Queen's Gambit: what happened next
Jun. 27th, 2016 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardIt has been well over a year and I finally finished writing this. I’m really sorry, guys, I have no idea why it took so long. Here is how Dark Bishop and Knightfall, the second two books in the theoretical Gambitverse trilogy, would have gone.
Queen’s Gambit is structured somewhat oddly because it was written and plotted to fill two distinct and contradictory positions: the second book in one trilogy (the Ouroboros series) and the first book in another trilogy (the theoretical Gambitverse series). The universe in the Gambitverse existed before the Wake characters arrived; it will continue to exist now that they’ve gone. The story hasn’t concluded, and for that reason there are a number of plot threads that weren’t tied up or that were introduced near the end of Gambit, because they were intended to lead into the second and third books.
I promised that when Gambit had finished I would write up the events that I knew of in the second and third books -- Dark Bishop and Knightfall, respectively. There’s a good chance that this says more about the way that I plot and write than it does about what was actually intended to occur in the remainder of the trilogy; I usually write to and around what I call “keystone scenes” -- flashes of visuals or, occasionally, dialogue that stand out for me. They don’t always end up in the story in its final form, but using them is often what I’m structuring the plot around. I didn’t do extensive plot work on Dark Bishop and Knightfall since I knew I wasn’t going to be writing either one, but I do know a handful of the keystone scenes and plot threads in each one.
Queen’s Gambit opens with Queen Amidala essentially occupying Count Dooku’s canonical position as head of the Confederacy; it ends with her in Leia’s position at the end of A New Hope: as a queen in exile (though still head of the Confederacy, at least in name). In some ways Gambit was supposed to be kind of a fakeout; the basic set-up implies that it’s going to be a take-off of the PT/TCW, but the bait and switch at the end -- the introduction of Palpatine’s New Galactic Empire -- is to actually set it up as a mirror to the OT, a thread meant to be carried through the second and third books. Exact parallel? By no means. But it was something I was thinking about.
Book 2: Dark Bishop
As the story opens...
On Naboo, Rex, Alpha, Eirtae, Stass Allie, and two other Naboo clones prepare to break into the Republic-occupied Palace in order to tap into the communications hard lines. During this, Rex discovers that the Gambitverse Rex (a lieutenant in this universe) is deployed to Naboo on the Republic side. Upon the team’s return to the safehouse, they find that Captain Kenobi’s elite special forces unit (The Unit) has arrived. (They were on a training mission when the invasion occurred.) Their commander? No one other than the Gambitverse Cody, who puts a blaster to Rex’s head.
On Coruscant, Dooku finds out that he’s being impeached by the Senate, some of whom are claiming that he’s violated the Ruusan Reformation by holding political office while still being a Jedi. Great! Now he gets to go on trial for that. Meanwhile the Republic is still kind of falling apart.
Mace Windu is on his way to Dathomir, still trying to figure out who the Sith assassin is.
The Jedi Order is having major problems. They are tentatively at an impasse, because they were about five minutes from schisming before the Sith lord in the Senate! news dropped and they’re not sure how to come back from that, especially given some of the things that went down in the Council Chamber, like the Temple Guard refusing to take orders they consider illegitimate and the call for Yoda to step down as Grand Master. Also the part where they tried to arrest Plo Koon: at this point everyone is pretending that none of this happened, but what is actually going on is that Mace is trying to run the entire Jedi Order on his own because he’s the closest to a neutral party there is. It also means that he only trusts a handful of Jedi to actually get stuff done; this is why he’s going to Dathomir himself, and why Depa and Caleb are going to Naboo.
Rig Nema is being brought back to Coruscant; because everyone else in her cohort defected the Order doesn’t feel that she’s safe to have in the field.
Depa Billaba and Caleb Dume are on their way to Naboo on Mace’s orders to figure out what the hell is going on.
Cody, who knows every member of the Unit, doesn’t recognize Rex and assumes that he’s a Republic spy; Motee and Eirtae end up breaking the “hey, this guy’s from an alternate universe” news. (This is a scene that was initially intended to be in Queen’s Gambit, with Alpha instead of Cody.)
