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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #31
"TURNABOUT"
As with all my “production notes,” consider a “Spoiler Warning” attached. Please read the books first.
There
is a lot going on in this story, but many elements touch on events to
come, so my comments here are carefully limited to a few issue-specific
things.
From the start, I had always planned to have a story in which everyone
Zayne had helped would assist him in one way or another in his quest.
It’s sort of like George Bailey in It’s
a Wonderful Life,
where everyone comes back to help. Only there’s no Christmas party to
come back to in this series: In fact, any contributions would have to
be made while our main characters are in the middle of their run.
“Vector” proved useful in this regard, as the elapsed story time before
and during that sequence gave us a chance to put characters into the
positions they’d need to be in. We see Shel for something like a page
between #24
and this issue, but it’s the stepping stone we need to get her from
Taris to where she is now. The Swiftsure cast has time to go home and
be in position at this moment. And Zayne’s father hasn’t appeared since
#12,
but we know what he does and who he’s been with, and so we understand
how he would make his contribution, even when he does not appear here.
You don’t have to show everyone for them to have an impact, even a
small one.
Now, the subject I know many readers are interested in: Malak, whose
name appeared in the series for the first time this issue — one of
those secrets we intended the readers to know but the characters not
to. I could get into a long discussion about the reasons behind giving
him a different name earlier in his career and some of the
considerations involved — and I will, one day.
In fact, I had started to write one now before realizing that it would,
again, get into a number of things that I would prefer that the comics
themselves reveal. So I’ll simply say at this point that I had always
approached the name of Malak as nom de guerre or an alias — the Malak
name appeared in the games in the same way that Lenin’s name appears in
official and oral histories about him, regardless of how much Vladimir
Ilyich Ulyanov ever did under his original name. As we learn more about
who he is and who he was, we’ll come to understand what identity means
to him…
TRIVIA
- We don’t have to show the recording Vandar was speaking of, because we’ve already seen it — in Dark Times! (Which is an important logical step in how Peturri came up with it…)
- If you think Malak’s immigration experience recalls that of a certain Vito from Sicily, you’re onto something!
- Regular readers may remember the injury, reported, but unseen, suffered by Karath in #21. Whatever landed on his foot was pretty bad, since the cast is still on!
- We laid out a good deal of the mechanics behind the Vanjervalis system in the Handbook, although it’s noted in this issue that the full package was not installed on the Courageous.
- Morvis’ ship’s name should easily be recalled from its bearer’s first mention back in #8.
- Alan Robinson depicts Xamar in his traditional outfit, which makes him more recognizable; my original thought had been for him to appear in something closer to a naval uniform, which resulted in the line about it. We should assume that he reported on board in uniform (at least until and unless we fix that line in the trade).
- Shad Camper is, of course, Zayne’s alias from #14. Someone should start a list of these…
- This issue had a saddle-stitched insert from the Science Fiction Book Club, making it a little fatter than other issues.
- And speaking of ads, I love the Star Wars Miniatures and Roleplaying Game ad that debuted on the back of this issue. It’s another send-up with characters doing wacky things, like the one for the Legacy set. (If you ever wanted to see Gryph looking lasciviously at anything other than a credit, here it is!) The art appears to be by Jan Duursema — if so, it’s her first work with this series’ characters (though not her first artistic input into the series, as she drew the initial designs for Celeste Morne and Karness Muur).
