Underground: The place for Xanatos discussion; Calling all Xan fans

It has been noted in the last few months that there has been an increase in an interest of Xanatos, and Xanatos fics. Taking this under consideration, along with my own obsession of the char, I've obtained permission to start this up. Thanks, Am!
It was originally going to also be for listing stories, but since Offworld has returned from the depths, I'm going to wait and see, so for now, this will be a discussion and challenge thread for Xanatos fans, or those at least interested in the char.

You don't have to be a writer, all opinions are welcomed. If anyone has any websites or off site stories devoted to, or featuring Xan, PM them to me and I'll post them up a group at a time, so it'll be easier to find them without having them scattered over the thread. Also, any ideas for challenges or discussion topics are welcomed as well, just give me a PM.

To open up discussions, here's a small topic to discuss.

Xanatos has been seen in the three main spectrums of light, dark, and gray, though he is never fully any of them. Why is this so?

Looking forward to reading your thoughts, and I'll post my own up later. And don't kill me for my weak discussion topics, I promise they'll get better as time goes by.

 

YEAH!!!

AN UNDERGROUND XANATOS FAN CLUB!!!!!!!

*Runs around whooping and screaming happily*

Hmmm....

As to your topic question, most everyone likes Xanatos so they don't want him to die evil, but if he starts out good in the story, it kind of ruins his charater.




I have some Star Wars and non-Star Wars stories about Xanatos, but I haven't put them (or any of my other stories) on my web site yet, so I'll get back to you on that.

 

Xanatos has been seen in the three main spectrums of light, dark, and gray, though he is never fully any of them. Why is this so?

For me I think a lot of this has to do with the lack of canon character development. No offense to anyone, but I feel that the JA books portrayed him as being two dimensional character. With that it fell to us as readers and fanfiction writers to take the poor neglected soul and work with him . The potential for him is so diverse and open that the wide spectrum of interpretation is not only possible but still seems to fit with the character.

In my opinion, at least, I just can't see a good character like that be unredeemed because it was so written .

And I didn't even get into my rant of Qui-Gon, aren't I nice.
Just my two cents.

 

Love this! I'll be back later to reply. On lunch and just wanted to say how excited I am to see this wonderful character get the attention he deserves!

 

I think everyone is getting Xanatos fever. There's a story i'm writing that gave me a Xanatos plot bunny just now.

Xanatos is a character where you just feel you need to expand things about him. First you begin asking yourself why Xanatos left the Jedi. How did Xanatos feel about it. and so on. before you know it your writing Xanatos stories. and loving him .

 

He is so complex and very mysterious. In order to be raised a Jedi and chosen by Jinn he had to have displayed some good qualities. We are never given any real clues in JA land about what he was like as a child and why he decided to make the choice to back his father. I don't believe he was all bad or Jinn would have sensed it even if he was blinded by love. Why or what made him turn?

Since Ms Watson decided to make him one dimensional and kill him off , we are able to fill in all of the blanks ourselves. While I adore a bad Xan, I must admit to preferring him to be grey or light. A scoundrel with a heart of gold.

Wonderful idea Neon and I can't wait for the challenges!

 

She 'did' leave a lot of space for us to use. hmmm, i wonder if she did that on purpose for us fans.

 

You're giving her way too much credit!

 

Not fully. I mean, she did create him... Although you do rather have a monopoly on Xan.

Not that any of us mind!!

 

Especially not when OE puts him in leather and silk. RRROOWWWRR!!!

Uh oh. This might turn into the Obi-Wan thread

 

I find Xanatos to be one of the most intriguing characters. Not only as a character (villain) in his own right, but how he has been taken and molded by fan fiction writers.

I read fan fiction before I read the Jedi Apprentice books. I became intrigued with Xanatos in the first few stories I read because I thought he made a great villain, but the stories didn't portray him as completely dark. I quickly realized that writers preferred him as gray, where he is a bad guy but not totally evil. When I read the Jedi Apprentice books for the first time, I was shocked to see just how evil he was portrayed. I think I've only read one fan fiction where Xanatos is as evil as he is in the books (the one in the TFN archive).

