You’re not bothering me at all! Unfortunately I am not the best person in the universe to ask for time travel Star Wars fic recs, because I actually haven’t read many in several years. I spend most of my Star Wars time writing Reprise, and tend to stay away from other time travel fics to keep my ideas straight in my head.

I will say you are in luck purely because there are considerably more time travel fics now than there were even a few years ago. I started writing Reprise because I couldn’t find any time travel fic that scratched my particular itch. Now, there’s a huge selection to choose from (because of course there are, now that my self-indulgent experiment is getting ready to wrap up...)

The one that jumps to mind immediately is Unexpected Awakening by Rhiw, which was never originally finished but is being rewritten more recently. I read this ages ago, and I cannot say how well the OG writing would hold up if I were to re-read it, but the plot and characterizations left a lasting impression on me and I remember devouring this fic and loving a lot of the world-building. I need to catch up on the rewrite!

Unfortunately, that’s the only one I remember clearly. I know I’ve read many time travel fics over the years, back before Reprise, but for the life of me I cannot remember what they were called or what they were about. I remember Rhiw’s work, though.

There are several other big time travel fics that I know are quite popular, but I haven’t read (or at least not finished reading) myself. One is Tano and Kenobi by @fireflyfish, which I was reading quite regularly back when it first went up but then life got in the way, and... well, you know how it is. I need to go back and reread it, it’s a fun fic! It involves Ahsoka traveling back in time to Obi-Wan’s initiate/padawan days, which is a lovely, fresh take on an old trope, so all the hijinks that ensue have that original spin on them. I love Ahsoka and I love baby Obi, so I remember this one being quite fun.

The only other that I’m really aware of is the Re-Entry series by flamethrower, as well as the sequel series Re-Entry: Journey of the Whills. Taken together the two series are well over a million words long. The premise of this one isn’t unlike that of Unexpected Awakening (though I think Re-Entry predates Unexpected Awakening, to be fair) in that it involves young Obi-Wan waking up with the memories/experiences of his older self. I know this series is one of the and probably the most popular/famous Star Wars time travel fic ever (at least that I know of!) and I know a ton of people who love it. That being said, I have to admit I gave this series a try and never finished it. I just didn’t like it. It was not at all my cuppa tea. Now to be fair, I didn’t read a large percentage of the series. I read until I realized I wasn’t enjoying myself and stopped. I’m not a fan of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon as a ship, which is a notable feature of this series, so maybe that was part of it, but who knows? Just because it’s not my cuppa doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it! Certainly give it a go if you like.

Hey, Anon! Glad you like my blog. At one point, I think I had a purpose for this blog but nowadays it’s just a mixed bag of hyperfixations, societal and feminist rage, and Aesthetic™.

I also have mixed feelings about Mortis. I actually really like the Mortis arc conceptually. Unfortunately, much of the execution I found lacking and clunky (I mean, as amazing as Clone Wars is, it is still a short-format cartoon aimed at young/family audiences, so what can you do). Overall I think Mortis is a rare and unique look into the mystic aspects of the Force and Anakin’s identity in particular. I always think of the Mortis arc in conjunction with Yoda’s arc in the Lost Missions where he meets the Whills (or are they “Priestesses”? I always think of them as the Whills...) because the two arcs deal with spiritual aspects of the Force in a way that we’ve never really been shown in the past.

I think the thing I love most about both arcs is that while nothing the mystic characters say about the Force is in direct contradiction to what the Jedi believe, there is still this quasi-condescending sense of “Oh, you thought you were the only ones? This is a lot bigger than your little Order.” Because the Jedi are the heroes of the audience, we don’t often get to see them put —rightly— in their place by their spiritual superiors. Both Mortis and the Whills arcs were refreshing in that way. Because I’m a sucker for Star Wars lore, these windows into a wider Force mysticism also offers a nice bridge to situate the Jedi alongside other groups like the Guardians of the Whills.

I will preface this by saying I have just consumed 1.5 servings of tequila. I don’t know if that will affect what I say, but... yeah.

