Star Wars Marathon Musings Part 2

By Hannah

 

Part two of our marathon.  Episodes 4-7 is about eight and a half hours.  We watched all four movies this time.  

Episode 4: A New Hope

AKA: The mystery of R2D2 and stairs

AKA: Luke isn’t a dick, but he knows how they think

AKA: Leia is a bad ass

AKA: What’s with the chasms in a space station?

AKA: Why are they getting medals?

Click image to view on Amazon

Hannah: The first Star Wars is pretty amazing.  The acting is on point, visuals are great, and the chemistry is electric.  Too much CGI, but that’s easily ignored most of the time.  I love R2D2 by himself and like R2D2 and C3P0 together.  C3P0 on his own is way too annoying, but when they are together R2D2’s sassy beeping mellows out C3P0’s incessant whining.

 

Courtney: I like this movie because of how much Leia does not put up with Han and Luke, even when they’re trying to rescue her. It’s clear that this is a war she has been fighting for a long time. Luke acts like a teenager, but he’s supposed to, he walks into potentially dangerous situations with no plan and expects it to work out okay.

 

Hannah: Well they are all teenagers.  If this was a high school drama, not an epic space adventure, Luke would be the naive freshman, Han would be the captain of the football team, and Leia would be the student body president who is focused on getting into a good school while taking care of her younger siblings.  Somehow their energy meshes well, and they get the job done…

 

Courtney: I disagree with your assessment that Han would be the captain of the football team, I think he’s more of the older stoner who refuses to graduate. But the rest of your analogy I can get behind. Especially, because the attempted love triangle fails hard. Luke and Leia are the same age but the way they have been raised changes their mental age dramatically.

 

Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back

AKA: Why do we need Han?

AKA: The only love triangle is in Han’s mind

AKA: Don’t trust the B in Cloud City!

AKA: Bait that Skywalker trap

AKA: Why doesn’t the force tell Darth about Leia?

AKA: NOOOOOOOOOOO

AKA: We probably could have skipped this

Click image to view on Amazon

Hannah: This movie does not end.  The beginning is solid, but after everyone escapes, there are seven scenes too many of training in the swamp and flirting in a broken down space ship.  We get it, Han thinks Leia is cute.  We get it, handstands are hard.  Great.  Can we move on?  

 

Courtney: I forgot how long this movie is.  I like the beginning in the snow and then the middle feels like it drags. As slow as it is though, it’s still better than the first three movies. Han acts remarkably petulant in the beginning of the film, I feel like that could have been done better.

 

Hannah:  I feel like this is the movie that Harrison Ford hated the most out of the four movies he did.  It’s not really a secret that he hated the Han Solo character, so maybe the petulance and the way the movie dragged on and on was because his hatred was bleeding through?

 

Courtney: I do like that this movie showed us actual different worlds within the galaxy. Sometimes in movies with other planets, they all look like earth, like mountains and stuff. I appreciate that we got to see some extremes, I think it helped make it look a lot more believable.

 

Episode 6: Return of the Jedi

AKA: Random unneeded musical number

AKA: Luke’s planning is better. He grows

AKA: What has everyone been doing for four years?

AKA: So that’s what a bothan is

AKA: Ewoks will eat anything

AKA: Are Ewoks supposed to be cute or terrifying

AKA: Why is the stormtrooper’s armor even there?  

Click image to view on Amazon

Hannah: Everyone has really matured well in the four years between the end of The Empire Strikes Back and the beginning of Return of the Jedi.  Except Han, but he was frozen in time.  Why would they give him the title of general?  He is mostly there to joke around and make googly eyes at Leia.

 

Courtney: Go Luke! He’s actually grown by this movie and I appreciate that. He creates plans when encountering dangerous situations and relies on other people to help him. Leia is still amazing, she’s a princess but she knows she can handle herself so she goes where the action is.

