Attack of the Clones
Page 30
“Welcome home, Lord Tyranus,” the Sith Lord replied. “You have done well.”
“I bring you good news, my lord. The war has begun.”
“Excellent,” Sidious said, his gravelly voice hinting at a hiss. From underneath the dark shadows of his huge cowl, the Dark Lord’s smile widened. “Everything is going as planned.”
Across the city, in the somber Jedi Temple, so many lamented the loss of friends and colleagues. Obi-Wan and Mace Windu stood staring out the window of Master Yoda’s apartment while the diminutive Master sat in a chair across the way, contemplating the troubling events.
“Do you believe what Count Dooku said about Sidious controlling the Senate?” Obi-Wan asked, breaking the contemplative silence. “It doesn’t feel right.”
Mace started to respond, but Yoda interjected, “Become unreliable, Dooku has. Joined the dark side. Lies, deceit, creating mistrust are his ways now.”
“Nevertheless, I feel we should keep a closer eye on the Senate,” Mace put in, and Yoda agreed.
After some more quiet contemplation, Mace turned a curious gaze upon Obi-Wan. “Where is your apprentice?”
“On his way to Naboo,” Obi-Wan answered. “Escorting Senator Amidala home.”
Mace nodded, and Obi-Wan caught a glimmer of concern in his dark eyes—concern that Obi-Wan shared about Anakin and Padmé. They let it go at that time, though, for there seemed greater problems at hand. Again, it was Obi-Wan who broke the silence.
“I have to admit, without the clones, it would not have been a victory.”
“Victory?” Yoda echoed with great skepticism. “Victory, you say?”
Obi-Wan and Mace Windu turned as one to the great Jedi Master, catching clearly the profound sadness in his tone.
“Master Obi-Wan, not victory,” Yoda went on. “The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun, this Clone War has!”
His words hung in the air about them, thick with emotion and concern, as dire a prediction as anyone in the Jedi Council had ever heard uttered.
Senator Bail Organa and Mas Amedda flanked Supreme Chancellor Palpatine as he stood on the balcony, overlooking the deployment of the Republic army. Below them, tens of thousands of clone troopers marched about in tight formations, an orderly procession that brought them in files ascending the landing ramps of the huge military assault ships.
A deep sadness marked the handsome features of Bail Organa, but when he looked over at the Supreme Chancellor, he saw there a grim determination.
On distant Naboo, in a rose-covered arbor overlooking the sparkling lake, Anakin and Padmé stood hand in hand, Anakin in his formal Jedi robes and Padmé in a beautiful white gown with flowered trim. Anakin’s new mechanical arm hung at his side, the fingers clenching and opening in reflexive movements.
Before them stood a Naboo holy man, his hands raised above their heads as he recited the ancient texts of marriage.
And when the proclamation was made, R2-D2 and C-3PO, bearing witness to the union, whistled and clapped.
And Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala shared their first kiss as husband and wife.
INTRODUCTION TO THE
CLONE WARS STORYBOARDS
Luke
You fought in the Clone Wars?
Ben
Yes, I was once a Jedi Knight the same as your father.
Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (1977)
his brief exchange between Luke Skywalker and Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi probably generated more public speculation than any other subject in the Star Wars lexicon. Even way back in 1977 people were asking what these wars were about and who fought in them. Twenty-five years later, we finally answered these questions by creating the first battle of the Clone Wars. On the planet Geonosis, a skirmish begun in an arena spills over into a red desert to become a raging, fantastic firefight between hundreds of vehicles and thousands of Republic and Separatist troops—but a year before audiences saw this spectacular combat, all we had in production to show for the Clone Wars was a very blank piece of paper.
t was storyboard artist Rodolfo Damaggio’s assignment to breathe action into those white sheets. Although other Episode II sequences had been at least partially storyboarded, the Clone Wars battle—because it was being developed so late in production—needed to be fully designed before we committed to more detailed 3D sequences. So George sat down with concept design supervisors Erik Tiemens and Ryan Church (both of whom had already come up with visually stunning reference paintings, which George had approved), the animatics team, and Damaggio, to explain the course of the battle as he envisioned it: the atmosphere and mood, the vehicles—even the ratio of clone troopers to battle droids (10 to 1, if anyone is counting …). Rodolfo then went home and drew, filling in the action between Erik and Ryan’s concept paintings; meanwhile the animatics team, led by pre-visualization/effects supervisor Dan Gregoire, built a library of puzzle pieces for the final shots: vehicle turn-arounds, explosions, clone troopers dying or decimating droids, and starships strafing.
s Rodolfo finished panels, George and editor Ben Burtt dropped them into the film as they were editing it. Some fit, others didn’t, modifications were made. About two weeks later, Rodolfo hand-delivered the final inks. George took these boards, made more revisions (often those boards marked “A,” “B,” etc.), and reshuffled the order of others. The animatics team, which had already been developing shots as soon as George approved individual panels, then took three weeks to finish detailed 3D sequences based on those final boards. In turn, George edited those animatics, still adding and subtracting and reshuffling until he was ready to hand the Clone Wars over to visual effects supervisor Ben Snow at Industrial Light & Magic for still more work. It was a fascinating collaborative process that resulted in a great vision of superbly designed, expertly choreographed warfare.
he storyboards presented here for the first time will give you an idea of how the parts came to fit into the whole. And, for Attack of the Clones, the whole was created in a very organic way—made all the more flexible thanks to the digital medium. This revolution in filmmaking enabled George and the artists to keep working on every frame until the images conformed to those in their collective imagination. I’m already looking forward to the new digital creations that will surely hit the screen with Episode III!
