2017

Earlier this year, Timothy Zahn revisited his most popular contribution to the lore of Star Wars in Thrawn, a novel that brought Grand Admiral Thrawn into the post-Expanded Universe era. At New York Comic Con‘s Lucasfilm Publishing panel, Zahn revealed that he’s far from finished with Thrawn.

Via StarWars.com, Zahn announced that he has finished writing Star Wars: Thrawn Alliances, a novel that will explore Thrawn’s rise in the Imperial military as well as his unlikely partnership with Darth Vader. It is expected to be released in summer 2018, and it will be the first time that Thrawn and Vader have shared the spotlight. However, the previous Thrawn novel indicated that he had met Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Thrawn’s place in the new timeline, since the events of the Heir to the Empire trilogy have been purged from continuity. That begs the question of whether Thrawn was still around during the events of the classic trilogy, and if he survived to see the post-Return of the Jedi era. It’s not impossible, but we haven’t seen any signs of his survival one way or another.

The publishing panel also revealed a few other projects that may excite Star Wars fans. IDW is publishing a Star Wars: Forces of Destiny five-issue miniseries, while Adam Rex is working on Are You Scared Darth Vader?, a new Star Wars children’s book. Just from the title alone, we think we’re going to love Rex’s newest creation when it arrives in July 2018.

Are you looking forward to reading about Thrawn and Vader’s history together? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Images: Disney XD/IDW/Lucasfilm

Don’t be blue, read more about Thrawn!

• A villainous Thrawn tattoo.
• What’s next for Thrawn in Star Wars Rebels.
• The possibilities of the Unknown Regions.

In a time where old franchises are dug up from the grave, we now have Blade Runner 2049: the latest movie we never asked for but then Alcon Productions fought for the rights for 12 years and here we are. Because after all, there’s always money in nostalgia.

Yes, the movie is a visual masterpiece with mind blowing sets that truly take your breath away. However, it leaves a lot to your imagination and makes you wish there was more time to explore all the side quests.

Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch do a brilliant job of using elements from the imitable theme from the original soundtrack and make it even more. The acting is well done and everyone more or less delivered. Sylvia Hoeks was definitely the stand out performer, even in the midst of greats such as Robin Wright and Lennie James. Unfortunately, that’s as good as it gets.

One of many problems is the story itself. It reeeeeally took its time (2 hours and 43 minutes to be exact) and had the same slow pacing as the original film, but felt too long, if not longer than the first film. It meandered too much in its attempt of taking its time and relied heavily on nostalgia instead of driving itself. When I said that the cast more or less delivered, the one who made it less so was Jared Leto. He over delivered in the only way a method actor who may have become notorious in his technique would do. Everything he did was unnecessarily dramatic and quite frankly, did nothing for the story itself.

Then there’s a They-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named-Because-I’ve-Been-Told-I-Really-Can’t-Actually-Say-Much-About-The-Movie-Itself-OR-ELSE character who got the Bryan Cranston treatment in the newest Godzilla but when s/he does appear, the movie considerably picks up in significance.

For a film whose predecessor was a source of inspiration for all things sci-fi, they sure did a great job of taking a mosh pit of ideas from other popular science fiction today and tried to make it their own but completely and utterly fail at it. Movies such as Her, The Matrix, Pinocchio, Tron Legacy, the show Westworld, and even the anime Chobits, are influences that can be clearly felt in this. Whether it was intentional or not, you can’t help but think of them while watching Blade Runner 2049. It’s like when Apple introduces a new iPhone and attempts to claim innovation.

Even with the ‘strong female roles’ given to a few actresses, the world of Blade Runner is still a very misogynistic one. While the new film has been considerably beefed up with meaty characters and scenes for some of the actresses, women are still second to men. Their bodies are presented as toys and gimmicks for the men to shower with the male gaze and touch (oh god the touch). Let us not forget the extremely problematic and physically-forced, dismal excuse of a romance Decker and Rachel had in the original film.

