Darths & Droids is a screen-capture webcomic based on the Star Wars films. It is created by the Comic Irregulars, composed of Andrew Coker, Andrew Shellshear, David Karlov, David McLeish, David Morgan-Mar (creator of Irregular Webcomic!), and Loki Patrick. The basic premise of the comic is that the Star Wars films depict the action of a role-playing game and this strip shows the dialogue between the players and the Game Master. The Star Wars universe is presented as an original creation of the GM, and the players are completely unfamiliar with its unique elements, such as Jedi.

Darths & Droids was inspired by DM of the Rings, which was a similar webstrip based on The Lord of the Rings. Fans hoped that its creator, Shamus Young, would do a Star Wars strip after finishing DM of the Rings, but he wished to move on to different projects. So the Comic Irregulars came together and decided to do the Star Wars strip, publishing the first strip on September 14, 2007. The series has since concluded the events of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith.

EpisodesEdit

Darths and Droids has so far completed its parodies of Episode I, The Phantasmal Malevolence, and Episode II, The Silence of the Clones, and Episode III, Revelation of the Sith and began Episode IV, A New Generation. They plan to spoof all six movies, and may eventually publish the comics in a book.

CharactersEdit

Jim is one of the players in the GM's campaign, taking on the role of Qui-Gon Jinn (and later Padmé Amidala), who takes everything as it comes with absolutely no regard to others, or the future. Jim is also given to misunderstanding what people say to him. Examples of this include assuming that Jedi is a type of cheese, proceeding to refer to them as "Cheddar Monks" for the rest of the series, and slurring the words "To Naboo's soil" into "Tuna booze oil", which he assumes is a type of fish-based alcohol. He is constantly coming up with terrible plans, but due to others' interference and incredible chance they always turn out fine. Because of this, he never learns, and has no reason to not go off and concoct another one. After his character's death, he assumed the role of Padmé Amidala. During his time as Qui-Gon he believed that his Force powers had caused a large fish to save his bongo from being eaten. Afterwards he repeatedly talked about using the ability "Summon bigger fish" despite the fact that he did not have that ability (and despite always trying to summon it while on dry land). Jim however is a master of geographical features as he is studying for a geophysics Ph.D.

Ben is by far the more logical of the two who start on the GM's campaign, filling the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi from the movie. He is often extremely frustrated by the often amazingly stupid antics of Jim, as he is usually the one who must clean up after him. He is skilled in justifying whatever half-baked plan Jim uses, such as pointing out to the GM that unless Jim's plan to block laser shots with his laser sword succeeded then they would die and end the game prematurely.

Sally is Ben's younger sister, who was invited to the game when his parents couldn't find a babysitter. She quickly made up a character (Jar Jar Binks in the film), and frequently decides the more trivial and imaginative aspects of the game, such as Otoh Gunga. She briefly showed an intent to quit the game, but she came back to play Dexter Jettster, Jocasta Nu, Taun We, C-3PO, and Mace Windu. She sometimes annoys the GM, on one occasion by playing two characters (Windu and Binks) in the same scene. She eventually got bored of playing Mace Windu, and has now taken the role of Yoda, but still plays C-3PO.

Pete is an obsessive gamer who took on R2-D2's lack of height and arms in favor of extreme intellect and mechanical skill. He frequently enjoys working behind the proverbial scenes, subtly influencing the other characters into doing what he wants accomplished. He is very into the game, and is rather superstitious about, among other things, his dice, custom made with binary numbers, and made entirely out of titanium.

Annie is a student who Ben invited to the game from their drama class. She was led on to believe the game had to do with an improvisation activity and takes on the role of Shmi Skywalker. She enjoys playing her character as a realistic, logical person, with reasonable motivations. She is by far the most realistic of the players. She is now playing Anakin, her previous character's son. She spends most of her time roleplaying politics in Episode III. Near the end of Episode II, she starts believing that the Sith have returned and Dooku is one of them(in the game reality, the Sith remain a legend and the name "Darth" stands for retired Jedi). She later manipulates Palpatine and many others into wiping out the Jedi in a plan to rule the galaxy with half of the group on her side, later claiming that she was the Sith of the story(despite this, only Ben and Sally remained true to their characters being good while the others became evil). Ben then details her journey to the Dark side.

The GM is one of the three who started the campaign. He designed it as a barely-changed version of an existing D&D campaign, until Jim's antics forced him to learn to improvise. He plays characters like Sio Bibble, Ric Olié, Bail Organa, and Palpatine who Jim refers to as Bubble, Oily, Basil Oregano, and Puppeteen, respectively.

External linksEdit

• Darths & Droids