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Commentary
This was my biggest build for Nar Eurbrikka yet and photography proved to be really hard for this one. In no way could I present my build like I wanted when taking the pictures, so you never really get to see and appreciate the full thing and there's definitely a sense of scale missing due to rather close shots. Ironically, it took quite some time to put together and set up a satisfying number of minifigs to populate the scene, and I paid attention to having each and everyone look Star Wars-y enough in its own way. But in the end, the crowd is never very well visible in the pictures and I regret not thinking of taking an over the shoulder shot of behind Dunkler Klerus to make you see the entire crowd at least once.
Speaking of him, that guy sure challenged my creativity. This episode's task included to "clearly" depict the planet you are building on – in my case, Commenor – in a unique and identifiable fashion. Now, this was kinda hard in the first place, because we have not many official visual depictions of Commenor. Apparently, it was only portrayed in the Empire at War video game and even that didn't help much, because its architecture or overall topography is not too unique compared to other Star Wars planets and might fit, say, Taris just as well, for example.
Second, the Nar Eurbrikka planet bios thread stated that during the Galactic Empire era, Commenor was controlled by planetary leader Dunkler Klerus. A character that, as far as I could find out, does not exist at all. So, I investigated further, and it turned out that Dunkler Klerus was a character invented by fans for an online role play simulation, set up with its own wiki and whatnot. When searching for information about Commenor, the Nar Eurbrikka staff seems to have added that data, knowlingly or unknowingly, into their database as if it was canon. So, I was sitting on the fence about whether or not using that character. He wasn't canon, but the Nar Eurbrikka play itself is only fanon, anyway, so why not go for it? Also, the fact that the character is only mentioned by name and there exists no official depiction gave me the chance to project onto him whatever kind of person I wanted. So, I saw an opportunity for some comedy, and instead of going for a strong, charismatic leader, I decided to depict Dunkler Klerus as seen above: an complete oaf. A likeable guy for sure, who has the crowd on his side out of sympathy, but a doofus and a lightheaded goofball of a politician. I thought this made for a nice and refreshing contrast to the heroic and pompous overall tone of the actual Empire Day celebration – an idea I took from the Star Wars Rebels animated show (which I am not too found of, but I consider the Empire Day to be an authentic and good concept). In my mind, Dunkler Klerus is a character half-way between Avatar: The Last Airbender's Sokka and Order of the Stick's Elan, with maybe a few sprinkles of Scuttle the Seagull from The Little Mermaid in there, and as a result, I've grown pretty fond of the guy by now. I may reuse him for future entries, if the plot allows it.
Last but not least, there's again a few references here and there. Maybe you'll find a movie quote in there that sounds familiar or a shout-out to a certain video game studio in one form or another.
Trivia
- Although it is not mentioned in the final comic, the originally posted episode on Nar Eurbrikka reveals Cody's mother to be named Ruana Startale.
- Cody's dad Racar is loosely named after the Vikings tv show's Ragnar Lothbrock. There is no characteristic reason for that, I just liked the sound of it.
- This episode required around seven hours of building, eight hours of photography and roughly six hours of editing for expressions and speech bubbles. I need a way more streamlined workflow for all of these.
- The AT-PT was the first thing I built for the episode. It doesn't fit a minifig, unfortunately.
- On both sides of the podium, there are garden planes with colorful flowers that can never been seen due to the photography.
- Cody is not a body builder, I just couldn't find a "naked" yellow torso that wasn't so ripped. Might go with plain yellow next time.
- The crowd consists of 30 unique minifigs, including three droids, two Wookiees, one Shistavanen, two Mandalorians, a Jawa, a Twi'lek, two Rodians and a minifig of myself. I am the bald one in the middle on the bench in the very back.
- The parade consists of two Imperial officers, thirteen stormtroopers and two security officers.
- Among the crowd are Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla. This takes place well before Rebels, so maybe they were there? Who knows!
- The credit for the name Jimmy Scrambles goes to Jenny Nicholson.