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DIE! [69]

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Almost there...

I was excited about this new page... but I think I rushed it. About a day / 8 or 9 hours in all? I'm really trying to blend my old version, my new pages, the film and the Alan Dean Foster novel together here and I have to say the to-and-fro between Ripley and the beast is getting a bit confusing!

Holy Ret-con

"DIE!"

I'm guilty of doing a bit of a George Lucas here. George said when he did the Star Wars Prequels, that he wanted things to "Rhyme". To me, that seems a bit silly, especially if it screws around with the original films - ret-conning them ['retrospectively-converting' for the uninitiated!].

It shouldn't even be necessary to use such tricks if your story is good anyway. I mean, it is a bit of a trick - a sort of quick-fix to make the new unfamiliar stuff seem like the old stuff - that everyone knows and loves. So you use the same theme tune, typeface, opening-crawl, scene-wipe effects, similar alien characters - even young versions of them [Greedo], and then, just to make sure that it's all blending seamlessly: you echo story elements from the old films, in the new ones. I don't like this. If anything, it dilutes the power of the original films. But what do I do?

It could have been worse though. On the previous page, I had considered having Ripley do exactly the same pose as Doctor Shaw in PROMETHEUS when she slams the Airlock button - but I resisted. I gave it a lot of thought because it'd be really fun to do, but decided not to do a George on it.