 

Hannah:  I also like that the boys trust her when she does this.  In the first and second movie, no one wants to listen to her battle plans when shit goes down.  Han pretty much argues with her the entire time and Luke keeps trying to protect her.  In the third movie, Luke trusts her to get the job done and Han doesn’t argue as much.  Although he still sulks about Leia’s relationship with Luke.

Courtney: Han’s insecurity in this movie was weird. He keeps second guessing Leia’s feelings, but he doesn’t ever ask her about it. Leia is clearly team Han in this movie and Han somehow doesn’t get it.

 

Episode 7: The Force Awakens

AKA: Should have stuck with clones

AKA: Liar liar pants on fire

AKA: How does BB8 get up stairs?

AKA: Tantrum much?

AKA: That’s not how the force works

Click image to view on Amazon

Hannah:  This is my first time seeing The Force Awakens.  It’s amazeballs.  Goofy at all the right times, serious when needed, and full of tension.  I like that, so far, you can’t tell if there is any romantic tension.  In the orig-trig they tried to make a love triangle with Leia in the middle.  If they do that with these next three, it would probably be with Finn in the middle…  I would not object to that.

 

Courtney: I love this movie. I love BB8 and Rey and Finn. I appreciate that the creators were able to bring in new cast while still doing the previous cast justice. They brought in all the elements that I loved from the original trilogy and added new changes to make it even better.

 

Hannah:  BB8 was super cute.  I loved that more than one person could understand it.  Another thing that I loved about this movie is that they went back to more practical effects.  BB8 is real.  You can make it yourself!  The insta bread was also pretty cool, as well as just about everything else.  This movie combined the visuals of the three-quills (which were better than the orig-trig), with the great chemistry and story telling of the orig-trig.  Two more movies and hopefully The Force will be balanced.

 

Courtney: I like your reminder about their being two more movies coming, this movie was odd in that it felt like both a beginning and a continuation. I feel like it’s what producers strive for when they try to do a reboot. I honestly don’t really know where the next movie is going to go, but I’m excited and I want to go there. I like it when authors do that in book series, give you a contained, well ended story that leaves you content but wanting more.

 

So, the bad news is that if you do a Star Wars marathon in chronological, it is a very difficult start.  The good news though is that the marathon will end fantastically.  Totally worth the time.

 

(This page uses affiliate links to help support the cost of maintaining the blog. Purchasing a product through a provided link may provide us with a small fee to help us keep doing what we do. Thanks for your support)

Star Wars Month: Conversations With Characters, Sarah of Pixelosis

by Courtney

I met Sarah a couple years ago at Geek Girl Con. My friend Abby was vending there and I was attending the con to help her and Sarah with their tables and check out the convention for the first time. Abby had told me a lot of great things about Sarah, all of which turned out to be true. Nerdy jewelry that is classy and unique is really hard to find. I think I only had a couple Supernatural necklaces before I met Sarah. Now on any given day, I’m usually wearing three of her pieces because they’re subtle and it’s the aesthetic I prefer. I used to wear other earrings, now you pretty much have to pry me out of my lightsaber earrings. I remember attempting to help her set up her table at Geek Girl Con that year. Every design had a name and I thought I kinda knew classic Nintendo, I do not. Sarah was incredibly patient and explained where it all went. One of the things I appreciate about her, is her genuine love for the things she makes. While I do not share her love of video games, I respect the hell out of it. She is one of my favorite people and she makes amazing jewelry, which is why I buy it and tell people all about it. I asked this talented lady some questions, here’s what she had to say:

C: When did you start making jewelry?

S: My aunt makes fine jewelry and whenever she came to visit us she would teach me how to make earrings, necklaces, and bracelets from scrap materials she had with her. That was when I moved to Orlando, so it would be about 13 years ago.

C: What was your inspiration behind starting your business?

