SW Book Index - Jude Watson
AKA overviews of what happens (that I care about… so anything Obikin-centric), and links to the bits I wanted to save because I thought they’d make good fic / meta material.
Jedi Apprentice - the adventures of Baby-Wan and Master Qui-Gon Jinn.
These are mostly just Obi-Wan angsting about what a terrible Padawan he is. Qui-Gon does little to help him deal with this, tbh, and there are many moments where you’re kind of left astounded the Jedi keep putting kids in his care..
★ Jedi Apprentice #2: The Dark Rival - May 1999. Obi-Wan is sent to Bandomeer to join the Agricorps. Qui-Gon’s former Padawan Xantaos arranges for his kidnap and he is forced into slavery before Qui-Gon saves him and reluctantly takes him on as his Padawan.
★ Jedi Apprentice #3: The Hidden Past - August 1999. The saga of the river stone begins!! They meet back up with Obi-Wan’s friend Guerra and help bring peace to Phindar, but not before Obi-Wan is almost mind-wiped. He manages to save his memories with the help of the river stone Qui-Gon Jinn gave him for his super special 13th Name Day that Qui-Gon had forgotten about until the last possible moment.
★ Jedi Apprentice #4: The Mark of the Crown - October 1999. Qui-Gon goes off grid for a couple of weeks and leaves Obi-Wan to it. Even though his faith in Obi-Wan’s abilities is actually kind of limited and Obi-Wan makes no effort to hide how very much he doesn’t want to have to lie and sneak around for him… Then Obi-Wan thinks he makes a friend - but it turns out Qui-Gon’s suspicions were right and the other kid was a spy. :(
★ Jedi Apprentice #5: The Defenders of the Dead - December 1999. On a mission to Melida/Daan Obi-Wan chooses to stay and fight for what he believes is right with a group of young rebels. Qui-Gon warns him that if he stays he will no longer be a Jedi but Obi-Wan responds: “I have found something here more important than the Jedi code,” Obi-Wan said slowly. “Something not only worth fighting for, but worth dying for.” … Obi-Wan had hurt him. He longed to take the words back. He could not. They had been said. He had meant them.
★ Jedi Apprentice #6: The Uncertain Path - February 2000. This one made me incandescent with rage! Because, on the one hand this is a kids’ book. Obviously the kids having agency is the whole point. On the other. WTF. WTAF. Qui-Gon has left 13 year old Obi-Wan in an active warzone, then doesn’t bother to tell anyone. He’s just taking part in a Temple exercise and wondering idly if Bruck Chun wants to be his new Padawan. When Yoda criticises this: ‘Qui-Gon stared stonily ahead. He had not expected this rebuke from Yoda.’
★ Jedi Apprentice #7: The Captive Temple - April 2000. Xanatos sways Obi-Wan’s rival, Bruck Chun, to help him attack the Temple. Obi-Wan wants to offer more help, but he is not technically a Jedi because of his actions on Melida/Daan: ‘He did not think this day could get any worse. Now it had. In the eyes of the Council, he could do nothing right. And in Qui-Gon’s eyes, he was worth nothing at all.’ In the end Obi-Wan fights Bruck to save Bant, but though he tries to help him, Bruck accidentally falls and dies.
★ Jedi Apprentice Special Edition: Deceptions - July 2001. Still being punished for Melida/Daan, Obi-Wan is struggling with his guilt and grief over Bruck Chun, and the fact Chun’s influential father is having him put on trial for the other boy’s death. Qui-Gon is too busy with Tahl to take much notice: ‘It is not all I need! Obi-Wan wanted to cry. He needed his Master’s presence.’ The second half of the book is when Obi-Wan is Anakin’s Master and has lots of interesting insight -
Obi-Wan seems so much younger than Anakin at 13. There’s this one line - ’Anakin pitched his voice high. He had an ability to seem younger than he was’ - that kind of sums it up for me. Anakin knows exactly what he’s doing, how to portray the front he wants, etc. Obi-Wan recognises this to some extent, eg. seeking out Anakin’s opinions and perceptions of people as ‘more astute’ than his own. (‘Sometimes, Anakin reminded Obi-Wan of Qui-Gon. He had the same mix of logic and emotion that Obi-Wan struggled so hard to balance.’)
