Christopher Baxter

I drive a bus full of books to communities in need of reading materials and write while I wait for patrons to arrive.

[Tor Books @torbooks]

Who's ready for a #sweepstakes?! Today, we're giving YOU the chance to win an ARC of #TheTombofDragons by Katherine Addison!

Follow, like, and repost to enter! Good luck!

#TheTombofDragonsSweeps

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

I could say it again. Don't care about the slop, just please continue to produce occasional Star Wars of actual quality. But it's hard to feel grateful when they've already cancelled one of the best things they've made. #RenewTheAcolyte (I know it's useless. Still want it.)

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

I can say it again: make all the dull, sloppy Mandalorian and its knockoffs you want, Disney. Just please, *please* continue to occasionally give me something creative, fun, and innovative like #StarWarsVisions and I'll be happy.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@JennyENicholson

[KSL.com - Utah Breaking News @KSLcom]

Evermore Park in Pleasant Grove will not be forevermore. Officials confirmed Tuesday the fantasy theme park is shutting down, though the property owner promises to unveil a "new attraction" at the site.

Link:
https://t.co/7BX5yi8Zdc

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@TheBashNation @Exalted_Speed See, Luke's actual problem? He thought the same way you are right now. One failure isn't a reset to 0. Failing to be as exceptional as you hoped you'd be? Doesn't make you not a hero. Rian took the situation JJ gave him--a rehash of the old--and made something meaningful of it.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@dormant000 @Exalted_Speed Anyway, guys, it's been fun. We're obviously not swaying one another on much of anything, and I've got errands to run and a baby to feed. May the Force be with you and all that.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@dormant000 @Exalted_Speed What people call "Rian leaving them with nothing," I call "Rian encouraging them to abandon the usual cliches." Branch out. Find new ways to portray the threat here. But the ongoing problem with SW is that both its creators and viewers just want more of the same. Stagnation.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@TheBashNation @Exalted_Speed And it's why they fall into the same mistakes over and over again. Luke absolutely was a hero--not because he once made a choice to not kill Vader, but because even when he discovered he wasn't some exception to the flaws of the past, he came back and tried to improve upon it.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@TheBashNation @Exalted_Speed Yeah, until he ended up doing his very best to murder Vader in a screaming rage.

That's why TLJ's take on Luke is important. Because that whole idea of Luke just being conveniently "better" than his predecessors? Bullshit. Every generation thinks that about themselves.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@Exalted_Speed @dormant000 All it needed was some competent writers to continue on with those threads. But . . . that's very much not what we got.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@Exalted_Speed @dormant000 Second, if you don't see how a couple of petulant brats with tyrannical control of a vast army can be menacing, then you haven't paid attention in your history classes. That basically sums up 90% of wars.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@Exalted_Speed @dormant000 Kylo IS the stakes, dude. He was a twat, yes, but one whose fate I was actually interested in because he had actual reasons for doing what he was doing and was someone I could actually relate to people and situations I've seen in my life.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@dormant000 @Exalted_Speed You're joking, but that would genuinely be more interesting than what you seem to be looking for here. "Oh, look, yet another villain with no depth who'll inevitably die easily to wrap up this story arc." Give me a pair of bumbling but sincere idiots over that any day.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@Exalted_Speed It's a more interesting situation than yet another "evil because evil" villain like Palps, Maul, or Grievous, which is what SW has always leaned to. Kylo is a villain who doesn't want to be part of the dark side any more than the light, which is rarely-explored territory for SW.

[Christopher Baxter @itinerantbaxter]

@Exalted_Speed So Rian did a better thing and killed him off to further the more interesting villain's character development. In essence, he took the derivative setup of TFA and went, "okay, but what if, after Vader killed Palps, he hadn't died and hadn't actually wanted to give up the Empire?"