Splinter of the Mind’s Eye – Part 4
When you hear the sound of the Ewok dying, you will know it is time to turn the page. Let’s begin now…
Do you remember those old read-along books? I don’t know if they still make them for our contemporary generation of kids, so maybe only those of us who grew up in the early 80s will recall them. They were picture books that dumbed down the latest blockbuster movie into 20 or so pages. They were accompanied by the amazing gimmick of an audio cassette tape which featured narration along with sound clips from the film. For Raiders of the Lost Ark you would hear Indy’s bullwhip cutting the air. Very cool.
Well, we have just reached Part 4 of our Splinter of the Mind’s Eye story arc which begins Chapter 2 of the Alan Dean Foster novel. I don’t know if they did use the sound of a dying Ewok for the Return of the Jedi read-along book but that would have been fun! If Splinter of the Mind’s Eye had been made into a film then I wonder what sound effect would be for the accompanying book? A yawn perhaps? Or perhaps a sound clip of the narrator crying “don’t do it!” I’ll leave the logic behind that last one to Friday’s strip.
The artwork, pictured above left, is from the Dark Horse comics Splinter of the Mind’s Eye adaptation and was featured on the front cover of issue #1. The excellent illustration is by Hugh Fleming and depicts both Luke and Leia as they might have appeared in the book after crash landing. Notice how I’ve been posting illustrations that tie in chronologically with the story and strip? Noticed that, did you? Good.
This is the last time you’re going to see the now famous Pink Y-Wing of Princess Leia. So, anyone going to immortalize it by custom painting a Y-Wing for us? Send us your photos!
Part 2 in our ongoing series inspired by legitimate book covers and production stills.
New to Blue Milk Special? Start reading from the beginning!
Is it just me of does Leia look kind of hardcore with that black shirt. I mean I look at her and I feel like she is about to open a can of whoop-ass on some body….
where’s Chewbaca when you need him?!!??!
hehehehehe 😉
Luke you sly Bantha 😉
Yep – Amidala must be one of the dullest characters ever invented. Even frequent costume changes couldn’t enliven her day.
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The Star Wars ABCs is easily my favorite read-along. “Nien Numb isn’t dumb, but what a silly name it is!”
Wait…there’s no way 3P0 actually understands or is in any way sympathetic to Luke wanting to be alone with Leia. Yet it’s way too appropriate to the conversation to be some innocent remark taken the wrong way. /thinking too much about this
Oops, I almost forgot: I remember those books! They were great (or so my rose-coloured glasses of 80s nostalgia tell me).
Sometimes the glasses really are rose-tinted. Still, its the memory that counts. If you saw Silverhawks as a kid, then whatever you do, don’t watch Silverhawks now.
Very true! But to late for me…
Same goes for Masters of the Universe, Mask and Dino Riders.
I know! There’s this ambiguity to his comment. The more you re-read it, the more it’s clear there are two ways of interpreting this strip. Look at Leia in panel 3. She’s teasing, Luke. But if you look at Panel 4, you can take it literally, that C3PO is sympathetic to Luke’s desires, OR you can look at Leia’s angry reaction and Luke’s shock as if its directed at her, to mean that she must have been talking to Threepio about this before Luke found them. Wow. I had no idea BMS had such depth!
Oh, those books! I may still have some old ones on vinyl disk somewhere. The older ones said to change page at the beep, and the later ones got cute with sound effects. I had one SW book that said to change pages when R2 beeped.
And I still have a Star Wars record holder box, for 45-RPM records. Does anyone remember those?
Was there anything that didn’t get STAR WARS cheaply printed onto it? I still have paper party plates and napkins! My wife suggested I get the plate laminated – or encased in resin!
Heh, I think I’ve got some Return of the Jedi party hats in a box somewhere.
Any translation for R-2’s “BEEEEP *Whistle*”
If memory serves his memory was never actually wiped after episode III so he may know more than he is saying (or beeping). Isn’t Cannon interpretation fun?
Yes, but wouldn’t that also make Artoo Detoo a really nasty prankster, since he’s not telling C3PO WHY Luke and Leia should keep their distance? In any case, the fact they were related wasn’t introduced until ROTJ, which came fairly late in the game. We’re standing by “canon” as it was at the time of the material we are parodying it… with only rare exceptions.
Today’s strip (10-1-10) must be one of those “Rare exceptions” 😉
I still think we need a BMST3K cross over (after all Tom Servo was in Troops).
Kid? I still technically a kid(15) but i read those books. does that in turn make me old but young? *brain hurts*
I’m just a 32 year old kid. 🙂
I almost forgot about the pink iPhone Leia gakked from TK90210! Of course she’d be using it now!
….but how is she charging it? I mean, unless she gakked TK90210’s charger, too? ::::thinking way too much about this::::
Just a couple of notes that you might find interesting:
1: up until the beginning of the 20th century, pink was considered macho and blue a girly color. Why? Well, red was true blood spilling macho, and pink just a faded version. Food for thought. Pink means badass.
