Talkie Tuesday: Tales of the Empire

 

"Long live the Empire." 

Hello everyone!

Let darkness reign, let hearts quiver, and let us take a look at some of what went down during the reign of probably one of the most-known Empires the fictional world has ever seen.

I'm talking, of course, about the GALACTIC Empire, ruled by none other than Darth Sidious.

Back in 2022, Disney graced us with the animated Tales of the Jedi, and everyone around the world rejoiced.

Then they dropped the absolutely spectacular news that in 2024, we'd be seeing the OTHER side of the coin.

Aka, the Dark Side.

As if anyone would need any MORE invitation to watch this May 4th; hide your Force sensitivity, and let's have a look at Tales of the Empire.

Synopsis Saturday: Tales of the Jedi

 

"Everywhere, there is life. Value it. Honour it."

 

Hello everyone!

 

As I promised when switching things up this past Tuesday, I come bearing gifts this Saturday evening, and they come from a galaxy far, far away.

 

You know we all love returning to it.

 

There are so many stories still to tell in any era to choose from that it's remarkable how there hasn't been even MORE to sustain us, yet here we are, and Dave Filoni seems to be doing something very right yet again.

 

Obviously his Clone Wars went on to become a HUGE success and managed to help fill in the blanks beteween Episode II and III, but these might be even better in some aspects.

 

Because what released just about a week ago were stories that you might have guessed at, but never truly witnessed until now.

 

So it's time to dig out those lightsabers, family. Tales of the Jedi need us to be at our best!

 

Talkie Tuesday: Obi-Wan Kenobi

"The time of the Jedi is over."

Hello everyone!

How excited are you?

Very?

Beyond imagination???

I hope you are at least! Because the past month and a half has been ALL about Star Wars, baby, and I am SO here for it!

If any of you know me at all, you'll know that I've said before I enjoy the Prequel Trilogy quite a bit, and that's mostly because of two characters, Padmé Amidala ... and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

This is helped along immensely by Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman, of course, but in general these are the stories I'm into the most.

So naturally, when Disney+ announced its limited series, I was stoked.

Let's dig those lightsabers out of the sand, everyone, because Obi-Wan Kenobi needs them!

Talkie Tuesday: Black Widow

 

"Your pain only makes you stronger." 

Hello everyone!

Week two of our Marvel catch-up is here and we're back on the grind, but this time it's at least with a character that I've known and loved since pretty much the beginning of MCU.

Listen, I love me Peter Parker, too, but ... maybe not this particular one.

Black Widow, however, was one of those I always wanted more information about.

She was our window into SHIELD besides Coulson, and she was a total badass who managed to keep up with gods and super-soldiers just by being spectacularly trained, skilled and disciplined.

And yes, it helps that Scarlett Johansson pretty much NAILED the role once she was cast.

But having said all that - I'll say this movie suffers. A lot. And it suffers mainly from the incredibly ridiculous decision from the higher-ups, who didn't include this one in the chronological lineup of the Infinity Saga.

Before I get too far into that, though, let's just figure out what's what, shall we? Black Widow, enter, stage right!

Tome Thursday: The Dawn of Peace

 

Hello everyone!

 

I return with another vampire-themed book, or well, a connected one at least.

 

BookSirens is really good for feeding my obsession with these every once in a while, and then it all depends on my mood I suppose.

 

But I will admit that this prequel is a quick and easy read altogether, which definitely works in its favour.

 

I stumbled across Rebecca Hefner by complete accident when I picked up one of the ARCs she listed on the site, and then breezed through her other series without pausing to take a beat.

 

Her vampire one hasn't really laid such a claim on my heart and my attention as the first, but when there was a listing for a prequel I thought to myself, well, everyone and everything deserves a second chance, right?

 

So I went and requested to be added to the team.

 

It totally paid off.

 

Without further ado, let's just hop right into it, shall we? The Dawn of Peace, which is a very uplifting title, is up next!

 

Tome Thursday: Queen's Peril

Hello everyone!

Wouldn't you know it, I'm back with another story from the galaxy far, far away.

