September 3, 2009
Quote of today
“Afraid I was going to leave without giving you a goodbye kiss?”
Empire Strikes Back
Han Solo saying goodbye to Leia at the rebel base on Hoth
Today…
Star Wars Miniatures premiered year 2004
Star Wars Miniatures is a collectible miniatures tabletop game produced by Wizards of the Coast. The first set was the Rebel Storm.
It’s time again for a brand new school year with a whole new batch of textbooks. When you get your books for the year, the best way to protect them from wear and tear is with homemade book covers. Study in style by making your very own custom Star Wars book covers designed by Star Wars artistsKatie Cook and Grant Gould. Here’s how!
What You Need:
If you have access to 11×17 paper for your printer, use it to make extra-large printouts, otherwise the regular printer paper will work too. You’ll just have to cut out these cool graphics and tape them to your homemade book cover!
Book Covers by Katie Cook:
Book Covers by Grant Gould:
Instructions:
1. Cut the paper bag so you have one big flat piece of paper to use. Or use white gift-wrapping paper or butcher’s paper you can decorate and draw on. If the bag is decorated, have the decorated side facing up. Lay the book open on top of the paper. Draw an outline of the entire book cover with a pencil.
2. Draw the cut out lines using a ruler. Extend the paper out past the edges of the book, not the corners which you can cut out. Cut out outline. Be sure to fold the two center pieces in where the book bends, and tape in place on the inside of the paper.
3. Place the book you want to cover on the paper and start folding the paper over the book’s edges on side at a time. Tape the paper sides together — do NOT tape the actual book.
4. Using the arty book cover printouts cut them out and tape them to the fronts of your book cover.
5. May the Force be with your homework, always.
Time’s running out, and Olivia Munn is counting on you to pitch a Star Wars fan movie by 12 noon PST on September 3! Some who have entered already are strong with the Force. Others… well, not so much. Now is the time for the rest of you to enter, or enter again (you can submit up to three pitch videos). So show Olivia your Jedi filmmaking skills! Here’s how:
Step 1: Make a pitch video. Tell Olivia about your idea for a short, funny Star Wars fan movie, and why you’re the right person to make it. Get creative and keep it under 5 minutes.
Step 2: Enter the contest by sharing your video on the Operation Olivia site. If you don’t want to pitch, at least post comments about which pitches suck, and which don’t.
Step 3: Olivia will greenlight one idea she finds hilarious, and appropriately geeky. Winner gets a $5,000 Atom.com production budget, and Olivia as one of the stars of the film. So start pitching!
Quote of today
“Be careful, Obi-Wan. This investigation is becoming less than routine.”
Attack of the Clones
Mace Windu is concerned about Obi-Wan Kenobi’s mission on Geonosis.
Today we celebrate…
Nalini Krishan at her 32nd birthday (born 1977)
Nalini Krishan was born in Suva, Fiji and played Barriss Offee in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. She has her own website where you can read more about her.
Barriss Offee is a loyal Padawan paired with Jedi Master Luminara Unduli. She was one of the victims of Order 66.
Been a while, hasn’t it? Well, I’ve been busy. Things came up. All that jazz. Anywho…
Since Christmas of this year, my brother and I have been dutifully working on an audio adaptation of Underworld: The Yavin Vassilika. It is hard work, and our first foray into audio. We had only a cheap PC mic and Audacity to work with for this one and quite frankly, at first, we had no idea what we were doing. We’ve listened to audio before, big fans of it, actually. But we had never tried writing and performing audioplays ourselves until recently.
Well, our hobby has been paying off. The first chapter of Underworld: The Yavin Vassilika audio is finished. The download link to the audio is included in the article.
Needless to say, despite being amateurs and not quite knowing what we were doing at first, we’re both quite proud of this. We hope to have the second part done sooner than it took us for this first part. The audioplay for it is almost written.
Anywho, happy listening!
Ever since A New Hope, superweapons have been an essential element of Star Wars. And while Star Wars authors are sometimes criticized for relying too heavily on them, even George Lucas himself couldn’t resist bringing back the Death Star in Return of the Jedi.
So I thought it might be a good idea to compile a list of all Star Wars superweapons in one place. Granted, the list is a fair bit longer than even I suspected it would be, but this just further cements superweapons’ staying power in the Star Wars saga.
If I’ve missed any, please clue me in, and I’d be happy to add them.
But without further ado, here is The Comprehensive List of Star Wars Superweapons:
Name: The Death Star
Affiliation: Galactic Empire
First Appearance: Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope
Description: An hyperspace-capable orb, 160 kilometers in diameter, that could travel all across the galaxy and that contained a superlaser with enough firepower to destroy an entire planet. This is the superweapon that started them all.
Atrocities: Low-powered shots that destroyed the landscape of Despayre, before a final shot that destroyed the planet itself; a full-power shot that destroyed Alderaan.
Fatal Flaw: A two-meter wide unshielded thermal exhaust port that if hit with a direct shot from a proton torpedo would result in a chain reaction that would destroy the station itself.
