i was looking up tea in the sw universe for my rp but instead i got to find out that obi-wan brought qui-gon sapir tea every morning as a way to console him after tahl’s death
And he had Obi-Wan. With every mission, he was more convinced that his Padawan would become extraordinary, even among the Jedi. What he taught would live on. That was legacy enough.
It’s day 3 already, but I had no time for anything yesterday or on Monday, and I just had to participate in this awesome event! The ladies of SW are to badass to miss :D
So here’s a Tahl for you… although I’m pretty sure she’s not canon anymore. Oh well.
When I read the JA series (well, part of it), I was really impressed by her. While trying to negotiate a peace between two opposing parties, Tahl gets captured, tortured and blinded. After her rescue and subsequent return to the temple, she has to adjust to a completely new way of of living and fighting, but she doesn’t allow herself to be crushed by her loss of sight.
–tons of deathfic. Everyone had written one. There were fics where Obi-Wan died at age 15, there were fics were Qui-Gon died well ahead of schedule, there were fics where both died, there were probably fics where EVERYONE died. There was, in fact, probably more death in that one small fandom offshoot than there was in the entire Star Wars EU put together
-There were very frequently scenes set in the Room of a Thousand Fountains even when the plot never called for it, because it’s a kickass room full of fountains, duh
-If there was a fanfic set in the immediate aftermath of Qui-Gon’s death, there would always be a scene where Obi-Wan staggered back to the hangar and cried into his Master’s discarded cloak. (you know, because they all took their cloaks off when Darth Maul showed up.) It was always very sad.
-Everyone fancied Xanatos for some reason
-also, theforce.net (everyone’s primary hangout) didn’t allow slash for some godforsaken reason, but some writers worked in a lot of Subtext between him and Obi-Wan
-Anakin on the other hand (when he showed up) was almost always a devil child with no redeeming features
-For a while, there was this awful trend where Qui-Gon was physically abusive to Obi-Wan for…reasons? Usually the writer loved Obi-Wan and hated Qui-Gon? Well that’s up to you but COME ON REALLY
-Perhaps surprisingly, the ladies didn’t usually get the raw end of the deal! Siri was extremely popular, Tahl usually got to be in stuff, and even fairly minor lady characters like Clee occasionally got fics to themselves
-That’s all I remember but it was really Pretty Awesome, in many ways
I guess one of my favorite things about the Jedi Apprentice books is the acknowledgement that teachers are also human beings with character flaws of their own to overcome.
Far too often in ‘kid goes to magic school’ stories teachers are this weird combination of perfect and useless; the Hogwarts staff spring instantly to mind of course but it happens all the time and really rubs me the wrong way. In JA, half of each story is told from Qui-Gon’s perspective, and we see his doubts and frustrations and understand why he struggles as a teacher.
The series is just as much about Obi-Wan teaching Qui-Gon how to be a better person as it is Qui-Gon teaching Obi-Wan how to be a better Jedi. And then when I rewatch TPM and hear Qui-Gon say “you are a wiser man than I” I believe him and understand why he’s saying it.
And it’s not just Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. We also see the relationships between Bant and Tahl, between Siri and Adi Gallia, as parallels and foils to that main relationship. (So many relationships between female characters eeeee.) We get other teachers giving Qui-Gon advice or telling him off when he’s messing up. It’s just… really refreshing to me?
