User blog comment:Brandon Rhea/THE CHOSEN ONE: Chapter 6 released!/@comment-3528596-20130402215531/@comment-20644-20130402221020

The introduction of Ben is really well handled, and while I can see the ANH version there somewhat, there's clearly some original work going on too.

I'm glad you liked the introduction of Ben, seen as how he's a very pivotal character. On that note...

assuming Ben is the ASWS version of Obi-Wan

He is. He's Ben Kenobi, that's just not something that made sense to say upfront. Ben is trying to lay low and all, and he doesn't trust Michael yet, so he wouldn't reveal his last name&mdash;unlike the first version of this chapter, where Ben was a bit too cavalier in that regard.

In terms of A New Hope similarities, that's true. His first line is "Hello there" and all. I do those nods because The Chosen One is meant to evoke the same feelings as A New Hope and be seen as a beginning in the same way, so I litter those around a bit. There will be less of them moving forward. In fact, in this chapter, I almost included a part where Ben sees Michael look at Joshua and Ben would say "Don't worry, he'll be alright," but that was taking the winks a bit too far.

''Logan's introduction is a little bit faster, and for a character that (as far as I know) is entirely original it seems a /little/ too fast, but nothing serious. I'm sure we'll learn more about him as we progress through the story.''

You will. Probably one of the reasons it seems fast is because this is one chapter and, unlike a book, you can't flip to the next one to start learning more yet.

The dialogue between Michael and Ben is really nice, IMHO taking the best elements of Obi-Wan's dialogue with Luke and Anakin and combining them, with a little twist.

Glad you liked that. What was the twist you're referring to? Do you mean in terms of making the character its own, rather than making him a carbon copy of Ewan McGregor and Sir Alec Guinness?

''Some other fun stuff. As per always, the light side choice of saving Joshua is having serious negative repercussions in the form of Hutt soldiers arresting Michael, Ben, and Logan. I'm glad to see that Joshua didn't have some sudden conversion to goody-goody.''

Yeah, that conversion would've been pretty ridiculous. His hatred for Michael is really severe and deeply personal. You'll find out more in the next chapter or two.

Also, the fact that Ben seems to be affected by wearing heavy robes in the heat is a funny contrast to how no one is ever affected by most climate changes in Star Wars.

One of the dumbest parts of The Phantom Menace (and there are plenty of dumbest parts), at least on pure logic rather than just storyline stuff, is when the character mosey on off the ship and into the desert without so much as breaking a sweat. If you're not used to Tatooine, you should be dying of heat before you can get used to it.

''And Brandon leaves us off with another cliff hanger-ish. Ben and Logan are hiding something...but not a person. Hmmm. Honestly not sure here, but definitely curious.''

I'll give you a spoiler in that it's similar to A New Hope (shocking, I know), but not to the point of being too similar.

''They do seem to know of the Hutt Empire, I guess, but they haven't heard of Tatooine, which I think is an interesting twist. Err, Ben hasn't heard of it, Logan might have, I guess.''

The Hutt Lords are definitely a known entity to people like Ben and Logan based on galactic events from the last few centuries. They just don't know about Tatooine, which I thought was important. One of the biggest disconnects in canon is how Tatooine is described as this unimportant rock, yet it gave rise to a galactic hero turned villain, another galactic hero, had a Star Map for the Star Forge, etc. This is my way of restoring Tatooine to its unknown state.

I also put across that Ben and Logan aren't used to this kind of planet in general, let alone Tatooine. They're both wheezing from the heat, Ben is overly kind from Michael's perspective (funny how Ben being a nice person is what tips Michael off that something isn't right), and Ben says something like "It's only water" only to have Michael drink it like he was just passed the nectar of the gods.

and no more content until the Force only knowns when (date please?)

I don't want to give a date this time since I missed the last one due to the speed at which one of my editors could get back to me. Given that, I don't want to give a date and then be wrong again. I'd also like to release more chapters at once again, like I did the first time.

Glad you enjoyed this one. Thanks for reading and commenting!