#imagine if we'd seen her as a youngling in that very first scene | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fictionadventurer · 2 years

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A character's motivation should not be a mystery. Their backstory can be a mystery. The depths of their character can be a mystery. But not motivation. If you want us to care, we should know why they're doing what they're doing; we should understand why success is so important to them.

A villain can be a different case. Sometimes, the only motivation you need to know about is "They're evil" or "They work for the bad guys." But if the feud is personal, we should see what makes it personal. Holding the "why" back as a thrilling reveal is almost never as effective as just letting us know from the beginning.

A plot twist gives you one cool moment. Character attachment makes the entire story interesting.

#adventures in writing #yes this is about the kenobi miniseries #half of the twist was the obvious thing from the beginning #i'll admit the other half of it was kind of a cool reveal #but how much more interesting would it have been to know at least some of this from the beginning?#it could have given us a little investment in her instead of her feeling like some interloper #who's keeping us from the kenobi-vader confrontation we all care about #she wasn't even necessary #because you have the very personal feud between vader and kenobi #obi-wan mourns anakin's fall and anakin's angry that obi-wan cut off his limbs and left him to burn to death #that's compelling!#you don't need another villain to get in the way of that #but even if she's needed to keep vader and kenobi from meeting too soon #they could have structured things to give us an attachment to her #or at least an understanding #right from the beginning #imagine if we'd seen her as a youngling in that very first scene #and then cut straight to her as a grown-up hunting jedi #immediately your intellectual and emotional investment are increased #how did she go from the victim to the villain?#what's her story?#it even still allows for the twist reveal but in a way that let us understand at least part of her a bit more #perhaps even have vader treat her like an apprentice #to be a dark parallel to the anakin-kenobi relationship #so it looks like the personal obsession with kenobi is just her trying to please her master #until she goes the way of all sith and tries to overcome her master #there were better ways to go about this #which holds true for just about everything star wars tbf #but sometimes their seeming unconcern with good story structure is baffling

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