Star Wars Fic and Meta - From All The Spaces Between Times - Chapter 61

[elrhiarhodan]

Title: From All The Spaces Between Times
Chapter: Chapter 61 — For We Are All Orphans of Hope and Survivors of Dreams
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, The Force as a Sentient Character, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Quinlan Vos, Professor Huyang, The Force, Plo Koon, Vokara Che, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Bant Eerin, Bruck Chun, Xanatos du Crion, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Hego Damask II | Darth Plagueis, Komari Vosa, Bail Prestor Organa, Bail Antilles Prestor, Rael Averross, Nim Piana, Ahsoka Tano, Sifo-Dyas, Reva Sevander, Lene Kostana (mentioned), Savage Opress, Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added
Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (yes, we’re arrived)
Word Count: ~ 7600 this chapter
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None for this chapter.

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: It’s time for the annual Senior Padawan Lightsaber Tournament! Obi-Wan has thought he’d wisely chosen not to enter the competition, instead offering to spar with his great-grandmaster, Yoda, in an exhibition of skill and style: Ataru versus Soresu.

Now, Obi-Wan stands at one end of the arena and tries not to freak out. What was he thinking? Challenge the Grand Master of the Order? To an Exhibition Spar? In front of all of these Jedi? Maybe he should just go back to Tatooine and sell used speeder parts for the rest of his very long life.

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From All The Spaces Between Times — Chapter 61 — For We Are All Orphans of Hope and Survivors of Dreams (On AO3)

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Meta — For We Are All Orphans of Hope and Survivors of Dreams

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447,524 words, 77-ish chapters

I feel kind of guilty, but almost all of my words this week went into another story! Yes, I cheated on my beloved!

My dearest writestufflee has graciously put me down as a co-author on several of her amazing Yooperverse stories, mostly because we spend hours working on plot details, not because I actually write them with her (she is kind and generous like that). But on occasion, I do volunteer to write stuff (see what I did there?) to earn the credit she’s given to me. And this past week, I wrote about 3500 words of jewelry porn and angst.

So, word count on the actual story you’ve come to hear about is low. About 2k or so. But I’m happy with the words written — they finish up the cliffhanger I left at the end of Book IV, explain some things and progress the story in main.

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How many of you thought I forgot about the Senior Padawan Lightsaber Tournament? Raise your hands? I see not one hand, not because every one of my readers has faith in me, but because I have no clue if anyone reads this.

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I am actually quite proud of how well the match between the Obi-Wan and Yoda came out. When I think back, over two years ago, how I struggled to write the combat scene between Qui-Gon and Maul and Anakin, and how terrible it was. Here’s a reminder:

Obi-Wan is still feeling ill and he realizes that it’s not the stress of trying to make Qui-Gon understand, it’s the proximity of the Sith. He closes his eyes and tries to reach out, not to connect with Maul, but to get a sense of where he is. He collapses, caught in another Vision.

The battle is joined, two figures in black, a red light-staff against a blue saber. Blades moving too fast for a normal eye to follow. Aggression meets aggression, and the red starts to beat the blue back, blue starts to fail.

And then a green blade descends in a powerful arc. The red light-staff is split and the Sith is suddenly fighting a battle on two fronts. Blue and green press forward, the blue blade severs the Sith’s arm and the green blade cuts off the Sith’s head.

Obi-Wan’s Sight ends when the Sith dies.

Ugh, ugh, ugh. Yeah, I wasn’t trying to rewrite the Duel of the Fates, but really? This was it? This was all I could manage?

I did get better with the spar between Obi-Wan and Dooku. I think, taking that from various outside points of view really helped, but even so, I did manage to capture something of the combatants emotions

Obi-Wan hasn’t fought a bout this intense since his match against Master Windu. But just because his grandmaster is giving him a good fight doesn’t mean he’s going to win.

Makashi, for all its elegance of form and tight blade work, is still an offensive form. It still requires endurance and strength. Like the creature that Soresu takes its moniker from, the mynock, a master of the form leeches power from its opponent, wearing them down while conserving energy.

They’ve been at the first match for at least fifteen minutes, and he can see that his grandmaster is getting a little stressed. Not tired, per se, but maybe feeling his age. Or perhaps he’d thought this spar would be an easy win.

Although the old man has a good eighteen centimeters on him, and an equally impressive reach, Obi-Wan has speed, and well, more midi-chlorians that he knows what to do with. He lays a Mark of Contact against Master Yan’s upper arm, a cho sun strike if his 'sabers had been on full power.

And:

The two braincells Yan has which aren’t utterly exhausted wonder how long Obi-Wan’s other sparring partners usually last. Is he on the upper or lower end of the endurance range for the boy’s opponents? And how humiliating would it be if he just dropped his 'saber and let this master of Soresu just put a Mark of Contact on his throat.

Or administer sai cha and take his damn head off.

Definitely better.

Honestly, what has helped to no end is one very simple book, The Jedi Path, which I actually mentioned in my meta for Chapter 34, the chapter where the spar between Obi-Wan and Dooku takes place, where I give myself a pat on the back for improving my 'saber combat writing abilities. So, I’ll keep this brief in an effort not to bore anyone anymore than usual. The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force. It was authorized by LucasFilm and published in 2010, four years before the Great Severance, when the Extended Universe became "Legends" and relegated to the dustbin as far as the Great Disney Overlords were concerned. Anyone interested in writing about Temple life should get a hold of a copy. Some of the information is slightly dated, such as Dooku not being Yoda’s padawan, but in the grand scheme of things, having a concise reference for lightsaber combat forms, the Padawan dress code, and a fair bit of esoteric knowledge that is just impossible to find in Wookieepedia. Used copies are available for a few bucks on Amazon (I think I paid $3.99 with Prime shipping) and it is never out of reach.

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Obi-Wan digs his research, as if you couldn’t tell. And one of the things he finds in the contract copies that’s on the datastick that Anakin gives him are DNA verifications for all the signatories and witnesses for the Theed Plasma Generation Plant.

This is not (movie) canon or original with me, it’s something I’ve borrowed from Sassaphrass’ The Princess, the Smuggler, and the Sith Lord’s Son. I normally don’t go for Vader redemption stories, or Luke raised by Vader and he loves his monstrous father, but damnit, this one hooked me. It’s a complete GFFA AU, and it’s worth staying up all night to read, and I actually cried real tears at several points. It’s that damn good. In it, the Naboo have this thing about testing the DNA of Important People to make sure they are who they say they are. It stuck with me as I was writing this part of the story, and I wove it into the plot before I realized what I was doing. It’s not a major plot point and debated taking it out, but I liked the idea of giving Hego Damask a heart attack in a few chapters. So I’ve kept it in, and given Sassaphrass credit where credit is due.

Comments

[writestuff]

Blame me for the low word count. My story is better for elrhiarhodan's werds.