Further Deconstruction of Star Wars

There were a few points which I failed to mention in my last post. First, and just briefly, I find it hard to believe that Lucas had written all six Star Wars movies before making the original. I imagine he had an outline which included material not covered in the first three films. I am sure this outline expanded during the production process of each film. This is neither, here nor there. My opinion of Mr. Lucas' creative process doesn't really get us to my point very quickly. Ultimately, my opinion is mute because Mr. L is the creative genius millionaire and I'm just a lower middle class drone with a laptop.

I'll let this vague image of Grumpy Cat represent my question for today. What happened to the 999 other generations of Jedi Knights? I know they are covered in the various comics, video games and novels. It just seems that Lucas wrote this line and then farmed it out for creative licensing. Again, if I'm gonna bitch about it, I should be so creative.

I'm not sure I have all this deconstruction out of my system. I know I need to seek some sanctuary in my copy of the Dark Horse Omnibus of the original Star Wars comics. I should have some actual game content or news of the Adventure Capitalists for you all soon.

From Tatooine, the Skywalker family! Come on down!

I recently crawled out of my corporate cave long enough to discover Harmy's Star Wars Despecialized Edition. Then, one day this past week, before reporting to work, I managed to watch the first hour of Star Wars. I was, as you may imagine, riveted to the screen. That first hour of Star Wars is some of the best cinematography ever. I mean, evah!

The viewing of this old film greased the ol' thought process and I couldn't help but wonder how Luke Skywalker had an uncle? Since papa Skywalker, Anakin / Darth Vader, was an only child, where did uncle Owen Lars come from? I was thinking this was another

giant plot flaw in the Lucasverse until I looked at the
Wikipedia entry for the Skywalker family and was reminded that Grandma Skywalker, once released from slavery,  had married Cliegg Lars.

Now I know where uncle Owen Lars came from, plot flaw resolved. However, having read said Wiki article, I am reminded that Anakin/ Darth Vader was the product of a miraculous birth. Gibberish, pure gibberish I tell you!

While reading about Harmy's Star Wars project I was reminded that in one of the prequels, Yoda remarks that the prophecy associated with Anakin may have been misinterpreted.  What is Lucas saying here? And, why haven't Christian groups protested this stab at their sacred text? Perhaps there was some uproar but I missed the memo. Most likely, they just don't analyze the inner working of the Lucasverse to this extent.

This discussion could go on all day. I know it is a discussion that has been flogged to death across the entree-net. (Yeah, I call it the entree-net, if you haven't noticed.) None the less, welcome back, welcome back all of you to The Polyhedral Lucasverse!

A few more comments on the Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book

It turns out that the S.W.G.P.B & T.G. is divided into three sections. The first part is the fictional Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide. The second part is a discussion of the development of the sounds and languages of the Star Wars franchise and the brief third part is Selected Alien Language Scenes from Star Wars.

In my previous article about the S.W.G.P.B.& Travel Guide I did not give any information about the author, Ben Burtt who was a sound engineer on the first three Star Wars movies. Mr. Burtt also worked on E.T., Alien, Indiana Jones, and The Phantom Menace. (Just to name the movies mentioned in S.W.G.P.B.& T.G.) So, this is a guy who has played a very influential role in the entertainment industry for the last forty years. I certainly enjoyed section two, titled Behind the Sounds, which provides a first hand account of his work and development of the major languages, and sounds, for Star Wars.

I wanted to share this one antidote from the development of Ewokese. Too add emotional elements, realism and believability, the languages of Star Wars where loosely based on actual spoken languages. Voice actors for these languages were most often native speakers with no training in theater. Ewokese became based upon Tibetan and other languages from that region. Here Mr. Burtt describes he search for native speakers while Ewokese was being developed.

"As I continued to search about, another unusual individual turned up, an eighty-year-old Mongolian tribeswoman who had just recently, and for the first time, been brought to urban civilization. She spoke no English, but was congenial, as long as she had a desired beverage on hand. We called her Grandma Vodka, and she spoke Kalmuck. With shot glass in hand, she exuded some very charming folktales in a raspy high-pitched voice that inspired Ewok." (p. 150 - 151)

The fun and irony of the above antidote really made me laugh.

Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide

I am currently reading the Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide by Ben Burtt which I just received last week from Paperback Swap dot Com. I thought this looked like a fun and funny book and my guesstimation was correct.

I have not spent much time playing Sci-Fi rpgs but I always seem to have some Sci-Fi related game ideas floating around. I probably wouldn't play a Star Wars rpg because I wouldn't know where to start the game. My approach to a Sci-fi game would involve the Mutant Future rules applied to any phaser and planet idea I may have in mind. Of course, Encounter Critical rules could be applied to any game genre a geek might want to try.

No mater what your rule set, the Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide could be useful for adding some details to the setting. This quote could help set the scene if the setting is among the stars; "Thanks to the absence of open warfare in the space lanes, and the dry-docking of Imperial Interdictor cruisers responsible for pulling craft out of hyperspace during the recent Rebellion, you may be among the many who find it relatively safe and economical to cross space again." (p. 17) This sounds like Ben Burtt's been crossing his Star Wars with Doug Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide which is fine and fun and right up the ol' home brew Sci-Fi alley.

I've read 71 pages of this book and it's given me plenty of possible adventure seeds already. Here's a useable quote from Hutt cultural history, "the Baobab Archives have uncovered tablets in archaeological diggings on the moons of Varl (the Hutt home world) showing ransom notes written in ancient Huttese at least 1000 years ago." (p. 31)

Do you want to run some player characters through Mos Eisley? "Mos Eisley .... has less scum (and villiainy) nowadays. The recent cleanup (by Imperial Troops) has helped stimulate the tourist and business trade." (p. 32) Chapter Three, Survival in Huttese, contains three pages on Mos Eisely with details of hostels, markets and dinning establishments.

How about the Forest Moon of Endor, what's been happening there after the Jedi returned? We learn this on page 49, "There have been several privately funded salvage expeditions to retrieve valuable hardware, the most significant being the hire and transport of 480 Jawas from Tattoonie ... to clean up the wreckage. Last reports indicate they mutinied and formed a roving bandit gang that had been known to prey on innocent visitors. No one has been hurt, but..."

Lastly, for now, if you're running a Star Wars game or Encounter Critical, perhaps your playing your own home brew Planet Algol setting, and you need some Wookiee terms, the phrase "Huwaa muaa mumwa," is certain to come in handy. (Can I buy you a drink?)

I'd like to mention that I also received an abridged edition, 160 pages, of Gargantua and Pantagruel from Paperback Swap last week. I am certain it will be full of potential gaming fun too. I may include more from the Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide in another post but, for now, I leave you with this Ewok phrase;

Allayloo ta nuv, coatee-cha tu yub nub.
(Celebrate the love, celebrate the freedom.)

Now, back to our Month Old News Dept.

What do Adventure Capitalist do when the cat is away?

Our Nightwick Abbey game is on hold for a few weeks while our DM has some summer fun. He said he was going to New Orleans to attend a wedding but I think that is just an excuse... I mean, who would get married in New Orleans in the middle of July? That would be like getting married in Birmingham at the end of August, hot, hot stuff!

So, for our part, what old grognards do when their frpg is on hold is play West End Games Star Wars. Our party consisted of three storm troopers. We were in the Imperial Navy equivalent of the F Troop. If our Star Wars adventure continues our tenure in the Imperial Navy will most likely come to a terminal, deadly end or we will all defect and become renegades like the scoundrels we truly are.