We’ve seen Star Wars dissected this way and that, probed and evaluated and critiqued beyond measure. If you ascribe to the theory that the Galactic Empire was on the right side of history and the Rebel Alliance was a terrorist insurrection, then you won’t have trouble seeing how Luke Skywalker compares to a typical jihadi recruit. Aw, you won’t have trouble seeing it even if you don’t ascribe to that theory.  

When we first meet Luke Skywalker, he’s an orphaned farm boy with barely any friends, living with his Aunt and Uncle, and wanting to join the Galactic Academy like all the other guys his age. You see, Luke didn’t become a space terrorist overnight, but he did exhibit signs that would make him a prime candidate for terrorist recruiters. The process of radicalization, as described by Anthony Stahelski in the Journal of Homeland Security, notes terrorists tend to:

    Come from families where the father is absent (check)

    Have difficulty forming relationships outside the home (check)
    
    Be attracted to groups offering acceptance and comradeship (checkmate)

Luke is just the kind of isolated disaffected young man that terror recruiters seek out.

Ripe for the picking in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s plan! The Decider takes us through Luke’s radicalization over the three films of the original trilogy, and shows us how he was a textbook case. -via Digg

Fan theories come in all shapes and sizes, from the minor flight of fancy about a favorite character to the major league franchise universe crossover, and while fun to read they rarely change the way we feel about our favorite movies.

However, when a theory is presented that truly makes sense, like the theory that the main character in The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie are all the same guy, we can't help but see those movies in a different light.

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Screen Rant put together a visual list of 10 Movie Theories That Completely Change Popular Films, it's worth watching for the awesome theory about the James Bond films alone!

-Via GeekTyrant

The Star Wars movies feature such an iconic cast that it's hard to imagine seeing anybody else playing Han Solo or voicing Darth Vader, or in the case of the prequels, playing Mace Windu.

It's a sure bet Samuel L. Jackson's face comes to mind when you hear the name Mace Windu, but imagine a galaxy far, far away where Tupac Shakur played Mace.

It's a parallel casting choice, and probably wouldn't have improved the prequels, but at least he would've had his own hologram before he died!

As for the original trilogy, Han is Harrison, Harrison is Han, but how funny would it have been to see Kurt Russell blasting Greedo and giving Chewie a hard time?

It definitely would have changed the dynamic of the film, but not as much as if Darth Vader had been voiced by Orson Welles!

Welles was Lucas' first choice, but he went with James Earl Jones because he felt Orson's voice would have been too recognizable. Sometimes it's good to be picked second!

Read Actors You'll Never Believe Were Almost In Star Wars here (contains NSFW language)

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Toho Studios has released the first teaser trailer for Godzilla: Resurgence. Too bad it doesn’t show him! No doubt there will be more coming in the next few months.

The upcoming Godzilla: Resurgence will be the first Godzilla film by Toho since 2004's Godzilla: Final Wars. That movie wasn’t final enough. What started as a science fiction allegory of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has become an unstoppable cinematic force.

The 29th Godzilla film will be in theaters in July of 2016. -via Den of Geek

(Photos: Brianna Wu)

During your Christmas festivities, remember that our brave stormtroopers are far from home, defending you in the long war to crush the rebellion. Frank Wu, a science fiction artist, found a great way to do that. He built a Christmas tree that looks like a Super Star Destroyer from Star Wars.

-via Boing Boing

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The Chinese trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has a bit of new footage, and something the American trailers are sorely lacking in: dialogue. -via Digg

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Player: Piano is pianist Sonya Belousova's and filmmaker Tom Grey's ongoing series of performances of geeky music on ornately decorated pianos. In the past, we've seen her play the Tetris theme and the Akira theme. Now, in her most extraordinarily elaborate performance, the concert pianist treats us to a beautiful mixture of Star Wars music arranged for the keyboard.

The outside of the piano appears to be modular. As she plays, it variously resembles Darth Vader's suit, the Millennium Falcon, and R2-D2. Belousova herself changes costume appropriately, looking at times like Princess Leia, Lord Vader, and Han Solo.

Simeon Cortezano of Nerd Bastards interviewed Belousova and Grey about their work. Grey described the creation of the pianos:

Nerdbastards: Can you tell us about the custom pianos used for the shoot?

Grey: As the crazy person who comes up with the idea to makes these custom pianos, I can answer this one. It started with our very first video, the ‘Walking Dead.’ We didn’t really customize that piano like we do now, but for that video we had a heavy upright that we bought off of craigslist that was the biggest pain in our side. It was incredibly difficult to transport, I cut my hand on it at one point, and it even broke the ratchet strap holding it to the truck and fell over onto a bunch of our equipment. Naturally when we finally got it on set I asked my production designer, Megan Burns, to go to town on it and rip it to shreds. We hadn’t planned on actually doing that, but I really hated that stupid piano. But ultimately it looked really cool and part of the scene we were creating. After that, it evolved and Megan at this point has become a wizard at modifying pianos.

