acts_of_gord | (no subject)

"If you ask me that little astromech's the smartest being in the whole movie," Gordon agrees.

Unfortunately for Luke, that's going to be a problem that can't be resolved before nightfall. And come the morning Luke's speeding out into Sandpeople territory in search of droid or hermit.

Threepio, for the record, is even snippier than Gordon remembers.

"Well, there are two Banthas down there, but I don't see any--wait a second. There's Sandpeople, all right, I can see one of them now--"

Alyx huffs a laugh as Luke is surprised by a Sandperson rising up right in front of him. Kid deserved it for not paying better attention, as far as she's concerned.

This is really not a good day to be Luke Skywalker, if that horrible bellowing moan is anything to go by... oh, wait. That'd be the old man faking something else's noise, apparently.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi...Obi-Wan? Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...a long time."

The old man takes Luke and the droids back to his home, where he fills Luke in on his heritage, and gives him a little present...

"What is it?"

"Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster... an elegant weapon for a more civilized age."

Alyx's jaw drops. "Holy shit. That's the sword Dr. Stantz was using! The one he gave me the patents for!"

Gordon blinks several times. "Somebody actually built one of those? How the hell do you get the laser portion of the blade to self-terminate and keep that kind of coherence? The power drain alone..."

"From what I can tell it's a really thin loop of energy that goes up out of the handle and back down in," Alyx explains. "It just looks like a single beam to the naked eye. I could be wrong, though, the papers were kind of confusing."

"That's... I don't even know where to start with that. You're sure it worked?" He shakes his head. "Never mind. Obviously it did, but trying to imagine how is making my brain hurt."

Ah, there's that hologram again.

"General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

Alyx shrugs. "It worked fine for him."

"I can't get involved, I've got work to do! It's not that I like the Empire, I hate it, but there's nothing I can do about it right now! It's all such a long way from here..."

Alyx sobers as she listens. It's a refrain she's heard too many times from the civilians in City 17.

"You must do what you feel is right, of course."

The Empire might just be more of a threat than Luke thinks, judging by the subsequent meeting on board the Death Star.

"The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away."

"Remind you of anybody?"

Alyx nods grimly.

"Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the rebels' hidden fort--urk!"

"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

"...But I'm pretty sure Breen couldn't do that."

"That's pretty much what I was thinking of when the gravity gun started picking up Combine," Gordon admits. "That scene, right there."

Back on the planet's surface, the single most ridiculous line in the movie- about Imperial Storm Trooper precision of fire- gives rise to a sudden and horrible realization on Luke's part. The whole thing was more or less inevitable, of course, and Gordon's seen the moment of discovery more times than he can count- not to mention worse things in his own world- but he still winces when Luke discovers what's become of the farmstead.

Alyx's grip on Gordon's hand tightens considerably when she sees the smoking remains of the Lars household.

And a little bit more in the next scene when the torture droid is brought in for Leia's 'interrogation.'

She knows, objectively, that none of it's real, it's just another way of telling a story... but there are some things that she finds harder to distance herself from than others.

The door closes on that scene before anything can be shown, but it's not likely to matter. Lucas knew just how well imagination could fill in that particular blank.

There's no particular point to attempting graves at what remains of the farmstead; Kenobi's finishing what the Empire began when Luke arrives back at the crawler.

"There's nothing you could have done, Luke, had you been there. You'd have been killed, too, and the droids would be in the hands of the Empire."

( "And all the effort in the world would have gone to waste..." Guh. Yeah, he needed to remember that. )

"I want to come with you to Alderaan. There's nothing here for me now. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father."

Edited 2008-10-06 21:47 (UTC)

And then it's off to Mos Eisley--"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy... we'd best be cautious"--and the cantina.

"So these are all humans in costumes too, right?"

"If they're not costumed humans, they're puppets," Gordon says. "Mostly costumes, though."

With a crowd like this you just know a fight's gonna break out eventually. "Don't insult us. You just watch yourself. We're wanted men. I have the death sentence in twelve systems." Might as well say 'gentlemen, start your engines'.

Though most car races don't generally end with an arm on the floor and an old man giving an entire room the 'do NOT fuck with me' faint little smile Kenobi offers the suddenly much more polite spectators.

"... do the patents he gave you let you do that?"

"Not yet. All I've got so far are schematics for a system to grow the crystals that make the blade," Alyx murmurs, obviously impressed. "I should get to work on that."

Now Luke and Kenobi are talking to a thirtysomething human in a rumpled shirt and vest. "Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?"

"Should I have?"

"It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. I've outrun Imperial Starships--not the local bulk cruisers, mind ya, I'm talkin' about the big Corellian ships now..."

Alyx quirks an eyebrow. "Astronomy isn't my specialty, but isn't a 'parsec' a unit of distance?"

Gordon gestures towards the screen. "He's bullshitting. Kenobi isn't buying it. Luke, maybe, but Kenobi knows when he's being lied to."

As the bargain's concluded and Kenobi and Luke get up to leave, someone else enters the scene. "Oota goota, Solo?"

Bar, unlike Lucas, appreciates a real masterpiece. On this DVD, Han shoots first.

Another huff of laughter from Alyx. "Nice."

A couple of short scenes later, they've evaded the Stormtroopers--just barely--and are prepping to make the jump to lightspeed.

"So how is FTL travel supposed to work here?"

"Hyperspatial travel of some kind. As nearly as I can tell the ship drops partly or mostly out of realspace and passes through a dimensional zone where the normal laws governing relativistic travel don't apply." Gordon shrugs. "You got a lot of dimensional casualness in science fiction when you were talking about space travel."

"Kinda like the Xen relay system," says Alyx with a nod. "I gotcha."

And now we're back on the Death Star.

"Governor Tarkin. I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash... I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board."

"Charming to the last. You don't know how hard I found it signing the order to terminate your life..."

Alyx makes a face. "Ugh. Now he reminds me of Breen."

Edited 2008-10-06 22:58 (UTC)

"He gets worse," is all Gordon says.

"You would prefer another target? A military target? Then name the system! . . . I grow tired of asking this. So it'll be the last time. Where is the Rebel base?"

". . . Dantooine. They're on Dantooine."

"There. You see, Lord Vader? She can be reasonable. Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready."

"What??"

"You're far too trusting..."

Edited 2008-10-07 00:05 (UTC)

Alyx says nothing as the Death Star is powered up and Alderaan is obliterated.

But her face has gone utterly bloodless and her grip on Gordon's hand is tight enough to hurt.

Gordon does his best not to flinch, but the breath does hiss out of him at that. He moves his other hand to cover hers.

And as it happens, Alyx isn't alone. On screen, as Luke attempts to fend off the zapping of the bobbling spherical drone, Ben Kenobi flinches and staggers, looking very much as if he wants to be violently ill. Luke puts up his saber immediately, concerned. "Are you all right? What's wrong?"

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

"Dr. Stantz had a training drone like that too," Alyx murmurs.

Now Kenobi is putting a helmet on Luke's head. "With the blast shield down, I can't even see!" Luke protests. "How'm I supposed to fight?"

"Your eyes can deceive you; don't trust them," replies Kenobi. "Stretch out with your feelings."

"...huh. He talks about it like the Vortigaunts talk about the Vortessence."

Edited 2008-10-07 00:49 (UTC)

"The what, nnnnnn-"

He has heard that word before, now that he thinks about it.

"Oh. What that Vortigaunt in the cave was talking about. Yeah, he sort of does, doesn't he."