Back with the Naboo First Fleet, Ani Skywalker is modifying Barriss Offee’s cybernetic leg and they’re bonding by bitching about how much they hated Wake!Anakin. Let us pause to consider the existential weirdness of Anakin Skywalker and Barriss Offee being friends.
Ahsoka is still having major problems with her fighter squadron, who don’t appreciate taking orders from a teenage Jedi.
Amidala’s position in the Confederacy has been undermined by losing Naboo and by the Confrontation in the Congress and Palpatine’s treason. A lot of the other Confederate planets are wary about having Jedi besides Captain Kenobi on their side; there’s more fighting about the control of the troops and navy, who are all bought and paid for by Naboo.
Slight problem: The Naboo in exile no longer have access to the funds they used to pay for the troops and navy. (The money came from the plasma mining that the Trade Federation had started during the Occupation, and which continued under Queen Amidala. Now the Republic is occupying Naboo and they don’t have access to all their accounts anymore, though some of it was in offworld holdings.)
Tarkin has been made governor of Occupied Naboo. He installs a young puppet queen, Apailana, to destabilize Amidala’s position and legitimize his own position in the eyes of the Naboo population.
T’ra Saa and Tholme don’t appear at all in this book, though their absence is notable and commented on by both the Jedi and the renegade Jedi.
While Luminara, Quinlan, and Ahsoka eventually fit into the Naboo First Fleet and fighting forces reasonably well -- though it takes a while -- Barriss becomes more and more uncomfortable with the position she’s found herself in. It’s not at all what she thought she was signing up for when she snuck away to rescue Luminara.
At some point Obi-Wan and Amidala seduce Ani, who’s surprised but more than happy to be seduced.
Tarkin is not pleased by having Depa and Caleb arrive on Naboo, especially since because they’re not operating as part of the Republic military onworld they're not in his chain of command. Depa sets about trying to figure out what happened with Stass Allie and where she is, while Caleb makes friends with clones.
The Naboo Resistance is in fine form and Tarkin hates them. The situation on Naboo is rapidly worsening, and a lot of the Jedi onworld are uncomfortable with Tarkin’s policies, as is the puppet queen.
Mace travels to Dathomir to try and find out what’s up with the Sith who tried to assassinate Dooku, and gets Asajj Ventress’s name as a result.
I never did figure out what the newly-formed Empire was up to at this point in time, but there is actively fighting going on between them, the Confederacy, the Republic, and the various planetary confederations that split off from the Republic at the end of Gambit. It’s a huge mess all around.
At some point near the beginning of the back third of the story, Aayla and Quinlan run into each other. Aayla demands that Quinlan come with her and turn himself into the Council; when he refuses, they duel, and because he hesitates at the last moment, she manages to knock him out and brings him back to the Temple to stand trial.
Mace is torn between trying to sort out the Order and tracking Ventress, but the Order seems to be temporarily stable at the moment so he opts for the latter, since a Sith on the loose is a big deal. He follows her to Naboo and joins up with Depa and Caleb, who are still trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and ends up butting heads with Tarkin.
The Gungans really hate both the Naboo and the Republic occupation, and are making trouble with everyone. (The plot line about the Gungan feelings about the Naboo in the wake of the Trade Federation Occupation unfortunately never made it into Gambit.) The Resistance is trying to talk to them; so are the Jedi. Unfortunately, so is the Empire, which has been poking thoughtfully around Naboo.
This leads to a confrontation between Asajj Ventress, Depa Billaba, and Caleb Dume that ends with Depa being knocked out; Mace catches up to Depa in time to pick Depa up off the ground as she spits, “She took my padawan.”
Quinlan’s arrest is pretty close to the final straw for Barriss, who’s been doing a lot of soul-searching and has concluded that she is not happy with this situation whatsoever. She leaves a holo for Luminara telling her that she needs some time alone to sort this out and then takes off.
