OK, as if the prequels weren’t enough of a heartbreaking insult to my childhood, this has to happen.  Meesa wantsa be clawing meesa eyes out.

See especially the AICN review.  If one of the biggest fanboys in the world can say this publicly, Lucasfilm, it’s probably time to wake up and smell the bantha poodoo.  Look, good things are made by people who care, not by sycophants and group-thinkers, and the latest wares you’ve been pushing smell suspiciously of the latter.  Go look at how Nolan rescued Batman from the empty-headed “nipples & neon” era we suffered at the hands of (speak not his name) Joel Schumacher and get a hint.

Let’s face it, the latter SW should serve as a warning to the future that fabulous effects and design doesn’t cover for fundamentally bad storytelling, even if it’s a franchise as classically story-rich as the SW universe once was. The contrast couldn’t be clearer considering the startling (esp. compared to the prequels) magnificence of what Tartakovsky et al. did with their rendition of Clone Wars a couple years back.  Lucasfilm, there really is no excuse.

Sadly, I still feel the need to see this at some point, if for no other reason than to be conversant in what continues to be so frustratingly wrong with Star Wars.  Maybe I can sneak in some how so I don’t help fund this kind of apparent atrocity any more than I’ve already been complicit in.  People depend on me to be informed on the important issues, you see. 

Now we are in the “red zone” as I like to call it, the point after some of the pre-labor signs are showing up but before actual birth. I must say that this stage of pregnancy (which does not get talked about very much) is a lot more difficult than I imagined. Growing up in a (post)-industrialized society our lives are arranged according to a schedule, and within that schedule you have to get your work done by a deadline. This is particularly true at my job. But this thing is different – there is no schedule and the deadline is “just a guess.” Also, you are not in control of the work.

Right now I am about 9 days away from my due date, and my increasing difficulty in getting around helped my decision to start my maternity leave a week earlier than originally planned. I am hoping I can get into a frame of mind that will help me discard the “schedule” and the “deadline” mentality and be more comfortable with whatever and whenever things happen. I might even be able to get a little vacation out of it.