Renew THE ACOLYTE...Now!

So a few hours ago, I watched the season finale of The Acolyte on Disney+...and all I can say is— Screw the haters. Renew The Acolyte for a second season immediately!

After viewing Episode 8, titled "The Acolyte," it made me that much eager to see the story of Osha (Amandla Stenberg) continue as (SPOILERS AHEAD) her journey down the path of the Dark Side quickly unfolded once she killed her former Jedi mentor, Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), upon finding out that he murdered her mother on Brendok 16 years earlier. I want to see what awaits Osha and her cortosis-welding teacher Qimir (Manny Jacinto) after the would-be Sith spared the life of Mae (also played by Stenberg) in exchange for her sister Osha becoming his apprentice instead.

And of course, as shown in the screenshot at the top of this Blog entry, I want to see how Darth Plagueis plays a role in the future trials and tribulations of Qimir and Osha. I expected Darth Tenebrous to show up in tonight's finale instead (I definitely wouldn't be surprised if he made an appearance in Season 2), but it's still awesome that Darth Sidious' former master appeared in this Star Wars streaming series.

And let's not forget the final scene of today's episode...with Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) meeting a certain green-eared Jedi Master at the Jedi Temple to seek his counsel following the discovery that her former Padawan was still alive after being seduced by the Dark Side of the Force a long time ago. That Padawan, of course, being none other than Qimir.

So yea— If Lucasfilm wants to politely give all the haters the middle finger for review-bombing The Acolyte, Season 1 on Rotten Tomatoes and other sites, as well as continuing the story of Qimir and Osha and revealing how Plagueis and Yoda factor into their tale, then giving The Acolyte at least one more season is the way to go!

We've seen the Old Republic in the Star Wars prequels, the reign of the Galactic Empire in Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Rogue One and the original Star Wars trilogy, and the New Republic in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (as well as in The Mandalorian and Ahsoka)... Let's see more of the High Republic in live-action through the eyes of creator Leslye Headland!

The Dark Side also continues to beckon.

THE MANDALORIAN: Din Djarin and Din Grogu's Latest Adventure Has Come to an End...

So earlier today, at midnight actually, I watched the Season 3 finale of The Mandalorian on Disney+!

Titled Chapter 24, "The Return," this episode saw Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his young apprentice Grogu (with his new name becoming Din Grogu after Djarin officially adopted him as his son after the climax) helping Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) and their fellow Mandalorians finally take back their home world of Mandalore from the Empire.

Chapter 24 was action-packed, with Djarin and Bo-Katan dueling with their arch-nemesis Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) for the final time, the other Mandalorians engaged in a fierce battle with Imperial Stormtroopers equipped with jetpacks and Beskar armor, and Grogu using his Force abilities to take on a trio of Praetorian Guards who would be the precursor to Supreme Leader Snoke's elite bodyguards in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

The Return ended on a happy note, with Bo-Katan reclaiming her rightful place as the leader of Mandalore, and Din Djarin and Din Grogu settling into their new shack on Nevarro...courtesy of High Magistrate Greef Karga (once again portrayed by Carl Weathers).

But the adventures of the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda aren't over yet, as we learn by the end of the finale that Din Djarin wants to return to his old ways as a bounty hunter. The difference from his previous jobs, this time around, is him focusing the hunt on rogue Imperial warlords around the galaxy!

Season 4 has already been written, according to showrunners Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, and I can't wait to see what it has in store for Djarin and Grogu! Grand Admiral Thrawn (brought to life by Lars Mikkelsen) will make his live-action debut in this August's Ahsoka—but we can all be confident that the titular Jedi (played by Rosario Dawson) and her fellow band of Star Wars Rebels won't be the only ones to have a run-in with the blue-skinned heir to the Empire...

The Mandalorian is clearly putting Din Djarin and Grogu on a collision course with the most powerful threat to the galaxy before the First Order came to be...and I look forward to the day that we watch this epic moment on Disney+ and on the big screen! Happy Hump Day.

On This Day in 2001: IMPORT_JEDI Is Born...

So today marks two decades since I created my Import_Jedi account for the Jedi Council Forums on the Star Wars fan site, TheForce.net.

I've actually been browsing the JC Forums since early 1999 (before The Phantom Menace was released in theaters...which was near the end of my first year of college at Cal State Long Beach), but Import_Jedi was born 13 days after Lucasfilm revealed that the official title for Star Wars: Episode II would be Attack of the Clones.

I've been going on the JC Forums regularly till after Revenge of the Sith came out in 2005—and then it was only sporadically that I would frequent threads, most of which had nothing to do with Star Wars.

