Well, this is a little surprising. Lucasfilm – in an apparent attempt to reach the sports fan market – has released a Star Wars March Madness bracket (above) pitting – you guessed it – the Light Side of the Force against the Dark Side.
The March Madness competition being played out in the bracket will be held online, where fans can vote on who should win each day's face-off.
"We would be honored if you would join us," Darth Vader himself intones in a – video announcing the Star Wars character tournament. "Now for my pitch: With your backing, I will win this competition and crush all who stand in my way. Together we will unleash the power of the Dark Side – and I will have bragging rights over both Obi-wan and the Emperor, which is pretty awesome."
Vader goes on to relate that although he's generally against democracy, fans should "vote now, vote often, and vote Vader." But for those not really buying that crap, how is it possible to know who should win each match? With the Star Wars canon spreading over nearly four decades – and counting! – it's really hard for even the most devoted fan to keep track of who battled who and what alliances were formed. Luckily, and completely unrelatedly, there's also a new handy chart for that.
The "Star Wars Family Tree" (below) is the work of Colchester, U.K.-based graphic designer Joe Stone, who made the chart during his free time between paying design gigs. The graphic took Stone about three weeks to complete and even though he told Wired he made much of the connections from memory, "a lot of time was spent on research and reading up about the various characters."
Stone's creation is actually part of a series. His last endeavor was the Marvel Universe Family Tree, a series of illustrations that showed the myriad connections in the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four universes.
"I am a huge nerd for comics and sci-fi," the 25-year-old illustrator said in an email. "With the new films being announced and being a big fan anyway, Star Wars seemed like a natural choice for the latest entry to the series."
So there you have it. The rest of your March will now be monopolized by a bunch of Star Wars brackets and one very cool diagram. The Star Wars character tournament ends April 9, so get to voting now, the fate of the Force is in your hands.
