"How Anakin Could Fix This Mess" [ByTS post-NJO Fan Fiction Challenge]

Anyone else out there still old enough to remember "How Zahn Could Fix This Mess"?

It was a movement in the mid-late '90s, in reaction against the direction the franchise storyline was heading under Bantam - not so much Samidzat as agit-prop. The basic idea was how Timothy Zahn and his characters - properly characterized - could put right the bad things that had happened to the GFFA since the end of The Last Command...

Initially, Sean Fallesen posted a short 'fic to RASSM under the title "How Zahn Could Fix This Mess". He was soon followed by another poster (v.2.0), and a few months later, a revised version of the original (v.1.2) was produced.

Versions of both 'fics ended up at the ClubJade archive, along with several others on more-or-less similar themes - and there are plenty more 'fics from those years around the internet that owe at least a nodding acquaintance to the concept. You could even say that Specter of the Past was the apotheosis of the idea...

The way Zahn did fix the mess is part of the reason SotP is still one of my favourite Star Wars novels, though I'm told it stands up well to reading straight on from the end of The Last Command as well. As to 'fic, a particular favourite of mine is Canon or Cannon, which seems to be available currently only in the Wayback cache, but I should also mention a fashion for literal character-assassination, which saw lots of characters gruesomely removed from the stage - amongt them Anakin Solo himself...

Anyway... that's enough ancient history: the point of this thread is to reapply the same concept to the current situation, with Anakin Solo rather than Zahn as the mechanism for fixing things.

The 'fic can be any genre, any length, any style; the "fix" can be in the form of retconn, redemption, or ruthless killing-spree. The more meditative among you might use this as an opportunity to think about what the problem is, why, and how to put it right - but I'm sure that some people can right great 'fic without indulging those concepts.

The only real parameters are these:

1.) It has to involve Anakin Solo in a pivotal role.
2.) It has to resolve the 'messy' post-NJO situation.

Please post a link in this thread when your 'fic goes up...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

soon I will post mine

 

I actually have a plot bunny about this sort of thing but I don't know when it'll see the light of day. It could be as late as 2008 before it's even written . . .

 

Can we submit stuff from three years ago?

Seriously, I really like this challenge and can't wait to see what other people come up with for it

 

Well, it's 2008 now. Done yet?

Yeah, if it's not been posted before. Five years ago, even.

This thread is now the last, best hope for Star Wars. I suggest we use it!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Oooh! Mesa likens this. My muse has been inspired. I'll see what I can do.

 

I still really like this two years later

Looking forward to seeing what people come up with



Wes

 

This looks like a neat idea.. I might have to throw some ideas around..

 

Glad to hear it...

But, uhh... does it involve Gungans?

Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to this!

Still got that old 'fic?

Me too!!

Do you need someone to catch them?

But wait! There's a in there... Vergere?!

Thanks for the response, guys!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Now, what gave you that impression?

No, it doesn't involve Gungans. I was practicing Gungan impersonation to be misleading. The fic is a secret!

 

This is an evil and cunning plan - a plan so cunning, you could could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.

No, there will be no weasels in the story. But Gungans . . . . hmmmmmm

 

I can't believe anyone would just talk like Jar-Jar for no reason?

So, there are Gungans in it? Sneaky!

Does this mean we get a 'fic? Involving A/T and Gungans? Naboo?

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Just a thought about Anakin alive in LOTF. I think the climactic duel would have been much more intense and emotional had Anakin faced Jacen rather than Jaina. She is so damaged and apathetic, that killing her brother really meant nothing to her.

Anakin always had such passsion. I could see his intensity, as was Luke's when he faced Vader, burning brightly in such a duel.

 

I've thought about this as well. It would have made for a more emotional investment in the reader. One of the most memorable scenes from NJO was Jacen and Anakin sparring with lightsabers (or perhaps a bit more than that) inside the Millennium Falcon while Jaina scowled and looked on. It wasn't a big deal or a scene of importance...but the fact that I recall it out of such a huge series says something about the pairing.

 

I think that psychologically, they thought quite hard about the Jacen-vs.-Jaina duel. The problem was, there simply wasn't the action setup. In the OT, we saw Luke witness the Vader/Kenobi duel - the first time he met his father - and then he faced him in the trench run (saved by Han - one step removed again); the plot of ESB was the setup for his duel with Vader - which he rushed into and got wasted. That knowledge them provided the drive for his character's direction in the next movie... which culminated in the single most awesome piece of swordfighting in the saga.

