It’s episode 54 of Children of the Force!

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We change the protocol in this episode and devote the whole show to a spoiler-filled overview and discussion of the Rogue One prequel novel, Catalyst!

Maybe you’ve already read Catalyst and want a refresher before seeing the movie. Maybe you haven’t read it and don’t intend to, but want to understand how it relates to Rogue One. Maybe you’ve read it and want your kids to know what happens in it but don’t feel like sitting around for one hour, twenty-one minutes and eleven seconds discussing it with them.

Well, that’s what we’re here for!

I reference this trailer a few times in the episode, so give it a watch.

From Jyn’s mom and dad to the Imperial baddie, Orson Krennic; from Tarkin to Saw; from Vader to Has; our overview includes everything you need to know (and undoubtedly some stuff you don’t) before seeing Rogue one.

We hope you like it! (*cough* review us on iTunes *cough*)

Liam had a question for the Question and Answer Council this week: What’s the coolest looking species in Star Wars? And that brings up this amalgamation I created at Liam’s request a few years ago: The Hurampa.

Thanks for listening! Send us a voicemail or email us at forcechildren@gmail.com if you want to take part in the discussion or just give us some feedback. Thanks!

It’s episode 53 of Children of the Force!

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STAR WARSY STUFF [1:00]

We’re reading the His Dark Materials trilogy as a family. I’ve read it before and loved it. Now our whole family is loving it.

We saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them last weekend. It was pretty good, but we didn’t like it as much as the Harry Potter movies. I’m bummed that the story doesn’t revolve around kids like Harry Potter does. And I’m also waiting for a story where a frumpy woman and a gangly/awkward woman both have beautiful men fall in love for them.

Oops, I bought Destiny for the PS4.

And I was in the Verizon store and got to view a Rogue One X-Wing video on a VR headset. You can see it here in non-vr on the Verizon Facebook page (only works on some browsers though): https://www.facebook.com/verizon/videos/10157670495815123/

We got our Rogue One tickets! We’ll be seeing it at 7:00 pm on December 15^th!


NEWS [10:10]

Michael Giacchino spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the score to Rogue One, which will be 95% original.

Also from EW, we almost had a Boba Fett movie as the first stand-alone!

STAR WARS LINES STORY TIME, REDUX [20:45]

We listen back to my recounting of the various Star Wars lines I’ve stood in, focusing mainly on The Phantom Menace. Then afterwards we talk about our experience not standing in a line for The Force Awakens, but waiting in the theater instead.

Q&A COUNCIL [52:15]

I ask the kids: Who do you think will survive Rogue One? They’re hopeful. My view is quite a bit bleaker.

OUTRO [57:30]

Thanks for listening! Send us a voicemail or email us at forcechildren@gmail.com if you want to take part in the discussion or just give us some feedback. Thanks!

It’s episode 52 of Children of the Force!

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STAR WARSY STUFF [1:55]

After talking about our plans for seeing Rogue One, we discuss the last couple episodes of Rebels. The kids explain the plot of Iron Squadron, because I wasn’t all that sure what it was.

Liam drew some homemade Target ads last week. Check these out:

We talk about what the kids are talking about in school re: Rogue One. Liam said his classmates are quoting the trailers, which is awesome.

WHAT’S THAT SOUND? [7:50]

In honor of Rogue One, we discover how they made the sounds of the Death Star doors closing and opening.

NEWS [10:40]

Tickets for Rogue One have gone on sale in the UK. Hopefully that means we can buy them soon in the US?

The female lead of the Han Solo stand-alone has been announced. Emilia Clarke. We complain about the lack of diverse female leads in Star Wars, of course. And I’m hopeful that she’s playing Delia Leighton.

There’s a newish Star Wars Rogue One featurette that gives a great overview of what the movie’s about. Here it is:

This featurette confirms that Rogue One is PG-13 and yes, my 7 and 10 year old will be accompanying me to the movie on opening night. For more on ratings, listen to our episode 19, Rated F for Fun.

CANON NEWS [20:15]

From Catalyst, our canon news today is about enhanced overseer droids. Maybe they’re the K-2SO type? Maybe they’re these droids that we’ll see in season 3 of Rebels?

JOKE [26:50]

Which Jedi do blows things over? (And yes, there’s a reason that sentence is grammatically  awkward.)

