#gorogue on Force Friday

Against my better judgement, last night I ventured out to my local 24-hour Meijer store for Force Friday.  Rogue Friday?  Does this thing even have an official name now?  If you don't know what Force Friday is just take a gander at this link here to learn a bit about it on Wikipedia.  But basically, it's a merchandising event where all of the new Star Wars toys of a particular wave are released at 12:01 on a certain day.  Sometimes big parties have been held, lines have formed, things sell out, freebees are given away.  And sometimes no one shows up but a handful of nerds at a small Meijer store to politely sort through the new toys and pass things around.

Apparently, events of this nature have been around for quite a while, but I never truly participated in them when the prequels were around (yay for age limitations and parents - love you, Mom!).  I guess back then, though, we didn't have a name for them.  But after speaking with a couple of fellow Star Wars fans at last night's Force Friday unveiling, I learned that folks had attended similar toyapalooza's during the Attack of the Clones (AOTC) and The Phantom Menace (TPM) releases.  When one gentleman told me he had been there for TPM unveiling, I think my eyes got pretty wide.  I audibly said, "Dude, that's crazy."  Because it had to have been.  I remember the merchandising that went into that movie - it's still joked about today in some circles.  I cannot imagine Toys R' Us putting out huge bins of figures so you could "dive in and get what you wanted".  That's just insane to me!  Insane!  (I would have loved it, but - alas - age limitations and parents - love you, Mom!  ;p).

So when this type of thing because official before The Force Awakens (TFA) was released, then of course I had to be there.  I have a 24-hour Meijer and a 24-hour Wal-Mart nearby.  Frankly, I prefer Meijer, so I selected that as my "home" store to attend the event.  I think there were a dozen or so of us for TFA, and there was an entire aisle of things.  Then they wheeled out displays with more and more things.  It was insane.  I walked away with so much loot (plus the only Rey action figure I have ever been able to find on the shelves).

Last night, I didn't expect an event quite as large as TFA because the movie seems a bit off the beaten path of Star Wars.  I expected a handful of people, a smaller display area, just something low-key.

I did not expect 4 people picking over a little 5x5x5 rolling, 4-sided display of toys.  Another fan who got there much earlier than the others had already spoken with an employee about what had been received in their shipment.  The employee let them know that - unfortunately - the entire shipment had not been received by the store.  So they were going to put out whatever they had received, and they apologized.  It was kind of sad, to be honest.  However, I picked up the two figures that I truly wanted to get my hands on - Sergeant Jyn Erso (Eadu) and K-2SO.

After that, I figured I'd pop into Wal-Mart just to see if they had anything else.  I went inside, walked all the way to the back to the toy section...and found nothing.  Absolutely nothing new.  Everything that they had was the old TFA toy selection that they were slowly marking down on clearance.  No one had bothered to put out any new merchandise at all.  I walked away pretty sad.  There was such a build-up in my mind, and then here I am with two figures.  That's it.

I do understand that this isn't a "main-stream" movie in terms of how it fits in with our standard Star Wars timeline.  This movie is new.  Fresh.  Different.  That makes me so, so excited for it.  I hope that excitement spreads to others, as well.

The Force Awakens - Issue/Argument/Resolution - Part 4

Disclaimer: I started this post way back in January/February 2016.  At that time, I was writing up Parts 1-3 of my rants about The Force Awakens.  I had a lot of issues with the movie upon viewing it the first time.  Some of those issues were resolved slightly with a second viewing.  Some things still lingered - even after a third viewing and a fourth.  

But that's okay, like I've said before.  It doesn't change the fact that I'm a Star Wars fan.  There were things I didn't like about the prequels (mostly Anakin/Padmé), and I still watch those.  Heck, I wrote fanfic for that era for years.  That's another story...stories, actually...

But anyway.  I went back through my blog posts just a little bit ago, and I saw this draft sitting out there.  I had to share it.  Basically, the stuff in regular font color is what already existed within the draft.  The new stuff that I wrote just today is in blue.  Some things deserved explanation.

Some things...didn't.  I'll leave it at that.  ;)


First Viewing Issue #5: Rehashing the "A New Hope" plot.  I really don't even need to go into the details of how it was rehashed.  This post was started so long ago, and the internet has already beaten this to death like a dead tauntaun on Hoth.  So I'll just move on with my thoughts.