S: A very good gamer friend of mine had started making pixel art with perler beads. I had never seen anything like it before and wished there was a way to make them smaller so I could have earrings of all my favorite pixelated video game characters. I bought some black, white, and seed beads at Michael’s and began experimenting with wire. The wire characters came out horrible haha! I still have them and all my early rejected creations. I remember Google searching to see if there was a way to securely connect beads together with string and that’s how I found near weaving.

C: What’s your favorite fandom?

S: I have so many favorite fandoms! I suppose if I had to choose one it would have to be one I spent the most time with and that would be the Elder Scrolls series. I beat Morrowind 3 times with 3 different characters with hundreds of hours on each one! I don’t even think I played WOW that much haha! I just loved the completely open world! I explored every inch of that map with all my characters. It was so bad that if something crappy happened in real life I would think, “that’s ok, I’ll just restart from my last save.. Oh wait..”.

C: What’s your favorite piece of jewelry that you’ve ever made?

S: I  have favorite characters that I make into jewelry, but a piece of jewelry I am most proud of was my large Majora’s Mask! It was such a complicated piece with all those different shades of colors and with it’s funky shape. I was so happy with it once it was done.

C: Do you have a favorite convention you like to attend as a vendor?

S: My favorite conventions to attend as a vendor are always the smaller ones like Geek Girl Con, Portland Retro Gaming Expo, and recently I attended Norwescon for the first time.  The staff is happy to have you there, so it’s a completely different feeling from something like Emerald City Comicon where you just feel like a number. Nothing against ECCC though! I still enjoy attending!

C: What’s the sweetest fan/buyer experience that you can remember?

S: My sweetest fan memory was of this little boy who must have been around 5 or 6. I don’t remember which convention I met him at, but I’ll never forget him! He came up to my table and started naming every single pixelated character and item I had out for sale and would explain where each one was from. His dad kept apologizing that he was talking so much, but I thought it was the cutest thing ever! On his third visit to my table I had found out from his dad that they’re starting him out with the older video game systems before he can play any of the new ones, haha! His favorite character was Yoshi, so I ended up giving him a Yoshi egg since I was sold out of baby Yoshis already.

C: We’re celebrating Star Wars month on the blog, who is your favorite Star Wars character?

S: There are so many star wars characters to choose from! I first watched star wars as a very young child with my dad. We had the trilogy on VHS and it was on quite often. I remember thinking the jawa were super freaking adorable and I loved their nonsense sounding language haha! Utini is my text message noise.

From one fangirl to another, this stuff is legit.

Sarah works full time as a baker and is the mama to 2 fur babies and 1 scaley baby. In her spare time she makes nerdy jewelry for pixelosis to sell on her Etsy shop or at multiple conventions. Her other hobbies include cake decorating,  knitting, playing video games and collecting all things Cthulhu.

You can find her work  on Etsy at Pixelosis, or on her Facebook.

Be sure and enter our $25 Etsy Gift Card giveaway on Rafflecopter.

 

Star Wars Month: The Manga Series

By Hannah

This is actually four different mangas, each written by George Lucas, but illustrated by different artists.  Originally these were published in Japan by Media Works.  Dark Horse is publishing them in America.  I found these manga through my manga reader app Zingbox, which only had these four episodes available.  I’m going to review each of them individually.

Episode 1: The Phantom Menace by Kia Asamiya

This manga does a great job simplifying the movie.  It goes over the important plot points, but skips some of the extra details.  It takes a two plus hour movie and squishes it down to two volumes.

I like Anakin better on paper than I do in the movies.  Probably because he’s a two dimensional character, and paper is where a two dimensional character belongs.  Jar Jar Binks is worse in paper form than he is in movie form.  I did not think that was possible.  He is just so annoying.

The artwork is interesting, prominent angular noses and smallish eyes, but kind of static.  The best part of The Phantom Menace is the action.  The pod race in the movie was too long, but it was exciting.  In the manga it took a less than a chapter.  Same for the epic lightsaber battle between Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn.  I would like some more action from now on.