Rick McCallum
Producer, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
September 25, 2002
About the Author
Leominster, Massachusetts is known for four things: Johnny Appleseed, a thriving plastics industry, Robert Cormier, and New York Times bestselling author R.A. Salvatore. With over fifteen million books sold in the U.S. alone, more than four dozen books to his credit, and numerous game credits Salvatore has become one of the most important figures in modern epic fantasy.
A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, R.A. Salvatore, began writing shortly after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Communications/Media from Fitchburg State College. He penned his first manuscript in 1982, in a spiral notebook, writing by candlelight while listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk album.
His first break came in 1987 when TSR, publisher of Dungeons & Dragons®, offered him a contract based on a proposal for the Forgotten Realms shared-world setting. Bob’s first published novel, The Crystal Shard, was released in February of 1988 and climbed to #2 on the Waldenbooks bestseller list. By 1990 his third book, The Halfling’s Gem, had made the New York Times bestseller list. With a contract for three more TSR books, and with his first novel and its sequel sold to Penguin, Bob remembers that “it seemed like a good time to quit my day job.”
Salvatore spends a good deal of time speaking to schools and library groups, encouraging people, particularly young people, to read. With the zeal of a religious convert, he talks about the virtues of reading and the ultimate appeal, “it is fun.” He remembers his return to reading when he was in college, “The blizzard of 1978 shut down my college for a week. My sister had given me a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which I read while
house-bound. When I got back to school, I changed my major from math to communications.”
He is currently at work writing the next and final installment of The Neverwinter Trilogy, due out October 2012. Book two of the series, Neverwinter, will be out October 2011.
In addition to his novel writing Salvatore is hard at work creating a brand new world for 38Studios, Llc. which will be the setting for their first MMORPG, currently code-named Copernicus. This also serves as the setting for the new RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, an epic, open world role-playing video game, due out in 2012.
Salvatore makes his home in Massachusetts, with his wife their dogs Oliver, Artemis and Ivan and Jilseponie, a gray tiger cat. He is a trustee on the Leominster Library Board and he spends his “free time” coaching and playing softball on a team made up of family and close friends. His gaming group still meets on Sunday nights to play games, ranging from MMORG’s to Dungeons & Dragons and board games.
You can find him on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/RA-Salvatore/54142479810
By R.A. Salvatore
Star Wars
Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones
The World of Corona
The Demon War Saga
The Demon Awakens
The Demon Spirit
The Demon Apostle
Mortalis
Ascendance
Transcendence
Immortalis
Saga of the First King
The High way man
The Ancient
The Bear
The Dame
The Crimson Shadow
The Sword of Bedwyr
Luthien’s Gamble
The Dragon King
The SpearWielder’s Tale
The Woods Out Back
The Dragon’s Dagger
Dragon slayer’s Return
Chronicles of Ynis Aielle
Echoes of the Fourth Magic
The Witch’s Daughter
Bastion of Darkness
The Legend of Drizzt
Homeland
Exile
Sojourn
The Crystal Shard
Streams of Silver
The Halfling’s Gem
The Legacy
Starless Nights
Siege of Darkness
Passage to Dawn
The Silent Blade
The Spine of the World
Sea of Swords
The Stone of Tymora with Geno Salvatore
Book I The Stowaway
Book II The Shadowmask
Book III The Sentinels
The Hunter’s Blades Trilogy
The Thousand Orcs
The Lone Drow
The Two Swords
The Sellswords
Servant of the Shard
Promise of the Witch-King
Road of the Patriarch
Transitions
The Orc King
The Pirate King
The Ghost King
The Neverwinter Trilogy
Gauntlgrym
Neverwinter
The Cleric Quintet
Canticle
In Sylvan Shadows
Night Masks
The Fallen Fortress
The Chaos Curse
A Reader’s Guide to R.A. Salvatore’s The Legend of Drizzt edited by Philip Athans
Tarzan: The Epic Adventures (novelization)
STAR WARS—The Expanded Universe
You saw the movies. You watched the cartoon series, or maybe played some of the video games. But did you know …
In The Empire Strikes Back, Princess Leia Organa said to Han Solo, “I love you.” Han said, “I know.” But did you know that they actually got married? And had three Jedi children: the twins, Jacen and Jaina, and a younger son, Anakin?
Luke Skywalker was trained as a Jedi by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. But did you know that, years later, he went on to revive the Jedi Order and its commitment to defending the galaxy from evil and injustice?
