Boiled Leather Audio Hour #57

A Long Time Ago: The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

This New Year’s Eve, ring in the coming year the old-fashioned way: Listen to Sean and Stefan talk about George Lucas’s Star Wars prequel trilogy for 80 minutes! For the final BLAH of 2016, we’re tackling one of our most frequently requested topics and going long on Episodes I, II, and III of the blockbuster franchise: 1999’s The Phantom Menace, 2002’s Attack of the Clones, and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith. An all but universally accepted punching bag for much of the decade since it brought the curtain down on the early adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker et al, the prequel trilogy has seen something of a change of critical fortune at since dawn of the Disney era and its crowd-pleasing kick-off The Force Awakens. With another prequel, Rogue One, now in theaters (though Stefan hasn’t seen it, so shhhhh no spoilers), we thought it would be the perfect time to discuss Lucas’s uneven but ambitious auteurist prequel saga in depth, movie by movie. Are they the Fall of the Republic–level disasters they’re made out to be, or do they have an artistic Force worth reckoning with? Listen in and find out!

DOWNLOAD EPISODE 57

PLUS! With this episode of BLAH, our 14th this year, we’re pleased to announce the start of a new series of subscriber-only mini-episodes beginning this January! For the low low price of a monthly $1 contribution to the Boiled Leather Audio Hour Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive monthly podcasts focused squarely on A Song of Ice and Fire (with a bit of Game of Thrones mixed in, we suspect, but mostly the books) and derived from listener questions. It’s our way of saying thank you to those of you who’ve subscribed this year and thus made recording these so much easier for us—and, we hope, a tempting offer for those of you who haven’t yet taken the plunge. Visit our Patreon page, pitch in, and get in on the ground floor! And now back to your regularly scheduled BLAH. Happy Holidays!
Additional links:

Jesse Hassenger’s essay on the prequels for the AV Club.
Roderick Heath’s essay on the prequels for Ferdy on Films.
Sean’s list of the 57 Greatest Star Wars Moments for Vulture (warning: Rogue One spoilers).
Sean’s list of Carrie Fisher’s 10 Greatest ‘Star Wars’ Moments for Rolling Stone (warning: Rogue One spoilers).
Our BLAH episode on The Force Awakens.
Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour.
Our PayPal donation page (also accessible via boiledleather.com).
Our iTunes page.
Mirror.
Previous episodes.
Podcast RSS feed.
Sean’s blog.
Stefan’s blog.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 149

Thursday is court day!

Welcome to the Supreme Court of Westeros! Every week, three pressing questions from the community will be answered by the esteemed judges Stefan (from your very own Nerdstream Era) and Amin (from A Podcast of Ice and Fire). The rules are simple: we take three questions, and one of us writes a measured analysis. The other one writes a shorter opinion, either concurring or dissenting. The catch is that every week a third judge from the fandom will join us and also write a dissenting or concurring opinion. So if you think you're up to the task - write us an email to stefan_sasse@gmx.de, leave a comment in the post, ask in the APOIAF-forum or contact Amin at his tumblr. Discussion is by no means limited to the court itself, though - feel free to discuss our rulings in the commentary section and ask your own questions through the channels above.

One word on spoilers: we assume that you read all the books, including the Hedge Knight short stories, and watched the current TV episodes. We don't include the spoiler chapters from various sources in the discussion, with the notable exception of Theon I, which was supposed to be in "A Dance with Dragons" anyway.

Please note that our new ebook is up and available on Amazon, collecting the first 60 rulings and the best comments in one place. It's only 5,99$, so what are you waiting for? 

And now, up to ruling 149! Our guest judge this week is Jeff Meehan. Originally from Northern Virginia, Jeff Meehan is a lifelong history buff and political junkie living in New Orleans where he works as an antiques restorer. His pastimes include following DC sports, cooking, and being obnoxious on Twitter where his twitter handle is Duncan Royce or @AtlasRoyce. He is still overly proud of getting GRRM on the record as to who was the influence for Stannis Baratheon. Email address is molskine.grit@gmail.com.

Rogue One review

By Marcus A. Roberts

The metaphor almost comes too easily: the Galactic Empire that is Disney determined to crush the life and creativity out of a small band of Rebel filmmakers . But it is truth, for Rogue One is nothing if not a struggle for supremacy between studio and director, industry and artistry. 

At Tuesday night's special IMAX screening you didn't even need to wait for the movie to start for the laserfire and lightsabre slashes - the director and studio boss on stage in the pre-movie Q&A were locked in verbal conflict from the outset. 

The road ahead

As you may have noticed, posting has become a bit infrequent on the blog these days. That's due to some real life concerns on my part that take up too much of my spare time right now to regularily write about Nerdstream topics, and a general exhaustion on part of me and Amin with the Supreme Court of Westeros. Therefore, I have to anounce two changes to the blogs.

First, the Flight of Links section will not be continued for the moment. I simply can't find the time anymore. I might take this up again at a later date.

Second, we will pause the Supreme Court of Westeros with issue 150 until "The Winds of Winter" comes out. To give it a proper farewell, we thought that it would be nice to answer seven questions with seven judges in one mega-ruling. So, if you have any questions worthy of such an undertaking that elicit different responses from seven different judges (which is certainly not true of all questions), then please submit them to us via the usual channels.

Supreme Court of Westeros, ruling 148

Thursday is court day!

Welcome to the Supreme Court of Westeros! Every week, three pressing questions from the community will be answered by the esteemed judges Stefan (from your very own Nerdstream Era) and Amin (from A Podcast of Ice and Fire). The rules are simple: we take three questions, and one of us writes a measured analysis. The other one writes a shorter opinion, either concurring or dissenting. The catch is that every week a third judge from the fandom will join us and also write a dissenting or concurring opinion. So if you think you're up to the task - write us an email to stefan_sasse@gmx.de, leave a comment in the post, ask in the APOIAF-forum or contact Amin at his tumblr. Discussion is by no means limited to the court itself, though - feel free to discuss our rulings in the commentary section and ask your own questions through the channels above.

One word on spoilers: we assume that you read all the books, including the Hedge Knight short stories, and watched the current TV episodes. We don't include the spoiler chapters from various sources in the discussion, with the notable exception of Theon I, which was supposed to be in "A Dance with Dragons" anyway.

Please note that our new ebook is up and available on Amazon, collecting the first 60 rulings and the best comments in one place. It's only 5,99$, so what are you waiting for? 

And now, up to ruling 148 ! Our guest judge this week is Daniel Huigsloot, a member of the community.

A Flight of Links

ASOIAF meta
- Parallels between Euron and Renly
- Euron on drugs
- Parallels between Theon and Euron
- Theon as better man
- Willas
- Quentyn!!!!!!
- Qarth
- Sansa 
- Willas
- Lannisters and true knights
- Stannis
- Thematic brillance
- Peace in Meereen
- Pink Letter
- Renly's gains
- The Watcher