2005 June 02

Not everyone coming to Gnomedex has a blog, but we now have over 150 who
do! Dave set up an awesome domain for a live list of Gnomedexer links.Or, just
keep your eye on the non-RSS'ed OPML.
So, who are some of the folks you'll meet? In random order:

Read more on Over 150 Gnomedex Bloggers!…

Thanks, Podbat!

The Star Wars prequels have finally come to an end. It's a sad time for the Old Republic, but… sadder that they probably shouldn't have been made in the first place (rather, should have been made with Steven Spielberg). Anybody who has seen my computer desk's top shelf knows that I'm a Darth Vader collector. However, I just can't sit here and pretend that the galaxy far, far away is that much closer to my heart now that Episodes I, II, and III have been unleashed. Even die-hard fans have become luke(skywalker)warm to the whole franchise. This entry likely has tons of spoilers, but… how can you spoil something that's already kinda gone stale?
* If Yoda met Chewbacca on Kashyyyk in ROTS, why didn't he say something about it to Luke on his first trip to Dagobah in ESB? “Say hello to an old friend Chewbacca, you must.” Unless, of course, the all-powerful Jedi Master has limited clairvoyance. He also couldn't detect that Anakin was hiding a pregnancy, although Anakin never had no problem sharing his feelings with anybody. Let's not forget to mention that he magically transmogrifies himself from a puppet to a CGI character between I & II.
* We see the shell of the first Death Star being constructed at the end of ROTS, but it's happening at the same time as Luke & Leia are being born. Are you telling me that it took the Empire ~18 years to put the first one together? And that ex-Imperial lackeys like Han Solo didn't know about it at any point along the way? Oops. Smells to me like a major hole.
* Bail Organa wipes Threepio's memory banks, but doesn't say anything about Artoo? Wouldn't R2D2 still know everything, and be able to relay information back to the other droid at the beginning of ANH? “Beep boop whirr beep” would roughly translate as “You mindless philosopher, don't you know that we met back on Tatooine a few years ago?” or “You were actually owned and created by a Skywalker, Threepio.”
* In ROTJ, doesn't Leia say that she remembers her real mother? How could that be?! And when (exactly) was Padme informed that she was having twins – was it before or after she gave birth to the two younglings? She named them as if she had known all along.
* Why doesn't Obi-Wan remember R2 and C3P0 in ANH? Are there THAT many droids in the galaxy? He even knows R2 by his first two digits (recall, as he instructs Artoo how to rid Anakin's ship of a destructive droid at the beginning of ROTS). Or does he remember Artoo, and not say anything about it in ANH? Still hokey, with a great leap of faith, if you ask me. Both droids should have been left out of the prequels altogether.
* Every Jedi in the prequels could raise their hand and make stuff fly. Was this skill lost by everybody by the time IV rolled around? I almost believed that the lightsaber duel between Vader and Kenobi (ANH) was slow because of their geriatric nature, but Yoda pretty much put the smack down on that theory with his nutty bounce attacks in II & III.
* Every battle droid was allegedly shut down at the end of ROTS, but you're telling me that throughout the entire original Trilogy, nobody bothered to turn 'em back on? They're still somewhere, collecting dust – unless the Emperor later decided to have every droid disintegrated and all droid factories destroyed? I guess I'll have to wait for the impending TV series to explain it to me.
* The Banking Clan (San Hill), Trade Federation (Neimodians), Techno Union (Wat Tambor), and Commerce Guild (Shu Mai) made up the Confederacy of Independent Systems – this, I *BARELY* understand. What I don't understand is that we don't see any of 'em in the VI, V, & VI. Why? I can't imagine they were ALL wiped out, and I can only assume that they'd want to exact some kind of revenge on the Empire – possibly helping the Rebellion with resourecs? If not all of 'em, then at least one of 'em. The Archduke of Geonosis, Poggle the Lesser, had a gigantic army of whatnots… what happened to 'em?
My other beef with the prequels is that there wasn't a single “cool” bad guy, other than (quite possibly) Paplatine. We were awestruck with Darth Maul, but he was offed before we had a chance to hate him. Then, we were introduced to a nasty-ass Count Dooku, and he went the way of the Maul in ROTS (without much screen time at all to hate him). Grievous would have been great, but… again, we really didn't have time to identify with this character (and his appearance in the short-attention-span Clone Wars wasn't enough).
Same holds true for all the prequel Jedi. There are so many of 'em, I don't know which one is which! Perhaps I don't know any of these new Jedi because I don't buy everything that has “Star Wars” slapped on it. I don't own any “Star Wars” comics, and I don't have many “Star Wars” books on my shelves. My bad?
III was the “best” prequel (which isn't saying much). Ponzi slept through 2/3 of it, and I don't really fault her for doing that. I guess I can sum it up with the first words out of my mouth at the end of ROTS: “What a piece of shit. Let's go.” I move to have the prequels stricken from canon.

Read more on RIP: Star Wars…