I started logging on a bit more around the time The Force Awakens and Rogue One were theatrically released almost six and five years ago, respectively (but not as much for 2017's The Last Jedi, and not at all for 2018's Solo and 2019's The Rise of Skywalker), but other than that, I only visit the JC Forums if I'm feeling extremely nostalgic about my good ol' college days.

Click here to view the list of friends that I made on the JC Forums during my 20-year tenure—though I don't know how many of them still go to this message board. I miss the 3SA Sarcasm Knights! Happy Friday.

Snapshots of the Day #2: My 20-Year High School Reunion!

Last night, I drove down to Newport Beach (in Orange County, CA) to attend a dinner cruise that celebrated 20 years since I graduated from high school, and needless to say, it was awesome! I'm totally glad that I went. Originally, I was unsure about whether or not I should go since none of my close friends from school were showing up...but the reunion had such a festive atmosphere that almost every classmate in attendance was willing to approach and touch base with fellow students who they didn't really talk to when we were at Bishop Amat (our alma mater) from 1994 through '98.



The dinner cruise was aboard a charter yacht known as Endless Dreams, courtesy of Hornblower Cruises & Events. Personally-speaking, what made this reunion more enjoyable than our 10-year reunion in 2008 was that the cruise around Newport Beach Harbor lasted about 4 hours and we obviously couldn't leave till it ended! (We boarded the ship at 5:30 PM, set sail from the dock around 6:30 PM and didn't return to the pier till after 10 PM.) Since we were all stuck on the Endless Dreams together, my classmates and I had no choice but to talk to as many people onboard as possible...making us bond even more. We had so much fun on this cruise that after we returned to the dock, we literally walked across the street to attend a post-reunion gathering at On the Rocks Bar & Grill. The last 3 photos at the bottom of this entry shows just how many Amat folks stuck around to continue the festiveness that began when we gathered together at the Hornblower dock before 5:30 PM.



I totally can't wait for the 30-year reunion in 2028! Some of my classmates joked last night that we should have a 21-year reunion next year, but that's a little too much. No need to make the same mistake that Disney did releasing Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story within 5 months of each other! Heck— Even a 25-year reunion would be too soon. 2028 gives all of us Class of '98 folks enough time to experience more life events and changes that we can share three decades after our commencement ceremony was held at Bishop Amat High School (on June 5, 1998). Happy Sunday...and Go Lancers!

LINK: Additional photos I took during my 20-year high school reunion

Five. Simple. Syllables: X-Wing Is AWESOME!

A Random Nerd Note: I don't care if this video game is 25 years old, but I still enjoy playing X-Wing on my laptop computer! And my favorite starfighter to use in this game is the B-Wing...which I hope makes an official return in next year's Star Wars: Episode IX! The Crait ski speeders (which resemble the B-Wing but were built by a different manufacturer) in last year's The Last Jedi don't count.

Happy Monday!

A Random Thought To End This Month With...

Why are flying cars a DUMB IDEA? If people are generally too stupid or incapable of using their turn signals when changing lanes on the ground, what makes you think they'll be capable of safely flying a 2-ton machine hundreds to thousands of feet in the air?

That's my random thought for November. And no, I didn't type this entry as an excuse to post the cool screenshot from Blade Runner 2049 above, or an image of the Star Wars planet Coruscant below. I actually mean it. Speaking of Star Wars, The Last Jedi arrives in theaters two weeks from today! Can't wait to go to an advance screening of Episode VIII at 7 PM on December 14. Carry on.

Wise Words By Kylo Ren (Or Rian Johnson)...

"Let the past die. Kill it...if you have to. That's the only way to become who you're meant to be."
So are the words spoken by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) in the newest trailer for this December's Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Overlooking the fact that the preview hints at the aspiring Sith Lord performing matricide (right after committing patricide in 2015's The Force Awakens), this quote applies to the real world as well. As the meme below also shows, sometimes we need to do drastic things to eliminate the past in order to focus on the future. I've been working on this since earlier this year—getting rid of things that I've had since my childhood to be able to look to the present and what lies ahead. I've been a little successful at this so far, hah. But yea, methinks I'm gonna have to try a bit harder in stop dwelling on events that have come and gone and realize that I can't reach my full potential until I concentrate on the here and now.

Oh, Star Wars...always featuring memorable quotes to help guide fans like me as we try to, in the words of Supreme Leader Snoke (and um, Emperor Palpatine before him), fulfill our destiny. Credit The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson for coming up with that noteworthy line at the beginning of this Blog entry. Happy Tuesday!

Photo of the Day: Trump's Executive Order...

