Tag Archives: Leia

Oct 5 2016

Star Wars 23

star-wars-23

Today, Patrick and Michael are discussing Star Wars 23, originally released September 28, 2016. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Patrick: There has been a lot of digital ink spilled on the subject of the predictable nature of the structure of the Star Wars films. Whether we’re talking about the Campbellian Hero’s Journey or some kind of impossibly orchestrated ring-based super structure, or just the fact that Force Awakens hits all the same beats as A New Hope, everyone likes to image that they know how a Star Wars story is going to go. Hell, even the interquel nature of the Star Wars comic book series forces the reader to apply all kinds of knowledge about how they already know the story ends. There are — presumably — no surprises to be found between the 4th and 5th episodes of a ubiquitous series based on the culturally omnipresent mono-myth. But writer Jason Aaron is aggressively mucking with structure in this story arc, “The Last Flight of the Harbinger,” and issue 23 finally starts to marry disparate story threads and character beats into genuinely harrowing conflict.

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Sep 7 2016

Han Solo 3

han solo 3

Today, Patrick and Michael are discussing Han Solo 3, originally released August 31st, 2016. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

star wars div

Leia: I thought you decided to stay.
Han: Well the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell changed by mind.

Patrick: For all of the galaxy-wide history implied in the original Star Wars trilogy, there’s not much personal history being suggested. Luke led an aggressively boring life before meeting up with the droids, and even the characters that should  have interesting lives — like Obi-Wan and Leia — have their histories trumped by the political movements that sprung up around them. Obi-Wan’s history isn’t really his own, it’s the history of the Jedi Knights; Leia’s history is that of the Rebellion. Only Han Solo has an implied history that seems driven by his own actions and desires. Even in A New Hope, we know that he has personal beef with a local gangster, and also appears to have a relationship with a bounty hunter who’s tracked him to the Cantina. Writer Marjorie Liu brings that same spirit of cause-and-effect personal history to Han Solo 3, doubling down on the importance of Han’s relationships whether we’ve already seen them on the page or not. Continue reading →