Star Wars Battlefront: A Year(ish) Later

To commemorate the release of the Scarif expansion for Star Wars Battlefront, I thought I’d write up a little review of sorts concerning where the game is now versus where it was when it came out just over a year ago. Cards on the table, I hadn’t played the game for a very long time before I started logging more hours over the last week or so when I decided this would be a cool idea for a post. When the game came out, I enjoyed it, it was Star Wars and it was beautiful, how could I not? Unfortunately, after the initial excitement wore off, the game turned out to be lacking in content and overall underwhelming. So, what do I think now, a year later? I guess you’ll just have to click below to find out…(+1 clickbait)

Are We Being Kept in the Dark About Episode VIII? Or: What we don't know won't hurt us.

By this point in the Episode VII timeline, knew the title was The Force Awakens and were very close to getting a teaser trailer...so far for Episode VIII we know...nothing. Or, at best, very little. Sure, I understand that Episode VII was like the reintroduction of Star Wars to the world, and now we have Rogue One to keep us occupied, so it's not really out of the question to be less-informed about the next chapter in the saga than we were previously...but that also doesn't stop me from frothing at the mouth more and more with each passing day without any real, juicy Episode VIII information...so, are we being kept in the dark on purpose to keep the focus on Rogue One, or have they just not made Episode VIII a priority like they did with Episode VII because, frankly, they know they don't have to? Well, either way, here are a few things I'm dying to get when it comes to the main saga from a galaxy far, far away...
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The Real Star of Rogue One for Star Wars ComLINKS

With my recent busy-ness (not to be confused with business), I got out of the habit of writing something up for Mrs. @acrossthestars ComLINKS topic on her site, Anakin and His Angel, and that, my friends, is a shame. But! Lo and behold, here I am doing that very thing! This month’s topic is “Rogue One Newcomer,” meaning, “which NEW character are you the most excited to see on the big screen and why?” For me, this was an easy choice that took roughly 3.182 seconds to decide on:  K-2SO. But why, you ask? Why not the rough-around-the-edges Jyn Erso, the calm-cool-and-collected Cassian Andor, or the triumphantly-returning-Guerrilla-fighter Saw Gerrera? Well, how ’bout you read on and find out?

Bendu, Neutrality & the Broader Force

Going back to an idea I touched on a few weeks ago, when I was kid watching the original trilogy, and even when I was older and watched the prequels, I was under the impression that the Force was a two-sided coin:  it was either used for light, or dark; good, or evil; Jedi, or Sith. There wasn’t really any middle-ground. But now, with the Sith destroyed, the dark side of the Force should be gone too, leaving the light as the only remaining side of the Force coin, right? Well, I think the Bendu, Supreme Leader Snoke, and the Knights of Ren would all disagree…so let’s put the Force stew back on the burner, add elements of neutrality along with different forms of good and evil, and then see how it tastes, huh? (Yay, cooking reference!)
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“Hope” & “He lives!” Or: Maul’s Return to Star Wars Rebels Season 3

I assume you all watched that episode of Rebels last night, yeah? (Or Saturday night, depending on your time zone and when I actually get this published…) Pretty bad ass, right? Right, okay, we agree, awesome, I knew we would…and, yeah, I get that a lot of people are jazzed about the idea of the “twin suns” being the secret to destroying the Sith, but I’m more interested in Maul’s vision, his search for “hope”…what does “hope” even mean for someone like Maul? What does someone who’s been through everything he’s been through hope for? Vengeance? Power? Immortality? All of the above? I’m going to postulate a few possible hopes for Maul based on his “he lives!” line following what was probably a partial vision of his would-be true “hope”…and, just as fair warning, these are all definitely old hopes, not a new hope, like the one Ezra saw…
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