Destiny Calling
Wefalro Wavedream (aka Andre Paine) finds his inner Star Wars character
What kind of creature are you? that’s the probing question for fans visiting the Star Wars Identities exhibition at London’s o2. as well as gazing in wonderment at props, costumes and concept art, you’re going to discover your Star Wars alter ego based on responses at the 10 interactive “stations”. By the time you reach the gift shop, you could be following anakin skywalker towards the dark side of the force.
SFX has a hankering to go droid, but Identities is all about species. so the first task is to choose from an alien line-up that looks like a rough night at the mos eisley cantina. there’s rodian, Wookiee, Bith – oh, and human (been there, done that). after much deliberation, SFX scans our wristband on the Zabrak.
The next stage of character building is genes: SFX picks skin colour on the screen (adding some fetching tattoos), chooses the leadership personality (wishful thinking) and some powers. he won’t be able to levitate an X-Wing but light removals shouldn’t be a problem.
The Zabrak home world of iridonia isn’t on offer, so we go for coruscant – our guy grew up ducking and diving in the capital. there are plenty of other options but it’s hard to see him hanging out in hoth or dagobah, while the exhibit of han solo encased in carbonite is a warning against lawless tatooine.
Now for the hard bit: your Star Wars Identities name. it’s worth thinking about this beforehand as you’ve got to live with it. SFX panics and uses an online name Generator: Wefalro Wavedream sounds like a particularly ineffectual Jedi. But there are still plenty of interactive elements to determine his fate.
The audio commentary and short films explore Star Wars characters as you determine your psychological make-up. Parental influence? SFX’s upbringing wasn’t that strict – we might even have been allowed to go to tosche station to pick up some power converters. so while Wefalro has horns and two hearts, he shouldn’t have too many hang-ups.
Getting inside your character’s head is where it gets interesting. While you might just be tempted to transform from mild sci-fi fan into power-crazed sith Lord, part of the fun of Identities is seeing how your own personality might fit in that galaxy far, far away.
When it comes to picking a mentor, SFX gives Wefalro a backstory with han solo – probably a bit of smuggling – that set him on his career path as a bounty hunter. But if that doesn’t sound too sympathetic, at least our multiple-choice personality test suggests he’s more Padmé amidala than donald trump.
As we stroll past dave Prowse’s intimidating darth vader suit, it’s time to decide: will our character follow the dark side? it doesn’t take long to resist the emperor’s entreaties. SFX is basically one of the good guys – although we’re quite tempted by the death star money box in the gift shop.
Star Wars Identities is at the O2 until 3 September. www.starwarsidentities.com