Reading Recommendation: Star Wars Imperial Commando: 501st

A thought struck him.  "So what happens if you're a nerf with a high midi-chlorian count?"

.... "Well, latent Force-user or not, I bet someone ate it."

                                 --Karen Traviss, Star Wars Imperial Commando:  501st

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Warning:  You can safely assume that the following post contains spoilers for Star Wars Imperial Commando:  501st by Karen Traviss, as well as for the books in the Republic Commando series by the same author.

This past Friday night my husband and I had a moment of nerdvana.  We, along with our daughter, had gone to dinner at our local Genghis Grill and I was attempting to feed her a piece of carrot from her bowl.  Normally she goes straight for her veggies, but it appears she prefers her carrots in whole baby carrot form rather than the sliced bits GG had to offer.  Also, she was totally chowing down on her noodles and wasn't feeling the carrot love at that precise moment.  She let us know this fact by pushing away the carrot bit and making a gesture very reminiscent of the Jedi mind-trick move.  Immediately my husband and I both looked at each other and said, "This is not the carrot you are looking for."  It was priceless, and extremely amusing to the both of us, and a very good indicator that we chose well when we married each other.  This poor kid has no chance of escaping our house as any type of non-geek.

Last night I continued on the Star Wars love by finishing up the first and only book in Karen Traviss' Imperial Commando series, 501st.  Imperial Commando was set to be the follow-up series to Republic Commando, which concluded, fittingly, with the fall of the Republic and the slaughter of the Jedi Order in Order 66.  Originally Traviss had been under contract to write at least one more book in the second series, which was supposed to have come out in July of this past year.  The series was canceled by Lucas' powerhouse, however, which is unfortunate, because 501st ends with a beginning rather than an ending.  There is little to no closure here, and I am a little saddened to know that fans of the series are unlikely to get any in the future.  I am sure I can probably by now hunt down some fan fiction continuing the series, but without Traviss' unique voice I am not sure I want to read it.

As disturbed as I was left by the abrupt ending of this story, which has so much more potential, I would still heartily recommend 501st to anyone who has read the Republic Commando series.  While this was clearly meant to be the first in a larger arc of stories, there is still much worth to be found within its pages.  Again, as a fan of the Jedi, I found myself constantly challenged by the opinions of Skirata and his clan toward force-users, as well as some of the events in the book itself.

This story takes place on two fronts:  Skirata's hideaway in a remote section of Mandalore, and Imperial City (formerly Coruscant) where Darman and Niner are stuck as part of the Emperor's elite commando unit since they did not manage to escape with the others on the night of Order 66.  Skirata wants to bring Darman and Niner home to Mandalore, but it is not as easy as all that.  Things have, of course, changed under the new regime, and Skirata and his allies find themselves on the Empire's most-wanted list for desertion and conspiracy against the Empire.  Darman and Niner meanwhile have been tasked with hunting down the remaining Jedi.  They are among the few who know that Palpatine is really a Sith, though they see little distinction between the two factions of force-users.

Because of his loss during the execution of Order 66, Darman has become fiercely determined to wipe out any force-users that might attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order.  His reasons have nothing to do with serving Palpatine, however, and everything to do with protecting his son from ever being taken by the order that, in his mind, took away everything he ever loved, all the while using up his brothers like so much cannon fodder in a war they were too stupid to see had been engineered solely to wipe them out of existence.  There is a lot of intensity going on here.

Back on Mandalore Skirata is still doing everything in his power to find a way to stop the rapid aging of the clones.  He even goes so far as to give safe haven to a Kaminoan Jedi who, it turns out, it at least a thousand years old and who is perfectly willing to allow Skirata and Uthan to study her DNA to find a way to extend the lives of the clones.  Kina Ha is a character I would dearly have loved to see more of had this series continued.  She was once an outcast from Kamino because of her aberrations, but now she is largely forgotten, by the Jedi as well as by her own people.  She exudes the true manner of the Jedi, however, and bears no malice toward her people for shunning her, even though her force-sensitivity was the result of their own experimentation.  She bears no ill will toward Skirata for using her to further his own ends, in fact, she willingly offers herself up for study if they believe it will help the clones.  She is calm and polite and observant, and goodness gracious if I didn't want to know more of what was going through her head half the time!

Throughout the story some things go according to plan while others go off the rail.  There are a few loose ends from the Republic Commando series that get tied up, certainly, but mostly we see the introduction of a new set of story lines.  With the loss of Etain, we spend much more time inside Bardan Jusik's headspace, and I have to say he has officially made it onto the top of my list of favorite Jedi throughout the franchise.  Considering he walked away from the Order, that says a lot about how this series has made me look at the Jedi, I think.  I mean, I will still always come down on the side of the Jedi over the Sith, of course, and of force-sensitives over mundanes, most likely.  Come on, the Force is pretty freaking awesome!  But it is very interesting to follow Traviss as she explores the implications of the different ways to actually use one's force-sensitivity, as well as what that says about a person or a culture.  In 501st the readers get to meet Djinn Altis, a Jedi who walked away from the Order long ago and set up his own temple, following a more old-fashioned ideology, allowing his students to love and have families.  I would truly have loved to have gotten to explore more of his group and their dynamic, especially given the moral dilemmas this presented to many of our main characters.

One last thing I'll mention about this book that I really enjoyed was that having so much of it set on Mandalore offered up a truly fascinating look into the Mandalorian culture.  Throughout the Republic Commando series we were given glimpses, but we get a much deeper exploration here.  Some of the speculation as to why the Imperial Commando series was canceled was that the Mandalorian culture Traviss presented varies wildly from that the television series Star Wars Clone Wars has been developing.  Traviss denies this is the reason, stating there were contractual issues.  It does seem that a story line she had in mind about Boba Fett would have had to have been changed up however, due to the live action Star Wars series Lucas has in development.  io9 did a brief write-up on that here that you can check out.  I stress the word speculation, however.  I do have to say, I much, much prefer Traviss' versions of the Mandalorians to what Clone Wars has given us, truth be told.  I think this is because it tends to fall much more in line with the culture of Mandalorians presented in Star Wars The Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel game.  But also because the Mandalorians on the cartoon are a bit too touchy-feely for my liking.  This makes a little bit of sense, I suppose, since it is a show aimed at kids, but still.  The whole point of Mandalorians is that they were hardcore.

