101 Star Wars Variations 42: A Fore-Gon Conclusion

Qui-Gon Jinn is running through the swamps of Naboo, evading the droid army of the Trade Federation.  He has been sent to this world as a negotiator in the matter of a blockade in orbit that was placed there at the behest of Darth Sidious, the Sith lord who is about to declare all-out war on both his Jedi enemies and the Republic they've long pledged themselves to protect.

He is known for many things.  He is known as a maverick who often clashes with the Jedi Council, possessing unorthodox notions concerning the future of the Jedi Order itself.  Chief among these notions is his belief in the prophecy of the chosen one who will bring balance to the Force.  He holds these notions because he is himself Darth Sidious.

As he runs, Qui-Gon is plotting the future.  His apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi is at his side as always.  Kenobi has a habit of giving trust too freely.  He trusts the Jedi Council as easily as he does Qui-Gon, and is the only Jedi who can make such a claim.  A useful tool.

Requesting the Naboo assignment was certainly no mistake.  The politicians from this world are particularly headstrong; although they often profess strictly altruistic aims they just as often possess considerable egos.  Useful tools all of them, especially Palpatine, who is known for his dabbling in Force lore, believing he knows all there is to know about the Jedi, the Sith.  Motivating them to act, to manipulate them, is a simple matter.

He's already planning to sabotage the transport he knows he can get these politicians to provide him, which will leave them in the middle of untamed space, where his senses tell him a great concentration of Midi-chlorians exists on a planet called Tatooine, centered in a single individual, a boy named Anakin Skywalker.  It's not hard to see that the boy is the chosen one.

A Gungan has appeared and is frantically trying to avoid the same battle droids Qui-Gon has made sure are programmed to be as clumsy and random in their effectiveness as he views the whole galaxy.  Even this Gungan is a useful tool.  To a trained mind, there is no such thing as an element that cannot be turned into a useful tool.  The Gungan might appear to be as clumsy as the droids, even worse, but he is a native of Naboo.  What else is there to say about that?

Everything seems to be out of control at the moment.  But it isn't.  Everything is going according to plan.  He saves the Gungan's life.  Soon, Qui-Gon knows, his own life will need to be sacrificed.  But that will hardly matter.  Darth Sidious rises.  The Sith rise again.  The boy will bring balance to the Force.  And there will be a new order in the galaxy.

Nothing left to chance.  He brushes off some of the mud and moves on.

101 Star Wars Variations 41: A Sidious Kenobi

The worst ones are the ones you never saw coming, but should have.

The Jedi Council knew all about Qui-Gon Jinn.  He was one of the best Jedi ever, but he was also fiercely independent, and that bothered the Council a great deal.  They spent an inordinate amount of time scrutinizing Qui-Gon.  The headstrong Obi-Wan Kenobi was assigned to him as padawan learner because although they seemed to have so much in common, Obi-Wan was much quicker to assume the Council knew better in its decisions, no matter how much he respected Qui-Gon.

That was as much as anyone knew or cared about what Obi-Wan was up to.  Except for his relationship with Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan by definition was unimportant.  He was just another padawan.

Except he wasn't.  The Council, or at least Yoda and Mace Windu, had known for years that the Force was weakening.  This could mean only one thing, the return of the Sith.  They didn't know who he was, but they had a name, and that was Darth Sidious.  Suspicion eventually fell on the ambitious Naboo politician Palpatine, who was noticeably interested in the career of Anakin Skywalker, who was, at least as Qui-Gon Jinn was concerned, the chosen one of prophecy who would bring balance to the Force.  While it would certainly have made sense for Palpatine to be Darth Sidious, the horrible truth is that it was Obi-Wan Kenobi all along.