3 out of 5 Stars

Episode 4: A New Hope by Hisao Tamaki

This manga does a great job of retelling the story and giving Luke some more motivation.  In the movie, Luke says that he wants to join the Republic at the beginning.  In the manga, Luke has flashbacks of his friend joining the resistance, and he plans to meet up with that friend.  He only tells his Aunt and Uncle that he is planning to join the Republic.  I like that this manga managed to add to the movie.

The artwork is classic manga style.  Big eyes, small mouth, beautiful attention to details.  It reminds me of the styling of Sailor Moon. The only down side, is the way Chewbacca is depicted.  His body is big and furry, but his face is cartoonish and looks like he’s wearing a mask.  Clearly the artist interpreted Chewie as the animal sidekick. It’s as though someone took Sailor Moon artwork and pasted a Pokemon into the story.

4 out of 5 Stars

Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back by Toshiki Kudo

This manga has all the intrigue, action, and romance that I remember from the movie.  Leia and Han are super cute and flirty, Luke is clueless but eager, C3PO is obnoxious, and Yoda is kind of equal parts cheeky and preachy.

The artwork reminds me of Slayers, another classic anime.  It’s a simple and clean style.  When a situation is funny or a character is embarrassed, their faces scrunch up.  It kind of looks like a boot with a face and hair on top.  I really like the way Chewie is depicted.  He looks less like a cheap animal sidekick and more like the legitimate partner in crime that he is.

4 out of 5 Stars

Episode 6: Return of the Jedi by Shin-Ichi Hiromoto

This is the story where everybody steps up their game, except Han.  Han’s character doesn’t really have anything to contribute but one liners and googly eyes for Leia.  Last time we saw them, everyone was sad and pathetic.  Now Luke is a legit action hero.  Leia is the kick ass female protagonist of my dreams.  Chewie is a power house.  I would actually have liked more focus on Chewbacca.

This is the first story with art that is such a mixed bag of great and horrible.  The great? The aliens/droids and the action.  The aliens/droids are depicted with such detail, that they feel real.  Like I could totally see a droid rolling down the street in everyday life with the way the artist draws.  The action flows beautifully, there is motion in every frame.  The horrible?  The humans.  Anytime a human is not involved in an action scene, there is no life.  It’s like someone took an eight year old playing with dolls and drew that.  It’s very disconcerting.

3.5 out of 5 Stars

The formatting of this manga is confusing.  Traditionally manga is read right to left, top to bottom.  When Dark Horse chose to translate it, they also chose to mirror the images, so that it would read left to right.  It took me a few pages to realize what was happening.  They do warn you at the beginning of the volumes, but I skipped that page apparently…

Translation wise, it’s interesting.  This story was originally done in English, translated into Japanese, and then back into English.  If you’ve never translated Baby Got Back into Latin and then back into English, you are missing out.  If you have you know that some things don’t translate back and forth very easily.  When it came to droid names, the translator spelled them out.  Artoodetoo and Seethreepio.  It was a little odd, because everywhere else I see them named R2D2 and C3P0.  I think it was done to humanize the droids, which is cool, but it took me a while to figure it out.  One weird translation that I only saw in the first manga was translating laser shots to “shoot shoot shoot” and not “pew pew pew.”

If you like Star Wars, this is a good manga.  Often it adds a fresh perspective to the movies.  There are several things I noticed in the manga that I missed in the movies.  Like the fact that R2 was Padme’s droid.  Or the realization that C3P0 was programmed by a little kid, which was probably why he is kind of annoying.  I also like that the manga is taking the familiar and then interpreting it through another culture.

Altogether 4 out of 5 Stars

The entire collection of Star Wars Manga is purchasable on Amazon here.

Enter our July Giveaway for a $25 Etsy Giftcard

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Would you read these classic tales in Manga form? let us know in the comments. Catch up on our other Star Wars Month themed posts and come back next week for more.

