This month in Star Wars fandom

While AD ASTRA being a kind of ersatz Star Wars indicates that I'm unhappy with some aspects of Star Wars as is and want to create my own "Space Opera Heartbreaker", it also indicates that I'm a big fan of the franchise and am happy to admit as much. I wish it were perfect, but it's still good enough to be very compelling to me. This Thursday is Star Wars day, an annual self-declared holiday (May the Fourth be with you.)  Four weeks from then is May 25, the 40th Anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars movie.  Both come up every year, but 40 years is a pretty big deal.  Assuming we aren't in the throes of a Great(er) Depression or ugly Yugoslavia style Civil War in ten years, I presume that 2027's 50th anniversary will be an even bigger deal.

But not so big a deal that I can afford to really do anything extraordinary.  I'm not going to take any time off to watch a marathon of the Original Trilogy, laserdisc version, or anything (maybe for the 50th anniversary I will.)  In fact, I don't anticipate that I'll be able to do much at all, other than put a temporary Facebook profile image up for a few days, maybe watch a single movie or stream a few episodes of Clone Wars and/or maybe play a few hours of The Old Republic—for the upcoming "holiday" I may even finally spring for a subscription.  For at least this month, but possibly for more (even a one month subscription boosts me permanently into "Preferred" status from "Free to Play" status and opens up all of the expansion pack worlds, and many of their missions, as well as providing a few other modest benefits.

If I do Clone Wars, I'm almost finished (three episodes left) of my rewatch of Season 2, which means—that crap, I've still got three and a half seasons to go.  Lots of time needs to be spent there, but I doubt I'll do more than watch the three episodes this week, if that.  Those episodes are; what, 22-23 minutes each, so watching 3-4 is equivalent to watching one regular movie, for the most part.  That'll finish off season 2 for me, though—so that's a nice want for this week.

I've also recently (finally) gotten a ship for my bounty hunter in Old Republic and traveled to Balmorra, where I've done a few of the minor side quests and all of the stuff that needs to be done in the main city where you first land, and immediately outside on the plains.  Plenty more to do on Balmorra, and that's only the first planet of the regular story after you get your ship.  Assuming that I do get a subscription and unlock the higher levels and additional content that means that the You Are Here sign only looks like this, so far:

Hutta

Dromand Kaas
Balmorra <<<===
Nar Shaddaa
Tatooine
Alderaan
Taris
Quesh
Hoth
Belsavis
Voss
Corellia
Ilum
CZ-198
Makeb
Manaan
Oricon
Rishi
Yavin 4
Ziost
Darvannis
Odessen
Zakuul
Iokath

Yikes.  Lots more to do.  I think there's even more if you count Flashpoints and stuff.  And that's only for the Bounty Hunter class (although, admittedly, most of those same planets apply to every other class, and the only ones that I'm missing as a bounty hunter is Korriban, Tython, and Coruscant.

Of course, the other thing I can do this month to celebrate is continue cranking out planets at a furious pace, so that I've got enough material to really work with to start writing my own ersatz Star Wars books and stories.  And finally, on Friday, I'll be seeing the decidedly not-Star Wars, but very similarly vibed space opera Guardians of the Galaxy sequel.  So, there's also that.