Second Viewing Resolution #6: I'm slowly coming to grips with this.  I understand why we did what we did.  I mean, come on.  If we go back and look at the Legacy Expanded Universe (is that what we're calling it now?), we have so many rehashed plots.  I was just going into The Force Awakens hoping for something new.  Different.  Completely different, I guess.  Not...look a bigger, badder, Death Star.  Where are the Ewoks?  Are we in Return of the Jedi?  That sort of thing.  (I mean, c'mon.  Lucas rehashed his own plot idea...in the span of only 3 movies.  This is classic stuff.)

But I also understand this was the best way to bring people back to the fold, so to speak.  If you're going to reach out to the original generation that you alienated when you made Jar Jar Binks and the prequels, then you had to go early.  You had to go classic.  You had to go basic.  So they did.

It unfortunately just rubbed me the wrong way because I wasn't prepared for basic.  I was prepared for new.  Again, though, I went in with my own preconceived notion was what I should be seeing.  What I saw didn't match up.  That's okay.

First Viewing Issue #6: Kylo Ren doesn't frighten me; he makes me mad.  I would have killed him.

Second Viewing Resolution #6: Kylo Ren still makes me mad.  I would have killed him harder.

Fandom Blurbs: Rogue One

I feel like I should be writing here, but there hasn't been much going on that I want to write about thoroughly.  I could always pop by with a new geeky moment, but the moments are in short little bursts these days - not big, long, rambling, blog posts.  But maybe that's ok.  Maybe I can do a bunch of short little blurbs into one big, long, rambling, blog post.  Hey!  That's an idea!

I've been wanting to talk a lot about the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  But I haven't touched the topic because there's so much out there.  I stay away from spoilers and speculation, but I do love some of the news that's been coming out about this movie.  I'm really excited about what we're going to see.

So let's just blurb about it a bit:

• This movie now has a new composer, and I couldn't be happier!  It's not that I don't love the original composer who was signed on for the production.  Alexandre Desplat is quite the talent, and I do adore his work.  I wasn't 100% sold that his style would fit this production, but I had to remember that we were going for something different here.  So I was encouraged by that thought.  I wanted to hear what he would come up with.  However, when Rogue One had to revise its schedule due to reshoots, that affected the final scoring schedule.  Desplat was no longer available.
  
  Then steps in my latest hero - Michael Giacchino.  I have seriously fallen in love with this man's line of work, and I adore his musical ear.  It's the closest thing to John Williams that I've found in the "modern" film world, and I love to hear what he comes up with next.  I said a long time ago that if - God forbid - we ever lost John Williams before the Star Wars movies were complete, I believe the baton should be passed to Michael.
  
  It seems Michael is getting his chance now to spread his wings and fling his notes across the page of a Star Wars score.  And I am thrilled.  Thrilled, I have to tell you.  Like, bouncing off the walls, I want to flail and hit people with my nerdy flails because I'm happy thrilled.  I can't wait for this movie.  I really can't.
  

• I'm intrigued that Jyn Erso (the main character) has both a mom and a dad that we will actually see in the movie.  Granted, we might be dealing primarily with flash backs (which I also find interesting), but I think it will be fun to see how her character is shaped by her family.  We don't usually get to see that, I feel.  I want to see how this one plays out.
  
  I'm giving Jyn the benefit of a doubt here.  The first trailer I saw her in, I wasn't thrilled with her character.  I didn't connect with her.  She was brash and tough and - maybe - a little arrogant.  And - ok - a character.  "Reckless, aggressive, and undisciplined."  That's quite all right; it just didn't feel like me.  I guess I wanted to connect or something on a personal level.  (Silly, I know).  I don't need to see myself in a main character to follow them.  There are going to be so many characters in this movie, I think any of us are bound to find someone we connect with.
  
  But there are other trailers I've seen make me like her more and more.  I'm curious to see who her character is, why she is the way she is, and what makes her work and move and fight.
  

• Speaking of trailers - who in the world is writing this music?!  Because if this is Alexandre Desplat, then I'm just sad because this is beautiful stuff!  I know it's just trailer music, but c'mon.  Listen!  Seriously.  Just sit back and listen.  When I listen to the music in the 2nd trailer that I linked to above, I just get goosebumps.  It has been known to bring me to tears just by listening to it (and I'm listening now and fighting them back - gah).  It's powerful stuff.  I think this whole movie will be powerful stuff.
  

• *Kermit flail*