(This page uses affiliate links to help support the cost of maintaining the blog. Purchasing a product through a provided link may provide us with a small fee to help us keep doing what we do. Thanks for your support)

Star Wars Month: Marathon Musings Part 1

By Hannah

Courtney and I decided to watch all the Star Wars movies in chronological order.  At first we were going to try to do it in one sitting, but that’s 17 hours and 40 minutes worth of movies.  Not including snack, stretch, and pee breaks.  Way too long.  We watched episode 1, 2, 3, and Rogue One for today’s marathon.

click image to view on Amazon

Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

A.k.a. The Abomination Known As Jar Jar Binks

A.k.a. Darth Maul Should Have Been A Bigger Deal

A.k.a. Why Did You Ruin Yoda?  He Was Awesome, Now He’s Kind Of A Jerk.

A.K.A. You Shouldn’t CGI Everything!

Hannah: I love the way this movie looks.  The background, the costumes, the props, all perfect.  That’s it.  Everything else is just painful.  The only characters with any chemistry are Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan.  Anakin is a two dimensional wonderboy and everybody was over acting.

Courtney: This movie is my least favorite of all the Star Wars movies, but I tolerate it because it’s a necessary evil and Padme’s clothes are amazing. I know that the point is that you’re supposed to feel sympathy for baby Darth Vader, but I never feel any; he just irritates the shit out of me.

Hannah:  They were trying to play up the Chosen One aspect too hard.  First, everything the kid does has a “Look what I can do” vibe, then everyone keeps praising him for how kind and pure he is.  Finally, he doesn’t have a dad, just the midichlorians.  Why all the craziness?  He may be the future Original Dark Lord, but he still puts his pants on one leg at a time.

Courtney: This is actually something that still bothers me that I’m hoping will get cleared up in 8. The whole chosen one prophecy crap, they started talking about it in movie 1 and it’s been 8 movies and I still don’t think we’ve found the person they’re talking about. And don’t tell me it’s Luke, cause Luke sucks.

click image to view on Amazon

Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones

A.K.A. What’s With The Stupid Padawan Hairstyle

A.K.A. What kind of place elects a teenager to be queen?

A.K.A. Whiny Douche Canoe Anakin Skywalker

A.K.A. Padme Could And Would Do Better

A.K.A. Wow The Jedi Council Really Sucks

Hannah:  Once again, the visuals of this movie are on point.  Padme wears some of the best outfits ever and the scenery looks both out of this world and realistic.  It’s eye candy, pure and simple.  Unfortunately the movie throws the equivalent of Twizzlers(my least favorite candy) into the mix with all the horrible acting, bad chemistry, and ,”m’ladying.”  Every time Anakin interacts with Padme, she cringes.  Their first kiss, he awkwardly rubs her shoulder and the look on her face is shouting “Creeper! Creeper! Creeper!”

Courtney: I like this movie marginally better than the first one. I like it more because we slowly start to see why Anakin would consider the dark side. However I do agree with Hannah, about the Twizzlers and Anakin. Anakin is my least favorite main character at this point, it’s a lot of him pouting about how people don’t have more faith in him, when at this point, we’ve never seen a reason why anyone should have more faith in him.

Hannah:  It reminds me of the fan theory that Anakin was using the force to manipulate Padme into being in a relationship with him.  It explains so much, because he is so creepy.  He’s like one of those guys who tells you to smile all the time and then blames you for not wanting to jump into bed with him.  Padme is a former queen at this point.  She has had to deal with his kind before, but she just smiles and goes along with it.

Courtney: I agree with you. I think teenage Anakin is worse than child Anakin. And I really can’t stand child Anakin.

click image to view on Amazon

Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

A.K.A. We Skipped This One

Hannah: My reason for skipping this movie is that even though it’s probably the best of the prequels, I really don’t like watching whiny baby Anakin get played by the most easily see throughable manipulation attempt ever.  I also hate watching Padme go from a kickass senator, leader of her people, to a woman who spends the entire movie asking why her husband is so mean to her.