Like Palpatine, it was all about opportunity.  Obi-Wan's was far more direct, and, well, insidious.  He seemed to be just another recruit.  When paired with Qui-Gon, though, he was immediately thrust into an opportunity to shape the future of one maverick.  When Qui-Gon discovered Anakin, Obi-Wan suddenly had a chance to shape the future of another, a far more dangerous one.  Qui-Gon almost immediately falls to Sith apprentice Darth Maul, Obi-Wan somehow defeats Maul, and he makes a successful argument to the Council that he obtain Anakin as his apprentice.

From a certain point of view, right?

Years later, Obi-Wan is struck down by Anakin, who has become Darth Vader.  It is a defining moment in the fight of the Rebellion against the Empire.  Anakin's son Luke is motivated to begin Jedi training as a result.  Obi-Wan seems like a major failure for a great schemer, right?  Except he's already manipulated everyone into the places he needs them to be.  Why would he need to worry about no longer having direct influence?  Anakin became a Sith.  Palpatine has not only been assumed to be Sidious, but has risen to Emperor of the Old Republic, which he has totally transformed.  Yoda is the last of the Jedi Council, and willingly went into exile.  He has the ability to train Luke, who has long had a relationship with...Obi-Wan.  Obi-Wan comes back as a Force shadow, completely accepted by Yoda as a peer.  He is able to help shape the further development of Luke's new career.  He helps push Luke into an emotional decision to face his father Anakin in combat well before he's ready.  He knew all along Anakin's role as the chosen one could permanently end the Jedi or the Sith.  It seemed the Jedi would finally be eliminated.

He did all he could.

Slightly Fitted

There was screaming, somewhere up ahead.  She prayed it wasn’t her brother.  In this city, though, filled with nessa beasts running free, even the brave boy Emma had known before his disappearance might buckle.  The city, Gugu Kendi, deep in the heart of the planet Danab, filled with Danab, at the end of what humans called the Danab War but what the Danab themselves were already starting to call the Calamity, danger was around every corner.

She was scared, too.  Scared out of her wits, if anyone asked.  She wasn’t alone, however.  She had her Puck friend, Fax, with her.  He cracked jokes whenever the tension became truly unbearable.  After they heard the scream, for instance, he quipped, “I forgot to pack sandwiches.  My stomach can get noisy.”

But it wasn’t his stomach that pierced the night’s silence.  All around her, lining the military barracks that were typical on this fortress of a world, Emma feared the monitors would come back on again and begin reporting the depressing news of the first-ever invasion of Danab.  Even as an immigrant, even as a little girl who had no business caring about such things, even as an alien whose mother had inexplicably chosen to transplant her family into the heart of enemy territory, she’d never wanted something like this to happen, either.

She could barely see out of the helmet, as usual.  She kept readjusting it as they ran down the barren street.  The helmet had been the biggest adjustment.  Everyone wore one here.  It was the custom of the Danab, man and woman.  It was also the only thing that she liked about living here, the only thing that made her feel even a little safe.  No one knew who she was, what she was, under it.  She would have chosen something that looked very different, of course.  It was Fax who came up with her nickname when Emma failed to adopt a Danab moniker for herself.  He called her the princess of Gugu Kendi.  That was as much as she wanted anything to do with the crown of horns atop the helmet.  She was just a little girl!

Right?  That’s not what her mother called her.  To her, Emma was her young lady, what her father used to call her, in a prior life, a long time ago.

There were snarls coming out of the darkness.  Nessa beasts for sure.  They sounded just as if they had cornered their prey.  It couldn’t be Elmer.  Her brother had always known what to do in situations like that.  He was the only one who’d known exactly what to do, how to maintain his old self, when they’d started their new lives.  He believed in himself, and so Emma believed in him, too.

That was how she and Fax ended up looking for him, and why she knew where to look.  She readjusted her helmet, took Fax’s hand, and headed toward the sound of the nessa beasts, and the screaming.

101 Star Wars Variations 40: Tarkin, for the Rebellion

Tarkin is sitting down to breakfast.  As usual, his young attendant is pestering him with questions about the day ahead.  This is fine.  This boy is the only person he trusts, the only one who knows Tarkin's secrets.  Such as the biggest secret, that Tarkin is, in fact, working for the Rebellion.

