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so_out_of_ideas) wrote2007-07-27 10:36 am
so_out_of_ideas) wrote2007-07-27 10:36 am
Entry tags:
Thoughts on One Path
ANH should end tonight. With it's closing, I think I can post this without spoiling anything. If you're reading the story and haven't gotten to Chapter 80, I would avoid this post.
I had an interesting comment a while back on ff.n regarding the fact that Obi and Padme don't die. The reviewer apparently felt that their continued presence would impede the kids' ability to grow up. I admit that I can see the point, given that Ben's canon death does act as a catalyst for Luke to become the hero he is destined to be. I've said before that he was supposed to die in One Path originally, and we know that I didn't want to kill him, but I also put a lot of thought into whether it would work for him to live or not. If it would have been disruptive to Luke's character development, I honestly wouldn't have done it. My thoughts on it are this:
Our goal from the start was to tell an Obidala story, and to give Obi and Padme the opportunity to grow old together and see the twins become what they were destined to be. It's honestly amusing to me that there was such worry over Padme "dying" during the end of RotS, when it was always our intent to have her live. She had no reason to die this time around. Her husband wasn't a Sith Lord who choked her in a fit of rage. The man she loved never left her side during the twins' birth. While Obi was supposed to die, it wasn't ever going to happen before the twins were well on the way to taking their destinies in hand. That couldn't have happened if at least one parental figure wasn't around to guide them.
Realistically speaking, every parent doesn't have to die in order to let a child grow up. Han and Leia don't die in the books (so far) and, I don't think it's spoiling anything to say that all three of their children have had independent roles in the galaxy despite the fact that their parents and Uncle Luke had prominent roles in the New Republic/Galactic Alliance.
Although this is literature, my goal has also been to incorporate elements of realism into One Path in terms of the family dynamic. The death of mentors often serves a specific literary function in the life of a hero, but that death does not necessarily have to be a literal or permanent one. (Gandalf and Aslan for example) Seeing their father almost killed by Vader and witnessing what happened to Ani serves the same function for Luke. We've laid some groundwork for what kinds of effects that experience will have on the twins already. Aruna tells me that in early ANH drafts, Ben Kenobi in fact didn't die. So, there's precident for him to survive the encounter with Vader on the Death Star, even if Lucas did opt to take a different avenue in the end. I think that using Ani's injury as a mirror for the Mustafar duel still respects canon without having to make Obi die.
One of the themes we have taken great pains to develop in One Path is the idea of letting go when it becomes necessary. Luke's canon training in the Force was conducted by Ben Kenobi up until this point in ANH. Without giving spoilers, Ani's duty to his parents is now fulfilled, and as with canon, Luke is going to have to puzzle out his own destiny regardless of whether his parents are alive or not. There is a Rebellion to enact, and it wouldn't be realistic for Obi Wan or Padme to be following Luke and Leia everywhere they went for three years between ANH and ESB, nor will it be possible for them to remain with the kids during the entire course of ESB itself.
I think that the "in between" chapters that are upcoming are going to focus in large part on Ani, which is of course not what we had in mind, but since he is alive, I need to devote some time to the effects of this latest encounter with Anakin on his character. I had a rather profound realization about him the other night, and Aruna agrees it would make a good arc. I've also begun reading Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, which is set about 2 ABY dealing with the twins, so that may generate ideas as well. After that, we have a rough plan for ESB, but the story is ever-changing, so I anticipate many more surprises along the way.
I had an interesting comment a while back on ff.n regarding the fact that Obi and Padme don't die. The reviewer apparently felt that their continued presence would impede the kids' ability to grow up. I admit that I can see the point, given that Ben's canon death does act as a catalyst for Luke to become the hero he is destined to be. I've said before that he was supposed to die in One Path originally, and we know that I didn't want to kill him, but I also put a lot of thought into whether it would work for him to live or not. If it would have been disruptive to Luke's character development, I honestly wouldn't have done it. My thoughts on it are this:
Our goal from the start was to tell an Obidala story, and to give Obi and Padme the opportunity to grow old together and see the twins become what they were destined to be. It's honestly amusing to me that there was such worry over Padme "dying" during the end of RotS, when it was always our intent to have her live. She had no reason to die this time around. Her husband wasn't a Sith Lord who choked her in a fit of rage. The man she loved never left her side during the twins' birth. While Obi was supposed to die, it wasn't ever going to happen before the twins were well on the way to taking their destinies in hand. That couldn't have happened if at least one parental figure wasn't around to guide them.
Realistically speaking, every parent doesn't have to die in order to let a child grow up. Han and Leia don't die in the books (so far) and, I don't think it's spoiling anything to say that all three of their children have had independent roles in the galaxy despite the fact that their parents and Uncle Luke had prominent roles in the New Republic/Galactic Alliance.
Although this is literature, my goal has also been to incorporate elements of realism into One Path in terms of the family dynamic. The death of mentors often serves a specific literary function in the life of a hero, but that death does not necessarily have to be a literal or permanent one. (Gandalf and Aslan for example) Seeing their father almost killed by Vader and witnessing what happened to Ani serves the same function for Luke. We've laid some groundwork for what kinds of effects that experience will have on the twins already. Aruna tells me that in early ANH drafts, Ben Kenobi in fact didn't die. So, there's precident for him to survive the encounter with Vader on the Death Star, even if Lucas did opt to take a different avenue in the end. I think that using Ani's injury as a mirror for the Mustafar duel still respects canon without having to make Obi die.
One of the themes we have taken great pains to develop in One Path is the idea of letting go when it becomes necessary. Luke's canon training in the Force was conducted by Ben Kenobi up until this point in ANH. Without giving spoilers, Ani's duty to his parents is now fulfilled, and as with canon, Luke is going to have to puzzle out his own destiny regardless of whether his parents are alive or not. There is a Rebellion to enact, and it wouldn't be realistic for Obi Wan or Padme to be following Luke and Leia everywhere they went for three years between ANH and ESB, nor will it be possible for them to remain with the kids during the entire course of ESB itself.
I think that the "in between" chapters that are upcoming are going to focus in large part on Ani, which is of course not what we had in mind, but since he is alive, I need to devote some time to the effects of this latest encounter with Anakin on his character. I had a rather profound realization about him the other night, and Aruna agrees it would make a good arc. I've also begun reading Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, which is set about 2 ABY dealing with the twins, so that may generate ideas as well. After that, we have a rough plan for ESB, but the story is ever-changing, so I anticipate many more surprises along the way.