Star Wars Celebration Anaheim

What a awesome weekend to be a Star Wars fan with Star Wars Celebration Anaheim officially coming to a close this afternoon.  We got many teases and treats for all the upcoming films, video games, books, and more.  Star Wars: The Force Awakens got even more exciting with the surprise reveal of a new teaser trailer with Han Solo and Chewbacca making an appearance for the first time since Return of the Jedi.  Star Wars: Battlefront also had a trailer to show, as did season 2 for Star Wars: Rebels.  Many of our favorite people in the Star Wars galaxy were interviewed, sat in on panels, and generally hung out with the fans making this an incredible event (more on that below).

This was the first time I've ever experienced a Star Wars Celebration event.  Unfortunately I couldn't actually be there in Anaheim, CA to attend the event, but I did do as much live-streaming on StarWars.com as possible.  So I consider this the first Star Wars Celebration I've been aware of in real time (my first Star Wars Celebration will be when I'm physically able to go one).  A good friend of mine, Sean, and I had a stream party Friday evening and even made some Bantha Milk drinks.  It was a great time to watch the live stream of SWCA and just totally geek out together about all things Star Wars!

During J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy's panel on The Force Awakens, I was in my Theological Anthropology class so I missed the big reveal of the teaser trailer (but watched it immediately after class and was interiorly whooping with excitement!).  I was able to go back later and re-watch the whole panel and am even more excited for the movie to come out in December.  BB-8 astounded me.  I was definitely one of those fans who was skeptical of the new little droid, but seeing the droid actually roll around the stage as a real prop (and not just CGI) I was blown away, and found I'm way more excited to see BB-8 in the movie that I originally was.  Kylo Ren also has me super pumped.  His whole demeanor reminds of Darth Revan from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and I've always loved that sort of demeanor in a dark character.  Can't wait to see more of him.  And of course, there's Han Solo and Chewbacca...I was so happy to see them in the teaser.

Streaming SWCA live on StarWars.com

As the afternoon progressed I just turned on the live stream on my Mac in my room and watched as much as I was able to.  Unfortunately for me, since the live stream pretty much covered only the main stage, I wasn't able to see many of the panels that I would have liked to have seen if I was there in person (such as the panels relating to the Star Wars Novels universe including panels with some of my favorite authors and I also missed the podcast stage and getting to see my favorite Star Wars podcasts up there).  Even so, I got to watch Ian McDiarmid's "The Emperor Strikes Back" interview, Carrie Fisher's "A Date With the Princess," some of Ray Park's interview,  the Lego Star Was panel with Anthony Daniels, some of the Star Wars: Rebels panel, the beginning part of Smuggler's Bounty, along with many of the random interviews in the Cantina with Anthony Carboni, which was awesome since the more informal setting allows for those interviews to be really cool and and off the cuff.  

What I find absolutely astounding about the whole event is two-fold.  First I love the fact that there are so many kids there, asking questions and just loving everything Star Wars.  And second, I love the generosity of everyone involved, specially the actors/actresses of Star Wars.  I was blown away by all the kids asking questions (from innocent "Who did the voice of Chopper in Star Wars Rebels?" to more probing questions "How did Captain Rex survive the Clone Wars?") and their energy and joy for Star Wars.  The actors/actresses on the other side were awesome in response.  Anthony Daniels interacted very well with his young fans of C-3PO and Ray Park even borrowed one kid's dual-bladed lightsaber to spar with against James Arnold Taylor and then signed it before giving it back to his young Darth Maul fan.  It was incredible to see the awe and wonder that these kids have and are able to experience at such an event.

Being able to live stream this event was a huge blessing for me.  I've embraced Star Wars as my hobby (in a very real and existential way, and am vocal about it a lot more, even if my friends tease me because of it - Freddie Prinze Jr. said here: "people are gonna make fun of you no matter what, so commit to what you love and don't care what anyone says") and live-streaming the event made me feel a part of the whole experience without actually being there.  My live-stream party was a ton of fun and a great way to virtually go to Star Wars Celebration.  But, of course, it really makes me feel disappointed that I was not able to go.  I really hope I can go in the future -- but as next year it will be in London (July 15-17, 2016), I probably won't be able to go since flying outside the country will be a bit more difficult for me to schedule since I'll be a newly ordained Catholic priest *possibly* on my way to World Youth Day in Poland that same summer.  (Another live stream party will be in the works!)  Such is the life.  :)  Maybe 2017 will be my year for Star Wars Celebration.