Quinlan stands trial for treason; the Council goes through with what they meant to do with Obi-Wan and uses Revan’s Cure on him, to Aayla’s absolute horror.
Ahsoka fails to return from what should have been an easy solo mission, but because it’s at the same time as Barriss’s departure Luminara and Obi-Wan assume that they left together.
Because of the Confederacy’s current troubles, they have to renegotiate their contract with Kamino, so Kenobi, Amidala, and Ani travel there to do so. This turns out to be a trap; Kenobi and Amidala manage to escape, but Ani is captured, possibly by Jango Fett or Cad Bane. (Remember, he’s still wanted by the Hutts as an escaped slave.)
Book 3: Knightfall
This one is a lot sketchier than Dark Bishop, since that used the set-up from Gambit but still has vast swathes of plot unaccounted for, including the ending. (There would be substantially more going on than is mentioned up above, but while I plan a lot in advance, a fair amount of plotting is done on the fly as the situation develops and I can fill in the ground between my keystone scenes.)
Some time has passed since the end of Dark Bishop, somewhere between several months and a year. By this point Amidala has had her child (she spends all of Gambit and Bishop pregnant). (It is possible that she gives birth during Bishop, but I’m not certain.) (No, I don’t know the name or gender of the baby.)
Opening scene, beautifully illustrated by @kavkakat: Amidala arrives on Tatooine, apparently alone, to get a carbon-frozen Ani Skywalker back from Jabba the Hutt. Jabba mocks her by accusing her of being powerless, leader of the Confederacy in name only; the Naboo have a new ruler now. "I warn you not to underestimate my power,” Amidala says, channeling her alternate universe son.
Her power includes a single battlestar in orbit and Luminara Unduli. Ani’s rescue does not quite go as smoothly as she had hoped, but it does happen.
Obi-Wan was not there because he was busy with the war; the Confederacy government is demanding him on the battlefield amidst panic that they have gotten themselves into a situation they cannot get out of.
The Confederacy is in full panicked meltdown and on the edge of breaking up; it’s basically only being held together by Amidala’s strength of will. This is why it took so long to get Ani; it’s the first chance that either Obi-Wan or Amidala could get away.
The Jedi Order is back to falling apart. Aayla is so appalled by mindwiped Quinlan (she never wanted this, never expected it) that she up and leaves to go join Obi-Wan’s Jedi.
Depa is searching frantically for Caleb, but the Order just can’t spare the resources to find missing padawan between the war and the fact that it’s falling apart.
Barriss returns to the Confederacy Jedi: this is the first indication that any of them have that Ahsoka is missing.
Ahsoka and Caleb are on Mustafar, while Palpatine and Ventress attempt to brainwash them into essentially becoming the vanguard of a Sith army. The ultimate insult to the Jedi; padawans from the two main lineages in the Order. This has not been going as well as either Palpatine or Ventress would hope. (They are mostly in Ventress’s care; she’s hoping to use them as weapons against Palpatine once the galaxy has sorted itself out. After all, by then they’ll already be used to taking orders from her. This is not working well either; neither Caleb Dume nor Ahsoka Tano has ever been particularly good at taking orders from anyone.)
Tholme and T’ra Saa reappear, having spent all of Dark Bishop MIA; it turns out that they were spying behind enemy lines in the Empire. Tholme is absolutely appalled to find out that Quinlan has had Revan’s Cure used on him and that Aayla has defected; T’ra Saa isn’t too pleased about the fact that her line-padawan is missing.
The situation on occupied Naboo is getting worse and worse, somehow.
Ahsoka and Caleb manage to escape from Mustafar and make their way back to the Confederacy Jedi, whom Caleb is wary of but on the other hand it’s not like there’s anything he can do about it. Obi-Wan contacts Depa and Mace to let them know that Caleb is with them, they’re not the ones who took him, would the Jedi like him back?
Yes, the Jedi would like him back.