Despite its unsatisfying ending--which was unsatisfying only because it wasn't meant to be an ending--I really would recommend this book to anyone who is curious about Mandalorian culture or the lives of the clones outside of what we have seen in the movies or on the television show.  Traviss really knows how to get into the world of Star Wars and bring it to life with characters that feel so much more real to me than almost anyone I've seen on screen to date.  This is the nitty-gritty, the reality of a war brought on by scheming politicians, and the backlash on the innocent and not-so-innocent bystanders.

(Incidentally, if you'd like an actual coherent explanation of why this series is so awesome, here is the article on io9 that got me interested in the series in the first place, back when Order 66 came out.)

Progress Report

So just a few quick things for you today and then I'll let you be on your way to your weekend.  Which hopefully will be warmer than the one we're expecting.  Stupid incoming cold front.  Sigh.  Bring on the idiocy on the roads.  I don't think I want to leave my house again until the temperatures warm up once more.  But I digress.

So, I have made it through the first week of the new year pretty well I think.  I am working on my goals at a good (and hopefully sustainable) pace.  While I have actually mostly been enjoying Kingdom Hearts II very much (still haven't cracked a walkthrough, go me), I have been keeping my playtime short.  Thankfully this game, unlike, say, Mass Effect, does not have the crack-cocaine addictiveness factor going for it.  I've been playing for forty minutes to two hours during nap time in the afternoons each day, but have been passing on the evening gaming session for other pursuits.

I have two observations (not quite complaints) about the game so far.  The first is that whoever designed this game was really, really in love with the new graphics technology that became available between the development of the first and second games.  It is cut scene-o-rama around here.  I almost feel like the game is too focused on the story.  It's a neat story, don't get me wrong, but there's not nearly the amount of running around and exploring each area that there was in the last game.  Not yet, at least.  Also, every freaking time you walk from one room to another, there is a pause for a "title card" of what new room or area you have entered.  It is bloody distracting and it interrupts my gaming flow. Sigh.  Sorry, sorry, not complaining, really.  The other observation is that the combat system seems to be at odds with itself, even more so in this game than in the first.  I don't think it is necessarily a bad idea to have combat in real time--where you can't pause the action while you are trying to heal yourself or decide your next move--but the way this system is designed, you have to constantly be watching the list of actions down in one corner of the screen in order to know what actions are available to you and when.  I can either pay attention to the foe I am fighting with, and try to hit him, or I can watch the corner of the screen and wait for commands to become available.  I cannot do both at the same time.  It leaves for slightly unfufilling battles, and I am often left at the end wondering what the heck just happened because I didn't actually see any of it.  It just seems to me like it is the kind of thing that would make more sense if you could issue out a few commands or pause to decide what your next move will be and which enemy you will use it against.  Again, I have been spoiled by Bioware, I suppose.  But still.  I do really like that they have managed to make even the worlds or people you've seen before seem fresh and incorporate their story into the new adventure.  That's pretty cool.

Those other pursuits I mentioned I'd been doing in the evenings?  Reading.  I had forgotten how much I love reading before bed--just a chapter or two.  I finished the book I had been working on earlier in the week and Tuesday or Wednesday got started on the final installment in the Republic Commando series by Karen Traviss.  So far, so good.  I will probably do a writeup of that once I finish reading it.  I am very curious to see how this tale wraps up.  I suspect it may be a slightly open-ended ending though, since I believe Traviss was originally contracted to write a few more books in the series before The Powers That Be axed it in favor of something else.

Lastly, I finally started my first knitting project yesterday.  I took a few days off after the organization frenzy and then played around a little bit practicing the knit and purl stitches before actually starting.  The project I am working on (a pair of slippers) is a wonderfully simple pattern, and perfect for a beginner, despite the slight challenge added by working with two strands of yarn at once.  But I made good progress yesterday and look forward to maybe getting one of the pair finished (or close to at least) this weekend.  I do have to make a run out today to buy some longer needles, though.  Last year when I was first getting ready to teach myself to knit, I bought some basic, inexpensive starter needles in a variety of sizes.  I never planned to use these needles long-term, just until I figured out which sizes I would realistically need for the specific types of projects I mostly want to work on.  As with when I was building my store of quality crochet hooks, my plan is to buy the special needles I need as I buy the yarn for projects.  The needles I am working on right now would be fine, except that they are only 5" long double-pointed needles, which is about an inch too short.  I probably could work on three needles in the round, but that is beyond me right now, I think, so today I go in quest of 7" needles.  I was nervously eying my project yesterday wondering how on earth I was going to move it to new needles when I get them when it dawned on me that I can just knit it off the current short needle onto the longer one.  Duh.  There is definitely going to be a learning curve here folks, but I am still excited.  Also, yesterday I ordered the yarn for what will be my second knitting project--the Doctor Who scarf.  Yay!

So with that I bid you adieu and wish you a happy and warm weekend!  Have a great one!

Don't forget to swing by Gronk and check out this week's strip while you're playing on the internet though!  It actually went up on Wednesday, but I forgot to link to it.  We've got another guest strip, a beautiful pin-up piece this time.  Enjoy!

Update:  There was a new guest Gronk today as well, it just went up late!  Here you go, enjoy!  

Can Spoilers Go Too Far?

Don't forget to watch the all new episode of Stargate Universe, tonight on Syfy at 8 pm CST!!!!!

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Also, check out the newest episode of Riese:  Kingdom Falling right here!

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Warning:  This post is about spoilers.  It might therefore be reasonable to assume that it contains spoilers.  

 (Mostly for Stargate Universe, but also a little bit for the BBC show Luther.)

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Spoilers, you say?

So, remember last week in my review of the SGU episode The Greater Good I said it pretty much looked like Ginn and Perry had been killed by Creepy Lucian Alliance guy? Then, the day after the episode aired, a bunch of people from the show (most notably David Blue and Joseph Mallozzi) went on the record telling us not to jump to conclusions, and we didn't know what we thought we know?

Sure, a couple of the trailers for tonight's episode have made it look pretty convincing that those characters are now ex-characters, but that could all just be down to editing.  Then, yesterday, I am perusing the weekly What to Watch article on io9, and imagine my surprise to find that this is the synopsis for tonight's episode:

Simeon makes his escape from Destiny after killing Ginn/Amanda Perry, sending Nicholas Rush on a vengeful mission. But Young and Greer attempt to retrieve Simeon unharmed.

Well.  That seems pretty darn definitive.  

Then, yesterday afternoon, I was catching up on Sunday's episode of Luther, which is a really fantastic miniseries that has been airing on BBC America for the last few weeks.  I was fast forwarding through the last commercial break of the episode and stopped when I got to what looked like the return of the show.

