aaronobrian

[aaronobrian]

If you are on Instagram & you reader indie web comics check out: Olympus Punk. My weekly web comic that follows the misadventures of a wizard, a soldier and a punk band throughout the multiverse. Thank you!

[aaronobrian]

Check out my Season 3 Blu-Ray Review of Star Trek: Discovery for Screen Radar. It is my "Dear John Letter" to the newer Star Trek series. Please read without prejudice. Thank you!

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Star Frontiers illustration for the Frontier Explorer magazine. Scene of a human patrol being ambushed by Sathars.

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Star Frontiers illustration for the Frontier Explorer Magazine for an article about being raised in an alien culture.

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A color experiment with Style2paints and Photoshop. This time revisiting and older Star Frontiers piece.

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A Yazarian murdering a Dralasite.

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I am happy that I have the honor of my art being on another cover of Frontier Explorer! https://frontierexplorer.org/article/issue-29-now-available

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Creature Codex 16: Broken, Computer Operator, Vrusk

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Creature Codex 15: Slimy, Environmentalist, Eorna

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Creature Codex 14: Dead, Weaponeer, Boon'sheh

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Creature Codex 13: Strong, Medic, Yazirian

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Creature Codex 12: Beautiful, Royalty, Nagana

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Conspirinormal Episode 305

I had the extreme pleasure of appearing on the Conspirinormal podcast with Adam & Serfiel to talk about Jason Gusmann and my graphic novel "Return to Snakeland". We talk about Kenmore, the 1980s and Satanism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq63ByhHzbo

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Rolled up on my Star Frontiers “Creature Codex”: Antique, Astrogator, Yazirian Crooked, Martial Artist, Humma Ice, Space Monk, Combat Robot

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Re-thinking Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Last night my kids and I sat down to watch the Last Jedi. After a little squabbling on what movie to watch we decided on The Last Jedi. This would be the fourth time I have watched this movie. I wasn’t really excited about seeing it again, only as a way for us all to relax for the evening. I was never that impressed with story of the Last Jedi, especially some of the story arcs. I have not changed my mind on all of these issues. You can read them here. But there are a few on this last viewing that has changed.

1.) Put a shirt on Kylo... The connection between Rey and Kylo Ren. I first read their interactions through time and space as the doing of Snoke and the movie playing up a odd romantic relationship between them. But it occurred to me that Rey and Kylo are opposites. They are like the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang.  Yin and Yang is defined as “concept of dualism, describing how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected,  and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.” If you remember the symbol of Yin and Yang, it looks like a black and white fishes with a white eye in the black fish and a black eye in the white fish. This helps these dueling characters to understand each other. With that explained, I see Kylo Ren and Rey as the same concept. Kylo Ren is evil, committed himself to the dark side. Yet, there is a light side within him. He can’t bring himself to kill his mother Leia. He has an odd affection towards Rey (later asking Rey to join him). Kylo is Ben Solo the offspring of the best of the last generation. All the cunning of Han Solo and the Skywalker blood line with the power of the Force. Where Rey is the exact opposite, she comes from nothing and has nothing. Her parents were nobodies, no noble lineage, that abandoned her. She led a hard life growing up as savager of junk with no guidance, no love, no direction given to her, unlike Ben Solo. Yet Rey is kind and caring and is drawn to the light side of the Force. But her “black dot/eye” is her grit that was deeply learned from her hard life. And there is the aspect of her answering the call of the Dark Side. She went into the Dark Side cave and found nothing but herself. And if the Force is an active player in the Star Wars story, then for every rise in the Dark side that has to be an equal rise in the Light side like Snoke had said. The raw power on Kylo is then met with the pure power from Rey. (Which leads me to believe that Rey and Kylo might be brother and sister. Or maybe Rey is cloned from other Jedis? I could be wrong, but it is a pet theory.)  

