A Thousand Stars: Episode VI, Part 1

[matril]

Welcome to the final episode! Whereas Episodes III and IV started with a space battle-flavored bang, this beginning is more a mirror-image of Episode I. (I’m referencing the Ring approach to the saga as developed by Mike Klimo, by the way).

A ship approaches a space station and requests entry. The station here is a little more dramatic than the Trade Federation’s blockade, though. We immediately recognize the dreaded Death Star, even incomplete, And the opening crawl has just informed us that it will be even more powerful than the first. Eep.

And here’s the dreaded Lord Vader, as terrifying as in previous films. It’s not just his physically imposing form on its own, it’s the imagery of the huge ranks of stormtroopers who all defer to him. Not to mention the barely-contained terror on Jerjerrod’s face. As if all of that wasn’t enough to strike fear in our hearts, here’s the final knell of doom: the Emperor himself will be joining them. The one entity able to make even Vader bow before him. Get ready, everyone -- the stakes are higher than they've ever been.

Next time, a different kind of intimidation...

Comments

[krpalmer]

With the way some of the "Episode IV" and "Episode V" coverage had me thinking of "1977 and 1980 perspectives," in a way it's bracing to be reminded of "the saga as a whole." I know I'd been thinking ahead to this moment aware of insistences that "it ought to be a rule that a Star Destroyer shows up right away" but inclined to point out that in the previous two episodes, the first characters we saw on screen were on the side of the Rebellion; it's only here that we stay with Imperials. (Maybe I'm stuck bringing this up because I'm stuck daydreaming about offering a critique of "the Zahn trilogy" from the beginning of the 1990s, not entirely due to how it might have convinced some people "Star Wars was now for them"... although I know that while it's not all that hard any more to disparage the Disney movies, when it comes to people who are aware of those novels I'm supposing unimpressed opinions remain distinctly in the minority.)

[matril]

I could offer a really off-the-wall interpretation of Vader being the first main character we see, that it's a hint of the "Jedi" who's going to return as per the title. A bit of an absurd reading, but that's part of the fun of speculative interpreting - you can make up whatever you want.