Wade Garret's Blog, page 15

WORLD MAP 3 (Mostly done UPDATE)

Like the changes? Thoughts?About to put names to places and call it a day, thanks to the great Angela R. Sasser.

Be Honest—Darth Maul: Love to Hate and Hate to Love.

Who didn't want to see Star Wars Phantom Menace simply cause of Maul? That's right, everyone. HE was the guy! THE MAN! You wanted him to kick ass and take names and leave a swath of dead Jedi in his path. He was so cool. So bad ass. His tattoos. His horns. All in black. COME ON! You loved it. You loved him. He was the most popular character in the new movie(s). The most popular toy. The most popular costume. Everything his image was put on was GOLD.
Then the day came and you saw it. Sure he didn't talk alot. Sure he really wasn't the main bad guy—Darth Sidious/Palpataine kinda made him into more of a henchmen, assassin instead of being the #1 Sith in-charge, but ya know what, you didn't care. Why? HE was awesome! A Duel Light Saber! HE had a huge two-on-one duel with Obi Wan Kenobi and Qui Gon Jinn, who he finally killed after having earlier fought him in the movie. That was the "Lets Get to Know Each Other" round. :)
Then it happened. :(
You were hoping somehow he'd live, make it into the next movie. Hell, maybe he'd be around for all three. You could even see the plot unfolding...but no, he died. But you were ok with it because of how he died. How final it was. G.L even said so:
George Lucas: I didn't really have anything for Maul to do after The Phantom Menace. I needed a Jedi vs. Sith showdown at the end of The Phantom Menace and I wanted the battle to have significant consequences, which is why Qui-Gon Jinn dies and Darth Maul is cut in half. Darth Sidious needed Count Dooku to lead the Separatist droid military. Dooku was a military genius while Maul was not.
BOOM! There you have it.
Maul's dead and though you wished he'd lived, you're were ok with it. 
Fast Forward nearly a DECADE.
A D!E!C!A!D!E without word or approved rumor or w/e in any form of media besides things that didn't effect the overall plot of the story or were otherwise considered non-canon. Remember, you can't write-in/effect/change the "Expanded Universe" without Lucas' OK. Issue #17: The "thing" Luke destroys, isn't Maul, but a solid hologram (whatever that b.s is) Issue #19, a young Darth Vader fights/kills Maul, which is a clone recreated by a cult—both "maul's" don't alter/f-up the main plot, which up-until now, was that Maul DIED. It's why the story in Dark Horse with the robot legs wasn't considered canon; that idea really changed things.

So it's Late 2011/Early 2012:
“I found it funny in The Phantom Menace when Darth Maul got cut in half,” Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni says. “I thought George was definitively saying to the fans, ‘There’s no way this character is coming back. This is not a Boba Fett/Sarlacc Pit situation where, because of fan love, Boba gets out of that thing any number of ways.’ Fast-forward ten-years, and I’m the one to bring Maul back.”

WTF????This most certainly was another Boba moment.
1) They booth were the coolest looking characters.
2) They died too quick, Boba Fett dying like a newbie and Maul coming back to later die like a punk.
So, what Filoni had to overcome: 
A) Fans cursing “No way!” 
B) Then, “First of all, how does he survive getting cut in half?” says Filoni.“Plus, he fell!" And not only that, he was abandoned...
Oh, but she had some good'ol Star Wars B.S to work her magic with:“The Dark Side of the Force is the pathway to many abilities some consider to be…unnatural,” Darth Sidious says in Revenge of the Sith. Vader did it, so"...Couldn’t Maul have picked up on some of that too? Said Filoni, “He’s suffered through a lot to keep himself alive and implemented the training of his master to do so.”

