Reaction Corps – Clone Wars: Overlords

If there was a contest for Thing The Clone Wars Did That Blew Our Minds the Most, the Mortis arc would have to be the clear winner (with Maul being a respectful runner-up). I remember when I first watched the Mortis arc, I kept telling myself “this is canon” over and over again, because I would never have bought into it if it hadn’t had that G-level Canon seal of approval.

It’s out there.

Listen, you will…
on iTunes
on Stitcher
on Podbean

 

Cauterize shmauterize.

What’s he going to do next, put toothpaste back into the tube?

And it’s also awesome. In this edition of Reaction Corps, we fully intended to review all three episodes of the arc, but by the time we got done reviewing the first episode, Overlords, I realized we were running out of time and had to cut it short. Which means that soon we’ll be reviewing the other two episodes! You can’t have too much Mortis!

Or can you?

Well, you probably can.

 

Instead of doing a blow-by-blow synopsis of what we talked about on the show, I’m actually going to put something down here that we didn’t get to, but I think is interesting.

In the episode, Anna strikes upon a cool idea; that Ahsoka is actually Ahsoka from the future, and not just a vision. We get into this discussion at 26:00. It’s good stuff. I love listening to Anna come across these ideas on her own.

Here’s a quick analysis of the “ghosts” we see in this episode, which I think actually lends some credence to Anna’s theory.

First, we have good ol’ Qui-Gon.

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Like I said in the episode, Ultimate Star Wars has confirmed that this is, indeed, Qui-Gon’s spirit. Note that he is translucent. But there’s also white stuff around him. What’s up with that?

Here we see Shmi Skywalker.

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We find out that this is actually the Son being a grade-A jerk. Note that Shmi is not translucent. In other words, when the Son (and presumably also the Daughter and Father) appear as someone they are not, they appear in a solid form.

Now check out Ahsoka.

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Opaque? No. You can see light through her better in other shots, but rest assured that this vision of Ahsoka is definitely translucent. Here. These other images show it plainly. You can see crystals showing through her arm and thigh.

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So she’s not the Son, Daughter or Father pretending to be Ahsoka. Otherwise she would be opaque.

We can also deduce that she’s not the Force spirit of a dead Ahsoka, since she doesn’t have the white stuff around her like dead Qui-Gon does.

Therefore, this Ahsoka is something different. It’s implied in the show that it was a dream, since we see young Ahsoka wake up after old Ahsoka disappears. But what if it’s actually Ahsoka from the future? As I say in the episode, what if she finds Mortis again and somehow projects herself back in time to warn young Ahsoka (using the same only-on-Mortis magic that allowed the Son to show Anakin his future)?

Are we going to see Ahsoka do this in Rebels? Probably not. A book? Maybe, but probably not. Personally, I have a sneaking suspicion that the word “Mortis” may never again appear in Star Wars. And while I’m OK with it not being the center of any new stories (and I’m really OK with time travel not becoming a staple of Star Wars), I think it would be a shame if it wasn’t referenced now and again. It’s a pretty big deal. It expanded the galaxy in a huge way. It may hold answers to questions we may or may not have asked yet.

Or it might just confuse us more.

UPDATE 11/2/15: Listening to an episode of Full of Sith today made me realize there there could be compelling motivation for Ahsoka to return to Mortis. If she sees an image of the Grand Inquisitor, she may wonder why he looks so much like the Son. She may seek out Mortis for answers. Still, probably not going to happen. But I’m adjusting the odds just a smidgen in favor of it now.

Star + Wars = Math : Boba’s Choice

Welcome to the second installment of Star + Wars = Math, a series of Star Wars word problems I made up for my son, Liam. Today, we have Boba’s Choice, an adventure in bounty hunting!

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Dengar has failed Jabba the Hutt for the last time. Jabba hires Boba Fett to bring the bumbling bounty hunter to him, preferably alive, so he can enjoy feeding him to the Rancor.

Jabba will pay Fett 500 credits for capturing Dengar alive, but only 250 credits for bringing him back dead.

Fett discovers that Dengar is currently on Cloud City, surrounded by friends. He knows that the only way to finish the job on Cloud City would be to kill Dengar.

But Fett also knows that Dengar is leaving Cloud City soon and his next destination will be Endor, where Fett will have no problem capturing him alive. Unfortunately for Fett, it will cost him 300 credits extra in fuel to follow Dengar to Endor.

Assuming that Boba Fett cares only about money, what should he do? Should he kill Dengar on Cloud City, or should he travel further and capture Dengar on Endor?

Show your work. And no disintegrations.

7 things Christopher Lee doesn’t know about you. Number 5 will blow your mind!

