Star Wars 7x7: A Daily Bite-Sized Dose of Star Wars Joy

Well, we may not be getting a Star Wars Celebration this year, but a bunch of podcasters have rallied together to create a 60-panel event called ForceFest this weekend.

"Star Wars Celebration has always been a huge part of Star Wars fandom," said Sarah Woloski, one of the event's organizers. "Fans gather from all over the world to celebrate the Star Wars saga and meet up with new and old friends. We knew we could use technology to mimic that feel virtually."

"The Star Wars fandom has always been active online creating their own content out of love for the saga," said David Jesse of Tatooine Sons, one of the organizing shows. "FORCEFEST will create a larger platform for shows of all themes and sizes to share their unique brand of streaming in a shared environment."

On today's show, we'll talk about what's in store for the event, how it has a great tie-in to the in-person Star Wars Celebration events, and the good cause for which they're raising money. Punch it!

LINKS Here's where to find them online:

Donate: https://bit.ly/FFMakeAWish Website: https://about.getvokl.com/forcefest Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2671861966424569 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ForceFestSaga Instagram: http://instagram.com/forcefestsaga

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I thought the short stories of Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark were good, but via audio, they're even better - and for a unique reason.

Most audiobooks are performed by a narrator who does all the voices. Sometimes you get a full cast performance, like with the Dooku: Jedi Lost or Doctor Aphra audio dramas. The nearest thing, perhaps, to what we get in this collection is what happened for From a Certain Point of View, the collection of stories for the 40th anniversary of A New Hope. But most of those stories were also read by narrators with whom you're familiar from other Star Wars audiobooks.

For this collection of Clone Wars stories, however, you're treated to performances by the actors who voiced characters in the Clone Wars series itself. We'll talk about how that all matches up, and about the one original story in the collection, on today's show... Punch it!

(Thanks to Penguin Random House Audio for sharing a review copy with me, too.)

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark is a new collection of 11 short stories, each inspired by a Clone Wars episode or story arc. (Thanks go to Disney Lucasfilm Press for sending along a review copy to check out in advance.)

It's been advertised as a set of stories for middle grade readers, but in fact it reads above its pitched level. It's satisfying for a YA or even an adult audience in most cases, with political, philosophical, and emotional complexity to many of the stories. They mix it up with first- and third-person tales, and you generally don't need to have seen the episodes which inspired them in order to enjoy them. Although that certainly doesn't hurt.

It's a non-=spoiler review today, and we'll also talk about the fact that three of the eleven stories were inspired by one specific Clone Wars TV series writer (the other eight were inspired by eight other writers's stories), and that three-story writer is rather noteworthy... Punch it!

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This is it! The final episode in our "winners" and "losers" series covering the Skywalker Saga, looking at the fortunes of the characters (and groups of characters) in those movies, and whose fortunes improved the most, or sank the hardest, as a result of the events of a given movie.

Today, we're looking at the losers of The Rise of Skywalker. Without revealing the order, here's the list alphabetically (sort of):

Allegiant General Pryde General Hux General Leia Organa Imperial Remnant Palpatine Sith Eternal Snap Wexley

I have to say, it feels a bit sacrilegious to have Leia on this list, but I think I have a defensible reason. We'll get into all of it today... Punch it!

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We're in the final stretch of our look at the winners and losers of the various Star Wars Skywalker Saga movies! Following a series we had done for the Original and Prequel Trilogies many years ago, this set closes the circle.

Today, we're looking at the winners of The Rise of Skywalker - the people whose fortunes most improved as a result of the events of the movie. In alphabetical order, we're talking about:

Babu Frick Finn Jannah Kylo Ren/Ben Solo Lando Poe Rey

What order they come in is another story. You'll have to listen for it, but I will say that Rey does not come out on top. Let me know what your own order would be... Punch it!

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The "Winners and Losers" series for the Star Wars movies continues! We're on to The Last Jedi, and in yesterday's episode, we talked about the winners. So naturally, today we're going to talk about the "losers" - the characters whose fortunes took a turn for the worst as a result of the events of the movie.

But in yesterday's episode, we noted that middle movies in trilogies tend to have an interesting effect on wins and losses. The wins tend not to be tidy; and by the same token, the losses sometimes have silver linings or offer moments of redemption. On today's episode, you'll be hearing about these seven, though not in this order:

General Hux Luke Maz Kanata Phasma Poe Resistance Leadership Snoke

So, would you change the order, or swap out anyone here with someone else? Let us know in the comments... Punch it!

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The "Winners and Losers" series continues! We're moving on to The Last Jedi, and this movie presented a bit of a challenge. Bad things do happen to characters in Star Wars movies, but when they come out on top, it feels fully triumphant. There's something about the middle movies in a trilogy, though, that don't make for clean victories.

The "Winners" episode is where we talk about the characters whose fortunes most improved as a result of the events of movie. In alphabetical order, here's who you'll hear about today:

DJ Finn Kylo Ren/Ben Solo Leia Rey Rose Yoda

The order is where the surprises are... Punch it!

(And where would YOU order them? Have your say in the comments!)

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As I was prepping the "Winners" and "Losers" episodes for The Force Awakens, I realized that Finn appeared on neither list. Why?

On today's episode, I'm going to explain why Finn is a special case, and resisted (no pun intended) an easy classification as a winner or loser as a result of the events of the movie. It has something to do with his wavering loyalties... Punch it!

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Yesterday, we revived a series that began in 2014, which detailed the seven "winners" and "losers" from each Star Wars movie. At the time, the Sequel Trilogy hadn't yet appeared in theaters - now that they have, it's time for the circle to be completed!

We started off with a look at the winners of The Force Awakens, and today, we're flipping the coin to look at the top seven losers - the characters whose fortunes took the most dramatic turns for the worst. Without revealing the order of the list, here are the seven you'll hear about on the show today:

Captain Phasma Chewbacca Kylo Ren/Ben Solo Leia Organa Maz Kanata Snap Wexley Unkar Plutt

I'll also say that you could easily make a case for swapping who I have at #1 and #3 - in fact, I actually did! After recording the episode, I decided I had it wrong, and re-recorded to flip the two into the order you'll hear on the episode. But how would YOU order them, or swap and replace? Punch it!

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Back in 2014 - when Star Wars 7x7 episodes were two-digit numbers instead of the four-digit numbers they are today - we did a series of looks at the Original Trilogy and Prequel Trilogy movies through an unusual lens. We did episodes about the winners and losers of each movie - specifically, the seven characters whose fortunes were the most improved as the result of the events of a given movie, or alternatively, whose fortunes suffered the most.

To complete the cycle (for the time being, at least), we're revisiting that series and picking up where we left off, by listing the top seven characters whose fortunes improved as a result of the events of The Force Awakens.

Not to spoil the order in the episode, but alphabetically speaking, here's who made the winner's list:

BB-8 C-3P0 General Hux Han Solo Poe Dameron R2-D2 Rey

Who took the top spot? How would you rank this list, and who would you add/replace? Punch it!

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