Except, that's not what it was. 

It was a preview for next week's episode, which for some reason BBCA decided to air before the episode was actually over.  In this preview, we see that Luther's wife Zoe has been murdered by his crooked cop pal and framed for the crime, and now Luther is on the run trying to prove his innocence.  My brain exploded a little bit.  When last I saw Zoe, before the break, she was alive and well.  After the preview, the episode wrapped up, giving us the big climactic scene wherein the crooked cop kills Zoe.  But the scene had lost all of the tension that the show had worked so carefully to create, because I had just seen an ad for next week and knew that Zoe didn't make it.  It really killed the end of the episode for me.  At least next week's ending won't be spoiled in the same way, since it's the final part of the series and there won't be any previews to show.  But still.

All of this got me thinking about spoilers and how they have wormed their way into the mainstream in the last few years.  Do television viewers truly not want any more mystery in their shows?  Is it just that the people who make the preview trailers aren't paying attention and put in something they think will grab viewers without realizing it gives away the ending of the episode?  

I really don't understand the thought process that went behind the programming decision to air the preview for the next week's episode before the episode had actually ended.  Granted, this series had already aired in its entirety across the pond in Britain earlier in the year.  Maybe somebody just figured that it was technically a rerun and spoilers were off the table? 

Then again, BBCA isn't the only network doing that, now that I think about it.  Psych on USA usually had their ad for next week before the last bit of the show as well.  Although usually the bit after the last break for that show is a wrap-up and all of the big reveals in the episode have happened already.

As far as preview trailers go, I know I've seen quite a few that have raised the ire of actors or writers from a given show.  They feel like they worked hard to make a really cool episode that would keep you guessing, and then someone with some editing tools somewhere went and cut together a teaser that doesn't tease but in fact totally gives it all away!  (The return of Carson Beckett in season four of Stargate Atlantis, anyone?)  What, then, is the point of bothering to watch the show?

The really good teasers do just that.  They hint at what the twist might be, and the best make you think it is something completely different from what it actually is, so that when you watch, you really get the full effect of the reveal.

I mean, I am all for spoilers for the most part.  I tend to see them as harmless fun that gets me excited for the new show.  I mean, heck, I read a daily article on io9 called Morning Spoilers after all.  But I very rarely read the whole thing.  I tend to skim, and only check out the entries for shows or movies that I like or am anticipating.  But if it's just an episode synopsis of, say, the sixth episode of the season that hasn't started airing yet, or an actual reveal about a big plot point, I try to skip it.  The spoilers I am usually looking for are casting scoops, or a general idea of where a show is headed for a season (as in, the vague overarching plot).

So, I guess when I say I like spoilers, I mean I like hints.  The problem is that the hints tend to get roped in with the really big ruiners and it can be hard to separate them without stumbling across some of the latter.  Sure, it's my own fault for reading the spoilers page in the first place, or the comments on a discussion thread or whatnot, but I do like to have a general idea of what could happen.  It's knowing that something is probably coming, but not knowing how it's gonna end up happening that makes it worth watching.

I have this problem with books a lot too, actually, because I read so many series.  I remember one of the first fantasy series I really dug into in college, I had read the first two books (out of six) and went to the store to pick up the rest of the series before I went out of town on a trip.  I read the back jacket of the fourth or fifth book, and it totally gave away the ending of the book I was reading at the time.  I was so appalled!  What made it worse was that it was a plot development I had seen coming and was really hoping would end up not happening.  So I was grumpy reading the whole rest of that book.  Now, I don't even look at the back cover (or inside flap) of books in a series unless it is the first book and I am trying to decide whether to pick up the series or not.  I realized the other day when putting away a book I had read multiple times that I had never read the story blurb on it.

But sometimes, even if you're someone who goes out of your way to avoid spoilers, you can't escape them.  Like when it's right there in the commercial before the show is over (and the networks are pushing you to watch things live), or when the usually spoiler free preview for next week instead gives away the big reveal at the end of the episode.  Heck, I love the author Jim Butcher, and as much as I enjoy The Dresden Files series, I completely adore his Codex Alera series so much more.  But once I read the first couple of books, and looked at the titles for the next few books, I realized that the actual titles of the books themselves are kind of a spoiler.  It's crazy!

I have really struggled with this in my reviews of the Star Wars Republic Commando series that I have been doing on this blog.  I've tried to discuss the primary plot of each book without giving away any of the really cool stuff that actually happens in the story.  For example, there's one plot line throughout the series which I totally left out of my review, as much as I wanted to expand upon it, because I just felt it would not be doing right by the readers to tell them that it happened before they read the book. 

I'm just left wondering, can spoilers actually go too far?  It's right there in the name, isn't it?  Spoilers.  If you're looking at something labeled "spoilers" aren't you asking to find more than you're probably looking for?  I do know that it's not fair to inflict spoilers on someone who isn't suspecting them.

I know, I know, life isn't fair.  Sigh.  But don't you kind of wish it was?

Anyway, I don't really have any answers on this topic, it has just been on my mind, and I wondered if anyone else hangs out in the middle of spoiler-land like I do.  I'll just be floating around, trying to figure out the best way to cope without letting all of my fun get ruined, I suppose.

No word count update today.  I did a lot of world-building yesterday but no actual writing, sadly.  On the other hand, I now know exactly what the paper is made of in the various countries in my story.  I also know what kind of fabric they use and what they eat, and how their language evolved.  Whee!  In that sense, my word count from yesterday is huge, because I added to my notes like crazy, but nothing in the story sad to stay.  Still, I am right about on track, and I think at this point it's very important to get my ducks all in a row in the notes so that I don't have to stop to look things up when I really get into the wrapping-up part of things.

Ta ta for now, folks.  Join me tomorrow, when we'll find out if Ginn and Perry really are dead or not.  (And you'll get to see me express my rage or amazement about how it was pulled off if they really are still alive.)

Reading Recommendation: Star Wars Republic Commando: Order 66

Be warned, the following review contains minor spoilers for the entire Star Wars Republic Commando series as well as some major spoilers for the film Star Wars Revenge of the Sith.  

Now you know. 

Ooh look, a pretty picture of space, because, you know, spoiler space...

