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Ever since George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney back in 2012, they have made many changes with their properties. Star Wars is the perfect example of this bold new path Lucasfilm is taking. Kathleen Kennedy, the current head of Lucasfilm, has been working with talented writers and content creators such as JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson, and so many more to bring the fans a new vision on a galaxy far, far away.

To better understand where Star Wars is going, its origins must be brought back into the spotlight. As told in documentaries like Empire of Dreams and The Legacy Revealed, Star Wars came out in a unique time. The Vietnam War had just ended and there was a large amount of anti-establishment sentiment and dark tones in the films of the 1970s. However, Star Wars ushered in a new era for the film industry, hearkening back to the light-hearted adventure stories of the 1930s featuring characters like Flash Gordon and actors like Errol Flynn.

As a result, Star Wars ended up being a simple story of a farm boy swept up in a grand adventure to defeat an evil Empire. The good guys, the bad guys, and all of their motivations were very black and white and straightforward so audiences could focus on having fun with the movie rather than reaching for a deep, underlying message. These messages definitely existed in the original trilogy, but viewers didn’t have to dig very deep to find them. While wonderful regardless of how simple it was in premise, the original Star Wars trilogy took the world by storm.

Over the past 40 years, since the release of the original film, this premise has been overplayed in other films trying to recapture the magic that was the original trilogy. Always the innovator, George Lucas tried to change up his formula when it came time for him to create his prequel trilogy of films. The morality of the films was much greyer than the original trilogy, with heroes and villains being hard to distinguish from one another. While the prequels were certainly different, their reception was mixed at best. Many fans complained that these movies were overly complicated and didn’t feel like Star Wars. Whether Lucas’ new style came a decade too early to be relevant or these films really aren’t as compelling as some call them out to be, they exist and Lucasfilm has managed to move forward in a positive way with them.

After a decade of waiting, JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy helped Star Wars fans rest easy with the release of The Force Awakens. While it borrowed heavily from the feel, themes, and plot of the original film, this was Lucasfilm’s way of earning back the trust of the fan base. Now, the story writers at Lucasfilm are starting to properly implement the ideas Lucas had with the prequel trilogy in its overall new story. While these ideas first appeared in the prequels and The Clone Wars show on Cartoon Network, Lucasfilm has been slowly bringing them back and making them truly relevant to their new mythos. Shows like Rebels, books like Bloodline, and comics like Obi-Wan & Anakin have all begun to blur the line between the good and evil characters and make the story more complex in a way that fans seem to truly appreciate.

Many people probably won’t watch or read any of these stories, so their first proper introduction to these new themes and character motivations will be in this year’s upcoming The Last Jedi film. With Luke Skywalker promising to end the Jedi Order and characters like Kylo Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke being stated to not just be Sith, Star Wars has officially become more complex in a way that fans seem to appreciate much more than the prequels. It’s done a complete 180 from its original incarnations. Now the average film is light-hearted and simple and Star Wars is bringing the tone back to the dark and morally grey style of the 1970s. This isn’t a new direction for film in general, but it is for Star Wars and the release of The Last Jedi this December will tell if it’s a successful move on Lucasfilm’s part.

I spend most of my days working towards my Writing and Rhetoric degree at the University of Central Florida, but I spend a lot of my down time keeping up to date on the best TV, movies, and video games the industry has to offer. Here I put all of that extended time to use discussing each of them in-depth.

Books

Bloodborne: A Song Of Crows Comic Cover, Release Date, Price

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Bloodborne

It has been a while since FromSoftware released the critically-acclaimed PS4-exclusive Bloodborne, with fans still clamoring for a sequel to this very day. However, despite that apparently not being on the horizon, fans have still been able to keep the good times rolling thanks to a comic series based on the popular game.

This new comic is called A Song of Crows, and Amazon has recently posted their product page for it that reveals lots of information. The following is an overview:

“Discover the twisted story of Eileen the Crow in the continuing comic series spinning out of Fromsoftware/Hidetaka Miyazaki’s critically-acclaimed Bloodborne videogame!