Which leads on to the other thing that jumps out at me: Obi-Wan’s failure to establish any real boundaries with Anakin. Anakin is very put out that Obi-Wan won’t tell him every detail of his past, like he has a total right to know whatever he wants. ('Why didn’t Obi-Wan trust him enough to tell him the truth?’) Anakin kind of hero worships Obi-Wan (how could a Padawan turn against his Master? how could they suspect you?) but seems to lack any sense of thinking he should obey Obi-Wan because he’s his teacher / an adult.
And, again with the lack of discipline and boundaries: 'Obi-Wan knew that Anakin had found these things [tools / droid parts, etc] by sneaking out of the Temple and dealing in the thriving black market of Coruscant. He preferred to turn a blind eye.’
★ Jedi Apprentice #8: The Day of Reckoning - June 2000. Xanatos has set them up on Telos but overreaches himself and ends up dead, preferring to kill himself by throwing himself into a pool of acid than repent.
★ Jedi Apprentice #9: The Fight for Truth - August 2000. For reasons best known to himself, Yoda has sent Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Siri Tachi and Adi Gallia to check out an alleged Force-sensitive baby in space North Korea. (They’ve cut themselves off from the rest of the galaxy because of visions of the Jedi bringing forth a great evil…) Obi-Wan and Siri are rounded up as suspected truants and sent to the ‘Learning Circle’ where children are indoctrinated for the General Good. When they keep complaining that the ‘facts’ they’re learning are lies, and that there can be no real freedom on a planet where nothing can be questioned, they’re taken to the Re-Learning Circle for indoctrination with extra isolation and sensory deprivation.
★ Jedi Apprentice #10: The Shattered Peace - October 2000. They go to sort out a dispute between royals and royal hostages on Rutan and Senali. It turns out that two supposed rivals are in love with each other; Obi-Wan struggles to make sense of it. Qui-Gon tells him: ‘Words do not always echo feelings.’
★ Jedi Apprentice #14: The Ties That Bind - August 2001. Qui-Gon and Tahl confess their feelings for each other, while Obi-Wan tries not to resent being relegated to sitting out on the stairs waiting for them…
★ Jedi Apprentice #15: The Death of Hope - October 2001. Tahl dies, Obi-Wan is afraid for his Master and what his attachment to her means.
★ Jedi Apprentice #16: The Call to Vengeance - December 2001. Qui-Gon is consumed with grief for Tahl and comes close to losing himself to revenge. Obi-Wan vows to protect his Master from himself, even though his Master is acting like a stranger.
★ Jedi Apprentice #17: The Only Witness - February 2002. Qui-Gon continues to mourn Tahl. Obi-Wan develops a crush on a young widow named Lena they’re supposed to be escorting to Coruscant - though he doesn’t seem to understand what it is he’s feeling for her.
★ Jedi Apprentice #18: The Threat Within - March 2002. They go to Tory wet dream land Vorzyd 4 to investigate terrorist attacks that turn out to be a rebel youth group who want more from life than work. Qui-Gon reflects on how proud he is of the now 18-year-old Obi-Wan’s maturity and wisdom. This is one of my faves of the whole series.
★ Jedi Apprentice Special Edition: The Followers - April 2002. I love this installment so much. Prof. Mark Lundi and some of his students went nuts trying to gain power from a Sith Holocron; Anakin and Obi-Wan are tasked with taking the ranting and raving Lundi (in a special traveling cage!) to retrieve it. There is so much great fic potential in Anakin’s interactions with Lundi et al, and his later possible understanding of how much he’s lost to the dark side as Vader…
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Jedi Quest - stories about Padawan Anakin between the ages of 13 and 16.
