Symmetry in "Riding the Wheel of If"
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| Title: | Symmetry in "Riding the Wheel of If" |
| Creator: | Eshva |
| Date(s): | 2001? |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | The Phantom Menace |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | online here |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Symmetry in "Riding the Wheel of If" is an essay by Eshva.
The topic is the Phantom Menace fic Riding the Wheel of If.
The essay is undated but appears to have been written in 2001.
"Notes: the following essay-sort-of-thingie relates to a classic of TPM slash - "Riding the Wheel of If" by Mrs Hammill and others. It's available on the Master_Apprentice archive. The essay was posted to a mailing list and I'd like to thank the list denizens for their interest. I have made a few edits in response to comments and suggestions, but I've left the argument as originally posted."
Excerpts
A while back I was thinking vaguely about the "Wheel of If" series and a thought occurred to me. Somewhere in the story I remembered reading the proposition that every character has the potential for both good and evil - hence the different versions encountered by Obi-Wan on his travels. But, I thought, if there are no good Palpatines or evil Obis this contradicts the theory. I couldn't actually remember any good Palpies or evil Obis, but I thought I'd better check (excellent reason to read the whole thing again :) )
Now before the Wheel experts jump up and down - yep, my original theory was wrong. There is a good Palpatine and an evil Obi which I'd forgotten about. However, while I was reading through the episodes, I noted down the frequencies of good and evil for various characters. It occurred to me that perhaps the frequency with which a character is good or evil might reflect something about the writers' views about their innate tendencies toward good or evil. And since "Wheel" is really a microcosm of TPM slash fandom, that implies some interesting things about our collective impression of the various characters. (Or possibly it will just be stating the obvious. But stating the obvious with *numbers*. Worse than damned lies :) )
I called this essay "Symmetry and the Wheel of If", and now I've finally got to why. Although my original thought about Obi-Wan being all good and Palpatine being all bad was not borne out, the result was close. They both had only a single exception to their all good/all bad status. By doing this, the underlying theory that everyone has the potential for both good and evil was upheld (just).
Obi-Wan and Palpatine mirror each other - one as the avatar of the Light, the other the avatar of the Dark. It seems that Lightness or Darkness are part of their very being. And the symmetry is maintained when we discover that both Obi-Wan and Palpatine are "riding the Wheel of If". This is an example of the brilliant symmetry embedded in the series, which I think makes it work so well.