You didn't think I'd left it ALL behind, did you?

I was only waiting for another awesome release.

A lot of people will argue (and do argue actually) that the post-Disney era is garbage, and I respectfully disagree with that. At least this post-Disney era gives us books focusing on some of the characters we've been dying to hear more about!

Plus I read books not by the era they were published in, but by what interests me at the time.

And a book about Padmé Amidala is ALWAYS going to win my good graces.

When it was announced that E.K. Johnston would be writing a prequel, or basically just another Padmé story, I was beyond thrilled.

Because character-driven stories like Queen's Peril are what we need.

Tome Thursday: Virgins

Hello everyone!

Yes, I'm on a sort of Outlander binge, and not just with the television show.

I've been re-reading the books (although in random order since I went with The Fiery Cross, then doubled back to Outlander, and now I'm chewing through Dragonfly in Amber while contemplating starting Voyager instead) and of course the series includes the massive chonks as well as the shorter novellas, and Lord John Grey stories.

I'm telling you, people: you have not lived until you've witnessed the chaos that is Grey's life on a daily basis. I HIGHLY recommend that series.

I still have to review them all on here, and I swear I will!

Meanwhile, I sat down to a prequel yesterday.

I'd known that Diana Gabaldon had written a sort of story-before-the-story covering Jamie's time in France, or part of it at least, and I'd been dying to read it for a while now but never got the chance.

Of course we're in quarantine now, so what else is there to do but catch up?

And you're definitely catching up with Virgins.

Tome Thursday: Queen's Shadow

Hello everyone!

Sooo I kind of lied. The last time I reviewed a Star Wars-related book, I mean.

I said, and don't quote me directly on this, but I said something along the lines of 'I need a break from the galaxy far, far away'.

And then I went and dived right back into said galaxy, only a little before the books I'd been reading.

Maybe I didn't need to take a Star Wars break.

Maybe I just needed a New Republic break.

That makes some sense to me as I can feel reluctance in trying to start something New Republic-related at the moment - three books in a row are quite enough for now - but actual excitement and enthusiasm for potential OLD Republic books.

I'm a complicated person.

And I survived the latest Shadowhunters episode, which means that I can dive into Queen's Shadow with gusto.

Tome Thursday: The Infernal Devices

Hello everyone!

Tonight's blog post is another compilation, since I feel like it would be cheating if I just posted each book separately, and honestly it makes much more sense to me to bring them all together into one blog post and not three.

Although I WILL admit that I'm confused since I was fairly sure I'd reviewed the first one of the trilogy at some point ...

Apparently not.

Anyway, with Shadowhunters going in for the kill with their last two episodes of the season, I felt like I should honour them somehow, and then remembered that I'd read and finished The Infernal Devices series, also by Cassandra Clare, not too long ago.

See I actually started it earlier, but for some reason never got around to books two and three, but this time around what I did was just sit there until I finished it all.

You can't go wrong that way, really. So here we go, a blog post to review The Infernal Devices!

Talkie Tuesday: Jane Got A Gun

"You don't need a gunslinger - you need a goddamn regiment."

Hello everyone!

My movie blog this week is of a movie that's been sitting in my notebook for a while now. For some reason I kind of postponed it - okay, well, I know the reason. Game of Thrones happened right around the time when I watched the movie so I then decided to post recaps of episodes per week instead of doing regular movie blog posts. 

Now I'm back to my regular schedule after trying not to get a heart attack while watching the second season of Scandal (yeah, it's THAT good, really).

So I think the first time I got wind of this movie, Jane Got A Gun, it was in a movie theatre prior to seeing something else, and it didn't catch my eye because it had Natalie Portman in it (although that's reason enough, in my opinion), nor did it catch my eye because it was a western movie that looked as though it was plenty fun.

To be perfectly honest, the reason why I wanted to watch it was because, besides Portman, it had two other actors I knew: Ewan McGregor and Joel Edgerton. 

For those less movie-savvy: all three of the above-mentioned actors played together in the Star Wars Prequel episodes, so this movie was kind of a reunion for them.