I’m a little late for the blog’s 4-year anniversary, but this week I saw a conversation on Twitter that got me thinking about Star Wars. (I’ll try not to spoil Rise of Skywalker, in case any of you haven’t seen it yet.)
Star Wars became the codifier, the prime example, of a lot of tropes, including the Join the Dark Side trope and the Join the Light Side trope. This is where the bad guy is trying to corrupt the hero while someone, usually the hero, is trying to redeem the bad guy, despite others saying the bad guy can’t be saved.
The question that makes this trope interesting is, what if the bad guy can’t be redeemed? Is there a point of no return, an act so villainous no one can come back from it? Are there some people who just don’t deserve redemption?
For Christians, the answers seem like they should be obvious, at least in real life. Anyone can be redeemed by Jesus, and God’s will is for everyone to be redeemed. There’s nothing so bad you can’t be forgiven (except apostasy, but that’s so rare you probably don’t need to worry about it).
Then again, the truth is no one deserves redemption, not even the “good guys.” That’s one of the great things about God’s grace: we all need redemption, and God loves us, so He gives it to us even though we don’t deserve it and could never earn it.
However, that fact is the very thing that makes forgiveness so difficult for people. Deep down, we know that no one deserves mercy, grace, forgiveness, or redemption. Often blind to the fact that we have received those things when we didn’t deserve them, we feel justified in staying mad at others, especially when they don’t even feel bad about what they’re doing.
We could all learn from Padme Amidala, Luke Skywalker, and Rey. They never stop believing that Anakin, Darth Vader, and Kylo Ren can be redeemed, even after seeing the terrible things they do and losing friends, mentors, and hands. They even put themselves at risk in their attempts to reach and redeem these villains. Sounds like some other heroes I know… Jesus, the disciples, Paul, etc.
The only problem is as soon as Darth Vader is redeemed, he dies in a heroic sacrifice. We don’t get to see him reunite with his family or use his powers for good. Imagine what episodes 7-9 would have looked like – Ben Solo probably couldn’t have become obsessed with Darth Vader’s legacy if Grandpa Anakin was still around.
When we’re redeemed and saved from our sinful past, we usually have a whole life of doing great works for the Light Side to look forward to.
Probably the hardest thing about not talking about Star Wars for a year and a half on this blog was not having it as a fall-back.
Well, lucky me, I run out of topics for a blog post this week. So, here are some mini reviews of Star Wars games that I own and have played.
Republic Commando
What do you get when you take Star Wars and decide not to tell it from the perspective of the Jedi? You get a first-person shooter where you command a squad of elite soldiers during the Clone Wars that takes inspiration from real SWAT tactics and it’s just you and your brothers taking on the world and whatever it throws at you.
9/10 ~ Hey, Disney, what about this makes it non-canon?
Battlefront II (2017, but with the 2019 patches)
They fixed it! By the Force, they fixed it! And it’s fun! And they added a mode that I’m actually good at! What is this?
8/10 ~ They fixed it!
Empire at War
There’s always been a part of me that likes strategy games, despite being (relatively) rubbish at them. Like, I enjoy living out the fantasy of building and amassing an army to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their–wait. Wrong franchise.
Empire at War, adds a hard-cap for army sizes, which…I guess makes sense for balancing, but it does keep me from rolling up to the enemy space station with a full legion of A-Wings, led by the Millennium Falcon…
It goes without saying that some of the best game developers are, or at least were, gamers. You have to love the art to be able to contribute more to it, after all.
(Photo Credit: Steam)
Which may be why Soviet Jump Game, the latest (and second) game release by the Game Grumps, has been such a wonderful start to my 2020 gaming experience.
The gameplay is simple: you run around a large, interconnected world, finding items that make you stronger, competing against other players in this arena. Your standard Battle Royale fair, right?
Well, that’s where things get unique. You see, Soviet Jump Game adds a layer by removing a dimension, and stripping the game down to a Super Mario Bros.-esque platformer. You jump about, break blocks, find power-ups, and jump on your enemies.
And the whole thing has a Soviet Russian/Vaguely Communist theme to it. Like, one of the powerups lets you throw hammers and sickles, another turns you into a nesting doll, stuff like that. Part of this comes from the Grumps trying to emulate glitchy bootlegs that they played on their channel. So as more players get eliminated, the game starts to break down and glitch out.
Right now, the game is in early access on Steam, and it’s free, with in-game purchases (orchestrated by a literal Capitalist Pig, which is the second-best joke in the game). I recommend this game in its current state. Right now, it’s loads of fun and super easy to pick up.
All of the in-game purchases are cosmetic, letting you play as a wide array of characters ranging from normal people to strange monsters, bootleg versions of other classic video game characters, and even the Game Grumps themselves. And each of them come with little character bios (of whom Sputnik’s and Bear w. Job’s are the third- and fourth-best jokes in the game).
Beyond that, the gameplay is fun. The fact that an independent company was able to produce a functioning online multiplayer game (capable of hosting up to fifty players in a single game) efficiently is impressive to me. The music is also really good.
In closing, if you like battle royale games, the Super MarioBros. games, or anything that takes two pre-existing genres and mashes them together into something interesting and unique, I strongly recommend Soviet Jump Game. Again, it’s free-to-play on Steam and not a relatively large download. I’d say check it out. Give it a try.
8.5/10 (in it’s current state) ~ And the first-best joke in the game is how bad I am at it! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…[laughter devolves into real tears]
What? Did you expect something more? Ever since the movie came out, reviews have been pretty split. And finding my footing to write a review for The Rise of Skywalker is probably the trickiest part. All I can say for certain is that I left the theater content with the experience, and that it wrapped up the trilogy well.
