Star Wars: Delusions Of Granular

With Ron on holiday break Steve and his brother Alex take over the show to give you their granular thoughts on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story!

Ron gives you his granular review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

This week we see the release of the new Star Wars Movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Join us as Ron give his last thoughts, hopes, dreams and worries before he sees it later this week. 

In canon, we're seeing a defecting stormtrooper who picks up a lightsaber, droids resembling stormtroopers, and a mission to steal the Death Star plans. But where have we seen these before? The answer lies in Legends! In this episode, Steve talks about Star Wars: Dark Forces. What begins as a review of the fun and suspenseful 1995 video game becomes a rant on the underwhelming Imperial Sentry Droids in Star Wars: Rebels and how those - or the Dark Troopers proper - could be put to better use in something like Rogue One.

Marvel's Han Solo mini-series just wrapped up Ron gets granular with it. Han Solo is a fan favorite character for many people. So how do in-canon stories outside of the movies hold up. In this series, Han and Chewbacca are asked to race in the Dragon Void Run in order to go on a secret mission for the Rebellion. Ron gives this storyline a positive review before getting lost in possibilities about the upcoming Han Solo movie. Along the way, Burt Reynolds, Cannonball Run, Smokey and The Bandit and BJ and The Bear are discussed. We promise this all makes sense in context...maybe.

Here's Steve's review of Star Wars: Catalyst - A Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Novel! Though the book relies more on detail than action, it provides interesting info on the Death Star and a few Rogue One characters that may add on to the movie-going experience. Hear Steve ponder what this book means for the film and where the characters stand in Star Wars storytelling as a whole!

With Rogue One a couple weeks away, Ron speed reads his was though the prequel novel to that movie. Star Wars Catalyst is the book that leads up to the events of Rogue One focusing on the relationship between Galen Erso and Orson Krennic. This is the story of how the Death Star came to be in existence...but more importantly this book is about KYBER CRYSTALS! Listen as Ron discusses this book and why he thinks kyber crystals are worse than midichlorians!    

Did you know there was another Star Wars Lego show on Disney XD? Did you know that it's a show with original main characters? Did you know that this show was surprisingly deep for a kids show? Ron checks out the Freemaker Adventures and let's you know if this is worth your time or not.    

Steve has completed the Star Wars: Dark Times comic series. In this final arc, A Spark Remains, he finds the ending to be thematically poignant yet leaving a bit to be desired. He ponders whether or not we should know the fates of certain characters, the open-ended nature of which adds on to the "Legends loose ends." Hear his closing thoughts on the series!

It's a different sort of episode this week. Simply put, Ron wants to talk about the importance of hope in the Star Wars universe and in our world as well.

Steve "the Sheev" Shinder takes a break from talking about Dark Times to talk about happy times. He spent his birthday at a Star Wars: Ahsoka Q&A / book-signing event in LA, where he met author E.K. Johnston and actress Ashley Eckstein! Hear his thoughts on the experience of seeing other fans and getting to meet familiar faces and voices in person. Stay granular!

Ron has finally finished the latest book in the new Star Wars canon, Star Wars: Ahsoka. After the events of The Clone Wars where Ahsoka Tano left the Jedi Temple in disgrace for a crime she didn't commit, we don't know what happens to this young Jedi until she appears much later on Star Wars: Rebels. This book is here to bridge the gap and tell us her story during that dark period. So how is this new book? Ron gives you his granular review and much more in this episode of SWDOG!

In this review of Dark Times: Fire Carrier, Steve finds this sixth and penultimate arc to be one of the better ones of the series. He is moved by the ending, but there there are seeds for speculation planted that he wishes had been more fleshed out to connect dots between stories of different eras. Find out about these "Legends loose ends" and other thoughts on this story!

Ron is playing catch up on some of the latest things going on in the Star Wars universe. Rogue One has a new trailer, Marvel's Poe Dameron continues on with a new artist, Star Wars Rebels is rolling along and a Community actor is cast as Lando Calrissian. All this and some other speculation on the timing of Episode VIII announcements on this episode of SWDOG!

Steve reviews Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness. In this fifth arc of the series, there is romantic tension between Ember Chankeli and surviving Jedi Dass Jennir as they are hunted by an assassin. Is there much to this assassin? What new info do we learn about Jennir a bit late in the game? And does the arc title make sense? All this and some speculation in this granular review!

The Darth Vader series from Marvel just ended and with that we got a complete story with multiple arcs about what happened to Darth Vader after the events of A New Hope. Now in canon, we now have definitive events and characters from this era. So how did the series do overall? Was this a good addition to the canon? As with other characters introduced outside of the movies, how does Dr. Aphra and these other new characters stack up? Join us as Ron gives his parting thoughts about this series and the upcoming series from Marvel. And stick around at the end for a Granular Minute from Steve "The Sheev."

Steve "the Sheev" has finished reading the Ahsoka novel by E.K. Johnston. He recommends this for those who've seen her journey through The Clone Wars and gotten familiar with her unproduced arcs. And while there are some details that he feels are glossed over, he still thinks that it's a satisfying read. No really, he does! He even recommends the audiobook read by Ashley Eckstein. Hear his granular thoughts, which range from the main topic of the book to the tangential!

With the release of Rogue One in the not too distant future, Ron and Jp get into a debate about what they expect from this movie and how it will effect the state of future Star Wars movies and fandom in the future.

Join Steve as he reviews Dark Times: Blue Harvest. Dass Jennir is back in this arc ofDark Times after being absent in Parallels and Vector. But does he look too much like Ben Kenobi? How differently does he act? And is the arc title right for this story? All this and more weirdness in this granular review!

Red Letter Media and it's character reviewer Mr. Plinkett made Internet history years ago by taking down the Prequels with their 70 minute review of The Phantom Menace. Since then, the fans have been at odds with each other about whether the Prequels are good or not. Many documentaries have been made on this subject, jokes across the Internet have gone on for years regarding the Prequels and even SWDOG has come down on one side of the argument (pro-Prequel). And now Mr. Plinkett is back, albeit 10 months late, with his review of The Force Awakens. A lot has happened during Red Letter Media's time away. For one, starwarsringtheory.com has gone on to prove that Lucas actually did know what he was doing when he made the three prequels. Plinkett goes on for quite a long time to prove that the ring theory is just that, a theory and Lucas was grasping for straws when he made the Prequels. All of this is a long way of saying that Jp is back to discuss (review the review?) Red Letter Media's newest video about the St