Mariah Carey and her team worked up quite an appetite when the diva played the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, NJ, on her “All I Want for Christmas Is You” tour.
Spies said a production assistant from her tour was dispatched to Robert’s Steakhouse in the hotel to pick up nearly $500 in takeout the same night Carey performed.
Said a spy, “Chef Will Savarese prepared the meal with extra attention to make sure that everything was perfect for the notoriously finicky pop star, who performed her Christmas show at the Hard Rock where the top-tier restaurant is located.”
According to a receipt, the order included lobster tail, strip steak, roast chicken, salmon, crab cakes, pasta dishes, salads and spinach.
But a source said some servers rolled their eyes when the staffer handed over $500 in cash for the meal totaling $493.67 — but took back the $6.33 in change and didn’t leave a tip.
Either way, Carey performed at the sold-out show, which included Stockton University’s Highest Praise Gospel Choir.
The release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is just days away. Perched at the culmination of a decades-long saga, it's logical to expect fans are going to have feelings. Excitement. Apprehension. Mild nausea from too much popcorn. All are valid.
One emotion we all could probably live without? Rage.
Guys. Listen to me. Whatever happens, let's be cool about this, OK?
I get it. You're super invested in this whole franchise. The prequels didn't go so well. The Force Awakens was, well, a new hope of getting good Star Wars movies again. Now finally after four years, fans get to see how this entire storyline plays out. Will Rey's parents be revealed? Is Kylo Ren redeemable? Will I drown in a puddle of my own tears upon seeing Carrie Fisher? Like I said -- feelings.
Here's the problem: Fan response to 2017's The Last Jedi was kind of a shitshow, and it didn't have to be. That's why I'm bracing for impact this week but also imploring anyone who's apt to lose their mind if The Rise of Skywalker doesn't meet some specific set of expectations to just exercise some restraint.
I'm not here to tell you Star Wars doesn't matter. Clearly, it does. Star Wars: A New Hope came out in 1977. The trilogy spawned books and comic books, TV series, video games, that one holiday special, theme parks and an obscene amount of merchandising. After Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, it only took six years to recoup its $4 billion investment. Money aside, the franchise has burrowed its way into pop culture, turning up on shows like 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother; the Twitter account Death Star PR has more than 300,000 followers. The Beastie Boys referenced Luke and Darth Vader in the lyrics to "Do It."
And if you like it, it matters.
There's a tipping point, though. When The Last Jedi came out, pockets of the internet quickly resorted to their worst behavior. Director Rian Johnson got death threats. Actress Kelly Marie Tran incurred so much online harassment that she deleted her Instagram account. Mark Hamill had to come to her defense on Twitter saying, "What's not to love? #GetaLifeNerds" while tweeting a picture of the two of them together. Tran even told Good Morning America last week that she'd been to therapy in the wake of everything.
Nothing is worth ginning up so much vitriol for the purpose of funneling it toward other human beings.
What's more, it doesn't make much sense to introduce hate to a subject matter that you love. Boost those negative signals enough and Star Wars will cease to be something that's brought audiences so much joy and excitement -- it'll become something associated with a repellent toxicity.
Don't spill your bile on the Millennium Falcon. Han would hate that.
And let's be real: Palpatine would want you to send those angry tweets. It might sound flip, but it's worth remembering that the corrupting power of anger and hatred is like the central theme of every single Star Wars movie, and those to give into it are the bad guys.
Now playing:Watch this:
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Official Trailer (2019)
2:20
I've covered online harassment and toxic fandom enough to know what drives some of this behavior. As mentioned earlier, a whole lot of people really love Star Wars, and some folks love it to an extent that it becomes inextricably linked to their identity. So when something, like The Last Jedi, doesn't turn out they way they want, it feels like a personal affront. It's not a personal affront. What it is is an impossible expectation that a multi-million dollar project housed under a giant media company is going to meet any given person's exact hopes and specifications.
None of this is to say that you can't have a negative opinion about The Rise of Skywalker when it comes out. By all means, engage with the thing you love. Have your say. Dissect every scene. Just remember humans made it and they don't deserve to have their lives made miserable. Plus, the original three movies are still everything you want and need them to be.
So if you don't dig The Rise of Skywalker please remember: it's not the end of the galaxy -- the suns will continue to rise over Tatooine.
