User blog:Drewton/The Drewton Legacy 23 - The Threat Within

 Star Wars: The Drewton Legacy #23 



 The Threat Within 

Major spoilers follow. Click here to read the chapter.

Star Wars The Drewton Legacy Chapter 23: The Threat Within has been finished, and we now know the name of Idnum-Ki - Darth Taral. Though Idnum-Ki first appeared in photonovels in 2006, his turn to the dark side and becoming a Sith was not planned until Fall of 2007. First, in Chronicles of a Rebellion, Idnum-Ki was a semi-immature/whiny Jedi Knight in costume. Then, when he first appeared in The Drewton Legacy (more specifically, the original Chapter 4), he was a oh-hello-good-day-blablabla-type Jedi Master with Tolkien influences who would be the main Jedi character of the series and fight Darth Vader (see poster).

My writing and the TDL plot completely changed when I played the KotOR games. Dular and Mecupa were added to the cast. Kyle Krenis was made into a Republic-soon-to-be-Empire patriot. The Nockudumey were founded by Revan. And Idnum-Ki became heavily influenced by. His darker side was first shown in #14 ("corruption is only influence"). Then he talked to Dooku about the dark side in #15, and spoke with Palpatine/Sidious in #19. His actual fall was seen last October, with the redo of Chapter 3, Dark Visions of the Sith.

The name "Taral" has been planned for over a year, taken from the Darth Who contest. From Wookieepedia: "Variant of tare: "in chemistry, an empty vessel similar to one being used in an experiment and placed beside it to show or counter balance any change in its weight." Which sounded prefect for Idnum-Ki. Credit goes to SW.com forum member katsqueak for proposing it.

The duel between Dular and Taral was first hinted in the latest poster (well, more than hinted :P ). This is also the first time (aside from the poster) that we've seen them with blue and purple lightsabers.



There was originally a scene in the script where Idnum-Ki/Taral showed Dular a group of Jedi he'd been training (with silver lightsabers), who would eventually be the "Dark Jedi" of Taral's planned Sith group. I decided it wasn't right for this chapter, but that plot element may reappear further down in the series.

There hadn't been an actual Clone Wars battle in TDL since the Battle of Sriran in Star Wars The Drewton Legacy Chapter 15: Delta Station, which was over a year ago. Chapter 16, a retelling of the CW cartoon, not counting. When I filmed the Battle of Mithus, also a battle in the snow, it didn't come out at all how I wanted. In the script, it was night and the battle was a lot bigger. When I filmed it, there was barely any snow - you could see the grass. I also hadn't known enough about Photoshop to make it look like night. In this one, there's tons of snow, falling snow was added with Photoshop, and it's at night. More like what Mithus was supposed to be.

Unfortunately, that was in November and now all the snow up here in Canada has melted...which means, unless if we get some more soon or if I go further north, there can't be a continuation of the Battle of Adni-Rahn in #24 (which is titled "Battle for Adni-Rahn" :P ). Which is a big problem, because this one left it as being Cody and Kenobi being doomed/abandoned on the planet, and I can't really leave it like that. It also (or would) sets up for the next story arc.

Another thing that was cut in this was the loss of Tarisian's hand at the hands (no pun intended) of Dooku, and it was shot as well. However, it seemed a bit unrealistic - if Dooku's fried him with Force lightning, why does he take his hand and not hife life? - and I didn't want him getting the same wound as, like, every character does when they fight someone important but can't die. And I wanted to keep him more as a simple, not extremely important in terms of the fate of the galaxy man. Giving him a droid hand would take away from that.



Here's some other trivia for this chapter.
 * In the beginning shot, Adni-Rahn is blue. In the scene immediately afterwards on the Interceptor, it's purple.
 * Like in other chapters, Kyle's neck is a different skin colour than his head.
 * In the beginning shot of the first Dular/Idnum scene, Dular's lightsaber is clearly attached to his belt with Blu-Tack. In the rest of the scene, it's covered via Photoshop with black.
 * When Taral says "This is why there must be a new Order…the Sith of Darth Taral", his eyes slightly turn Sith.
 * The Phase II helmet on Kyle was a mistake.
 * Scorch appears to disappear after he fires the bazooka at Trojon, or, "the grub". He certainly can't die.
 * Though Idnum-Ki will never be like Palpatine, for example, the killing of Desolous may be the sign of some dark side corruption.
 * When Tarisian and Kyle find Tornac, it appears to be day. It seems to be night in every other shot.
 * Starting with TDL #17, a slightly differently-painted head was used for Tarisian. That head was tragically lost during shooting in the snow and has yet to be found.
 * The wounded clone who sacrificed himself appears to have a resemblance to.
 * The was used for Idnum-Ki/Taral's quarters.
 * This chapter is exactly 100 pics long.

Taral seems absolutely convinced that Dular will join him. Whether this the start of a fight between Jedi vs. Sith, or Taral's actually correct has yet to be seen. Dular seemed quite committed to the Jedi Order and the Jedi Code in this one, though...seeing the example of Anakin Skywalker.

Finally, on a completely unrelated note, here's a reskin for Dular in Jedi Academy.

Anyways, this is a chapter I've been planning and writing for a long time and I hope you'll enjoy it.