Forever 21 has carried trend-driven OT SW stuff for the past few years but it finally dropped this iconic Queen Amidala t-shirt. For a mere $15.90! I ordered one for myself and it has a looser cut than most juniors tees so feel free to go with your normal size.
I hope to find more prequel F21 stuff in the future!
As you may or may not have noticed, I haven’t been posting as much on SWPAS lately. This is for many reasons. Six or seven years ago, there was stuff going on all of the time largely due to Clone Wars. Today it’s a little light in the prequels news department; some days there really isn’t much going on and I don’t feel like spending lots of time on minutia. The good news is there are many more voices out there but I don’t have time to personally listen to every podcast or watch every video or post about every meme and fan art piece. I’m not going to promote all of them either without knowing anything about them.
Other reasons include being busy, being unmotivated (there are several reasons for that too), and having a lot of problems with the state of fandom today. I’ve never had an easy relationship with “fandom,” and I’m just beginning to understand why. Furthermore, interacting with other SW fans on social media has become precarious within the past couple of years as people are mobbing up on other fans for reasons that have little or nothing to do with Star Wars at all. Who wants to do or say anything in this kind of environment?
In short, I’m going to contemplate SWPAS’s future; right now that doesn’t mean shutting down but changing focus. For now it’ll chug along as it has been until I figure out exactly what the new focus should be.
Podme is back with a new episode, this time focusing on TPM.
Read it quick before Buzzfeed changes the title or throws it in the memory hole altogether!
(H/T Naboo News.)
Update: The title was changed the next day to “If You Hated The Star Wars Prequels, You Probably Weren’t Paying Attention.” Mike Klimo contacted the piece’s author (I did too but didn’t get a response) and he says it sounds like it was changed because the new headline tested better and got more clicks, shares, and engagements. (Keep this in mind the next time anyone tries to convince you Buzzfeed is anything remotely close to a real news site. It’s all about clickbait.)
This time it’s Obi-Wan dropping by for some jaws juice:
Knowledge, like the encyclopedic wealth of information contained in the Jedi archives, is important and valuable. But it can only get you so far. And if you think you know everything, that knowledge is little more than a stumbling block. Too often the Jedi can’t look beyond their hard-set assumptions. They can’t believe a former Jedi could murder. They can’t believe anything exists if it’s not in their archives. And they can’t imagine that a Sith Lord is right under their noses. Obi-Wan is at least somewhat willing to look beyond typical Jedi assumptions. He and Yoda might be a teensy bit wiser than the rest. That may be why they are the only ones to survive the purge. But maybe they were just lucky.
I don’t know how Naboo News does it but they found these items that will cheer you up.
First, Mark Hamill on the prequels and Jake Lloyd and secondly, France’s prime minister on his love for Star Wars, including TPM.
A Padmé Funko Pop figure is coming next month. Below is a screenshot from a GameStop pre-order:
Naboo Padme is finally coming after years of unfulfilled promises; prequels fans, rejoice! pic.twitter.com/TGlKRKQCXd
— MTFBWY (@MayTheFunkoBWY) November 13, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
And Jedi Bibliothek found an Amazon (Germany) listing for a YA Padmé Amidala novel with the publishing date of Apr. 24, 2018. No author is mentioned and there’s zip about the plot.
This time James Arnold Taylor interviews Angelique Perrin, who played Adi Gallia on The Clone Wars:
For years there have been theories on where George Lucas got the idea for Anakin’s name. The most common one I’ve heard was that it was from the late director Ken Annakin. But Jett Lucas apparently revealed the origins of Anakin’s name was from Greek mythology. From Naboo News: (originally from Star Wars.com)
Jett recently told me a very interesting character tidbit about Anakin, and the origin of his name: Anakin is based off the Greek goddess of inevitability, Ananke. This made me stop in my tracks. That was what I was always feeling. The slow, burning throttle of inevitability.
The above link also has a neat quote from Wikipedia about Ananke. Very interesting! You learn something new every day.
Alleged Comedian Calls Prequel Fans Worse Than Pedophiles, Racists, Etc..: Fandom Snores (Commentary)
November 16, 2017Normally I avoid “guess who trashed the prequels today” kind of posts unless they’re about people working on Star Wars in an official capacity. But this is so horrible I couldn’t let it pass and it gives me a golden opportunity to unload on other things.
Patton Oswalt has long been a prequel basher and once infamously said that he wished he could go back in time and beat George Lucas to death with a shovel so those films wouldn’t be made. Today though he stooped to a low that not even Simon Pegg or Wil Wheaton could reach if they were crawling on Hell’s linoleum floor. Apparently trying to be topical and funny, he tweeted re Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore: “Homophobia, pedophilia and NOW white supremacy? If he admits to liking the STAR WARS prequels I’m pulling my support.”
That’s right guys, he’s saying you’re worse than a pedophile, a racist, or a gay basher for liking movies he doesn’t and apparently over 3000 of his followers agree. No word on whether this applies to the new Mrs. Oswalt who voiced Barriss Offee in the Clone Wars. So what does the fandom have to say about this slander of a significant part of it, or trivializing serious issues with a bad joke? Or Lucasfilm?
*Chirping crickets.*
Aside from Naboo News and a few other fans, it’s been a big collective “meh.” I’m not saying everyone needs to send Oswalt death threats or get him tossed off Twitter but no one seems to care either. Just like they didn’t seem to care about author Saladin Ahmed had posted some vulgarisms about Lucas on Twitter and called him a racist (Ahmed has a story in the upcoming Canto Bright anthology) and when questioned about it, the chief of books at Lucasfilm literally played dumb. Sure some fans were livid but too many were like, “Oh well, it’s just one guy I gotta buys the bookz.” A few people grumbled about Wil Wheaton being included in the Certain Point of View anthology but for the most part fans either had nothing to say or bought the book anyway (I’m aware there’s a story in it with Qui-Gon but I’m sorry, that’s not good enough). Lucasfilm has also hired people like Gary Whitta who had some nasty things to say about Lucas online and Chuck Wendig who has to be about the worst ambassador for any brand ever.
I get that fans are wary of saying the wrong thing on social media. It’s an uphill battle to mess with anyone who’s famous because they have thousands of fans who will swarm on you. In addition, Twitter is quick to suspend or ban those who irritate or upset celebrities.
There are also a lot of people who don’t want to say anything because they want to be “positive.” They think that criticizing something makes them somehow disloyal.
That said, I’ve observed there are exactly two things nowadays that DO get fans outraged, at least on social media:
1. EA nickel and diming gamers in its Battlefront II game, complete with setting a record for the most downvoted post ever on Reddit.
2. Any fan who says or posts something that offends certain fans’ political or cultural/social views.
But fans have no time to care a whit about Lucas’s legacy, which is why Lucasfilm keeps hiring guys like Oswalt to write for them or appear in their movies or t.v. shows. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if it happened! And they have no reason not to because it’s clear to them you will keep giving them your money and time regardless.
In the meantime, I can’t be bothered to get off the couch about anything else regarding fandom or Star Wars anymore. If you don’t care, why should I?
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