Mace and Depa know that if they tell the Council about this they’ll set up a trap to try and capture Obi-Wan, which they don’t want to risk because at this point it’s clear that he’s not the real threat (something still being debated by the other members of the Council) and they’re more concerned about the padawan who was kidnapped by the Sith. The meeting is tense, the reunion is emotional, and then they all sit down to pool information about the Sith. The situation is a lot worse than either the Confederacy or the Republic expected.
This is also pretty much all I know about Knightfall, which, uh, never actually had an ending planned since I knew I wasn’t going to write it. Here are a couple of other things that I do know, but which don’t quite work in elsewhere in this format:
- at some point, Obi-Wan and Quinlan duel each other; I’m not sure if it’s to the death or not
- Rex never makes it back to the Wake baseline universe
- there is no Order 66 equivalent
- BUT
- the Jedi Order does end up schisming into a number of different groups
- the largest group remains on Coruscant at the Jedi Temple, which is still considered the spiritual home of the Jedi
- the Republic survives but not intact; while it retains the Galactic Republic name, it’s more commonly called the Galactic Remnant
- the Republic and the Confederacy have to join forces to defeat the Empire
- I don’t know if any major characters die
- I mean, presumably Palpatine dies, but I don’t know how or why or at whose hand
- I am not certain if the Empire survives the end of the story or not
- Amidala does manage to regain Naboo
- jury is out on whether or not Tarkin manages to survive this experience
- Obi-Wan, Amidala, Ani, Ahsoka, Caleb, and Rex all survive
- the galaxy is substantially reshaped by the end of the story, but hey, at least not everyone is dead and there’s not a Sith lord in charge of everything, so that’s definitely one up on RotS
And that is the story of the 700K+ that I am not writing. You’ll notice that there are a lot of through-lines from Gambit that aren’t accounted for (what happens with Rex, for example, or Dooku), and that’s because those are plot lines I never had keystone scenes for, and so would have worked out once I started writing. I don’t know what happens. I mean, I would have worked it out if I was writing these stories, but I’m not! So I don’t know what happens.
I hope that this is interesting, if not as illuminating most people were probably hoping for.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-06-28 10:18 am (UTC)Thank you for this! It's a fascinating AU and I enjoyed seeing more of it.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-07-08 05:21 pm (UTC)I'm glad you enjoyed it!
(no subject)
Date: 2016-07-14 10:11 pm (UTC)So, if you're not too overwhelmed by finishing this, may I ask what's next on your plate? If you're open to suggestions I would ADORE more about "Dust" -- your writing is so evocative!
Thanks again for sharing with us. Love your work! :)
~ Laughing Collie
(no subject)
Date: 2016-07-22 03:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-07-13 02:08 am (UTC)I think what hurts most is that Rex is basically stranded in this universe, unable to go back to his original and without the people he came with. That is terrible.
Immediately, followed by QUIN GETTING THE REVAN'S CURE?!?!
Though I am sad you aren't writing this (to be fair, it's a LOT), Thank you for sharing this much with us. ^_^
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-30 05:52 am (UTC)It took a while for me to watch all of Clone Wars. In fact, I caught up with Rebels first, as I knew what was coming with Mandalore and Maul, and couldn't bear to watch it.
Still, I'm glad I waited, as it made your story that much better. The way you take all of canon and synthesis it is nothing short of awe inspiring.
I started with Reena's podfic, as I couldn't find the full weekend I KNEW I would need to devote to reading the fic straight through (yes, in theory I could have read it across several evenings, but I know myself well enough to realize I would just end up reading the whole night through, and I really can't do that with work right now). So, I listened to the podfic all the way up until the end of chapter 29, the last posted so far. I listened to it everywhere. Including when I was driving with my mom on Thanksgiving. As I was doing all the driving, I got to pick the audio, and while she's very aware of fanfic existing (she wrote a little, back in the zine days) it was still awkward as fuck, and I spent a huge hunk of the drive hyper aware of any hint of incoming smutty times (or anything even remotely past a tame PG-13 rating, tbh). It's not the first time I've had an audiobook that I haven't read before going in the car with her, but it was the first podfic I hadn't read before, and I felt that any awkwardness was worth it, as A) there was about 6 hours of driving that day and I was tired as fuck for the second half, and B) I figured she'd probably end up snoozing anyway, since SW isn't her thing (and I was right).
