Tag: George Lucas

Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game: Pizza, Coca Cola, and Strategy, the cornerstones of a happy life

At Mos Eisley Radio these guys not only talk news concerning the most recent Star Wars Game X-Wing Miniatures, which I am crazy about, but a lot more.  Have a listen to them for  in-depth looks at classes, guilds, lore, and everything else fans care about in the galaxy far, far away.  But related to this article, they go into great detail about the strength of ships and strategy of the game for those who are prompted to get more involved by the conclusion of this article.   Have a listen while reading the below text!

star-wars-x-wing-miniatures-game-milennium-falcon

While it’s true that many of the people I know are locked into the very real and immediate danger of a real-life rebellion, which is covered at this site extensively, the way I endure the stress of such a thing is to fill my life with interesting hobbies, that also help build up my strategic ability.  I share some of those hobbies from time to time in hopes that others might become inspired and do the same for themselves, not by copying my suggestions so much as in finding something that works for them to give themselves a break so to endure the rigors of life just a bit more efficiently.  I have shared glowingly my love of the strategy game Pirates, the Constructible Strategy game by Wiz Kids.  My family has spent many hours buying, building, and playing that game till the very small hours of the morning.  I can remember one very fun Holiday week after Christmas where my kids and I with a small army of other kids bought every single pack of WizKids pirate ships on a cold December afternoon at Cincinnati Sci Fi in West Chester, Ohio.  The delighted store clerk even brought out a new shipment of those ships which had just arrived that was in the back while we were in the store, of which we bought every single one.  So needless to say, we love those types of role-playing games as a family, and as individuals.

Recently while on vacation in Florida my nephews along with my kids, my wife and I played a very cool Dungeons and Dragons type of role-playing game called Heroscape over pizza from the best place in Central Florida till the late hours of night with the condo door open to the ocean outside.  We had turned our large dinning room table into a war zone and found ourselves intensely engaged in mortal combat with dragons and warriors.  Like the referred to pirate game, I enjoy those types of games that allow you to play with several live players around a dinner table.  It is a great way to bond with other family members and actually speak to each other, while exercising the brain. 22_Top I find those types of games to be stimulating in a similar way to reading a novel, or playing a great video game.   The difference is that you have to work with other people in a way that is only possible with this type of strategic gaming.  For many years these role-playing strategy games have increased in popularity from a sub-culture of Dungeon and Dragon players, to what is now considered mainstream geekdom at major conventions all over the country.  The transition came officially from the popular game, Magic the Gathering.  The gaming industry in that market has never been the same, which is wonderful for the human race.  A short history of this type of gaming can be seen at the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons

However, for me, I always loved that Pirate game from Wiz Kids the best of any that I have played in the last twenty years.  My entire family was deeply into it and our playing time together represent some of the most fun we’ve had together, which is quite a statement.  So I have missed it as Wiz Kids stopped making the game in the format we enjoyed, and time and distance has moved us away from the contents.  However, I recently received news from Lucasfilm about their latest version of a Star Wars Role Playing game by Fantasy Flight Games which I thought at first would be gimmicky, but upon investigation quickly found that it was a quite in-depth game that actually combined the type of game play that I enjoyed so much in  Pirates, the Constructible Strategy game by Wiz Kids and the Heroscape.  The new game is called Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game.

Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game is a tactical ship-to-ship combat game in which players take control of powerful Rebel X-wings and nimble Imperial TIE fighters, facing them against each other in fast-paced space combat. Featuring stunningly detailed and painted miniatures, the X-Wing Miniatures Game recreates exciting Star Wars space combat throughout its several included scenarios.

Whatever the chosen vessel, the rules of X-Wing facilitate fast and visceral gameplay that puts you in the middle of Star Wars fiercest firefights. Each ship type has its own unique piloting dial, which is used to secretly select a speed and maneuver each turn. After planning maneuvers, each ship’s dial is revealed and executed (starting with the lowest skilled pilot). So whether you rush headlong toward your enemy showering his forward deflectors in laser fire, or dance away from him as you attempt to acquire a targeting lock, you’ll be in total control throughout all the tense dogfighting action.

Star Wars: X-Wing features (three) unique missions and each has its own set of victory conditions and special rules; with such a broad selection of missions, only clever and versatile pilots employing a range of tactics will emerge victorious. What’s more, no mission will ever play the same way twice, thanks to a range of customization options, varied maneuvers, and possible combat outcomes. Damage, for example, is determined through dice and applied in the form of a shuffled Damage Deck.1XW For some hits your fighter sustains, you’ll draw a card that assigns a special handicap. Was your targeting computer damaged, affecting your ability to acquire a lock on the enemy? Perhaps an ill-timed weapon malfunction will limit your offensive capabilities. Or worse yet, your pilot could be injured, compromising his ability to focus on the life-and-death struggle in which he is engaged…

The Star Wars: X-Wing starter set includes everything you need to begin your battles, such as scenarios, cards, and fully assembled and painted ships. What’s more, Star Wars: X-Wing’s quick-to-learn ruleset establishes the foundation for a system that can be expanded with your favorite ships and characters from the Star Wars universe.

More can be learned at these links:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=174

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103885/star-wars-x-wing-miniatures-game

The hook for me was when I saw the game’s version of The Millennium Falcon which is for me one of my favorite fictional symbols in film history of rebellion.  CLICK HERE FOR MORE.  I remember vividly when I toured the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. to see the actual model of the Falcon in a traveling display that was set up there.  I traveled to Washington that weekend just to see the Falcon.  I spent nearly two hours looking at it, photographing it and memorizing every pipe, dent, and burn mark on a ship I had watched so many times in the feature films.  It was for me one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life.  When I saw the level of detail that Fantasy Flight Games had poured into the Millennium Falcon game piece for the X-Wing Miniatures role-playing game it called to my mind memory of that original model in sheer detail and I instantly fell in love.  I immediately bought a starter set of the X-Wing game and launched my family onto a new generation of game play that is sure to engulf for many years. In the game players can fly the legendary Millennium Falcon into fast-paced battles for the fate of the galaxy! The Millennium Falcon™ Expansion Pack for the X-Wing™ Miniatures Game allows players to blast through hyperspace with Han, Chewie, Lando, and more. The Millennium Falcon comes with four pilot cards, thirteen upgrades, and all requisite tokens. New rules expand the X-Wing galaxy to include large ships and modifications. With its pilots, upgrades, and lovingly detailed miniature, the Millennium Falcon Expansion Pack is a beautiful addition to the X-Wing game!  It may be the coolest thing I have seen in years regarding this kind of thing.  It is a marvel to look at and unbelievable to have as a game play option.  I consider it stunning.

