in the first two seasons, and maybe I wanted more of that. But the first two seasons obviously were building up to something more, something broader than just these two characters. Mainly, the Mandalorians, and Bo-Katan’s role in uniting them to retake Mandalore. Fine. But I’ve only watched it once through, and haven’t had any desire to rewatch, which is a big indicator of how much I love a show. At any rate, it’s still interesting to watch these making-of specials, and they never fail to make me appreciate the story more. After watching this one, I thought, eh, it wasn’t so bad.

Emily. I’ve seen plenty of movies about the Bronte sisters, or about Charlotte alone, but I’ve never seen one about Emily specifically, and this one was pretty entertaining. Since we can’t possibly know everything about her personal life, there’s quite a bit of creative license taken here, but it’s not completely outside the bounds of belief. Things like Emily partaking in opium with her beloved brother Branwell; and more particularly, having an affair with the local curate, William. These things are suggested as having an influence on Emily’s outlook and personality, and how she came to write such a strange, passionate tale like Wuthering Heights. Emily has always been characterized as the “strange” Bronte sister, content to spend time alone and not go out into the world; but still, how could a “proper” Victorian lady, the daughter of a clergyman, sheltered and shy, write such a thing? By taking drugs and falling in love and having sex, of course! Oh, and getting a tattoo on her arm that says, “Freedom of Thought.” Who knows? Maybe it’s true, but at any rate, I enjoyed the movie.

That’s what I’ve been up to lately, in between writing some fan fiction, which I’m having a blast with. Feels good to get the pen moving and making characters speak again.

What have you been up to, Star Wars or otherwise? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Thoughts On The Movie 65

So I finally got around to watching the movie 65, starring Adam Driver. My impression about this movie was that it was about this guy from Earth that was on a spaceship, something went terribly wrong, and he ended up going back in time 65 million years and ended up back on Earth with dinosaurs.

Nope.

What it’s actually about is this: it takes place 65 million years ago, and is about a guy from another planetary system who is on a spaceship, something goes terribly wrong, and crash lands on Earth, which is only at the dinosaur phase in its development.

Ohhhh. Interesting.

Captain Mills is a pilot who is transporting a group of cryogenically frozen people from one place to another. He’s taken on the job, even though he’ll be gone for at least two years, because his family needs the money to help pay for his daughter’s medical care, who has a serious disease.

While on the trip, the ship is hit by an unexpected meteor shower, and it crash lands, killing everyone on board except Mills. And, as he comes to find out a bit later, a young girl named Koa, who speaks a different language than him. The two must navigate this strange land that is dense with foliage, dangerous lizard-like life forms, and geothermal explosions, in order to reach an intact escape pod fifteen kilometers away (for some reason, this alien culture uses the metric system, lol).

The survivors must learn to communicate, trust each other, and help each other as they’re attacked by an assortment of dinosaurs that want to eat them. To make matters worse, Mills uses his technology to find out that a big meteor is heading toward the planet. Yeah, THAT one, the one that wipes out the dinosaurs, and its impact is imminent.

Mills also has to deal with multiple injuries, the fact that Koa reminds him of his daughter (who had died while he was on the trip), and that he lied to Koa and made her understand that her parents were on the mountain they’re heading to, to get her to go, while he knows that they’re dead.

So this movie is your classic “throw in every possible obstacle to the goal, make it worse, and add a ticking clock, as well psychological and emotional trauma” story. Oh, and dinosaurs!

It was actually pretty enjoyable, a great popcorn movie that did have me on the edge of my seat. At only an hour and a half, it was just the right amount of time for the nonstop intensity. And as always, Adam Driver gives his all in whatever his role requires.

I recommend it if you’re looking for something that’s pure entertainment, but something a little more interesting than your usual Jurassic Park dinosaur/human matchup.

Have you seen this movie? What did you think? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!