No matter how you justify and spin that scene, seeing Decker physically restrain Rachel and demand her to tell him to kiss her, touch her and in the end of the movie, say I love you, does not in the slightest spell out romance, let alone love. Blade Runner 2049 has not forgotten that story and has run with it, showing that even in the future, women are here to serve men. While I’m sure there are male robots that are created for sexual purposes, we never see that. Not in the original Blade Runner, not in the new Blade Runner. Breasts abound, women are presented fully nude and touched by the men, for the men. There’s a brief bit of where you see a couple of naked male extras but it’s not shown in a sexual manner like how the women are presented.

And now, the best for last. Yet again, another film that is overrun with Asian influences because in this world, America is LITERALLY run by Asia, yet utterly devoid of Asian representation. For a movie that is set 30 years after the original film, which was sprinkled with diversity, this one did a really good job of setting themselves back. We’re to believe this is Los Angeles 2049? Have the filmmakers never set a foot in LA? Because this is un-fricking-believable. In the original film you have James Hong in a small supporting role, but still an Asian in a speaking role. You have Edward James Olmos for Harrison Ford’s supporting partner cop who is iconic with his littering the world with his intricate origami. You can literally see people of color filling (and I don’t mean just token PoC) out the background, with Asian influences abound. There is Asian food, Asians selling the Asian food, and a lot of other PoC milling about living their extra lives. And this was the ’80s! There wasn’t a lot of representation in media nor as many applicants back then, but yet they were able to make it remotely believable that the future of Los Angeles would be proliferated with PoC.

Now here we are. Actual future 2017. There’s been a lot of change in regards to representation. There are countless PoC actors in LA, let alone all over the U.S. and the world, who are doing anything they can to be seen. But SOMEHOW, Blade Runner 2049 decided to take a few hundred steps back and show white is might and erase the progressiveness of what the original Blade Runner tried to be.

Yes, we have a few black actors and one hapa (who straight up passes as white) who are getting top billed. But trust me when I say you will be supremely disappointed with what they are given. They were the throwaway roles. Completely and utterly wasted. They were given the pity roles of ‘hey, let’s check off our PoC quota by giving them whatever crap we roles we have left.’ They were given the Jubilee treatment from X-Men Apocalypse. You see Jared Leto wearing a kimono and Ana de Armas wearing a qi pao. Yet despite all the Asian influences present throughout this sequel, there are even less Asians than before, as if they all died out since the first film. Even the holographic advertisements that had Asian models in the original have been erased in the new movie. Now it’s just white people selling their whiteness. AS USUAL.

But what’s this about Benedict Wong? He’s Asian! Isn’t he in something pertaining to Blade Runner? Yeah, I guess you could say he is. He’s in a short film that is part of a collection of shorts to fill in viewers as to what happened in the 30 years between the films.

Dave Bautista, who is Filipino and white, stars in another one! Oh boy! Another Asian lead!

And then in the anime short, you have a black and Asian character leading the EMP attack on the humans.

Oh man. SEE?? People of color as leads!! Oh ho ho you are so right! But lest you forget, these are shorts. Short little films that average about 5 to 15 minutes. Short films that are side stories to the main films. Short films that the general public is probably not going to watch because only people who will go out of their way to find them, want to know every little thing about Blade Runner and are completely obsessed will want to watch it. So. PoC in leading roles but only in insubstantial, not-actually-vital-to-the-whole-story, generally overlooked shorts? Okay! Whites in leading roles but for the main films that is the actual main story and are getting lauded as masterpieces? Same old, same old. Sounds about white.

Yes, the original Blade Runner was a pioneer of its time. While I feel it’s an overrated film and have struggled to stay awake through my multiple viewings of it, I can appreciate it for what it tried to do and the world they built. I can see its influence in popular culture today and value what they achieved. Because of all that and the amount of time that has passed, Blade Runner 2049 has a lot to live up to.

But like with many properties that have been revitalized because Hollywood is afraid of doing anything new, Blade Runner 2049 doesn’t go beyond the original. The story is weaker than ever and tries so hard to make itself more but has caught itself up in its own self-importance. It meanders. It becomes convoluted. It loses its vision of what the first film was about and now it’s all about banking on the success and hype of the first film in hopes the sequel will be just as good. Worst of all, it’s a tired, hot mess of reused ideas that try to claim them as its own. Just because you take what worked once, doesn’t mean it’ll work again. (Looking at you, The Force Awakens. Really? Another Death Star? IS THAT THE ONLY WEAPON THE EMPIRE CAN BUILD? INFINITE GALAXIES TO WORK WITH AND THAT’S THE BEST YOU CAN DO?? I get that history repeats itself but no need to show it literally.)