This is the magic way to fix any horrible mistake in the Star Wars Universe.
Like an Etch-a-Sketch "POOF" it never happened.  
Filoni acknowledged the order came from George Lucas himself, who became more interested in his Phantom Menace creation while developing Savage Opress for the last season of The Clone Wars. Awesome as Maul was in the movie, he barely got to do anything before the old chop-chop. When asked if Maul’s return is motivated by the feeling that he was underutilized in The Phantom Menace, Filoni said, “I think in part.”
How do you make such a horrible choice? Then repeat with this deus ex machina move? So what was the other part of that equation? I'll tell you: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
You can look all this up online in the same places where I found many of these quotes or interviews, sites sadly I'm too lazy to source out, sorry: How popular was/is Maul vs every other character in the Star Wars Universe; How popular/profitable was/is everything with his face on it; How all the non-canon comics and books sold simply because they gave just barely more information into a character that really had almost no background at the time of his first death? Which opened up another huge can of WTF: if you do your research into Maul's photocopy of a backstory, there are tons of webpages filled with fans fighting over the specifics, all the changes, which is canon, which isn't, why and how and every other question. 
If you got over the plausibility—Yes I know it's Fantasy/Scifi, but as writers/readers we're only willing to accept certain things as they pertain to that universe, meaning, if Jedi just suddenly start FLYING like Superman, fans might take issue—what’s left could be fun. So hoped Filoni and Lucas.

I'll admit too, it looked good. All the Light Saber fights that season were awesome, but like a movie with tons of CG, if the story doesn't pan out...what did you really end up with?

"To go through all the trouble and believability [a labyrinth which only the blind might escape, or so I've heard] to bring this character back, it would be a shame if it was once again a short-lived thing," Filoni sayid. "A lot of effort went into the resurrection of Darth Maul, and I'm going to make it worthwhile for the fans, that's for sure."

OK, so have you seen the show since Maul came back and hooked up with his previously non-existent Bro? Let me recap and you should note the timely reductions in power/skill at key moments so the story goes on and on and on:
1) Savage fought both Anakin and Obi and held his own pretty well; a little too well given future events.
2) Dooku is drugged, ambushed by Ventress and 2 Night Sisters and beats them all, some overlooked coup de grâce time.
3) Savage fought with Ventress against Dooku then later it was a three-way-dance and held his own pretty well; again, a little too well given future events.
4) Maul returns as a wacked-out spider? Yep.
5) Maul gets legs, though not "human-like" and beats Savage to become Top Dog.
6) Obi gets jumped by both Maul and Savage and gets handed his hat but isn't killed despite plenty of time for a coup de grâce . He's eventually allied with Ventress (left alone long enough to recover Obi) and they fight off both Maul and Savage though Obi's actual lines in the episode were "We're out matched."
7) Obi eventually faced off against both Maul and Savage again and though this time alone, he fights them off, wounding Savage in the process.
8) Maul (finally with "human" legs) and Savage are finally confronted by the Emperor. Who, I'll note, rarely Force Chokes anyone if he's not breaking their neck, suffocating them or repeatedly smashing them into nothing, unlike all the other baddies who could simply kill Jedi that way, but instead throw them around for effect. Anyway, it doesn't take long before Savage is killed and Maul reduced to a sniveling punk. "Have mercy" he says, then cries, "PLEASE!" What a punk.

Of course, the Emperor didn't kill him.
Why would he? There's no profit for Lucas or Cartoon Network/Disney otherwise.

So the whole thing is this:
When Lucas killed off Maul, everyone knew it was a horrible idea for a ton of reasons, but you have to stick to your choices as a writer. Oh well. Time passed. Maul's popularity continued. Then Lucas spit-up Mauls brother and back-story as a way to correct things. That wasn't good enough. So he went full "AHAHA, bet you didn't see this shit coming did you: MAUL'S ALIVE!" and everyone was like WTF? Of course we didn't see it coming.

In closing, Maul was once awesome. Then, following a horrible choice, he was later brought back for $. Then reduced to a Joke. How far the Sith have fallen.

Kingdom Come: WORLD MAP 2! (Mostly Done)

!!!!!THIS IS JUST MOSTLY DONE!!!!!Thoughts?

Kingdom Come: WORLD MAP!

The Great Angela R. Sasser is doing another round of amazing work for me.This is just the beginning. :)

Defending Man of Steel.