(This post does not contain any spoilers for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”)
We’re just a few days away now from the arrival of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” in theaters everywhere, and that means the hype meter is already off the charts. And with the world premiere taking place Monday night in Hollywood, we’ve now got a whole bunch of people who have actually seen the thing.
And, of course, a lot of those people tweeted their reactions as soon as they got out of the theater. And, well, those reactions are mostly what you’d expect from people attending the premiere of a new “Star Wars” movie. For the most part, the responses are very positive, though some are less positive than others.
The reactions thus far have come in two main flavors: folks voicing overwhelmingly effusive praise for the film, and folks who say that the movie is a whole lot and they’re gonna have to think about it. It’s not extremely surprising that we’d get those types of responses at the premiere — it’s unlikely that anyone at the premiere would straight up trash the movie, so this is the range I personally expected.
We want to reiterate here that there are no spoilers in the tweets below — unless you consider “I liked it” or “I’m not sure how I feel” to constitute plot and story details. Now let’s get into it.
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is certainly the most convoluted Star Wars. There is a lot I liked, but the first half gets so bogged down with exposition and new plot and doodads and beacons and transmitters, it feels like it should have been three movies on its own.
All I can say is “wow.”#StarWars: #TheRiseOfSkywalker is many things: horrifying, hopeful, violent, lowkey horny, and full of the right kind of fan service.
But most of all, it’s a fitting ending for this incredible, 40+ year-long saga. pic.twitter.com/pd2GEwI7O3
I’ve seen #StarWarsTheRiseofSkywalker. It’s… a lot. There’s a lot I like and some I loved but overall my feelings are pretty mixed. It felt like an apology for The Last Jedi in some ways and a sequel to The Force Awakens in many, which I found frustrating. pic.twitter.com/6m8sOQWhTx
I’m gonna need a minute to digest #StarWarsTheRiseofSkywalker. There’s so much movie in this movie. But its best moments are the quietest and most human. Giving this more of a think, though.
Epic. All of it. #TheRiseofSkywalker is a terrific finale that is just stuffed with so much of everything. Action, adventure — answers!! — humor, heart, love, and grit. I spent the entire second half with tears in my eyes – a wonderful way to end the Skywalker story pic.twitter.com/K2NhHSGWzM
I saw #RiseofSkywalker. It was a movie with people in it! Things happened! @ThatKevinSmith was two rows behind me and enhanced my moviegoing experience tenfold. These are my spoiler-free words!
#StarWars#TheRiseOfSkwalker reaction: One word: EPIC! A satisfying crowd pleasing adventure, and a fitting end to the saga! My favorite of the three! Can't wait to see it again!
#StarWars#TheRiseOfSkywalker is a lot. It’s a big, giant movie with a lot of spectacle and high stakes and it’s definitely going to start a conversation (or a lot of conversations) among fans.
Just stepped out of #TheRiseofSkywalker. It’s an immensely satisfying and MASSIVE end to the saga. It somehow addresses issues, problematic characters, and most unanswered questions from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi too. pic.twitter.com/TMKeXCXuUx
I’m emotional, overwhelmed, surprised, shocked & stunned. More than anything, I’m happy. Thanks for coming through one more time, Star Wars.#TheRiseOfSkywalker
I am still processing #TheRiseofSkywalker but omggggg I’m so happy and sad at the same time!!!!! JJ Abrams you’re my hero! Thank you so much for this movie. pic.twitter.com/dMmv3k8N6Z
#StarWars#TheRiseOfSkywalker…OH MY GOD! I am absolutely blown away! I’ve never been so satisfied by a film. This is the end of an era and a franchise that has defined my life and this did it justice in a way I didn’t imagine it could. You WILL cry…. pic.twitter.com/Jfx5bzdZOO
If all these tweets are getting you wound up with anticipation, don’t worry. “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” hits theaters on Thursday evening.
15 Best Stories Ever Told in the 'Star Wars' Universe (Photos)
With 40 years of movies, TV shows, comics, video games, novels and reference books, you'd be hard-pressed to ever run out of stories to read about the "Star Wars" universe, past and present. It's a big universe out there, and every story told in it is connected to all the others. Big stories are told as many different smaller ones, and small stories are told as chunks of a bigger picture.
These are the best chunks, big or small, in the history of the "Star Wars" universe.