Blade Runner 2049 will probably be this year’s Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s beautiful to watch. The colors are vivid and electric. The cinematography is astounding. The action scenes are full of action. It’s set in the future where the majority of PoC have seemingly died out. Most of the clothes look like they are part of a Yeezy collection. It has a lot of star names that do what they need to do.

Many will praise it and suck its metaphorical peen. If you look at the story, there isn’t much there. But because of all the vibrant visuals, overly significant pacing and nuanced acting, people won’t even notice what a boring story it is. Denis Villanueve hasn’t yet exhausted all his colorful narratives and people will still praise him instead of eye rolling at the pretentiousness of it all. The executives will make all the money because of the star power and Rotten Tomatoes hype, pat each other on their backs because it’s another movie that prove white people sell and then they’ll think of the next nostalgic property they can bring back to ruin. That being said, even if there were diverse actors playing significant leads in this, it still wouldn’t have saved the film.

In summary: Blade Runner 2049 is an overrated, painfully long, beautiful looking piece of work where, once again, the future is devoid of any meaningful diversity.

P.S. In case you haven’t seen the mystical shorts, do watch them. (Links above.) And if you’ve already seen them, watch them again because their stories were much more interesting than the entirety of the sequel.

I wasn’t born when the first Blade Runner came out in 1982, but it has been a staple film in my collection for many years. Thanks to Blade Runner, my science-fiction appetite has made me the movie fanatic I am today. So, it was my pleasure to attend the Blade Runner 2049 Press Conference in [...]

The post The Inside Scoop ‘Blade Runner 2049’ appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.

“Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda, The Phantom Menace

Some days it feels like the world’s ills are so great and all-encompassing that any energy expended toward fighting or changing them feels like trying to melt a glacier with a blow dryer. Today, however, in light of two rather large stories that have come out, it seems an opportune time to make use of the momentum and start chipping away at the weak spots in the hopes of bringing injustice down.

First, there’s the story that Buzzfeed released yesterday called “Alt-White: How the Breitbart Machine Laundered Racist Hate.” It’s the kind of in-depth investigative reporting that not only deserves to be read and shared, but reminds us of the importance of a free press. Anyone who professes to want to defend “free speech” but then turns on legitimate acts of journalism, calling everything that casts them in a bad light “fake news” has no idea what the First Amendment was designed to protect.

The piece reveals emails and other documentation making clear the connections between Steve Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos, Breibart as a platform, white nationalist groups, the alt-right, and the rise of Donald Trump. It’s a frightening read precisely because it confirms things that, up until now, many people were hoping were exaggerated. They were not.

Even more frightening, though, is that it not only names the usual suspects, but it implicates both private (unnamed) citizens and public figures, who we’d assume were on the side of progressive values and tolerance, and who were feminist and anti-racist. This, for me, was the truly terrifying part of the read. It talks about a “diverse group of Americans” who, “Aggrieved by the encroachment of so-called cultural Marxism into American public life, and egged on by an endless stream of stories on Fox News about safe spaces and racially charged campus confrontations…took to Yiannopoulos’s inbox to thank him and to confess their fears about the future of the country.”

It goes on to describe them:

“He heard from ancient veterans who “binge-watched” his speeches on YouTube; from “a 58 year old asian woman” concerned about her high school daughter’s progressive teachers; from boys asking how to win classroom arguments against feminists; from a former NASA employee who said he had been “laid off by my fat female boss” and was sad that the Jet Propulsion Lab had become “completely cucked”; from a man who had bought his 11-year-old son an AR-15 and named it “Milo”; from an Indiana lesbian who said she “despised liberals” and begged Yiannopoulos to “keep triggering the special snowflakes”; from a doctoral student in philosophy who said he had been threatened with dismissal from his program for sharing his low opinion of Islam; from a Charlotte police officer thanking Yiannopoulos for his “common sense Facebook posts” about the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott (“BLUE LIVES MATTER,” Yiannopoulos responded); from a New Jersey school teacher who feared his students would become “pawns for the left social justice campaign”; from a man who said he had returned from a deployment in “an Islamic country” to discover that his wife was transitioning and wanted a divorce (subject line “Regressivism stole my wife”); from a father terrified his daughter might attend Smith College; from fans who wanted to give him jokes to use about fat people, about gay people, about Muslims, about Hillary Clinton.”

