I believe I am slowly becoming a Star Wars fan.

As I remember, I was first introduced to Star Wars way back when I was a lil' kid when my older brother would tell me stories of these awesome space movies with stunning special effects. Soon I got the chance to see one of them: the Return of the Jedi re-release was being shown in our local cinema. I don't remember the exact age I was when I saw it; I had to be around 8 or 9. I remember enjoying the film, the jungle battle and everything, of course having a great laugh at the Ewoks. But, after the film, Star Wars just faded in my memory and, even though I was very often exposed to the SW material (you have to admit the shit is actually god damn prevalent) - all the movies were constantly on re-runs on TV, I got to play some SW games, the 2003 Clone Wars were around, I went to watch the Revenge of the Sith, not to mention the sweet memories that back in the day I would even find fuckin' Star Wars prize stickers in packages of chips, even with this much SW around me, I still never really concentrated on any of the creations - it was all superficial entertainment, really.

Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast was the game that I delved deep into, got the hell of entertainment from and that really got me interested into exploring the whole universe of Star Wars. The epic adventure of Kyle Katarn, his search for the force, his mighty battles - they were all fantastic. Soon after, I've played through Jedi Academy and have to say that even though being pretty fun, it was too childish and definitely does not live up to Outcast.

Still, I'm ready to rewatch the films, now with a new and fresh perspective and interest. I'm ready to try out new instalments of Star Wars - I mean, with so much SW media created, there just has to be something as good as Jedi Outcast out there. ;)

The journey continuesEdit

• Star Wars: Knight Errant: Influx - The short story wasn't much. The characters introduced were bland, the whole plot with the activation cylinder (which is a hilarious stone-age instrument actually - oversized and non-unique - a worse key than the ones we have nowadays) is just plain idiotic. No Knight Errant for me, it seems. 2/10
• Essential Atlas Extra: The Knight Errant Gazetteer - a somewhat fun resource publication. It's nice to set up a universe before embarking on creating media set in it. But I think I will still stick to my preconceptions about Knight Errant, after having read Influx.
• LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace - This short parody film was actually very good; I had some great laughs watching it. Even all the while knowing that it was just an elaborate ad of them LEGOs for children to buy, I still enjoyed the film, which was filled with pleasant wild imagination, just the right kind of humor and playfulness. (Damn, it actually made me somewhat nostalgic about all those Spyrius and Ice Planet LEGOs I used to play with when I was a kid)
• The Phantom Menace 3D. My will to revisit the films caught up with me as the opportunity presented itself with the 3D releases of the movies. Oh, so many things I had forgotten about this film. The nostalgic memory was reshaped by my own new viewer's perspective grown with life experience. In short, the film was enjoyable, it had a benevolent, pure soul, so to say. Highlights I loved were the pod races, the final Darth Maul lightsaber fight (man, that character was a badass) and, although not that much emphasised, the political in-fighting of the Galactic senate, all of which, to some degree, came to so surrealistically and eerily haunt us with what is going on in our own world with the UN these days and all. The shortcomings: Anakin is Jesus, Jar Jar (fan hate is justified), a few other lame plot choices. I hope I will be able to catch the 2013 Episode II on cinemas.
• Racer Rush - a fun little game.
• Sacrifices - well, it was basically impossible to understand much of anything here as I was unfamiliar with the series of the story, but it seemed kind of overly pompous. 2/10
• Storm Fleet Warnings - a pretty energetic lil' story, although too short to be properly experienced. I will probably have to try smth more by Jude Watson when I'll get the chance. 6/10
• Equipment - nice, violent, but too unbelievable, I'd say. 6.4/10
• Duel - somewhat good! Yoda rocks, I've always liked the dude. 8/10
• Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice - It piqued my interest. The chances of such a successful crash on such a habitable planet are astronomically small, however - a very unrealistic detail and a significant minus. But... eh, I'll scout the sequel short stories n' see what they might have in store. 3/10
• Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn - Coincidences on top of other coincidences. For some scientist girl to fly an uvak so well for the first time and do stunts, escape other riders - way too unrealistic. The story elicited some form of compassion from me for the Keshiri, though. 3/10
• Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon - juvenile writing, clichés, a forced protagonist. Plot holes. You mean the Keshiri would sacrifice a 100K of their own just to have 57 Sith purebloods killed? Bullshit. That's enough of John Jackson Miller (compounded with Knight Errant: Influx) and this series for me. 1/10