Considering that he had picked up what was probably a Sith artifact, promptly passed out in the middle of a war zone, and apparently woken up twenty years in the future with Obi-Wan having taken up residence in his head, Anakin thought he was entitled to have a few questions.
—Summary of Wake The Storm
This is a series of Star Wars fanfictions by Bedlamsbard
. They deal primarily with the Prequel Trilogy and the Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Also Alternate Universes.
On an uneventful battle to recover some Sith artifacts during the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker ends up passing out—and waking up in a Star Destroyer with someone on the comm link calling for Lord Vader. Guided by Obi-Wan's force ghost, Anakin tries to find out how he got there—and how to get home. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and chaos ensues.
Currently, the series consists of:
- Wake The Storm (here)
- Queen's Gambit (here)
- Tales from the Eye of the Storm (here)
- Sound The Bells (here)
Because of the multiple universes, things can get a bit confusing with multiple versions of the same character exist. Generally, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padmé refer to the Wake The Storm incarnations, while Ani, Captain Kenobi, and Amidala refer to the Queen's Gambit incarnations.
While the story of the Wake the Storm characters continues elsewhere, Queen's Gambit has been left on a Sequel Hook due to numerous plotholes being unanswered. However, the author has no intention on continuing the Gambitverse due to wanting to move onto the next universe and other new things, resolving plotlines from the Gambitverse via Word of God. The next universe is known as the Watchtower universe, and the something new she was working on ended up becoming On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone, a Star Wars Rebels fanfiction.
Ouroboros contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: Bedlamsbard's tumblr is full of writing updates/snippets, commentary, and meta.
- Alternate Universe: Largely the premise of the story. There are several different timelines.
- An Arm and a Leg: Gambit!Barriss gets her left leg cut off by Palpatine.
- Awful Truth: Anakin finding out who Vader is.
- Bad Future: The Original Trilogy timeline.
- Battle Couple: Gambit Verse Obi-Wan and Amidala got together during the year long Trade Federation occupation of Naboo.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Palpatine.
- Bittersweet Ending: Wake The Storm.
- Body Horror: Poor Sabe.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: "Revan's Cure", the Jedi Council's plan for Gambit!Obi-Wan after he's been proven to have not fallen to the dark side. It's considered so horrific that Plo Koon, Quinlan Vos, and Ahsoka Tano rescue him from the Temple, and Shaak Ti lets them go.
- Break the Cutie: Gambit!Barriss Offee is a lot less broken to start with than her canon counterpart. This doesn't last long. First she has to watch Luminara get decapitated on the Holonet, then have everyone think she's in denial because she thinks Luminara is still alive. Then once she finds out she's right, the Jedi aren't willing to rescue Luminara from the Naboo. So she joins team Kenobi in leaving the Jedi Order to rescue her, and on top of that Wake!Anakin rather bluntly tells her about what she did in his universe. She does not take it well.
- Darker and Edgier:
- Gambit!Amidala compared to Wake!Padme. Being head of the CIS after multiple battles with the Trade Federation may have something to do with it.
- Also, the Gambit!Naboo in general. It kind of weirds Wake!Padme out.
- Defecting for Love: Most people think Kenobi left the Jedi for Amidala. He adamantly says no: He left the Jedi because they were complaisant and he stopped agreeing with their course of action.Dooku: Kenobi left for love—or political idealism, it’s always been hard to tell which.
- Defector from Decadence: In the Gambit verse, Obi-Wan Kenobi left the Jedi Order over the Council's handling of the Naboo Occupation. Much later, Quinlan Vos and Ahsoka Tano leave over the Council's handling of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Both still consider themselves Jedi outside the Order.
- Deconstruction: Of the Jedi's morality, of the typical Star Wars Fix Fic, and of time travel fics.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Following the tradition of everything set in the prequel trilogy, Anakin makes comments about not being responsible for the various tragedies Vader caused.
- Gambit!Ahsoka admires Captain Kenobi's composure when the Jedi have him on trial, and hopes that she would act the same in the unlikely event she was in the same situation.