If the Millennium Falcon didn’t close the deal for me on the new X-Wing game the promise of the next ship did.  It doesn’t come out until the end of August, but when it does, I will buy it immediately.  It is the HWK-290 designed by Corellian Engineering Corporation to resemble a bird in flight, the “hawk” series excels in its role as a personal transport. The HWK-290 Expansion Pack comes with one detailed miniature at 1/270 scale, a maneuver dial, all necessary tokens, six upgrades, and four pilots, including the renowned Kyle Katarn. Each HWK-290 provides a wide range of support options for your squad and can be outfitted with both a turret weapon and crew member.  The reason this ship is significant for me is because it was the featured spacecraft of the main character in the video game Dark Forces.  pic1394907_lgIt never appeared in a Star Wars film, but was the home craft of the video game character Kyle Katarn, who would later become a Jedi Master in the novels years later.  One of the very first video games that my oldest daughter ever played was Dark Forces.  It was a first person shooter that came out in 1995.  My daughter was only 6 years old at the time and helped me play it by pressing the space bar on the key board when I told her to which caused my character to jump.  She was too young for the complex shooting and strategy it took to win the game, but she knew how to hit the space bar when I told her to and it was that game that launched her into a lifelong love of video games.  She and I will always share that unique father/daughter experience, and I will always think of her when I think of the HWK-290.  I was dazzled to learn that Fantasy Flight Games was actually inserting that ship into the game mythology before other types of ships, which let me know that the game designers were very serious about expanding the Star Wars experience of role-playing gaming in a format that hasn’t seen such a level of attention since our beloved Pirate Constructible Strategy Game.

Now that I’m going to be playing, it won’t take long before other members of my family will also and soon we will be ordering LaRosas pizza late at night and lining up 2-liters of Coke along our kitchen counter playing Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game well into the night.  It doesn’t matter that everyone playing will be well over 20 years old and in my case their 40s.  I still get a thrill about purchasing new strategic game pieces that can be used under battlefield conditions that have infinite possibilities.  I do not feel this kind of passion for other types of games.  The reason is that the role-playing games allow for complete independent freedom of strategy, unlike board games where the path is set and random chance puts players often into a position to win the game.  With games like X-Wing Miniatures all the conditions of battle are set and designed by the player, and that is why I love these experiences so intensely.  For me the game is only part of the fun.  I enjoy often reading the stats of the cards and infinitely considering various strategies before hand.  The game only proves a theory good or bad. 

 

I have played these games with people who are really good.  They are very quick with their mind and spend a lot more time playing the games than I ever will.  It is fun to watch these kinds of players at tournaments and conventions.  I will never put the kind of time into these games that they do, but I admire their efforts.  Too many adults in our modern age believe falsely that games are for kids and that such things should be put away as adulthood consumes our lives.  Games are not for kids, they are for minds.  Games like the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game feeds the mind with more than entertainment, it provides mental exercises that are invaluable to real life.  I can’t say how many times I have been locked in epic political struggles and other situations where I resorted on the practices used in these strategy games to apply some skill I tried and won with in theory, against real opponents in real scenarios. 

 

So as I sometimes take breaks from the rebellions of the real world to embark on these flights of fantasy, even in my leisure, strategy is an important part of my life.  It is far safer to make errors in judgment among friends and family over pizza and Coca Coke than when it really counts in real life. 

And with that said, I am ecstatic to see this new Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game available at what might only be termed, an essentially important period in my life.  The timing couldn’t have been more perfect and I am so glad that the good people at Lucasfilm put the short playing clip of the example with Wil Wheaten and Seth Green up so I could see the Millennium Falcon playing piece for the first time and become enticed enough to investigate further.  That investigation will yield tremendous benefits that can only be found when adults play the games of young people and further develop their minds against the antagonists who have lost such abilities to their own detriment.  Sometimes being good at strategy isn’t about being better at the game itself, but is due to working against un-armed opponents.  Those who don’t play these kinds of games find their minds unable to think strategically enough to compete when it really matters, and every time a new game like Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game comes out, I am deeply thankful for the opportunity to feed my mind with the contents that have benefits which extend beyond convention.  When a vacation is needed, it’s not just the body that needs rest, the mind does also.  But the mind enjoys stimulation, not stagnation, and often a game like this can provide the crucial ingredient that the mind seeks with abundance in all the best scenarios.

 

To get the gist of what I’m talking about read this review from Boardgamegeek.com.  It reveals why this game is so much better than most other games, and why it will become one of the most enduring games of its type in this generation. 

 

 

 Harrowing dogfights, family drama, shootouts, a tender moment, amazing monsters, humor.

There’s a tempo to Star Wars. We all remember Luke screaming NOOOOOOO at Vader. For different reasons, we remember Anakin turned Vader screaming NOOOOOO. But we also remember Leia offering a little cracker to an ewok. We remember first seeing Darth Maul’s double lightsaber. And we remember Han saying “I know.”

It is NOT all pew-pew-pew. It is NOT all Vrusssshhhhhhhzwwwmzwwwmmm. It’s a cycle of teasing action and drama.

Even though the X-Wing Minis game plays out some incredible dogfight sequences, the play of the game is NOT a straight forward flow.

I’ve got dozens of rounds under my belt now, and I’ve been wanting to write a review, and it finally came to me what it is that makes this game such rip roaring fun.

It’s not the astoundingly detailed minis. And anyone complaining about scale needs to take a close look at the movies, where the scale of the ships to each other changes from shot to shot due to the compositing techniques used at the time.

The minis are awesome. I’m somewhat surprised that different ships use different plastics, but I understand why. That denser stuff used on the X-Wing would collapse a Falcon into itself.

The prepaint jobs are incredible. The cards gorgeous, the components just off the scale. Even with the bit more they must pay in royalties to Uncle George, the massive appeal of this game allows them to make a ton of copies and the price, while at first glance seems daunting, isn’t a lot for what you get.

What makes the game work is the pendulum swing. The rhythm.

First, the setup. The agonizing squad building. Is it worth 2 points to raise this pilot’s skill, not knowing what the enemy force contains? It could easily be two points that have ZERO effect on the game. Terribly tough gambles. Now that wave 2 is out and you could just as easily face a hulking mothership like a decked out Slave I or a swarm of the world’s most annoying TIE fighters, you really have to prepare for a wide contingency of opponents.

