Toys To Write To: Han Solo In Carbonite Figure

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Watch any child play with toys and you are witnessing a brand new world being created right before you that only they are privy to. Every single story begins behind the wide eyes of a mesmerised child.

People often ask what inspires me to come up with sci fi or horror scenarios and aliens. I’ve written an article here on that very subject of inspiration and ideas. Read it by clicking on the link here https://timewarriors.co.uk/2023/04/03/to-sit-down-and-write-get-off-your-arse/ However there is one thing I actually forgot about and yet have surrounded myself with them all my life and will enjoy to the day I die.

As a child you are forever creating stories with your tpys and when I was young it was the Star Wars toys especially that gave us our new Star Wars adventures and spin offs along with the comic strip in Star Wars Weekly. I had a Tardis and a Star Trek transporter that could send my imagination anywhere and to any time. So when my Dad built a rockery in our garden it was the site for many new Star Wars adventures and with the plethora of figures released anything could happen and crossovers between shows were common long before it became popular. Luke Skywalker travelled in the Tardis and R2 was beamed to a lost dimension of Transformers characters. So in this series I will look at the toys that blew me away as a kid and helped spin new worlds in my head. Every single story begins behind the wide eyes of a mesmerised child.

I think this one is really self explanatory for any writer that knows the history of this figure. There isn’t a hero or anti hero alive that hasn’t been put through the ringer in one way or another.

Jeopardy.

For heroes to rise they must fall as far and as deep as you want them to within the confines of your story. Danger and threat should always be nipping at their heels in one form or another. By breaking a good guy you force them to learn about themselves and find a strength they never knew they had before. This could be the element they need to defeat the bad guys and save the day. That fall should leave scars they will carry the rest of their lives and can be referenced now and again in the future.

For the Empire Strikes Back our heroes are kicked in the balls big time. Luke loses a hand and gains a father. Leia and Chewbacca are tortured and C3PO is blown apart. Han suffers the most as Vader uses him as an experiment to test the effectiveness of carbonite in capturing Luke. He is then given to bounty hunter Boba Fett for delivery to Jabba the Hutt. Lando loses Cloud City only to redeem himself to save Han. Vader and the Emperor are stronger than ever and the rebel alliance itself is threatened with destruction.

Wounded and broken is perfect for a cliffhanger if you are writing a two or three part book. A good cliffhanger leaves the reader’s imagination reeling as they try to figure out how this will all resolve itself. Click here to read all about what makes a great cliffhanger https://timewarriors.co.uk/2023/08/13/the-2nd-greatest-cliffhanger-in-star-trek-azati-prime/

Audiences are always rooting for the good guy to win so by dropping them in seemingly mortal danger is a hook that will bring the readers back again. Remember you have got to instill within your characters something your readers can relate to even in a sci fi setting. Whether it be the loss of someone close or being bullied or surviving some trauma, give the reader something to say, “That happened to me” or “I know how they feel.” This will make the impact even deeper when tragedy strikes.

In the Time Warriors Michael was bullied and has lost his parents. He isn’t part of a nuclear family just like many other kids. Jacke is a survivor of child abuse and uses it to do good in the world. In Homecoming her grandmother dies which most of us can identify with. Varran has lost his loved ones when his world died and is withdrawn and introverted at first. Tyran has a sibling Robert that does nothing but cause stress for their parents so they are in conflict. The human touch even in an alien body allows an emotional attachment that is necessary.

When Han was frozen in carbonite we saw and felt the impact on his friends. Silence fell over cinemas as we waited with bated breath to see if he had survived.

In one of the stories from The Time Warriors First Footsteps, Experiment 4, a minor character is killed but you know his full backstory before this happens. A couple of people said they cried when he died given the tragedy he had suffered all his life and that’s what you want to hear. Equally they can laugh out loud or hold their breath depending on what they are reading but bringing a hero to their knees tells you that you are on the right track and doing it right.