Name: The Tarkin
Affiliation: Galactic Empire
First Appearance: Marvel Star Wars #51: Resurrection of Evil
Description: Essentially the Death Star reborn in the form of a stripped-down flying cannon, the Tarkin, named after the late Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, was designed to correct the flaws of the first Death Star. It burst onto the scene even before the Death Star II, making it the first Expanded Universe superweapon.
Atrocities: Destroyed the planet Aeten II.
Fatal Flaw: Designs too close to the original Death Star combined with too loose of security allowed an elite strike team including Princess Leia to sneak aboard, where the Princess rewired the laser based on memory of the Death Star’s schematic so that it would fire upon itself, destroying the station.
Name: The Death Star II
Affiliation: Galactic Empire
First Appearance: Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Description: A complete rebuild of the first Death Star, but this time with a diameter of 900 kilometers. It was built as a replacement following the destruction of the first Death Star.
Atrocities: Though it had the capability to destroy planets, the Death Star II was only ever used to destroy a handful of Rebel Alliance ships during the Battle of Endor, including Liberty, Urjani, and Maria.
Fatal Flaw: Imperial hubris. The Empire leaked the details of the Death Star II’s construction to the Rebels in order to lure them into a trap, but in springing the trap, the Rebellion managed to destroy the half-completed Death Star II.
Name: Electromagnetic Torpedo
Affiliation: Rokur Gepta
First Appearance: Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka
Description: A container for a green substance that, in very small amounts, could destroy all life on a planet. It’s also just as effective in the vacuum of space.
Atrocities: Wiped out all life on Tund; killed a group of Oswaft.
Fatal Flaw: All kept together on Rokur Gepta’s ship, the Wennis, so that when the Wennis was destroyed by Renatasians, so was the substance.
Name: Shawken Device
Affiliation: an unknown scientist from Shawken
First Appearance: Marvel Star Wars #87: Still Active After All These Years
Description: A device that would have exploded the planet Shawken, hurling its fragments until they collided with other planets, which would then collide with other planets, and so on until it had destroyed the entire universe. That’s right, not just the galaxy, but the entire universe.
Atrocities: Never used.
Fatal Flaw: The scientist who designed it “never became quite depressed enough to use his device,” so the universe remains safe, for now.
Name: Trigon One
Affiliation: Fromm Gang
First Appearance: Star Wars: Droids: Escape into Terror
Description: A weapons satellite constructed by the Fromm Gang to help intimidate other gangs, Trigon One supposedly had the power to destroy an entire planet.
Atrocities: None; never quite finished.
Fatal Flaw: Poor security; a group including C-3PO and R2-D2 was able to break in and steal Trigon One, then sabotage it so that even after it was recovered, it would collide with and destroy the Fromm Gang’s base.
Name: World Devastators
Affiliation: Galactic Empire
First Appearance: Dark Empire
Description: A fleet of these would land on a planet, where their powerful tractor beams would begin to suck up chunks of said planet and destroy it piece by piece. The planet chunks would then be used to fuel the World Devastators, as well as allow the World Devastators to churn out spacecraft.
Atrocities: Destroyed a handful of planets in the Borderlands Region; ate up chunks of Mon Calamari; destroyed various New Republic spacecraft.
Fatal Flaw: Run by remote command from afar. Luke Skywalker was able to infiltrate the Empire and shut down the World Devastators.
Name: Sun Crusher
Affiliation: Galactic Empire; Kyp Durron
First Appearance: Jedi Search
Description: A spacecraft made of near-indestructible material that could fire resonance torpedoes, which could make stars go supernova, destroying an entire star system with one shot.
Atrocities: Destroyed the Cauldron Nebula; destroyed most of Admiral Daala’s fleet; destroyed the Carida System; destroyed a major starship construction yard and the accompanying weapons depot.
Fatal Flaw: Abandoned at the Maw Installation. It was captured from the Empire, then used by Kyp Durron for a while before Durron repented and assisted in its destruction by dropping it into one of the Maw’s black holes.
Name: Orbital Nightcloak
Affiliation: Galactic Empire; Warlord Zsinj
First Appearance: The Courtship of Princess Leia
Description: A network of hundreds of satellites, an orbital nightcloak would surround a planet and prevent all sunlight from reaching the surface, thus slowly freezing the world and killing all life.
Atrocities: Used over Dathomir, though not long enough to freeze the world.
Fatal Flaw: The elimination of just a handful of satellites could shut down the entire nightcloak. This one was sabotaged by Han Solo, then mostly destroyed by the Hapan Fleet.
Name: The Galaxy Gun
Affiliation: Galactic Empire
First Appearance: Dark Empire II
Description: Essentially a long tube, the Galaxy Gun could fire a particle disintegrator warhead, capable of destroying an entire planet, through hyperspace and across the galaxy. This allowed it to destroy worlds from a remote distance. It also had lower power settings that could target specific cities rather than whole planets.
