A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Image by Lubos Houska, Pixabay Hello again and welcome to another installment of Bloggin' On, an occasional feature here in A Certain Point of View where I'll just prattle on about stuff that doesn't fall into the established categories of my blog (namely, reviews, political commentary, or updates about my literary or film projects). It's Friday, October 25, 2019, and it's a typically warm and muggy "fall" morning here in my corner of Florida. Currently, the temperature outside is 82℉ (28℃) under partly sunny skies. The humidity level is 85%, giving us an "endless summer" feels-like temperature of 91℉ (33℃). I' should try to get out and get fresh air and sunlight, but I'm not fond of humid heat, so I'll just stay indoors in the cool confines of my current domicile. So, what am I reading this month, you ask? Take a seat, relax, and enjoy your favorite beverage while I share my October reading list. Okay, so recently I finis...

Cover art by Two Dots Studio. © 2019 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  On July 23, 2019, Random House's Del Rey Books imprint published Timothy Zahn's Star Wars: Thrawn: Treason, the third volume of a three-book cycle featuring the Galactic Empire's most talented military figure: Grand Admiral Thrawn. Set shortly before the fourth and final season of Star Wars Rebels, the television series that officially placed Thrawn in the Star Wars canon, Thrawn: Treason pits its titular protagonist, not against the ever-growing threat from the budding Rebel Alliance but against foes from within and without the Empire itself. Grand Admiral Thrawn faces the ultimate test of his loyalty to the Empire in this epic Star Wars novel from bestselling author Timothy Zahn. "If I were to serve the Empire, you would command my allegiance." Such was the promise Grand Admiral Thrawn made to Emperor Palpatine at their first meeting. Since then, Thrawn has been one of the ...

Could Mara Jade Skywalker be incorporated into a canon Star Wars TV series or a movie? Yes, but it probably would not be done in a way that fans of the old Expanded Universe would like. As originally written in the 1990s and early 2000s, the iconic Emperor’s Hand who becomes an ally (and more) to Luke Skywalker would not be a good fit for the current canon. Why? For starters, the ship for making Mara Jade, aka Mara Jade Skywalker, into a canon character (i.e., a major supporting character in an official Lucasfilm Ltd. production) sailed a long time ago in a production company that operates in a land not very far away (California). Mara Jade is a character whose most important story arc occurs in the 1991–93  Thrawn Trilogy  ( Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising,  and  The Last Command ). She was created by Timothy Zahn, a Hugo Award-winning author whose  Star Wars  novels stand out like diamonds in a sea of zirconias in the muddled mess that i...

™ Lucasfilm Ltd. On Quora, Jason Lowman asks: Is there such a thing as Grey Jedi? Grey Jedi exist only in the minds of  Star Wars  fans who are enthralled with the idea that a Jedi Knight can use both the dark and light side of the Force without suffering the fate of Darth Vader or Assajj Ventress. Other Quora members, such as Mike Prinke and Eric Lowe, have written extensively on the topic of the  non-existence  of Grey Jedi. They’ve pointed out the same facts about the “Grey Jedi” mythos, which are: There’s no mention of “Grey Jedi” anywhere in the official  Star Wars  canon, especially in the material that most counts: the eight (soon to be nine) Skywalker Saga films, the three existing Lucasfilm Animation TV series, or any of the canonical novels, comic books, or post-2014 Lucasfilm-licensed video games None of the maverick Jedi characters seen or mentioned in the aforementioned canon are Grey Jedi. Not Qui-Gon Jinn. Not Ahso...

The current edition of Heir to the Empire, which was originally published in 1991 by Bantam Spectra. Cover art by Tom Jung. © 1991, 2014 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  On Quora, Matt Swanson asks: Why do you think Lucasfilm decided not to adapt Timothy Zahn's Trilogy into movies? My response: There are  several  reasons why Lucasfilm never had any intention of adapting  Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising,  and  The Last Command  from novels to movies. The main reason, and the only one that truly matters, is that George Lucas clearly did not want to do so. In the late 1980s, which is when Lucasfilm Licensing was given his go-ahead to revive the moribund  Star Wars  franchise after being in a post- Return of the Jedi  coma, the creator of the saga was emerging from his post-divorce funk and thinking about making the long-awaited Prequel Trilogy. From  his  perspective, allowing Lucasfilm Licensing to hire a diverse gro...