I'm not going to lie to you, folks.  Karen Traviss' Order 66 was a brutal read.  Don't get me wrong, it is a fantastic book, but it kept me on tenterhooks pretty much the entire time I was reading.  Throughout much of the book, it seemed like things were going far too well for Kal Skirata and his ragtag band of misfits.  Even events that could have easily sent everything into a tailspin managed to resolve themselves quickly and quietly, and for the most part, with no one worse for the wear.  So I spent a very lot of this read waiting for the other shoe(s) to drop.  I kept thinking to myself, Something has to go wrong now, because if it doesn't, then when things do go south they are going to be very bad indeed.  I was not wrong.


The previous books in the series have primarily served to build up Kal Skirata's clan, while showing us a pretty decent behind the scenes view of the events of the Clone Wars.  The movies are more or less told from the point of view of the Jedi, and this series is told from the point of view of the clones and the "regular" people.  Throughout the series Kal and his Null ARC troopers (and to a lesser extent the rest of his adopted clan) slowly come to the realization that too much about the war doesn't make sense.  Let's go down the list:

1. While the Separatists have been a credible threat for quite some time, there wasn't really enough indication ten years before the war broke out that such an event would indeed happen, yet someone commissioned the clones ten years before the battle at Geonosis.  
2. The mystery of who actually commissioned the clone army or why is never resolved by the Jedi Council or the Senate.  Sure, with hindsight, we can assume Palpatine was behind it, but no one actually figures that out until after he shows his true Sithy colors and declares Empire.
3. Even if everyone decided they were fine not knowing why the army was commissioned in the first place, surely the Treasury would be asking how the heck the army was paid for, but it isn't.
4. The timing of the war breaking out just as the first batch of clones is ready is awfully convenient.
5. The Separatists don't have anywhere near the number of droids that the Republic is claiming they have.  They are a threat, but not quite the imminent threat that the propaganda is making them out to be.
6. The war is being fought in a way that both spreads the Republic forces out as thinly as possible and keeps it going for much longer than is necessary.  A change in tactics could have ended it in much sooner than three years.
7. Every Jedi general or commander has a clone aide, usually an ARC trooper or a commando, at all times.  Presumably this is for the protection of the leaders of the war effort, but Jedi are more than capable of defending themselves and this seems like a big waste of a lot of highly trained clones.  
8. The fact that the Jedi--a peace-keeping, generally non-violent group--are put in charge of the clone army at all should be a BIG red flag.
9. New (and secret) clone-growing facilities have been set up on Coruscant and one of its moons, using the quick-grow technology of some of Kamino's rivals in the cloning industry.  But absolutely no one is announcing that reinforcement troops are soon to come--a fact that would not only greatly boost the waning morale of the existing clones, but would also do a great deal to reassure the people of the Republic.  
10. Also, since Jango Fett died at Geonosis, the new clones are being grown from second generation source material, instead of Jango himself.  The Kaminoans refused to use second generation source material because they found it produced inferior "product" with a much shorter lifespan than the original clones.  While the original clones are considered "expendable," the new ones will be "disposable."
11. A new fleet of warships is being built but also kept secret from the Senate, the Jedi Order, and the GAR.  It is scheduled for completion in a very specific timeframe, even though it was commissioned in plenty of time to be completed well before that date.

These are just some of the inconsistencies and worrying facts that Kal and his crew have dredged up over the course of the series.  Perhaps one or two of these items on its own isn't enough to suggest that something is very very wrong, but altogether, they point to this war having been engineered for a very specific purpose and conducted to last for a very specific period of time.  They also suggest that something very big is coming up and give Kal a pretty good idea of when it will happen.  With all of this information, plus the growing realization that, short lifespan or not, the Republic has made no provisions for the clones after the war is over, Kal decides that it is time for his family to cut and run.  He has been setting up a refuge on Mandalore and has been putting together a very thorough research database on cloning so that the right scientist can use the information to stop the clones' accelerated aging.  All he has to do is put everything in motion.

The book starts out pretty much right after the end of True Colors, but then makes several jumps forward in time to align with the events of Revenge of the Sith.  I don't think I had ever realized that the movie takes place over the course of only a few days.  Just as Kal is getting ready to send out the call for everyone to rendezvous on Coruscant and then hightail it to Mandalore, the Separatist siege of Coruscant begins.  In some ways, this serves as a lucky break for the Skirata clan, because it results in Omega Squad being called back to the planet from deployment elsewhere--something Kal was trying to work out how to do.  And the added chaos gives his people a much better chance to move around unseen by the Chancellor's security forces, who are now looking for Kal.

Kal wants to get the following people to Mandalore in the first wave of "strategic withdrawal":

1. Omega Squad, deployed off-world, but called back to Coruscant during the siege.
2. Etain, deployed on Kashyyk.
3. The Null ARC troopers, deployed in various places but mostly able to relocate at will.
4. Laseema, Besany, and Kad, hidden in a safe house on Coruscant.
5. Vau and Bardan, both able to move from world to world at will.
6. Jilka, a colleague of Besany's, falsely arrested for treason for being in the wrong place at the wrong time--needs to be broken out of detention.
7. Kal's biological daughter Ruu, who has been imprisoned by the Republic for supporting the Separatists.
8. Dr. Uthan, the geneticist from way back in Hard Contact, who has been imprisoned by the Republic ever since, and who Kal thinks will be able to solve the problem of the clones' accelerated aging.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Kal and his gang have to pull off three separate prison breaks before they can leave Coruscant.  No one could ever say that Kal Skirata is not an ambitious character.  Traviss definitely knows how to keep things exciting.  In the middle of all of that, Jedi Master Mace Windu goes to confront Palpatine, causing the Chancellor to give the GAR the command to execute order 66.  In the movie it all seems so mysterious and I will admit I always wondered how that whole thing worked.  Were the clones brainwashed during training, at the Chancellor's request, so he could just say the phrase and flip the switch?  It always seemed so bizarre to me, that the clones that worked so well with the Jedi could just turn on them like that, at the drop of a hat, with no further elaboration other than to "execute order 66."  

But the truth is even more horrifying because it is so much more mundane than that.  While training on Kamino, the clones received a document called "Contingency Orders for the Grand Army of the Republic:  Order Initiation, Orders 1-150."  They had 150 orders to memorize in the event of several possible worst case scenarios.  Here is the text of Order 66, as Traviss gives it to us:

"Order 66:  In the event of Jedi officers acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly from the Supreme Commander (Chancellor), GAR commanders will remove those officers by lethal force, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) until a new command structure is established."

