Outbreak – a Commentary

Welp. Short story but thanks for coming along on the ride with me. When I started this story I was sure it'd take me twenty chapters. There was supposed to be a whole plot arch where Luke escapes on Vader's planet and meets up with some Jedi who teach him stuff, then he confronts Vader again. Escapes and we go into Return of the Jedi.

I decided that this story was all ready OC heavy and that we didn't really need that plot so I omitted it for a nice wrap up instead. It may be a bit fast paced but I always kinda felt that the end of NH was like that. I dunno. I tried to keep to the feeling of the movies but probably lost it along the way.

Luke is not a whiner in this story for reasons – Someone mentioned this in a review and I just had to include it in this commentary. I HATE Luke being a whiney baby. It's the ultimate annoyance for me. I've always LOVED Luke Skywalker. I grew up with the VHS version of Star Wars and I always ignored him complaining about stuff in the beginning of NH. I always kinda figured that if kids grew up on Tatooine that they'd somehow be older. Though, in the NH Novelization the kids Luke knows are a bit on the young side as well. So I'm not entirely sure if that's how George saw Luke and his friends or who made that decision. But, I always felt that Luke should have acted a bit more like an adult.

Also. Because this story takes place between Empire and Jedi, I kinda had to balance Luke out a bit. Because in Jedi he's far more grown up, he's far more confident in his Force Abilities, and he's…not the farm boy we met in NH. While I'm glad for this character development, I kinda feel that it shouldn't have taken two movies for us to get to. Because he was still kinda a whiney baby in Empire in those Dagobah scenes.

So yeah. I wrote him how I see him. And so he's an adult in this story.

As for the rest – Tonnil La is your basic Imperial Captain. She believes in the Empire and what they are doing is right. I wanted to write that alternate viewpoint which we kinda get in the Timothy Zahn books. While these people aren't horrible, while they are good and kind at times, they are Imperial's. They do believe in what the Emperor does and they do think it's for the good of the Galaxy. I couldn't give her or Alexis a redemption arch because they didn't want one. They didn't want to kill the prisoner's, but at the same time, they kinda had to do it.

Vader see's this. Tonnil and Alexis aren't Force sensitive. They can't block it either. Vader would have killed Tonnil La if there was even a whisper that she agreed with the Rebellion. Her private thoughts saved her because her loyalty was to the Empire. Even if it changed hands to Vader being in charge with Luke at his side, she would have served him.

I wanted there to be an alternate view point to all the Rebel stuff I had going on.

On Mara/Valera – We find out in the EU that she was supposed to kill Luke. She failed this time and that's why she's at Jaba's Palace later on. So she didn't go back to the Palpatine. I love Mara Jade and I wanted her in this story. I wanted to disguise her as well. But, I feel that Vader would have known about her. I know that her part really wasn't that big in this story and that I basically had Luke get super duper lucky. But, he doesn't know about her, or her mission to kill him in the EU. Not until later when they meet due to Kaarde. I won't give away any more details. Just know that due to certain aspects of the EU I couldn't have her reveal herself to him. Vader moving Luke is because he knew there'd be someone after his son. And Vader basically needs Luke alive. While he wasn't planning on Luke escaping and them taking the Bridge and stuff, it still served his plans for Luke to do so. He warned Mara off enough and she also escaped the Flair. Not that Luke and the SB's could have don't anything about it. Still. I just felt that ending fit this story.

On the ending – The epilogue is a set up for Jedi. The movie opens on Tatooine. And later Luke goes back to Yoda to find out the truth about Vader. Which is why in this entire story Luke thinks it's a lie and he's always correcting himself when he calls Vader Father by mistake. I think he'd be in denial until Yoda, a trusted source of information, told Luke the truth. But, this story takes place before that and so Luke could not believe Vader or his "lies". I hope that's understandable. I also feel that Ben would have some holo-chips he'd have recorded of Jedi training techniques because of reasons. I dunno. I've always liked that aspect in the EU and so I wanted to incorporate that into this story.

Welp. I think that's it for the commentary. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this commentary. This is really just for me. But, I enjoyed writing one for my 21 Jump Street story and I wanted to do one for this story as well.

I may re-write and enlarge this story in the future if I feel the need. Maybe do a special edition version for the next SW anniversary. Well. I dunno if I will or not. But it's a possibility.

Thanks for reading.

Ta.

Asher.