What is the reason Disney got rid of so much good Star Wars content by making the Expanded Universe legends? There are several reasons why Lucasfilm ( not  Disney) decided to “get rid of” much of the Expanded Universe. First, if Lucasfilm was going to make new films, it needed to have full creative license to do so without being beholden to stories that other writers had written between 1978 and 2014. This includes the Marvel Comics issues that  were not  adaptations of the Original Trilogy movies, Alan Dean Foster’s  Splinter of the Mind’s Eye,  the Brian Daley  Han Solo  trilogy, and the various novels and comics published by Bantam Spectra, Dark Horse Comics, Bantam Skylark, Del Rey Books, and other licensees. No self-respecting screenwriter or film director, much less the Lucasfilm Story Group, would have wanted to wade through a thicket of superficially connected but wildly uneven stories. Second, I hate to break it to you, but  n...

Cover art by Two Dots. (C) 2018 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  On July 24, Penguin Random House’s science fiction imprint Del Rey Books published Star Wars: Thrawn: Alliances, the second canonical novel by Timothy Zahn that features the Hugo Award-winning author’s most famous character, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Set between Seasons Three and Four of Star Wars Rebels, Thrawn: Alliances is a sequel to 2017’s Star Wars: Thrawn, Zahn’s origins-of story that is partially based on details from the original Expanded Universe/Legends version of how an exiled Chiss military genius joined Emperor Palpatine’s New Order but was tweaked to consider the character’s canonical introduction as a Grand Admiral before the Battle of Yavin. As the book’s title and cover art by the Paris-based studio Two Dots suggest, Thrawn: Alliances is a story that is many a Star Wars reader’s dream-come-true: the joining of forces between Emperor Palpatine’s most powerful servants, Grand Admiral ...

(C) 1995 Bantam Spectra and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  "Mos Eisley Spaceport," says Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker as they stand on a mesa overlooking the Tatooine metropolis in a transition scene in Episode IV. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be careful." Of all the many eye-catching and memorable sequences in Star Wars (aka Episode IV: A New Hope ), the fateful meeting between Luke Skywalker, Ben Kenobi, and a pair of smugglers with a starship for hire is perhaps the most intriguing. It's not only important dramatically or even as far as the change in the film's pacing goes (from this point on, there will be chases, shootouts, rescues, and battles), it's also visually intriguing. The dim lighting, the tense atmosphere, all those aliens, and, of course, that funky cantina band playing Benny Goodman-like tunes. Of course, in the film, the focus was on Kenobi, Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca as they ne...

Cover art by Two Dots. Cover Design by Scott Biel. (C) 2018 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Star Wars book fans, rejoice. Timothy Zahn is back with a new canonical novel set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," a novel that features Emperor Palpatine's most feared servants: Lord Darth Vader and Grand Admiral Thrawn. On Tuesday, July 24, Random House's science fiction/fantasy imprint Del Rey Books published the U.S. edition of Star Wars: Thrawn: Alliances, the sequel to Zahn's New York Times bestselling novel from last year, Star Wars: Thrawn, which reintroduced a long-time fan favorite character from the former Expanded Universe and placed him in the "official" timeline to coincide with Thrawn's appearance as the main antagonist in Season Three of the  Star Wars Rebels animated series .  “I have sensed a disturbance in the Force.” Ominous words under any circumstances, but all the more so when uttered by Emperor Palpatine. ...

Cover art by Two Dots. (C) 2017 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On April 11, 2017, Del Rey Books, an imprint of Random House, published Timothy Zahn's canonical novel, Star Wars: Thrawn, the long-awaited origin story of one of the greatest villains ever created for the space-fantasy franchise set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." Grand Admiral Thrawn was originally conceived by Zahn in the early Nineties when Lucasfilm and Bantam Spectra hired the Hugo Award-winning author to reboot the moribund Star Wars Expanded Universe. Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. the final chapter of George Lucas's storied trilogy, was only followed by a handful of Lando Calrissian novels set before Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope and a lackluster Marvel Comics line that ended publication in 1986. And with the long-rumored Prequel Trilogy apparently on permanent hold, it looked as though the franchise itself was in danger of dying. The publication...