Basically translated:  "The Jedi have initiated a coup, execute on sight."  Which makes sense, really, since non-Force users like clones have no way of containing rebel Jedi.  Upon hearing this order, most of the clones complied simply out of anger at a presumed betrayal by their leaders.  The clones were made to serve the Republic and to follow orders--and that they do.  What is most deeply disturbing is that, as Kal realizes toward the end of the story, Palpatine was able to engineer this army, engineer this war, and them put himself in a position to be able to use the war and the army to completely annihilate the true enemy of any Sith Lord--the Jedi Order.  That takes some serious patience and planning.

While the Nulls and Omega Squad don't comply with this order, it isn't out of any fundamental loyalty to the Jedi.  It is largely because they have other things occupying their minds--like trying to get everybody together and off of Coruscant in one piece.  They've already begun the process of desertion at this point, so the order is more of an inconvenience to them than anything else.  They wouldn't harm Bardan or Etain, of course, but then, most of them stopped classifying those two as "Jedi" long before Order 66 is given. 

In fact, at first glance, I was unpleasantly surprised by the reaction of most of the clones and other non-Jedi to the order. The more I think about it though, the more it makes perfect sense.  Fans of Star Wars have been trained to see Jedi as the pillars of light.  They are the unequivocal good guys in this universe.  But throughout the Republic Commando series, Traviss does an excellent job of showing the faults of the order.  There must be a reason, after all, that it was so easy for Palpatine to manipulate events exactly to his desires.  Like the Republic, the Jedi Order had long since begun to rot from the inside out.  So it is no wonder that the "regular people" resent the Jedi, believing them to be pompous fools trying to enforce their own two-faced form of morality upon the galaxy.  After all, they preach reverence for all life, but they lead the GAR, an army composed of slaves.  They take Force-sensitive children away from their families at a very young age and give them no choice about what to do with their lives.  While the clones may be fond of some individual Jedi, they see them as puppets of the Senate--throwing away the lives of the expendable soldiers in a war that has dragged on much longer than it should have.  We are treated to some very uncharitable characterizations of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda from the perspective of the clones.  There is some surprise when it is learned the Jedi tried to overthrow the Chancellor, but there is also belief--and very little hesitation to put the Jedi down.  It is an extremely sobering way of looking at things for someone like myself who has always been so gung-ho pro-Jedi.  But even our main characters, who know what's going on and have maybe more cause than some of the others to resent the Jedi, acknowledge that not all Jedi are bad.  The ideals they strive to meet are certainly commendable, but they seem to have ventured down the wrong path while trying to achieve their goals. 

I do want to give props to the fact that Traviss had one of her characters (Ordo, I believe) ask Jedi Master Zey a question that has been bugging me for years.  How the heck did no one in the Jedi Council realize that Chancellor Palpatine--who they all worked very closely with--was a freaking SITH?  The Jedi are always going on about being able to sense the Force in people and the strength of other Force-users.  Why did no one notice what Palpatine was?  Master Zey provides no answer to this question, of course.  I would be unsurprised to learn that perhaps Lucas just never bothered to come up with an explanation for that when he was plotting the prequels.  But it was very nice to have someone in the universe acknowledge the oddness of that slipping by unnoticed, all the same. 

While Kal does manage to get most of his family to Mandalore, they do not all make it.  Some fall, and some choose to stay behind.  There is a death that is absolutely heartbreaking.  I am not ashamed to admit I almost started bawling my eyes out when it happened.  Those that make it to the safe haven are broken, and it is quite clear to the readers, as the story closes out, that these men and women have a long way to go before they feel whole again.  There is no happy ending here.  Just a very rocky beginning.

Reading Recommendation: Star Wars Republic Commando: True Colors

SPOILER ALERT!  SPOILER ALERT!  SPOILER ALERT!  SPOILER ALERT!  SPOILER ALERT!

T3M4 advises you to proceed at your own risk. 

As its title might suggest, Karen Traviss' third entry in the Republic Commando series, True Colors, is all about setting the stage for the final alliances of our various clone, Jedi, Mandalorian, and other friends from the series so far.  Those familiar with the Star Wars timeline know that at the beginning of the end of The Revenge of the Sith, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine orders the clones to assassinate, in its entirety, the Jedi Order.  Clearly, this order is going to cause a lot of problems for Kal Skirata's Null ARC Troopers, as well as his commando squads, particularly Omega Squad. 

True Colors gives us strong hints, however, that not all of the clones (or Jedi for that matter) will take this order without a fight.  Ever since meeting the six surviving clones from the Null batch at the age of two, and rescuing them from "reconditioning" (otherwise known as termination) by the Kaminoan head scientist Ko Sai, Kal Skirata has had his own agenda with regards to the clones.  In this novel we, the readers, finally get to see the entirety of that agenda, as well as read eagerly along while it begins to come to fruition.

Let me back up a little bit, because I skipped over this in my last review.  When the scientists on Kamino first started creating the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), they planned not just to clone Jango Fett, but also to tweak his DNA to make the clones a) more willing/able to work with each other (as Jango was something of a loner), and b) more obedient/loyal to their Republic masters.  The first batch of "prototype" clones was a group of twelve designated "Null" troopers.  Only half of those prototype clones survived the birthing/hatching process.  The Nulls, however, turned out to not be what the Kaminoans were looking for, and so subsequent clones were based on the next template they created.  This means that among the clones the Nulls are a bit different, both in physical appearance and in genetic traits.  

Kal arrived on Kamino when the Null clones were two years old (approximately 5 or 6 in appearance and development).  One of his first encounters on the planet, in fact, was with Ko Sai and the Nulls.  She had finally deemed them irrefutably flawed and scheduled them for reconditioning.  Kal, seeing only six very frightened little boys, stopped her from killing the children and took responsibility for them upon himself, along with the training of his batch of regular commando troopers.  He raised these boys as his own sons, and it was his interactions with them that shaped his opinions of the Kaminoans as well as his treatment of all of the commandos he trained.  The Nulls were classified as Advanced Recon Commando (ARC) troopers--though the ARC troopers from the subsequent template (the Alphas) were all trained by Jango Fett himself, and the Mandalorian mercenaries he hired (including Kal) trained the Commando troopers.  The "basic" model clone troopers were trained by a variety of soldiers, also hired by Fett, though they were not Mandalorian.

The Null ARC troopers are:  Prudii (N-5), Kom'rk (N-6), Mereel (N-7), Jaing (N-10), Ordo (N-11), and A'den (N-12).  In Triple Zero Traviss introduced Ordo and Mereel, as well as Kal's back story with the Nulls.  In True Colors we also meet A'den, though Ordo and Mereel both play very heavy roles in the story. 

