Star Wars Fic and Meta - From All The Spaces Between Times - Chapter 2

[elrhiarhodan]

Title: From All The Spaces Between Times
Chapter: Chapter Two - We Are Born and Start Burning
Author: elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan
Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars - Obi Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars - Jedi Apprentice Books
Characters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Quinlan Vos, Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added
Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, eventual Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (but not for a long while)
Word Count: ~5200 this chapter
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: Author Chooses Not To Use Warning/Ratings
Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has never known it, but he has always been the Force’s Champion, destined to suffer infinite sadness in defense of the Light. On his last turn on the wheel, responsibility for The Chosen One, the false child of prophecy, had been thrust upon him with no warning, and Darkness held the upper hand.

But this time, the Force has marshaled its power and will protect its Champion until the time is right, no matter how long Obi-Wan has to wait and how much he has to suffer.

Or,

Obi-Wan is reborn as a twelve-year old.

He wakes up on a slavers’ ship, with all of his prior life’s memories intact, and he’s bound for Tatooine with a Force-inhibitor collar around his neck, a bomb implanted in his spine, and no way of knowing what state of the Galaxy is in.

Just another day in the life of the Force’s Champion.

Chapter Summary: Life on Tatooine is different this time around. Obi-Wan might not have the Force, but he has Shmi and somehow, that’s almost as good. Watto is despicable, but Shmi has given him good advice - just ignore him, so Obi-Wan manages to cope. He’s always been good at that, even without the Force, but an unexpected encounter with an old friend pushes him to the breaking point.

CW: Brief mention of suicidal ideation.

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From All The Spaces Between Times - Chapter Two: We Are Born and Start Burning (On AO3)

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Meta - Chapter Two - We are Born and Start Burning

ETA 5/31/25: Minor Retcon for those who are reading for the first time, I've changed the timeline heading from "The First Year" to the more accurate "The First Two Years", since the events in the chapter span the first two years of Obi-Wan's life on Tatooine, again.

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Thank you for clicking on the link and coming to read. This week’s meta is a combination of Star Wars lore, mostly from the Legends era, some graphics I’ve found in my library of Star Wars books, and a bit of thought about the story thus far.

First up…

In Chapter One, when Obi-Wan asks Shmi what year it is, "On the Galactic calendar" and I knew it was going to be hard for Shmi to give him a date. Tatooine is under Hutt control (it’s actually not in "Hutt Space") and there is no Hutt calendar that I could reference. Tatooine wouldn’t follow the Republic calendar, not being part of the Republic, but it is a waypoint on a hyperspace corridor and has trade with certain groups within the Republic (pirates, spice traders, other scum and villainy), so it’s not completely divorced from the Republic. When doing some research, I came across this image:


Credit: Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy, © and ^™ 2016 Lucasfilm, Ltd., Text by Pablo Hidalgo, Artwork by Russell Walks

So this poster (which was actually never printed, according to the reference source), made its way out to Tatooine, possibly used to wrap up some engine parts that Watto bought and turned over to Shmi to inventory, and thus, how Shmi knows the general year in the Republic.

And now, a rant…

Can I just use this space to bitch for a second about how fic writers use the "BBY" calendar system in their pre-OT stories? You can’t have a calendar system that references an event BEFORE IT ACTUALLY HAPPENS!!!!!!

Please, writers, just do your research! I know Wookieepedia and even official SW material makes things difficult by referring to everything as BBY this and BBY that, but it’s not impossible to figure out a dating system that DOESN’T REFERENCE AN EVENT THAT HASN’T YET HAPPENED!!!!!!

The Galactic Republic fell approximately twenty years after the aforementioned poster was printed. So, let’s count the history of the Galactic Republic from the date of the Ruusan Reformation, which seems to be an actual thing.
ETA: Or better yet, USE THE DAMN CORUSCANT RECKONING CALENDAR!

wipes brow /rant over

Now, finally, onto Chapter Two

This was a long one, but yet, it wasn’t.

It’s actually about average for most chapters in this story. But a lot of things happen here. I didn’t want to dwell on Obi-Wan’s adjustment to his live as a small boy or his life as a slave too, because that would get repetitive. Mostly, I want to set up Watto as repellent - more and less so than in The Phantom Menace, however.

In the movie, he comes across as a bit kinder to his slaves, at least on screen, seeming to care a bit for Anakin and Shmi, letting Anakin work on various personal projects, like his protocol droid and the pod-racer, and Shmi has built out their hovel to accommodate a workshop. But Watto also has whipped Anakin and Shmi, and is willing to risk Anakin’s life in the pod races.

In the story, once Obi-Wan gets the measure of his owner, he neither fears or respects him. He refers to him as "the old fly" or "the old bug" but the interesting thing is, Toydarians are supposed to be an avian species, not insectoid. According to the Star Wars New Essential Guide to Alien Species (2006):

Native to the planet Toydaria in the Hutt sector of space, Toydarians are a short species with small wings and vaguely avian features. Ranging in color from blue to green to pink, they sport stubby trunks on their faces that rest above short tusks, and their thin legs end in webbed feet. The males of the species usually show sparse whiskers.

Despite their undersized wings, Toydarians can fly quite rapidly. Their wings beat nearly ten times every second, and while their bodies appear pudgy and heavy, Toydarians are actually very light because their tissues are spongy and filled with gas. Their potbellied stomachs are also gas-filled, making them function much like small balloons. Nonetheless, their flying requires a great deal of energy, and as a result they must eat constantly to maintain their strength.

Like most mammals, Toydarians are born live and fully developed—resembling smaller versions of their parents. Unlike most avian species, they can fly immediately at birth, with little help.

Yeah, none of this makes much sense, described in the same paragraph as both "avian" and "mammal". Whatever. Watto still looks like a bug that should be squashed.

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The Boonta’s Eve Classic, the great pod racing event on Tatooine, refers to only one of three movie-canon holidays in the Star Wars universe: Life Day, a Wookiee holiday (created for the Star Wars Holiday Special), Empire Day, celebrating the destruction of the Galactic Republic, the purge of the Jedi Temple and the creation of the Galactic Empire, and Boonta’s Eve, the ascension of Boonta the Hutt to godhood.

I find it deeply ironic (I guess I’m supposed to) that Anakin Skywalker won his freedom in a race dedicated to a Hutt who orchestrated the slaughter of thousands of slaves in suicide attacks and waged a scorched-earth war against a slave rebellion.

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Darklighter, Darkligher? Where have I heard that name before?

Oh, yeah. Biggs, Luke’s first boyfriend.

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It is canon that Quinlan Vos was on Tatooine during the events of The Phantom Menace:



According to this:

Watch on YouTube

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Quinlan's padawan, Aayla Secura was with him, too, but I’m not going there. It doesn’t fit the story or future events.

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Cyral the Besalisk. I love her so very much, and I hope you do, too. She’s not a one-and-done OC. She plays an important role in Obi-Wan's life on Tatooine. Since she’s a frequent character through Part I, I’ll talk more about her later.

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I debated long and hard about the last scene in this chapter and whether or not to end on a cliffhanger or to move the story forward.

I chose to move the story forward. By and large, I find cliffhangers annoying, especially so early in the story. This is only Chapter Two, for Force’s sake! What’s going to happen when I get to Chapter Fifty?

So, we get a bit of a reveal on where the story is going and who populates it. Not that it’s any big surprise if you’ve looked at the tags.

Thank you again for popping in to read this meta and I hope you’ll come back for more.