Questions Raised by the Star Wars films and the Fanfics that Answer Them

Arin_Atona's "Deus Ex machina" thread made me think. If I began writing because I was puzzled by things I saw ? or more accurately, DIDN?T see ? on the screen, I?m sure others write for the same reason.

I thought it would be interesting to index stories by the questions they answer.

Here?s a totally random and pathetically incomplete list of things that I have always wondered about, although I have personally engaged with very few of them. If you know of a fic (yours or someone else?s) that answers one of these questins, please link it here. Beter yet, if you have a question (or ten) of your own, add it (them?) here, with any fictional ?answers? you might know about? yours and other people's ...and so on?

I?ve limited it to the films, so I guess we?re talking cannon-ish stories here. Although there?s no limit to a fanfic writer?s imagination!

Prequels:

1. How does a child get to be Queen of the Naboo? What is it like for her to be Queen? What is the history/tradition behind her gowns, the face painting, the altered voice and accent?

2. Handmaidens ? I have a million questions. Do they serve out of honor or is it a civil service job? What?s their training like? Are they really bodyguards, too? Are they all friends or do they secretly hate each other?

3. What was Shmi and Anakin?s life like before Jinn arrived on the scene and changed everything? What was Shmi?s history?

MissPadme has written a trilogy of Shmi stories, Mysteries, Slave Song, and A Simple Kind of Life

4. What would Obi-Wan have done if the Council had forbidden him to train Anakin?



AOTC:

1. What REALLY going through Padmé?s head when she saw Anakin again after so many years?

I remember that Leia Naberrie wrote a whole series of vignettes around those events and later called AOTC Missing Moment Theater.

I know there were lots of others, too, so come out, come out, come out wherever you are.

2. ?I hate it when he does that.? Huh? You mean he does stuff like that regularly? What was it like the FIRST time Anakin leaped out of a moving speeder into 1,000 interlocking 3-D lanes of traffic? or did something like it?

3. How does Obi-Wan know Dex? What?s their history together? Where does all that warmth and trust come from?

I know I?ve read something about this somewhere ? I just can?t remember where, or by whom?

4. Who ordered the Clones from the Kaminoans? What exactly happened to Master Sypho Dyas (sp?)

5. How did Palpatine manage to insinuate himself into the life of a cloistered Jedi child (Anakin) without raising the suspicions of the Jedi?

6. Why did the Jedi let Anakin accompany Padmé back to Naboo the second time? What were they thinking?

OK, I came up with an answer for that one myself: Step Into My Parlor

7. They got married? Huh? How and when did that happen?

The TF.N Fanfiction Archive has two collections of proposal stories, Do You Take This Man and Do You Take this Woman


OT:

1. What actually happened on Ord Mantell?

I know there are terrific stories about this out there...post the links here!

2. At the end of ANH Vader notices that "the Force is strong with this one." By the beginning of ESB he's tearing up the Galaxy to find "Luke Skywalker." What happened in between? How did he find out who it was?

This is a question I asked and answered in Brother, Mine


OK, I'm running out of steam her

 

4. What would Obi-Wan have done if the Council had forbidden him to train Anakin?

TITLE: The Naboo Chronicles
AUTHOR: JediMasterRev
TIMEFRAME: End of TPM to 6 years prior to AotC
CHARACTERS: Anakin, Padme/Amidala, Obi-Wan, Sabe,Handmaidens, and OCs.
GENRE: Drama, Action, Romance.
SUMMARY: A post TPM AU. How would Anakin's destiny be altered if the Jedi intially rejected him and he stayed on Naboo? Would this keep him in the light or would the Darkside prevail still?
DISCLAIMER: It all belongs to GL. Just borrowing the car for a little while.

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This is an outstanding story that really delves into that very question! :) It's one of my favorites!

AQ

 

Oh, I have an entry:

Jedi-2B: A Melancholy Happiness

Time period: About 6 months to a year after the Battle of Endor.

Characters: Luke, Leia

Summary: The Force directs Luke to a bittersweet discovery.

Answers the question: How come Leia remembered Padme but Luke didn't?

 

How about that line "I haven't felt you this nervous since we...since we fell into that nest of gundarks." "You fell into that nightmare, Master, and I rescued you!"

I explained that all in Lest Ye Be Judged, version 1.

 

Excellent entries, all!

DarthIshtar Could we have a link?

