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Welcome
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Nathaniel Reed's
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| :: A trilogy of fan-fic set after Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and inspired by George Lucas' historical draft concepts :: |
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| February 2012 |
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Threading the coral needle !
29th February 2012 |
| Having returned to the water world of Mon Calamar, Master Jedi Luke Skywalker is reunited with his sister Leia Solo as she leads Jedi pilots in manoeuvres in orbit. |
| Secured inside a Mon Calamari Coraller starfighter, Leia boldly races ahead and leads him down to the ocean planet below. |
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| Far less reckless and more mature than he ever was before, the young Jedi Master mutters an, "Oh boy, here we go", to Artoo Detoo stationed behind his X-Wing cockpit. |
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| In an old image produced by Scott, the two starships dive towards Mon Cal. |
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| Another image previously illustrated by Scott, the X-Wing and the Coraller skim across the spray thrown up by the waves, and head towards exotic coral outcroppings in the distance. |
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| The two starships weave through the coral structures in back-breaking manouevres only possible with the help of the Force. |
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| Again illustrated earlier by Scott, Leia leads her brother through the coral maze. She tells him she knows a short-cut, and warns him to not clip his wings ! Luke is suddenly recognising Han's cocky bravado has been rubbing off on his sister !! |
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| Leia Solo heads towards the base of a large coral island up ahead, and skims the crashing waves... |
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| Luke remarks that all he wants to do is reach Aquilae in one piece, and Artoo whistles and beeps in response, turning his dome to and fro. |
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| In this old image by Scott, the Coraller swiftly enters the narrow fissure, and Luke is forced to tip his starfighter up sideways to get through ! |
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| As Luke exhales in relief, Artoo issues a blue streak ! For anyone who can read aurebesh, the little droid is saying, "I don't know how we got through that !" |
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| You can see the VE artwork in the 'Mon Cal' art gallery as well as in the online illustrated story, and you can discuss this in the forum here ! |
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February 2012 saw the release of Episode I : The Phantom Menace 3D in the cinemas, and I managed to go along to see it. First off, it was great to see a Star Wars movie up on the 'big screen' again, and it was enjoyable as ever, but I couldn't help but acknowledge that it did seem to be ponderous and heavy-going when there was no action ; that the expositionary scenes lacked a 'verve' and energy in their direction or cutting. I've never been a 'Lucas Hater' or 'SW Basher' and it almost shames me to accept that Episode I - or it's first half - is like this. I was reminded of the excitement and thrill of seeing it in '99, and although one has got older and wiser and more jaded since, I also realised that back then we weren't aware of the content or quality of AOTC or ROTS - watching the 3D version, I found myself wanting the next episode, partly to 'move it along', partly because I now knew where the story and its characters were heading !
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| From the point of view of the 3D aspect, I was already aware that there would not be the effect of lightsabres swinging out over the audience or starfighters racing over our heads ; Lucas has said that he prefers the effect to be more subtle, and emphasise the influence on the story-telling or the characters' prominence. Personally, I feel that since 3D is an effect, and added to that, SW is a fantasy SF film, it would have made great sense to have really exaggerated the 3D, but as it stood there were indeed moments when the 3D really did add depth to the scene, and the viewer felt drawn into the setting ; oddly, certain scenes or characters seemed to lend themselves better than others, and I'm thinking here specifically of Watto, or Shmi's dinner scene, or the Jedi facing Boss Nass in Otoh Gunga or at the Council Tower. But equally there were times when it seemed just a normal 2D presentation of the film.... which of course could be down to the cinema facilities !
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| Overall, I did enjoy it, but with reservations.
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Staying with TPM, there have recently been some interviews with Ahmed Best, the actor who performed Jar Jar Binks.
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| In one he specifically refers to a deleted scene from Episode III Revenge of the Sith, in which Jar Jar is walking with Chancellor Palpatine, and the latter is thanking the gungan for helping him achieve this highest position of power. Ahmed really liked the irony and darkness of this scene, and showed how the evolution of Jar Jar led to him becoming simply a manipulated politician ; the actor accepts though that ultimately the scene didn't fit with how the rest of the story was flowing. It's unclear whether this was a scene cut from the drafts and the script, or if it was actually filmed, but still I think it gives a nice rounding off to this 'controversial' character as he misguidedly matures into his political role [as per last month's editorial comments].
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| In a fuller interview with EW, he describes how he first got the role, what the expectations were for him and Jar Jar, and the complete surprise - from himself and all the cast - by what the actual reaction turned out to be. He maintains he did not regret the role, and could not himself see the justification for the specific complaints over racism. It's an interesting insight straight from the bantha's mouth as it were !
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| Nathaniel Reed, 29th February 2012 |
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