Very excited to see that @jhull has posted a new analysis of The Empire Strikes Back on his atomizer and has found two complete storyforms in it.
This is interesting for multiple reasons.
The early Dramatica analysis suggested that while the original Star Wars (Episode IV) was a complete story, Empire and Return were just chapter-tales in the overall trilogy. I just accepted this of course, even though it seemed slightly unsatisfying and made the whole series a little too messy and therefore non-useful as a model for a multi-storyform work.
Seeing that Empire actually has two complete stories in it (Luke/Yoda and Han/Leia) corresponds to a fiction craft book I read years ago which used the movie as a great example of how to weave two plots together with thematic parallels using an inner and outer journey. This totally corresponds to Jim’s analysis – the OS of the Luke story is in Psychology, while the OS of the Han story is in Physics. So now we can see practically how to weave two storyforms together that have different OS Domains!
Empire was always my favorite of the Star Wars movies, now I see why. I’m looking forward to re-watching this weekend if possible.
Hopefully Jim will also give us a complete story for Return of the Jedi and for the trilogy soon – that will be extremely useful I think for the longer-form series work that is increasingly demanded of novelists and television writers these days.
As for True Detective, I think this was one of the first examples of the separation of Protagonist and Main Character that I read about that made Dramatica click for me. I’m trying to decide if I have time to watch it again before reading the analysis, but either way I’m excited to have it available. So, thanks Jim.
If you get Jedi done before Easter, my sister and I are going to watch The trilogy on easter and do the combined movie trilogy storyform(s). She has never seen it. So, it will be fun to go through the process with her.
You would have to show intent to communicate a narrative argument with consistent perspectives throughout all three films. Beyond son redeeming father–which is complete and contained within Jedi–I don’t think there is a greater argument being made. At least one appreciable beyond the scope of Jedi.
You could probably find the Force vs. Dark Side but ehhhh…
I checked the Jedi storyform and that is definitely not what I would pick for the whole series. I think it can be done with Luke as an MC. I’m also going to look at Luke’s final film to see if that changes anything when I do it.
Just for kicks, on Return of the Jedi, is there a sub-plot with Leia and Solo or anyone else on the planet/luke’s friends with the Ewoks? I’ll look for that too. Maybe on par with the Solo subplot of A New Hope?
I’m still pissed my parents sold my Star Wars toys at a garage sale to try and manipulate my hoarding father to part with a few cans of WD40 and a water ski or two.
If I get the Star Wars x-mas special…you get The Battle for Endor ;). I’m still losing on this deal!