15. The Rise of Admiral Daala in the "Jedi Academy Trilogy"
After "Return of the Jedi" in the version of the "Star Wars" continuity before Disney bought Lucasfilm, the Empire fractured into a bunch of splinter governments led by self-proclaimed rulers who would make up new titles for themselves like "high admiral" or "warlord" while still maintaining the pretense of Imperial legitimacy. Daala (a woman!) decided to try to bring it back together, and eventually was able to do so -- for a short time at least. Her brilliant machinations were a compelling as hell tale, and one of author Kevin J Anderson's only good contributions to "Star Wars" lore.
14. The Black Fleet Crisis
This is not referring to the "Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy" as a whole, since two of the three main narrative arcs in those books are unrelated to the event in "Star Wars" lore known as the Black Fleet Crisis.
The Crisis is great because it's the sort of cool scifi story that checks a lot of boxes simultaneously. In particular: unknowable alien force you've never heard of, weird galactic political intrigue with lots of backstabs from said alien force, and a grand mystery regarding how those aliens came to power in the first place. It's a really interesting scenario.
13. Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice
The "Star Wars" universe is full of stories about good apprentices going bad and wreaking havoc on the good guys, but we've very rarely gotten the inverse. That made "The Force Unleashed" a really novel experience. You play as Darth Vader's secret apprentice in the years between the original and prequel trilogies. You're a dark side force user and soldier for the Empire who goes rogue in a really epic way.
12. "X-Wing Alliance"
You're Ace, and you work for your family shipping company. You fly a freighter doing pretty boring things, until your dad's sympathies for the Rebel Alliance come back to bite the whole family in the ass.
You know how this goes: the Empire brings the hammer down, you join the Rebellion as a fighter pilot. But maybe the entire family isn't on board with facing down the Empire. This is the only "Star Wars" space combat simulator that gives you a personal story, and it turned out to be a great idea.
11. Admiral Thrawn
Not specifically thinking of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy here, but the story of Thrawn's life as a whole and his lasting legacy in the Expanded Universe. This guy was such a genius that even a decade after his death the plans he'd laid out were threatening to tear apart the fledgling New Republic. His fingerprints are everywhere.
10. The Battle of Borleaias
Late in the "New Jedi Order," famed Rebel hero Wedge Antilles is charged with holding the planet Borleias from the Yuuzhan Vong, and it's one hell of a thing. Massively outgunned, Wedge pulls a whole lot of seat-of-your-pants gambits out of his ass -- and this pair of books, authored by the late fan favorite Aaron Allston, is full of great and witty dialogue of the sort you just never got from other "Star Wars" authors.
9. Wedge and Friends Go to Adumar
As the war against the Empire winds down, Rebel hero Wedge Antilles and pals Tycho, Hobbie and Janso, are sent as diplomats to a newly discovered planet full of people who pretty don't give a shit about anyone who isn't a fighter pilot. If that sounds like a sitcom scenario, that's because it basically is. And it's great, incessantly funny and very awkward -- a great little side story that's as witty as they get in this universe.
8. Wraith Squadron
The story of the Wraiths, told over three books, is unique among "Star Wars" stories in a lot of ways. It follows famed Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles as he assembles a hybrid starfighter/footsoldier squadron of emotionally unstable washouts -- the idea being that such a group, when given some operational leeway, might approach apparently normal war scenarios in really unpredictable ways, and that's exactly what happens. It's the most human of all the "Star Wars" stories, full of truth.
7. The Tale of the Imperial Agent in "The Old Republic"
Many of the most interesting "Star Wars" stories are those that focus on characters who can't use the Force, and this is one of those. You play as a spy for the Sith Empire (thousands of years before the movies), doing awesome wartime spy stuff. And you get caught up in a galactic conspiracy to destroy both the Republic and Empire -- by a secret society tired of Force-using factions starting all these galaxy-spanning wars. It's a compelling-as-hell hook.
6. The Rise and Fall and Rise of Revan
Thousands of years before the movies, Revan was a Jedi who led the Republic military against invading Mandalorians -- only to turn to the dark side and wage his own war on the Republic, before turning away from the dark and defeating his own armies. That's the very short, very incomplete version. The story of Revan is thoroughly fascinating and ends up lasting hundreds of years across two video games ("Knights of the Old Republic) and a pile of books and comics.
5. The Jabba's Palace Heist in "Return of the Jedi"
It's become clear in the last few years that a lot of folks never really got what Luke, Leia, Lando and Chewie were doing during the first portion of "Return of the Jedi" -- and now we have all these thinkpieces about how it was reckless and haphazard. But no, that shit was an impeccable heist. They had a plan, and they pulled it off flawlessly and in style.