The City of Yarnham is buried in snow.

Eileen the Crow buries the Hunters. But one eludes her. Poisoned and overcome with beastly senses, he prowls Yarnham causing misery and havoc. Meanwhile the bodies mount, reality shakes, and strange things are amiss in Byrgenwerth. On the hunt for the Hunter, Eileen struggles with her own sanity and the disturbing change that a glimpse beyond reality brings.

Blood and death pervade Yarnham and those who travel in its wake. Follow the quest of Eileen as she looks to uncover the truth of the city, and her most inner turmoil.”

Bloodborne: A Song of Crows will release on August 20th, 2019, with the price being set at $16.99. You can check out the cover of the comic below.

Bloodborne A Song of Crows

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Books

LitRPG Books That Will Get You Hooked

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LitRPG

LitRPG is the up and coming new genre in science fiction and fantasy. But where’s a good place to start if it’s something you might be interested in diving into? There are several really good series by various authors out there. There are even a lot of Russian authors who have had their stories translated into English. So here are the best LitRPG books for beginners.

The Land by Aleron Kong

The Land is an interesting tale about a gamer, Richter, who is transferred to another world. The premise is that humans are in fact what would be called Chaos seeds. This is important because it plays a dramatic role in The Land. Being a chaos seed allows the protagonist to have some interesting powers and make choices that are often not available to everyone else. This is because the entire foundation of chaos is free choices. So the protagonist is allowed to make choices where anything can happen. And it in fact often does.

Play to Live by D. Rus

Play to live follows the premise of merging alternate realities. The character is actually terminally ill, but is allowed a second chance to live by essentially downloading himself into a game. This is a fairly common situation in this world and makes it an interesting story as the protagonist and his friends actually end up back in the real world as their player characters. D. Rus is one of the Russian authors and manages to add in a complex battle between nations within the game world in the story.

The Gam3 by Cosimo Yap

The Gam3 diverges a bit from most other LitRPGs. Whereas many of them are set in fantastical worlds where knights and magic exist, The Gam3 takes place in a science fiction based world. Cosimo does a phenomenal job of making an interesting character with original powers in an interesting world. It follows the tale of a lowly boy working to make money in the game, but he must first pay off his debt to the man who supplied the equipment to get into the game.

As with all genres, there are many more quality books out there to read. The best advice is to get out there and find the ones that interest you personally. I wouldn’t write it off though if you find a few that stink. The subgenre is relatively new and so quality can range widely, especially with the easily available self-publishing we have with digital technology.

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Dresden Files TV Series being rebooted by FOX21

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 In a report by Deadline, a new live-action tv series based off of the Dresden Files book series is in the planning process. Fox 21 has the rights to the story and plans on rebooting it as a tv series. Right now there are very few details in regards to where the studio is planning on taking the show. Fans of the book are excited about the possibility of seeing their favorite series on the small screen.

There was a previous Dresden Files tv series airing in 2007 on the Scifi channel which lasted a single season before being canceled. It is possible that the show will run for more than one season due to its popularity and mass of material. There are a total of fifteen books which combine the elements of a noir detective novel with urban fantasy. Dresden Files is not the first series to combine these elements. But it has had success in the literature industry and easily made the transition to the small screen once before.

Fans had long wanted a Netflix adaption. An unknown employee of Frederator Studios, which contracted Powerhouse Animation, looked into doing an anime adaption similar to the Castlevania.

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Fans reached out to the minds behind the animated  Castlevania series hoping to see Harry Dresden return tot he screen in some form. The Castlevania Anime on Netflix had seen widespread success since its creation in 2017. Fans thought that perhaps the Dresden Files could do well as an animated series. Unfortunately for Frederator and Powerhouse Creative, it seems that Fox21 beat them to the punch. Although the details of the series are few, fans can expect updates in the near future.

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