There is a very very lot going on in this book, but the main plot(s) centers around the search for Ko Sai, who fled from Kamino when it was attacked by Separatists at the start of the Clone Wars.  The official line is that she died in the attack, but in truth she defected to the Separatists, and then took their money and ran.  She's been in hiding for over a year, and a lot of people are looking for her. The other Kaminoan scientists want her back because she is their best scientist (and she stole quite a bit of the cloning research when she fled).  Chancellor Palpatine wants her back ostensibly to deny her services to the Separatists and to ensure the continued development of clones for the GAR, the Separatists want their money back (and her research if they can get it), and Kal wants to find her to make her come up with a solution to the accelerated aging every clone is saddled with.

The Nulls spent the time since Geonosis doing odd jobs for Kal, technically classified as Special Operations, but really more to further his own goals of providing a solid future for his adopted sons once the war is completed.  One of those odd jobs has been tracking down Ko Sai, and in True Colors, Kal finally has a strong enough lead to actually go and look for her himself, along with the assistance of Ordo, Mereel, and, surprisingly, Walon Vau.  I say "surprisingly" because these two men do not like each other one bit.  But over the course of the novel, it becomes clear that they both resent the way the clones have been used by the Republic and want to secure the chance of a future for them.  Despite their very different approaches to training the men and to life in general, these men grow to grudgingly respect each other and recognize that they need each other to be able to do what they want to do. 

But, as I mentioned, Palpatine also wants Ko Sai found, immediately.  So he tasks Bardan Jusik and Delta Squad to find her.  Bardan, of course, is in on Kal's plans and realizes that he can't let Delta find her first.  So he works with Kal to delay Delta Squad's search, and in the end, Kal and his team do reach her first.  She is captured and taken to Mandalore, where Kal sets up facilities for her to start working on a way to end the clones' accelerated aging. 

I feel like the dichotomy of this particular plot point is a very important one that will have extremely far-reaching consequences.  For one thing, up until now Delta has been part of the inner circle with Kal, Vau, Omega, and the Nulls.  There have been differences of opinion, but they have been on the same side through it all, putting those differences aside to get the job done.  But from this point forward, Delta is outside the circle.  I foresee that leading to some nasty conflicts and/or some hard choices down the road.  For another thing, it has Vau actively working against Delta, and though he would never admit it, it has been made clear that they are his "boys" in the same way that Omega is to Kal.  Delta is given specific orders not to mention their assignment to Vau or to Kal.  While they have no problem keeping Kal out of the loop, it is interesting to see that, though they don't like it, they are equally willing to exclude Vau as well, because they are ordered to do so.  Kal's training methods brought up a batch of very competent commandos, but their loyalty is to him first, and then the Republic.  In Delta we see that Vau's training instilled loyalty to the Republic above all else--even if the Republic's actions aren't making any sense.

And make no mistake about it, the Republic's actions aren't making sense.  Not any more, not to anyone who is willing to look beyond the propaganda and the individual assignments to take a gander at the big picture.  The Republic is claiming that the Separatists have quadrillions of droids, but if they do, then they aren't using them--if they were, the Republic would have been overrun long before this point in the story.  The Nulls' forays into the various Separatist droid factories on sabotage missions confirm that the numbers are far less than what is being claimed.  But the leaders of the Republic military don't seem to care about this news that the enemy is much smaller than they thought.  They certainly aren't taking the advice of their generals to adjust their strategy to one that would bring about a swift end to the war based on the new and confirmed intel. 

In fact, the government seems to be doing the exact opposite, stretching their resources throughout the galaxy very dangerously and therefore stretching out the war unnecessarily.  Omega, for instance, is on an assignment during this story that they quickly realize makes no strategic sense whatsoever.  Treasury Agent Besany Wennen, who was more or less drafted into Kal's clan during their mission on Coruscant, has been doing some digging on her end of things and has made a couple of very interesting--and disturbing--discoveries.  First, it seems that the government has busily been setting up new cloning facilities on one of Coruscant's moons, but they're keeping it top secret and hiding the money trail.  Second, there is very little to no expenditure being allocated toward health care and rehabilitation for clones.  Put together an encounter of Omega's on their mission, Kal and his band realize that any clones who are too injured to be healed and put back into action immediately or at all are being euthanized.  And any clones that express a desire to leave the GAR are being executed by Covert Ops, which means it is sanctioned by the Senate.  Our motley little band is coming to the realization that something is very very wrong with the war, and that the Republic they are serving might be just as rotten as the Separatists they are fighting.

Ko Sai also reveals to Kal and Etain that the real reason she left Kamino was to get away from Chancellor Palpatine.  It seems he had been haranguing her to develop a means for him--not mankind,  not the clones, just him--to expand his life span well past that of an ordinary human.  If that isn't a sinister hint that things are in place to get much much worse, then I don't know what is. 

Adding to the growing discontent with the clones' lot in life, Darman's not the only one of his brothers who has found himself a girl.  Ordo has been seeing Besany Wennen and Atin has fallen for a Twi'lek named Laseema.  The clones who haven't found companionship outside of their brothers are looking to those who have and starting to think about what they want outside of service in the GAR.  Fi, in particular, feels the lack of a "normal" life imposed by the conditions of his creation.  The clones may have been trained only to serve in the GAR, but once exposed to the rest of the galaxy, it did not take long for many of them to realize that they are, in fact, still human men, and to crave the kind of existence, or at least choices, that other humans take for granted.  Jedi Knight Bardan Jusik is hit particularly hard by realizing his complicity in what has been done to these men, in how they are being used, and he faces a great struggle with himself over whether he still belongs in the Jedi Order at all. 

As I said, there's quite a bit going on in True Colors, and I haven't even begun to scrape the surface.  Traviss takes us into the real meat of the issues here.  The casual Star Wars fans who have seen the movies will come at this knowing all along that Palpatine is a Bad Guy, and therefore all of his calls in the war are subject to question.  We know, as the readers, that he is Up To No Good.  Traviss does an amazing job of taking that into consideration and managing to show us why Palpatine was able to pull off this grand deception.  We see these people living their lives as citizens or servants (or property) of the Republic.  We see the ideals that they want to believe they are upholding, and we see how separate from the reality of the war the Senate and the people of the Republic truly are.  And once we're sucked in, we get to ride along as a few of these people start finding the pieces and putting them together.  I am amazed by how well it is executed.  This series gets better, richer, with each new book.  Do yourself a favor and read it.