4. The Dark Wars
This story was told in the video game "Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords" -- a former Jedi who was exiled from the Order returns to known space only to find the Jedi gone from civilization and a pair of mysterious Sith lords wreaking havoc all over. It's a rare "Star Wars" noir story, and it's quite a doozy.
3. "Traitor"
In the '90s the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe got really moralistic and stuffy, and "Traitor" was a total refutation of that approach. It's the darkest "Star Wars" story ever written, but it serves a positive agenda in the end: one that asserts that maybe the Force isn't black and white and the Jedi don't need to stand around wondering about the moral implications of every little thing they do. It was a really great change for storytelling in the EU, and it's nice that it appears "The Last Jedi" might take a similar patch.
2. "Star Wars"
The one that started it all is a silly, not-particularly-well-thought-out movie, but it's tight as hell and covers all the ground it needs to. It establishes a completely new universe so casually, making it feel from the very beginning that this is a real, lived-in place. Everything you need to know about what's going on is right there.
1. "The Empire Strikes Back"
The lesson J.J. Abrams and friends should have learned from "The Empire Strikes Back" widely considered the best "Star Wars" movie, is that you don't make a"Star Wars" movie that stands the test of time by aping previous ones -- you have to go somewhere new. "Empire" functions as a total counter to the first movie, and that's why it's a perfect sequel.
1 of 16
There are more “Star Wars” stories than even you can imagine, even if you think you can imagine quite a bit. These are the best ones
With 40 years of movies, TV shows, comics, video games, novels and reference books, you'd be hard-pressed to ever run out of stories to read about the "Star Wars" universe, past and present. It's a big universe out there, and every story told in it is connected to all the others. Big stories are told as many different smaller ones, and small stories are told as chunks of a bigger picture.
These are the best chunks, big or small, in the history of the "Star Wars" universe.
Disney’s third and final film in the latest Star Wars trilogy, “The Rise of Skywalker,” had its world premiere Monday night in Los Angeles with audience members quickly taking to Twitter afterward to share their reactions.
The review embargo for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” lifts on Wednesday, Dec. 18, at 12:01 a.m. PST. However, the social media embargo broke immediately after the premiere.
(No spoilers from the film ahead).
Members of the press, including critics and reporters, had mostly mixed-to-positive reactions of J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm’s final chapter in the Skywalker saga, which stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac.
“‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ is certainly the most convoluted Star Wars,” Uproxx’s Mike Ryan wrote. “There is a lot I liked, but the first half gets so bogged down with exposition and new plot and doodads and beacons and transmitters, it feels like it should have been three movies on its own.”
Variety’s Adam B. Vary tweeted: “There’s so much movie in this movie. But its best moments are the quietest and most human.”
Popular on Variety
“The emotional highs are spectacular, and there are a lot of payoffs (some earned, some not). But some choices feel like an unnecessary course-correct from The Last Jedi and some just plain don’t make sense,” said Laura Prudom of IGN.
Meanwhile, other writers like Rob Keyes of Screen Rant were more enthused: “It’s an immensely satisfying and massive end to the saga. It somehow addresses issues, problematic characters, and most unanswered questions from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi too.”
Erik Davis of Fandango was also feeling The Force: “Epic. All of it. #TheRiseofSkywalker is a terrific finale that is just stuffed with so much of everything. Action, adventure — answers!! — humor, heart, love, and grit.”
See more reactions below.
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” opens nationwide Friday, Dec. 20.
I’m gonna need a minute to digest #StarWarsTheRiseofSkywalker. There’s so much movie in this movie. But its best moments are the quietest and most human. Giving this more of a think, though.
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is certainly the most convoluted Star Wars. There is a lot I liked, but the first half gets so bogged down with exposition and new plot and doodads and beacons and transmitters, it feels like it should have been three movies on its own.