This setup is tense. You want flexible. But strong. Synergistic support between squad members, but not so much that the loss of a key ship means defeat. And you ALWAYS want about 3 more points for that perfect build. No matter how many points you choose to fight, you will kill for another 3.

So it’s got that whole squad building aspect down great. Especially now that there’s a ton of options. Who knows what your opponent will bring?

But the flow of a turn is brilliant.

Everybody chooses their maneuvers. No downtime. But here in the game is where you are playing cat and mouse. Maybe psychologically toying with the opponent, making them think your plan is A when it is actually B.

Hidden agendas and secret moves. That’s the next game that plays out after the squad building math.

Then the wonderful move system. Everyone slowly reveals their moves, in what might be the games most questioned rule. The lowest skilled dudes go first, and eventually the better skilled dudes, which mean they have a fairly good chance of accidentally hitting and losing their action, where the lower skill guy might pull it off.

But it works in the long run, because it keeps higher skills in tailing positions.

Bit in this phase of the game, again, very, very little downtime, as the nefarious plans and maneuvers are revealed.

Squeals of glee and grunts of horror abound as unexpected collisions happen and skillful turns are executed.

But then comes the start of your devastating on the spot decision making. While plotting your squadrons moves, you had an overall plan. Now, each ship must choose it’s precious action.

Evade? How many guys might end up firing on you? Target? Are you clear to get the shot this or next turn? Focus – the all purpose “Egads, I need help” token. Or maybe that barrel roll or super freakin cool new Boost – move a bit maybe out of a firing arc or -surprise – snap someone into your arc. Maybe you execute some trick of your specific pilot.

Here is where you are tempering your odds. Things that will alter the upcoming luck sequence. carefully guiding the gods of luck to your favor.

The tokens build up on the board as actions get selected. At first, this is a pile of confusing cardboard. In a few games, the counters become invisible, simply reminding you of who plans what.

Whew. So, strategic planning in the squad build, then the secrecy of move plotting, then the agonizing action choices. What more does this game need?

Raw luck.

Bring out the dice. Or the iPad app, if you prefer.

Its Star WARS and the dice bring on the war. Now MORE decisions that hurt. Do I spend my focus token to get that extra damage possibly in, or hold on to it to help me avoid possible damage? What if I hold it and no one fires? What a waste… Two hits coming in… Do I evade? Or hold on to the evade since a crit might come next?

Hopefully, you’ve pile bonus upon bonus on your fighters. Distance, skill, weapon, focus… Or maybe all you’ve got is a shot in the dark.

Fire away.

Even defenders are active, choosing focus and evade moments.

Again, very little downtime. Lots of whining and cheering. Little downtime.

Start the cycle again. Hidden choices, movement reveals and actions, combat.

I think THIS is why X-Wing is such a stunningly successful design. It bobs and weaves each turn. No phase is long enough to overstay its welcome. And you must juggle and balance each phase to support the others.

An excellently designed system that overcomes any of it’s perceived problems due to the overall strength of play.

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/942443/why-it-works-review-after-wave-2

Listen to Star Wars gaming news at Mos Eisley Radio broadcasting straight from the Outer Rim!

http://moseisleyradio.com/category/mos-eisley-radio/

Rich Hoffman

 www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

Give yourself the gift of ADVENTURE.  CLICK HERE!  

The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular: Why I love Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Another one of my most treasured books is a little thing that has old yellow worn pages and a paper back cover that has been looked through so many times that the pages are constantly trying to fall out of their binding.  It’s a little book my mother gave me during an intensely hot Liberty Township summer in 1981.  Our home had no air conditioning and I had to sit in front of a fan to read the flapping pages in order to stay cool enough to comprehend the text.  I have read the book dozens and dozens of times since 1981 but never more than that summer and its contents have stayed with me my entire life.  51lFcc79wvL._AA160_The book is called The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark by Derek Taylor and was written as a fly-on-the wall reporter from the set of the famous film, which George Lucas knew was going to make movie history.  He knew then what millions all over world soon discover—that Raiders of the Lost Ark as a traditional throw-back to the kind of films that Hollywood used to make in the 1920s, through the 1950s was special so he allowed Derek Taylor to write a book about the making as they went along.   As much as I loved the movie, which I saw 6 times in a two month period during that hot summer of 1981, I loved reading about how they made the film.  And of all my reasons for loving the film, from the story, to the special effects which are still fantastic to this very day, to the acting, to the set design, to the incredibly good music, it was the stunts which most captured my imagination.  More specifically, the stunt co-ordination by Glenn Randall, which had a very distinct look that all films since have been measured against.  Randall was and is simply the very best in his field of occupation and his work never shined brighter than it did in Raiders where Steven Spielberg as the director and George Lucas as the executive producer knew enough about film to stay out of Glenn’s way and let him make movie magic with some of the best stunts that would ever be done on film.

This brings me to the present day where at Hollywood Studios in Florida they have a live stage show called The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular which is personally directed by Glenn Randall, and has nearly the exact same feel as the stunts from the film performed live 5 times a day every day of the week, year after year since 1989.  The stage show is impressive; the stunt gags are some of the absolute best there is of its kind, and it is the closest that one can get to the magnificent stunt co-ordination of Glenn Randall anywhere.  His trademark style is all over the production and the show is for me a kind of recalibration to my senses.  I absolutely adore it.

The show is getting old, even though it’s still wonderful, there is talk at Hollywood Studios that Disney is going to expand the park to include more Star Wars themed attractions with a $200 million dollar Star Wars land, which will be the largest expansion in the history of the Disney parks.  Even though I cannot imagine Hollywood Studios without The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular there is a danger that it might be cancelled to incorporate the new Star Wars expansion as the theater is currently right across from the Star Wars: Star Tours exhibit that is technically one of the coolest rides of its kind.  The Star Wars expansion is being viewed by Disney as their version of what Universal Studios did with Harry Potter.  It will be an all-encompassing experience that will be built in conjunction with the new films also produced by Disney, and will be the newest hot thing in Florida going into 2015 and 2016.  So Hollywood Studios is going to be changing, which ignited in my mind a strong desire to take my family to Hollywood Studios to see The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular while it’s still there.

 

There is a raging debate about which movie themed park is better in Orlando, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, or Hollywood Studios, and for me, its Hollywood Studios.  I can see where people, who are into the latest and greatest–the most hip, might be bored at Hollywood Studios, as that particular park focuses on the kind of Hollywood that George Lucas was trying to pay tribute to in his Raiders of the Lost Ark film.  That Hollywood is the cinema experience of Walt Disney, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, and screen writers like Ayn Rand as the entire park is dedicated to that era.  I love the Universal Studio parks immensely, but personally, nothing touches Hollywood Studios as they have went to the extra trouble of performing massive live stage plays like The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show while providing the feel of strolling down the city streets that built Hollywood in the first place.  It is that extra touch of detail that put Hollywood Studios over the top of places like Universal which says a lot, given how much I feel for those parks.

