Aww yiss. This looks tasty.

Greg: remember the opening crawl to Episode IV?

"It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.

Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy…."

This is the story of that opening crawl. In the Rogue One trailers we see the crew at the Yavin base. They strike from there against the empire and steal the plans for the Death Star to turn them over to the resistance. They do the thing they do in Rogue One, and then Leia has the plans to plant into R2 before he and C3PO end up on Tattooine.

It's interesting. We don't know the details but we know exactly what the overall outcome will be already. So we can focus on the people, and that's what I hope the director emphasizes. Based on what he did in Monsters, I think he will.

And that guy at 1:16 is Ben Mendelsohn: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0578853/mediaviewer/rm1132534784

Also with regard to "their failure to destroy it the first time they try." I highly doubt they even try in Rogue One. The dialogue in Episode IV suggests that it's basically untested. People know of it but nobody has made any attempts on it.

I imagine the big battle will be a massive battle with star destroyers. Since the whole point is to get those plans so they know how to fight it, it seems unwise to go after it.

Oh! So I forgot-- I read a book that covers this whole story and people working on the Death Star are aware of the major battle, but yeah, the first attack on the Death Star is the one in Episode IV.

Lost Stars, such a good book.

I didn't get a Jeremy Irons feel from him, no, but I see your point!

Starkiller Base was the one in episode VII. That wasn't the empire but a group of fanatics who basically worship the empire, so they tried to emulate them and expand on them. They thought they had fixed the design flaws.

As for the second death star, that was hubris. Basically "Oh you destroyed a death star? No big, we'll just make another. See how little we care?" Trying to show that they were more confident to keep the fear alive, because if people stopped fearing them after the first death star was destroyed, then they would lose it all. That's also why so much more was riding on that second death star, and how they used it as bait to try to destroy the rebellion once and for all.

That's how I interpreted it anyway!

My Review of Jon's Review of Plinkett's Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review:

It's good. I agree with the points Jon makes and he states them well.

Actually I said that before even watching the video. :D I'm going to write this comment while watching.

I'm 45 minutes in and so far it's just a critique of Star Wars fans and the media around it. I kinda feel like the pacing would have been better if this was split in two-- a teardown of the lead-up to TFA, and then the review of TFA itself.

But I do like what he's saying about the politics of the prequel trilogy. As a more adult adult, I appreciate that part of the prequels more. I think it's likely that some of the political scenes were cut or trimmed down for length so it doesn't flow as well as it could, but Sidious masterfully building the Empire is great.

His criticism of the Republic/Resistance dichotomy is fair but it's also addressed. The Resistance is a semi-official military because the Republic has mostly disarmed. There were scenes cut that explain that, but again, I guess the politics was trimmed. It's also covered pretty extensively in other media, but those shouldn't be required for understanding.

I disagree with what he's saying about the OT not having much comedy outside of C3PO. The comedy is ramped up in TFA but it never felt out of place to me.

Oh man, that shot of Lucas saying "I was sort of ahead of my time with Red Tails. An all black film?" That felt so cringeworthy.

The lack of a "get the girl" plot didn't even register for me. I don't know. I don't see that as necessary at all. He really wanted Finn and Rey to kiss, but I never felt it was necessary. In fact it may have felt more derivative it if had happened.

Toward the end I felt some of these criticisms felt off the mark. Unfortunately I can't tell how many of them are the person's criticisms and how many are the character's, especially when he's talking about diversity.

I'd love it, though, if this was a guy talking about this stuff, not a guy talking about this stuff through a character with skits about being killed by filmmakers and banging pizza with a phone. It may be that in a near-two-hour video, the character and the humor just wear thin. But I've never really watched a Plinkett because of it until this one. There's great info and great critique, but I don't prefer the presentation.

That's contradictory, because I love boogie and his Francis character. LOVE him. So maybe the humor just isn't for me. But I do now see that the humor of Plinkett is worth sitting through for the content.

That's a very fair point, yeah. They touch on that in a short story that takes place before TFA, caring for others is kinda driven out of them. BUT at the same time, he's always resisted the brainwashing. Still, initial signs of the mental torment that gradually fade a bit as the movie goes on would have been great.