I’m still processing #StarWars#TheRiseofSkywalker. The emotional highs are spectacular, and there are a lot of payoffs (some earned, some not). But some choices feel like an unnecessary course-correct from The Last Jedi and some just plain don’t make sense. Need to see it again pic.twitter.com/NcgBbAeCVx
Epic. All of it. #TheRiseofSkywalker is a terrific finale that is just stuffed with so much of everything. Action, adventure — answers!! — humor, heart, love, and grit. I spent the entire second half with tears in my eyes – a wonderful way to end the Skywalker story pic.twitter.com/K2NhHSGWzM
I’m emotional, overwhelmed, surprised, shocked & stunned. More than anything, I’m happy. Thanks for coming through one more time, Star Wars.#TheRiseOfSkywalker
(There are no spoilers in this post for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”)
Hype levels are at critical now that we’re just a couple days away from “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” hitting theaters, and the week’s festivities kicked off Monday night when the film got its world premiere in Los Angeles.
Finally, those in attendance are out of the theater and tweeting their reactions, and, well, those reactions are mostly what you’d expect from people attending the premiere of a new “Star Wars” movie. For the most part, the responses are very positive, though some are less positive than others.
The reactions thus far have come in two main flavors: folks voicing overwhelmingly effusive praise for the film, and folks who say that the movie is a whole lot and they’re gonna have to think about it. It’s not extremely surprising that we’d get those types of responses at the premiere — it’s unlikely that anyone at the premiere would straight up trash the movie, so this is the range I personally expected.
We want to reiterate here that there are no spoilers in the tweets below — unless you consider “I liked it” or “I’m not sure how I feel” to constitute plot and story details. Now let’s get into it.
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is certainly the most convoluted Star Wars. There is a lot I liked, but the first half gets so bogged down with exposition and new plot and doodads and beacons and transmitters, it feels like it should have been three movies on its own.
All I can say is “wow.”#StarWars: #TheRiseOfSkywalker is many things: horrifying, hopeful, violent, lowkey horny, and full of the right kind of fan service.
But most of all, it’s a fitting ending for this incredible, 40+ year-long saga. pic.twitter.com/pd2GEwI7O3
I’ve seen #StarWarsTheRiseofSkywalker. It’s… a lot. There’s a lot I like and some I loved but overall my feelings are pretty mixed. It felt like an apology for The Last Jedi in some ways and a sequel to The Force Awakens in many, which I found frustrating. pic.twitter.com/6m8sOQWhTx
I’m gonna need a minute to digest #StarWarsTheRiseofSkywalker. There’s so much movie in this movie. But its best moments are the quietest and most human. Giving this more of a think, though.
Epic. All of it. #TheRiseofSkywalker is a terrific finale that is just stuffed with so much of everything. Action, adventure — answers!! — humor, heart, love, and grit. I spent the entire second half with tears in my eyes – a wonderful way to end the Skywalker story pic.twitter.com/K2NhHSGWzM
I saw #RiseofSkywalker. It was a movie with people in it! Things happened! @ThatKevinSmith was two rows behind me and enhanced my moviegoing experience tenfold. These are my spoiler-free words!
#StarWars#TheRiseOfSkwalker reaction: One word: EPIC! A satisfying crowd pleasing adventure, and a fitting end to the saga! My favorite of the three! Can't wait to see it again!
#StarWars#TheRiseOfSkywalker is a lot. It’s a big, giant movie with a lot of spectacle and high stakes and it’s definitely going to start a conversation (or a lot of conversations) among fans.
Just stepped out of #TheRiseofSkywalker. It’s an immensely satisfying and MASSIVE end to the saga. It somehow addresses issues, problematic characters, and most unanswered questions from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi too. pic.twitter.com/TMKeXCXuUx
I’m emotional, overwhelmed, surprised, shocked & stunned. More than anything, I’m happy. Thanks for coming through one more time, Star Wars.#TheRiseOfSkywalker
I am still processing #TheRiseofSkywalker but omggggg I’m so happy and sad at the same time!!!!! JJ Abrams you’re my hero! Thank you so much for this movie. pic.twitter.com/dMmv3k8N6Z
#StarWars#TheRiseOfSkywalker…OH MY GOD! I am absolutely blown away! I’ve never been so satisfied by a film. This is the end of an era and a franchise that has defined my life and this did it justice in a way I didn’t imagine it could. You WILL cry…. pic.twitter.com/Jfx5bzdZOO
If all these tweets are getting you wound up with anticipation, don’t worry. “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” hits theaters on Thursday evening.
15 Best Stories Ever Told in the 'Star Wars' Universe (Photos)
With 40 years of movies, TV shows, comics, video games, novels and reference books, you'd be hard-pressed to ever run out of stories to read about the "Star Wars" universe, past and present. It's a big universe out there, and every story told in it is connected to all the others. Big stories are told as many different smaller ones, and small stories are told as chunks of a bigger picture.