I originally read these in my teens and loved them. They’re basically about Anakin’s relationship with Obi-Wan, friendship with fellow Padawans Darra and Tru Veld, and his rivalry with Ferus Olin who plays the role of the snooty prefect who warns the protagonist they’re going to be in awful trouble if they don’t tell the headmistress what’s happening. My abiding memory of them was Obi-Wan giving Anakin Qui-Gon’s river stone and, though Obi-Wan had been justifiably upset with such a lame gift, Anakin is beyond overjoyed because it’s Obi-Wan’s most precious possession and he’s entrusting it to him. Re-reading them they’re even more delightfully slashy than I remembered, with Padawan Anakin going on (and on and on) about how he’ll make Obi-Wan love him…
★ Jedi Quest: Path to Truth - September 2001. Anakin and Obi-Wan go to Ilum to get a crystal for Anakin’s saber, then on to a mission where they encounter Krayn, a Slaver who kidnapped Amee’s mum back on Tatooine. Obi-Wan refuses to free the slaves: “I heard the slaves beg you to help them. I saw you turn your back on them. How can you abandon them to such misery? Every day for a slave is another chance to die. Killing Krayn will free them. How can you do this?” Anakin ends up being re-enslaved, blows Knight Antana’s cover, but does manage to instigate a slave revolt in the spice mines of Nad Shadaa. It’s still not enough though, and Anakin kills Krayn in cold blood. Obi-Wan witnesses it but rationalises it away, reasoning that it was self-defence and he has nothing to worry about…
★ Jedi Quest #1: The Way of the Apprentice - April 2002. ‘Anakin was special, and they all knew it. The trouble was that he knew it as well.’ We learn that Anakin regularly sneaks out of the Temple, has only just manages to make a friend (Tru) after 4 years there, and generally spends most of his time thinking about whether or not Obi-Wan is proud of him. His rivalry with Ferus begins: “Obi-Wan doesn’t see you clearly,” Ferus said softly. “He is a great Jedi Knight, but he is blinded by affection. But I see. And I will keep looking. I will watch you, Anakin Skywalker.”
★ Jedi Quest #2: The Trail of the Jedi - April 2002. 14-year-old Anakin thinks about how the Temple isn’t his home, and how envious he is of Obi-Wan’s relationship with Qui-Gon; he’s always felt ‘honoured’ to be Obi-Wan’s Padawan, but now he worries Obi-Wan is only training him because Qui-Gon begged him to. Though he knows full well a Master is typically distant with a young Padawan - he gives Tru and Ry-Gaul as an example - he still doesn’t think it should apply to him. ‘He could sense that his Master was uneasy. Something was bothering him. But Obi-Wan did not confide. He never does, Anakin thought. How can we get closer if he keeps all his thoughts to himself?’ As far as Anakin is concerned, no part of Obi-Wan’s life should be off limits to him. Meanwhile Obi-Wan angsts about having hurt Anakin’s feelings by not sharing his every thought. This one also features the A+++ Obikin passage: ‘He should not focus on what he didn’t have. He had this. This was his. And that was something. He would work hard. He would be a great Padawan. And Obi-Wan would come to love him. He would make him do so.’
★ Jedi Quest #3: The Dangerous Games - August 2002. The team is off to help police the Galactic Games and Anakin wastes no time getting involved in a podrace against Sebulba to help free a slave. He and Obi-Wan butt heads over this as it clearly isn’t part of their mission but, as Anakin argues, freeing him hadn’t been part of Qui-Gon’s mission either. ‘It wasn’t that Obi-Wan lacked compassion, Anakin mused. It was just that there was a little more distance between him and other living beings. Qui-Gon had not been able to pass along his connection to the Living Force to his Padawan, Anakin felt.’
★ Jedi Quest #4: The Master of Disguise - November 2002. Darra gets injured on a mission and Anakin blames himself. When Obi-Wan arranges for him to have extra saber training sessions with Darra’s Master, Soara Antana, he interprets it as a punishment and resolves to prove himself. Antana berates him for thinking himself superior to others and eventually refuses to train him further after he calls on his anger to defeat Ferus. Feeling lonely and hard done by, he’s an easy target for the sympathetic scientist Tic Verdun - who, of course, is actually Granta Omega in disguise.