- Doorstopper: The series is 450k words in total. The longest installment is Queen's Gambit, at 350k words.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: The first indication of what the Gambitverse is like is a transmission by the Gambit!Separatists, in which Queen Amidala claims that Supreme Chancellor Dooku sent two Jedi Knights to assassinate her, and then has the Jedi executed by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Or so we are led to believe on that last part.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Gambit!Anakin Skywalker prefers to go by Ani.
- "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: After Palpatine stabs Sabe and realizes that she isn't Amidala, Sabe says "Long live the Queen." and rakes his face with her remaining hand before he finishes her.
- Fake Kill Scare: As it turns out, Luminara Undili and Eeth Koth weren't executed at all, but Palpatine hijacked the transmission to the Republic to make it appear that they were to escalate the conflict.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: All of the Naboo government members murdered by Palpatine, but Sabe (who was acting as Amidala's body double) got the worst of it, having a hand cut off and then being bisected.
- Fate Worse than Death: "Stripping", or using the Force to rip out people's minds and destroy/brainwash them is treated as this. It is the only crime that the Jedi will execute people for - except when the Council decides to do it themselves, known as "Revan's Cure". It hasn't been used in thousands of years, but the Gambit!Jedi Council narrowly decides to use it on Captain Kenobi. According to Ahsoka, most of the people it has been used on wound up killing themselves eventually.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Obi-Wan from Luke's era is capable of shifting between the form of his 38-year-old self (from when Anakin was his friend) and his 57-year-old self (from when Luke knew him).
- For Want Of A Nail: Everything from Anakin's disappearance in the past onward. Also, the Gambit Verse, in which the hyperdrive of the ship Queen Amidala was fleeing from Naboo on with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan never cracked. This meant that they never made their pitstop on Tatooine, and thus Anakin never blew up the droid control ship, which led to a series of events resulting in the current Gambit verse.
- Freak Out: An extension of the Future Me Scares Me for Anakin. The lasting effects are shown while he's in the Gambit Verse, exacerbated by the fact that he doesn't know why Vader became dark and joined the Sith.
- Friends with Benefits:
- In Sound The Bells, Obi-Wan and Quinlan.
Word of God is that this also exists between Obi-Wan and Luminara. - The Jedi as written by Bedlamsbard tend towards this interpretation of the "No Attachment" philosophy a lot more than in other works.
- In Sound The Bells, Obi-Wan and Quinlan.
- Future Me Scares Me: When Anakin realizes who Vader is.
- Good Is Not Nice: The Jedi Order in the Gambit Verse, and how. So much so that Plo Koon, Shaak Ti, Tholme, Cin Drallig, Quinlan Vos, Ahsoka Tano, and Barriss Offee begin actively defying the Jedi Council after they plan to use Revan's Cure on Obi-Wan Kenobi despite it being proven that he hadn't fallen to the Dark Side.
- Gratuitous Latin: Several of Gambit's chapter titles are Latin phrases.
- Hypocrite: Anakin Skywalker really is the last person with any right to judge someone by what an alternate universe counterpart of theirs did. Not that this stops him from being a jerk to Barriss Offee.
- If I Can't Have You…: Palpatine, being Palpatine, applies this line of thinking to the entire galaxy. Command Word Retribution is a failsafe in the event of Palpatine dying before he can create his Sith Empire, and involves driving the GAR and the droid army insane to cause mindless chaos across the galaxy.Palpatine: If I – cannot – have empire – I will – have – chaos. And we – will burn – together.
- I Have Your Wife: Husband, in this case. Kenobi is kidnapped, and they threaten to kill him if Queen Amidala won't comply.
- Incest Yay: While unaware of his relationship to her, Leia thinks Anakin is attractive.
- In Spite of a Nail: Ani Skywalker's mother was still killed by Tusken Raiders and he still acquired the Twilight in the Gambit Verse. The difference is that he's a smuggler captain instead of a Jedi Knight. In addition, Qui-Gon Jinn was still killed on Naboo by Darth Maul, though Maul's death at Obi-Wan's hands seems to have stuck in that universe.