 

Jedi Trace and I explore why Luke is so inherently sure there is good in Darth Vader in Ignite the Stars.

I also wondered if Darth Vader ever visited Padmé's grave and wrote Monuments.

 

Will find it.

 

Live What You Learn

Author: obi_ew

Timeframe: post-TPM

Characters: Obi-Wan, Anakin, OCs, Quinlan Vos

Summary: Anakin is given a different master after TPM.

Answers: What would Obi-Wan have done if the Council hadn't allowed him to train Anakin?

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[link=http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=12478653&replies=9]Undercover Operations[/link]

[b]Author:[/b] QueenOfAces

[b]Timeframe:[/b] pre-ESB

[b]Characters:[/b] Han, Leia

[b]Answers:[/b] [i]What happened on Ord Mantell?[/i]

 

Decoy

Author: Bale
Timeframe: Intertrilogy
Answers: What exactly was Vader referring to when he pointed at Boba Fett and said, "No disintegrations!"

 

3. How does Obi-Wan know Dex? What?s their history together? Where does all that warmth and trust come from?

Rather a lengthy story by numerous authors, but the end of The Lion Sleeps Tonight
has a scene were Qui-Gon Jinn and and Dex Jetster are obviously well aquainted friends and would provide some history of why so close with Obi-Wan and why he'd go to him for help in AOTC.

 

I think I am missing the point of the thread (which is link-to-wonderful-answer-giving-fanfics), but I?ll mention a couple of profic.

I definitely prefer Brother Mine but I may as well mention the Dark Horse Comics story Vader?s Quest. Answers the questions:

How Vader learns of Luke?
A Rebel pilot is captured and tortured, under the supervision of Lord Vader, by Bounty Hunters. The Rebel reveals the name of the pilot that killed the Death Star, Vader crushed the recorder with one hand, kills all the bounty hunters (save one) who had heard the name, and goes searching.

Whose X-Wing was Luke flying?
A pilot had measles. He also had combat missions, kills, and a severe sense of injustice at the idea that some kid had come in, taken his X-Wing, and was now a hero. He was sure that it should have been him, that he could have made the shot, that Luke had done nothing that he couldn?t have done, and his jealously nearly destroys him.

?then I combined answering the question of What happened to the planet of Jazbina after Vader?s Quest? and What target was used to test the turbolasers of the newly constructed Executor? in a story.

AOTC Question 2:
2. ?I hate it when he does that.? Huh? You mean he does stuff like that regularly? What was it like the FIRST time Anakin leaped out of a moving speeder into 1,000 interlocking 3-D lanes of traffic? or did something like it?
I think the race through the garbage pit, where you had little wings and had to dodge the canisters of refuge (?like a storm of steel raindrops?) being fired into orbit, in Rogue Planet could be considered as something similar. Anakin had been a padawan for three years at the time.

 

Here's one or two;

What happened to Padme's 'body'? Her memorial? Unlike Shmi, Padme was a Respected Senato/Former Queen - her memorial's going to be pretty big and not subject to bad EU explinations that Owen removed the headstone.

*has vision of Luke/Vader engraving the word "SKYWALKER" Ala "roots" - Hands off that's MY Bunny *

 

The horrid thing about actually writing something is that now I feel like some sort of used car salesman, or perhaps a sleazy traveling peddler, shamelessly talking up my fic. (Of course, you notice that I'm still doing it. The spirit is willing, but the ego is weak).

From ROTS, the question, "What does it mean, Padmé losing her will to live at the end? How does that work?"

I wrote a short story with my take on it: Broken Bonds
And to assuage some of my guilt at the blatant self-pimping, here is an excellent story by Wendynat that addresses the same issue: Their Only Chance

 

Okay, since the fic that it's in is massive, here's the story of what happened with that nest of gundarks.
*****
"There was nowhere to go and it was either take our chances with the other side of the concrete wall or let a dozen Safui make us do the death dodge dance with their blasters," Anakin laughed. "Well, Obi-Wan decided, as usual, to take the unconventional road and charged them. A cranky Jedi Master with a saber is not something to be lightly reckoned with, so they tried to put up a fight, but ended up fleeing. But they decided to flee through the kennel."

"The kennel," Luke snorted. "You're going after hardened spice lords and they had pets?"