"Did it work?  Did the Bothans smuggle the plans?"

"Yes, yes," Tarkin says.

"You were careful, weren't you?"

"Of course," Tarkin says.

"I wouldn't want any harm to come to you!"

"I was discreet, as always," Tarkin says.  His eggs will get cold, if he entertains the boy much longer.  Tarkin has great affection for the boy, the son of a woman who in another life would have been his lover, the woman responsible for recruiting him, years ago, a former handmaiden from Naboo, who once served under a queen.

"I prepared them the way you like!"

"I know," Tarkin says.  The boy always does.  Very eager to please.  It's okay.  He admires the boy's enthusiasm, actually.  In another lifetime, a long time ago, he was like this himself.  Sometimes it's good to be reminded of that.  The boy darts away and comes back, having retrieved a pitcher of hot liquid, something Tarkin needs to interact with his fellow Imperial officers.  Something stiff.

"I wish I could be there when they find out what you gave them!"

"I want you out of danger," Tarkin says.  The boy's every utterance is punctuated with an exclamation point.  Ah, youth...

"What if they don't know what to do with it?"

"They will," Tarkin says.

"I wish I was as certain as you!  But I don't envy you!  Not even a little!"

"Of course you don't," Tarkin says.  He knows the boy, in fact, does.  It's obvious.  The boy stays behind, one of the few civilians aboard the massive station, when he goes to one of his many briefings, strategy sessions, any number of meetings.  Endless meetings.  Wearying.  One would believe the Empire was less secure than the Rebels.

"Stay safe!"

"Would you please let me eat in peace?"

101 Star Wars Variations 39: Tarkin, Against the Empire

As the highest ranking officer of the fleet, only the Emperor himself was more important to the Empire than Tarkin.  Since few interacted with Palpatine and Tarkin handled day-to-day military and political operations, it might be argued that he was in fact most important.

And through it all, Tarkin considered himself an enemy of the Empire.

Let's not exaggerate this.  He was not a part of the Rebellion.  He simply hated the Empire.  He resented it, is perhaps a wiser statement.  Maybe he just hated everything.  No one ever saw him smile.  He stole the idea of the Death Star, but in the end it certainly looked like his idea.  His passion for what quickly became known as the "ultimate weapon" was legendary.  As chief representative of the system of regional governors that replaced the Senate of the Republic, he already held great influence on countless worlds.  Tarkin apparently decided he easily could eliminate any of them.  Any of them.  Even the ones best established in galactic civilization, like Alderaan, which he famously destroyed as an example of the Death Star's power.

Such an apparently arbitrary, flippant, casually-determined moment might have seemed like a show of strength for the Empire, but Tarkin meant for it to look like an act of terrorism, the full extent of what many already considered an Empire dangerously out of control.  He alone had to ability to control Darth Vader, whom his command staff treated like the relic he represented, of the old ways, the Old Republic, the Jedi Order.  Tarkin was one of the few who knew that Vader followed the Sith ways.  Such distinctions meant little to others.  To Tarkin, it meant everything.  Any talk of Palpatine's own allegiances had been hushed up long ago.  Tarkin's was a life that had been affected by the Sith more directly than anyone else.  His was a world that had been devastated by the Sith, years before Palpatine rose to power, a testing ground.  Tarkin's loyalty was a matter of survival.

But he wouldn't compromise forever.  He grew increasingly reckless.  He himself remained unimpeachable.  No, he had to make it a matter of the Empire's reputation.  With Vader by his side, the menacing loner whose reputation was entirely consumed by his strange powers and unwillingness to play nicely with the rank and file, Tarkin's plan would work regardless of what happened to Tarkin himself.  He didn't care who defeated the Empire, so long as the Empire came to an end, the Emperor came to an end.  Everyone knew the Emperor had no successor.  Few knew as Tarkin did that expecting Palpatine to simply die was foolish thinking.  Vader wasn't the answer.  But Vader's son?

