Sunday 4/21: Schedule
Monday 4/22: Hulu’s “Into the Dark”
Tuesday 4/23: Stephen King’s “Sleeping Beauties”
Wednesday 4/24: “American Horror Story: 1984”
Thursday 4/25: “American Horror Story” Seasons 1-Present
Friday 4/26: “Avengers: End Game”
Saturday 4/27: Neural Implant Progress
Sunday 4/28: Schedule
For the final day of this “Star Wars” themed week, I wanted to look into how some aspects of the “Star Wars” universe may work or may potentially work in our world. As far as we know, there’s no such thing as “the force” as it was described in the “Star Wars” universe. However, after checking out the BBC: Science Focus article covering a variety of “science” topics from the “Star Wars” universe, I found the most interesting to be the topic of the “lightsaber,” the sword-like weapon used by almost every leading character in the “Star Wars” universe. According to the article, lightsabers, as light, couldn’t exist, since light passes through space until it’s stopped by an object. However, plasma, the “fourth state of matter,” may be able to be used similarly. The science of plasma’s is a lot more complicated than I could hope to paraphrase, but I think it’s fascinating that while “lightsabers,” like we seen in the films may not exist, scientists do think about these things too.
I don’t think I could write a week of “Star Wars’ themed posts without at least mentioning the supposed “end” of the nine-episode anthology following along the “Skywalker” lineage. As far as the trailer and IMDB seems to allude, everyone from the previous episode is returning, as well as Palpatine, who the Digital Spy article I read is supposed to be returning in some form. I’m curious to see how the film makes that happen, and how the film weaves in Princess Leia, since as the final nod to the anthology, it only seems right that they would try to include as many of the previous characters and actors as possible where they can.
Arguably, an episode of one of the “weakest” installments of the “Star Wars” cinematic anthology, which came in the late 1990’s, and the early 2000’s, “Star Wars: Episode 1” still carries some nostalgia for me, since admittedly, it was the first movie from the “Star Wars” cinematic universe I had ever seen. In retrospect, there’s a lot of weirdness in this film, between the scripting, and wonky CGI, but overall, I still find the story itself to be entertaining, since I think for the most part, why so many fans didn’t like this film so much as it was presented was because there were so many expectations for how the beginning of the canon had ought to have been. I think the film would have been “better” had they focused more on creating dynamic characters, versus adding in characters almost superficially, but today, I still don’t think the film is as bad as it could have been.
Though a bit of a belated post, since the story trailer for the newest (and arguably, most promising “Star Wars” video game) came out over the past weekend, I had to mention this title today, both to follow this weeks impromptu “Star Wars” theme, and to highlight what this game means for the “Star Wars” community, or at least for myself. For the last couple years, we’ve been given quite a few new additions to the “Star Wars” video game universe, but not without their share of problems, from game-killing bugs, to endless micro-transactions; there seemed to be no end to the faults one could find in these previous titles, and holistically, none of them really seemed to build off of the existing cinematic or literary universes in a meaningful way. For the most part, a lot of the previous games felt like typical fps games wearing a “Star Wars” costume. However, what sets this newest title apart is the fact that it’ll be heavily narrative focused, and easy for anyone to pick up and play without needing to spend hours earning various “perks” to enjoy the whole game. The way the combat has been described is easy to pick-up, but difficult to master, and the story, so far, seems like none we have really seen before. And, since the creators have promised to leave micro-transactions out of the equation, I’m quite looking forward to seeing more details as we move toward the game’s premier.
In light of the upcoming episode of the “Star Wars” cinematic universe, I was surprised when I heard they were planning on launching a “novelization” of a similar kind. The author of the novel has written a couple other “Star Wars” books, but since she claims, according to “We Got This Covered” that she has no more knowledge of the universe than any of us, I’m really looking forward to seeing how she uses her creative license to cover what I would consider the definitive saga of the “Star Wars” universe. I’m not sure how much she could really say that wouldn’t be reiterations, but after reading her “Phasma” novel, I have no doubts Dawson will do something amazing with this title.
Over the weekend, quite a bit of new “Star Wars” content came out, including a slew of leaked trailer footage of Disney+’s “The Mandalorian.” So far, this trailer seems to be the best one out of those I found uploaded to Youtube, and though the story seems vague, I’m looking forward to seeing what more the series has to with its introduction of this new, very “Jango Fett”-like character, who also happens to be a bounty hunter. I like that the series will seem to focus on a time period that, supposedly, we’ve never seen, so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on its premier on (as far as we’ve been told) November 12, 2019.
Sunday 4/14: Schedule
Monday 4/15: “The Mandalorian”
Tuesday 4/16: “Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga” by Delilah S. Dawson
Wednesday 4/17: TBA
Thursday 4/18: “Star Wars: Episode I”
Friday 4/19: “Star Wars: Episode IX”
Saturday 4/20: Real Lightsabers?
Sunday 4/21: Schedule
While not to most “science fiction-y” news, this story stood out to me if only because, according to Science News, this particular species of hominids (the human genus) existed at the same time as the alleged “hobbit” hominids who are said to have lived in Indonesia about 50,000 years ago. Scientists are still unsure of the origins and possible appearance of this species (if they even were a new species altogether), but it’s definitely interesting to see how scientists piece together the past based upon the fossils of this species alone, and how their speculations on this species comes about as they continue their research into the location and the fossils themselves.
According to an article I found on Cinema Blend, steps toward a live-action adaptation of the 1980’s anime film, “Akira” are underway. As a sort of salutation to and a progenitor of this genre of “big brother,” scary corporate dystopian science fiction, “Akira” has been this staple of both remarkable aesthetics and substantial world-building. When I hear about live-action adaptations being made of anime, I never really know what to think, since it could be done well, or it could be done not so well; recently, after the last handful of live-action debacles, I’ve been opting to assume the later, since most live-action adaptions of anime films or series have been either poorly done, devastatingly whitewashed or both. However, since the director of “Thor: Ragnarok,” Taika Waititi, is supposed to be directing the live-action “Akira” film, I’ll try to hold back some reservations, since I do have faith that if he’s directing something, he’ll be conscious and respectful of the original subject matter, as he was with his take on his installment of the “Thor” cinematic canon.
Science Parable 