Aggressive Negotiations: A Star Wars Podcast

A Star Wars Wish List. ?It's the Holiday Season, a time for thankfulness and...wish lists! In this issue of Aggressive Negotiations, John Mills and Matthew Rushing review their wish lists for Star Wars as they prepare for 2017. What do the fans want from their movies (or at least these fans)? Is there a place in the galaxy for Star Wars: The Broadway Years? What esoteric treats from the Lucasfilm...

There are few characters in Star Wars like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. They have been explore in movies and a television show but one thing that has not been done in canon is to dig into the years between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. In this episode of Aggressive Negotiations Jedi Masters John Mills and Matthew Rushing talk about Marvel's Obi-Wan and Anakin comic mini seri...

Star Wars Rebels: S3, Part 1.  The third season of Star Wars Rebels started off strong, with a very enigmatic new force user, some old friends and enemies. But how did the rest of the season fare? In this episode of Aggressive Negotiations Masters John Mills and Matthew Rushing look at the first half of season 3. We talk about the wins, the losses and the implications of the winter finale. Hosts J...

The Jedi Win. What if Obi-Wan and Yoda had faced Sidious together at the end of Revenge of the Sith?  To borrow a line from a different franchise, history is replete with turning points. Join your hosts John Mills and Matthew Rushing as they explore what might have happened if a pivotal Star Wars moment - the dual confrontations of at the end of Revenge of the Sith - had gone a bit differently. Ho...

Qui-Gon Jinn. Like a comet, he flashed briefly across the skies of the Star Wars galaxy, spurring questions of prophecy. Would Anakin Skywalker's fate have been different if he lived? Would the Jedi Order have spared itself a painful purge if he hadn't fallen to Darth Maul on Naboo? Join your hosts Matthew Rushing and John Mills as they field a listener question about Qui-Gon's potential impact on...

Favorite Locales. From the sunset hues of Cloud City to the sculpted streets of Theed, Star Wars has always been known as a galaxy far, far above the location design of your average film series. A short hyperspace jump can take you from one amazing aesthetic to another. Join your hosts John Mills and Matthew Rushing as they discuss their favorite locales, finding similarities and differences in th...

Thanksgungan. Sometimes fans take for granted the many ways Star Wars has made our free time so much more enjoyable. We focus on what we want instead of what a great gift it is to have such a rich escape from the many stresses of our days. In short, we can lose sight of what it is that makes being a fan so much fun. So gather together this year with Matt and John as they recount recount the things...

Mandalorians. When his armor was first glimpsed, Boba Fett captured the heart of Star Wars fandom. As his mythos grew, fans came to know he was “Mandalorian.”  But the definition of a Mandalorian has shifted over time. Fenn Shysa told one history in the Marvel comics of the 1980s. They acquired a new origin as the Expanded Universe was rebuilt in the 1990s. Then came The Clone Wars TV series, with...

The “Witches of Dathomir” have lurked in the back edge of fandom since the days of the old Expanded Universe in the 1990s, when they appeared in The Courtship of Princess Leia.  They captured the imagination years later, when they were reworked and included in The Clone Wars TV series, woven into the story of Dooku's acolyte, Asajj Ventress, and then revealed to be a part of the backstory of fan-f...

Star Wars Halloween Special.  Imagine a world where the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special was good and entertaining, and seeking opportunities to capitalize on that success, Lucasfilm was open to making more holiday specials. We could have received a Star Wars Halloween Special. In this episode of Aggressive Negotiations John Mills and Matthew Rushing explore the idea of what a Star Wars Halloween Sp...

The Phantom Menace unleashed Darth Maul into a world ready for an on-screen inheritor to the terror that Darth Vader tapped into in 1977. Then it promptly killed him. That was, of course, not the end of the story. In this episode of Aggressive Negotiations Matthew Rushing and John Mills explore the extended life of Darth Maul, the Energizer Bunny of Star Wars villains. They discuss their reactions...

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - the movie soundtrack. In 2008, George Lucas took everyone a little off-guard by announcing that the animated Star Wars show in development, The Clone Wars, was going to get its own theatrical release to kick off the series. Debate immediately raged among fans disoriented by the idea of an animated Star Wars movie. What was to be expected? What would it look like? And ju...

