User:Livingston7

Greetings, welcome to my user page.

"Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men."

- Personal Mantra (Boondock Saints)

The Birth of a New Fan
"The Force is unusually strong with him, that much is clear."

- Qui-gon Jinn

I'm not exactly sure how old I was when I saw my first Star Wars film, but I believe I was around 3 years old. I was watching my normal Saturday morning cartoons on the USA Network, when the afternoon movie came on. I was really too young to have the movie firmly planted in my brain at that time, but I will never forget the image of Luke Skywalker hanging upside down in the cave of the wampa and Han Solo using Luke's lightsaber to slice open the dead Tauntaun and placing Luke inside it. To my mind that scene was pure gold. Perfectly conveying the extremes of the environment, the devastating power of mother nature, even against those armed with future technology.

It was harsh. It was brutal. It was real.

Return of the Jedi hadn't been released at that point, so I was probably around the age of 7 before I managed to see the entire trilogy in order. I always loved Star Wars, but they were movies rather than cartoons, so I never got into collecting Star Wars figures or other memorabilia. I rarely went into stores with my parents when I was young, so I never had any idea of their existence, and I don't remember seeing any commercials about them. So He-man (Battlecat was Lord!), Thundercats, and later Ninja Turtles, became my collecting passion, which would then move on to comic books and RPG's.

As such, Star Wars was never anything more to me as a kid than the epitome of the Science Fiction movie. Then when I was in Jr. High my best friend (who was completely spoiled by his parents :P) obtained a truck load of Star Wars novels. I had no clue that they had even existed and as such I was completely blown away. I picked up Heir to the Empire and went to town. I remember distinctly that my Jr. High English teacher thought everyone in her class was completely ignorant and not worth her considerable teaching skills (as she used to teach the children of Ford *yawn*), and was thus completely content to allow me to do nothing but read Star Wars novels the entire class period, and even praise me for it! LOL

Unfortunately I was limited to reading what he had, so when I was done with his collection, that was that. I didn't have any money to go out and buy more myself and trips to the library were very few and far between as I had to rely on my parents to take me, and that was akin to asking your boss for time off work. Every half a year or so is fine, but any more than that and you're asking for trouble (*sigh*). I was able to sate myself a bit more when his parents bought him some Star Wars comics, but my local comic shop (within walking distance, thank God) didn't carry them, so once again I was stuck with what he had. After that my Star Wars involvement kinda fell to the wayside for a few more years.

The Renewal
"At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi."

- Darth Maul

Enter The Phantom Menace

Once again the Godliness of Star Wars revealed itself to me. Though that foul creature of the double J (I dare not link it) disappointed me, I was able to look past that and see the brilliance. Darth Maul and Qui-Gon I believe aptly made up for it. Though I purchased the movie novelizations, I really didn't have the money to start getting EU novels, as there were a massive amount of them out at that point and I'm a bit OCD when it comes to collecting things. If I can't have them all I don't want any of them, and I would have felt obligated to buy the one's that I had already read before getting ones I haven't.

Between the release of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, I started to get a bit deeper into the fandom of Star Wars again. I picked up the Clone Wars DVDs and joined Hyperspace. I decided that I would start collecting the EU material, as it had been so long since I originally read them that I couldn't remember exactly what happened in them. However, this time I decided that I would start in chronological order, which presented a problem, as the comics were hard to find at that point. So instead, I started with the Jedi Apprentice novels and worked my way through the movie material and the surrounding stories.

Doomsday
"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

- Darth Vader

Two major factors shut down my EU run though. With the release of Revenge of the Sith imminent, there were so many new novels popping up, set before ROTS and others that were set before stories I had already read. This really irked me, as I hate reading things out of order (I know, I know, impossible to avoid in Star Wars). I could have handled that if not for the second thing:

Star Wars Galaxies Finally there was a way (outside of the other star wars games I enjoyed) to emmerse myself in the Star Wars galaxy in a sustainable way that would not end when the credits started rolling, I beat the final level, or I finished the last page. I began playing shortly after the release of Jump to Lightspeed. My time there was quite enjoyable and I was more than willing to put up with the ungodly grind to unlock a Jedi.

