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Sorry for the delay this week. I had the work Christmas Party to prepare and bartend this Friday and it was a very exhausting week all around. I have surgery on Tuesday (nothing too serious) and so things are really going to be winding down for the rest of this month as a result. However, we will be putting up a few surprises and teasers here and there. We’re finally at the end. In the comic book Vader’s defeat is actually lamer than our BMS version. He literally trips over his own severed arm and falls in a pit. Clumsy. We will have a SOTME epilogue next week to conclude the very final scene.

It’s time to reflect on Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. Alan Dean Foster is known for his movie-to-book adaptations, including Star Wars (ghost written for George Lucas) and Alien. Splinter of the Mind’s Eye included some of George Lucas’ ideas, but at some point I believe Foster just had to be left on his own and run with it.

Probably also during the writing of the book it had already become clear that the Star Wars movie was a massive success and that Splinter of the Mind’s Eye would probably no longer serve as a guide for the sequel. Elements like the jungle / swamp, the caves, the misty confrontation between Luke and Vader, the primitive native Coway tribe defeating the technologically superior Empire, etc etc. Splinter of the Mind’s Eyes does have some good ideas and some memorable imagery thanks to the eerie atmosphere of the planet and the powerful impact of the Ralph MacQuarrie cover.

The numerous character deviations and inconsistencies with the Star Wars film can almost be excused thanks to the problems at the time of accurate reference material for the author (no DVD to check, and probably no finalized script to refer to). He was writing SOTME in 1977 for it to be published in 1978. Luke fantasizing about Leia, only to keep checking his feelings with the reminder that he is a lowly farm boy and she is far beyond his station, can be excused by the fact that the Luke and Leia sibling relationship was not decided at that time. But Luke hitting Leia in the bar, as if this is the ideal or preferable first choice for a distraction, not only seems wildly out of character, but seriously misogynistic. Grammel abused Leia even further, and Vader does a number on her at the end too.

Vader is convinced Luke is the one who shot him out of the way during the Death Star trench run and he also implies that Tarkin was the one to interrogate Leia so brutally on the Death Star. The awkward prose littered throughout the book, often during action scenes, is about as fluid as dry bantha dung! But, that being said, Foster worked with what he could at the time, and while the final product often doesn’t really feel that much like Star Wars, there’s still something alluring about this often overlooked piece of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Oh yeah… it’s the book cover. ;=

I think BMSketeer T. Gatto defended Foster best with:

1- This was intended to be a low budget adaptation to an, at the time, single movie of questionable success. Not a part of the major multi conglomerate expended universe Star Wars has become. If made into a film, I bet it would have had a somewhat better following, and several supporters willing to overlook its imperfections.
2- Look at most of the Sci-Fi literature from the 70’s, a little is great, some is good, much more is appalling , at least by today’s standards, where we are standing on the shoulders of giants. I used to love “Night Rider” and the “Six Million Dollar Man”, try watching them seriously now.
3- How much of the garbage we read and watch today, which is hailed by critics and fans alike, will only become a guilty pleasure later, after we come to see in retrospect just how mass media bad it really is ( “ID4”, and half of the original shows on the Sci-Fi channel come to mind).
Taken for what it is SOTME is just a story that needed major revision to hold up better (and if filmed Lucas surely would have made some needed changes).

I personally want to thank Alan Dean Foster for providing us much of the inspiration for this 40 strip parody.

Check out these cute Star Wars penguins sculpted by Penguonia webcomic author, Joseph G. His webcomic updates on Fridays and features the cute and often violent penguins and their ongoing Antarctic misadventures.

“I’ve mainly made these as gifts for other people, though the X-Wing Pilot and Jedi Penguins are mine. I didn’t get a photo of Penguin Vader, so years ago the guy that I gave it to took a couple of pictures of him for me, but his camera didn’t have a macro mode, so they came out a bit blurry.

Looking at them again I’m definitely going to have to try and remake the Jedi and X-Wing pilots though. Again, they were made years ago, and I like to hope my skills have improved since then. I made the penguin first as normal, then layered the outfit on top, which is why they look so fat. Out of them I think the Penguin Maul one looks best, so I should really tip the balance back with some better OT ones.”