2. I remember those “read along” books, and I also remember reading Splinter back when it first came out. My mom worked in a bookstore, so I snagged one of the first copies. I was a happy 11 year old (assuming it was 1978, one year after Star Wars). And yeah, I thought the novel Star Wars came out before the movie, since I discovered a copy my parents hid until they could wrap it as a Christmas present and thought it was from the previous home owners!
3. To answer your question from the previous episode, yes, I thought it was a cop-out to have Jedi all dress like the crazy old hermit Ben Kenobi. But to be fair, it started with Yoda, and Luke not catching on that the little green native of Dagobah dressed just like Ben.
4. This is going off on a tangent, but I thought it would have been cool if the prequels treated Yoda as already retired, never mentioned by name, one of several of his race seen, only concerned with his gardening in a Jedi abbey off the beaten path that Obi-Wan and Anakin consulted, so that if you watched the episodes in the “proper” sequence you still get the surprise effect in ESB. Also, I would have had Vader and Anakin separate persons, with Vader supposedly killing Anakin, Obi-Wan killing Vader, but then the Emperor recovers Anakin, thinking it is Vader. By the time we see Vader in the original Star Wars, he really thinks he is Vader, but in Empire Strikes Back he begins to remember being Anakin. This has nothing to do with your wonderful satirical take, but something I just felt a need to share.
No, I love alternative takes, because, to be honest, George Lucas’ Prequels are pretty much an alternative take themselves. I agree with all you say on point #4 and think it would have been more in keeping with what was alluded to. The Prequels tried to explain too much. One of the reasons the Original Trilogy was so good is that it felt like it had history. There weren’t any important unanswered questions in the Original Trilogy. Learning what Anakin was like wasn’t important to the Original Trilogy which functioned perfectly without us having to know more than what Obi Wan said, accompanied by Vaders actions in TESB and his redemption in ROTJ. Going back to make a whole trilogy out of some vital need to paint some bigger pictures was not necessary. The Prequels weaken the Original Trilogy because they remove the impact of the revelations like Luke’s destiny to be a Jedi, Yoda being a diminutive little alien, Vader really being Luke’s father, and that Leia was Luke’s sister. All these things have less meaning in the context of the films when watched in chronological order. Anyway, could go on about this stuff for hours.
I see we are kindred spirits in that respect. Heck, it could go even further, that if Vader and Anakin remain two separate persons, then perhaps Vader tried to rape Anakin’s wife, and perhaps Obi Wan was unsure of who the boy’s sire really was? That could set up ROTJ, with Luke unsure if Vader is his father, or if Anakin (his father) had assumed Vader’s identity, and Anakin revealing his true face only after killing the Emperor! The only thing Luke is sure of until then is that the man calling himself Vader is his father, as he can feel it in the Force. Joins the mission on Endor not only to help, but because he has to know and can feel in the Force that he will meet Vader there.
All right, I’m now messing with the original trilogy, but it does add more tension, that you have to admit. But it’s fun, playing script editor. It seems so clear now in hindsight, so that I can almost envision a reboot of Star Wars with these ideas…
Great ideas for fanfic. If we’re going to be critical, let me first be clear that I LOVE the Original Trilogy and I enjoy all three movies. Personally, as far as “editing” the films, I’m more interested in making ROTJ feel more satisfactory and less ‘uninspired’. Things like the re-use of the Death Star plot device AND the wasted opportunity of Princess Leia (who should have been present during the throne room scene), even Han Solo could have been given something a bit more substantial than comic relief.
But back to Leia, I’m not talking about her just going with Luke to confront Vader, but tying that into the whole framework of the story. If Jabba’s Palace is so necessary to the story, then let the events there help forge Leia’s importance so that she has a real and important place in that climactic family confrontation. The way ROTJ ended up happening in reality was little more than a fun theme park ride, with the sole exception of the Luke vs Vader conflict. Too much of a shift backwards from the high drama of Empire Strikes Back.
The films were most definitely Luke’s story. The other characters only really mattered insofar as how their actions affected him. The trouble is that they decided almost halfway into ROTJ to reveal Leia was Luke’s twin sister. This was done purely to give Vader something powerful enough to goad Luke into an attack. Yes, that was a great device for the plot, but by elevating Leia to a position of almost equal importance to Luke, retrospectively watching the films with the knowledge of her being the daughter of Vader, as Luke is Vader’s son, results in a very mediocre story for her. She has had confrontations with Vader herself. Verbal sparring, torture, defiance, all enough to give the conflict between these two characters as much dimension, perhaps more, than Luke. She deserved to have a journey of her own towards an ultimate confrontation with Vader. It should have been WITH Luke.