1The movie was great, so I'm going to skip any minor thoughts or opinions I have about specific moments or sequences I thought could've been done differently.  I'm just going to jump right in.   I'm over the perfect Superman. The bedtime Superman, who, no matter what, always makes lemonade from a bag of horrible, rotten lemons.  I like this new interpretation of Superman's beginning. A Superman, who, with all his powers, is, at times, unable to put the world back together...'cause ya know what, sometimes horrible things happen and you can't save everyone; especially while you're trying to save your own life, because you're the only one who can stop the utter destruction of the world.  Question: Ever watch the old Superman/JL(U) cartoons; ever read comics? *@!% gets blown up all the time. Buildings fall. Explosions happen. There's a ton of destruction spread for miles. We just "assume" the people live. Why? 'Cause for the most part, their deaths (all those untold innocent people) aren't captured on the page or in the animation or we somehow magically believe the buildings, streets, cars, subways are empty. The very same thing happened in this movie. However, somehow people are calling it a dishonor to Superman. Are you kidding me? Did those same fans get mad during the Avengers' alien invasion?  This was the War Superman. This was the School of Hard Knocks Superman. This Superman, was, in effect, the "I live by the skin of my teeth" Superman. His first run on the world's stage and he had to deal with this! WE (the humans in that world) got lucky he was able to take the beating he did. Everyone outmatched or over powered him. From birth, they were all warriors bred with the knowledge, skill and force of will to do what needed to be done to win the day. These are real enemies. Real conquerors who only value Kryptonian life. These aren't Dragon Ball Z baddies. They wouldn't follow Superman away from the innocent population so they could fight where it's safe; nor would they be kept from civilian populations even if Superman managed to do so for a short period of time: such an idea or plot scheme has always been ridiculous to me.   Also keep in mind, this Superman isn't the Superman you know. 1) He isn't a master of his powers, which drastically effects his effectiveness in battle and 2) Most importantly, he didn't grow up with a love for his fellow Man. Very early on and for most of his life, he was taught/lived to fear Humans—in relation to them being able to accept him. He was an outcast, with no attachments to anyone but his parents and later Lois.  Finally, Superman is made out to be "The Man of Steel" but this only applies to things lesser than himself. Once met with equal or threatening force: Zod's ship (where he bleeds) and later when fighting Zod's followers; later Zod himself...yep, that's one helluva wake up call for someone who'd spent his entire life thus far not appreciating what fear or pain was. 
That leads me to the scene that freaked everyone out...Considering the context of the story, the unstoppable, unshakable enemy that's a threat to Superman and the world in such an absolute way, I'm 100% OK with the moment that made me situp and gasp with the rest of the audience. To me, after thinking about it, it made sense and truly—not figuratively from some never tested moral high ground—gives Superman the reason and drive he needs to never find himself in that position ever again.  Which is why, from here on out, fans will get the Superman they know.

5th Amazon review!

Thanks Erin Keahey   "Wonderful world you can sink your teeth into. Story telling executed in a fantastic style that makes you want to keep reading. The characters jump off the page and make you believe in their journey. Good till the end. When is the next one?"

Twitter!

Yep, it's true. I now have a cell phone.
This is always the face people give me when they learn the terrible truth about my past. :)Well, now I do and it's a pretty nice one; though I've no idea how to use most of it's functions and when I recently tried to use the Navigation App I quickly found myself wanting to throw THE DAMN THING OUT THE %^&*?@# WINDOW!
Anyway *going to my happy place* you can now follow me on @WadeJGarret

Thanks

More Movies

It was good. Not great. But good. I feel much of the book's impact was lost, given the adjustment to Ender's age and the few more violent/psychological scenes which were clearly down-played; though I understand their reason. I don't agree, but I understand. What also didn't help was the fact Harrison Ford seemed to phone-in his performance for much of the movie. Perhaps it would've gone better simply to limit his role in the first place, give more time to the cadets? The climax, when THE MOMENT happens, is worth it though. All-in-all, B- is about how I feel about it.

Alright, so I just (like the weekend it came out, sorry for posting so late) saw this and contrary to a friend's opinion, Malekith, in my humble opinion, is nowhere near the worst Marvel Villain ever. Still, by far, is the horror that was the deconstructed Mandarin. Anyway, the movie and Malekith were great. Lots of fun. It wasn't AMAZING. I think they missed out on a few moments here and there that could've put it into the AMAZING realm, but I don't want to spoil it for those who've not seen it yet. All-in-all, I give it somewhere between B+ and A-.

Now on B&N!

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/genesis-wade-garret/1117401189?ean=9780988659094

4th Amazon review!

Thanks NGreen:

"I am not usually one for reading the longer Sci-Fi novels, but Genesis was definitely worth time. Garret really does a great job providing the physical and social landscape of this world. Fantastic imagination went into the different classes of people, especially of the Arete. The characters and relationships in this book are another great strength. I give the book 4 stars because Garret has created a compelling and complex story that will leave you wanting more, but there are some editorial issues that keep it from perfect. I am certainly waiting for the next book in this series."