Star Wars: Threat of Peace

            Whenever I tell someone that I’m not much of a fan of comic books they always give me a funny look; like it was the last thing they were expecting to hear from me.  And honestly, I can’t blame them because I do look and sound like someone who keeps stacks of comic books in his closet.  But in truth, I haven’t read that many in my lifetime.  I recall reading some kind of Hulk/Dr. Doom/Silver Surfer book when I was about seven, skimming through The Death of Superman while in Middle School, reading the Sin City book The Hard Goodbye in High School, and getting about of a third of the way through Watchmen later on.  That’s about it.  With that in mind it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I haven’t reviewed a single comic book throughout my time on this blog.  But I think I’ve finally found one that I want to give my thoughts on.   This is the Illusive One’s Review of the webcomic series, Star Wars: Threat of Peace.

           

            The series had three acts with each act containing nine issues and reached its conclusion on March, 2010.  It takes place before the events of the upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic and takes place about three hundred years after the events of the Knights of the Old Republic games.  The plot, more or less, revolves around various events that threaten to shatter a recent peace treaty between the Republic and the Sith Empire and a number of characters who will either preserve or shatter the peace.

            On the positive side I was pleasantly surprised by the plot.  It was a well thought out story of political intrigue and espionage and the pacing of events leading towards the climax was well done.  There were also a few twists towards the end that I really enjoyed and didn’t see coming.   It also had a really good collection of characters that ranged from Jedi Knights, to Sith Lords, to infantry soldiers, to bounty hunters and all were interesting and diverse and I honestly would like to see their stories expanded on.

            On the negative side, the written dialog was not that great.  It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t top notch either.  I also didn’t care for the drawing style used in this comic series and the action panels weren’t particularly well done.  Granted I have seen a lot worse, but from what I know, the average comic’s drawing style is a lot better than this.  Even though I loved the characters in this comic, some of the interactions between them just didn’t seem right.  If you’ve read this series you’ll know exactly what I mean by that.  The final criticism I had with these comics is that at times it seemed rushed.  Some of the events in the series, such as the battle on Coruscant or the peace negotiations between the Jedi and Sith were omitted completely, despite the fact that half of the events of the series revolve around them.  It was something I found not only disappointing, but confusing as well as half the time you weren’t sure what was going on.        

           

            All around, I would only recommend reading this web comic series if you’re going to play Star Wars: The Old Republic because all it really does is serve as a direct prequel to it.  It doesn’t explain when this Sith Empire came from, how it gained so much power, nor does it explain what became of Revan or the Jedi Exile and I found that a bit disappointing.  But still, it’s good for what it is.  If you like Star Wars then you’ll definitely like this but don’t expect anything mind blowing.  If not, then don’t bother with it.  So until next time, this is The Illusive One and don’t expect too many more comic reviews.

On AMVs and GMVs

            Before the autumn of 2007, just about anything could be posted on YouTube and just about everything was.  These videos would often range from people acting like idiots to full films posted on the site.  Eventually, however, many entertainment groups, ranging from film studios to record companies sued YouTube over the material that was being placed on the site, sighting copyright infringements.  This eventually led to what I called the 2007 YouTube Purge, where just about every video that contained a hint of copyright infringement was removed from the site.

            Most people agree that this is when YouTube started to go downhill.  Not long after, their opening web page started to contain advertisements and minute long ads started appearing before various videos.  While everyone hates it, most people just gritted their teeth, made a few hateful comments about it, and accepted it.

            Before the Purge, I remember things called AMVs and GMVs that ran rampant on YouTube.  For those of you who don't know, and AMV is short for an Animated Music Video and a GMV is a Game Music Video, (often the GMVs were mistakenly called AMVs but because they were so similar no one really cared).  With AMVs people would take clips of various cartoons or anime series and put a song over it, trying to get the images to match with the song.  GMVs, on the other hand, used cut scenes, trailers, and actual gameplay from games with a song over it. 

            About 85% of these would have random scenes playing with a song placed over it and weren't very good, (for example I remember one that was just a bunch of fight scenes from Dragon Ball Z with Down with the Sickness playing over it).  Another 10% would be ok and every now and then you would find one or two that were perfect or very close to it.  Before the Purge I only found two that were perfect and another two that were damn near perfect and I watched hundreds of these things.  Unfortunately, these videos can no longer be seen, as they were all removed in the Purge along with most of the others.

            A few months ago, however, I realized that a few of the old AMVs and GMVs had survived the Purge and new ones were being made today.  One of the few that survived the Purge is the video posted below.  The video's credits show Poo Chan Productions as its maker but it happens to be one of the most circulated AMVs in existence, so who actually made it is anyone's guess.  It contains footage from the anime series Naruto and uses the song Before I Forget by Slipknot.  It wasn't perfect by any means but it was one of the first I saw and I felt warranted a mention and showing of the video.

            Pretty cool to watch wasn't it?  Rewatching this old one, however, didn't really renew my interest in AMVs and GMVs.  Maybe it was because I had already seen it so many times or because I'm not that in to anima anymore.  To me it just seemed like a brief trip down memory lane that was quickly forgotten about five minutes later.   The one posted below, however, is the one that more or less renewed my interest in them.  The video is actually one of the original trailers for the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, (a game that still hasn't come out yet), and the song is Die Mother Fucker Die by Dope.  Take a look.

            Not bad was it?  Granted, I have seen a lot better and it just so happened that the song matched the trailer fairly well but it certainly wasn't the best.  After watching this video a few times, I lost interest in them again.  Then I found this video a couple of weeks ago.  It contains images from the Halo games and their trailers with the song Warrior by Disturbed covering it and was made by YouTube user patton71489.  Take a look.

            Now that was a great one.  It wasn't perfect but it was a lot better than most of the AMVs and GMVs I've seen.  You might have noticed he had a few disclaimers on it and a credit roll to the images and songs used.  It seems that’s what it takes nowadays to keep a video like that online. 

           

            Before I move on, here is another one he did that was damn near perfect and a testament to what AMVs and GMVs should be like.  This one is of the video game Batman: Arkham Asylum and the song Asylum by Disturbed and I feel it's a feast to the eyes.

            Despite the fact that some of the image work with the game scenes could have been better I really liked this video.  I felt it was a great combo and wish there were more like it.  For the record I will be doing a review of this game later this year. 

            Last to note, is this video made, once again, by patton71489.  This time it used images from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare games and the song Devour by Shinedown.  Take a look because this one is arguably the best of the bunch.

            Now that was good.  I felt that the images and music went very well together and the fast pace of the song matched the fast pace images of the games.  Again, I will be doing a review on both of the Modern Warfare games later this year.  

            In the end, I have mixed thoughts on these new AMV's and GMVs.  With them we now tend to get quality over quantity and I like how easy the new ones are to find.  Unfortunately, they don't have the same nostalgic quality the old ones did.  I found that I actually miss having to hunt through page after page of videos before finding one that was nearly perfect and those are internet memories that will last a lifetime.  For those of you who hadn't known about these before and have some spare time on your hands, check them out.  Perhaps you will find the same enjoyment in it as I did and grow to like these videos the way I did. 

            So until next time, this is The Illusive One saying thanks for reading and thanks for watching.