Courtney: This one is important, but I’d kind of had all the bad acting I could take for one day. I also get frustrated at this point because the movies failed at what they were supposed to do. The whole point of the beginning trilogy is to make you understand why Darth Vader is the way he is, why he made those choices and by the end of the movies, I don’t care. The television show Clone Wars, (which should be watched between episodes 2 and 3) accomplishes what the movies were supposed to, and they give you a variety of characters to root for.

Hannah:  Courtney mentioned, during the marathon, that one of the reasons that episodes 1-3 are so difficult, is because there is no one to root for.  I’ve got to agree with that assessment  We went in knowing that little boy wonder Anakin Skywalker was going to become big bad Darth Vader.  We know that Luke and Leia were separated at birth, so either their mother dies, or she abandons one of them in order to raise the other, so Padme is hard to root for.  We know that Obi-Wan becomes an obnoxious lying force ghost and Jar Jar is an abomination.  Maybe if we hadn’t known that Ani would become Darthy, we would have had an easier time liking him…

click image to view on AMazon

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

A.K.A. Finally Putting The War In Star Wars

A.K.A. Not Just Another Good Versus Evil Story

A.K.A. Finally We Get To Know Why People Were Rebelling Pre-Alderaan

A.K.A. WHY?????

Hannah: This is my first time watching Rogue One.  I knew the ending ahead of time (After one month out, I no longer care about spoilers, because I like talking with people about stuff like this) but I didn’t know how it was going to affect me.  Watching as my lovable misfits died one after another, chasing hope for the future, was heartbreaking.  

Courtney: I’d seen this movie a few times and was doing my best not to spoil anything more for Hannah. Rogue One is my favorite Star Wars movie, even though it makes me cry everytime I watch it. I like it because it sinks home that this is a war and there are losses. Rogue One also makes the back trilogy that much more impactful because now we have seen the loss and what it took to get the plans for the death star. Honestly, the first half of the movies are the roughest which is weird when you consider that the back half was filmed 40 years ago and it still kicks 1-3s ass.

Hannah:  I think this movie is important for two reasons.  One, because it shows how the common people have been dealing with the after effects of all the epic quests that the other movie’s characters have been going through.  The other movies all feature royalty, rogues, the chosen ones, lovable sidekicks, etc.  They never feature the innocent bystanders, the spies, the ground soldiers, or stormtroopers who can hit stuff.  Two, because it showed that death is important and permanent.  This is going to sound callous, but in the first movies, anyone important who died, usually came back as a Force Ghost.  At least for those with on screen deaths.

We got through the hard part of a Star Wars marathon.  All four movies are a little over 9 hours.  We saved ourselves over two hours of torture by skipping Revenge of the Sith.  Look forward to the Star Wars Marathon Part 2.

Be sure and enter our July giveaway for a $25 Etsy Gift Card

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

(This page uses affiliate links to help support the cost of maintaining the blog. Purchasing a product through a provided link may provide us with a small fee to help us keep doing what we do. Thanks for your support)

Star Wars Month: Rogue One Blu-Ray edition

By Domoni

Click image to view on Amazon

I loved Rogue One in the theater. It was a spectacular film, so I was very excited for the Blu-Ray and DVD release. Considering how much we knew about the reshoots and how much of the content we saw in the trailers never appeared in the film, I expected the Blu-Ray to be full of fun content. Sadly, there were no deleted scenes. I was so sad about this.

The Blu-Ray does have some fun extra content, but we didn’t get a commentary track for those insights into the director’s mind. Though the featurettes do a great ob of putting you into the mind set of the characters, I wanted so much more.

What is included:

A Rogue Idea – Hear how ILM’s John Knoll came up with the movie’s concept – and why it’s the right film to launch the Star Wars stand-alone films.