Kitties! Crochet! Life in General!

Okay, first things first.  *cough* Ahem.  *cough*

Don't forget to watch tonight's new episodes of Stargate Universe and Caprica on Syfy starting at 8 pm CST!!!

Right, then.  Getting on with it.

I've got a couple of finished crochet projects for you today.  Here's the birthday present I was working on week before last.  It was a poncho for a good friend of mine, her birthday was this past Saturday.  

Poncho of Happiness by Cori 2010.

The pattern I used for this was the Groovy Granny Poncho from Lion Brand's free pattern database.  (To see the pattern you may have to register with the site, but that's free, it just gets you a newsletter, which you can even opt out of.)  I love LB's pattern database.  Because one of their big lines is Vanna's Choice, designed by Vanna White, who crochets, they have a ton of crochet patterns as well as knitting.  And they have patterns for all sorts of different fiber types. 

For this project, I used their Homespun yarn, in Baroque, Amethyst, Edwardian, and Black.  I absolutely hated Homespun the first time I tried to use it because I am really just not used to the bulkier yarns, but now that I've worked with it a bit, I have to admit, I kind of love it a little.  It is so soft and warm.  The pattern called for one skein of each color, but didn't use it all up, so I ended up having enough left over to make one (with a few modifications to the pattern) for my daughter as well.

Pint-sized Poncho by Cori 2010.

Baby Girl models her new duds.

I am now hard at work on my next project, another birthday present, which I'll post more about once it has been given to its recipient.  

In other news, I thought I would share with you some photos of my kitties, since I am bound to mention them from time to time.  They are my furred children, so I thought you should get to know them a bit as well.  I have two kitties that live inside with us and suck up all of the love that I don't give Baby Girl.  They've done a pretty good job of adjusting to her arrival over the past year.  Wally pretty much took to her right away and has adopted a "big brother" attitude of sorts.  He is extremely patient with her and endures her vigorous "petting" attempts, because he knows he will be well repaid with love from me after the baby has gone to bed.  Also, they both love to play with my yarn when I am right in the middle of the tricky part of any given project.  Tony finally seems to be warming up to the newest addition to the family.  He no longer flees the room when she enters it, and will even let her touch him occasionally--though not without flinching.  I think a big part of his deciding to come around (aside from the realization that she is clearly not going anywhere) is that now that she is feeding herself, there is a lot more people food being dropped on the ground for him to get to.  

I do also have two stray kitties that I have more or less adopted, though they stay outside.  One of them, a Siamese that I have oh-so-cleverly (insert sarcasm) named Sy, is very personable and sweet.  Part of me really wants to bring him inside to live with us (after a visit to the vet and a bath, of course), but I know that wouldn't be fair to him, because he is so completely an outside kitty.  So for now I am just doing my best to make sure that he has a safe and comfortable place in our backyard, as well as a regular food supply.  The other stray (who I don't have a photo of) is definitely Sy's companion, and I know he eats the food I put out, but I only see him very rarely.  He is extremely skittish around people and tends to dash off the moment he realizes he's been spotted.  I have dubbed him Skittles. 

Sy, the stray Siamese.

Tony, who will be 6 in December.

Wally, at 9 years old.

I started playing Star Wars Republic Commando last night, but alas, I don't think that I am going to be able to play this one all of the way through.  It is in the first person point of view, and you're looking out through your character's helmet display, which is just crazy.  It made me a bit nauseated.  I had this same problem when I played Portal, but that didn't have the added craziness of a whole slew of control buttons to remember, so I was able to adjust to it, though I had to limit my playing to only about an hour at a time.  I don't think I'm gonna make it through this game though.  It's sad, because I really really love the books and was hoping that playing the game would add an extra dimension to my enjoyment of them.  But it doesn't really have the RPG aspect I prefer in my games, and with that plus the controls just totally throwing me off, plus the POV, I may just have to set this one aside.  At least for now.  On the plus side, I only paid $6 for it, so I don't have to get mad at the waste of money.  So it looks like I might be finally diving into Morrowind next instead, to my husband's great excitement.  He has been trying to get me to play that game forever. 

Discovering the Star Wars Expanded Universe

Alright, I don't know if I've actually mentioned this yet, but I absolutely LOVE Star Wars.  I hear the sizzle of a light saber and my imagination just bolts off to a galaxy far far away.  I can't help it.  It is second only to Stargate in the realm of things Cori is a huge fangirl about.

Yes, Stargate still comes first.  In fact, just so there's no question, let's go ahead and get Cori's space opera hierarchy on the record, shall we?  First to last, it goes:  Stargate, Star Wars, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica (the 21st century version), and Farscape.  Okay, have we got that out of the way?  Good.  Now, back to Star Wars. 

For the sake of clarity, when I say the Expanded Universe (or EU), I mean things that are considered officially Star Wars but not part of the main cannon, which for my purposes includes the original trilogy, the new trilogy, and Clone Wars (the movie and cartoon).  So EU would be the official novels and comic books (of which there are a LOT), and video games.  I think technically Lucas is only counting novels and comics as EU, but there is a ton of story in the video games (and many of them are getting novelization tie-ins anyway), so I consider those part of the Star Wars EU.

Now, I think it would be fair to say that I have always enjoyed Star Wars.  It was always in the background when I was a kid, I was all about Ewoks, and USA used to always show the trilogy during holidays so I caught bits and pieces of it here and there.  It wasn't until the summer before my sophomore year of high school though that I actually actively watched the entire original trilogy (which I actually did at a sleepover at a friends house--back to back--staying up to finish long after she had fallen asleep).  When I was a senior in high school the theatrical re-release of the trilogy happened, and I got to go with my friends to see all of the movies on the big screen.  Yes, they were the special editions, but I didn't know any better, so I'll have to admit that the changes Lucas made have never really annoyed me as much as they have  all of the fans who came before me.  (Though I will admit that once I was older and wiser I was very irritated that he tried to take back Han shooting first.  That is truly just an insult to the character.)