Even more disturbing are the public voices we’ve come to know and trust based on the progressive platforms for which they work, who were supporting, collaborating with, and championing Yiannopoulos on the DL. Several of whom were women:

• An anonymous, female film editor going by the name “Undercover ‘pede in Hollywood” (“Centipede” is apparently a slang term for Trump supporters online) who wrote him saying: “I’m a relatively recent ex-lefty who received deep liberal indoctrination via elite private schools (Yale and Andover). I’ve been deeply closeted thus far due to the severe personal and professional repercussions of not beating the progressive drum.”
• A production manager at E! wrote Yiannopoulos saying that she considers her workplace a “contributor to the fake news machine and my colleagues have become insufferable. … I … offer you my services … a partner in fighting globalism.” (PS – “globalism” is totally an anti-semitic dog whistle)
• Adam Grandmaison, whom Rolling Stone lauded as “hip-hop’s major tastemaker,” emailed Yiannapolous to investigate a journalist who’d accused her ex-boyfriend of abusing her, but made sure to tell him that he didn’t want anyone knowing that he reached out. (We totally know now, douche. Way to sic a sexist, racist tool of the white supremacist machine on an abused woman, asshole)

Most disappointing and upsetting of all are the fellow writers at liberal outlets who somehow never managed to absorb any human decency in all their time working for these places. Take Mitchell Sunderland, senior staff writer at Broadly, Vice’s women’s site, who wrote to Yiannapoulos “Please mock this fat feminist” in May 2016, when sending him an article by Lindy West. Or Dan Lyons, veteran tech reporter and editor, as well as a former writer on HBO’s Silicon Valley, who emailed with Yiannopoulos periodically to wonder about whether or not Zoë Quinn and Amber Discko (founder of Femsplain) were trans, based on their appearances.

Just today, Lyons said on Twitter that he “didn’t remember those emails until BFeed contacted me. When they did, I reached out to [Quinn and Discko] & apologized.” To which Quinn responded,

No you didn’t. https://t.co/xi7XYwTqMg

— 💀zombië queen💀 (@UnburntWitch) October 6, 2017

Lyons then proceeded to block Quinn. HE blocked HER. Because now he’s suffering, poor baby, because she reminded him that he’s a liar.

Sadly, this behavior echoes that of our brother site, Mediaite, who repeatedly uses scare quotes around words like misogyny and transphobia and engages in sexist “reporting” (scare quotes on purpose) in an effort to court the Internet’s worst impulses.

So, not only are there white supremacists to contend with, but there are their greedy enablers who provide platforms for them, making  money off of their unfounded, irrational fears; and the collaborators, many of whom are members of the very groups that white supremacists would ultimately destroy (women, the LGBTQIA community, people of color) thinking themselves exceptions to racism and sexism and throwing the rest of their groups under the bus. Giving into their fear by diving straight into denial.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – Frank Herbert, Dune

Now, let’s move from the upholding of sociopolitical injustice, to the industry-specific sexism of Hollywood. As I wrote about yesterday, Harvey Weinstein has become the latest powerful Hollywood executive to be implicated in a sexual harassment scandal spanning decades.

Well, perhaps “powerful” is an overstatement. In discussing the situation online, a friend of mine made the excellent point that we need to remember that the only reason this is all coming out about Weinstein now is that his power in Hollywood has been waning. The same can be said about many of the men we’re hearing about now: your Bill Cosbys, or Woody Allens, etc, etc. She expressed the concern that some female assistant somewhere, moved by all this new information coming out, is going to speak out against some currently powerful executive or other, outing him as a sexual harasser or a rapist without lawyering up, and she’d be crushed.

What has been particularly frustrating today is that far too many people, people with big names and clout, refuse to speak out against the rampant sexism in the industry for fear of reprisal. The Daily Beast talks about how, “For as long as Hollywood has existed, the ‘casting couch’—wherein film executives and filmmakers prey on powerless ingénues—has been so familiar as to become hackneyed.”