I tried writing a story where he was nearly all dark, but over time I couldn't seem to keep it up. I tried to focus on his JA character, but I think because he was such a main character I had to develop him more. I think he's seen as a two-dimensional character in the JA books because it's never told from his point of view. When fan fiction authors write about him, they probably want to include his point of view and therefore need to include a background, a softening up of the bad guy Watson writes him to be. When you get into a character's head, it's hard to portray him as all evil. And in Xan's case, I think the draw to him is because of his darkness, so he's rarely (if ever) written as all light.

That said, anyone know of any other all-evil Xanatos stories?

And this is just something I'm gonna toss out there that always bothered me while reading the Xanatos JA books: Qui-Gon always refers to Xanatos as if he's been fully exposed to his evilness before. He says things like "That would be something Xanatos would do" [Dark Rival] or "Xanatos was clever, and often used that cleverness to concoct cruel games" [Dark Rival]. Jude Watson gives the impression that Qui-Gon knew Xanatos as a fallen Jedi for quite a long time. But - doesn't Xan only really turn on their mission to Telos? Before that time, Qui-Gon doesn't really see his apprentice as evil, nor have a reason to fear him. If he did consider him to be cruel, cunning, evil, merciless, he would have dropped him earlier. And I don't get the sense from the books that the time they were on Telos (and Xanatos was leading the army and such) was all that long of a time.

Maybe I'm just getting the wrong impression from the books, but from the way Jude Watson has written Qui's view of Xanatos it feels like Qui-Gon had had confrontations with him in the ten years between Telos and Bandomeer. (oooh, plot bunny! )

 

I got the same impression, but part of me wonders how much of it is true and how much of it was Qui-Gon trying to cover for his own mistakes of not seeing the potential for turning in his own apprentice and blew everything in his memories out of proportion. But then again I don't think the reason that Xanatos turned was really convincing. I tried to read all the books, but just couldn't get through them. Also from what I had heard Xanatos as a concept was from one of JW friends then she liked it and put in into the stories.

Maybe I'm just turned off by her writing style and have to nitpick at everything she does. The potental in a Xanatos not just as a character in and of himself is limitless, he's not perfect, he's not got all the answers. He's the perfect foil to compare with Obi-wan, not because Obi is perfect, but because we can see alot of the same struggles in both characters and how they are defined by the choices they make.

No matter what one of the things I love about Xanatos is that he always has a back door.

 

As far as I'm concerned, we are never given a reason as to why he turned.Even before Jinn killed his father, Xan had pretty much turned. Why? And I have to agree with you HHP . Qui-Gon obviously adored and loved Xan and yet in the books he tries to say that all of the signs were there, he was just too blinded by love to see them. I don't buy that.

As for JW creating Xanatos, I know the very first JA book where he is mentioned was actually written by Dave Wolverton so I don't think she can even have the credit for that. Only killing him off.

I've considered getting up a petition begging someone to let a talented writer do an adult novel that goes back and gives his entire backstory. There is just so much potential for a wonderful story there.

And don't even get me started on one dimensional characters! Anybody read the Jedi Quest book where this Granta Omega is finally revealed as a Xanitot ?

 

heard to many things bad about the Jedi Quest books to even think about going near them. Though I am running out things to read.

 

*giggles* I read all of Jedi Quest - I find her insight into Obi-Wan and Anakin's relationship interesting, because if you look at it closely enough, you can tell they're trying to understand each other and failing miserably. [/offtopic]

However, I want the whole Granta Omega/Xanatos' son thing to just disappear! It's so ridiculous. And I thought the name 'Granta Omega' was bad. *sigh* I generally just try to enjoy the good parts and forget the bad ones ever happened, but that storyline ranks up there with the stupid and silly.

Personally, I think part of the reason writing Xanatos is so fun is for the reason people found writing Vader to be so fun! (Even before the PT.) They both have cool and obviously deep backgrounds (which we don't get much of in the OT, or with Xanatos - but you can tell), and that's always interesting to explore - and I think there's something about falling and being redeemed (or not being redeemed) that just seems to appeal to a SW fan. Let's face it, we find darkness interesting . . .

 

I'm a fan of Xanitots , just not that one! I have to agree. There is just something about a bad boy. I've read some fics where he is pure evil, the plot line is usually always very similar. Torture and kidnap poor little Obi in order to hurt and catch Jinn. I like to think Xan is far more imaginative than that!