Q&A COUNCIL [27:45]

Liam asks: What do you think is the funniest moment in all of Star Wars?

Anna asks: What’s your favorite jump-scare in all of Star Wars?

STUMP THE LUMP! [34:40]

I quiz Anna and Liam in this week’s Stump the Lump:

What species is Greedo?
Which Jedi is a Nautolan?

OUTRO [37:55]

Thanks for listening! Send us a voicemail or email us at forcechildren@gmail.com if you want to take part in the discussion or just give us some feedback. Thanks!

It’s episode 51 of Children of the Force!

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Surprise, surprise – we talk politics for a while before we start talking about…

STAR WARSY STUFF [6:00]

Liam played Dungeons & Dragons for the first time and he loved it.

Chris from Star Wars Kidscast sent us an awesome 50^th Episode gift in the mail.

NEWS [12:10]

A new Darth Maul prequel comic is on its way. It sounds pretty great. And it will be the earliest story on the Star Wars canon timeline.

In the show, I mentioned that I thought the font of Darth Maul on that cover matched the font in the Son of Dathomir miniseries from Dark Horse. But what I was actually thinking about was the font of Marvel’s Darth Vader series. And it’s similar, but not exact. Check it out.

There have been a bunch of new Rogue One trailers and TV spots. We’re going to watch them, but we’re not discussing them on the show. Rogue One is only a month away and we’re going to cease all plot-divulging discussion of the movie. It will be here before we know it!

A new IMAX poster was released for Rogue One. Check it out:

CANON NEWS [20:30]

We do a dramatic reading of a passage from the Ahsoka novel, which reveals something about her white lightsabers’ kyber crystals. Spoilers within!

JOKE [24:45]

How many Sith does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Q&A COUNCIL [25:20]

How could carbonite be used in future Star Wars storytelling? The possibilities are surprising.

STUMP THE LUMP! [35:45]

Liam asks me: What name did the Emperor call Luke just before deciding to destroy him?

OUTRO [38:00]

Thanks for listening! Send us a voicemail or email us at forcechildren@gmail.com if you want to take part in the discussion or just give us some feedback. Thanks!

It’s episode 50 of Children of the Force!

This episode comes to you from simpler times (the Monday before the election). It’s an episode where we look back on the fun we’ve had while creating more fun memories. The key word in all of this is “fun.”

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First we take a trip down memory lane and talk about some of the stuff we did on our very first episode. Then…
STAR WARSY STUFF [7:00]

Amy’s kids and Nick both answer our question about their scariest moment in Star Wars.

Liam is working on his Star Wars Stickman comic. He’s finished issue 1 and is working on issue 2. Here’s an image from the comic:

I saw Doctor Strange in IMAX 3D over the weekend, which means I got to also see the Rogue One trailer in IMAX 3D. It was epic.

The kids’ grandma knows what’s up with Rogue One.

WHAT’S THAT SOUND? [15:15]

How did they make the sound of Han slicing the Tauntaun open?

NEWS [17:30]

Donald Glover is young Lando in the Han Solo standalone. Which means Lando is going to be in the Han Solo standalone!

Daisy Ridley sort of said that we’ll find out about Rey’s parents in Episode VIII.

Gary Whitta showed us the Mexican poster for Rogue One on Twitter. It gives us a good view of Yavin IV. Check it out:

CANON NEWS [23:15]

They play Crokinole in Star Wars! This game has some deep personal meaning to me and I’m so happy to read all about Ahsoka playing it with friends in the new Ahsoka novel.

Here’s Anna playing a game with me last time we were at my parents.

JOKE [30:50]

An oldie, but a goodie knock knock joke:

“Knock Knock”
“Who’s there?”
“Art.”
“Art who?”
“R2-D2”

Q&A COUNCIL [31:50]

We rank all Star Wars movies from favorite to least favorite. We also revisit our rankings from the past. Liam thinks that when Rogue One comes out, it will be at the top of our lists. “It is going to be great. It’s going to be awesome.”

STUMP THE LUMP! [49:30]

Liam tries and succeeds in stumping me by asking a nearly impossible question about the name of the blaster on the top of the snow speeder we pretty much never see in The Force Awakens.

SHOUTOUTS [53:50]

Shout out to all who’ve been there with us so far and all who will be there with us in the future!

OUTRO [57:35]

Thanks for listening! Send us a voicemail or email us at forcechildren@gmail.com if you want to take part in the discussion or just give us some feedback. Thanks!

