REVIEW: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan
The FANgirl Blog community continues to grow, and I’m delighted. A few weeks ago, new reader Linda contacted with an email title “Blog Fan” after reading my frank discussion about the state of Wonder Woman. It turns out that, in addition to our love of Star Wars extending back into our childhoods, she is also an avid equestrian. (We’ve got quite a few riders in the forums.) Linda noted that she had picked up the latest Star Wars book not because she’s into the games that inspired it, but simply because she’s a fan of the franchise. She offered to share her thoughts about that book on the blog. Since I’ve always envisioned this blog as a forum to voice the opinion of fangirls, I told her to draft something up. Without further ado, check our newest blogger’s review of the recently released novel Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan, by Drew Karpyshyn.
Even though Revan wasn’t on my reading plate, which feels weird in some ways because there was a time every Star Wars book was a must-read, I’ve still been curious about the portrayals of the female characters. In my Missing Demographic post earlier this year I talked about the merits of listening to fanfiction writers. Commander-DWH, a TFN Fanfic mod and fanfiction writer, shared her thoughts in the TFN Literature discussion of the book. She broke down the specific trouble she had with the story as an avid fan of the characters who has actually written them herself, and even touched specifically on the portrayal of the female characters. The ongoing dialogue coming from female bloggers concerned with the direction storytelling is taking illustrates the holes female characters have been stuffed into by male and female writers; it’s literally ingrained in the collective consciousness. As I’ve said before, awareness is the key to positive change and more importantly self-awareness on the part of the authors and creative parties. So I’m glad Commander-DWH took the time to post her thoughts.
Sunday afternoon update: Anyone interested in understanding how women can feel fan message boards are hostile to them should read beyond the original post by Commander-DWH. Interestingly enough, although some of the male posters in the conversation that follows throw accusations like “misogyny” around at each other, they are some of the worst offenders in their actions and words against female readers at TFN in the past.
Tricia Barr's novel, Wynde, won the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Ebook. She was also part of Silence in the Library's successful all-female creator science fiction and fantasy anthology Athena's Daughters, which is available now. For excerpts and tales of her adventures in creating a fictional universe, hop over to TriciaBarr.com.
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