"I wouldn't put it past them," Han interrupted, wagging a finger. "You saw Jabba's palace. That was a different kind of pet, but a pet nonetheless."

"Yeah," Luke growled, "and the pet was my sister."

"It was worse than pets," Anakin pronounced. "They had gundarks for attack purposes and it didn't take more than twenty seconds for Obi-Wan to overcompensate and he fell into the middle of them at training time. It took him five dead gundarks before either he was able to get them to back off or I was able to get in there with them. So I come in and find him at risk to get ripped to shreds and the Safui figured that they didn't need to take any further action, since gundarks aren't exactly merciful, so I did the only natural thing."

"You jumped in after him," Leia suggested from the doorway.

Luke turned a grin on her, beckoning her towards the dinner table. She leaned over to greet Han with a kiss, then took a seat next to Luke.

"Long day?" Luke teased.

"Not as bad as tomorrow will be," she yawned. "Tomorrow, I'm under my own house arrest and will have nothing to do other than write my memoirs and play holoterminal dejarik for six hours on end."

"Sounds dangerous," Han said solemnly. "Are you sure you don't want a guard with you for such outrageous activities?"

"I think I can manage," she assured with a smile. "So, how did you get out of that blasted nest of gundarks?"

Anakin sat back, a mysterious smirk on his lips. "When fifty gundarks are mind-tricked into thinking that the spice lords are roast nerf..."

 

Thanks to all for the very interesting links - I've picked up several stories that I wouldn't have seen otherwise! That's the intention of this thread - to cut a slice through our universe of fanfic stories from a slightly different angle, and perhaps to reveal existing works to fresh eyes. I hope it will continue.

So you see, self-promotion works fine here, as does sharing other poeple's stories. As long as we get more questions, and hopefully, some answering fics!

_JM_ Good answers from the pros - I'm still hoping to lure out the wisdom of "the rest of us," whose ideas (ask any fanfic writer!) ought to be sought out by the Powers That Be!

Also, open questions tend to morph into plot bunnies. This thread needs more questions. I tried to poll my family, hoping I'd come up with a few new ones since I've mometarily forgotten all the ones that pop into my head in the middle of the night, but they all looked at me like I had two heads and said things like, "Star Wars doesn't raise questions, it answers them," or "I don't question my entertainment," or worse still, "What was the question?" Bah, they're just not fanfic writers, that's all. No curiosity.

EDIT: Excerpts!!! What a great idea!

AFTERTHOUGHT: How about we stipulate that, for every question that's answered, you have to ask another one...

 

Great idea. I love the thread, too, BTW.

 

Here's one...

How deeply entwined in the Republic's culture was the Jedi philosophy of The Force?

After all in 19 years it goes from seemingly central to a 'hokey religion.'

This spawns other questions....

 

FURTHER AFTERTHOUGHT: I suggest limiting the questions to those raised by the films since the films are the one knowledge base we can be sure everyone shares in common...

OK, I'll shut up now, until I think of some more questions or answers.

 

Okay, I have a question that I was thinking of today while watching ROTS again.

What is the backstory behind Yoda's "good relations with the Wookiees I have" statement?

 

Sounds like a good idea. How did Vader get rescued after the Battle of Yavin?

 

What was Anakin's first thought when the helmet was removed?

Don't have a link... but I answered this in a drabble called Blue:

As trivial as it seemed in that particular moment, it was the only question for which he lacked an answer. To one lost little boy finally trying to find his way back home, the Force had provided every answer possible... except one.

Blue.

Strange. When dawn finally broke after two decades of darkest night and allowed him to see the eyes of his salvation, he half-expected them to be the brown eyes of an angel.

After all, every other bit of good in him came from her.

Still... it was good to know before the end.

"Now, go... my son."

Unanswered:

ROTJ: What was Lando's "little maneuver at the Battle of Taanab?"

PREQUELS: Just what was that prophecy about the Chosen One?

 

I think a better question is "what the kriff happened to NABOO?"

 

Yes, there is a shot of Theed during the celebrations at the end of the ROTJ DVD...

Of course, I'd still like to see it mentioned otherwise, but at least that's now added in.

 

Hi , well just ask what's the name of this story and if there is a link available??, also, this thread rocks!!!
Oh, and if anyone knows this, what I'll like to know is if anyone knows how Padme's parents found out about the meaning that the Jappor snippet had to her, since it was buried with her.
Thanks be well and take care.