These are the best chunks, big or small, in the history of the "Star Wars" universe.
15. The Rise of Admiral Daala in the "Jedi Academy Trilogy"
After "Return of the Jedi" in the version of the "Star Wars" continuity before Disney bought Lucasfilm, the Empire fractured into a bunch of splinter governments led by self-proclaimed rulers who would make up new titles for themselves like "high admiral" or "warlord" while still maintaining the pretense of Imperial legitimacy. Daala (a woman!) decided to try to bring it back together, and eventually was able to do so -- for a short time at least. Her brilliant machinations were a compelling as hell tale, and one of author Kevin J Anderson's only good contributions to "Star Wars" lore.
14. The Black Fleet Crisis
This is not referring to the "Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy" as a whole, since two of the three main narrative arcs in those books are unrelated to the event in "Star Wars" lore known as the Black Fleet Crisis.
The Crisis is great because it's the sort of cool scifi story that checks a lot of boxes simultaneously. In particular: unknowable alien force you've never heard of, weird galactic political intrigue with lots of backstabs from said alien force, and a grand mystery regarding how those aliens came to power in the first place. It's a really interesting scenario.
13. Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice
The "Star Wars" universe is full of stories about good apprentices going bad and wreaking havoc on the good guys, but we've very rarely gotten the inverse. That made "The Force Unleashed" a really novel experience. You play as Darth Vader's secret apprentice in the years between the original and prequel trilogies. You're a dark side force user and soldier for the Empire who goes rogue in a really epic way.
12. "X-Wing Alliance"
You're Ace, and you work for your family shipping company. You fly a freighter doing pretty boring things, until your dad's sympathies for the Rebel Alliance come back to bite the whole family in the ass.
You know how this goes: the Empire brings the hammer down, you join the Rebellion as a fighter pilot. But maybe the entire family isn't on board with facing down the Empire. This is the only "Star Wars" space combat simulator that gives you a personal story, and it turned out to be a great idea.
11. Admiral Thrawn
Not specifically thinking of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy here, but the story of Thrawn's life as a whole and his lasting legacy in the Expanded Universe. This guy was such a genius that even a decade after his death the plans he'd laid out were threatening to tear apart the fledgling New Republic. His fingerprints are everywhere.
10. The Battle of Borleaias
Late in the "New Jedi Order," famed Rebel hero Wedge Antilles is charged with holding the planet Borleias from the Yuuzhan Vong, and it's one hell of a thing. Massively outgunned, Wedge pulls a whole lot of seat-of-your-pants gambits out of his ass -- and this pair of books, authored by the late fan favorite Aaron Allston, is full of great and witty dialogue of the sort you just never got from other "Star Wars" authors.
9. Wedge and Friends Go to Adumar
As the war against the Empire winds down, Rebel hero Wedge Antilles and pals Tycho, Hobbie and Janso, are sent as diplomats to a newly discovered planet full of people who pretty don't give a shit about anyone who isn't a fighter pilot. If that sounds like a sitcom scenario, that's because it basically is. And it's great, incessantly funny and very awkward -- a great little side story that's as witty as they get in this universe.
8. Wraith Squadron
The story of the Wraiths, told over three books, is unique among "Star Wars" stories in a lot of ways. It follows famed Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles as he assembles a hybrid starfighter/footsoldier squadron of emotionally unstable washouts -- the idea being that such a group, when given some operational leeway, might approach apparently normal war scenarios in really unpredictable ways, and that's exactly what happens. It's the most human of all the "Star Wars" stories, full of truth.
7. The Tale of the Imperial Agent in "The Old Republic"
Many of the most interesting "Star Wars" stories are those that focus on characters who can't use the Force, and this is one of those. You play as a spy for the Sith Empire (thousands of years before the movies), doing awesome wartime spy stuff. And you get caught up in a galactic conspiracy to destroy both the Republic and Empire -- by a secret society tired of Force-using factions starting all these galaxy-spanning wars. It's a compelling-as-hell hook.
6. The Rise and Fall and Rise of Revan
Thousands of years before the movies, Revan was a Jedi who led the Republic military against invading Mandalorians -- only to turn to the dark side and wage his own war on the Republic, before turning away from the dark and defeating his own armies. That's the very short, very incomplete version. The story of Revan is thoroughly fascinating and ends up lasting hundreds of years across two video games ("Knights of the Old Republic) and a pile of books and comics.