It’s become “the way it is.” It’s become something people laugh about. It’s become an unexamined stereotype. A reason for people to avoid Hollywood, sure, but nothing that Hollywood itself ever actually moves to stop. As Marilyn Monroe put it in her memoir, My Story:

“I met them all. Phoniness and failure were all over them. Some were vicious and crooked. But they were as near to the movies as you could get. So you sat with them, listening to their lies and schemes. And you saw Hollywood with their eyes—an overcrowded brothel, a merry-go-round with beds for horses.”

And here we are, with rampant sexism and sexual harassment still a problem in Hollywood. And here we are with rampant sexism and sexual harassment still a problem in the world. And here we are, mere decades after saying Never Again re: the Holocaust, and mere decades after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, fighting a resurgence of white supremacy we mistakenly thought was dead and buried. It wasn’t dead and buried. It was just simmering. Biding its time. Waiting.

These stories have me thinking a lot about fear. After all, the irrational prejudices that lead to things like systemic racism and sexism are all fear-based. Racists and sexists are insecure and afraid about their place in this world, and the only way they see to ensure that place is to keep others down.

However, it isn’t even the racists and the sexists that I’m worried about. It’s the ones who don’t actually care one way or the other, but who use and manipulate racist and sexist fear in the interests of their own greed. That, to me, is the true evil: greed at the expense of people’s lives. Greed disguised as “political opinion.”

What’s heartbreaking to me is that there seem to be an endless supply of people that will help them in these goals while looking the other way. Because they are afraid.

“The purpose is to experience fear. Fear in the face of certain death. To accept that fear, and maintain control of oneself and one’s crew. This is a quality expected in every Starfleet captain.” – Spock, Star Trek (2009)

I understand that fear. Hell, I hesitated in talking about Mediaite in this very piece, out of concern for my own job (we’re owned by the same parent company), and it sucks that we’re essentially played against each other for clicks.

I understand that it’s much easier to instruct people in other industries about what they should be doing in the fight against racism and sexism while finding it difficult to follow your own advice in your own industry, because then it’s your job, your life that hangs in the balance.

At the same time, I’m finding it increasingly inexcusable that, for example, news outlets keep giving white supremacists air time and column inches as if the beliefs they spew are legitimate political opinion and not the hate-filled, insecurity-fueled bolstering of their own power and greed that they are.

I’m finding it increasingly inexcusable that the men who say they are allies to women nonetheless allow men like Weinstein to operate openly and say nothing. Why? Because they’re afraid they’ll be considered “not real men” if they speak up? Here’s a tip: a “real man” is an adult male person who takes responsibility for his actions and works to create and build rather than destroy. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. So, you’re not a “real man” if you don’t speak up.

I’m finding it increasingly inexcusable that big-name actresses continue to work with known sexual harassers because, well, he hasn’t done anything like that to me. You might be fine, but you’re actively allowing your industry to remain hostile toward women just like you. It might not have bitten you in the ass yet, but it will.

And I’m finding it increasingly inexcusable that we in marginalized groups have been more than ready to throw each other under the bus to protect ourselves.

And again, I understand. But at some point, fear has to stop being an excuse. At some point, we have to risk speaking out ourselves, or standing with those brave enough to go out on a limb first. At some point, we have to stop being more concerned with protecting ourselves than we are with protecting each other.

Racism and sexism are based in fear, and you can’t fight fear with more fear. Fear has to be overcome. We have to find bravery. We have to see our fears as the lies that they are, and work and act toward better. Or, we need to admit that we don’t really care that much about rampant injustice, so long as we remain comfortable, and we need to be okay with that. Make no mistake, those are the choices. There’s no more room for the sniveling, half-assed shows of solidarity without actively speaking up when it counts, or taking action.

I’m writing this, in part, as a reminder to myself. Seeking inspiration from the geek stories I love, and remembering that nothing good ever comes from being afraid. It’s not about acting recklessly, it’s about being determined and consistent. It’s about expressing our values with action, and not letting fear lull us into complacency.

(image: Disney/Lucasfilm)

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