The summer after my freshman year of college, The Phantom Menace came out.  My sister (a year younger than me) had fallen in with a crowd of ultra geeky Star Wars fans (one of whom was the assistant manager at the local theater), and so they had camped out for opening day tickets (ah the days before online movie ticket sales) and they got me one too.  And you know what, I really liked Phantom Menace.  I went to see it at least five times that summer.  (Admittedly, this was partly because I often got into movies for free that summer, and I saw a lot of things multiple times, but still.)  Was it as good as any of the original films?  Hell no.  Does it hold up well under scrutiny eleven years later?  Not really.  Was it a lot of fun for a casual Star Wars fan who just wanted more of the story?  Oh heck yeah.  I also liked Attack of the Clones, which I went to see at opening with my best friend (and now husband) and our ultra-hard core Star Wars fan roommate.  Sadly, I didn't get to see Revenge of the Sith when it opened (I liked Attack of the Clones but it was a bit of a let down and some of the fervor had died), but I did get to see it in theaters and am so glad I did.  It is arguably the best of the new trilogy and damn it if isn't just a good movie.  Still not quite up to par with the original trilogy, but I don't think anything ever can be because we've all placed it on a pedestal that is too high for mere mortal filmmakers to reach anymore.

Revenge of the Sith got my excitement for the franchise back up a bit, actually.  It is what got me to start thinking about the EU.  I thought maybe I might like to give some of the novels a try.  But oh my goodness, where to start?  Seriously, next time you're in a bookstore or goofing around on Amazon, check out the Star Wars books.  There are a very very lot.  My husband suggested the logical place to start would be with the three books by Timothy Zahn that essentially stand in for episodes seven, eight, and nine (The Thrawn Trilogy).  Those would be, in order, Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command.  So I read those books, and they were okay.  I have to admit some of the writing really took me out of the universe.  Zahn didn't quite have the world in his grasp--some things were just too close to Earth, and it felt a little like laziness on his part, given how rich this universe is, that he couldn't come up with something more Star Warsy than hot chocolate (if you've read them you probably know what I mean, if not, yes, Luke discovers that he loves hot chocolate in this series).  But the story itself was pretty compelling and it was a nice continuation of the original trilogy.  We got some closure and paths to whole new stories and adventures were opened up.  We also got some perspective on the events of the original trilogy from characters that weren't in the spotlight in the movies.  But still, I was sated.  I thought I might like to read more but didn't have enough motivation to find out which series should be my next to pick up.  At this point, I was still just a casual fan. 

And then Clone Wars came out and everything changed. I knew I had to see the movie because it came out just a few days before my birthday, a birthday which my husband and I were celebrating with a trip to my hometown, hanging out with those same friends I saw the original trilogy in theaters with.  So, on my birthday, my husband, my best friend from high school, and his daughter all went to see Clone Wars.  I think I liked it best out of anyone in the group.  It got my imagination going again.  There was a lot of negative feedback for Ahsoka Tano--but even at her whiniest moment (and remember, she's a teenage girl and a padawan being tossed at a new master who isn't really a master himself yet, just a knight) she was nowhere, and I mean NOWHERE, near as whiny as Luke Skywalker in A New Hope.  And she stepped up pretty darn quick.  Plus, I thought the baby hutt was cute.  Sue me. 

But the point is, I was quickly falling more in love with the Star Wars universe than I ever had been before.  I had dithered on getting the new trilogy on DVD but suddenly, I had to.  My husband, who had been trying to get me to see the awesomeness of PC gaming (at this point I was strictly Gamecube, Wii, and PS2 games, and really only casually), was finally able to talk me into playing Knights of The Old Republic (which was totally my gateway drug into PC gaming and I really haven't looked back).  In between KOTOR and the Clone Wars series, I was gone.  Total fangirl.  I wanted, no I needed, more.  The joy I get from dipping my toes into the Star Wars universe takes me to a happy place surpassed only by Atlantis.  And thus, I have begun my foray into the EU.  On the video game front, I have played KOTOR and its slightly less entertaining sequel, as well as, of course the Lego Star Wars games  for each of the trilogies.  My copy of the Clone Wars Lego Star Wars game, coming out next month I think, is already on preorder.  I've got quite a few console games (like The Force Unleashed) sitting in my Amazon wishlist waiting patiently for me to bring them home and give them a whirl.  I just picked up Republic Commando and will be playing it as soon as I finish my current game.  As far as comics go, I have been reading the online tie-ins to the upcoming MMO The Old Republic (set after the events of KOTOR), which I am eagerly awaiting.  For my birthday I picked up the first volume of the Legacy series, set a few generations after The Return of the Jedi.  I enjoyed that quite a bit, and will be picking up the rest of the series as my budget allows.  There's also a new series of comics called Knight Errant about to come out that I've subscribed to.

And what about the insanely massive amount of EU books I mentioned earlier?  Well, I've jumped back into those waters as well, with the Republic Commando series by Karen Traviss.  I just finished the first book, Hard Contact, a few days ago and am currently working on book two, Triple Zero.  In all honesty, everything that I've said so far was supposed to be a quick intro into my review of Hard Contact.  But it is clear that I have more than a little to say about Star Wars and the EU.  So we'll save my book review for tomorrow, and I'll wrap this up. 

You may have heard that George Lucas has recently announced his plans to re-release both trilogies (in chronological order, which I think is just a terrible idea) in 3D (which is an even worse idea) over the coming years.  This is getting him a lot of (well-deserved) flak.  But the fallout is landing on Star Wars itself as well, and that makes me more than a little sad.  Flick Filosopher, who I adore, asks in her question of the day why we keep letting Lucas make us his bitch.  And instead of focusing on why we, the fans, time and time again give Lucas money in exchange for disappointment, the comments have mostly been just remarks on how the new trilogy sucked and no one will be seeing them in 3D, and they refuse to give any more money to Lucas.  While I respect their right to these opinions, and the fact that they don't want to pay for what they perceive as crap, they are clearly in the minority--because Lucas doesn't keep messing with the original trilogy (and didn't get to make the new trilogy) because nobody went to see what he came up with.  So I suppose my point in all of this is just to say that yeah, somebody needs to love Lucas enough to tell him "no" once in a while (and actually enforce that no), but just because he's gone off the deep end, we shouldn't forget that without him, we wouldn't have this wonderful sandbox that is the Star Wars Universe to play in at all.  Right now, with the movies and the television show, along with all of the EU, Star Wars has something to offer pretty much any fan.  I, for one, will remember to thank him for that at least, while hoping he eventually realizes he's a bit too big for the sandbox and maybe he should just let the other kids play in it now. 

A few fun quick links for you folks:

Darths & Droids (A webcomic that retells the new trilogy as if it were a RPG campaign, using stills from the movies.  It is hilarious.)

The Old Republic MMO (I seriously cannot wait for this game to come out--at which point my family and friends are probably going to need to just say goodbye to me for a while.)