I personally think that Episode I is probably the most well constructed of the prequels solely (and I mean solely) because it starts from a straightforward premise and follows through with that premise effectively. I will not give it high praise, but it at least sees its story through to the end with minimal issues. The intricacies of the romantic entanglements and overblown politics of the latter prequels aren’t as fleshed out and thus cannot be as thoroughly effed-up as they will be in the later films. Episode I’s narrative structure is not fancy. it’s not good, but it’s not bad. It suffers, as all the prequels do, from poor dialogue and bland acting, and uniquely suffers from the most screentime allotted to Jar Jar, but on the whole, it’s a decent film. It also has the most satisfying climax and ending of the three. We get the fight with Maul, Obi-Wan’s coming-of-age, the passing of the torch from Qui-Gon to Obi-Wan, and the foreshadowing with Anakin. All very enjoyable, with a nice combination of closure and cliffhanger wrapped up in a bow. Also, added bonus, while little Anakin may be bratty and annoying, he is at least not perpetually horny and angsty, which I see as a definite plus. 

Episode III is somewhat better constructed, but it absolutely falls apart at the end. As I told a friend, Episode III is tolerable for most of its running time, and absolutely tanks at the end (after Anakin turns to the dark side). Episode III has a very fatalistic feel to it, but in a good way. You as the audience sort of know what’s coming, and you know that Anakin’s going to go bad in some way. But then he does go bad, but like... at the drop of a hat. There’s no real build up, no satisfying motivation for him to do so. They absolutely hamstring Padme’s character to give Anakin the Man Pain™ needed to justify his turn to the dark, but it’s just not enough to suspend my disbelief. I’m just left with a disappointed feeling in both Anakin and Padme. (Lost the will to live? LOST THE WILL TO LIVE???) The fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin is pretty fun to watch, but the pacing (particularly at the end) is really wonky and not all the scenes make sense. It’s WORLDS better than Episode II, but not quite as unoffensive as Episode I. And that’s the main difference between I and III. I is not good. It’s just very unoffensive, because it is quite simple in structure. Episode III has a lot more moving parts, a lot more subplots, and a lot higher emotional stakes, which gives it a lot more to screw up. And unfortunately for III, it screws up most of its narrative promises to the viewer and ends with a fizzle. Some of its struggles are holdovers from II, such as the sexism shown towards Padme. Another example is its bungling of the complicated Jedi/Senate politics, which I’m very bitter about because it could have been so good. Politics is also something that could have been interesting that Episode I made exceptionally boring, but in Episode I, politics was a plot device. In Episode III, politics are a character device, which makes their bungling all the more catastrophic to the quality of the movie. There’s a lot in Episode III that could have been amazing, but wasn’t. And perhaps that is the deciding factor for me to rank I above III. Episode I had a (fairly) low bar in terms of plot and construction. It was a simple premise and a simple execution. There were problems, but overall, it is enjoyable. But III set its ambitions so high, that when it failed to deliver on those ambitions, even if it has more interesting ideas than I, the viewer still leaves with a more disappointed taste in their mouth.

Meanwhile, Episode II is just... bad. It’s just bad, okay? The romance is bad, Anakin’s motivations are bad, bad writing, bad dialog, bad pacing, bad mullets, it’s just... it’s just bad. They made Sir Christopher Lee look bad. SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE. Add to that the CGI that has NOT aged well and the absolutely abominable sexism and male-gaze corniness that was thrust upon poor Padme, and it’s just... nothing about it is good. I hate it.

...

Meanwhile, Rogue One is the perfect Star Wars film and no one will ever convince me otherwise. 

Gahhh sorry for taking so long to respond to this!

I was wracking my brain trying to think of my favorite time travel fics, most of which date back many years. There weren’t so many back when I was actively reading a lot of fanfic, and one of them I know I’m forgetting the name of, but the one that really sticks out in my mind is Unexpected Awakening by Rhiw. I read it many years ago, and am fuzzy on the plot details, but I remembering enjoying it a great deal when I was younger. (ALSO Apparently she’s doing a rewrite???? Updated last in December??? Good lord this is a blast from the past...)

Also, it’s not time travel, but so long as we’re on the topic of fic recs, if you ever read any Obi-Wan/pr-saga-centric fic at all, please read anything and everything written by Ruth Baulding. 

In a double tragedy, I have to inform you, however, that Unexpected Awakening was never finished, and Ruth Baulding herself has taken leave of the Star Wars fandom for reasons unknown. But, they’ve both left us with some enjoyable reads, so have at it.