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Stephen Colbert was right about the new Kylo Ren Lightsaber!!!
New Star Wars Trailer
Stephen Colbert’s Segment
What I want to analyze is the clip of Colbert attached to this post. He goes on a tangent about winning a contest and being allowed to see the first Star Wars two weeks before release when he was a child. He then challenges peoples’ outrage at Kylo Ren’s crossguard saber with his knowledge of the lore of how lightsabers work. It is in no way an official paratext, but it is certainly promotion that Lucasfilm won’t turn down, because I would argue, because of his reputation and the way he sets up his own authority, what Colbert says could be received by fans similar to how they might receive an authorial paratext. J.J. Abrams could give an explanation about how the lightsaber works, but his job is to try to keep details under wraps. But if he did, his authorial position would not only legitimize, but canonize that description. Colbert on the other hand cannot canonize anything, but I would argue that he could fall close to the categories of undead author and fanboy auteur. He doesn’t quite touch these categories because he is not a creator, and he is not famous because of his intense fandom but because of his incredible acting skill. Yet, he has established himself in an authoritatively fannish position by doing things like challenging James Franco to see who knows more about Lord of the Rings. Overtime because of his unique position as an adored personality and professional fan, his theories and knowledge about media franchises that he holds dear have a respected position that not just any superfan can have. After all, he saw Star Wars to weeks before even J.J. Abrams.
Star Wars Journey to The Force Awakens Trading Cards
Retro-style digital trading cards were used to reveal character names for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and now the real thing, celebrating the entire saga, will help pave the road to the next Star Wars film.
Star Wars Insider and Topps have announced the all new Star Wars Journey to The Force Awakens trading card line, which will debut four exclusive cards in Star Wars Insider #160. Journey to the Force Awakens trading cards explore the key characters across the first 6 films and provide a sneak peek at content from the upcoming film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The trading cards are printed on 24-point Heritage stock and feature the iconic blue starfield card design first seen on the original 1977 Topps Star Wars trading cards.
Today, Insider has joined forces with StarWars.com to unveil two of the cards set to appear in the latest issue, Han Solo and Princess Leia, below. The next two cards will be revealed in an update tomorrow.
We never talked about trading cards in our class, but apparently these new cards were the first reveal for character names in Force Awakens. However, these do not seem to be trading cards in the sense of Pokemon, but simple picture cards featuring character names. So what narrative purpose could they serve? Not much, but I would argue, as we see in the name reveal, that they could be an important factor in the collective intelligence world. They may be able to make an action figure and put a name to every character that has the briefest of background screen time, as they have in the past with Star Wars, but trading cards gives Lucasfilm an easy way to give information on any on screen detail from characters to vehicles to buildings in a way that other mediums cannot. This makes trading cards a valuable asset to people who contribute to wookieepedia or make fan fiction about obscure characters. It has a play aspect to it that reminds me of Jonathan Gray’s bit about making a story around Hammerhead from the cantina scene, but in this case it is far more encyclopedic on the end of the actual product.
Post Option #2: Return of the Merch
P. David Marshall’s chapter on Intertextual Commodity is a great early 2000′s academic perspective on the developing trend we now know as transmedia. One of the core principles of his explanation for how this mode of intertextual entertainment has developed is the aspect of interactivity with the text, or simply put: play (p.71-73). It took industrial entertainment far too long to realize that everyone who is dedicated to story, not only children, love to get their hands in and play with a story.
Play is arguably different for adults, as they want to interact with the universe more than just make up their own stories for their action figures as children do. This is why video games are so successful, and Marshall argues that the level of interactivity they give is something that is being incorporated into many forms of entertainment as it appeals to audiences’ growing desire to have a deeper understanding of texts they consume (p.73).
There are two entities that understand this concept (and all of Marshall’s concepts) better than just about anyone else, and they are Star Wars and Disney. I can attest to Star Wars personally because of how invested in collecting action figures my brother and I were from as young as I can remember. I cannot say if they were the first to do so, but I would argue that Star Wars was the most successful in using merchandise to expand understanding of its universe.
A great example would be the Mos Eisley Cantina scene and subsequent merchandise. This scene was so appealing because it showed a wealth of unique creatures all coexisting in an environment similar to ones in real life. But who are all of these non-human characters? You might be familiar with Ponda Baba, the character who is dismembered by Obi-wan because you bought his action figure (as I did) which has his name printed on it. Similarly every creature, droid, and vehicle in every scene has a name, and the easiest way to find out was buying toys (which were still on the shelves 20 years after the film was released). And this concept goes far deeper once you get into the realm of games and books and the like, which could certainly be considered merchandise because they must be purchased to be enjoyed.
Combine this marketing prowess with Disney, supreme ruler of mass commercialization, and what do you get? Force Friday. As K.M. McFarland’s article for Wired describes, now that Disney is behind Star Wars merchandise, it is going to be a phenomenon like never before. The article describes how Disney is flexing its marketing muscles to get even small manufacturers’ products into big stores like Target, Kohls, and Walmart. Disney and Star Wars as a brand know how to strengthen their cultural commodity through every possible facet of production to give the the fans exactly what they want: a deeper understanding and involvement in a fictional universe, which in turn gives the production companies what they want.
Works Cited
Marshall, P. David. "The New Intertextual Commodity." The New Media Book. Ed. Dan Harries. London: BFI Pub., 2002. 69-81. Print.
McFarland, K. M. "Disney Is Going to Sell a Lot of Star Wars Merch." Wired. Condé Nast Digital, 3 Sept. 2015. Web. 15 Sept. 2015.
Spaceballs. Dir. Mel Brooks. By Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan, and Ronny Graham. Prod. Mel Brooks and Ezra Swerdlow. Perf. Mel Brooks, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Bill Pullman. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1987.
Image from Hasbro.com