Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Star Wars Character Countdown #35


Our #35 character Bastila Shan was an essential companion character in perhaps the greatest Star Wars video game of all time, the original Knights of the Old Republic.  She is the first character that you get to use in the game with Jedi abilities once you free her.  Just talking about this game wants to make me boot it up and play it again.  Eventually she would go on to have a child with Revan and that lineage would carry on to our #42 Character on the list, Satele Shan many years later.  Her action figure is also highly sought after, if you can get your hands on one!  

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

#36 on the Star Wars character countdown is none other than...


The youngest child of Han and Leia, Anakin suffered a tragic but hero's death fighting the Yuuzhan Vong.  Of note, Chewbacca sacrificed himself to save the youngest Solo  in the Expanded Universe.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Our #37 pick for Star Wars characters is...



I'm not a huge fan of reptiles myself but even I have to admit Bossk looks cool.  In my humble opinion (Joao) I think he is the most intimidating looking of all the bounty hunters.  He's a legit monster!

#38 Character

Number 38 on our top 50 Star Wars characters countdown is...


Plo Koon

With the new episodes of Clone Wars just around the corner and Plo having a nice story arc as part of the episodes, this fits perfectly.  He was truly a powerful Jedi during his time but was killed like many others in the execution of Order 66.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Episode 48 of the Cantina Cast: Part 3 of 4 Dissecting Darth Vader

                                                       
                                                            Listen to Episode 48 now!

Or as you might have noticed, you can listen to our latest episodes right here on the blog.  Hope everyone enjoys!  Shorter conversation this time but we feel pretty good about the content of this episode!


Saturday, March 1, 2014

Aaron Allston and Racheal

Aaron Allston was one of the most popular Star Wars novelists of all time and he was a favorite of my wife, Racheal.  At the convention Origins in May of 2012 she was able to meet Aaron.  This was a huge treat for her.

Racheal's ambition at the convention was to network, network, network.  Or as she put it, "I'm going to network my ass off."  She had business cards printed up and put aside her tendency for being shy and put herself out there.

She had graduated Ball State University with a Bachelors degree in magazine journalism.  After many discussions with her about trying to find a job, I told her you have to find something that you are passionate about.  I said, people who write about sports love sports.  People who write about politics write about politics.  What do you want to write about?

Her enthusiasm in Star Wars had waned a bit in the years after Revenge of the Sith.  Christmas of 2009 I bought her the book "Millennium Falcon" and she read it very quickly.  Soon she was going back to the Expanded Universe books she had skipped on over the past few years and soon was caught up.  She was once again posting on forums discussing the book.

Tricia Barr of the fangirl cantina and many other note worthy things helped inspire Racheal to create her own blog focusing on female characters in Star Wars and other genres.  The Galactic Drift was born and she was slowly meeting many of the great people in the Star Wars community outside of the fan fiction realm.

Racheal had found what she was passionate about and was writing about it.

"I'm going to network my ass off."

I was going for a promotion at work and couldn't drive to Ohio with her to attend Origins.  But she was texting me and leaving voicemails about all the people she was meeting.  In one voicemail she was perhaps as excited as I had ever heard her.  "I got to talk to Aaron Allston for like an hour, it was AWESOME."

She later told me they talked about Star Wars and everything else under the son.  She certainly wanted to pick Aaron's mind.  Her favorite actor, Harrison Ford was brought up in the conversation and the movie "Hollywood Homicide" was discussed of all things.

Just a month later, Racheal passed away and left us all. There was a huge outpouring of support from all of the people she had touched in the Star Wars community over the years.  She had been an avid fan fiction writer and people who only recognized her by her pen name were very saddened by the news, stating they had read her stories.  Others she knew through private messages and long correspondences that way.

Everyone from Club Jade, to theforce.net, to Star Wars Books made posts about the loss of a fangirl.  It was then I saw in the comments that Mr. Allston had replied to a post, saying he had just met her the month before and was sad to hear this news.

For her favorite author to have given his condolences, I knew it would have meant a lot to Racheal and it certainly meant a lot to me, along with everyone else's comments.

So hearing of Aaron's tragic passing just two days ago was a bit of a shock.  Perhaps they are reviewing "Hollywood Homicide" once again or talking about all the silly Episode 7 rumors.

-Joao


Top 50 Star Wars characters #40

We are proud to present #40 on our top 50 list.



Ben Skywalker(http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ben_Skywalker). Son of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. He flirts with Sith girls and is a wanted apprentice by a man who idolizes Darth Vader. What more needs to be said?

We are counting down the top 50 Star Wars characters as we count down to The Cantina Cast's 50th episode! Right now you can check out episode 47 here:  http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/thecantinacastpodcast/id/2690134 #starwars
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