#I found an old fanfic of mine that includes qui gons death and

[agalaxyofjoy]

it's "sad about star wars" hours

[mneiai]

Re-imagining Obi-Wan’s Early Years: Becoming Qui-Gon’s Padawan

One of the biggest issues with writing Obi-Wan in fanfic is a glaring, awful point in his early Legends life: Jedi Apprentice (JA). The series is a cesspool of child abuse and neglect where nearly no adult characters come off in a good light. Many people (including myself) can trace our dislike of certain characters, such as Qui-Gon Jinn and Yoda, specifically to these books and some people have in fact a deepset dislike of the Jedi Order in general from them.

When writing fic about Obi-Wan, many people end up relying on JA for the basis of his Padawan years, partially because there’s no good replacement within Disney/canon and partially because many of the events in JA are actually good as far as Obi-Wan’s history goes.

So, I’ve been trying to think of ways I could create a past for Obi-Wan that would allow for those events to still have been a part of his history and inform who he is as a character, while also making it all somewhat less horrendously abusive. This might be what I end up using in some fics where I want a more reasonable take on Qui-Gon and the Order.

Obi-Wan Becoming Qui-Gon’s Padawan:

(For this, I will adjust some of the events of 44 BBY--namely, the timing of the Stark Hyperspace War.)

Obi-Wan Kenobi was found by Tyvokka on a mission as a baby and brought back to the Temple on Coruscant. Strong in the Unifying Force and with a continuing relationship with Tyvokka (akin to how Ahsoka and Plo were), Obi-Wan was raised knowing he would be Tyvokka’s Padawan and became so when he was eleven years old.

He had two years of a very healthy Padawanship with Tyvokka until, on what should have been a diplomatic mission, they were instead betrayed and Tyvokka died (basically what happens during the Stark Hyperspace War). Racked with grief over the loss of the Master he’d known nearly all his life and thought would guide him throughout it, he forgoes the offer of a replacement Master and instead decides to join the ExplorCorps--he’d always been interested in ships and flying and the distractions of traveling the galaxy felt like a good way of dealing with his grief.

However, the commercial passenger ship he was sent on (not some derelict, dangerous, Hutt-filled ship) to the ExplorCorps was attacked by pirates and Obi-Wan (without his Padawan braid or lightsaber, and therefore no obvious sign he’s Force sensitive) ends up being sold as a slave--to Offworld’s nearby operation on Bandomeer.

This means he gets to Bandomeer, but not because the Jedi thought it was a good idea to send a 12 year old to an extremely dangerous planet with very little supervision.

Meanwhile, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn is on a mission to Bandomeer. He is tracking the shady business of his former Padawan, Xanatos, because they actually try to keep track of people who leave the Order in questionable ways. They’ve just become aware that Xanatos has some connection to the secret head of Offworld.

Xanatos was emotionally abusive towards Qui-Gon, especially in the later years of their partnership, and his final betrayal was a horrible blow. Qui-Gon has worked largely alone since then and avoided ever taking another Padawan, unable to trust anyone after everything Xanatos put him through. He somewhat knows Obi-Wan, as he’s friends with Obi-Wan’s Padawan brother, Plo Koon, and as another participant in the Stark Hyperspace War (where they worked together after Tyvokka’s death to help save everyone and Qui-Gon awkwardly tried to support Obi-Wan while Plo was doing other things).

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan meet up, of course, in the mines of Bandomeer and help each other not just survive, but free the slaves there and ruin Offworld Mining Corporation’s hold on the planet (and Xanatos’ plots to kill Qui-Gon in the most horrible way he could think of, because, yes, he was the one that leaked the info he might be on Bandomeer and has been luring Qui-Gon into a trap). Obi-Wan at one point still offers to kill himself to save Qui-Gon, which goes very similarly to how it did in the book, except Qui-Gon actually talks to Obi-Wan about it in a mature and concerned manner.

They have a heart-to-heart over their losses afterwards, while recovering from the ordeal at a nearby medical station, and Obi-Wan decides that the Force had brought them together for a reason--they had already accomplished so much and Master Tyvokka would surely want Obi-Wan to continue doing so. He asks if Qui-Gon would be willing to take him as his Padawan. Qui-Gon, believing in following the Living Force despite his misgivings and seeing already how different Obi-Wan is from Xanatos and how well they worked together, agrees.

They return to Coruscant and then have a trip to Ilum, where Obi-Wan creates a new lightsaber to represent his re-commitment to becoming a Jedi Knight (and meets Dex on the mission immediately after it, per that piece of Legends).

For the most part, it looks as though they’re going to have a normal time of Obi-Wan’s Padawanship now that the wild beginning is over.

(I’ll be collecting all of these here)