If you have yet to watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens, stop reading now. Otherwise, scroll down to see my latest Episode VII-inspired drawing.
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Here’s an illustrated alternate version of the scene when Kylo Ren —aboard his personal Star Destroyer, the Finalizer — was speaking to the burnt mask of Darth Vader. One of the big plot reveals from the movie is that Kylo Ren is the grandson of Anakin Skywalker and the son of famed smuggler Han Solo. Haunted by the Light, the former Ben Solo asks for his grandfather’s help in going further into the Dark Side. In the movie, the helmet of Darth Vader remains silent, but what if the Force Ghosts of Star Wars past came to pay Kylo Ren a visit?
What would they say, if anything? Could they convince him to turn away from Supreme Leader Snoke and return to the Light?
What would you have Mace Windu1, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, and Qui-Gon Jinn tell the Dark Side hopeful? Have at it using this text-free drawing below.
This illustration was made on an iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil using Procreate. For the comic balloons, I imported the image into Comic Life 3 by Plasq. That app has not been optimized for the iPad, so using it was less than optimal; I wish there was support to work on single images (with no borders) and be able to export to PNG.
Here’s a video showing exactly how the drawing was made in Procreate:
As for the movie itself, my first thought is that it was merely okay. I did not like how some plot points were handled, such as the mechanics of the Starkiller weapon. Poe Dameron disappears for half the movie until he magically reappears alive to save the heroes at Maz Kanata’s castle. There’s a good reason for that too; according to J. J. Abrams, he was supposed to die at the beginning of the movie! The use of inversions struck me as too much Star Trek Into Darkness, a film by Abrams which I absolutely hated. And I thought the film could have had less callbacks to Episode IV, some of which seemed too much to me like fan service. I’m thinking specifically of the 3-D chess and training bot scenes with Finn and the scene when the storm troopers walk away from Kylo Ren’s force tantrum. Some of the plot points were better described and explained in the book. io9 has a good rundown of the differences between the novelization and film; here’s to hoping that those scenes were filmed and just cut (and left for a future Director’s Cut?).
My friend Rebecca wrote that at least Lucas tried to do something original with the prequels. As much as I had issues with the prequels, I’d have to agree with her. My main problem with the prequels was in their execution, rather than their ideas or plot points. I understand Disney/Abrams’ desire to reboot the franchise. And, I see how if they were going to do it, using A New Hope as a template would be a good way to do it. I would like to see what Lucas had planned for his trilogy. Disney scrapped his idea and went with what eventually became The Force Awakens.
1 We all know Mace Windu was just taking his time to appear as a Force Ghost!
tow.com 