User:Axio Vanator

"You can't look dignified when you're having fun."

- Wes Janson

Biography
I was raised in a household bereft of Star Wars. My father, a die-hard Trekkie, indoctrinated me in the path of Kirk from an early age, and I didn't see any Star Wars movies until I was in 6th grade. But this delayed start only left me with a greater hunger for all things Star Wars. I quickly devoured the Special Edition, then moved into the novels, comics, video games, and even the Prequels, devouring it all. (And to clarify: I still like Star Trek too.)

But I am not a gushing fanboy. I am a discerning and experienced reader, writer, and artist, and am currently working on my own sci-fi epic. As such, I disapprove of George Lucas' approach to movie-making, finding it overly based on stringing together overly impressive visuals with poor story and direction. I also lost interest in most of the EU after slogging through the overhyped NJO book series, and have no plans to pick up either the Legacy books or comics, as the EU has completely lost touch with what Star Wars used to be about -- namely, fun.

Still, my encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars remains unequaled by anyone I have met (in person, at least), so when I spotted a gaffe on Wookieepedia, I decided to enlist and lend my skills.

Current Projects
Right now I'm playing through X-Wing Alliance for the third(?) time. My goal is to take and upload images of every ship featured in the game -- a large task that will likely take a few months. Status reports below.


 * Prologue (complete)
 * Battle 1 (incomplete)
 * Battle 2 (incomplete)
 * Battle 3 (incomplete)
 * Battle 4 (incomplete)
 * Battle 5 (incomplete)
 * Battle 6 (incomplete)
 * Battle 7 (incomplete)

Talents
I'm not much for the politics of article editing, and only dive in when I see something obviously in error. I generally stick to image editing and uploading, especially for those articles without one. Currently I've uploaded and placed about 98 images, some of which I created pages for as well. (Some of these were under a different username that I have since retired.)

In lieu of a lengthy list detailing all the various Star Wars books, comics, games, etc. that I have read/played/bought, let me just give a brief summary of my salient opinions:

Movies
The Original Trilogy dominates -- and when I watch them, I watch the ORIGINAL cut that Lucas finally put on DVD in 2006. The underlying story of the Prequels was astonishingly clever, but unfortunately its nuances are only explored in Prequel-era books and comics, especially the excellent Clone Wars comics. The actual Prequel movies eschewed this in lieu of campy dialogue, painful "love" scenes, and so much CGI that I couldn't tell what I was looking at.

TV
I loved Tartakovsky's Clone Wars series, and the fact Lucas calls it a "pilot" for his upcoming CGI Clone Wars is a slap in the face to a brilliant creative team that did more in three minutes than Lucas did in three movies. I'm feeling pretty nervous about the new Clone Wars and the live-action series. I also have yet to make it through the entire Holiday Special without writhing in pain and turning it off.

Books
I've read (and own) nearly all of the Bantam-era novels and consider them the golden age of EU storytelling. I also read and own the entire NJO series, which I feel had decent potential that was ultimately squandered thanks to uneven writing and an atrocious ending that reeked of deus ex machina. Due to my dislike of the NJO and the "more death and despair!" direction Del Rey seems to be taking the novels, I have no plans to ever read the Dark Nest or Legacy of the Force series. I also haven't followed the various book series aimed at younger readers.

Comics
I began following Star Wars comics with the excellent Dark Empire and haven't looked back. The older Marvel comics are probably the only ones I haven't read. The current comic series, especially Legacy, are decent attempts but not great. I'm still reading, but haven't seen much lately worth buying.

Games
TIE Fighter was one of my first video games and I've been in love with Star Wars gaming ever since. If it came out for PC, I've probably played it. Some games, like KotOR, have some of the finest storytelling in the EU. In general, though, I wish people wouldn't bend over backward trying to rationalize game mechanics by inventing new canon. Some games are just meant to be entertaining, people, nothing more.

Toys
I'm still super bummed they don't make Star Wars Micro Machines anymore.