For my money, Luke powering down Vader with that music is still the sock-rocking moment of Star Wars.

But what did we have in the NJO and "Legacy of the Force"? We were told that there was a Yuuzhan Vong fetishism with twins fighting. We were told that Jaina resented Jacen as he took control of the Galaxy. In between, they bitched at each other through their Force Bond through the attack on Thrago. In hindsight, Denning gave us some very good characterization moments, where Jaina yelled at Jacen.

But there wasn't the sense it was going to come to lightsabers. It didn't push into the story enough. If we had Jaina whupped in a fight by Jacen in Invincible or something, that might have made it work.

It's quite telling that Anakin's duel with Jacen WAY back in Vector Prime still stamps itself more powerfully on the characterization and the readers than three whole series' worth of buildup and psychological complexity before the Jacen/Jaina rumble.

But I agree. Anakin and Jacen have always been more natural antagonists than Jacen and Jaina, I think. It took a lot of pushing to get those two opposed, and for some reason, the narrative held back from doing it effectively. Then again, the natural conflict here is Anakin against Luke, I'm starting to think - Jacen was just a more perfect Luke Skywalker all along.



Look at it this way: Anakin/Tahiri represented "something new", but while Luke's allowed married Jedi, he seems increasingly ambivalent, and he takes their kids away and brainwashes them. Heck, the Jedi themselves are acting like brainwashed drones.

Something's gotta give.

Something's gotta give.

Something's gotta give.



- The Imperial Ewok

 

I couldn't resist....here's a challenge response...


" I got Shafted "

 

Well, I too have a rather short solution for this. It can be found here.

 

I don't think I understand what you mean here.

 

Thanks!

Brilliant, too!

Jacen, I think, is essentially a parallel character towards Luke, just with such a TOTAL moral commitment to the ideals his Uncle indoctrinated him with (that's what I meant by "more perfect") that it deprives him of the ability to deal tactically with the people he doesn't agree with.

They believe in the same things, act in the same ways. Jacen's just more insistent on other people knowing what he's doing. Jacen, within the limits of Jedi ideaology, is actually so sane he's crazy (hence, Darth Caedus); Luke is BADLY broken, and has been for quite some time.

- The Imperial Ewok

 

No doubt that Luke has suffered in recent years, but that is no fault of his own. I guess I can agree that Jacen is a corrupt Luke type. But, making the comparison makes me ill.

I've never had any Jacen love. Like most of us here, Anakin was our hero. He was the most well rounded character. Jacen and Jaina seemed carboard cut outs.

As for Luke, he used to kick tail. Now, for the most part, he sits on it. Please, Del Rey, do something about this.

 

I actually think the characterization in the NJO was pretty good all round... but Anakin was just the best, most promising character in the series. With Tahiri, of course.

And I don't want to make you sick, but I wonder if Luke's tail-sitting is actually causing similar effects to Jacen's actions. It's a passive-aggressive form of control, but it IS control nonetheless... and maybe, just maybe, it's the outer facade of a madman who's more active and manipulative than he seems!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

If Luke were a living person that argument might hold water, but there are editors and authors that make this stuff up. Most of the stuff they're making up sucks. ergo, Luke's passivity is intentional and also insufferable.

 

So that's why Luke in Invincible has the same white eyes as the leader of the Sith in Inferno and Fury, the white eyes that Leia saw in Tatooine Ghost (prefiguring the Sith!Luke of Dark Empire), and that Jacen saw in Traitor...

Either Luke is Dark Side and doesn't know it, or he's dangerously close.

And even if it's not planned, the plans of the authors/editors are backed up by their ambitions and intentions - conscious and unconscious - which the process of telling the story then transfers to Luke and deepen and darken his characterization...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I'm working on a fic that could fit in here. It's actually a plot bunny I picked up at the Jaina/Jag index - brilliantly called Behind the Conference Room Door - LOL! - Anyway, it fits in with the "what anakin could do to clean up this mess" theme, although, it could probably be described more accurateely as "what anakin and revan could do to clean up this mess". LOL.