Realm of Possibilities

I know the Star Wars extended universe treats “spice” like it’s this big scary drug, but I kind of like to imagine that it’s basically just space weed, and the only reason Han got in trouble with the Imperials over Jabba’s cargo is that he was evading import tariffs.

If we’re just looking at mentions in the original trilogy, is there evidence it’s even a drug and not something you put on bland food to make it taste like something? What if Han was just carrying a cargo of like cilantro, mint, etc, none of which grow on Tattooine and are thus highly expensive and heavily taxed commodities?

I am fully prepared to believe that the infamous Han Solo ended up in a life-or-death vendetta with the most notorious crime lord in the galaxy because somebody didn’t want to declare taxes on three thousand kilos of cilantro.

Every who pays a certain amount of attention to Star Wars knows this story already, but I was lucky enough to hear it recounted first-hand last year, so I’m gonna give it yet another retelling.

So The Husband and I were at Sci-fi Weekender (a British based annual Sci-fi and Fantasy convention) last year, and one of the guests that year was Kevin J Anderson, one of the very notable Star Wars Expanded Universe writers. During one of the events, a quiet little interview in a cafe on the event site, he fielded a question from an audience member about what it was like to write for a franchise like Star Wars which often had lots of cooks working on one broth, and he had the following to say (wording recounted as best as I can from memory):

“So in one of my stories, Han Solo, he, he travels to this asteroid planet called Kessel, which is where a lot of Spice comes from, these Spice Mines of Kessel, and I got to really describe the effects of this Spice, this terrible drug and the addiction and all this and before publication I get this call, I get this call from the lawyers, and they say “Kevin, you say in this story that Spice is a drug, you can’t say that, you can’t say that Spice is a drug”, and I say “What? What do you mean it’s not a drug, of course it’s a drug”, and they say “Han Solo used to smuggle Spice, and you cannot, let us be clear, you cannot imply that the Hero of Star Wars used to be a drug dealer”. And I just stood there, at a loss for words, and I eventually said “So what is it then?” and they said to me, very sternly, “It’s a food-additive”. Now, now obviously this is ridiculous, and I won’t back down, and they won’t back down, and none of us will back down, and the book is very close to getting pulled, which I don’t want because I worked hard on it and they don’t want because they already paid me the advance, and eventually, with this great air of superiority they say “OK Kevin, we’ll take this to the top. WE’LL TAKE THIS TO GEORGE”. And they go to all this trouble, this was a long while ago when such things were not so easy to arrange, they go to all this trouble to set up a conference call with all of them and me and with George Lucas and they say “George, Kevin is trying to say in his new book that Spice is a drug, it’s a food additive, tell him it’s not a drug, George”. And there’s this long silence on the other end of the line and eventually George says “It is a drug, though. It’s, it’s a drug, it’s a food-additive? What? Of course it a drug, it’s space heroin, what else would it be? What?” And that was then end of that.“

(chortling)

…This happens in other IPs too. But that story’s hard to beat. :)

message to any autistic pieple on this website who love weed: 24 seasons of How It's Made on tubi for free.

there’s been a really bizarre trend in the past couple years of TERFS/radfems getting pissed off about biology posts. posts about the bilateral gyandromorph cardinal (one half male, one half female), posts about older hens beginning to crow and act like roosters, posts about animals being animals. and it’s hilarious because they interpret these posts as some kind of agenda. no! these are animals not choosing any gender identity or sexuality but being born into bodies they have no control over. weird how that happens in nature huh

When I was a kid my step dad was growing Marijuana in the basement and I remember a plant that was half male, half female. Split right down the middle. I named it Jamie because I knew a boy named Jaime and a girl. So it fit. Watching the cops tear it apart made me cry and when I tried to explain to the social worker why I was upset they killed my plant she said that it was impossible for something to be both a boy and a girl and that was the first time I called someone an idiot to their face.

You can pick whatever part of this story you don't like to fixate on. Idgaf.

My name is Eel And London thugs Pollute the Thames By dumping drugs But I ignore Their piles of snow I don’t do coke I just say no

So, who are you guys, anyway?

DeForest Kelley

Talking about his favorite fan letter

forget everything else Chibbs needs to bring the sports car stealing blowfish with a cocaine habit back into the dw universe before he leaves

I legitimately don’t understand people that dislike Torchwood.

These take place in the same episode!

Can you grab me those painkillers, please? I think I’m gonna need a few of them if we’re still planning on making it to your mom’s thing tonight. // Okay, that’s actually a very good idea. I might take one myself, apparently the first fifteen minutes are very very dense.

2x13 || 3x05

get to know me meme: [1/10] male characters jesse pinkman  “Oh, like I came to you begging to cook meth. ‘Oh, hey, nerdiest old dude I know, you wanna come cook crystal?’ Please! 'I’d ask my diaper-wearing granny but her wheelchair wouldn’t fit in the RV!'”