Lance Quazar":ybg978ih said:
Chewie....
What can I say? This is a tremendous chapter and I think it has some of your best world-building/diorama work in your entire series. Once again, you keep raising the bar to ridiculous heights of amazingness.
Thanks my friend. I do agree that the world for this one has worked out pretty well. It took quite a bit of work and dedication. I'm still not finished with the sets for the next chapter... I need to make the inside of the Maker's lair still and am struggling a bit with it.
Lance Quazar":ybg978ih said:
Seriously, the Tartaaris prison planet is so beautifully realized, so very bleak, so atmospheric, so incredible. It feels so real, so lived in...so depressing and hopeless. It's a marvel, and I love the photography and the color scheme. Even the orange jumpsuits work with the overall aesthetic. The reddish tinge over everything creates a ver memorable tone to the whole place. One might think the ideal palette for a prison would be grays or browns, but there's something about the colors here that evokes a desolate desert, which is just as bleak and foreboding than a darker color scheme might be.
Again, thank you. I decided to try really step away from photography until I felt like I had quite a few various pieces built that could help portray a very "busy" set of dioramas, but all with the same general theme. All are different, but similar. And I was a bit afraid that the visuals were going to get too orange too often, but overall I do think it pulls together well enough.
Lance Quazar":ybg978ih said:
You have a knack for making your supporting characters really pop, even if they're tragically short-lived, like garlin. I really liked this character and I liked the extra layers you gave him after his death. While Rykrof admires the man, K3 points out that, hey, the guy was actually a criminal, which is why he's in prison in the first place. We might have assumed he was an innocent person, like Rykrof, wrongfully imprisoned, but, hey, he could still actually be (or at least have been) a less than noble person while still being interesting and sympathetic.
I may have mentioned this during your previous chapter, but you definitely evoke the classic novel, "The Count of Monte Cristo" in these chapters, which is about a wrongfully imprisoned man who meets a wise mentor behind bars. While Garlin isn't around long enough to have much of an impact on Rykrof's life, the shades of that classic story are still very cool.
I was sad to see him go, but that definitely heightened the danger and suspense we feel during the chapter. Surely, Ryrkof's new friend isn't going to die THAT soon, right? Oh, wait, he just got killed? Yikes!
Garlin was fun - and I had intended for him to have a bigger role - but then decided to do something perhaps unexpected. The whole idea of killing him off just happened while snapping pics - I've found that I no longer write scripts with too much depth anymore. I do have the general plan in place, but now I set up the dioramas, take all the pics, and kind of let a story "happen" as I'm taking the pics. Garlin was supposed to survive the attack. But... wouldn't that be expected? I figure that the story would stall a bit, waiting for the inevitable of him dying later on the planet. So I decided to just let it happen, and try to make Rykrof's situation all the more perilous. Plus, now those droids hopefully seem like a legit threat.
And yeah! A few people have mentioned Monte Cristo - but I have never read it and am quite unfamiliar with the story. It sounds like I need to educate myself with it.
Lance Quazar":ybg978ih said:
K3 is another character that really pops. He's got that K2 sarcasm down pat, while also having a defeated quality to him that is actually a little poignant. I wouldn't mind seeing him stick around a while longer to help Rykrof get off the planet.
I like K3 as well. I'm not certain on his fate just yet, but I do like the character. He needs
someone to have conversations with for at least a while on this planet, right?
Lance Quazar":ybg978ih said:
I must admit, I was really eager to see Rykrof's story advance into the "classic" Star Wars era and at first I was frustrated that so much time was taken on diversions that delayed what I considered the inevitable story of Rykrof joining the rebellion. But now I'm actually enjoying these adventures on their own. It's a much more original and interesting choice than to just plunk Rykrof down with the rebels, that would have been too easy and too obvious. So take your time exploring all these weird and interesting corners of the galaxy and of Rykrof's journey.
Well, thanks! I really want to make Rykrof's story as unique as possible, without getting over the top silly. I don't want to rely on established characters or storylines if I can avoid it, but there will be times when I try and weave in a classic character or two. It's just such a large universe, it seems like there should be tan endless pool of characters like Rykrof that have unique stories... some relevant, others not so much.
I do intend on exploring more oddball planets like this with Rykrof, and other characters as well. But I felt for a while, characters like Freelo, Kala and Traedon were actually doing more than Rykrof. It was time to go back to the core figure in the series.
Lance Quazar":ybg978ih said:
I'm very intrigued to learn more about the Maker in the next chapter. I'm a little curious about how the prison works. Does the Maker create these assassin droids to hunt the prisoners just for his own amusement? Would the prisoners be okay if they just kept to themselves, or it is an on-going sport with the Maker? Garlin looks like he's been around for quite some time, so I just wonder if the prisoners would be okay if they just kept their heads down and didn't cause trouble....
Outstanding customs with those scary droids, by the way. The "FLESH" moment is truly horrifying!
I do intend to detail more on who he is, and his history. In a nutshell though, here's how it works...
- The Maker worked for the Republic during the early days of the Clone Wars
- He was a chief engineer of a program that researched Separatist assassin droid technology
- Tartaaris became a battleground when Separatist forces attempted to destroy his research facility
- He was badly injured during the battle, hence he is part cyborg
- After formation of the Empire, Tartaaris was in ruins - it became a dumping ground for selected prisoners
- The Maker became warden over the prison planet
- The droids are leftover scrap from the battle that took place on the planet
- The Maker had the droids rebuilt and programmed to attack all non-Imperial personnel on the planet
- He is amused by watching the prisoners struggle to survive; and ensures they have just enough sustenance to get by
- The prisoners have moved into areas further away from the prison, but close enough to supply drops from the Imperials
- Some prisoners have formed gangs to survive - Rykrof ran into a couple of these guys two chapters back
Lance Quazar":ybg978ih said:
Anyway, another terrific chapter all around! Full of tension and suspense and a little bit of mystery. Another excellent cliffhanger that makes me hungry for more!
I would love to check in with some of the other characters soon, too. I wonder how poor Alyssa and Caldin are doing in Gere's custody. I do like the implication in previous chapters that Caldin's affections have turned from his father. From his point of view, you can't quite blame him, as his father has been absent for so much of his life and has inadvertently caused his family so much trouble.
Thanks for continuing to crank out amazing chapters in this staggeringly epic series, even after all these years!
Thanks again my friend, really appreciate it.
As for other characters, I have not forgotten them! There will be a shift at some point back to some of these other characters. Just going to likely wrap up this part of the story arc with Rykrof on the prison planet before jumping back to the other parts of the story.
Again - thank you so much!
Quite a treat when I see a new chapter up!
