Surprises and Synergy in the Star Wars Fandom

Remember when I talked about liking the unexpected in my 2012 look-ahead blog? Well, it’s just a little bit past the middle of January, and I’ve already had a few of my wishes granted. Some I can’t talk about yet, but one I’d better let out of the bag because it’s happening tomorrow – I’m back on the Clone Wars Roundtable with Jason and Jimmy Mac from the ForceCast!

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How Raising the Bar for Women in Storytelling is Good for Everyone

How does this relate to the message of my blog? Sometimes people hear the message “we need more and better portrayals of female characters” and misunderstand it to mean that the women expressing it want the portrayals of male characters to be brought down a notch. This is an unfounded fear, though. Just like I’ve seen in my cross-training as an artist and an engineer, better portrayals of female characters will only make their male counterparts, and the stories they are in, that much better. Here are a couple of examples I noticed this week in the television industry.

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Shaping a Heroine – A Father’s Daughter

The more I write, the more I’ve come to the determination that writers really do write what they know, and if you really want to know who you are, it’s as simple as looking back at what you’ve written. Ultimately that requires being critical of your flaws and weaknesses. And it’s true, self-awareness can be a bitch sometimes. When I started creating my heroine, Vespa Wynde, I realized that she, like me, would be defined by her family. Most importantly her parents – Daemyn Wynde and Utara Fireheart.

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