Save the Galaxy

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I tracked down a Star Wars Battle Pod. The reviews of the game were good and since I'm a fan of anything Star Wars, we thought we'd give it a go. It's an arcade game, so unless you've got a lot of money to spare, you might want to find it at an arcade. In the UK, this is mostly at Tenpin and Hollywood Bowl, and in the US and Canada, it's at Dave & Buster's.

It's actually an enclosed pod, which is nice, since you can immerse yourself in it more. My boyfriend and I swapped off playing each level - he's better than I am at arcade-style games, so he had a higher score than me on most, but I beat the Takodana level when he didn't, so I was rather proud of that accomplishment. The battles are all famous ones from the films - Battle of Yavin, Battle of Hoth, Battle of Endor, Battle of Takodana, so while you do participate in destroying both Death Stars, there's still a lot of variety.

There's a bonus level at the end called Vader's Revenge that isn't really part of the storyline, because it takes place after the destruction of the first Death Star - you play as Vader and you're trying to prevent the Rebels from taking a piece from the Death Star's remains and you destroy the Millennium Falcon in the process. I couldn't beat that level, but my boyfriend got a top score on it. Perhaps I just subconsciously couldn't bring myself to destroy the Falcon?

The game is on a rail system, so there isn't any freedom to explore the level, but that's rather to be expected of an arcade game. And since you're participating in very specific events that take place in a small area of space (or atmosphere, depending), it makes sense for it to be set up that way as well. I thought the game was a lot of fun - it's exciting and fast-paced and you get to participate in some of the most important events in the Star Wars franchise. At least, of the ones that appear in the films.

Wookiees and Droids

A few weeks ago, I attended Indianapolis Comic Con, my first-ever con. I'd heard a lot about conventions from my best friend, who's been going to them (and telling me all about them) for the past ten years. Considering how much nerdy fun they are, I can't believe it took me so long to go. There were panels with celebrities (and I actually know who they are!), booths selling all kinds of things from nerdy stuff to my favourite books, comic books, action figures, and more. Plus, there were people dressed up in costume. Some people have to travel a long way for a con, so I was lucky that I live in the same city as this one.

I was most impressed by this Wookiee costume - at first I thought it was Tarrful, but then I watched Revenge of the Sith again and now I'm not so sure. Either way, he's not Chewbacca. His beard is too long and is the wrong colour for Chewbacca. I know the names of all the obscure Star Wars characters, but recognising them in person is another matter, apparently.

I saw Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, Hera Syndulla, Bastila Shan (couldn't get a good picture of her, unfortunately, as we were in a rather quickly moving queue for the James and Oliver Phelps panel), Bob Ross Deadpool, and an actual moving and beeping R2-D2.

One of the coolest parts was getting to meet Timothy Zahn. He wrote the original Legends' Thrawn trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn duology (some of my favourite Star Wars books) and is still writing Grand Admiral Thrawn books for Disney's canon. I got Vision of the Future signed (I had to pick just one - I couldn't bring all five books with me, sadly). I also bought the new Thrawn book in hard-cover and he signed that as well and was willing to take a picture with me.

 

Grand Admiral Thrawn is my favourite Star Wars villain, so I was happy to see him brought into the canon and even show up in Star Wars Rebels. It was cool to meet the author who wrote Thrawn. I was a bit nervous, because my last meeting with a favourite author (Terry Pratchett) had resulted in him asking me 'you have got a name, I presume?'. It wasn't really that awful - he was just joking with me because I hadn't heard him properly when he'd asked me my name and had responded with 'what?'. The meeting with Timothy Zahn went a bit more smoothly, at least.

I attended two panels while I was there - one with Sean Astin and then later James and Oliver Phelps. Sean talked a lot about New Zealand and how much he loved the country, which was cool, since I went there a few years ago and made it into a rather nerdy trip and saw all of the Lord of the Rings film locations. James and Oliver were asked a lot of odd questions about twin magic and whether or not they could read each other's minds, but they were good sports about it. I can imagine that would get rather annoying after a while.

At the James and Oliver Phelps panel (which we chose to go to over a Villains Who Suck panel - too bad they were at the same time, because that would have been interesting), we saw a bloke cosplaying as Prince Robot IV from Saga. I wanted to get a picture of him, but by the time I was close enough to, he'd taken his TV off so he could watch the panel. Sadly, I didn't see him again after that.

I was rather proud of myself that I didn't spend all of my money - I bought the books and a necklace and that was about it. My boyfriend bought several comic books (I looked, but they hadn't got the ones that I wanted), since he's been collecting different covers of the Saga comics. All in all, a productive, fun day and I would definitely go again.

May the Fourth Be with You

Today is Star Wars day and I know a lot of people think Star Wars Day and the whole 'may the fourth be with you' thing is rather silly, but I like it. I enjoy a good pun, it's fun, and it's a great excuse to go to an arcade and play Star Wars Battlepod or to have a Star Wars film marathon, if you can decide how you're going to watch them.

Personally, I prefer to watch them in chronological order (in-universe, not release date) and I don't skip The Phantom Menace like many do. Obviously the Prequels aren't fantastic films (I hate sand, anyone?), but I don't dislike watching them. They're still reasonably entertaining and Darth Maul is cool. The lightsaber duels are fun to watch and they still tell an important part of the Star Wars story. And then if I watch them first, I can get them out of the way and move on to Rogue One and the Original Trilogy. Soon I'm not really going to be able to have a marathon so much as a gradual re-watch of everything - at least then I can include Clone Wars and Rebels and the new show coming out next year about the Resistance that's meant to be in a sort of anime style.

Anyway, whether you like Star Wars Day (or the Revenge of the 'Fifth' the next day) or not, it's now officially celebrated by Disney and has been since they bought the rights to Star Wars. They have events at Disneyland and Disney World and everything. Really, I think Revenge of the Sixth is a bit closer to Revenge of the Sith than the Fifth is, but it doesn't really matter for me - my support goes to the Jedi over the Sith every time.

So, Happy Star Wars Day everyone. May the Fourth be with you!