5. The Jabba's Palace Heist in "Return of the Jedi"
It's become clear in the last few years that a lot of folks never really got what Luke, Leia, Lando and Chewie were doing during the first portion of "Return of the Jedi" -- and now we have all these thinkpieces about how it was reckless and haphazard. But no, that shit was an impeccable heist. They had a plan, and they pulled it off flawlessly and in style.
4. The Dark Wars
This story was told in the video game "Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords" -- a former Jedi who was exiled from the Order returns to known space only to find the Jedi gone from civilization and a pair of mysterious Sith lords wreaking havoc all over. It's a rare "Star Wars" noir story, and it's quite a doozy.
3. "Traitor"
In the '90s the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe got really moralistic and stuffy, and "Traitor" was a total refutation of that approach. It's the darkest "Star Wars" story ever written, but it serves a positive agenda in the end: one that asserts that maybe the Force isn't black and white and the Jedi don't need to stand around wondering about the moral implications of every little thing they do. It was a really great change for storytelling in the EU, and it's nice that it appears "The Last Jedi" might take a similar patch.
2. "Star Wars"
The one that started it all is a silly, not-particularly-well-thought-out movie, but it's tight as hell and covers all the ground it needs to. It establishes a completely new universe so casually, making it feel from the very beginning that this is a real, lived-in place. Everything you need to know about what's going on is right there.
1. "The Empire Strikes Back"
The lesson J.J. Abrams and friends should have learned from "The Empire Strikes Back" widely considered the best "Star Wars" movie, is that you don't make a"Star Wars" movie that stands the test of time by aping previous ones -- you have to go somewhere new. "Empire" functions as a total counter to the first movie, and that's why it's a perfect sequel.
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There are more “Star Wars” stories than even you can imagine, even if you think you can imagine quite a bit. These are the best ones
With 40 years of movies, TV shows, comics, video games, novels and reference books, you'd be hard-pressed to ever run out of stories to read about the "Star Wars" universe, past and present. It's a big universe out there, and every story told in it is connected to all the others. Big stories are told as many different smaller ones, and small stories are told as chunks of a bigger picture.
These are the best chunks, big or small, in the history of the "Star Wars" universe.
Spoilers for the full season of HBO’s “Watchmen” follow:
“Now: We have a god to kill.”
It is a bold statement that Lady Trieu (Hong Chau) makes in the finale of HBO’s “Watchmen” — boldness being part of the job description for a comic-book mad genius. It is also a kind of mission statement for this daring, breathtaking series, which in one season took American history and pop mythology, dismantled it down to its smallest atoms and reconstructed it in a form that was familiar yet wholly new.
It’s hard to overstate how risky, how primed for disaster, was the challenge that the creator, Damon Lindelof, signed up for. First, to adapt a notoriously hard-to-adapt subversive superhero comic. Then to lovingly, impishly subvert that subversion, extending the story backward and forwards in time. To do all that while reframing the story as an antiracist pulp thriller, weighty without being pompous or exploitative. Oh — and could it also be electrifying and playful and fun?
Amazingly it could, culminating in “See How They Fly,” a mind-bending, gravity-defying finale that successfully landed this improbable airship.
Like a fine watch or a chicken’s egg, the symbols the finale returned to, this season was a marvel of self-contained engineering. It succeeded, first, in craft and performance, with visual invention and memorable work from Chau, Regina King, Jean Smart, Jeremy Irons, Louis Gossett Jr. and many others. It set up a domino chain of mysteries that the finale satisfyingly paid off.
But it also created something more: an urgent entertainment that was as unignorable as the pealing of an alarm bell.
Alan Moore, the creator of the graphic novel, did not endorse this project, any more than he has other adaptations of his work. Yet Lindelof’s approach — to honor it by taking it apart and questioning the appeal of masked avengers in the first place — was very much in the spirit of the original.
Reinventing “Watchmen” by making its subject white supremacy rather than the Cold War — not to mention making its hero Angela Abar (King), an avenging black police-ninja — also meshes with Moore’s critique of the superhero genre, as he put it in a 2016 interview.
“Save for a smattering of nonwhite characters (and nonwhite creators),” Moore said, “these books and these iconic characters are still very much white supremacist dreams of the master race. In fact, I think that a good argument can be made for D.W. Griffith’s ‘Birth of a Nation’ as the first American superhero movie, and the point of origin for all those capes and masks.”
