Episode 325 – Rogue Wonder Years – A Rogue One Celebration

Our beloved Rogue One is playing again in selected IMAX theaters and for us it’s another reason to sing the praises of one of our favorite Star Wars movies!   Join us as reflect on why this one has transcended into a now classic status and why this Rogue One means so much to us and the show.  AND what about our screenings??  What stood out?  How was the crowd?  and what about that ANDOR footage?!  

PLUS – we asked YOU the listeners for YOUR Rogue One theater reactions and reasons why you love and we got some GREAT ones.   Listen as some incredible folks from across the country bask in that Rogue One love and possibly sing their hearts out for this movie!!  

So, call up a Hammerhead Corvette, listen today and celebrate the love!

Episode 285 – The 100 Minute Marks of Star Wars

This week we are tackling an extremely important Star Wars topic – what happens at the 100 minute mark of the Star Wars films?  Just like the films themselves, they’re all a little different but they all that thar certain type of galaxy far far away magic. What happens in them, how are they alike and what is our ranking of them?  It’s a Star Wars topic that’ll have you viewing the films and counting numbers in a whole new way!  

PLUS :  the dramatic return of everyone’s favorite pickled celebration, SNOKETOBERFEST!   

So get out that wax paper, celebrate the love and listen today! 

Episode 258 – Star Wars End Scene Magic

Star Wars movies contain many rich traditions like operatic storytelling, faster and more intense action, explosions, and gorgeous dialogue free end scenes that soar with music and end the film with an epic exclamation point!  Join us as we look at these scenes and rank our own personal top 12 Star Wars cinematic ending scenes!  What do we agree on?  Where do our opinions split? What’s our different number one picks?  Will a Star Wars movie ever end with a blooper reel? So, dance around, give an Ewok an hug and celebrate the love with BLAST POINTS!  

Episode 224 – SAGA YEAR MONTH 6 : ROGUE ONE (The Art of the Art of Rogue One)

Saga Year continues as this month we take a look at ROGUE ONE and the amazing Art of Rogue One book by Josh Kushins.  Looking through it is like looking through your Rogue One dreams and it’s been often overlooked when discussing the Star Wars creative process and the making of the film.  From John Knoll’s original and fascinating Destroyer of Worlds pitch to the stories that almost were and Gareth Edward’s unique creative process, Rogue One was taking risks from the beginning.  The bold ideas Rogue One created on screen and behind the scenes can still be felt today and we’re examining all of them! Save the rebellion, save the dream and celebrate the love with BLAST POINTS!  

Episode 163 – Explosions are Star Wars, Star Wars is Explosions

EXPLOSIONS!  We’ve done some research and discovered Star Wars is actually all about explosions! There are hundreds explosions in the Star Wars saga and we’re talking our top 3 from each film & discussing their size, sound & feeling.  It’s a totally serious episode about a serious topic and explosions is the word that you heard.‬  What explosions are the ultimate from each film?  Listen and find out!
PLUS : Star Wars Celebration Chicago is just weeks away and we are freaking out.  Episode IX panel! What could happen?  The return of Ahmed Best!  Listener reviews & more!So ask Plo Koon about Young Guns Too and celebrate the love with BLAST POINTS!!  

Episode 152 – Rogue 100 (The Rogue One Two Year Anniversary Celebration!)

Rogue One just turned two years old and Blast Points is starting the birthday party with the giant ROGUE 100!  It’s 100 things we love about the best Star Wars standalone movie since Ewoks Battle for Endor!   We talk almost every aspect of Rogue One with Bor Gullet, Krennic’s cape, Cassian’s Gloves, Giacchino’s score, the film’s messages and how it stands up today!

PLUS : Wener Herzog is in The Mandalorian.  ‘Nuff said.

So pull that death star lever, get the balloons for Saw’s birthday and celebrate the love with BLAST POINTS!

Episode 83 – Random Dice Roll Clone Wars Good Times!

This week Jason & Gabe came up with the great idea of talking about a couple of random Clone Wars episodes and to pick which ones they rolled some dice and.. let fate decide….   Gabe got season 4’s Kidnapped episode and Jason got season 5’s A Test of Strength.  Join them as they get into both great episodes with talk of the best moments, the interesting history they both share and how amazing Clone Wars still is!

