Rogue One, Rogue Two

 

So, I went to see the latest Star Wars movie over the holiday weekend.  Very interesting.  The first half draws very, very obvious parallels to the present situation in the Middle East, and muses on the million shades of grey implicit in armed rebellion; from the outset the 'Heroes' do questionable things in the pursuit of their goals.  The bad guys morally justify their actions in ways that certainly sound familiar of Western military/diplomatic policy.

The second half plays out like nothing so much as one of those daring-do war films we British used to make, were pretty much everyone gets killed in the steady progression of the mission.  It's heroic, but tinged with a sadness that makes it clear, war is hell, but sometimes you have to fight regardless.  Overall the film puts the 'War' into the Star Wars franchise in a way that none of the previous films has quite done so before.  It's a good movie, but it didn't throw the nostalgic joy in of last years release, and the adventurous joy of A New Hope, was definitely absent.

Speaking of Star Wars, after a whole frigging year we managed to get the Imperial Assault campaign going again.

Two Versus the Empire

 Jim and John took their heroes out for another run, with a task of downloading a virus to Imperial databanks.  Starting slowly, they realised they had but limited time to conduct their mission and only got going with moments to spare.  Once inside the Imperial position, the bulkheads fell and reinforcement, with the blessing of full access codes, soon arrived.

The Virus is Delivered

 The situation looked bleak, but they need only hold on until the 12 data drives were corrupted.

The situation becomes Hot

Thankfully ti happened in the nick of time and as ever the rebels were able to slip away through a service hatch, by routes no stormtrooper or scout walker would ever find or follow.

So it has been a Star Wars'y run up to Xmas, but what of the rest?

More to follow....