Conflicting Loyalties (Star Wars TPM story)
| Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Conflicting Loyalties |
| Author(s): | Trudy West |
| Date(s): | 29 April 2002 |
| Length: | 94k |
| Genre: | slash fanfiction |
| Fandom: | Star Wars: The Phantom Menace |
| External Links: | Conflicting Loyalties (Master & Apprentice) |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Conflicting Loyalties is a Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan story by Trudy West.
Summary: Obi-Wan thought he had come to terms with his past, until a chance visit to Tatooine reveals a secret.
Recs and Reviews
Here's a long, serious story to balance out the sweet titbit from Augusta that I recommended last week. Trudy burst upon an unsuspecting M-A when at least two generations of fans had come and gone, and the thought of a vibrant new author was something to salivate over. So were her stories. Conflicting Loyalties is particularly ambitious in its scope: it begins with Qui-Gon's death, and then takes us to six years later, when Obi-Wan finds someone he didn't expect on Tatooine...and that someone isn't expecting, or welcoming, him either. Angst? Sexual tension? Trudy is a queen of both. [...]
Three things I love most about this story:
- An Obi-Wan who is calm, controlled and effective, while bleeding to death inside - who can resist that?! It's so in character, and so delicious.
- A Qui-Gon who breaks all the reader's expectations, is a little bit wild, a little bit shocking and very intimidating - and yet you can still see the Jedi master underneath
- The way the story and Neruda's poetry, quoted extensively in the text, illuminate each other. You can skip the poetry if you want, but it's one of the most sensitive uses of this sort of quotation in a fanfic that I've come across yet.[1]
This story made the Top 10 of my all-time favorites on the Master-Apprentice archive. The characterizations of both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are excellent.It starts right after Naboo, when Obi-Wan is raw and grieving, and doing his best to hide it. He can never fool Anakin, though, who understands his Master's love for Qui-Gon and uses it to humanize Obi-Wan, since Anakin thinks of his Master as a remote, perfect Jedi.
Master and Padawan's relationship is strengthened when Obi-Wan gives Anakin money to help Shmi and later arranges a visit to see her on Tatooine after one of their missions. Obi-Wan discovers that Qui-Gon is alive and living with Shmi, but his memories have been tampered with, so that he now hates Obi-Wan.
From their first terrifying meeting to a very satisfying ending, this story parallels the events of the prequels from Obi-Wan's "certain point of view." Anakin was right -- Obi-Wan is the consummate Jedi Master, and he earned my respect and admiration with his stoic acceptance and competence, and especially his unwavering love for Qui-Gon through the decades.
Words to whet your appetite:
"Obi-Wan watched the bike and its rider vanishing in the distance.and he was a last-chance Initiate, begging for a master while Qui-Gon turned his back.and then he was a junior Padawan, trying to please a reserved and unreadable Master.and then he was a senior Padawan, hearing Qui-Gon renounce him before the Council in favor of Anakin. and then he was a Knight standing awkwardly on Shmi's balcony, and Qui-Gon sent him away with a wave and a sneer.
The repeating refrain of his life, watching Qui-Gon move away from him." [2]
conflicting loyalties, by trudy west. qui/obi, obi/other, qui/other(qui's-not-dead-au). nc-17, reference to rape and non-con. what if qui-gon didn't die at the hands of the sith--but everyone thought he had? [3]
References
- ^ gloriana in tpm_flashback. Conflicting Loyalties by Trudy West, 13 June 2004. (Accessed 19 April 2015)
- ^ Merry Amelie in quiobisupport. Story review: Conflicting Loyalties (Q/O), 13 October 2013. (Accessed 28 April 2015)
- ^ cimorene. Recs: Star Wars, via Wayback. (Accessed 10 May 2015)