I was not disappointed.  The Indiana Jones Stunt Show was spectacular, the fight at the flying wing was there, the temple scene from the beginning of Raiders was there, and the epic fight in the streets of Cairo were done to the live perfection of a dance number.  It was wonderful to share in that experience with my family before things change dramatically at Hollywood Studios forever.  I’m not against the Star Wars expansion by any means.  Star Wars is my very close second favorite film series ever just a hair behind Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Movie stunts often get overlooked in movies, but in Raiders, it was impossible to ignore them.  Glenn Randall and his friend Terry Leonard did some of their best work on that film, which is why I still love it more than any other movie done.  Of course I enjoy the work of Harrison Ford and the direction of Steven Spielberg, but for me, it has always been about the stuntmen in Hollywood that I love so much about the type of films that are celebrated at Hollywood Studios in Florida.

Watching The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular for me is like going home to that old book my mother gave me as she wanted to encourage me to read how my favorite movie was made, hoping I would fall in love with reading.  It worked as I have read thousands of books since.  I have often thought of becoming a stunt man myself, including playing the character of Indiana Jones at Hollywood Studios when I almost moved there with my family in the early part of the 21st Century.  I have a few friends in Hollywood who are stunt co-coordinators on current film and television projects and I have thought often of taking them up on their offer to work in pictures.  I won’t name their names here as I am taboo among the entertainment labor unions for good reason – as I don’t support any collective endeavor like labor unions.  To me, it is the labor unions that have put the clamps on the kind of Hollywood I love, the kind that Hollywood Studios in Florida celebrates — the kind of Hollywood that Raiders paid tribute to in 1981.  But my brain power is needed elsewhere even though I love the feeling of an achy body that has bounced off the pavement a few times and leaped from high places into an airbag at the bottom.  There are times when I think the best job in the world would be to live in a tent in Florida and report to work every day at Hollywood Studios to play out stunts as Indiana Jones.  Watching the actor who currently plays Indiana Jones at The Stunt Spectacular may have the best job in the entire world in my opinion.  I would be inclined to do such a job untill I was 60 or 70 years old and never tire of it.

But I have too many hobbies as it is, and of course my brain is involved in a complex web of activity that reaches into an all-encompassing strategy that is epic in its own modern-day scope.  A lot of people count on me to do the things I do, and my adventures are over-the-top in ways that are a bit different from Indiana Jones, but perilous in less obvious ways.  However, deep in my mind, I do think often of the stunt work by Glenn Randall as it was communicated to me in the great Derek Taylor book from years ago.  In that way, I feel more attuned to the actors on the stage at the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular than just about any other place I vacation anywhere in the world.  There is a piece of my very soul that is on that stage and it is wonderful to visit during the scorching hot summers of Florida that remind me so vividly of reading The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark by Derek Taylor as a little boy sitting in front of a fan at a home that did not have air conditioning in the blistering August month of 1981.

Rich Hoffman

“Justice Comes with the Crack of a Whip!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Star Wars Weekends 2013: The best the human race has to offer in one place

Every year I look forward to the Star Wars weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  It is one of the wonderful opportunities for philosophy, fantasy, ingenuity and the best aspects of human nature to converge at a palace of capitalism and celebrate the existence of one of the greatest stories of all time.  I love the energy, optimism, and opportunity that Star Wars offers individuals and families everywhere.   Many die-hard Star Wars fans converge every year in the middle of May to attend the fabulous Star Wars Weekend events.  For those who cannot attend, I offer these clips from the spectacle taken during the opening day ceremonies on Friday, May 17, 2013.

Sit back, grab a snack and enjoy the fun and pleasure of entertainment shown in the videos below!
 

Rich Hoffman

166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Star Wars Celebration Europe: Get ready to feel the Force!

The Emperor is coming to the biggest Star Wars party in Europe, July 26-28, 2013 in Essen, Germany.

 

Ian McDiarmid, the actor who unforgettably played the evil galactic mastermind and the ultimate villain of the Star Wars Saga, will make a rare convention appearance at Star Wars Celebration Europe, appearing on-stage and signing autographs.

This summer’s event will mark the first Celebration in Europe at which the highly sought-after actor will appear to sign autographs and chat on the Celebration Stage, offering attendees a rare opportunity to hear about the making of Star Wars from his perspective.

In 1983, McDiarmid embodied the full depth of the dark side as the Emperor in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, his face hidden under intensive makeup and his eyes concealed behind yellow contact lenses. When his true face was revealed as the apparently kind and helpful Senator Palpatine in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999), he projected a different kind of evil – a subtle manipulator of galactic events, a villain hidden in plain sight. As the prequels progressed, so too did Palpatine’s plans until finally, in Revenge of the Sith (2005), McDiarmid got to play evil at its fullest, and revealed the true power of Darth Sidious.

Star Wars Celebrations bring fans of all ages together, from all points of the globe, to celebrate the pop-culture phenomenon that is Star Wars. From its young fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars to die-hards fueled by the nostalgia for the original Star Wars trilogy; curious, casual followers; gamers, readers, costumers or collectors — there’s something for everyone at Celebration.

Tickets available now at http://www.starwarscelebration.eu/

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Barack Obama is America’s Jeroboam: How History will treat the $17 trillion dollar deficit driving President

I wanted the opportunity to vote for Herman Cain in the 2012 election, so what I am about to say has nothing to do with Civil Rights advances, or even politics.  The game that is being played is clear in a society that ridiculed Herman Cain ruthlessly, yet celebrated Barack Obama even though they are both African-Americans.  The performance of President Obama during the last week of February 2013 before the sequester deadline, which was set by his administration two years prior, proves what many have all along feared about Obama, and I am convinced that history will remember the current presidency as not just an appalling failure, but a horrendous blip on the radar of American prosperity.  It will be revealed that all along, Obama was a domestic terrorist at war with The American Constitution with an aim at radical destruction of prosperity in The United States to redistribute the wealth of America to the rest of the world, only to destroy the global economy in the process.  There is no other explanation for the reckless campaigning Obama engaged in trying to evoke fear in federal workers ahead of the sequester deadline.  What he has failed to report in his campaigning to federal workers is that even with the sequester cuts The United States is still spending more this year than it did last year pushing our national debt on a path toward $17 trillion.  Obama is either a complete idiot, which is possible—or he is a domestic terrorist intentionally attempting to wreck the American economy forever.  There really isn’t any other option, and that makes the situation in Washington a perilous one that may be the greatest threat to our Republic since the War of 1812.