Lindelof (who wisely assembled a diverse writers’ room for the job) made a form of that argument. Then he complicated it and recomplicated it.
One of the first things we see in “Watchmen” is not “Birth of a Nation” but its imagined silent-movie antithesis: “Trust in the Law!,” the story of the black Oklahoma marshal Bass Reeves, playing in a Tulsa movie theater that is about to burn in the white-terrorist massacre of 1921.
The boy sitting in that theater grows up to be Will Reeves (Gossett), who takes the marshal’s surname and becomes America’s first superhero, Hooded Justice, under cover of a lynching victim’s mask. His “origin story,” as he calls it in the finale, is horrific. Yet there’s also a heartbreaking optimism in the idea that this child would grow up with the trust — or at least furious determination — that the law might win out, even if it took a century.
The history and present of American racism figure directly in “Watchmen”: the use of nostalgia as a literal drug; the Seventh Kavalry’s resentment at being expected to “say sorry” for the “alleged” sins of the past; the circled-thumb-and-finger-to-forehead gesture of the racist secret society Cyclops, which resembles the real-life white-power appropriation of the “O.K.” symbol.
But “Watchmen” also asked: What if black people were among the ones wearing the masks? What if a black man — a black policeman — were the first masked hero? Why would he need to shield his identity, even more than Clark Kent? And would the subterfuge work so well that — as we saw on the show-within-a-show “American Hero Story” — later generations would assume he must have been a white man?
All this played out in the sixth episode, “This Extraordinary Being,” which reimagined the origin of Moore’s Hooded Justice, astonishingly taking that character’s symbols — the hood and the noose — and tying them to the dark history of lynching in such a way that it seemed as if that reading was always there, begging to be revealed.
The “Watchmen” endgame then one-upped this gambit, remaking perhaps the original comics’ most memorable character, Dr. Manhattan, revealed here not to be in exile on Mars but living incognito as Angela’s husband, Cal (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II).
The image itself, of an African American man as the azure Übermensch — as both black and blue, to quote Fats Waller — was a striking statement, reimagining the universe’s one superbeing like an icon out of Afrofuturistic art.
Now the show was asking: What does it mean to give god a black man’s face? What if the very people once left out of superhero stories have the greatest claim of all to their themes and ideals? Who has a greater stake in truth, justice and the American way — an exile from Krypton, or the black child who fled a ruined movie theater, yet didn’t forsake the words of Bass Reeves?
In the end, “Watchmen” returned to the subject of power: Who holds it, who can be trusted with it and what should be done with it.
Superpowers are obviously horrifying in the hands of evildoers; hence the story of the Seventh Kavalry trying to steal Dr. Manhattan’s power, the show’s most conventionally comic-book-villain plot.
But “Watchmen” is also suspicious of those, like Veidt and Lady Trieu, who want to use power to impose their idea of good on the world. That opposition — toxic hate and toxic idealism — is paralleled in the background, in the fictional, quasi-autocratic presidencies of Richard Nixon and Robert Redford.
But dispassionate withdrawal, as represented by Dr. Manhattan’s retreat from the world, is no answer either. “He was a good man,” Will says. “But considering what he could do, he could have done more.”
Can anybody be trusted with absolute power? Can it ever be employed in a way that won’t create new and greater problems? “Watchmen” doesn’t answer these questions. But by ending with the suggestion that Dr. Manhattan could transfer his powers to Angela (incubated, like a vaccine, in a raw egg), it offers a suggestion as to who might be the best kind of person to entrust power to.
Maybe, the ending suggests, someone who didn’t ask for it. Maybe someone who has watched god and her only love die simultaneously. Maybe a black woman who has swallowed the memories of a century of injustice and persecution and struggle, who has (through an egg and a pill) literally taken into her body both the ultimate power and the ultimate understanding of powerlessness.
We are left, to wonder what Angela will do and should do from here. In a quintessentially Lindelof move, the screen cuts to black the instant that Angela’s sole touches the surface of her swimming pool, to test whether she can, like Dr. Manhattan, walk on water.
It’s tempting to call this a “cliffhanger” though I have no reason to believe the show intends to resolve it. You could call it a “tease,” but I don’t think that’s the spirit of it at all.
Instead, “Watchmen” leaves us at the electric moment of transformation — the precise instant when foot meets water, flesh meets the elemental, mortality meets immortality.
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