And Rise of Skywalker has been getting enough praise/criticism, and honestly, I don’t feel like adding to the pile. Because I fear that if I look too long at things that I don’t like, I won’t be able to see the good of it. That said: I liked Rise of Skywalker. End of discussion.
But, having something Star Wars related would be nice.
Heck it. Time for a list. Here’s my Top 10 Star Wars Starships!
The Qualifications: must be a combative air or space vehicle in the Star Wars universe. Those established as canon can contend for the Top 10; Legends are permitted within the Honorable Mentions.
I only had to pull pictures of three of these from the internet! (Photo Credit: Star Wars)
#10 N-1 Starfighter (The Phantom Menace): One of my first interactions with the ships of Star Wars is the video game Rogue Squadron 3D. It’s available on Steam; I highly recommend it; it’s a solid flight simulator. Anyway, one of the most powerful ships in this game is the N-1 Naboo Starfighter. Wicked fast, blasters in tight grouping, and more torpedoes than your average starfighter. Plus, you didn’t need cheat codes to get it!
Ignore the ship in the background.
#9 Slave 1 (Attack of the Clones): “But Isaac,” I hear you not saying, “the Slave 1 first appeared in Empire Strikes Back!” I know. But it didn’t really do anything in Empire. The Slave 1 in AotC had something few of these other ships had.
It had freaking Ben Burtt and ILM flexing on all of us with the seismic charges. And that’s why it gets the #9. Like, you could put the Seismic Charges on…I don’t know…the TIE Phantom, and that would get the #9 spot.
For when the garbage won’t do.
#8 The Quadjumper (The Force Awakens): Kind of ironically. I like more how much it keeps showing up in toys and games and other media. It embodies Star Wars for me: you get less than five seconds of screentime, but you have a novel’s worth of backstory.
The microfighter doesn’t quite do it justice, but I want to use LEGOs as much as possible.
#7 TIE Silencer (The Last Jedi): I wanted to pick one TIE fighter, and it was tricky. Star Wars is like a suit shop–they have a TIE for every occasion. They got bombers, interceptors, the iconic standard fighter, the new TIE Dagger…
I chose the TIE Silencer because this one actually feels like it could be an attack fighter. Like, this is the F-16 of the First Order. Everything else leading up to this point has just been an engine with a couple guns tied to it.
Also, shoutout to Fantasy Flight Games for making cool model ships.
#6 B-Wing (Return of the Jedi): All the Star Wars ships are based around fighter jets. Except for the B-Wing. I feel like the B-Wing was the first ship designed for Star Wars around having a war in the stars. Also, the rotating cockpit is cool. And it’s got guns all over!
Oh, yeah, almost forgot. (Photo Credit for all the pictures with LEGO me: Me)
#5 T-70 X-Wing (The Force Awakens): I gave the #9 slot to Ben Burtt coming in with the seismic charges. I’m giving the #5 slot to Ralph McQuarrie. I do like the original X-Wing design, but not only did we get a new improvement on it for the sequel trilogy, we also got it as a big shout-out to one of the artists behind the classic films. And I respect that. Let the past live. Preserve it, if you have to.
I’m not flying this one. That’s her job.
#4 VCX-100 Light Freighter, specifically “The Ghost” (Rebels): Don’t worry, I put the Millennium Falcon in the honorable mentions. Sorry, Mom.
But, the reason why I put “The Ghost” in my top ten is because I feel like I spent a lot more time with it after watching four seasons of Rebels, and likewise, got a better sense of how the ship is laid out.
(Photo Credit: Wookiepedia)
#3 Aggressive ReConnaissance “ARC”-170 (Revenge of the Sith): I like the X-Wing as much as the next guy. It’s a good ship, and it serves the story well enough.
I just also like it’s tank of an older brother a lot more.
(Photo Credit: Wookiepedia)
#2 Eta-2 Actis-class Interceptor (Revenge of the Sith): I remember the first time I saw this ship. I saw it as a LEGO set (link here) which came out well before the movie, and I thought it was the coolest design ever. And, you know what, I still think it’s a really cool ship design. It’s unique, it’s sleek, it’s fast, and it plays a role in one of the coolest shots in the Star Wars franchise.
Honorable Mentions: The Millennium Falcon (cool ship, but I like the others better) T-16 Skyhopper (definitely can’t go into space, but gets bonus points for going “nyerm” and being able to bulls-eye womp rats) The Geonosian Starfighter (smol and can go “nyerm”, but can’t go into space?) U-Wing (cool design, can go into space, just…not the coolest) the TIE family (see #7) Snowspeeder (can’t go into space, but it’s very hard to not think about flying one and going “ha-bumbumbum-BUMbumbumbum ha-bumbumbum-BUMbumbumbum“) V-Wing (also can’t go into space, and is legends, but if you’ve played Rogue Squadron, you know what’s up) The Prosecutor (the best place for the Deltas to form up.) Sun Crusher (Starkiller Base: “Who are you?” Sun Crusher: “I am you but better”) The Milano (Not in Star Wars. Yet. Do it Disney. Put the Guardians of the Galaxy into Star Wars as a cameo. Do it, cowards.)
And now, the #1 starfighter is…
#1 RZ-1 A-Wing (Return of the Jedi)/RZ-2A-Wing (The Last Jedi): As much as I like the big, heavy ships in Star Wars, I really like the smaller, faster ships that require skill to maneuver. Like, you’re just a small piece of a much larger battle, but gosh you can go out there and turn the tide of an entire battle. And that’s why the A-Wing is my favorite Star Wars spaceship.
See you next week, hopefully! I had plenty to review this past week, but I also had an incredibly busy holiday week. (Perks of having a retail job, I guess. [Also, perks of having a sub-management position at said retail job.])
The Correlation 