Fic: Missed Connection
Title: Missed Connection (on AO3 and FFNet)
Series: Unclaimed, No. 2
Fandom: Star Wars - Jedi Apprentice Era
Rating: K
Wordcount: 1,425
Summary: His is the first face on the blumilk carton, but it makes no difference; they never find him.
Wow, this was a long time coming.
I find it hard to write Qui-Gon Jinn.
When I want to write a character, I go to the source material. Re-reading favorite books and re-watching favorite TV shows is valid research. Anyone who suggests I'm doing it because I just want some escapism, is only 47% correct.
Unfortunately all the canon research on Qui-Gon Jinn - from Phantom Menace (which I hate) to Jedi Apprentice - is pretty clear. Dude's an ass. If I had a choice between AgriCorp and twelve years under the exclusive negligent "care" and training of Master Jinn, I'd happily spend the rest of my days at the farm, awesome lightsabers and the Force notwitstanding. Seriously, some things are just not worth the misery. And this, literally, is the guy who could tell there was something wrong with Obi-Wan through the Force on the Monument, and rolled over to go back to sleep. What the.
So when I was looking over my old draft of this fic this morning, I couldn't get behind it for awhile. Then I realized why it'd stalled. Because Qui-Gon was too sympathetic. He cared about Obi-Wan too much. That wasn't Qui-Gon. That was me, because I empathize with Obi-Wan, a lot. The truth is that I see "nice" Qui-Gon as a fandom creation rather than a canon reality.
So I had to change the draft to comport with what I see.
And honestly, I think Qui-Gon in this finished product is still too much of a nice guy. There was a balance here. I didn't really buy him as someone only concerned with covering his own ass and not being blamed for a child going missing on what could arguably be construed as his watch. But I also saw the CYA aspects of his behavior necessary; arising from a concern the Maverick, who's gone against the Council enough to have a rep for it, would actually have. Keeping himself from being blamed for this is not really his first concern, but it is one of the first things on his mind.
Speaking of finger-pointing, they have no idea at this point how this is going to play out, "foresight" or not. I do, though. ;)
So yes, I rewrote part of this after I gave up on putting effort into deciding who would actually be on the Jedi Council in Obi-Wan's youth and just went with whatever the Interwebs said. Overall, I was trying to strike a balance between an emotionally uninvolved Qui-Gon, who as a general concept recognizes "children are the future" etc., but is still scarred by Xanatos so children are not his particular future; he doesn't want to be pulled into one of Yoda's schemes or blamed for it blowing up; and is somewhat concerned in a very detached manner. But the problem is that he's also not above using this whole debacle to score a point of some kind against the Council. And that's also one of his first concerns. Kick 'em while they're down, and all that. Like I said; the man is an ass.
Yoda is crushed. The Council is a mix of dawning horror and damage control. See "blue milk carton" and "Galactic Registry of Missing Children" because "Galactic Registry of Missing Underage Beings of All Species" was too long and again, I just gave up. Could have gone with "Younglings" but I see that as a Jedi-specific term? Oh well.
And yeah, I have a few hundred words in the next one churned out. They've been sitting on my harddrive for awhile. Let's just say there's another character here I find hard to write who's stalling me, on this one. But I have been making progress today, so we'll see if anything happens.
Series: Unclaimed, No. 2
Fandom: Star Wars - Jedi Apprentice Era
Rating: K
Wordcount: 1,425
Summary: His is the first face on the blumilk carton, but it makes no difference; they never find him.
Wow, this was a long time coming.
I find it hard to write Qui-Gon Jinn.
When I want to write a character, I go to the source material. Re-reading favorite books and re-watching favorite TV shows is valid research. Anyone who suggests I'm doing it because I just want some escapism, is only 47% correct.
Unfortunately all the canon research on Qui-Gon Jinn - from Phantom Menace (which I hate) to Jedi Apprentice - is pretty clear. Dude's an ass. If I had a choice between AgriCorp and twelve years under the exclusive negligent "care" and training of Master Jinn, I'd happily spend the rest of my days at the farm, awesome lightsabers and the Force notwitstanding. Seriously, some things are just not worth the misery. And this, literally, is the guy who could tell there was something wrong with Obi-Wan through the Force on the Monument, and rolled over to go back to sleep. What the.
So when I was looking over my old draft of this fic this morning, I couldn't get behind it for awhile. Then I realized why it'd stalled. Because Qui-Gon was too sympathetic. He cared about Obi-Wan too much. That wasn't Qui-Gon. That was me, because I empathize with Obi-Wan, a lot. The truth is that I see "nice" Qui-Gon as a fandom creation rather than a canon reality.
So I had to change the draft to comport with what I see.
And honestly, I think Qui-Gon in this finished product is still too much of a nice guy. There was a balance here. I didn't really buy him as someone only concerned with covering his own ass and not being blamed for a child going missing on what could arguably be construed as his watch. But I also saw the CYA aspects of his behavior necessary; arising from a concern the Maverick, who's gone against the Council enough to have a rep for it, would actually have. Keeping himself from being blamed for this is not really his first concern, but it is one of the first things on his mind.
Speaking of finger-pointing, they have no idea at this point how this is going to play out, "foresight" or not. I do, though. ;)
So yes, I rewrote part of this after I gave up on putting effort into deciding who would actually be on the Jedi Council in Obi-Wan's youth and just went with whatever the Interwebs said. Overall, I was trying to strike a balance between an emotionally uninvolved Qui-Gon, who as a general concept recognizes "children are the future" etc., but is still scarred by Xanatos so children are not his particular future; he doesn't want to be pulled into one of Yoda's schemes or blamed for it blowing up; and is somewhat concerned in a very detached manner. But the problem is that he's also not above using this whole debacle to score a point of some kind against the Council. And that's also one of his first concerns. Kick 'em while they're down, and all that. Like I said; the man is an ass.
Yoda is crushed. The Council is a mix of dawning horror and damage control. See "blue milk carton" and "Galactic Registry of Missing Children" because "Galactic Registry of Missing Underage Beings of All Species" was too long and again, I just gave up. Could have gone with "Younglings" but I see that as a Jedi-specific term? Oh well.
And yeah, I have a few hundred words in the next one churned out. They've been sitting on my harddrive for awhile. Let's just say there's another character here I find hard to write who's stalling me, on this one. But I have been making progress today, so we'll see if anything happens.