Before all that though they go over how Ron Howard is now the king of the Star Wars internet, all the crazy last Last Jedi stuff happening and the info that came out out the massive San Diego Comic Con AND there’s talk and how Rogue One just keeps getting better and better.

So put on your goggles, get on you speeder bike with a rancor head sidecar, celebrate the love and listen to Blast Points today!

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Episode 65 – Fun In The Twin Suns

This week, Jason & Gabe are talking about the only thing they can think about, the Star Wars Rebels episode, Twin Suns. They had a whole episode planned, but that all went out the window as soon as they saw Obi-Wan take that Qui Gon stance against Maul. Join them as they talk about the whole episode including Chosen One talk, the duel, the future of the show, how the episode connects to the saga’s past and if it speaks to what we may see in the future. And there’s a lot of talk about Obi-Wan listening to KISS.
So get on your Mountain Dewback, celebrate the love & listen to BLAST POINTS!

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Rebels Review – Secret Cargo

STAR WARS REBELS
“Secret Cargo”
By Jason Gibner

Way back when Star Wars Rebels was first announced in May 2013, it came with the lofty promise that it would present the roots of the Rebel Alliance and the birth of the Galactic Civil War.  That was enough to make fans like me stare at themselves in a mirror for a few hours wondering how we be able to handle that level of outrageousness.  That also led some to believe that the first episode of Rebels should feature Wedge Antilles and a squadron of X-Wings shooting proton torpedoes at The Emperor as he woke up from his afternoon nap.  As fantastic as that way of thinking may have have been at the time, it wasn’t quite what Dave Filoni and his talented team had in mind.  The series has been a slow build that has had its own distinct voice while it wrapped up threads from Clone Wars and brought us closer to the period in Star Wars history we saw in Rogue One and A New Hope.  The line to that momentous era got a little straighter with Secret Cargo as Rebels soared like a U-Wing over Scarif with yet another standout episode.


Maintaining that tricky balance between storytelling and fan service has sometimes been tricky for Star Wars and has caused a few Rebels episodes to be stopped right in their tracks.  Secret Cargo walks that tightrope with it’s eyes closed and with a freaking hula hoop around it’s waist.  Rattling off all the awesomeness in this episode is enough to make a Star Wars fan’s nose bleed and pass out.  There’s Y-Wings bombing stuff,  the wonderful Genevieve O’Reilly back as the voice of Mon (Hey Mon!) Mothma, Jon “Gold Leader” Vandor, Rebel Pilots in the classic orange jumpsuits!  Seriously.  Just even typing that makes me sweat.


Even with all that Old Country Buffet style embarrassment of Star Wars riches, the real highlight comes at the episode’s end as Mothma tells Palpatine where to stick it with a defiant speech that cements the formation of an alliance to bring that old Sith Lord down.  As Mothma delivers her speech, we see all the different sects of the still mostly unformed Alliance watch and get inspired to take that next step.  Good thing they didn’t show Raddus and Ackbar watching her on Mon Cal as I now would be writing this review from heaven.


Though I loved this episode almost as much as pumpkin pie, the fact that Ezra was able to just jump into a Y-Wing, fly it like a champion and start bossing everyone around kind of bugged me.  I like ya, Ezra but you’re no Luke Skywalker.  I get in the end the show is for kids but why does Ezra always have to be the one who does EVERYTHING in every episode?  We have GOLD FRIGGIN LEADER here!  Let that guy who is a legit living legend, get busy on those TIEs.


As we come into the home stretch here with season three of Rebels we are getting to that era of a base of Dantooine and the Mon Cals joining the fight.  With a first look at Rebels season four and beyond at Star Wars Celebration in a matter of weeks, the future looks brighter than a pair of twin suns for the show and the Ghost Crew.

FINAL GRADE : A-

Editorial – The Importance of Jyn Erso

The Importance of Jyn Erso

By Jason Gibner 

 

There was a disturbing trend that started around the release of Rogue One with major entertainment journalists writing about how Jyn Erso’s character was left on the cutting room floor or how she lacked personality or wasn’t as strong of a character as Rey and blah and blah and blah.  I didn’t understand that then and now that the film has been out for over a month now, that kind of chatter seems to be the new norm amongst a certain percentage of fans out there.  Not only do I not like that icky way of thinking, I would even argue that Jyn Erso is not only a complex and fascinating character, she is one of THE MOST important characters in Star Wars history.