Jyn: The Rebel – Get to know Rogue One’s defiant, resourceful survivor, and hear what it was like for Felicity Jones to bring her to life onscreen.

Cassian: The Spy – Diego Luna shares insights into his complex, driven character, who becomes a hero through selflessness, perseverance and passion.

K-2SO: The Droid – Explore the development of this reprogrammed Imperial droid, from initial pitch and character design through Alan Tudyk’s performance.

Baze & Chirrut: Guardians of the Whills – Go deeper into the relationship between these two very different characters, with Chinese superstars Jiang Wen and Donnie Yen.

Bodhi & Saw: The Pilot & The Revolutionary – Forest Whitaker and Riz Ahmed reflect on Saw Gerrera, the broken Rebel leader, and Bodhi Rook, the Imperial pilot who defects.
The Empire – Meet a dangerous new Imperial adversary…and cross paths once more with the most iconic villain of all time.

Visions of Hope: The Look of “Rogue One” – The filmmakers describe the challenges and thrills of developing a bold new look for the movie that can fit within the world of the original trilogy.

The Princess & The Governor – See what it took to bring the vibrant young princess of “Star Wars: A New Hope” – as well as one of her most memorable foes– – back to the screen.

Epilogue: The Story Continues – Filmmakers and cast celebrate Rogue One’s premiere and look forward into the future, to the Star Wars stories yet to be told.

Rogue Connections – Uncover Easter eggs and film facts hidden throughout the movie that connect “Rogue One” to the Star Wars universe.

My particular favorite was the look into creating the the beautiful CGI overlay of Princess Leia. When I had heard she would appear, I was terrified of the mess they would make of that, but I loved the moment and thought they had handled it very well.

The movie makes me cry every time I watch it. Yes I knew going in that they sacrificed everything to get the plans to the rebels, but seeing it on screen after 2 hours of meeting and loving this incredible cast of characters is difficult.

Jen Erso is a strong female character, which doesn’t surprise me because Star Wars has previously written amazingly strong women. However, they could have more than one appear in a film at a time. (episode 7 does do a little better but still)

For me Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO stole the show. The sassy robot stole my heart. I want a movie with K-2SO and Marvin from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The sassy banter would be amazing.

So overall, I still would have purchased the Blu-Ray because it’s Star Wars, but I wish I had had more deleted scenes and input on the reason so much was reshot.

4 out of 5 stars.

Be sure and check out our July Giveaway of a $25 Etsy Gift card and check out our other Star Wars themed posts.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(This page uses affiliate links to help support the cost of maintaining the blog. Purchasing a product through a provided link may provide us with a small fee to help us keep doing what we do. Thanks for your support)

 

Star Wars Month: Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

By Courtney

click image to order on Amazon

I have been a Star Wars fan for a long time. I remember being around the age of 9 or 10 and playing make believe that I was Princess Leia. As Leia, I could fight and do the rescuing too. I grew up and I grew away from the Star Wars fandom, partially because I didn’t know the extent that existed. One fateful convention day around 15 to 20 years later, I went to a panel about women in the Star Wars fandom and it opened my eyes to a world I had no idea existed. There were all these women discussing a fandom I thought I had left back in my childhood and it felt amazing to be there and listen and find out about all these new and interesting things that were going on within the Star Wars world. I fell back into the fandom hard and I’ve been happily free falling ever since. I was curious to see if the character of Princess Leia would hold up to time and if I would still think she was the amazing badass I remembered her to be. Spoiler Alert, Princess Leia is fucking awesome. I found Carrie Fisher’s first memoir because I wanted to learn more about the amazing woman behind one of my favorite characters.