Everywhere you look on the internet, you see something about Star Wars. That’s to be expected, with the first movie in ten years coming out next week. But how much is too much? If you are an avid fan, you might be concerned that the non-stop promotion will blunt your enjoyment of The Force Awakens. That’s not all Disney’s fault, as the fandom is providing a huge number of the articles and videos you see. You also might be afraid of spoilers, no matter how small, because part of the joy of a new episode is being surprised. And if you’re not a Star Wars fan, you might just be sick of it all. There is help available.

The Daily Dot spells out four different ways you can block Star Wars from your computer, from automatic censorship to specific keyword filters. Then there are three ways to calm your mind by learning to enjoy the hype. And lastly, there’s advice for people who can’t get enough Star Wars, with five tips for immersing yourself even further in the franchise during the final week before The Force Awakens. Read it all right here.

(Image credit: Max Fleishman)

There's somethig delightful about a beautiful Christmas tree, but not everyone has the space, time or money to commit to a traditional tree whether artificial or real. For those looking for something a little different this year, we rounded up some of the greatest and most fun alternatives to the traditional pine look.

Some of the trees can be made at home, some need to be purchased online and some are simple things you probably already have at home. So if you're looking to ditch the pine tree this Christmas, don't miss this great Homes and Hues list: 8 Awesome Alternative Christmas Trees

Actor Tom Baker played the fourth known incarnation of the Doctor (below) from Doctor Who. According to an internet rumor that I cannot verify, this document is the BBC's official instructions for knitting the Fourth Doctor's iconic scarf. Get out your sonic needles and go to work.

-via FYGNK (NSFW URL)

A long time ago in Westeros, an old master taught a young and impatient student how to control feelings and impulses. This is Star Thrones.

Robin Edds and Tom Phillips of BuzzFeed paired 14 scenes from Game of Thrones with dialogue from the original Star Wars trilogy. They work perfectly! And although both franchises have limb chopping and needless slaughter, only one--thankfully--has nudity.*

Question: does the Star Wars universe contain a Hodor equivalent?

*Except, of course, for Jabba the Hutt, who is nude throughout Return of the Jedi.

We’ve seen plenty of abandoned places around the world, many of them beautiful but sad in their decay. The virtual world also has abandoned places. Even when the worlds of video games aren’t connected to each other, they share many features of the real world, including cool and creepy places for urban explorers to check out, like Markarth’s abandoned house in Skyrim. THere’s something very dark going on in there.

At a glance, the house is completely abandoned…. save for the food on of the tables and, moments later, the locked doors and the voice that commands you to kill your priest companion. You have no choice, and will find yourself following the voice, goading you deeper and deeper into the house which, as the priest suspected, was being used for the worship of Molag Bal.

Those with even a passing familiarity with the Elder Scrolls series will recognize the name of the Daedric Prince with titles like the Harvester of Souls, the Prince of Rage, and the God of Schemes. Ruler of Coldharbor, he’s the creator of the first vampire and continues to collect the souls of his victims, and spread misery, war and rage throughout the mortal realm. Head into the house in Markarth and follow the tunnels to the crypt beneath it, and you’ll be a part of his plans.

That’s just one of the ten abandoned places in video games that you can read about at Urban Ghosts. Article contains some game spoilers.

(Image credit: UESP)

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Brett Kennedy is a roboticist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He's worked on the Mars Exploration Rover the LEMUR-class robots, among many other projects. He has not worked on Star Wars, however, because otherwise he might have improved the droid designs.

In this video from Wired, Kennedy uses his professional knowledge to critique the designs of the most well-known droids in Star Wars. He rejects the adorable BB-8 as a poor choice of locomotion. A single rolling ball can't handle obstacles well. He's impressed with R2-D2, though, and says that it could probably be built today. What about C-3PO? Kennedy really likes Threepio's flexible spine, which is a challenge for modern robotics.

-via The Mary Sue

Norman Reedus has survived all sorts of post-apocalyptic peril as Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead, but recently he had to contend with a stranger danger he'd never faced before- a feral fan.

While attending the Walker Stalker convention in New Jersey Norman was bit by an overzealous female fan who clearly has a hard time telling real life apart from that undead utopia featured on the show.

She posted this response on Instagram:

I lost my mind...got so excited standing beside him...& just turned my head and bit him! I don't know what came over me.

The "attack" took Norman by surprise, turned the internet into a hotbed of discussion about fans taking fandom too far, but in the end Norman had the perfect response to post on Instagram:

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-Via GeekTyrant

Star Wars is probably the most far-reaching cultural touchstone we have today, linking millions, possibly billions of people together across language barriers and generations. But there are still a few people who have never seen any of the movies or read any of the books and comics, or paid much attention on the internet. Every once in a while, one of them will sit down and take in all six movies and write a viral blog post about the experience.

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But now that The Force Awakens is looming, there’s a chance you may find out something about a friend that you never knew. In a sketch by Dad Dudes, one guy has never seen Star Wars. Therefore, he has no clue as to its importance to the rest of his circle. He just assumed it was a movie about robots, telekinesis, and guys running around in their pajamas waving their weird flashlights. For die-hard fans, those are fightin’ words. -via Tastefully Offensive