If Obama proves in historical context, once the emotions of the day have quelled, to have been the later of the feared motivations, it would not have been the first time such a thing occurred.  In Biblical history, Obama’s current path might most parallel the actions of Jeroboam who advanced his rule over Israel by means of perpetuating the division of the southern Kingdom of Judah.  Obama like Jeroboam has spent his reign doing nothing but perpetuating war so that in the division would defeat his enemies so they could not rise up against him directly.  Obama has no interest in controlling costs or leaving America better of a country than when he found it, and he seeks to destroy all opposition to him through the kind of antics that history has seen time and time again.  But these mechanisms are invisible to the modern television viewer who believes that Obama’s presidency is about proving America has overcome its follies in a post Civil War America.  But the strategic intent is much, much more sinister.

So who was Jeroboam?  Here is what Wikipedia offers:

Jeroboam pron.: /ˌdʒɛrəˈboʊ.əm/ (Hebrew: יָרָבְעָם yarobh`am, Greek: Ιεροβοάμ Hieroboam) was the first king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel after the revolt of the ten northern Israelite tribes against Rehoboam that put an end to the United Monarchy.

Jeroboam reigned for 22 years. William F. Albright has dated his reign from 922 to 901 BC, while Edwin R. Thiele offers the dates 931 to 910 BC.[1]

Jeroboam was the son of Nebat (Douay-Rheims: Nabat), a member of the Tribe of Ephraim of Zereda. His mother[3], named Zeruah was a widow (and could have been leprous[citation needed], as her name translates; 1 Kings 11:26) He had at least two sons — Abijam[4] and Nadab, who succeeded him on the throne.

While still young, Jeroboam was promoted by Solomon to be chief superintendent of the “burnden”, i.e. the bands of forced laborers.[5]

Influenced by the words of the prophet Ahijah (1 Kings 11:29-39), he began to form conspiracies with the view of becoming king of the ten tribes; but these were discovered, and he fled to Egypt, where he remained under the protection of pharaoh Shishak until the death of Solomon.[6] On the death of Solomon, Rehoboam assumed the throne. However, the ten northern tribes revolted against his rule and invited Jeroboam to become their king. The conduct of Rehoboam favored the designs of Jeroboam, and he was accordingly proclaimed “king of Israel”.[7]

He rebuilt and fortified Shechem as the capital of his kingdom. He at once adopted means to perpetuate the division with the southern Kingdom of Judah. He erected at Dan and Bethel, the two extremities of his kingdom, “golden calves,” which he set up as symbols of God, enjoining the people not any more to go up to worship at Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, but to bring their offerings to the shrines he had erected.

Thus he became distinguished as the man “who made Israel to sin.” This policy was followed by all the succeeding kings of Israel.

According to 1 Kings 13:1-6, while Jeroboam was engaged in offering incense at Bethel, a “man of God” warned him that “a son named Josiah will be born to the house of David” who would destroy the altar (referring to King Josiah of Judah who would rule approximately three hundred years later). Attempting to arrest the prophet for his bold words of defiance, Jeroboam’s hand was “dried up,” and the altar before which he stood was rent asunder. At his urgent entreaty his “hand was restored him again” (1 Kings 13:1-6, compare 2 Kings 23:13-16); but the miracle made no abiding impression on him. This “man of God” who warned Jeroboam has been equated with a seer named Iddo.[8]

He was in constant “war with the house of Judah”. While the southern kingdom made no serious effort to militarily regain power over the north, there was a long-lasting boundary dispute, fighting over which lasted during the reigns of several kings on both sides before being finally settled.

In the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign, Abijah, Rehoboam’s son, became king of Judah.[9] During his short reign of three years, Abijah went to considerable lengths to bring the Kingdom of Israel back under his control. He waged a major battle against Jeroboam in the mountains of Ephraim. Biblical sources credit Abijah with having a force of 400,000 and Jeroboam having 800,000.[10] The Biblical sources mention that Abijah addressed the armies of Israel, urging them to submit and to let the Kingdom of Israel be whole again,[11] but his plea fell on deaf ears. Abijah then rallied his own troops with a phrase which has since become famous: “Jehovah (God) himself is with us for a captain (commander of the army).” As per the Bible His elite warriors fended off a pincer movement to rout Jeroboam’s troops — killing 500,000 of them.[12]

Jeroboam was crippled by this severe defeat to Abijah and posed little threat to the Kingdom of Judah for the rest of his reign.[13] He also lost the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron, with their surrounding villages.[14] Bethel was an important centre for Jeroboam’s Golden Calf cult (which used non-Levites as priests),[15] located on Israel’s southern border, which had been allocated to the Tribe of Benjamin by Joshua, as was Ephron, which is believed to be the Ophrah that was allocated to the Tribe of Benjamin by Joshua.[16]

Jeroboam died soon after Abijam.

Bill O’Reilly as a journalist is someone I respect tremendously.  He attempts to call things as straight as he can, which is why he is one of the most trusted news sources around today.  I don’t always agree with him, but he really works to get to the truth of an issue.  O’Reilly recently tackled the view that history might take upon gazing at Obama’s Presidency, and it was very good.  O’Reilly covered the topic on one of his Talking Points Memos heard during the same week of Obama’s campaigning during February.  O’Reilly uses less colorful language than I do, but his essence is much the same and is worth reading for just the statistics alone.

How will history view President Obama:

By Bill O’Reilly

In just a few days automatic federal spending cuts might kick in. That is known as “the sequester”, a word we don’t like here at The Factor because it’s a word few understand and it’s largely meaningless.

The issue is very, very simple. President Obama does not want to cut federal spending without another tax increase. Republicans say no way, they are not going to continue to feed the federal spending colossus as can be seen clearly by the following quotes:

OBAMA: Most Americans — Democrats, Republicans and Independents — understand that we can’t just cut our way to prosperity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE IN BUDGET HEARINGS: I want to disagree with those who say we have a spending problem.

REP. NANCY PELOSI: So it is almost a false argument to say we have a spending problem. We have a budget deficit problem that we have to address.

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU: I am not going to keep cutting the discretionary budget, which, by the way, is not out of control, despite what you hear on Fox News.