 

Well, as a used to be writer of evil Xanatos, back when I could care less about the char and barely had a clue. (My how things change.) I have to admit its easy making him a two dimension char, and unless you cared enough for him, you would use him as such, which I think she did. She cared little for the characters as a whole, and poor Xan even less, so to make it easier, she probably gave Qui a false seeming guilt trip, and left poor Xan without a real soul. Now, as ff writers, we can't let that happen to a char of great potential, or else we'd be just as bad as her. The ff base that have become fans of Xan, have become so because of his ff form, not his JA cannon form, at least that's how it seems. Lets hope the Omega case is the last time she messes with Xanatos and his line...

With that said, I do agree with all of what you've all said, and have nothing to add on the whole.

o_e, that sounds like a wonderful idea to petition about, it would be great if an author would take up the task, and Lucas let him/her do so.

Alrighty, onto a challenge to save this poor thread from the bowels of the Resource board. In conjunction with this here discussion topic, the challenge for the next two weeks or so will be:

Write a story focusing on the many sides of Xanatos. It would be prefered to include him at his worse and at his best, though not required. The story can be of any length the writer wishes, and can be portrayed in any way. The deadline is two weeks from tomorrow on November 5th. We can decide whether or not to include them all in one thread or just link all the responses to here.

 

Ummm, guess no one is intrested?

 

Hi! **waves** Fellow Xanatos lover, just found this today. I've only written one short piece on him, but maybe I'll join in the challenge. Sounds very interesting.

 

Missed this somehow! Hum.... Of course my first thought is to tie it to a certain ginger haired Jedi! I'll see what I can do!

 

Well, this needs a bump up. Glad you may be intrested, and we all know that certain ginger haired boy is always welcomed in a Xan fic.

LuvEwan, welcome fellow Xan fanm, and hope you might consider it.

Well, to give it a boost, how about we discuss the recent step up in the Xanatos fandom. Techically, Xan has been around for a few years now, but it was only this year that we've seen an increase in fanfics and intrest in him. Does anyone have an idea on this?

 

Interest breeds interest. On one of my stories (co-written with Happy_Hobbit_Padawan, another Xan lover) which features Xan a great deal, I have a number of readers who admitted to me in the beginning they hadn't the slightest clue who Xanatos was, but nevertheless, they liked the story. So that might make them more open to reading other Xan fics, and where there are readers, there are writers.




This is obaona's sock.

 

Well my interest in him began with the release of the JA books and was only strengthened by reading slash fics where he has been a prominant character for some time. This obsession carried over into my own writing and my readers have had no choice but to grow to enjoy him since my last ten stories have been Obi/Xan centric! I think the blame for his sudden rise in popularity on these boards can be placed at the feet of writers such as Neon, o_e , obaona and a few others. I for one always stop to check out any fic that features him in the title bar and am thrilled by his sudden popularity.

 

I blame obi_ew and obaona completely. Their fics were some of the first I read when I came here, and piqued my interest in Xan because of their different portrayals of him (Water's Edge vs. Face Inside). So count me one of the masses who was converted this year.

To tell you the truth, just from my experience on these boards, I was under the impression that Xanatos had always been a popular character in fan fiction. Would you guys say that it might have been some of the stories that really got people interested (different sides to his character, elaborating his history, etc) instead of him being popular after people read the book version? I'm curious to know what people think.

Differently from obi_ew, I read the books months after reading fan fiction on Xanatos. I can't say for certain that I would have become a Xan-lover if I read the books first. Although I always like a good villain.

Maybe it takes a few years for a character to gain steam? When I saw AOTC, I thought Dooku was a pretty interesting character, but there are hardly any stories with him in them. Were Xanatos stories that sparse when the JA books first came out, too?

 

When I got here April of last year, I found only a couple of fics that featured him as a main character. I think Neons were some of the first I read. I think fanfiction has done a lot as far as these boards in helping to spark interest in his character. As I mentioned earlier, he has been very popular with the slash writers long before he became so here which helped solidify my adoration. I think if he was portrayed only as an evil psychotic killer in every fic he wouldn't have gained such attention. Authors fleshing out his character has helped to make him so much more interesting and delightful in my opinion.