Obi-Wan said to Luke, “For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire.” Did you know that over those millennia, legendary Jedi and infamous Sith Lords were adding their names to the annals of Republic history?
Yoda explained that the dreaded Sith tend to come in twos: “Always two, there are. No more, no less. A Master, and an apprentice.” But did you know that the Sith didn’t always exist in pairs? That at one time in the ancient Republic there were as many Sith as Jedi, until a Sith Lord named Darth Bane was the lone survivor of a great Sith war and created the “Rule of Two”?
All this and much, much more is brought to life in the many novels and comics of the Star Wars expanded universe. You’ve seen the movies and watched the cartoon. Now venture out into the wider worlds of Star Wars!
Turn the page or jump to the timeline of Star Wars novels to learn more.
FROM THE PRIVATE JOURNALS OF MACE WINDU
In my dreams, I always do it right.
In my dreams, I’m on the arena balcony. Geonosis. Orange glare slices shadow from my eyes. Below on the sand: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Senator Padmé Amidala. On the rough-shaped stone within reach of my arm: Nute Gunray. Within reach of my blade: Jango Fett.
And Master Dooku.
No. Master no more. Count Dooku.
I may never get used to calling him that. Even in dreams.
Jango Fett bristles with weapons. An instinctive killer: the deadliest man in the galaxy. Jango can kill me in less than a second. I know it. Even if I had never seen Kenobi’s report from Kamino, I can feel the violence Jango radiates: in the Force, a pulsar of death.
But I do it right.
My blade doesn’t light the underside of Fett’s square jaw. I don’t waste time with words. I don’t hesitate.
I believe.
In my dreams, the purple flare of my blade sizzles the gray hairs of Dooku’s beard, and in the critical semisecond it takes Jango Fett to aim and fire, I twitch that blade and take Dooku with me into death.
And save the galaxy from civil war.
I could have done it.
I could have done it.
Because I knew. I could feel it.
In the swirl of the Force around me, I could feel the connections Dooku had forged among Jango and the Trade Federation, the Geonosians, the whole Separatist movement: connections of greed and fear, of deception and bald intimidation. I did not know what they were—I did not know how Dooku had forged them, or why—but I felt their power: the power of what I now know is a web of treason he had woven to catch the galaxy.
I could feel that without him to maintain its weave, to repair its flaws and double its thinning strands, the web would rot, would shrivel and decay until a mere breath would shred it and scatter its strings into the infinite stellar winds.
Dooku was the shatterpoint.
I knew it.
That is my gift.
Imagine a Corusca gem: a mineral whose interlocking crystalline structure makes it harder than durasteel. You can strike one with a five-kilo hammer and do no more than dent the hammer’s face. Yet the same cystalline structure that gives the Corusca strength also gives it shatterpoints: spots where a precise application of carefully measured force—no more than a gentle tap—will break it into pieces. But to find these shatterpoints, to use them to shape the Corusca gem into beauty and utility, requires years of study, an intimate understanding of crystal structure, and rigorous practice to train the hand in the perfect combination of strength and precision to produce the desired cut.
Unless you have a talent like mine.
I can see shatterpoints.
The sense is not sight, but see is the closest word Basic has for it: it is a perception, a feel of how what I look upon fits into the Force, and how the Force binds it to itself and to everything else.
I was six or seven standard years old—well into my training in the Jedi Temple—before I realized that other students, full-grown Jedi Knights, even wise Masters, could sense such connections only with difficulty, and only with concentration and practice. The Force shows me strengths and weaknesses, hidden flaws and unexpected uses. It shows me vectors of stress that squeeze or stretch, torque or shear; it shows me how patterns of these vectors intersect to form the matrix of reality.
Put simply: when I look at you through the Force, I can see where you break.
I looked at Jango Fett on the sand in the Geonosian arena. A perfect combination of weapons, skills, and the will to use them: an interlocking crystal of killer. The Force hinted a shatterpoint, and I left a headless corpse on the sand. The deadliest man in the galaxy.
Now: just dead.
Situations have shatterpoints, like gems. But those of situations are fluid, ephemeral, appearing for a bare instant, vanishing again to leave no trace of their existence. They are always a function of timing.
There is no such thing as a second chance.
If—when—I next encounter Dooku, he will be the war’s shatterpoint no longer. I can’t stop this war with a single death.
But on that day in the Geonosian arena, I could have.
Some days after the battle, Master Yoda had found me in a meditation chamber at the Temple. “Your friend he was,” the ancient Master had said, even as he limped through the door. It is a peculiar gift of Yoda’s that he always seems to know what I’m thinking. “Respect you owed him. Even affection. Cut him down you could not—not for merely a feeling.”
But I could have.
I should have.
Our Order prohibits personal attachments for precisely this reason. Had I not honored him so—even loved him—the galaxy might be at peace right now. Merely a feeling, Yoda said.
I am a Jedi.
I have been trained since birth to trust my feelings.
But which feelings should I trust?
When I faced the choice to kill a former Jedi Master, or to save Kenobi and young Skywalker and the Senator … I let the Force choose for me. I followed my instincts.