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crack_van2006-03-27 11:18 pm
malabud.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2006-03-27 11:18 pm
Entry tags:
From My Point of View by Elana (PG-13)
Fandom: STAR WARS OT
Pairing: Gen
Length: 38,000 words
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Elana's Fanfiction.net Profile
Why this must be read:
As with any fandom, Star Wars has its various camps of fans and fanfic authors, which can be divided and subdivided almost endlessly into increasingly specialized fannish interests. Beyond the usual slash, gen, het, and pairing-specific categories, there are fans that favor certain fanfic scenarios. Some favored scenarios include Revenge of the Sith AUs wherein Anakin does not turn (there are lots of these!), or Original Trilogy AUs in which Vader discovers one or more of his children prior to the events of A New Hope. (Earlier this month I recced Force Bond, an excellent example of this genre.)
This particular fic illustrates yet another subgenre within Star Wars fanfiction: telling the story of the Original Trilogy from Darth Vader's point of view. There are many fics that have attempted to do this; there was even a blog that did it. Some are more successful than others, but of the completed fics in this category that I have read -- a number higher than I would really care to admit! -- this one is the best so far.
Most such fics were written before the completion of the Prequel Trilogy, but this one takes into account everything we know from The Phantom Menace forward. It fits nicely into canon (despite some easily ignored minor canon inaccuracies) and draws intriguing parallels between the two trilogies, especially between Palpatine's turning of Anakin and attempted turning of Luke. In fact, it included some parallels I had not thought of before.
What more can I say? Read the tale, and once again watch the Original Trilogy with a brand-new perspective.
* * *
A tremor in the Force.
It brushes the edge of my mind while I am in the midst of questioning a subordinate about the captured freighter. The ship is empty, he tells me, abandoned, yet I feel a presence so familiar that for a nanosecond my instinct is to accept it without question, to welcome it. Then comes recognition, and with it confusion. "I sense something." The officer looks at me quizzically, but I ignore him. Surely it is impossible. "A presence I've not felt since...." Since a day of fire, terror, pain... death....
I turn away, reaching through the Force to renew that brief touch, but it is gone. He knows I am here, and is concealing himself from me. I stride through the corridors of the station, seeking with senses deeper than sight or hearing. There! I feel it again, stronger this time, nearer. I am sure, now. It can be no other.
Jumbled memories leap from the graves where they have lain buried and overwhelm me with a storm of battling emotions. Enemy, master, traitor, friend. The years I served at his side, and the unthinkable betrayal. Brother, he called me, as he left me to die. Twenty years, each breath burning with the echo of flame in my lungs. Each step stabbing with the pain of charred and blackened limbs.
From the maelstrom rage rises up victorious, hot and bitter in my throat. With the reflexive skill born of twenty years' experience, I slide down the channel of my anger into the cold calm power of the Force. It stills the storm in my mind and shows me the path I must follow.
He must have come as part of a Rebel plot, to retrieve the captured Senator, to bring her the stolen plans. But that is irrelevant. He is here so that I may finally make an end of him, and close the door of my past forever.
From My Point of View
Pairing: Gen
Length: 38,000 words
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Elana's Fanfiction.net Profile
Why this must be read:
As with any fandom, Star Wars has its various camps of fans and fanfic authors, which can be divided and subdivided almost endlessly into increasingly specialized fannish interests. Beyond the usual slash, gen, het, and pairing-specific categories, there are fans that favor certain fanfic scenarios. Some favored scenarios include Revenge of the Sith AUs wherein Anakin does not turn (there are lots of these!), or Original Trilogy AUs in which Vader discovers one or more of his children prior to the events of A New Hope. (Earlier this month I recced Force Bond, an excellent example of this genre.)
This particular fic illustrates yet another subgenre within Star Wars fanfiction: telling the story of the Original Trilogy from Darth Vader's point of view. There are many fics that have attempted to do this; there was even a blog that did it. Some are more successful than others, but of the completed fics in this category that I have read -- a number higher than I would really care to admit! -- this one is the best so far.
Most such fics were written before the completion of the Prequel Trilogy, but this one takes into account everything we know from The Phantom Menace forward. It fits nicely into canon (despite some easily ignored minor canon inaccuracies) and draws intriguing parallels between the two trilogies, especially between Palpatine's turning of Anakin and attempted turning of Luke. In fact, it included some parallels I had not thought of before.
What more can I say? Read the tale, and once again watch the Original Trilogy with a brand-new perspective.
* * *
A tremor in the Force.
It brushes the edge of my mind while I am in the midst of questioning a subordinate about the captured freighter. The ship is empty, he tells me, abandoned, yet I feel a presence so familiar that for a nanosecond my instinct is to accept it without question, to welcome it. Then comes recognition, and with it confusion. "I sense something." The officer looks at me quizzically, but I ignore him. Surely it is impossible. "A presence I've not felt since...." Since a day of fire, terror, pain... death....
I turn away, reaching through the Force to renew that brief touch, but it is gone. He knows I am here, and is concealing himself from me. I stride through the corridors of the station, seeking with senses deeper than sight or hearing. There! I feel it again, stronger this time, nearer. I am sure, now. It can be no other.
Jumbled memories leap from the graves where they have lain buried and overwhelm me with a storm of battling emotions. Enemy, master, traitor, friend. The years I served at his side, and the unthinkable betrayal. Brother, he called me, as he left me to die. Twenty years, each breath burning with the echo of flame in my lungs. Each step stabbing with the pain of charred and blackened limbs.
From the maelstrom rage rises up victorious, hot and bitter in my throat. With the reflexive skill born of twenty years' experience, I slide down the channel of my anger into the cold calm power of the Force. It stills the storm in my mind and shows me the path I must follow.
He must have come as part of a Rebel plot, to retrieve the captured Senator, to bring her the stolen plans. But that is irrelevant. He is here so that I may finally make an end of him, and close the door of my past forever.
From My Point of View