Today is actor Christopher Lee’s birthday, so let’s do a bit of trivia in celebration!

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You might think that Christopher Lee’s knowledge of you is about as airtight as it could be, but
just how much does Christopher Lee know about you? We think you’ll be surprised at these tidbits he probably doesn’t know!

1. Christopher Lee doesn’t know what day your birthday is.

2. Christopher Lee has never seen that video of you when you were a kid trying to blow out those trick candles. Can you believe he’s never laughed at that?

3. Christopher Lee doesn’t know the impact he has made on you, not only as a Star Wars fan, but as a human being.

4. Christopher Lee has never understood the depth of your love for your family. He has loved his family, to be sure. But since each and every love is unique, he has never felt the love you feel for your family.

5. Christopher Lee never wonders what you’re doing right now.

6. Christopher Lee doesn’t know that you tried out for a part in your high school’s production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, but didn’t get it because you tended to mumble. “Take the marbles out of your mouth next time,” your brother said.

7. Christopher Lee has never read your fan fiction where Count Dooku and Anakin end up talking instead of fighting at the beginning of Episode III and the whole Star Wars saga ends shortly thereafter.

OK! Now Christopher Lee knows all of those things about you! Happy birthday, Christopher Lee!

Episode 7: A New Mini-Cast

Defenestrate the format! Down with long-form podcasting!

OK, not really. I actually like our format quite a bit. Unfortunately, things in the Children of the Force household have been rather busy lately (all good things, thankfully), and we just haven’t had the time to sit down for a proper recording.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t do a podcast. This endeavor of recording and publishing a podcast has quickly become something that makes me really happy. I feel complete when we put something out there into the world. Whether or not it’s enjoyed by a few people or a few hundred people (we’re somewhere in the middle there … quite a bit closer to the former), it’s worth it because the kids and I get so much enjoyment out of the whole process.

Anyway, enough of my banthering. Let’s talk about the episode, which you can listen to on iTunesStitcher or Podbean.

This is where the trading begins.

First, the kids have fallen in love with Topps Star Wars Rebels trading cards. In this episode, you’ll actually hear Anna open her first pack. Liam already opened a couple packs before this point and is chomping at the bit for more. They’ve already done the trade you hear about on the show, plus a couple more.

“I got real trading cards, not just trading cards on a phone or a device.”
–Liam, episode #4 of Children of the Force

Unfortunately, Anna and Liam don’t know anyone else who collects these cards! Anyone want to make trades via snail mail? Email forcechildren@gmail.com and we’d be happy to line something up. In fact, it would be really cool to get a Star Wars pen-pals thing going on. Look for another post about this in the near future. Let’s make it happen, people.

Across Neverland

The second segment of this show is me doing a poor job of pretending I’m David W. Collins and comparing “Across the Stars” from Attack of the Clones to “Flight to Neverland” from Hook. I pull parts out of both of those songs in the episode, but just in case you wanted to listen to the complete versions, here they are.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably familiar with “Across the Stars.” To hear the part from “Flight to Neverland” that really reminds me of it, just go 53 seconds into that video and you’ll hear it … probably.

But seriously, if you’re not listening to Star Wars Oxygen with David W. Collins and Jimmy Mac, you’re missing out on some fantastic analysis of the music of Star Wars. Click on these words to take your first step into a larger musical world.

Bonus: Here’s an incomplete visual guide to the names we gave Maz Kanata’s Castle-dwellers in our Star Wars Day Spectacular.

Hey, let's start a rumor that this image came directly from Lucasfilm and these are the real names of the characters. No? OK.

One of these guesses has to be right. Right?

I think the kids and I are going to try to finish naming these castle dwellers in the next episode. Any suggestions? I can’t decide whether 19 and 20 are going to be the easiest or hardest to name.

Star + Wars = Math

My 6-year-old, Liam, likes math. When it’s bed time, I lay with him for a little bit before leaving his room and he asks me for math problems.

Last week, I started to give him word problems and, instead of using trains and Santa Fe and Phoenix, I used (what else?) Star Wars. Here’s the first one I came up with.

The Millennium Falcon and the Ghost have to make supply runs. They both start from the same landing pad on Lothal, but they have to go to different planets. The Ghost is going to Kessel for supplies, and it will take them 23 minutes to get there. The Falcon is going to Tatooine and it will take them 25 minutes to get there. After picking up their supplies, they immediately return to Lothal and the return trip takes just as long as the first trip (no Imperial entanglements in this math problem).

Assuming that the crews of both ships take the same amount of time on their planets to load the supplies (and that’s a big assumption, because you just know Han will have to stop for a drink or a game of sabacc or something), who will get back to Lothal first, and how long will they have to wait for the other ship to arrive?

