Star Wars Celebration - Back in canon

Among the Pokemon Go craze, new Sun and Moon reveals (Mimikkyu for president), and the english launch of Brave Exvius we mustn't forget that the Star Wars Celebration is currently underway. Why? Because ideally everything star wars related will be there with juicy announcements.

This year we got more details on the Ahsoka novel, the reveal of a Rogue One novel written by James Luceano who is notorious for his loregasm filled novels, a very convincing sizzle reel for Rogue One, our first look at Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso, a new Battlefront DLC focusing on Rogue One and discovered that the much hyped swtor reveal was an artwork and an expansion title: Knights of the Eternal Throne. Really Bioware?

But don't worry, I was saving the best for last. And that was the Rebels panel. You might be wondering how can a show with graffity artist kids moving down stormtroopers and beams of light used as helicopters can be the best of star wars. If not, you should. Or maybe shouldn't, cause the answer is pretty simple.

The Season 3 trailer showed us a character Dave Filoni wanted to include in Rebels since the show was created. This guy:

Grand Admiral Mith'raw'nuruodo AKA: Thrawn. Yes, ladies, gentlemen, and those in between. One of the first and most beloved Legends characters is officially as canon as Luke and Leia. And he is still the same blue skinned art fetishist we all know and love.

For those who were living under a rock since 1991, Thrawn is the Empire's greatest military commander who can figure out the exact military tactic to utterly decimate the enemy based on what art the enemy commander likes. Sort of like an evil Sherlock Holmes. Of course Timothy Zahn (the author who created him) is not a military genius so said tactic rarely ends up being more complex than zerg rush or flanking, but that's beside the point. He is a very cultured, pragmatic individual, who rose the top position in a xenophobic establishment, despite being clearly an alien.

How faithful will this new version be to the Zahn original? Well since Filoni consulted with Timothy Zahn himself (who will also release a new canon Thrawn novel in 2017) I'd say very. Add to that the voice of Lars Mikkelsen and we have instant success.

More importantly, this might very well be the beginning of a trend of bringing the best of the old EU into the new canon. With Rakata Prime, Moraband and Malachor already in, we can maybe hope that Revan will soon follow the iconic Chiss military genius.
But I am getting ahead of myself. We just got Thrawn. Let's celebrate that for now.

Welcome back Admiral.

Pokemon Sun and Moon - Freaky Friday

Don't wanna grow up
I wanna get out
Hey, take me away
I wanna shout out
Take me, away away awaaaaay

Of course it would be more appropriate to sing:

Don't wanna grow up
I wanna be
the very best

Or something like that.

Aaaanyroad the friday info dump is out. It's mostly what was leaked yesterday just in english. Unfortunately Lillie's lines dialogue is not included. It was something about the guardian god helping us(the player).

When I did my speculation entry my number one guess was the official reveal of Nekkoara and Iwanko. Guess what guys, It happened. The US site is a bit behind on info, but the UK site for Sun and Moon has entries for every Gen VII pokemon and Zygarde forme. Nekkoara and Iwanko are Komala and Rockruff respectively.

As for Hala, we didn't get much. Poor guy still doesn't have a website entry. Still with him having a yellow coat and the equally yellow Tapu Koko appearing next to him, some even go as far as claim that Tapu Koko is Hala's pokemon. That's obviously bollocks, but there might be a connection between the two and the assumption that Hala is an electric trainer might be correct.

We got official confirmation that the first island is called Melemele (hawaiian for yellow. Makes sense if you look at its guardian).

Nothing on points 4 and 5 but 7 new pokemon certainly qualifies as a whole bunch. And if we add Komala and Rockruff that's 9 new pokemon. Or at least newly acknowledged.

And then we have Tapu Koko. My last blog entry was mostly about him (it?) so I won't talk long, but he was and is probably the star of this reveal. The biggest mistery of the E3 gameplay footage has been more or less solved. Tapu Koko is an electric fairy type legendary pokemon with an amazing design and a perfect name for a Lalafel if you want to (re)start playing Final Fantasy XIV. In fact if I finally start earning some money and resume playing I am totally making a character called Tapu Koko. Of course it might be smarter to wait for the next expansion. And perhaps the other 3 guardians.