#zigoola

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Bail after the events of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Wild Space" (Karen Miller)

Obi-Wan Kenobi is stuck on Zigoola and the Sith's impact on his mind is worse than anyone could think.

It wasn’t that Anakin didn’t like Bail Organa. He knew he was quite a respectable man–a rarity in the Senate, that was for sure. And Padmé certainly liked him. Obi-Wan, too. He knew they were all good friends, and that was perfectly fine. Completely, totally fine.

And Anakin wasn’t jealous at all.

So when the dinner invitation came, he acted blasé enough. Obi-Wan was striding into their quarter one afternoon during their brief leave from the front, looking down at his comm.

“Bail invited us to dinner,” he said.

Anakin dropped the droid parts he’d been working on and tried his hardest not to whirl around.

“What?”

“This evening,” Obi-Wan replied. “If you’re available.”

“He invited me?”

“Yes, and me,” Obi-Wan said. “That is the meaning of the word ‘us,’ you know.”

“I–well, yeah. I just–isn’t he your friend?”

Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows. “Well, forgive me. I didn’t realize we weren’t allowed any mutual friends. I’ll have to tell Rex and Kit and Quin I won’t be seeing them anymore, then–”

Anakin rolled his eyes, ignoring the jest. “Fine. Yeah, I’m free. I guess.” He looked down at his hands, which were still stained with grease. “I’ll get cleaned up.”

And for reasons he couldn’t explain, during the ride over and the walk to Bail’s door, and the whole introduction and small talk and drinks–Anakin felt nervous.

So, I’ve been re-reading “Wild Space” by Karen Miller to use as source material for a new fic that I’m writing and I’m being reminded how much this book really just pisses me off. 

Like, it’s so close to being a really amazing Star Wars book that it’s super frustrating. 

***Spoilers Below***

I enjoy the plot overall, the way she uses the Darkside is super unique and I just love it. The idea that a Sith planet is basically used as a weapon against the Jedi and destroys them not just physically but also mentally (and in the Force), but that non Force users are fine - that is so incredibly interesting!! Not to mention the way she weaves the canon timeline into her story is also masterfully done. And the tension and drama is very well written. 

But, her take on the characters leaves MUCH to be desired in my opinion. I just can hardly get through reading it a second time because of it. Her Padme and frankly her Obi-Wan are honestly the worst. Don’t get me wrong they have moments where the characters we know and love do show up, but overall she just seems to completely misunderstand both of them (especially Padme) and REALLY misses the mark when it comes to their relationship/friendship. 

Padme: Through much of this story she is nothing but a love sick puppy who is whiney and obstinate in the most annoying fashion. She doesn’t seem to have the level head on her shoulders that we normally see with this character. Yes, we see that obviously she has a blind spot and makes poor decisions when it comes to being with Anakin in both the movies and TCW (I mean she kissed him after the sand line...come on girl), but in this book she is just insufferable!! 

She has immature and snide thoughts that rival Anakin’s about Obi-Wan and the Jedi Order throughout the entire thing and I just don’t see her character being this way. 

Obi-Wan comes to her at the beginning of the book to discuss her and Anakin’s behavior on Geonosis and to hopefully talk some sense into her regarding their doomed relationship - makes sense, she is the more mature and reasonable one between her and Anakin, but that is just not what happens in this scene. She is cold, she is like a child who resents her father telling her what to do. She is just obnoxious in this scene and incredibly unreasonable (very out of character). She then decides instead of talking to Anakin about it or coming to the realization that maybe this relationship isn’t a good idea she basically yells at Obi-Wan and then decides to lie to him. The lack of respect she holds for him in this scene is very contrary to the woman who maybe a day prior said “Well, I’m going to go help Obi-Wan...” 

Not to mention she basically uses the fact that Anakin’s mother died and Obi-Wan had no idea as a weapon against him...low blow Padme.

I feel like once the dust settled on Geonosis she would’ve struggled with their rushed marriage. She also so obviously cares for the Jedi Order, and specifically Obi-Wan (and Yoda for that matter) as a friend and we don’t see that reflected in this book much at all.