O’REILLY: Senator Landrieu and others are simply wrong. The federal spending is certainly out of control. The debt is approaching $17 trillion.

Here is how bad it is. In 2003 the U.S. spent just above $2 trillion. This year, the estimated spending will be $3.6 trillion, a 75 percent rise in spending in a 10-year period with no inflation.

And what do we have to show for all that spending? The economy is not much better. The poverty rate is about the same as it was 50 years ago. And salaries for working people are going down.

So why are we spending all the money? For what reason? I’ll tell you why. Take a look at this chart put out by the Pew Research Center. It says 48 percent of Americans want smaller government and fewer services. But among Hispanics, only 19 percent want smaller government and fewer services. A whopping 75 percent of Latinos surveyed approve of bigger government and more entitlements. That’s why President Obama is spending the money because he knows that a coalition of African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, organized labor, and committed liberals will overwhelm the Republican Party.

So in essence, the President is putting party politics above the good of the nation. History will record that and a few years from now when President Obama’s administration is evaluated historians will not care about his charisma, his co-opting of the press or his demeanor in general. No. History will look at the facts. And the facts are that the USA is on the road to bankruptcy. And when that happens, if it does, President Obama will be blamed.

Previous presidents like Van Buren, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover all got hammered because of perceived bad economic policies. The fact is that right now Barack Obama is in that historical category. And that’s a fact.

And that’s “The Memo.”

– You can catch Bill O’Reilly’s “Talking Points Memo” weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/2013/02/27/bill-oreilly-how-will-history-evaluate-president-obama#ixzz2M6Zihste

Obama’s forgetfulness of his sequestration deadline, which was set by The White House, reminds me most of the Popeye the Sailor character of Wimpy, who was famous for saying, “I’ll pay your Tuesday for a hamburger today.”   Well, Tuesday is here, and Obama doesn’t want to pay for his hamburgers.  Instead, he wants another loan for more hamburgers to be paid on many future Tuesdays, and it is hard to believe that anybody could be so stupid, unless they have deliberate intentions of collapsing the American economy.

Historically speaking, it appears that Obama will be viewed equally as Jeroboam, an intention divider of The United States for aims of power and wealth redistribution using Saul Alinsky tactics to execute the aims of Cloward and Piven.  Unlike the times of Jeroboam, armies are not on hand to fight in hand to hand combat as factions meet on the battlefield to keep people like Jeroboam in power.  These days’ armies are congregated in board rooms and banks.  The new arrows of combat are check books and debt.  The intent of battle and war in general is to force an opponent into concessions through violence, sanctions, or political manipulation.  Obama is not even trying to work with Republicans, instead, he is attacking, and attacking, and attacking at every opportunity while running up a tremendous debt with the recklessness of Wimpy, except he never seems to have a desire to even pay on Tuesday.  The intent appears to be complete fiscal collapse and that would be considered domestic terrorism which is something all Americans should guard against.  Trying to invoke fear into political opponents and the masses behind them can be termed in no other way, and in this case exceeds the parameters of normal political theater.  The level that Obama is attempting to carry the divisiveness of modern politics appears to have the same aim as Jeroboam, and will be remembered as such.  The evidence is clear, and cannot be ascertained in any other fashion, unless of course Obama is just a complete fool that is as reckless in his designs as an intoxicated gambler on a Saturday night.  Either way, history will not be kind to Barack Obama.  The only question is whether America survives such a parasite as sixteen years of progressive rule on top of another eight that have severed half the nation from the values they had always held before the election of 1992.  It is easy to see the demise in historical context over decades.  But not so easy to see in the immediacy of the moment, which is the strategy of war played in modern politics, and seems to be the motivation of Barack Obama, the modern version of Jeroboam.  The severed tribes of Obama are Hispanics, women, African-Americans, union leaders, the poor, the un-ambitious, and the government worker being paid extraordinary sums for a job the tax payer does for nearly half the same market value money.  It is war that Obama is conducting and in order to continue that war, he needs more irresponsible spending and a government that will grow by another 100% in the coming years till America is no better than Europe economically.  The slate of the world will then be wiped clean for Socialist International to step in and rule us all through the United Nations.  That appears to be the intentions of America’s modern version of Jeroboam.

Many enemies work behind a cloak of good intentions, but most of them have other ideas concealed deep in their social plots.  Evil is sometimes a point of view, and what might be evil for America might provoke sainthood among the advocates of global government.  A rival team might be considered evil if they score a touchdown beating the hometown favorite—but the actions behind Obama are much worse than these kinds of trivial competitions.  He is attacking every single American for seemingly ideological reasons, either through reckless stupidity or deliberate sabotage.  But History will grade Obama a failure either way and a menace to all of civilization as they attempt to dig out from underneath the years of Obama with more than shovels.  History will place Obama with the terrorists Jeroboam and the worst of the Roman Emperors.  Such a legacy will outlast the political whims of the modern age, and will forever be viewed with the same kind of sinister sentiment as our current times view Stalin, Mao, and every tyrant who has so far breathed and walked the Earth.  Obama will forever be just another brick in the road to tyranny that threatened the freedoms of every individual in the entire world with soul crushing debt recklessly applied to achieve a military victory long ago hatched in the living room of college Marxist professors in the glory days of being a “community organizer,” where the weak hearts of the great American enemy was discussed over mixed drinks and cigarettes to great effect and long-term strategy.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Ahsoka Faces Her Greatest Challenge: Watch the end of Season 5 of ‘The Clone Wars’

As I have said on many occasions, I would recommend my readers here watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Saturday mornings at 9:30. They aren’t just for kids, and are great family entertainment.  But never more than this upcoming Saturday. The wonderful animated series will conclude in very dramatic fashion that many who read here often will find parallels my work here all to closely. Art is often the best representative of complex ideas, and when it comes to The Clone Wars, that has never been more true.

Ahsoka, one of the premier Jedi Knights who has defended the Old Republic valiantly has been set up by the mysterious unseen actions of a Sith Lord, which isn’t revealed fully until the actions in the feature film Revenge of the Sith, which was released by Lucasfilm into movie theaters in 2005.

The shocking finale to Season 5 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars has arrived, with major revelations that will leave characters forever changed. Ahsoka is wrongly accused for sedition and murder, and is to be prosecuted in the High Courts of the Galactic Republic by a zealous Admiral Tarkin. Seemingly abandoned, Ahsoka’s last hope lies in Anakin Skywalker, who hunts the Coruscant underworld for the real murderer in “The Wrong Jedi,” Saturday, March 2nd at 9:30am ET/PT on Cartoon Network.

