Links! Trailers! Talking!

It has been a good week for trailers. First, and most important, and making it a good week all on its lonesome, there is the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens



I could watch the Millennium Falcon fly all day. I didn't just watch A New Hope through Return of the Jedi when I was a kid; I absorbed them. If epigenetics is a thing, then my genetic structure has been irrevocably altered by the existence of the movie.

I can still remember sitting in the theater and watching the star destroyer loom over me in the opening of A New Hope, approaching and growing bigger and bigger as it went by.

And I was young enough not to know Han Solo would come back. "Of course he came back," I say now, but then? The world of myth was all new and unexpected and grand. Much has been gained in growing up and in reading and watching many, many more stories, but that first moment...the time I didn't know? When The Falcon came swooping in and saved everyone. That was pure joy. I'm glad I remember.

This does not, by the way, mean that I did not adore Luke. He was my hero in every way.

I still prefer heroes who want to be heroic.

And on a different note, there is the official Batman v. Superman: The Dawn of Justice trailer which, to be honest, I have only just watched once. I like Superman, in a casual sort of "Yes, he's a superhero who has always been around" sort of way, but he isn't my absolute favorite, and this trailer... Um, what is Batman wearing? Is that metal?! A knight's suit of armor? What? Why is he trying to fight Superman anyway? I mean, other than the fact that the title says he has to.



This doesn't mean I want the movie to fail. I would love to love it. It just means... What is Batman WEARING?

And Ant Man released a full trailer, and I started looking forward to the movie.



Ant Man has never been a favorite of mine; in fact, he's barely been a blip on my reading radar. I know he/they are there, but I can't, at any given moment, name the current holder of the title, and I really only pay attention to him when he happens to be in the Avengers. Then again, Iron Man wasn't anyone I cared much about--and that changed quickly!

My only concern from this really brief bit is that it looks like Scott Lang may end up being a clone of Peter Quill, and while I liked Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy, I don't know that I want him to be the new "type" (See my preference for white-hat heroes).

On another front--

I just found out that there is a real, for true, street-legal, steampunk snail car that shoots fire from its eye stalks. It was "Conceived of in a dream by artist Kyrsten Mate" (How else does such a wonder come to be? And built by her and her husband Jon Sarriugarte and a team of artists. It's called the Golden Mean


The world just became a better place. There are oodles of pictures on the site I linked to (It looks like you can maybe get directions for making one?) but I'm also including a clip of the car in action:

Tor has started A DragonLance Reread which has gotten me to pick up Dragons of Autumn Twilight again. I read and reread that opening trilogy many times in High School. I was a little afraid to open it again, but you know, I'm having fun. It's definitely not the best prose I ever read, but it's still enjoyable. I am not sure how far I will get in reading the Dragonlance books--probably not past that original trilogy--but we'll see.

This has also meant learning that Tracy Hickman is male. I've spent years picturing Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman as a pair of women working happily together on the many series they wrote, but no... Some day I may recover from the disillusionment.

I have also been following the news on the upcoming Shannara Chronicles on Terry Brooks site.The only planned minseries at this point is based on Elfstones of Shannara, but you never know! It will air on MTV, which I do not get, but there are plans to release it elsewhere in other formats, one of which I am sure I will be able to get my hands on. In any case, I am looking forward to it. There is no date given yet, but they're still providing more information than the other series I've been watching for.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, airing on BBC America finally has a month named--May, but that's about it! We have a teeny, tiny, smidgen of an almost-trailer and a cast list, and...that is it!!! There are some photos on the show's Facebook site, but I want news and a proper trailer! This business of keeping everything hush-hush is very strange.