Sadly my time there came to a screeching halt with the onslaught that followed the release of the COMBAT UPGRADE. I was going to fully detail my experiences in this matter, but as I write... I... I just find it too difficult to carry on... *cries*

In short the Combat Downgrade was horrendous, Rage of the Wookies was an insult, and the Trials of Obi-wan and the subsequent announcement of the NGE which sparked off a massive refund demand which was granted and then suddenly withdrawn (I wonder why), was such a travesty that even my love of Star Wars could not withstand the torrential agony that ensued.

This lead to my complete boycott of SOE and anything relating to them in any degree. The final straw came when this user was banned from the message board for posting a message from Lucas Arts that allowed players to directly contact them if they were unhappy with the current situation surrounding Star Wars Galaxies. There was no simple deletion with a warning not to post it again - as is standard message board protocol when people post things Admins don't like, but none the less is not in violation of any user agreements. Not only that, they also banned everyone else who responded to my banning in any negative way. Around that time, they began to (temp) ban absolutely anyone who had anything negative to say about their treatment of the game, which needless to say, equalled massive numbers. (Rant over)

That effectively killed my desire to continue with the EU and I didn't renew my subscription to Hyperspace. I also started a new job around that time, which further distanced me from Star Wars.

The Dawn of a New Age
"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

- Princess Leia

My interest in Star Wars has never flagged for more than a few years in the past, and that still hasn't changed. Recently I became interested in sculpting. Something I've wanted to do for years, but never had the resources or the know how to accomplish. Even now I am in the process of gathering materials for it. However, something else was rekindled along with this interest. I began thinking about what sort of things I would like to sculpt and of course the Jedi and Sith immediately popped into my mind. This lead to yet another Star Wars connection. I remembered something that I hadn't had the money to afford at the time of its run, and something that would give inspiration and a starting point for my own sculptures. This was Star Wars Unleashed.

I went on to Ebay, and much to my wife's dismay, I ended up buying every one of the Jedi and Sith pieces, as well as Boba Fett.

This of course rekindled my desire to renew my pursuits into the EU and led me back to Wookieepedia. I first visited back in early 2006, but I found that I was hesitant to look at anything, as I hadn't read much of the New Jedi Order material, and didn't want to get blasted with spoilers.

Now that the hype of ROTS has died down a bit, I have decided to start once more from the beginning, in chronological order, and make my way through. As such, I plan on working my way through the articles here as I read, updating, editing, writing, or cleaning up anything that needs it as I go along the time line from the Old Republic to The Legacy Era, or whatever is out by the time I get there. I know it is a bit of a daunting task, but nothing great ever came without hard work.

WookieProjects
Tales of the Jedi

Articles I've reworked for the TotJ project

Aarrba

Hok and Timar Daragon

Daragon Family

Shadow Runner

Misc Articles I've updated/expanded/cleaned up significantly
Sar Agorn

Sar Agorn's holocron

Reading the Entire Star Wars Compendium in Chronological Order
Current Progress List

Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith Issues 0-5

Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire Issues 1-5

Film Media
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume 1

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume 2

Books
(To be added)

Comics
Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith Tales of the Jedi: Fall of the Sith Empire

Tales of the Jedi: Knights of the Old Republic

Tales of the Jedi: The Freedon Nadd Uprising

Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith

Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War

Tales of the Jedi: Redemption

Jedi vs. Sith

(To be added)

Video Games
Star Wars: X-wing

Star Wars: TIE Fighter

Star Wars: X-wing vs. TIE Fighter

Star Wars: X-wing Alliance

Star Wars: Rebel Assault

Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire

Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds

LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game

Star Wars: Dark Forces

Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II

Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith

Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

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