Story perception and Star Wars
The other night I was sitting down on my couch just enjoying a few books. One of them was my collection of marvel Star Wars comics. As I was leafing through the story of A New Hope I started showing my three sons a couple of scenes that were not included in the movie. As soon as they acknowledged that I was correct, I pulled up the deleted scenes of that original movie. They were quite fascinated to see that the concept was based on unused footage from one of my most loved films.
Have you ever wondered why Luke Skywalker greeted his friend Biggs as if he was an old friend at the end of A New Hope? Well originally Biggs had a larger role in the film, specifically a rather detailed interaction with Luke Skywalker while he was on Tatooine. But all that was removed in the final cut and never included in the 1998 version. But you can still find it in the old comics and of course in the deleted scenes on the Blu-ray.
I think this offers an excellent example of the superiority of written story over a film. You can include so much more detail because your screen time is not limited. It offers greater character development and a vaster universe.
Star Wars bridges every media now. Whether it is video games, books, movies, tv shows, audiobooks, or comic books Star Wars is represented. It is fantastic! It offers a view into that story world that is the envy of many a creator, including myself. But it also serves as a model of success.
For fans of all the older Star Wars content I am thrilled to enjoy it in its many forms. I will admit that I have played the games, watched the movies, read some of the comics, and of course I have read many of the books!
Depending on which media a new fan finds Star Wars through, their perception of the story will be different. For someone who picks up the comic from the original Star Wars they will understand the whole story of Luke Skywalker and Biggs. But for someone like me, who first saw the movie, I was missing the opening of that story. Once I found it it was like seeing the story again for the first time.
Eventually I plan to do similarly with The Sword Of The Dragon series. I would like to add comics, audiobooks, and who knows?
The variety of material now available Star Wars makes it a vast fictional universe. With the addition of the Mandelorian live action television series I am curious to see what happens next. Personally I’m anticipating the Obi Wan Kenobi series also. Not all of the material has been excellent, but the originals were and it gives me hope for the future of those stories.
Q: Which storyworld with several media types do you get absorbed in?