It took him a while, but he got the answer and got to imagine a cool Ghost/Falcon scenario while he was at it! It’s fun and educational!

I’ll post more word problems here as I come up with them. I have a couple more up my sleeve already, one involving bounties (different values for dead or alive) and the other involving gig money for a certain bar band.

Note: I have yet to see an updated galactic map that includes Lothal. The time to get to Tatooine and Kessel are pure constructs of my imagination and not canon … which is also imagination, when you think about it. I just figured they’re both on the outer rim and so is Lothal so … close enough, right?

Episode #6 – Star Wars Day Spectacular!

Listen on iTunesStitcher or stream it on Podbean.

All right, everyone. Just wait. This episode was recorded on Star Wars Day, which, I think, should be a national holiday with paid time off. Because what the heck just happened? How was Star Wars Day so awesome?

The kids and I went to record this podcast episode after they got home from school, and when we were done I checked Twitter and a somewhat-legit-sounding rumor dropped that the second Anthology film was going to be a Boba Fett “origin” story.

No, not this origin story. That would be weird.

The internet StarWarsed all  .   day  .   long.

I’m not complaining, but how exactly could I be expected to get this episode live before the clock struck the death knell of midnight? How could I get this thing out there before the Revenge of the 5th was upon us?

The answer is that I could not.

So here we are on the other side. I feel cold.

Listen on iTunesStitcher or stream it on Podbean.

At any rate, in this episode we have some fun, and I edit none of that fun out. In fact, there is the barest minimum of editing in this podcast. And I had no show notes to read from. Because I didn’t have time to write them up. So we had fun! All things considered, it turned out quite listenable.

Some of the stuff we talked about:

The Roqoo Depot guide to Celebration Anaheim Livestream

The Running of the Willrow Hoods

And check this out for further explanation of the Willrow Hood movement: http://www.dailydot.com/geek/running-of-the-hoods-star-wars-celebration/

Jeffrey Brown interview and drawing demonstration

NEWS (SORT OF)

We discuss the new Force Awakens photos that Vanity Fair posted.

REVIEW (SORT OF)

Anna’s reading the Attack of the Clones novelization. We talk about some things in there that aren’t in the movie and the idea that the right thing to do isn’t always the thing that makes you the happiest.

JOKE (SORT OF)

Submit your Star Wars joke!

VOICEMAIL (FOR REAL!)

Chris from Star Wars Kidscast left us our first ever voicemail! Thanks Chris!

QUESTION AND ANSWER COUNCIL (SORT OF)

We forgo our usual Q&A Council format and instead give names to Maz Kanata’s castle-dwellers in the right half of this photo.

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So there you have it. Episode 6. We hope you enjoy(ed) listening as much as we enjoyed recording!

Reaction Corps – Clone Wars: Nightsisters / Monster / Witches of the Mist

In this episode, we review the three episode Nightsister arc from season 3 of The Clone Wars. These episodes are Nightsisters, Monster and Witches of the Mist.

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher or stream it on Podbean.

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I was a bit late to the game with The Clone Wars, but I was nearly caught up by time they released them all on Netflix. By the end of it all, I was super sad it got cancelled. Rebels has alleviated most of that sadness, and I think it’s going to nearly eradicate it by the end of the second season.

But The Clone Wars is still great Star Wars, and has countless amazing moments worth revisiting. Luckily, I have two kids who were chomping at the bit to watch all of the episodes with me, and I think they’re both old enough now that they can handle it.

Well OK, we skipped the zombie Geonosian brain invader arc. That’s a bit to much on the horror side for them, I think. And we’ll probably skip the zombie Nightsister episode (as you hear us discuss on this podcast). But for the most part, they’re ready for The Clone Wars.

And this arc sure was one of the first major tests of their readiness to watch The Clone Wars. These episodes get pretty intense. Brother killing brother. Jedi brutally struck down. A king murdered. It’s dark stuff. It affected my kids in the way it should have. It made them sad, it entertained them and it made them think.

In addition to introducing the world of Dathomir, Nightsisters, Nightbrothers and the concept of Magick to canon, this arc also gives us the first canon appearance of Clone Commandos and, if I’m not mistaken, the only canon appearance of Sith training.

That’s a lot of canon, thank you very much Katie Lucas.

Really quick, I forgot to mention this in the show, but I love the art on the side of the ship that picked up Ventress (which she then … commandeered).

Raider

The Aurebesh above that Tusken says “Raider,” by the way. Oooh, and this image gives us a good look at those creepy pods. Ick.

A New Hope (for Tooth Fairies)

Anna lost a tooth the other day, which means that she put it under her pillow that night and expected something else under there in the morning. You know how the Tooth Fairy works. Well, I neglected my duties as resident Tooth Fairy and forgot to switch it out with some money. The next night, I put this letter under her pillow.