This episode – the culmination of five years of development of Ahsoka Tano’s character and her relationship with Anakin – is personally helmed by Dave Filoni, who serves as episodic director in addition to being the supervising director for the series. Underscoring the significance of the finale, composer Kevin Kiner arranged an orchestral score for this episode to better resemble the full, classical score found in the Star Wars feature films.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Stuart Freeborn Becomes One With “The Force”: How ‘Star Wars’ is the real life ‘Atlas Shrugged’

Stuart Freeborn died at 98 years old recently, but he will forever live in the character of Yoda from the popular Star Wars stories.  Freeborn was already an old man when he designed Yoda as a character puppet in 1979 for the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back and without question put many of his own features into the face of the great science fiction philosopher.  It doesn’t take much imagination to see Stuart Freeborn in the face of Yoda as the character has evolved from a puppet to a digital character in the prequel trilogies to the current fantastic cartoon series Clone Wars on the Cartoon Network.  Yoda is the embodiment of Stuart Freeborn and will reflect for all the years going forth the best that the movie business has to contribute to the magic of mythmaking.  For the latest incantation of Stuart Freeborn’s creation you can see Yoda this Saturday February 9th, 2013 in the latest Clone Wars episode filled the with the usual perilous drama mixed with political betrayals that aren’t so science fiction if placed in parallel to our current society.

I place a high level of credit for the success of Star Wars on the back of Stuart Freeborn.  If the puppet he designed didn’t work in The Empire Strikes Back, the movie would have fallen on its face stopping the saga in its tracks after the second movie.  The gamble that George Lucas took with his own money to make that classic science fiction film would have went up in flames if the audience did not accept Yoda as a believable character and all the magic that is currently falling like snow flakes upon our culture today.  Star Wars would have gone out like a candle flame on a brisk day almost before it ever got started.

I have covered in great detail, especially lately Star Wars importance not just mythologically—which equates out to cultural improvements–but in economics.  I am sure George Lucas and his collaboration with other filmmakers would cringe in trying to explain to their Marin County neighbors how what they’ve done at Skywalker Ranch in California has a lot more to do with Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged than the traditional Hollywood moochers who attempt to duplicate the quality of the Star Wars Franchise.  As the political left hates Ayn Rand, it is obvious that quietly in the rolling hills of Central California, the values of Ayn Rand are celebrated in great abundance at Skywalker Ranch under hushed voices and public denials.   The falsification is that Ayn Rand was a selfish witch and that Star Wars is about self-sacrifice and altruism.  That is why everyone gets it wrong.   The growing assembly of excellent creative talent gathering at Skywalker Ranch from Industrial Light and Magic to some of the most original music composition in our modern times is leaps and bounds beyond anything else being done in entertainment.  As far as make-up designers Stuart Freeborn was the best of the best and his impact on human culture will forever be measured by his original designs in Star Wars characters like Yoda and Chewbacca.  Freeborn like the wonderful characters in Ayn Rand’s great novel is one of the exceptional in his field of endeavor and it was ultimately George Lucas’s creation that allowed Freeborn the freedom to step beyond the restrictions of social dogma and unleash creations that propel the power of myth into mass culture with magnificently positive results.

The same people who complain that the Disney merger with Lucasfilm is one of a deplorable exploitation of capitalism also complain about the moral justification of Ayn Rand’s novels—particularly Atlas Shrugged.  These personalities have been so embedded with socialism and the values of collectivism that they are unable to see the real power and message behind myth and the businesses it takes to deliver them.  I have spoken about a vacation that my wife and I took playing the MMO video game Star Wars: The Old Republic (CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW).  We spent move than six weeks continuously enjoying that game for hours upon hours every day together doing the work of the Jedi Council by solving problems in that galaxy far, far away.  One of the problems with the massive BioWare game is that they have an XP (experience points) level cap of 50, which takes most players who spend a large amount of time on the game about two months to reach.  Obsessive players can reach that cap within a month.  At level 50, XP points no longer awarded, and for many they lose interest in the game because they no longer get the reward of earning XP for their game playing investments.  So these players have been dropping their subscriptions forcing BioWare to find creative ways to convince players over level 50 to continue their memberships.  This is what is called “game economy” and reflects accurately real life behavior.  If citizens are taxed too much, or do not get to keep what they earn while working, they stop working, they stop being productive, and every kind creative input comes to a halt.  Without incentives, gamers in The Old Republic lose interest if they can’t earn XP or large amounts of game credits and things to buy with them.  Gamers who drop their subscriptions when they lose interest in playing the game without earning XP are proving Ayn Rand correct when the heroes of the classic novel Atlas Shrugged quit participating in America because taxes became too great.  They abandoned socialism in the book and embraced the freedom of Galt’s Gulch (Atlantis).

Star Wars is all about generating wealth, not just in the economic numbers that the films, books, television shows, and retail merchandise generate for Lucasfilm and Disney as major corporations.  But wealth is also generated as so many people desire the material, because they NEED mythologies that properly reflect the world they live in.  CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE POWER OF MYTH.  The move that Lucas made in selling his company to Disney was one that would allow him to expand the Star Wars mythology to fulfill the market demands of his product, which in many ways resided on the shoulders of Stuart Freeborn over thirty years ago.  If George Lucas is the John Galt of the Star Wars saga—READ ATLAS SHRUGGED TO UNDERSTAND, then Stuart Freeborn was the Hank Reardon who made a product so good that nobody could equal his efforts—and the power of that creation is about to explode upon our modern culture in a way that is unfathomable.  Trust me.

This is why I am spending so much time discussing Star Wars.  There is nothing in our culture that captures all the elements of modern life the way that Star Wars mythology does not just spiritually, but economically, politically, and ethically.  On both the business side of Star Wars and the creative side it represents the very best of the absolute best of all those individuals who make the Disney company, Lucasfilm, Industrial Light and Magic and the dozens and dozens of support companies that trickle down off them the best in their businesses.  It should come as no surprise that the values of Yoda as expressed in the Star Wars stories are so popular that stand alone films of Stuart Freeborn’s characters are going to get their own films in addition to the completion of Episodes 7, 8, and 9.  Yoda is getting his own film apparently, and Han Solo and Chewbacca are getting their own films in addition to the Joe Johnston creation of Boba Fett.

It is because of creative geniuses like Stuart Freeborn that Yoda has become over a thirty year period such a powerful character who might well surpass Mickey Mouse as the most recognizable iconic character in human history.  Yoda was created by a wise old man who went on to live till the age of 98 and brought joy to many millions during his lifetime.   But in his passing, Stuart Freeborn will live on and become stronger than anybody can possibly imagine, as his character of Yoda will carry Star Wars into a new dimension of entertainment experience in producing the myths that society lives by giving a rebirth to a new and prosperous century that nobody saw coming.

