sakura_no_miko | Fic rec - in all your wanderings

Fandom: Star Wars (prequel trilogy)

Rating: PG

Pairing: none, gen

Warnings: slavery, canon typical violence

Other notes: AU, canon divergence, female character PoV, character study, alien culture, family, parents & children, students & teachers, original characters

Length: 16k + sequels

Summary: Passion, yet serenity.

Shmi leaves Tatooine with Anakin and goes to the Jedi Temple.

I’m finally getting into my reading list, for once.

Now, if you were to ask me, I’d probably say I’m more of a Star Trek fan than a Star Wars fan. I was mostly an anime fan growing up, so I missed a lot of bigger American franchises, and especially genre stuff. I was in college when the Star Trek reboot film came out. Didn’t know much about the show, aside from the impression I’d gotten from Futurama, and yet I took a bit of my cash, hopped a couple buses and went to see it by myself at the theater.

I feel in love with everyone instantly and spent my next summer watching The Original Series and reruns of Enterprise. Then I got into the Doctor Who reruns and, well. I missed a few years of anime fandom while I caught up on American and British tv shows.

Star Wars was always there. I remember the prequels, I knew the movies, but I never had any real emotional attachment. Until they started talking about Disney and the new trilogy, and, more specifically, that they weren’t going to use any of the Expanded Universe material. That unlocked some old, old memories of being a kid at the library, because there were a lot of Star Wars books, and I have vague memories of reading them. I did have some emotional attachment, but not to the movies — to these vague, half-remembered adventures of Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan facing off against Qui-Gon’s former apprentice, to Jacen and Jaina Solo struggling to become the new generation of Jedi. I have feelings about how the Jedi Council treated the protagonist of Knights of the Old Republic.

Anyway, that’s why it makes it odder that two of the fics I’ve really enjoyed lately are both from Star Wars — this fic and The Last Poem of Jedha.

This fic is a hard one for me to parse. On the one hand, it made me very happy. Like, I usually look at any long fic series with some amount of trepidation, but I was in for this entire story from the first scene:

The Jedi’s reassurance had been better than nothing – he will make sure that Ani is looked after to the best of his ability.
But Shmi has a sharpened knife, paper-thin, hidden in a box in her cupboard, ready for the moment she found out where Ani’s and her transmitters were. And Ani’s won’t be a problem for much longer, not with the kind of certainty she’s seen in the Jedi’s face, not with the images she sees when she dreams.
Shmi listens to the pulse of her blood flowing around the transmitter, and thinks of the best way to make the cut.

I mean, bad-ass. Shmi cuts her own leg open, and say, nope, I am not letting you take my only child away to a situation that may be better, but still far from ideal. She had a plan waiting in the wings to escape, bided her time until it was necessary, and took it.

I gotta say, while every part of this story makes me happy, because it delves into a lot of stuff you’d never see in the movies: how being a slave would have long-lasting effects on Someone like Anakin, debating if the black-and-white morality of the Jedi is healthy and/or sustainable, my dude Qui-Gonn being alive. It’s happy and affirming while still having angst and character development to balance it out.

I think I saw a post on tumblr, ages ago, comparing the Jedi Oath

“Emotion, yet peace.
Ignorance, yet knowledge.
Passion, yet serenity.”

to the Sith Oath

“Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.”

and noting that, hmmm, “my chains are broken” and “shall free me” have a very different meaning to a former slave than to someone who has always been free. I don’t know if this is ever mentioned in canon, but it’s a choice bit of fanon, at the least.

And Shmi is in the unique position of not only knowing her son’s personality, but knowing his trauma, as well. We get this great scene early on:

“But what–” Ani swallows. “What if they send us back? Whatever they’re testing me for, what if I’m not good enough, and we have to go back to Watto and–”
“Anakin Skywalker,” Shmi says quietly, “You listen to me. I promise you, my son. We are not going back. No matter if these Jedi say you cannot be one of them, no matter if they do. We are free, and we will stay that way.”
Ani looks at her, his blue eyes wide. “You promise?”
“I promise,” Shmi says, meeting his eyes squarely. “We are not going back. When you walk in there, and face this council, you may call them masters – but they are not masters of you. If they say you can be one of them, you can stay here and learn; but also, Ani, if you do not want this, you do not have to be a Jedi. You can stand in that room, and they can ask you to join them, and if you want to, you can say no. Remember that.”

It’s easy to make a character an orphan. It’s an easy way to have fewer characters to deal with; an easy way to leave a character alone and vulnerable; an easy way to pave the way for world-traveling and quests without anyone worrying back at home. It’s easy to kill off beloved mentors, forcing a hero to independence.

But crafting a long-term relationship, giving a character a steady and happy home, a person to help build them up, that is a challenge. That one bit of conversation there already tells me that Anakin is going to be far, far less inclined to listen to Palpatine.

At the same time, it’s interesting to debate the specter of the Mary Sue. I don’t think Shmi is a Mary Sue in this fic at all. But it is worth looking at some of the popular tropes ascribed to a Mary Sue — this idea of inserting a character into a narrative (or back into the narrative, in Shmi’s case) and having her be the crux of several world-changing events. Having her somehow be unique in a way that attracts the attention in unlikely ways.

Which is to say, Shmi is chosen to be a Jedi Padawan by Yoda himself. I mean, arguably a true Mary Sue would just jump straight to mastery of the Jedi arts by sheer talent and/or prophecy alone, but being chosen by Yoda is still pretty significant. She argues with the Jedi Council and makes them undercut some of their traditions by accepting her and her radical ideas. She plays an integral part in the narrative going forward.

(Well, I’ve only read up to part 3, but so far she’s been pretty significant.)

Still, I’d argue that this makes at least some sense from a canon point of view. I don’t know if there’s anything canon about Shmi having Force potential, but it’s possible. And we know that her separation from Anakin and her death are two of the major reasons why Anakin goes to the Dark Side, so, really, having her alive as a catalyst for him not going evil — or so I assume, since I’m done yet — makes sense.

(Though there is an Inspired By fic at the end, Composing Hallelujah, that ends on a striking scene of Jedi!Shmi confronting Vader!Anakin. Only took a few words to blow my mind with the possibilities of such a confrontation.)

Like I said, I’m somewhere around part 3 or 4, and I’d also like to put in a good word for the entire story arc with Beru Whitesun and Jango Fett. It’s another fascinating look at a parent and child relationship, and the life of someone, post-enslavement, struggling to find their own place.

I can’t see myself reading a lot of Star Wars fic, but, then again, I do have a soft spot for the Rogue One characters and the Rey/Finn/Poe trio. I also saw a couple of time travel AUs that looked interesting, so, ah, I may yet come back here. There are also a ton of fics where Padme survives and raises Luke and Leia and joins the Rebellion. Gonna skim a few of those too.

(Looking for more fic recs?)
Crossposted to pillowfort