2.) Luke Skywalker (or the heartbreak of every Gen Xer) We have seen this before.  Obi Wan Kenobi living far away on Tatooine watching over Luke. The same as Yoda hidden away on Dagobah. Both not rebuilding the Jedi Order or fighting against the Empire. When we see Luke he has closed himself off from the Force. He is unwilling to train Rey or join Leia and the Resistance against the First Order. This is a BIG disappointment in Luke for many who grew up as our hero. A hero that saved his father, even after Vader killed his teacher, killed his Aunt & Uncle (by proxy), maimed him, and turned him over to the Emperor. Luke did not give up. He was always optimistic no matter how grim the situation was. When Rey finds him on his lonely island, he has lost all of that aspect of his character.  This is what is unbelievable to those of us that grew up with this character. This was maybe the hardest pill to swallow in TLJ.  Luke has a new philosophy about the Force, it is not “ours to control”. There is a bit of truth to that in life as well as the Force. You can’t control people or every event in your life. Some things you have to “let go” and let them work themselves out. That things resolve themselves for the better and hope that Martin Luther King, Jr. was correct when saying “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.” Luke saw the raw power and darkness in Ben Solo and it scared him. And which ever iteration of how Luke and Ben clashed in his bedroom you believe in, this event shook Luke to his core. Like Obi Wan thought that he could instruct Anakin just as well as Yoda and he was wrong. Luke failed Ben as a teacher. Ben had too much of the Dark Side and Luke could not change him like he could with his father. All of this is made Luke into a hermit. And if Luke was an ordinary guy, then we could all say, hey man you tried your best.” But this is Star Wars! Luke is a hero! Heroes don’t give up! Right? But wait… Is Luke right? This battle of the Light and Dark Side has gone on for thousands of years. Jedi and Sith battling for dominance for thousands of generations. Luke looks at that long “arc of history” and thinks this isn’t working. The Jedi Order was too rigid. There has to be another way, a better way. But how can that happen when the Sith don’t care but to gather all the power. Like a seesaw the Force becomes unbalanced if only the biggest kid sits on the one side. There is three or four options … 1) Keep things the same. The Light and Dark battle it out forever. (As we have see for the last 8 movies.) 2) Let one side become so powerful that there is a schism and the powers re-balance themselves 3) Let one side become so powerful that there is a mutation and different type of Force is invented. 4.) Let the Force alone and maybe the Force will be distributed equally throughout the galaxy. Either way, the Dark Side will prevail for a period. And like the Manhattan Project, or the Race for Artificial Intelligence is might be better for us never to touch these civilization ending technologies. But it would be far worse if the Soviets or China won these races. So we press on because the outcome could become too unthinkable. And so is the same as in Star Wars. I don’t have an answer to all this. But I agree that Luke has a point here and it is worth considering.  Which leads me to my next thought… 3.) “Let the past die.” Okay - I still have issues with Rey’s control over the Force with little training. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. But maybe Rey is like a virtuoso genius? We have all seen a child 4 years old playing piano. So MAYBE it is possible. With that said, the whole point of TLJ is to subvert the old order. Luke wants to end the Jedi Order. Rey has no Master. Kylo kills Snoke and asks Rey to join him. And on the surface many of us think, “no this is not Star Wars.” But with more movies coming down the pipeline the formula needs to change or it will become repetitive.  And if Luke was right, this Jedi/Sith battle is not working and it never will resolve itself. Let’s find another solution. Maybe it is time for a new path. And maybe TLJ is the first step on this road.

4.) Kylo Ren’s Fear Lastly, I have reconsidered Kylo Ren. As I recall I called Kylo’s character “a whiny bitch”. But the last scene, showing Luke staring down at Ben Solo and ignites his lightsaber Ben has a look of pure fear in his eyes. I have seen that look in my children eyes and even my dog’s eyes. I realized that like Anakin, Ben’s seduction to the Dark Side is through fear. And instead of helping Ben through his fear it is ignored by Luke. Thus Ben Solo turns to the Dark Side by unfortunately Ben is trying to be someone else -- Darth Vader. We see Kylo is trying to be Vader in the last 2 movies. But like anyone trying to be someone else it can never be achieved. You have to find yourself and follow your only path. This time I pity Kylo. A boy that never felt safe and was never guided out of his fear. Trying to be someone else for everyone else. It is a pathetic existence. He sees Rey naturally being herself and succeeding. Rey is living a fulfillment of her own unique life. As Nietzsche said "a wheel rolling out of its own center."  What is unknown is the fulfillment of our own unique lives, the likes of which has never existed in this universe. And you are the only one who can do it.  Rey is doing this. Kylo is maybe discovering that he can’t succeed from the past. He kills Snoke and unshackles himself. Maybe this is his first act of courage.

In closing, this movie might have a deeper meaning behind it. But it killed a lot of sacrificial lambs to get there and thus upsetting the old order. I am the “old order”. I was there in the theater in 1977 as a 3 year old. I saw Luke as quintessential hero. The battle of the Light and Dark Side as a forever war. But if Star War is to continue forward something has to change. I still stand by many of my original statements of this movie. It does suffer from some bad story arcs that go nowhere. But there is more happening in TLJ then what I originally understood.

[aaronobrian]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - First Thoughts

Below are my first reactions to Star Wars The Last Jedi a day after I saw it in theaters. I posted this on Facebook that started a lot of discussion. To be clear I didn't completely hate Star Wars The Last Jedi. But it suffers from poor writing. Below are spoiler heavy points that I think amount to a 3rd grader writing a movie script. - - SPOILERS BELOW - - - - - - - - - - - - 1.) The slow chase scene of the First Order pursuing the Resistance is BORING! We are watching a Star Wars movie here not an episode of Star Trek Voyager. If I was the writer, I would make the Resistance fleet have enough fuel to make multiple jumps to lightspeed. Then have a cat and mouse chase between the Resistance and the First Order. We could have exciting and multiple star systems that the Resistance fleet could hide out. Sort of like the chase between the Millennium Falcon and the Imperial Fleet in Empire Strikes Back. But on a grander scale. We could see the fleet be picked off one by one in more of a dramatic way. We then could see Poe Dameron, Finn and Rose Tico shine better in defending the fleet.