I still love ROTJ and the whole trilogy, but I just feel like there was an even more powerful story that became a missed opportunity. Leia had the weight of a destroyed world AND the survival of the rebel alliance on her mind. To learn of her relationship with Vader should have been shown to truly mean something not just to the story but to her. Maybe Expanded Universe explores that, sure. But we should have had that on screen, in the film itself.
I understand why people would want her in the thrown room seen but what exactly would she do shoot the emperor ? Get electrocuted by the old guy ? It seems that with either option it would end up with the three of them walking off the station scott free.
Fascinating treatise Rod. Lucas needs your talents.
And mine…
Well, Leia was busy helping Han drop the shield generator so Lando and Wedge could blow up the Death Star. Putting her in the middle of a fight that wouldn’t affect the destruction of the Death Star would be a demotion, I think.
You guys have to run with me here. That’s why I said the framework of the whole ROTJ film would need to re-emphasize her role. Clearly she wouldn’t be a part of the shield generator mission anymore. It would take a lot of editing and playing with. 🙂
All very good food for thought, and a deeper re-tinkering than I had planned. My re-edit would have only altered lines of dialogue, and perhaps saved Leia from being a twin, having the same mother but not being Anakin’s child.
But now that this can of worms is open, we might as well add other elements in ESB as well. Perhaps Hoth wasn’t chosen as a base because the Rebels were on the run, but because they were going to use it as a staging point for attacking Loyalist systems. It all goes south not because of a probe drone, but because of Vader’s preternatural skills, able to follow the Falcon no matter how clever Han gets, and Han thinking Vader wants revenge for his role on the Death Star (yeah, Vader wants that as well, but I like the idea of him wanting to capture and torture Luke’s best friends, so we’ll keep it).
I guess the only thing I found missing from Vader that we saw in the first movie was the idea of him permanently seething with anger, an anger we can discover when he confronts Luke is also against himself.
As for re-using the Death Star, I don’t find that quite so bad. It actually could be used to show a sort of desperation, a desire from an Emperor who is sliding into madness and wants to make entire planets his funeral pyre. The climax could even have him gathering all Imperial governors with their fleets to witness his “master stroke”, their command ship caught in the blaze as the second Death Star goes boom.
I would actually leave the emperor a figurehead like Alan Dean Foster suggested in the original novelization, and add more Sith Lords. In ESB, we could even meet one or two more; they could be not as strong in the Force as Vader, but sneer at the elder Vader, more machine than man. Thus the climatic fight between Luke and Vader becomes a fight between Luke and the Sith, with his father helping him and betraying the Sith at the last moment.
Ideas upon ideas. This isn’t healthy any more. 😉
Interesting take, although I’m not sure it appeals to me as a revision, but more as “what if”. You definitely have plenty of fuel for an epic fan fiction.
I always thought that (and the prequels somewhat supports this) the jedi who were actually doing something wore something easy to fight in and the older less active (or its there off day) ones wore those robes because, actually I don’t know why tho they look really comfortable.
Oh you bet those robes look comfy, but sometimes you have to sacrifice comfort in order to look sexy. Ask most women who wear high heels. I’m not saying high heels are cool… hang on… what am I talking about again? Oh yeah… Luke’s ROTJ outfit…. I saw that (at the time) as how the Jedi were supposed to look, according to Luke’s research. I’m sure it was just Lucas going for the overtly “darker side” temptation thing, but I like the idea of the Jedi looking bad ass vs looking like they farm moisture out on the Dune Sea.
Well in there defense who do you want to look sexy for when your hanging around that the temple all day ? Her ?- http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yaddle Sure there have been some sexy jedi over the years (not talking about her) but you cant look like your trying to look sexy or you might be thrown out or something like that. I could never make sense of those rules, the later Jedi order had it right.
They even had the outfit right. Don’t get me wrong I would love to hang around all day in those robes, thats the american dream, but Luke’s outfit looked comfortable,sexy, and easy to fight in (at least the one he wore in the beginning of the movie).
Actually for the fdirst half of the book it was jabba laughing, and the second it was a blaster firing for the return of the jedi.
What are you talking about? My version has the sound of an Ewok being dismembered and wailing. At least, that’s what I seem to remember. ;=
Please say you will have a strip showing Ewok Disembowelment!?!?!?!?!? At Screamfest last year one of the artists created a custom picture for me of Jawas roasting an Ewok over a spit!!!!!!!!!!!!
ON a side note you could do Luke and Leia ala Blue Lagoon! Then again with them in a swamp area you could go full redneck/cousin lovin’ fashion with banjos in the background with a hint of Deliverance to boot!
My father gave my daughter a Teddy Ruxbin. Does that count for a talkie book?
I don’t think so, but I was wondering if you put a Black Sabbath tape in him will his mouth keep up with it, or does it move at the same slow pace continually?
I once back in the day put a Slayer tape in one. I’ll have to try a Black Sabbath one.
Im just going to leave this here : http://kotaku.com/5651861/but-our-princess-is-frozen-in-carbonite
See, kids? Smoking DOES make you look cool!