RSS
Our first intermission strip plays up an idea we had about the porgs on Ahch-To, but which didn't make it into our final version of the story. The idea was to play up the joke about geese that Rey mentioned in #1906. That strip we wrote well before thinking about the porgs in Episode VIII, so it wasn't originally intended as a set-up for anything else.
When it later came time to think about how to characterise the porgs, we remembered Rey's comment about geese and came up with the idea that Rey should be ridiculously nervous of them. Ultimately though we decided that wouldn't fit with the story we wanted to tell.
Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)
They're just geese, Alternate Universe Pete, what's the big deal? Okay, the "alien" modifier might make them a little more dangerous, but that wouldn't stop them from being football-sized balls of feathers. Sure, geese have a poor reputation, but that's only because they look much worse than swans and there's usually more of them in a group. Swans won't put up with you yelling and waving your arms in the air like a giant bird. They know they're big and they'll decide you looked at them weird or got too close and then you're in trouble!
At least they're Porgs and not Gazebos. That would really give AU Pete a challenge.
Transcript
GM: <roll>... With some effort you spot the sword lying in a patch of grass overlooking a cliff that drops to the sea below. Porg birds regard it curiously.
[SFX]: honk honk honk
Rey: Porgs?
GM: They’re like alien geese.
Rey: Whoa! How am I going to get the sword now?
GM: You can just pick it up.
Rey: Not with alien geese guarding it! I back away cautiously.
[SFX]: honk honk
GM: They’re not going to—
Rey: I need to think about this. This is a real challenge.
GM: They’re just—
Rey: I appreciate all the work you put into creating ever more difficult problems for me to solve, but this...
[SFX]: honk honk honk
GM: It’s not meant—
Rey: Geese, wow, holy crap.
[SFX]: honk honk
Rey: I’m gonna need to level up and come back later. With reinforcements.
GM: You know what? The porgs attack.
Rey: I knew it!!