In his final months, when the plans for the Death Star were stolen by the Rebellion, Tarkin saw to it that the Jedi nonsense would finally resolve itself.  The plans found their way to Tatooine, which otherwise meant nothing to galactic affairs.  It was here where Vader's son could be found, could be drawn into Tarkin's plot, knowingly or otherwise.  Trained to become a Jedi, perhaps.  It didn't matter.  He would join the Rebellion regardless, become a rallying point.  Tarkin could use the Rebellion, naturally.

The Death Star was a target above everything else, a rallying point.  Tarkin had seen that from the start.  Destroy the Death Star and the Empire finally had a weakness.  If it had never been constructed...?  But of course Tarkin made sure it was.

He had grown weary.  He couldn't endure the nonsense any longer.  It was, among other things, an engineered suicide.  Everyone around him thought it couldn't be done, certainly not by the pathetic Rebel fleet.  He made sure to foster this belief.  But he knew better than anyone that it could be done.  That was why he had allowed the plans to be intercepted in the first place.

In his final moments, Tarkin smiled for the first time in his life.  Doubtlessly, no one knew what they saw when it happened.  It didn't matter.  The outcome was now inevitable.  He had won.  He had been avenged.  Whatever followed would be better...

101 Star Wars Variations 38: The Rebellion Against the Republic

Given enough time, even the clearest facts can be obscured by history.  Take, for instance, the Rebellion.  Now, I know you believe it was against something called the Galactic Empire, which was supposedly a corrupted version of the Old Republic.  But the truth is, the Rebellion was against the Old Republic itself.

Ideals erode over time.  The more people take something for granted, the more corruption is allowed to sneak in.  No one denies that at the time of Chancellor Valorum's ouster in a vote of no-confidence, the Republic had seen better days.  It was indeed old.  Countless worlds could smell the stench of death.  Palpatine was elected to replace him, and the Senate knew exactly what it was doing, who and what he was, what he was interested in doing, the changes he was likely to make...It was all an effort to make the Republic relevant again.

Naturally it resulted in violent opposition, in the form of the Rebellion.  It became an institution that needed to be gutted.  The Jedi were disbanded and then reconstituted from the ground up, the great experiment that was meant to prove that reform could be done.  The Rebellion succeeded, ultimately, because the experiment was considered a success.  I think the same conclusion was reached in the version of history you know, but it makes more sense when you strip away the lies and distortions, which I don't have the energy right now to regurgitate at length.

Suffice to say, it's the same story, from a certain point of view.

101 Star Wars Variations 37: Lando

If he hadn't lost his ship in a game of cards to Han Solo, the Rebel Alliance would never have won.

Oh, believe me, Lando Calrissian spent plenty of time thinking about that.  After he became the administrator of Bespin, Lando had very little time for himself, but all the time in the world to reflect on just what had become of his life.  He seemed to have accomplished the dream of the rogue: going mainstream, having great influence, earning respect, being taken seriously.

But all the time, he kept his eye on that ship.  He knew what his old friend was up to at all times.  He knew when the ship ran afoul of the Empire.  He prided himself on staying out of trouble.  But he counted down the hours until the Empire came to Cloud City.  It was inevitable.  He was ready.

He was nearly ready.  He knew he could control the situation, at least to a certain extent.  He would have to compromise.  He would have to look like the bad guy.  But he had no choice.  In order to keep the upper hand, he would have to bluff, after all.  He would have to lose a few rounds.

But Lando never lost for long.

He knew how to keep track of the players.  He never lost focus.  He made sure the ship kept flying.  He made sure things kept happening.  Even when it seemed like everyone else was doing the important work, there was Lando behind them.

Manipulating would be a bit strong, but that's the short of it, really.  You can thank him for that.  Without Lando Calrissian...Well, that would be a pretty scary prospect, wouldn't it?  And thus, could there be anyone more important?

Don't bet on it.