You've Taken Your First Step Into a Larger World

Well, here goes.  I know that it seems like everyone has a blog out there these days talking about, quite literally, everything (confession: I, too, have another blog where I post my homilies that I preach along with other personal related topics: Roamin' Catholic).  So, it seems like all one needs is a blog to be some sort of expert on any said topic (if it's on the internet it must be true, right?).  So you might think I'm going to end up doing just the same thing as everyone else out there, being an expert on everything and nothing because of this blog...and you'd be absolutely right.

The idea behind this blog that Sean Heller (a great friend of mine and fellow Star Wars fan) and I are putting together here, "Club Bwua'tu" (a name taken from the Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi series for an organization within the Galactic Alliance trying to uncover the various conspiracies bent on total galactic anarchy - see the wookieepedia) is for Sean and I to have an outlet where we can discuss what we think is interesting and fun regarding the exciting world of Star Wars with a Catholic perspective (whether overt or not in our posts).  I hope it to be a fairly geeky way for us to share our perspective on the new and exciting things that are currently happening in the world of Star Wars.  Additionally, this seems like an opportune time to begin such an online journey in conjunction with Star Wars: The Force Awakens coming this December.  So fair warning for you all, you know what we're planning on doing here and if you're wanting to follow along, great!  If you're laughing and shaking your head at my geeking out to Star Wars and don't follow us, that's great too, we won't be offended.

So a bit of my backstory for me...
I have loved Star Wars ever since I saw Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones in theaters back in 2002.  Since that awesome introduction I wanted more Star Wars and watched the original trilogy and also began to read the novels, my first one being "The Courtship of Princess Leia" by Dave Wolverton.  I remember feeling like those novels were my some of my closest friends in junior high school and high school.  We had a mandatory reading period in high school each day for 20 minutes and I would immerse myself in the Star Wars universe, while the rest of my classmates groaned that we were "required" to read.  I also remember specifically going on vacation one summer without my older brother (who was working that summer) and I felt alone with him.  I asked my parents if we could stop at a bookstore and I picked up "Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way" and that novel was my way of dealing with missing my brother and yet I still had a great time visiting Yellowstone with the rest of my family.  It was also my first introduction to the New Jedi Order (I know I jumped into the plot 3/4 of the way through, but I did go back and read through the whole series!).  The EU has been a big part of the leisure aspect of my life so the news that the EU would be relabeled as "Legends" hit me a bit hard (see this article on Starwars.com), I still really wanted to continue the story with the "big 3" of Jaina, Jag, and Ben (plus I was really excited for Christie Golden's Sword of the Jedi trilogy that, alas, is not meant to be).  That being said, though, I am super excited for The Force Awakens and will always be a Star Wars fan following where the new canon leads.

In high school my love for Star Wars was pretty much confined to my family.  My dad enjoyed the movies and my older brother also shared a liking for Star Wars (although he is much more of a Trekkie).  Other than them, I couldn't share my love for Star Wars with anyone else, so I was content to read the novels and badger my older brother with the plots that he knew little of, lamenting Jacen Solo's descent to the dark side to him.  This was all to change as I finally discovered a use for Twitter.  I had gotten a Twitter account a couple years ago, but never quite felt I knew what I was doing with it, other than tweeting random things...as such, what a joy it was to discover that Twitter was my ticket to joining the Star Wars fandom at large.  Last November with the impending release of the Teaser Trailer to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I found a Skype Chat via twitter, hosted by Star Wars Podcasters (Far Far Away Radio and The Forecast), where we stayed up all night hoping to watch the release of the teaser trailer at midnight Pacific Time.  But, unfortunately it was released early the next morning.  Even so, the Skype chat was so cool because I had connected with other Star Wars fans across the country all of whom I did not know.  Yet we all got together because of a shared interest and love for Star Wars and I had a blast!  And I finally understood what Twitter was for me.  It was a way for me to connect to the Star Wars fandom in ways I never could before.  Twitter finally had a purpose in my mind.

Since then I have been a listener to the above mentioned podcasts including Star Wars Bookworms (which is probably my favorite because I am such a Star Wars literature fan!) and my family and friends do think I'm a bit weird in my passion for Star Wars, but in my defense, they have their own passions that I find strange (like investing a lot of energy and emotion into the many different sporting events).  Star Wars is my fun hobby that helps keep me just a little bit saner in my busy life as a Catholic deacon and soon to be Catholic priest (May of 2016).  It is my chosen form of healthy leisure :)

With that, I have now taken my first step into a larger world.  From Twitter to Blogger...journeying to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and beyond.