Star Wars Rebels is now in its third seasons and continues to solidify itself as worthy successor to The Clone Wars, carrying on the proud tradition of challenging Star Wars fans with new perspectives to see things from, by deepening the mythology of the saga. In this issue of Aggressive Negotiations our intrepid masters are diving head first the season three premiere of Rebels and plumping the de...

“Die wanna wanga?” Star Wars has always been known for its creative use of languages. Whether a Rodian, a Hutt or a human being, each was given its own tongue to communicate in that galaxy far, far away. And communication was never a real barrier...most of the time. John Mills and Matthew Rushing translate their way through the finer points of language in Star Wars, from conversations with crime l...

What makes Anakin and Luke different, and why were their choices so distinct? This leads into the driving question for The Force Awakens for director JJ Abrams, “Who is Luke Skywalker?” While the answer may seem simple, it's layered with meaning and metaphor built through four decades of filmmaking.  Matthew Rushing and John Mills challenge each other with their interpretations of Luke and Anakin,...

Every year in the real-life Mos Eisley known as Atlanta, Georgia, fans of all types and stripes gather to celebrate the slices of geek life they love. This magical gathering is called DragonCon, and for several decades it's been the premiere place for fans to meet, mingle and muse on topics having to do with all their favorite obsessions. Aggressive Negotiations' own Matthew Rushing attended Drago...

With every original script must come a novelization. Whereas movie properties like Harry Potter are adaptations of written source material, screen concepts like Star Wars are given the reverse treatment. An author must come in and adapt visual shorthand to the written word and find a way to do so compellingly. Often they do so by expanding scenes, inserting internal dialogue, and including moments...

Star Wars is a rich tapestry populated by interesting characters with deep back stories. At least, we think it might be. With a plethora of characters and concepts, and media to transmit their stories, one of the great mysteries of the new map Lucasfilm is building of Star Wars history is how many disappointing turns and dead ends you find on your journey. Whether Chewbacca, Vader, or Fett, these...

We pitched theoretical television shows, so let's look at what Lucasfilm has on the way in reality. Disney and Lucasfilm launched the animated show *Star Wars Rebels* with the hopes of luring in old fans and a new audience eager for adventures in a galaxy far, far away. After some fitful adjustments in tone and focus, Season 3 debuts soon, and with it another chance to capture the minds of *Star W...

In a short while, on a television very near you... Disney and Lucasfilm have fired up the imaginations of fans yet again with the promise of a live-action television show set in the Star Wars galaxy. Immediately we wonder, when it will be set and what characters we will see. Shortly after that, we wonder if we should get head shots and an agent. In this episode of Aggressive Negotiations, Jedi Mas...

The Revenge of the Sith soundtrack. As the prequel trilogy came to a close, John Williams delivered a linchpin score to tie together six films, and a single story, stitched together over the span of three decades. Revenge of the Sith promised what fans had been demanding since the first announcement of the prequel trilogy in the mid 1990s: the key to understanding the entire journey.  The score, a...

But is it Canon? A question that consumes franchise fans, and especially *Star Wars* fans, is the authentic and official nature of non-film works. The religious term adopted for these works is “canon,” the concept of an essential text that is indispensable to the acolyte's complete understanding of the story. In this episode of Aggressive Negotiations, Jedi Masters John Mills and Matthew Rushing d...

Better Call Saw Saw Gerrera! Who is he, and why is it so important to fans that he's appearing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story? In this episode, we lay out the origins of Saw, what themes his character supports, what his inclusion could mean for the Star Wars franchise as a whole, and what you should watch to prepare for his character. In this episode of Aggressive Negotiations, Jedi Masters Matth...

Give Clone Peace a Chance. The conflict that is the pivot point for all of the Star Wars is the Clone War, the culminating battle between Good and Evil with heroes determined by a point of view. It is the point around which an entire galaxy spirals into chaos, and a battle that continues all the way into The Force Awakens. In this episode of Aggressive Negotiations, Jedi Masters John Mills and Mat...

Issue 22: 8-Bit Jedi John and Matt revisit their pixelated polygon dreams in this issue, discussing the history and the present of Star Wars video games with an eye toward what could work for the future of the franchise. Learn a little bit more about your hosts when they discuss what tickles their midichlorians and what games appeal to them most! In this episode of *Aggressive Negotiations*, Jedi...