★ Jedi Quest #5: The School of Fear - February 2003. This one is my favourite! Anakin and Ferus have to go undercover at a posh prep school to find out more about a Senator’s supposedly kidnapped son, with Obi-Wan as their contact. Being away from the Temple’s rules has Anakin wondering: ‘But was being a Jedi being free? Or had he traded one form of slavery for another?’ Anakin gets involved with a kids’ vigilante squad and when Ferus goes missing, instead of informing Obi-Wan, he carries on with the squad’s mission to go blow shit up on Andara. When Soara tells Obi-Wan he’s just devastated by it - but the best thing is Anakin thinks Obi-Wan’s gonna be so proud of him for sorting it all out himself. He shows off the kind of Force control Obi-Wan’s never even seen before and cannot understand why Obi-Wan’s so hung up on his failure to obey mission directives and communicate. ‘He felt shaken. Did Anakin understand that he had violated an essential part of the Jedi code? Did he know he had broken something between them? He had not fully trusted Obi-Wan. And so Obi-Wan had lost his trust in him.’
★ Jedi Quest #6: The Shadow Trap - May 2003. Anakin has been having a recurring vision, but when it comes to him while swimming he freaks out enough to track down Obi-Wan in the Room of a Thousand Fountains even though they’ve barely been on speaking terms since Andara. Granta Omega ends up capturing Anakin on the resulting mission because, like all SW villains, he is obsessed with Obi-Wan: ‘“Do you think he’s worried about you?” Omega barked a laugh. “What you don’t know about your Master could fill your precious archives. Kenobi doesn’t have a heart. Beings are just a means to get what he needs to be - the great Jedi in his own mind.”’ Yaddle saves the day - but sacrifices herself for the greater good in the process. Anakin blames himself for not understanding what the vision was trying to tell him: The vision hadn’t been wrong. The essential truth it had left him with was part of him now. He felt it inside him like a wound. It was loss. The gulf between him and Obi-Wan was wider than ever.
★ Jedi Quest #7: The Moment of Truth - November 2003. Anakin is still struggling to deal with his guilt over Yaddle’s death, and wonders if he simply feels too much to be a Jedi. On their mission he is captured and put into a tranquil state without emotion. Obi-Wan rescues him but Anakin’s still feeling the after effects - e.g. Obi-Wan is in danger but rather than rush to his aid, as is always his first instinct, he reasons that Obi-Wan is capable of handling it himself. But when Obi-Wan calls for him: ‘The hook in his heart seared him, and he knew its name. It was love. The love he felt for his Master was lodged firmly within him. It was a connection that had grown from the first moment Obi-Wan had told him that he would take him and train him.’ Ferus suggests that Anakin enjoyed being serene and content, so much so that it overpowered his loyalty to Obi-Wan. Tru tells Ferus to knock it off, but it does make Anakin confess all to Obi-Wan, including how he wishes he wasn’t the Chosen One. Obi-Wan tells him he wishes he could carry Anakin’s burdens for him but, as he can’t, all he can do is be there for him. ‘"Things between us have not run smoothly lately,” Obi-Wan said. “But you must never doubt my commitment to you.” “And mine to you,” Anakin said.’
★ Jedi Quest #8: The Changing of the Guard - March 2004. Anakin feels he and Obi-Wan have reached a new level of closeness ever since he ‘had truly trusted him with the inner workings of his heart and mind’ and told him about his fears and the weight of being the Chosen One. Ferus has his own heart to heart with Obi-Wan and tells him how he envies Anakin’s ability to make friends, but fears for Anakin’s future given his lack of good judgement. Obi-Wan is ‘irritated’ by this and tells Ferus: ‘You must understand that it isn’t ambition that drives him. It is compassion.’
★ Jedi Quest #9: The False Peace - July 2004. Granta Omega and Jenna Zan Arbor are plotting an attack on the Senate. Palpy invites Anakin for a private meeting in his office and offers him the opportunity to shadow him to learn more about politics. ‘It was an extraordinary offer. Anakin knew he had to take it.’ When the attack goes down, Palps encourages Anakin to disobey Obi-Wan’s orders to stay put - presumably orchestrated to ensure Ferus alone cannot save Obi-Wan’s friend and senatorial aide, Tyro Caladian, who had been digging up dirt on Palps…
★ Jedi Quest #10: The Final Showdown - November 2004. As galactic stability falters, the Council decides to trial fast-tracking Knighthood. 16-year-old Anakin is convinced, who knows why, that he will be chosen for the programme. Obviously they actually choose Ferus - with Obi-Wan voting in favour. Anakin is so angry and jealous he keeps quiet when Ferus helps Tru fix his lightsaber, and doesn’t offer to check it over though he knows it’ll likely clash with his own previous mods. Tru’s lightsaber goes on to fail in battle, while Ferus is using it, and Darra dies after throwing herself in front of Ferus to save him. Ferus decides he’s not cut out to be a Jedi and resigns from the Order, but not before having one last spat with Anakin. The book ends with Anakin thinking about his heart will break the day he outstrips his Master, so the best way to deal with that unbearable sorrow will be to no longer have a heart. Hmmm.