2.) Finn’s character has NO point in this movie. Finn goes off on a wild goose chase because the movie needed something for him to do. (If they used my chase idea, Finn and Rose would be busy fight the First Order.)

In the past the rebellion had existed for generations simply because ships can pop from one place to the next in the blink of an eye. The Last Jedi introduces magical GPS tracking that essentially makes guerrilla-style warfare impossible. It’s the understandable why Finn and Rose fly off to a random planet modeled off of Monaco so they can disable the technology. This is something the movie does repeatedly, creating problems that didn’t exist before just so its characters can pull off blockbuster high jinks in pursuit of their solutions. Sadly, this entire plot is rendered pointless by the end as we learn Leia was retreating to an old Rebel base on the planet Crait. Alas, Fin, Rose and BB8 are caught and almost have their heads cut off by laser axes.

One of the best part of this movie is to see Finn’s character stop running. In the beginning Finn tries to escape the fleet in an escape pod and the end Finn is ready to sacrifice himself to save the Resistance.

3.) Poe Dameron is always wrong and then is rewarded for it. When Leia tells Poe to break off the attack on the First Order Dreadnaught, Poe ignores her. This leads to heavy losses for one victory. Poe is demoted because of this. When Poe is given no plan from Vice-Admiral Holdo (because COs don’t have to explain themselves to their subordinates), he concocts a plan for Finn and Rose to run off and find a codebreaker so as to infiltrate the First Order ship that’s chasing them. Then when his plan is almost ready to go into action, Poe finds out that Holdo is abandoning ship for the planet Crait. What does Poe do? He mutinies. One of the worst thing that can happen in an armies chain of command. But… the movie ends with Poe being rewarded as leader of the Resistance by Leia saying “don’t look at me, follow him”. (To your certain death?)

4.) Captain Phasma turns out to be completely pointless and dies.

5.) I have no problem that Leia might have powers from the Force. But we have never had a clue from her onscreen history. Yet we have the weird angel like (almost Twin Peaks-ish) scene Where her powers of the Force pulls her back from the brink of death. She’s floating in outer space without any protection and freezing her skin off. In this moment it’s done in a cringeworthy sort of way that’s obnoxious and very strange.

6.) Snoke dies in a hurry. In “The Force Awakens” the big bad was Snoke. There was all this speculation on his character - who he is, where did he come from. Fuck it! Kill him we don’t need to know. Like Darth Maul, Snoke seemed like an awesome bad guy. A suitable opponent to Rey and crew. Instead we are left with whiny emo bad guy Kylo Ren. For as fearsome as Snoke seemed to be, despite being able to throw a human being across a huge room with a flick of his finger and read everyone’s thoughts, has apparently lost his peripheral vision and can’t see that a lightsaber sitting right next to him is moving on its own. Dumb and lazy writing.

7.) Porgs and Vultpex (the Crystalline Fox) are almost pointless and they are a marketing ploy by Disney to make stuffed animal toys for children. Cash grab.

8.) Kylo Ren still is a whiny bitch. Isn’t Star War supposed to be epic? Why is the bad guy an emo kid that hates his dad and looking for a daddy? Darth Vader gave no fucks. The ending scene in Rogue One depicts this. But Kylo Ren is no Vader. He is a fainting baby of a bad guy. That punches his bedroom walls when he feels bad. When Kylo “turns” it prompts a truly fantastic fight scene where both Rey and Kylo are fighting side by side and working together to defeat their foes. It looks and feels so perfect, but that goes out the window the moment the fighting stops and Kylo reveals that he’s really just as much of an angsty kid as he’s always been. Couldn’t we have seen Ren evolve in this movie? Nah - Instead of fearsome we are given pathetic.

9.) Luke Skywalker is a hermit that wants out of this universe. I have no problem that Luke is shakened by his experience with Kylo Ren (Ben Solo). I have no problem that Luke wants to hang up his lightsaber. But Luke knows that Kylo killed his good buddy Han, that his sister is in deadly trouble and the universe is about be handed to the bad guys. And he still won’t spring into action??? When Rey asks Luke to train her, she receives a 3 minute crash course in the Force. Then Luke gives up when Rey is interested in a Dark Side seaweed hole. Well duh, yes - because NO ONE HAS TRAINED HER. (Dumb Ass!)

We do have a great scene when Force projection Luke faces off with the First Order and Kylo Ren. It was super fun and worth watching. But then Luke dies… So I guess Luke gets his wish.

10.) Rey is still untrained. Rey has no mentor. Maybe in episode 9 she’ll get a trainer. But I guess the untrained Rey can just magically control her powers and not be easily led to the Dark Side. But considering that Kylo Ren is such a weak bad guy, I guess she will prevail.

[aaronobrian]

Creature Codex 7: Regal, Bounty Hunter, Humma