How do I know?  Well, read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and understand that “A is A.”  Once the value of “A” is known, then the addition of values can be added up and determined as an end result.  Star Wars is about values in every way that they can be defined.  And the grandfather of those values were people like Stuart Freeborn.  He will be missed, but his memory will live on forever—like all Jedi who find themselves one with the Force.

To my readers here, people like Stuart Freeborn and Paul Harvey mean a lot to me, so it is only right to pay tribute to them when the times come.

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

The Great Star Wars Director Dave Filoni: Thoughts about Clone Wars Season Five and beyond

One of the only television shows that my wife and I watch on a regular basis is Star Wars: Clone Wars that broadcasts each Saturday morning on the Cartoon Network.  For science fiction based cartoons, I find them deeply entertaining, and exceptionally dramatic.  They are also quite intelligent, and gorgeous to look at as separate pieces of art.  I enjoy the sights, sounds and morality displayed within the Star Wars universe, particularly The Clone Wars animated series.  I love them all, but recently after a particularly powerful episode in the middle of Season 5 director Dave Filoni proved that he’s not afraid to display his skills and episode leadership into an epic direction that I don’t think has ever been done for a show directed at children.  They didn’t make cartoons like this when I was a kid, that’s for sure.  After the February 2, 2013 episode arrived at 9:30 AM, which I displayed the press release sent from Lucasfilm, (CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW) Dave and the cast and crew had a Google Hangout meeting where fans of the show could chime in and learn more about what is in store for the rest of Season 5 and Star Wars in general.  You can see that hour long meeting in full at the video below.


The episode they spent so much time talking about in the Google Meeting is called The Lawless.  It was quite spectacular.  It’s hard to believe that Dave and his crew was able to cover such a large expanse of story in just over 20 minutes, but the results are exceptional by any standard of cinema endeavor.  I hope Star Wars: Clone Wars sticks around for a while, because after 5 years of broadcasting, they are every bit as good if not better than when they first aired in the late summer of 2008 with the feature film of the same name.  Dave Filoni is a wonderful Star Wars director that in the context of history will give J.J. Abrams a run for his money in the magic and lore that has become the Star Wars Mythology.  I am looking forward to many more future episodes so I can watch them with my grandson and introduce him to such a vast wilderness of ideas that is Star Wars in a morality play that is unequaled in the history of the world.


Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

Obi Wan Kenobi to the Rescue: New Clone Wars Episode February 2nd

Obi Wan Kenobi must rescue the woman he loves from the manipulative clutches of Darth Maul on the planet Mandalore. With Duchess Satine as bait, the vengeful Darth Maul lures Obi-Wan into a trap. Drunk with power, Maul declares himself the true Sith Lord, a claim that will not go unanswered in “The Lawless” airing this Saturday, February 2nd at 9:30am ET/PT on Cartoon Network.

· This episode marks the first appearance of Darth Sidious “in the flesh.” In all other appearances, he has been a hologram.

· Obi-Wan Kenobi is wearing his Rako Hardeen disguise (from Season Four’s “Deception” arc) when he arrives on Mandalore.

· The much battered Twilight now sports a cartoonish illustration of Anakin as a boy Podracer pilot, with Aurebesh text that says “WIZARD!!!” The Twilight has not been seen since Season Two’s “Children of the Force.”
Rich Hoffman

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

J.J. Abrams to Direct ‘Star Wars: Episode 7’: Kickstarting a new age with DYNAMITE peppered with TNT

As readers here know, I am a tremendous Star Wars fan.  For my thoughts on Star Wars and the future implication of that vast mythological story, CLICK HERE.  It goes without saying that the below press release I just received from Lucasfilm is news that I think is very valuable.  I hold mythology as being far more important than politics, and considering how much time I spend on politics, that should emphasize my thoughts accurately.  In my family, we relish mythology above and beyond all other transitory values, because the temperament of politics rolls in and out like the tide of an ocean, but mythology shapes society contextually and deserves a long view commitment.  I have great hope for the future of Star Wars and the impact it will have on young people everywhere.  So I am very, VERY proud that J.J. Abrams will be the next director of Star Wars: Episode 7.  He was my deepest wish for this project, and I am happy to present the following press release as it was sent to me:

“Star Wars Is Being Kick-Started with Dynamite”

J.J. Abrams to Direct Star Wars: Episode VII

After a bevy of emails and phone calls, the formalities have been wrapped up, and at long last everyone can exhale and properly share the word with an excited Internet. Yes, J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII, the first of a new series of Star Wars films to come from Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy. Abrams will be directing and Academy Award-winning writer Michael Arndt will write the screenplay.

“It’s very exciting to have J.J. aboard leading the charge as we set off to make a new Star Wars movie,” said Kennedy. “J.J. is the perfect director to helm this. Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise. He understands the essence of the Star Wars experience, and will bring that talent to create an unforgettable motion picture.”

George Lucas went on to say “I’ve consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller.  He’s an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn’t be in better hands.”

“To be a part of the next chapter of the Star Wars saga, to collaborate with Kathy Kennedy and this remarkable group of people, is an absolute honor,” J.J. Abrams said. “I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid.”

J.J., his longtime producing partner Bryan Burk, and Bad Robot are on board to produce along with Kathleen Kennedy under the Disney | Lucasfilm banner.

Also consulting on the project are Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg.  Kasdan has a long history with Lucasfilm, as screenwriter on The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi. Kinberg was writer on Sherlock Holmes and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Abrams and his production company Bad Robot have a proven track record of blockbuster movies that feature complex action, heartfelt drama, iconic heroes and fantastic production values with such credits as Star Trek, Super 8, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, and this year’s Star Trek Into Darkness. Abrams has worked with Lucasfilm’s preeminent postproduction facilities, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, on all of the feature films he has directed, beginning with Mission: Impossible III. He also created or co-created such acclaimed television series as Felicity, Alias, Lost and Fringe.

Abrams is the director of one of my favorite monster movies of all time, Cloverfield.  So I’m going to go get in line for Star Wars Episode 7 right now.

Because I think it’s going to be epic………………………………….it will be what you get when you mix dynamite with a side dish of TNT. What you get is……………THUNDERSTRUCK. And soon the magic of J.J. Abrams will strike us all.

Rich Hoffman

www.tailofthedragonbook.com