Carrie Fisher is blunt. She starts off the book by informing everyone that she has had electro shock therapy and that she is bipolar. Carrie talks about her massively confusing family tree and her history with drug and alcohol abuse. We learn that Carrie’s drug overdose was an accident; and that she found herself very surprised by what had happened as it certainly was not what she intended. It made her a more relatable person because she describes the incident in such a confounded way, it made it feel like it was something that could happen to anyone; like pouring too much laundry detergent in your washing machine. What I found interesting was how strong her relationship with her mother was. Some people have strained relationships with their mothers and Carrie and her mother lived right next door to each other. I also appreciated the level of  self awareness  that she treated her childhood with. She knew she didn’t have the average childhood and she didn’t blame any of her problems as an adult on it, which was refreshing.

The biggest problem I had with this book was that it was too short. I felt like the chapters were brief glimpses into her life and it was as though I were looking at her life through a hole in a fence.  I had no idea that Carrie was so funny or had such dry wit. The awareness that the book was written with was enough to make me like Carrie even more, but I still wanted more. The stories are engaging and it was very quick read. I hope there is more depth in her next memoir. I look forward to reading more of her stories. I recommend her book to anyone who has loved Princess Leia and wanted to know more about her.

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.  

Chek out our other Star Wars Month posts and be sure and enter our giveaway for a $25 Etsy Gift Card.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

(This page uses affiliate links to help support the cost of maintaining the blog. Purchasing a product through a provided link may provide us with a small fee to help us keep doing what we do. Thanks for your support)

Star Wars Month: Introduction to The Nerdy Girls Studio

Today we will introduce you to our second sister site, The Nerdy Girls Studio.

In their own words:

Hi, we are Charlene and Courtney. We are two nerdy girls who wanted another way to express our love of all things nerdiness around our own houses. We liked the idea of pillow covers for sheer versatility. It’s a great way to update your living space without getting a new couch, and you can change it up with your mood, as the seasons change or as a new movie comes out. We look forward to exploring more corners of the home with quality quirky nerdy designs.

You can find all of their fun designs on their Etsy or through their Facebook page.  And For the July Star Wars Special, use coupon code FANDOM10 to take 10% of your purchase.

So keep an eye out the rest of this month for more of our Star Wars themed posts, be sure and enter our giveaway to win a $25 Etsy Gift Card and May The Force Be With You.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Star Wars Month: Introduction to Fandomly Fashionable

So here at Deep in the Crease, some of us have other ventures. Charlene, Courtney and Domoni work together to help each other in this blog as well as those. We have decided to sort of bring them under one nerdy girl umbrella and present them to you all with theme months. Our first one shall be Star Wars.

The Smuggler’s Special

What that means? I will start by introducing you to the other two outlets. Fandomly Fashionable and The Nerdy Girls Studio. Then each month we will pick a theme, this will show up in various posts on each of those sites as well as translate to discounts on items sold at the other two sites. We are very passionate about all our nerdy outlets and are excited to share that with you.

Adventurer’s Tunic

We are starting with Fandomly Fashionable. This is Courtney’s recently launched business. Courtney is quite talented and has taught herself how to sew and design some amazing fandom related clothing.

 

Batgirl dress and Harley Quinn Tutu

 

In her own words:

I got inspired to start making clothes after going to a few conventions and looking for specific clothing items and being unable to find them. As an avid watcher of Project Runway, I thought that perhaps I could make what I was looking for. So I did, with a lot of trial and error. I design clothes that I want to buy, that I want to wear. I view clothes as a sort of modern day armor, sometimes I need an extra boost of confidence, so I wear my Batgirl dress and it helps me take on the world. Clothes should make you feel good and inspired, that’s what I hope you’ll find here.

Demon Trap circle skirt inspired by Supernatural

You can find Courtney’s awesome clothes on her Etsy or through her Facebook. Most everything she makes can be custom made to fit you specifically. Since July is Star Wars month, you should check out the Smuggler’s Special Han Solo inspired skirt which is on sale for 10% off through July.

Come back tomorrow to learn about The Nerdy Girls Studio.

Be sure and enter our July Star Wars giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway