I’m a purist in some ways, especially when it comes to webcomics. This probably explains my aversion to Copy-and-Paste artwork and on the use of Poser-type programs in creating comics; to me, comics are a crafting of pencil and paper (or more recently stylus and drawing tablet). Thus I can be dismissive when it comes to alternative forms of webcomics, unless considerable effort is put into the strip to distance it from its peers (such as Crimson Dark for Poser-designed comics and Dark Red among photo comics). While Screencap comics have existed for a bit (though DM of the Rings is the only one I know of), I’ve avoided the genre as not being a webcomic as I perceived them to be.

It was four simple words on TV Tropes that first drew me to Darths and Droids: “Jar Jar, you’re a genius!” Despite that and despite reading about the series on TV Tropes, I was honestly surprised to find myself enjoying DaD considerably. See, I seriously dislike the prequel trilogy for Star Wars. I wasn’t too thrilled with Episode I, found Episode II to be clichéd and unimaginative, and ended up completely loathing Episode III. To me, Star Wars was the original unremastered unbutchered movies that I grew up with, and even then I saw the flaws and idiocies that existed in these films (to the point that to this day I’d love to see Mike, Joel, and the Bots join forces for three final MST3Ks where they make fun of the original Star Wars trilogy… for that matter, I’d probably enjoy watching them lambaste the prequels as well).

The character interactions and the “reimagined” storyline are what managed to overcome my prejudices against this comic. It has been several years since I last wore a GM’s hat (though I’ve managed to heal enough from the GM burnout I suffered from that thinking of running a game no longer gives me sharp migraines), but I still remember well on the vagaries of my gaming group and the bizarre twists that they’d throw my way. Over half of the plot twists that happened in my games were a result of things the players suddenly “realized” about the game, and I was deemed the best GM ever because of how imaginative my game became (despite the fact that imagination came from my players, not me). I see a reflection of that in DaD.
It is this divorce from the Star Wars prequel trilogy that helped win me over. While there are some fundamentals that are echoed, the writers help revamp the story into something far more believable (such as the whole “restoring balance to the Force” which the Jedi don’t want in the comic; that’s one “prophecy” that they figured out for themselves and see as a warning, not something to strive for). Some stupid elements, such as the midi-chlorians being responsible for the Force, are explained away as the fevered imaginings of the players who in the midst of roleplaying made it up on the spot. And it works.

While DaD can get confusing at times as it shifts between player interaction and character interaction, this is an element of honesty that any roleplayer can attest to. GMs and DMs will nod as they recognize player dialogue and incidences that happened in some form in their own games. Gamers will likewise see bits they recognize, whether it’s players running off on a tangent from what the GM originally had planned, players killing (or otherwise rendering moot) Non-Player Characters that the GM worked hard to build up for future games, and plot twists that leave both GM and players wondering just when the game went so far off track.

Mostly though what I find works well in DaD are the interactions between the players. The early comics based on The Phantom Menace dealt with more than just the building of the game and storyline; we also had an introduction to the characters, including Jim, who initially plays a gung-ho hack-and-slash character with Qui-Gon Jin (and stays just as gung-ho with his replacement character), Ben, who plays a more thoughtful and reserved character with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ben’s kid sister Sally who plays Jar Jar Binks and whose roleplaying has lifted Jar Jar from the role of hated comedy relief to one of the more popular characters, Pete, whose power-gaming and meta-gaming has caused his character, R2-D2, to replace Jar Jar as the most despised character, and Annie, a drama student and acquaintance of Ben’s who started as Shmi and later took up the role of a rather complex and less whiny Anakin.

And of course, there’s the GM, who I especially sympathize with. I’ve been there. I’ve watched as players go haring off in odd directions that I didn’t anticipate. I’ve seen players pull stuff out of their sleeves and leave me speechless while frantically trying to figure out how to compensate. I’ve also stopped planning in advance and just letting the players build their own stories (or at least until the GM burnout struck). And it’s here that I outgrew my aversion for the genre and the original story, and grew to just enjoy reminiscing of games of old. Darths and Droids is more than a parody of George Lucus’s deluded egoism given form in three movies. It is an homage to roleplaying groups and gamers, and whether you’re a gamer or just watched in bemusement as your significant other pretended to be something else several times a month, DaD is well worth reading.