Star Wars Geekery
(Because it's been far too long since I've had any Star Wars posts. . .)
The webcomic Darths and Droids is doing a frame-by-frame re-telling of the Star Wars prequels as a gaming session. The players aren't aware of Star Wars as a cultural phenomenon; they're just running around in their GM's made-up world. As both a gamer and a Star Wars geek, I find the juxtaposition consistently amusing.
Equally amusing, if not more so, is the commentary at the bottom of each installment, in which the writer reflects on the events of that day's episode from a meta context. I particularly enjoyed today's observations.
Zam Wessel is a shapeshifter. She's shown quite explicitly to be a shapeshifter in the movie. Anakin even warns Obi-Wan to be careful when going into the bar in the scenes preceding this one because they are following a shapeshifter.
You'd expect some cool plot-related points to revolve around the undeniably interesting fact that Zam is a shapeshifter.
Except when Zam sneaks up behind Obi-Wan in the bar, she's in the exact same human-like shape she was in when they were chasing her, and that Anakin saw. She completely fails to use her shapeshifting ability in any sort of attempt to disguise herself.
And then she dies in this scene, and quite clearly reveals her shapeshifting capability. Wow, there are shapeshifters in the Star Wars universe! We've been shown that fact quite explicitly. Surely this will become important later in the plot.
Only it never does. It's never mentioned again anywhere else in any of the movies. I think Anton Chekhov just committed suicide with his gun.
If you're not familiar with "Chekhov's Gun", The TV Tropes and Idioms site has a full explanation. If you've never visited this site you should click the link even if you do know the reference. It's an amazing compilation.
The webcomic Darths and Droids is doing a frame-by-frame re-telling of the Star Wars prequels as a gaming session. The players aren't aware of Star Wars as a cultural phenomenon; they're just running around in their GM's made-up world. As both a gamer and a Star Wars geek, I find the juxtaposition consistently amusing.
Equally amusing, if not more so, is the commentary at the bottom of each installment, in which the writer reflects on the events of that day's episode from a meta context. I particularly enjoyed today's observations.
Zam Wessel is a shapeshifter. She's shown quite explicitly to be a shapeshifter in the movie. Anakin even warns Obi-Wan to be careful when going into the bar in the scenes preceding this one because they are following a shapeshifter.
You'd expect some cool plot-related points to revolve around the undeniably interesting fact that Zam is a shapeshifter.
Except when Zam sneaks up behind Obi-Wan in the bar, she's in the exact same human-like shape she was in when they were chasing her, and that Anakin saw. She completely fails to use her shapeshifting ability in any sort of attempt to disguise herself.
And then she dies in this scene, and quite clearly reveals her shapeshifting capability. Wow, there are shapeshifters in the Star Wars universe! We've been shown that fact quite explicitly. Surely this will become important later in the plot.
Only it never does. It's never mentioned again anywhere else in any of the movies. I think Anton Chekhov just committed suicide with his gun.
If you're not familiar with "Chekhov's Gun", The TV Tropes and Idioms site has a full explanation. If you've never visited this site you should click the link even if you do know the reference. It's an amazing compilation.