This week, we descend into a scary tree-cave thing and confront our darkest Star Wars fears.

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What, in your opinion, is the scariest moment of Star Wars? We’d love to hear from the kids on this one. Leave us a voicemail at speakpipe.com/childrenoftheforce or email us at forcechildren@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening! Tell your friends about us!

What’s that clanking I hear?

It’s a Rebels episode that sounds like a Clone Wars episode. Today we review The Final Battle!

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We briefly discuss Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in this episode, which I am by no means an expert in. But I think it’s an important thing to know about, so if you want to learn more about PTSD, here’s some good information: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml

But mostly we just gush about how this episode gave us all the Clone Wars feels.

Thanks for listening! Send us a voicemail or email us at forcechildren@gmail.com if you want to take part in the discussion or just give us some feedback. Thanks!

It’s episode 49 of Children of the Force!

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STAR WARSY STUFF [0:35]

We played a game of D&D with some friends for the first time at Fantasy Flight Games Center.

And of course, now I want to play all of the Star Wars roleplaying games Fantasy Flight has to offer: The Force Awakens, Age of Rebellion, Edge of the Empire and Force and Destiny. If you were going to get Children of the Force something for Christmas, just pick from that list, please.

We’ve been keeping up with Rebels season 3 and loving it. Anna still thinks Thrawn is too smart.

NEWS [6:30]

A new Rogue One trailer! Watch it again:

And the kids’ reaction to watching it for the first time:

The first rule of trailers: Trailers lie.

That said, we talk about all the hits from the trailer, including young Jyn, big ol’ Jedi statue, the absence of snarky Jyn, Tarkin?, sadness on Jedha, water on Krennic, etc.

We also got the poster for Rogue One. It’s glorious.

And, in my opinion, it’s waaaaaaay better than the poster announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe.

And all of these new character posters.

We talk about the new trading card images that were posted on Entertainment Weekly.

And we watch this new Duracell commercial that nearly made me cry.

CANON NEWS [1:01:00]

Ahsoka’s pseudonym in the new book about her is pretty darn awesome and makes us think about Daughter and Bendu.

JOKE [1:03:55]

Why doesn’t Rey live in an apartment on Starkiller base?

Q&A COUNCIL [1:05:10]

If you could put one Rebels character in Rogue One, who would it be

If you could put one Rogue One character in Rebels, who would it be?

OUTRO [1:11:00]

Thanks for listening! Send us a voicemail or email us at forcechildren@gmail.com if you want to take part in the discussion or just give us some feedback. Thanks!

It’s episode 48 of Children of the Force!

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SHOUTOUTS [1:30]

Our first shout-out is to Amy Wishman Nalan, who we just interviewed here on the site. Amy is the first person to support us on Patreon and we thank her profusely.

We also give a shout-out to Amy’s daughter, who also listens to the show.

Our third shout-out is to Kate from the Nerd of Paradise podcast who had us on her one-year anniversary show. We play a snippet of that on the show. Go here to listen to the whole thing: http://nerdofparadise.net/2016/09/30/episode-20-podcasting/

We also read an email from Nick, which is his answer to our Q&A Council question from our 5 year old listener, Isaac: Who was Yoda’s master? Nick has a theory that may or may not (it does) involve Supreme Leader Snoke. Could it be? Snoke was Yoda’s master? Who knows…

STAR WARSY STUFF [11:55]

Lego: The Force Awakens!

Battlefront: Death star DLC!

Force Friday!

Liam’s working on a Star Wars play at school. It sounds really cool.

CANON NEWS [19:15]

Brendol Hux reveals the name of his son, that weak willed boy who will become General Hux, in Aftermath: Life Debt. Also, my Hux impression sort of sounds like a drunk Foghorn Leghorn. We wonder what kind of dad Brendol must have been.

Talking about Hux leads us to talk about the practice of taking kids when they’re young. The First Order did it, but so did the Jedi. So what do we think of it?

JOKE [25:25]

Why was Rey so bored with the story on Jakku?

STUMP THE LUMP! [27:20]

What was Luke Skywalker’s rank in the Rebel Alliance during The Empire Strikes Back?

OUTRO [29:20]

Thanks for listening! Send us a voicemail or email us at forcechildren@gmail.com if you want to take part in the discussion or just give us some feedback. Thanks!