All that said? I just wanted you to know how much Gambit was worth to me. How much the pacing kept driving me forward.
Consuming the last chapters in one great gulp tonight has been an incredible rush, and my hands were still shaking slightly when I started typing this, still horrified that Ouroboros activated when it did (I knew it was coming, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, and it still surprised and horrified me). I'm still shocked about Quinlan and Revan’s Cure. And that he and Obi-Wan duel, possibly to the death. You set all the ground work up for that beautifully, and my desire to read it is only counterbalanced by the awareness of just how much it would tear me up.
At some point, I need to leave a real review that's not just me going look at all the tiny pieces you've left my emotions in, but today is not that day.
Thank you so much for writing Gambit.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-12-15 03:22 am (UTC)So, now that the Queen's Gambit podfic is starting to actually approach the finish line (HOLY CRAP ONLY THREE MORE CHAPTERS TO GOOOO) (IT DOESN'T SEEM REAL YET) (I FEEL LIKE THIS PODFIC HAS BEEN PART OF MY LIFE FOREVER AT THIS POINT), I was thinking - would you be alright with me recording your wrap-up of Universe B as a podfic? It's like notfic (bandom made me love notfic, and which all my fandoms had more of up)! My plan is to post chapter 34 of Queen's Gambit on New Year's Eve - I'd aim to post this the first weekend of January 2018.
Unless you're not comfortable with me podficcing this, because it's not polished/finished, in which case I totally understand. But, like, I'm gonna at least need to cry about Quinlan's possible future in my Queen's Gambit podfic reader's notes - YOU MADE QUIN MY FAVORITE CHARACTER IN GAMBIT, AND NOW HE'S GONNA GET MIND-WIPED ;________;
So, pretty please can I podfic, so there's closure (even if it's heartbreaking mind-wiping terrible horrible angstridden closure) for Queen's Gambit?
- reena_jenkins
(no subject)
Date: 2017-12-15 08:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-12-31 03:43 pm (UTC)Okay, so the podfic of Queen's Gamibt is NOW COMPLETE (I just posted chapter 34 & the reader's/author's notes) - though the AO3 post itself is still marked as incompleted because bessyboo is going to compile a podbook of everything, which will go up as chaprer 2 of the work, some time later this weekend.
The plan is to post "What Happened Next" on 1/7/18, keeping in theme with the Sunday posting schedule, and I'll let you know once it's finally live.
Right now, there's no tumblr post for Queen's Gambit, but I'll put something together later today. I can't wait to show off bessyboo's AMAZING coverart for the podfic, and basically flaunt this thing all over the place. You wrote such a GORGEOUS, detailed, MULTI-LAYERED AND COMPLEX world with QG, and getting to immerse myself in your storytelling for the last seven months has been a true pleasure. It hasn't quite sunk in yet that I'm about to leave it - it must be even worse, as a writer, to say you've wrapped things up and have to step back.
Anyway...... I want to make a separate post for the fanmix, and then possibly start making my way through the rest of your entire Star Wars back catalogue, if that's cool with you. Thank you for letting me play around in your sandbox for the last seven months. It's been amazing.
Happy listening!
- reena_jenkins
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-05 11:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-07 04:46 pm (UTC)....I ended up spitting some of my MULTIPLE feelings about this story and this 'verse into my Reader's Notes (chapter 35). I feel like maybe that might be of interest to you :D
Anyway - the podfic of this bit, What Happend Next, is now available on AO3:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/13299111
I'll put that in it's own tumblr post later today (if only to continue showing off bessyboo's amazing coverart).
Thank you again!
- reena_jenkins
(no subject)
Date: 2017-12-30 05:57 pm (UTC)If Palpatine falls but the Empire remains, does that mean that Asajj becomes Empress Ventress? ;)