Atrocities: Annihilated Da Soocha V; destroyed a city on Nespis VIII; destroyed the New Republic troopship Pelagia; annihiliated numerous other planets; and destroyed Byss.
Fatal Flaw: Poor maneuverability. R2-D2 managed to pilot the Eclipse II into a direct collision course with the Galaxy Gun, which the Gun could not avoid. The resulting explosion destroyed them both.
Name: Centerpoint Station
Affiliation: Corellian System
First Appearance: Ambush at Corellia
Description: Built by the Celestials millenia before the Republic was even formed, Centerpoint was a massive station in the Corellian System with the ability to generate “hyperspace tractor beams” capable of moving planets and stars.
Atrocities: Destroyed TD-10036-EM-1271, a star with an uninhabited solar system; destroyed Thanta Zilbra; destroyed part of a Yuuzhan Vong fleet along with part of a Hapan fleet.
Fatal Flaw: It was programmed to respond only to Anakin Solo, very much limiting its use. It was finally destroyed after Corellians managed to override this programming, but also after a Galactic Alliance scientist managed to reprogram the Station so that it believed the coordinates for every place in the galaxy were the coordinates of the Station itself. When a Corellian technician attempted to fire Centerpoint Station at Coruscant, it destroyed itself.
Name: The Eye of Palpatine
Affiliation: Galactic Empire
First Appearance: Children of the Jedi
Description: A asteroid-shaped battlestation built early in the reign of the Empire, the Eye of Palpatine was powerful enough to carry out an orbital bombardment all by itself.
Atrocities: None.
Fatal Flaw: Poorly-devised computer that allowed Callista Ming to download her consciousness into the battlestation and halt its progress. It was later destroyed by Nichos Marr.
Name: Darksaber
Afiiliation: Durga the Hutt
First Appearance: Darksaber
Description: Built from stolen Death Star plans, the Darksaber was essentially just the Death Star scaled down to nothing but its superlaser.
Atrocities: None.
Fatal Flaw: Shoddy workmanship due to the superweapon being built on-the-cheap. It fizzled and died upon its first attempt at firing.
Name: Dark Reaper
Affiliation: The Sith; the Confederacy of Independent Systems
First Appearance: Star Wars: The Clone Wars video game
Description: Uses a Force Harvester to kill anything in range by sucking out its Force energy. It was originally created during the Great Hyperspace War, used during the Great Sith War, then reassembled and used during the Clone Wars.
Atrocities: Destroyed half the forest on a Kashyyyk moon; collected energy on Mon Calamari, Agamar, and Bakura; possible other atrocities committed further back in history.
Fatal Flaw: No match for a TX-130 fighter tank driven by Anakin Skywalker.
Name: Star Forge
Affiliation: Rakatan Infinite Empire; Darth Revan’s Sith Empire
First Appearance: Knights of the Old Republic
Description: Drew upon the power of a nearby sun, as well as the Force, to construct an endless supply of warships.
Atrocities: After being altered, used to drain a handful of Jedi of their power and channeled it into a subject, killing the Jedi in the process; possible other atrocities committed further back in history.
Fatal Flaw: Not guarded well enough. It was sabotaged and destroyed by Revan.
Name: Mass Shadow Generator
Affiliation: Jedi Revan
First Appearance: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Description: Generated a massive gravity vortex powerful enough to fracture a planet to its very core.
Atrocities: Fragmented the planet Malachor V into planetoid chunks; later activated again to destroy these remaining planetoid chunks; destroyed portions of both Jedi and Mandalorian fleets
Fatal Flaw: Apparently still out there…
Name: Chiss Defoliator
Affiliation: The Chiss
First Appearance: Dark Nest I: The Joiner King
Description: Engineered so that, when activated, it would destroy all food rations within a targeted area.
Atrocities: Used by the Chiss numerous times against the Killiks.
Fatal Flaw: These, also, are still out there.
Name: Malevolence
Affiliation: Confederacy of Independent Systems
First Appearance: The Clone Wars: Rising Malevolence
Description: A Separatist warship equipped with massive ion cannons.
Atrocities: Used to disable multiple Republic fleets.
Fatal Flaw: The poor tactical decisions of General Grievous. These allowed Anakin Skywalker to successfully disable its ion cannons and hyperdrive, then sabotage its navicomputer so that when its hyperdrive was finally activated, the ship crashed.
Name: Separatist Defoliator
Affiliation: Confederacy of Independent Systems
First Appearance: The Clone Wars: Defenders of Peace
Description: A device that, when activated, would destroy all organic life in a targeted area.
Atrocities: A test fire and a few shots on Maridun that destroyed some plant life in the area.
Fatal Flaw: The poor tactical decisions of General Lok Durd. These allowed Anakin Skywalker to destroy the device.
…And this, I believe, is a complete list of all Star Wars superweapons to date. Notice I say “to date”–give it a year, and I’m sure another handful will emerge.
Austin Golding
Wookiee Army 