Hard NOC Life 268: ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ First Reactions

Keith, Dominic, and Britney are here to review the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which dropped on Disney+ over Memorial Day Weekend. They also cover all the major news from Star Wars Celebration, including the Ahsoka series and the Andor trailer.

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Disney+ and Lucasfilm Tease First-Look at ‘Ahsoka’

“Ezra’s out there somewhere. And it’s time to bring him home…” four years ago, those final words ended one journey, and began a new one, as the beloved Star Wars: Rebels brought its four-season run to a close. For years, Rebels mastermind, and overall walking Star Wars encyclopedia, Dave Filoni, has been asked when we’d get to see that new journey unfold. And this weekend at Star Wars Celebration, Filoni finally answered that question.

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Why Tiya Sircar Should Be Sabine Wren in ‘Ahsoka’

This week, news broke that Lucasfilm was ramping up production on Ahsoka and looking for an actress to play a live action version of the popular Rebels character, Sabine Wren. Naturally, I was taken aback by the phrase “looking for” because an actress already plays Sabine and her name is Tiya Sircar.

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Everything We Know About ‘The Mandalorian’

Back when it was first announed that Jon Favreau was getting his own Star Wars franchise, I went and created a whole line of Pod Save America inspired t-shirts at our merch store. Turns out Lucasfilm had turned over its first live action Star Wars series to the director of Iron Man and not President Obama’s former speechwriter-turned-podcaster. For the last several months, no one knew what Favreau’s mysterious show was going to be about. Until now.

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Go Asians: A History of AAPI Representation in ‘Star Wars’

The month of May holds a special place in the hearts of Asian American and Pacific Islander Star Wars fans. For starters, May has been AAPI Heritage Month since 1990, though it originally began as “Asian Pacific Heritage Week” when it was proposed in Congress by Representatives Frank Horton and Norman Y. Mineta in 1977. That’s right, 1977. You know what else debuted in May 1977?

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Please Cast These Actors in a Live Action Star Wars: Rebels

This Saturday, Disney will air the third season finale of Star Wars: Rebels, and by all indications, it’s going to be awesome. I’ve said it before, but Rebels is probably my favorite entry into the Star Wars canon since Empire Strikes Back. Season three has only solidified its GOAT status as far as televised Star Wars stories go. If you don’t believe me, be sure to check out last week’s episode set on Tatooine — which only made me want a solo Obi-Wan movie even more.

In tandem with Rogue One, Star Wars: Rebels is the perfect bridge between the prequels and the Original Trilogy. And not for nothing, Rogue One, in a way, featured the first live action incarnations of our favorite members of the Ghost crew. While Chopper was the only Rebel we saw on screen, if we ever get to see the rest in the future, here are the actors I’d like to see playing them.

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AAPI Women are Awesome Action Figures

Originally published at NBC Asian America

I am an avid toy collector, and every few years I like to take stock of the number of action figures that feature Asian American and Pacific Islander characters. When I started doing this in 2009, it was difficult coming up with enough figures to fill out a Top Five list. Fortunately, it has become much easier to populate these lists since AAPI visibility in pop culture has dramatically increased in the intervening years. In fact, I actually had a difficult time winnowing down this year’s list since there are so many AAPI action figures from which to choose! Moreover, nearly every slot on the list is populated by female characters, which hopefully puts to rest the fallacy that girls don’t buy action figures.

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Spark of Diversity: What Sabine Wren Means For Star Wars

by Bria LaVorgna | Originally posted at Tosche Station

Sometimes, the impact of a character can take you completely by surprise. I’d known for weeks and weeks before the premiere of Star Wars Rebels that I was excited for the show to start. It featured a family-like crew filled with characters who seemed right up my alley. What I didn’t realize until I sat down on my couch to watch Spark of Rebellion for the first time last year is what seeing Sabine Wren on the screen was going to mean to me. Finally, after twenty-four years, there was a main character in a Star Wars film or television show that looked like me and the full impact of this hit me like a ton of bricks as she took her bucket off for the first time.

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