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The Last of the Jedi - AKA the extended tales of how everything would have been fine if people had just listened to Ferus.
So, obviously, these are no longer canon and don’t fit with OWK as they’re set like 18 months after the rise of the Empire and Obi-Wan’s already well aware of what Anakin’s become. Vader in this series is still obsessed with Padme and is working with a scientist to wipe his memories of her so he will no longer feel guilt, etc. But. There is plenty of Obi-Wan angst, Anakin v Ferus tension when Palps starts up with his usual grooming, and nobody will ever convince me that Obi-Wan and Ferus did not kriff when Ferus turns up at his cave door on Tatooine…
★ The Last of the Jedi #1: The Desperate Mission - May 2005. Obi-Wan learns that Ferus is still alive, leading a rebellion movement, and goes to track him down because: ‘Ferus was alive, and that meant that the past had not died. Not completely.’ Obi-Wan asks him about Ferus’ reasons for leaving the Order, but Ferus won’t say too much because: ‘He had seen how hard it was for Obi-Wan to say Anakin’s name. He must miss his apprentice. Ferus wondered how Anakin had died, but he didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want to dredge up a painful memory for Obi-Wan.’
★ The Last of the Jedi #2: The Dark Warning - September 2005. Ferus goes to Ilum to get a new crystal and has a vision of Anakin.
★ The Last of the Jedi #3, #4, #5, and #6. Underworld (December 2005), Death on Naboo (April 2006), A Tangled Web (July 2006), and Return of the Dark Side (December 2006). Ferus goes back to the Temple on Coruscant, makes contact with Dex and the proto-rebellion, and remembers what an angry weirdo Anakin was. Obi-Wan urges him to go Naboo as a double agent for the Empire but won’t tell him why; baby Leia’s Force sensitivity has been attracting the wrong kind of interest. Meanwhile, Trever, Ferus’ sort of non-Force sensitive Padawan, starts calling him Ferus-Wan because he fusses as much as Obi-Wan did. <3 Elsewhere, Vader does not like the interest Palps is showing in Ferus, recognising that he’s potentially grooming him to be his new apprentice.
★ The Last of the Jedi #7: The Secret Weapon - April 2007. Anakin kills Ferus’ boyfriend, Roan Lands, in front of him because he’s just that much of a spiteful little shit. Palps has Ferus taken from custody and offers him the opportunity to become powerful enough to beat Vader.
★ The Last of the Jedi #8 and #9: Against the Empire (October 2007) and Master of Deception (February 2008). Ferus becomes more corrupted by Palps’ holocron and finally realises that Vader is Anakin. Meanwhile Anakin thinks about how much he enjoyed killing Roan: ‘He had taken from Ferus what had been taken from him. He had vanquished his enemy and brought him down. It had been so easy. He had felt so satisfied.’
★ The Last of the Jedi #10: Reckoning - May 2008. Ferus rushes to tell Obi-Wan Vader’s true identity… and realises Obi-Wan already knows. Obi-Wan says he doesn’t know what drove Anakin to fall but: “To have so many gifts, to be the Chosen One … to be so afraid of loss …“ Obi-Wan gazed back at Ferus. ”And to have me as a Master. In the end, there were things between us I hadn’t even realized were there. I don’t have the answer to why he turned. I can only ask myself that question, over and over again.”
Ferus and Anakin have a showdown with the amazing exchange: “So you know who I was,” Vader said. “Do you think that would make a difference to me? Anakin Skywalker is dead.” “Was it because the Council wouldn’t let you become a Master? You always had to struggle with your ego, didn’t you?” “It was never a struggle. I was always the best.”
Ferus, beaten and bloodied and heartsick, seeks out Obi-Wan on Tatooine. Obi-Wan tenderly nurses him back to health…
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