Geek: There?s not a lot about him in The Phantom Menace? What did you draw on for his character? Is there a big book all about him somewhere at Skywalker Ranch that you?re only allowed to read once? Or did you have the chance to bring your own nuance to his character?
SA: I read some of the YA novels with my son, but mostly I extrapolated backward from the movie. I'm not doing anything that's not implied somewhere, in the first film or the expanded universe stuff, but there's never been a look at the character like this. The novels he appears in are YA novels, for the most part, and focused on Obi Wan. This story takes place a while before that, and is targeted at a slightly older audience, the standard comics audience. So we get to deal with his weaknesses in a different way, his, shall we say, imperfect judgment, and the book really is all about him. This man will be one of the most revered Masters, with a special bond with the Force, and he's the guy who insists on training the kid who will grow up to be the mass murdering Darth Vader. So I want to know who THAT GUY was when he was younger, when he was still determining his future, and when his emotions were not entirely in check.