Empires, Striking Back and Merciless
Tricks and Inspirations in a 4-act Film, Kickstarter News, and a Frozen cover!
Last post I mused that I might talk about Return of the Jedi, its unusual structure and inspiration. And indeed I will. Before that, I have some quick announcements and housekeeping. And after that, I’m going to show off the final cover of the Disney anthology I’m in.
First a PSA: If you came here via a Facebook ad offering a free PDF of the Player’s Guide to Norrøngard and you haven’t received it yet, please check your spam folders for emails from DriveThruRPG. Only about half of you seem to have downloaded it, so I want to make sure everyone knows where to look! Also… welcome!
Second: another PSA! The Kickstarter for the fantasy anthology, Tales from Stolki’s Hall, is set to launch Tuesday May 30th. I finalized the trade edition of the book today, and have uploaded the files to the printers for proof copies (printers plural, because I’m printing it at a US printer and a UK one). The Deluxe Gamer Edition is still in layout, but that should be done, barring any stretch goal additions, in the next couple weeks.
Meanwhile, there is a new project that just got underway, and … I can’t tell you about it yet! But I’ll be able to very, very soon! And an older project that was derailed might be back on too, and I can’t tell you about it yet! But both are very, very exciting! And I’m all bubbly.
Now, on to galaxies far, far away.
It’s 1980. I’m barely a teen. I’m in a movie theater. And The Empire Strikes Back has just started rolling its credits. We didn’t say “WTF?” back then, but my young mind is completely going “WTF!?!”
The film just stopped. It just stopped. It didn’t finish, it stopped. On a big TO BE CONTINUED.
Films didn’t do that. Comic books didn’t even do that back then. Television shows only rarely did that, maybe once in their whole run. What did I just watch?
I’d outlined Empire’s great parallel structure down before, but it was only when I outlined the follow-up, Return of the Jedi, that I realized exactly what George Lucas did. So in answer to “WTF?”, well this is the “TF” part:
So I’m probably not telling you anything new in saying that Hollywood blockbusters all pretty much follow a three act structure. There’s an opening act, a double length act second act, and a third act.
The first act sets the stage. It presents the protagonist in their normal world, and then an inciting incident propels them into the unfamiliar and kicks our story off.
The second act is double-sized. So the first half sees the protagonist wandering lost, exploring the new world they find themselves in, finding their bearings, seeking clues and helpers. By the middle of the act, which is also the middle of the film, they have collected most of the clues and made most of the connections, and now they are focused on a goal. From this midpoint to the three-quarters mark, they are in pursuit of that goal, but they are heading for a big setback.
Three-quarters in, they get their asses royally kicked.
And then our final act is the charge back from the brink to the eventual win at the end. It’s the “final battle.”
But when I sat down to breakdown Return of the Jedi, I couldn’t make it work. I couldn’t make it fit into the three act structure. And that’s because it has more acts. It has four. It’s one-and-a-third film’s worth of story.
Set aside everything on Tatooine for a moment. Return of the Jedi’s narrative arc kicks off when Han, Leia, and Chewbacca rendezvous with the Rebel Alliance, and Luke returns to Dagobah to complete his Jedi, only for Yoda to tell him Leia is his sister and he’s got to confront Vader. Everything about the film’s story is tied up in Yoda and Obi-Wan’s ghost pushing Luke to fight Vader, and Luke overcoming his mentor’s bad advice to toss away his light saber and embrace his father with love instead of hate. That’s the film. That’s the story. And it plays out in three acts from the swamp of Degobah to the moon of Endor. (Both luscious green worlds, not deserts.)
All that stuff with Jabba the Hutt? That’s not part of this story at all. It’s the third act to The Empire Strikes Back. That movie is about Luke’s mentors urging him to abandon his friends and finish his training. But instead, he defies them to go rescue his buddies. That three-quarters mark where the protagonist gets their ass kicked? That’s at the end of Empire when Boba Fest takes Han away and Luke’s hand is cut off. That’s not the end of the film. That’s the low-point before the final battle, where Luke, together with his friends, rescue Han from Jabba. Obi-Wan and Yoda are wrong—friends are a strength not a liability—but we don’t get the resolution of that theme and our third act of Empire until Return of the Jedi.
Lucas didn’t break any rules when he plotted Empire or Jedi. They’re both classic Hollywood. He just played a trick on us by breaking off the third act of Empire and sticking it on the beginning of Jedi. Which was a brilliant move in its simplicity!
Now, as to Jedi’s inspiration, let’s talk about where Lucas got all the stuff on Endor. That came from another science fiction film that debuted the same year as Empire.
So… Han, Leia, and Chewbacca head to Endor, a moon of Endor actually, where they meet some tree dwelling locals who are hostile at first but then befriend them, and the locales help them assault the Empire and take down the shield generator so the rebel army can get in and take out the bad guys, while Luke is off with the Emperor who wants Luke to join him.
Where have we seen that before? It’s pretty obvious. I mean, we’re not, oh, flying blind on a rocket cycle!
Yup. In the 1980s Flash Gordon, Flash is taken to the moon of Arboria, where the tree-house dwelling people who bang sticks on the ground in their celebrations are initially hostile but later befriend our heroes. Then Dale and Zarkov lead an attack on the bad guy's headquarters, but they’ve got to drop the shields so their forces can get in. While they are doing that, Flash is off with Ming the Merciless, an evil emperor who offers Flash a kingdom if he’ll join him. “I'd much rather see you on my side than scattered into atoms” and all that. Yub Nub!
There’s another rather obvious inspiration in 2002’s Attack of the Clones. So today’s question for you is, where does the initial sequences on Geonosis come from? What fantasy film was inspiring that? Hint: You don’t have to look very far. Just a couple years before. Looking forward to your answers!
That’s it for now. Meanwhile, the Frozen 10 year anniversary anthology that I’m honored to be in has a final cover! All is Found: A Frozen Anthology releases November 7th. And here’s the just released finished cover! Until next time…
Did I ever answer my question? It's The Fellowship of the Ring. Wizard goes to see his mentor. Mentor lives in big black tower. Tells Mentor there's a threat. Mentor wants to side with it. They fight. Mentor imprisons wizard. Mentor has underground chambers below tower filled with an army of brutish minions. Oh, and Mentor is Christopher Lee. (Why nip an idea when you can nip the idea + the actor both?)
OK. My first guess is the MATRIX!
That's not my guess. The only thing I keep coming back to is Galaxy Quest, the scene with the Rock, Garignack I think they called it. That whole sequence feels like I have seen it all before, but I am drawing a blank.