It isn’t until later in the book that we finally get a glimpse of the strong Senator who loved the Republic and the people more than just about anything (including Anakin) - I guess if you actually believe she died of a broken heart then the version of her character in this book makes sense...I guess.

Obi-Wan: While not as insufferable in my opinion in this book as Padme, he’s still through a good chunk of it out of character. Though Karen Miller does nail his tendency to injure himself only to claim he’s “fine” and his self-sacrificing ways, as well as his concern/love for Anakin, she does beat a dead horse when it comes to his view on politicians. What was just a simple line in ATOC “She’s a politician and they’re not to be trusted” became the main source of conflict for him throughout so much of this book when it came to his interactions with Bail Organa, so much so that it got pretty cartoonish and circular. 

A lot of my issues with Obi-Wan in this book stem from the usual misunderstanding that the Jedi are not allowed to have feelings/emotions and coupled with Obi-Wan’s need to prove himself (which that is very much in character, I’ll give her that) he comes across as basically what Anakin accuses him of being in ATOC - he’s overly critical, he’s emotionless, he’s intimidating and aloof. And Anakin’s bitching about his mentor aside I really have not seen any evidence throughout canon to make me believe that Obi-Wan would be like this. 

His first scene with Bail in this book is just baffling to me, the way he reacts is not at all the polished Negotiator nor the charismatic man everyone seems to have a soft spot for (even the villains). 

And then once he has been working with Bail for awhile they keep coming back to this conflict - he goes back to mistrusting him simply because Bail’s a politician and so then Bail feels attacked so he thinks the Jedi are these unfeeling monsters and starts questioning if they really do “steal babies”. Now, I can somewhat forgive this getting heated when they are on Zigoola because the planet is basically using the darkside to destroy Obi-Wan, but as a reader it just feels played out before they even make it to Zigoola and that makes it seem rather lazy. Obi-Wan has faced so much trauma all throughout his life, the author couldn’t come up with something else to cause him to fight Bail on getting out of there?  

The fact that he kept digging in his heels, not trusting Bail (for no real reason), not telling him what was happening even though two pages prior they had come to a mutual understanding feels like Karen Miller just needed more pages to fill and just didn’t know what else to do with them so she went back to the ‘Obi-Wan doesn’t trust politicians’ well. 

It took me out of the moment because it felt so out of place and out of character. 

I really, really want to love this book, it has a lot going for it. But I find it so difficult for me to get behind her take on these characters that I already know and love.  

“What are you thinking?”

Something had to haunt him, after such experience, and the question was “what?” for now. Which part made him frown, which part dragged his heart towards the ground and made him hunch with sadness?

“I am thinking,” Obi-Wan started, slowly, almost a child admitting a misdeed, “of how I turned the wheel.”

Yoda didn't even understand the reference at first, couldn't.

“I am thinking of how I almost destroyed two lives, Master.”

Now, a misdeed it wasn't. “How so?” he asked, to understand.

Obi-Wan's eyes widened just a bit, a surprised face. “I plummeted us both to death,” he blinked, confused at how Yoda wouldn't get, wouldn't easily draw the conclusion, wouldn't easily agree.

How he wouldn't blame.

Chapters: 1/4 Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Wild Space - Karen Miller Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Plo Koon, Adi Gallia, Mace Windu, The Force - Character, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious (mentioned), Depa Billaba, Yoda (Star Wars) (mentioned) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, That's Not How The Force Works, is it canon divergence if it's based off a legends book?, yes?, yeah - Freeform, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, Post-Wild Space, Post Zigoola, Meditation, Jedi Temple Series: Part 2 of Farewell Wanderlust Summary:

Obi-Wan found that after Zigoola, he had issues with the dark. It seemed to always be there. It seemed to constantly press down on his mind. Before Zigoola, he wouldn’t have felt it press against him as strongly as it was after Zigoola. It seemed that now, the dark was always there.

It seemed it was stronger on Coruscant than Obi-Wan remembered it being.

but not only that, OH NO, that happens with THIS MUSIC PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND:

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE i might have cried a little at Bail thinking about Breha and yelling at Obi-Wan that he doesn’t want to die