- Interdimensional Travel Device: The Ouroboros the series is named after. It's also a Time Machine.
- Ironic Echo: Probably not an intentional one in-universe, but when Anakin and Obi-Wan prepare to fight Emperor Palpatine in 3ABY, Obi-Wan declares that "This time, if we burn we burn together." as a way of declaring his loyalty to his pre-corruption Padawan. Later, when Anakin assassinates Chancellor Palpatine in 19BBY, Palpatine orders the galaxy razed in retribution and declares that "we will burn together" as a way of declaring his intent to destroy everything out of spite.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The ending of Wake The Storm is shocking and unique. This means that a lot of the much longer Queen's Gambit is a spoiler.
- Love Makes You Evil: Some Gambit!verse Jedi make it quite clear why they think Gambit!Obi-Wan left the Order. They also make it quite clear that they think he needs serious correction.
- Lovable Rogue: In the grand Star Wars tradition of lovable rogues, the Gambitverse's counterpart of Anakin Skywalker is this.
- Metaphorically True: OT!Obi-Wan tells Anakin the same things he told Luke in A New Hope.
- Mirror Universe: The Gambitverse appears to be this at first glance, what with Queen Amidala leading the Confederacy against Supreme Chancellor Dooku and Obi-Wan Kenobi executing Jedi, but it turns out that there's a specific point of divergence from canon and some characters are a lot closer to their canon counterparts than others.
- Mythology Gag: Since he never became a Jedi, the Gambit version of Anakin Skywalker is a smuggler captain. You could say he's a navigator on a spice freighter.
- Mind Rape: Revan's Cure. Also attempted on Wake!Padme by Gambit!Palpatine when he realizes something is off about her.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pretty much everyone's reaction when Anakin kills Palpatine and sets off Command Code Retribution. Also, the Gambit!Jedi.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In Wake The Storm, Palpatine decides to thrust some memories into Anakin's head to try and turn him to the dark. The problem? He used Obi-Wan's memories.
- Off with His Head!!: At the end of Wake the Storm/beginning of Queen's Gambit, the Gambitverse's versions of Luminara Unduli and Eeth Koth are apparently executed on live Holonet by Gambit!Obi-Wan on the orders of Gambit!Amidala.
- Ouroboros: The object that names the series is designed to look like two snakes eating their own tails.
- Polyamory: Queen's Gambit slowly builds it up between Anakin, Padme, and Obi-Wan.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Contrary to canon, Gambit Verse Count Dooku, who is Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic.
- Sanity Slippage: Yoda in the OT timeline, implied to be happening to Obi-Wan after Anakin's apparent death. Confirmed to be happening in Sound The Bells
- Space Opera: Thanks to the focus on galactic politics, the chapters set many years prior, and the shear length of the work, it captures the feel of scale and grandeur of a Space Opera in a way that most fanworks don't.
- Taking You with Me: Palpatine's 'Command Word Retribution', a supersized version of Order 66 that he triggers when Anakin kills him in the Wake timeline. Only in addition to the Jedi, it targets the Galactic Senate, the CIS, and many, if not all, planetary leaders, effectively destroying every government in the galaxy and causing the two largest armies in the galaxy to go rogue and spread chaos.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Amidala, as well as her handmaidens.
- Wham Line: A line that displays the Jedi Council's intent towards Captain Kenobi: "This isn't the Mandalorian Wars, and Obi-Wan Kenobi is not Darth Revan."
- What the Hell, Hero?: A lot of this.
- Padme to Anakin after he kills Palpatine, inadvertently ruining everything in the Wake universe.
- Everyone to the Gambit!Jedi Council after they decide to use Revan's Cure on Captain Kenobi. Including several members of the Gambit!Jedi Council.
- Quinlan Vos is not happy with Anakin after he very bluntly tells Barriss Offee that her counterpart in his universe is a traitor and mass murderer who framed her best friend for her crimes.
- Wrong Time-Travel Savvy: Anakin thinks that once he gets to the past, he can fix everything. It turns out that some things are always destined to happen.
