elrhiarhodan

Title: From All The Spaces Between Times
Chapter: Chapter Eight - To Meet in Places Where They Have Never Been
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: ~5800 this chapter
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: Author Chooses Not To Use Warnings/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: Time moves slowly on Tatooine. A year comes and goes, and it’s another Boonta’s Eve Classic. The time when things happen to Shmi and Obi-Wan.

This time, when a former Jedi comes into Watto’s shop, and he’s not looking to buy a hyperdrive generator.

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From All The Spaces Between Times - Chapter Eight - To Meet in Places Where They Have Never Been (On AO3)

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Meta - Chapter Eight - To Meet in Places Where They Have Never Been

As always, I am deeply grateful for all the love you’ve given this story, the outpouring of comments on the last chapter - the guessing on where the story is heading - makes me so very happy.

Going forward, I think I’m going to start each of these metas with a progress report.

160,017 words
32 chapters

But the current chapter is a hot mess. I have a section that I wrote about 2 weeks ago, it’s mostly Qui-Gon's ruminations, my cheerleader writestufflee keeps telling me it’s fine, but I am unhappy with it. It provides backstory to some stuff (serious stuff that I can’t say more about) but I hate this kind of interior monologue - I really prefer dialogue, so I’m trying to reset it in a discussion with a character that’s finally making his appearance.

I say finally because I’m finally getting to use the chapters that I wrote almost a year ago. Back in July ’23, when I started this story, I "pre-wrote" about four chapters, out of order - the scenes that were really piquing my interest - framing the characters, the story, the motivations and one of the big-bads. Of course, much of those pre-written chapters are no longer usable - too much of the story has changed, but there’s still meat on the bones that I can salvage, and that’s what I’m doing right now. When it comes time to actually publish those chapters, I’ll be publishing the original versions as meta so you can see how the story changed over time.

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Why Did It Take a Year?

I am pretty sure I’m going to get a whole bunch of questions why it took Anakin so long to go to Tatooine to free Shmi.

A couple of reasons.

1. It took time to gather the necessary funds. Contrary to popular belief, Padmé Amidala Naberrie is not an independently wealthy woman. In canon, she grew up in a family of modest means - her father worked in construction. Although she is the Queen of Naboo, she would not legally have access to the planetary treasury for personal use, which would be under considerable stress for the rebuilding effort after the Trade Federation invasion.

2. Anakin’s ambivalence. He is unhappy that his mother is a slave, but he is also unsure about rescuing her. I have thoughts about a deleted scene - a conversation between Plo and Anakin, where Plo tells him about how his mother gave him up. I haven’t written it yet, but I think it’s one of the things that makes Anakin delay. Shmi’s decision to give Anakin to the Jedi was - as Plo described it - the most perfect act of non-attachment he’d ever witnessed. The other things that makes Anakin delay is all the work that is needed on Naboo - the rebuilding, the negotiations with the Gungans (Jar-Jar isn’t the easiest being to talk with), and then his wedding to Padmé.

3. The author’s needs. I need Obi-Wan to be a certain age. I need a certain amount of time to pass. A year here, a year there. It eventually adds up.


The Origin of "Amidala"

I learned something when doing research for this week’s meta. I’d always thought that "Amidala" was either a family name or Padmé’s middle name. It’s not - it’s the name she’s picked to run as anonymously as a candidate and then used as her regnal name, per the Wookieepedia article on Padmé’s entry in politics:

Padmé Naberrie began her campaign to become the next Queen of Naboo. She campaigned herself as "Candidate Amidala," with anonymity being customary for candidates and monarchs. … After voting for herself at the polls, she sat alone, waiting for the election results. Captain and Head of Security Quarsh Panaka walked in and tell her that she had won the election and her work had begun. Meanwhile, Governor Sio Bibble announced to the planet's population that Candidate Amidala had won. She adopted Amidala as her regnal name.

Arsu H’ysan

An original Jedi character, generously lent to me by my dear friend temve, who has given me free rein to create a backstory for her. Arsu is Jocasta Nu’s last padawan, and as much of a prickly character as her master. She’s in her "wilding" year right now - her first year as a knight, getting her feet wet with a variety of missions, but she’ll eventually return to Coruscant and the Archives.

That’s it for this week.