I should also say before you read this letter, that my kids don’t believe in the Tooth Fairy. Instead, we as a family pretend that she’s real and have fun with it.

My dearest Anna,

As I hope you are aware, I was held up two nights ago due to podcast editing. I let your dad know about my absent-minded mistake of not putting these two dollars under your pillow, and he assured me that he would tell you in the morning.

Now, you may ask yourself what sort of podcast a Tooth Fairy would be editing, and you may rightly be wondering whether or not Tooth Fairies have even developed the technology in their Tooth Land to download and listen to podcasts. Well, they have.

My podcast is all about the movie Tooth Wars. It’s actually 6 movies … and a couple TV shows! In it, thousands of Plaquetroopers enforce the will of Emperor Cavatine and his underling, Darth Sugar. It’s scary stuff.

Thankfully, Luke Toothbrusher blew up the first Bubble Gum Star and the Mouthwash Alliance was on their way to victory. There have been setbacks, but with Princess Toothpaste, Han Baking Soda, and Chewsugarfreegum on the side of the Mouthwash Alliance, the galaxy is in good hands.

Anyway, this is all very exciting stuff, and I got a bit carried away and totally forgot to fly to your house and leave these dollars under your pillow. Sorry about that.

May the floss be with you,

The Tooth Fairy

childrenofthetooth.com

She loved it.

Truthfully, I think she was just happy that the Tooth Fairy wasn’t out sick this time, because last time the Easter Bunny had to fill in and he skimps on the cash.

Anna and Liam both wanted me to see if childrenofthetooth.com was real, but I told them it only worked on the Tooth Fairy internet, and we don’t have access to that.

Episode #5 – The Post-Celebration Feels

What to say about Star Wars Celebration that hasn’t been said already… How about, my kids liked watching it on the computer?

Hi everyone. It’s episode #5 of Children of the Force. Give it a whirl:

On iTunes
On Stitcher
On Podbean


STAR WARSY STUFF

We didn’t watch nearly as much of the Celebration live feed as I thought we would, but they did enjoy watching when it was possible, and thankfully Star Wars has put up recordings of the live feeds so anyone can watch them at any time (day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4). They don’t include everything from Celebration, but they give you a good feel for how things went down there.

The reading that the kids mention was a reading of excerpts from the William Shakespear’s Star Wars books by Ian Doescher. This handy link will take you to the right part of the live feed recording to view the panel.

We also talk in the episode about the items we’re donating to the kids’ Fun Fair raffle. Here’s a photo:

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The kids and I have had some time to think about that new teaser for The Force Awakens, and Liam and I have come up with a decent theory about the role Vader’s mask plays in the story. To sum it up in one word: Psychometry. If I find the time, I’ll write up a post about this in the near future.

Here, watch that trailer again:

Liam has drawn his first TFA images. Add these to the hundreds of other Star Wars drawings he’s produced in the last couple years…

The crashed Star Destroyer and X-wing on Jakku. In the background, (Rey?) on her speeder.

The crashed Star Destroyer and X-wing on Jakku. In the background, (Rey?) on her speeder.

The flipping trooper from when that TIE is shooting at Stormtroopers. How cool was that?

The flipping trooper from when that TIE is shooting at Stormtroopers. How cool was that?

NEWS

Children of the Force is lucky enough to have a special report on all four days of the convention courtesy of Kate from Who Wars! She gives us a rundown of what she did each day and we had a great time hearing a personal perspective of how Celebration went.

Thanks again Kate for the report! Kate is @kamiduu on twitter, she blogs at kateswhatever.wordpress.com and you can hear her on the Who Wars podcast.

Here’s the video of BB-8 rolling onto the stage at Celebration:

And here’s Artoo in Love!

Check out this photo set of The Force Awakens exhibit at Celebration over at Jedi Temple Archives. Some great stuff over there, especially Kylo Ren’s lightsaber.

One more video! The Star Wars: Rebels season 2 trailer. Could you fit more excitement into one weekend? I think not.

JOKE

What do you call a droid at the bottom of a big hole?

REVIEW / QUESTION & ANSWER COUNCIL

We ran out of time this week, so no review or Question & Answer Council for this episode.

Thanks a ton for listening, everyone. Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes, Stitcher, or anywhere else you may listen to us.

On iTunes
On Stitcher
On Podbean

And here’s how to follow us online:

Twitter: @forcechildren
Facebook: Children of the Force
Email: forcechildren@gmail.com
Website: www.childrenoftheforce.com

Leave us a voicemail!

Join us, and together we will watch that trailer for the 100th time as father and son and daughter and listener…