If you're a member of #TheResistance (the real resistance...not the one featured in the new Star Wars trilogy) who wants to poke fun at everything that Donald Trump does while he's still president, click on this link to customize your own executive order that Trump will proudly hold with his [ALT-FACT] giant hands [/ALT-FACT] in this photo. Now if only Steve Bannon, Mike Pence and Paul Ryan can display white sheets of paper in pics that will be manipulated on the Internet for everyone's amusement as well... I can wait.

Images of the Day: The Seventh Sister...

Just thought I'd share this illustration that I drew of the Seventh Sister, the 'Sith Inquisitor' who's voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar on Disney XD's Star Wars Rebels. I've only watched this animated TV show once (it's pretty cool based on what I've seen), but the Seventh Sister herself caught my attention after viewing a Disneyland commercial—which aired around the time of The Force Awakens' theatrical release last December—showing a Cast Member wearing a live-action costume of the villain while engaging in mock lightsaber duels with little kids dressed as Jedi Younglings (see the photo at the very bottom of this entry). It would be so cool if the Seventh Sister made an appearance in Star Wars: Episode VIII or a future film...even though I don't know what her fate was on Star Wars Rebels (and she would be quite old considering that Rebels takes place more than 30 years before Rey and Finn join the Resistance to save the galaxy). Anyways, I can't decide if I should draw a Death Trooper from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story or Captain Phasma as my next artwork. We'll see. Happy Hump Day!

Welcome Back, A-Wing!

If you're a regular visitor on this Blog (I'll assume that you are), you'll know that I'm a huge fan of the classic StarWars: X-Wing video game that was released on PC back in 1993, and that my favorite Rebel craft to use are the A- and B-Wing starfighters (the screenshot above shows an A-Wing mission that I played on X-Wing back in 2014; yes, I still play this game even today). So it was a thrill to see the tweet below posted this morning...featuring a pic of England's Prince Harry chillin' inside the cockpit of an A-Wing mockup (with Mark Hamill standing nearby) on the Star Wars: Episode VIII set at Pinewood Studios near London. The A-Wing's design will obviously be updated from that in Return of the Jedi, but I'm just glad that it makes its return to the big screen once more. Now I'm waiting on another tweet that will let us know that the B-Wing will also see action during Rian Johnson's 2017 installment in the new Star Wars trilogy. Carry on!

A-WINGS CONFIRMED! pic.twitter.com/uttIBQgNVh

— Ali Arikan (@aliarikan) April 19, 2016

Photo of the Day: Happy Birthday, Rey!

I'd post this pic in my Film Notes section, but I don't wanna. Seeing an actual shot like this in next year's Star Wars: Episode VIII alone would be worth the price of admission... Maybe. Yoda taught Luke well in The Empire Strikes Back. And Daisy Ridley (a.k.a. Rey for those of you who didn't watch The Force Awakens despite the fact that it's now available on DVD. How dare you) turned 24 today! Let's celebrate by revealing who's the jerk that left Rey on Jakku when she was just a wee little tyke!

Photos of the Day: Captain Phasma and a Stormtrooper on Display in Hollywood...

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! Just thought I'd share these photos that I took of the Captain Phasma and First Order Stormtrooper outfits from Star Wars: The Force Awakens that have been on display at ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood for over a week now. The suit of the "Chrometrooper" (that was the nickname for Gwendoline Christie's character before the name Captain Phasma was officially confirmed by Lucasfilm, via Vanity Fair magazine, back in May) was the only major First Order attire that I haven't yet seen in person up to this point. (The TIE Fighter pilot suit and even the General Hux uniform worn by Domhnall Gleeson have never been displayed in public, as far as I recall.) Hopefully (SPOILER ALERT), we'll see more of Phasma in May of 2017. This is assuming, of course, that Star Wars: Episode VIII writer/director Rian Johnson explains how she escaped from a trash compactor on Starkiller Base towards the end of The Force Awakens... That is all.

Image of the Day... Just thought I'd share this iconic, Disney-fied shot from Star Wars: A New Hope, in anticipation of the fact that more movies about that Galaxy far, far away will be coming to a theater near you starting in 2015! In the past, I didn't become extremely obsessed about a new Star Wars flick till its title was officially revealed...which is usually almost a year before the film is released. (The Phantom Menace—I believe—had its title revealed to the public in September of 1998, Attack of the Clones was announced in August of 2001, and Revenge of the Sith was unveiled in July of 2004.)

With George Lucas most likely not helming any of the installments to the new trilogy, however, my excitement might start much earlier...as the prospect of awesome filmmakers like David Fincher, J.J. Abrams, Guillermo del Toro and (holy cow) Christopher Nolan directing Episodes VII, VIII and/or IX show up on the rumor mill. In the meantime, I'll kill time as additional news about the sequel trilogy leak out by once again listening to John Williams' amazing music score from the six current Star Wars movies on my MP3 player. Later.