Let me explain:

When we first meet Jyn, she is a young girl watching her family literally torn apart as The King of Bad Luck Orson Krennic takes away her father and Deathtroopers kill her mother.   She is later rescued by Rebel guerrilla fighter Saw Gerrera and I’m sure has a fun time living in stinky caves being taught to fight until she’s 16 and Saw ditches her in cave with only a knife, loaded blaster and a pack of gum.  So here we have a person who looks at the Empire and the Alliance with equal disdain and distrust.  Her whole life has her being an afterthought in this giant galactic civil war and every move she’s made has been wrapped around these two sides fighting.  Because of this confusion and heartache, Jyn has turned herself off to all the political activity of her time.  She travels around the galaxy with an alias.  She has left her old life behind and would rather now just be nobody and blend in with the crowd looking out for only herself.  Awoken in an Imperial prison by water dripping on her face, she stares longingly at the Kyber Crystal necklace given to her by her mother.  “Trust the Force”, she said.  Surely, at that moment she does not have much faith in that ancient religion, but then as we know “the force moves in mysterious ways…”

Things change once her father befriends an Imperial cargo pilot named Bodhi with the hope that maybe his message of how to destroy the Empire’s destroyer of worlds will get to Saw and just maybe his daughter is still there with him.  Within his extremely important message of hope for the galaxy is also a personal message to his daughter if she is still alive.   Completing her father’s mission becomes Jyn’s personal quest and she will do it with or without the Rebel Alliance.   Her quest of mentally getting back home  and repairing the damage done to her family is greater than any of the back and forth of the Empire or the Alliance.  During her passionate speech to the Alliance council, you can see the looks on Mon Mothma and Bail Organa’s faces.  Her fire is exactly what the stagnant, fragmented Alliance needs at that moment.  After they tell her that a mission to Scarif can’t happen, what does she do?  Against the odds, she goes anyways.  This is the kind of David vs Goliath attitude that the Rebellion was founded on but had become lost under rules and battling opinions.   Mon Mothma’s smile when she is told that Raddus is commanding an attack fleet to Scarif to protect Jyn’s team says it all.

Let’s look at Jyn Erso while she is stealing the Death Star plans.  Over and over again, it becomes clear for her that there is no getting off Scarif alive in this mission.   Even when Cassian is knocked out, Jyn “No Retreat, No Surrender” Erso keeps climbing and shoves herself through a death trap heat vent hole thing.   Finally confronted on that catwalk by Krennic, Jyn wastes no time reminding him and herself who she is what she is fighting for.    She still may not care for either side of the war that explodes in the sky around her, but she does care about her family that loved her and for what’s the right to do.

Had Jyn not begged the uptight Alliance to listen to her and then go off and rebel on her own, the Empire would eventually find Yavin and destroy it.  Ben Kenobi & Yoda would grow old alone in their huts on far away planets, Leia Organa would likely be captured and terminated on the Death Star, and the last Jedi would sit on the moisture farm looking up at the sky and wondering what else is out there for him.  With her compassion and ability to never quit the fight, Jyn Erso not only lights the fire of the Rebel Alliance, she plants the seed that ends up saving the entire galaxy and brings about the return of Jedi.

The history books in the Star Wars universe may not have a chapter on the brave Jyn Erso and her unbelievably heroic actions but us viewers of these Journals of the Whills have Rogue One to see just how things went down.  The only one who would live to tell the story of Jyn and the daring crew of the Rogue One would be likely Mon Mothma.   I would love a story or comic one day as she tells of a passionate criminal daughter of an Imperial scientist who inspired the very spirit of the Alliance that carried forward.  Mothma would likely tell the young eager soldiers of the Alliance or the New Republic that everything they have is because of a woman she met once who was named Jyn Erso.   People may think that Mothma is just telling a story to inspire others, but we know the truth that often some of the greatest heroes are not the ones who get the medals.