Hi guys! My name is JD Arredondo, and I'm a Technical Artist/QA Technician with the Animation team. I've been working as part of the tech team since RWBY Volume 4 and recently got brought on full-time at the end of Volume 5. I've been a fan of the company like you all since the RvB days and previous to working at Animation had a brief internship over in the Live-Action department back in Spring 2015.
So what exactly am I doing on my journal here on the site? Good question! I'm still figuring all of that out myself, but I can guarantee that it will be dominated by sharing stories about my things I've been reading, watching and playing. I'm also totally up for answering any questions you might have about what it's like being on the Animation Tech team or being in the world of production in general. The goal is to make this space a very interactive blog where we can shoot the breeze about the things we love. Speaking of those things...
It's a bit of a running gag in the Animation office that I'm a hard core Star Wars fan that has read one too many Expanded Universe novels, and I've been meaning to put a project together that chronicles that era of Star Wars. As it turns out, it lends itself very well to the journal format, so I'm planning on writing some posts that will go deep into the Star Wars Expanded Universe and look at the best and the worst it has to offer. That should start sometime in the coming week or two, so be on the lookout for that if you've ever had a passing interest of visiting or revisiting the Galaxy Far, Far Away before the Disney-era.
See you guys soon!
JD Arredondo
AKA LuxCommander
Comments (3)
EricHVela heard "Lorny".
3 months ago
Hi!
You and @Fly should talk in-depth about Star Wars.
While I love Star Wars (and also like Star Trek but SW wins in a vs.), I can't keep it all straight in my head, and Disney-canon, especially with its attempts to pull content from the EU, has made it even more difficult for me.
Where do games fit in canon? Are they part of the EU before it was all lumped together as "Legends"? I could swear that I read somewhere that they canonically nailed down the genders of both Revan and the Jedi Exile from the Knights of the Old Republic and KotR2: The Sith Lords.
+1 Cool
LuxCommander Tech Artist - Animation
3 months ago
I'm sure that'll happen sometime!
The Legends, pre-Legends and Disney canon details occasionally get hairy, but at least in terms of universe mechanics everything published/released from Heir to the Empire onwards can be traced back towards the D6 Star Wars West End Games source books (something that I'll definitely cover early on due to how influential they are). As far as where the games fit in canon, it depends on release date. EA's Battlefront games are the only ones that take place in the Disney canon in terms of core releases (not sure if any of the mobile games have anything that constitutes as narrative content, but if so, they're in Modern canon). All of the other games take place in the Legends canon, including the Knights of the Old Republic games. That does indeed mean that The Old Republic MMO is the only active part of the Legends continuity and has zero effect on the Modern Canon.
Long story short, anything published after May 1st, 1991 but before April 2014 is part of the EU/Legends continuity. Anything before May 1st, 1991 is in a no-man's land. Some of it was kept in the canon (Splinter of the Mind's Eye), others not so much (the first batch of Marvel Star Wars comics), and authors could simply take bits and pieces from them (not too different from what's being done with the old EU today).
As for Revan and Meetra (the name they chose to give the Exile), they were made Male and Female respectively in the canon. Obviously, this leads to some minor continuity snarls, but that's nothing new for the old EU. Like I said earlier, I'm planning on covering all of it, good and bad.
+1 Cool
Fly Keeper of Blades
3 months ago
Thank you @EricHVela!
While Legends had been out longer and did have more of a 'history' I only read a handful of books and played a few games (Republic Commando being a favorite), Having always loved the Star Wars movies (some more than others) I, instead chose to dive headfirst into what is the 'Disney canon; TV shows, comics, books, etc.
I started exploring after the first non-trilogy movie, Rogue One. I read the book that set up how and why Galen Erso was on the run, why Director Krennic was so motivated, and the construction of, what came to be known as The Death Star.
I moved on from there to the Clone Wars television show, to comics, to books, back to comics, Star Wars Rebels, and back to comics.
Did I mention the comics?
While I'm considerably deeper in what is now considered canon, it would be interesting to see what I remember (and what I don't) from the past.
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