A Certain Point of View

by LukeMaynard

"Obi-Wan never told you…" With those words, Vader shook our faith in Obi-Wan as a reliable narrator, and told us there was more to his story than we knew. This is an AU story (…or IS it?) that takes place DURING Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, a story that was told—and can be retold—in the editing. The story changes nothing onscreen—yet reveals a secret that changes EVERYTHING.

1. Introduction & Acknowledgments

A Certain Point Of View

by Luke R. J. Maynard

Introduction

What you are about to read significantly and materially alters everything you assume to be true about the Star Wars saga, based on everything you see and hear in canon. But painstaking care has been taken to dovetail all that you're about to experience into the events as they unfold in canonical films and books. Shot-for-shot, line-for-line, this story retraces the steps of the franchise, and disagrees with none of it. And yet, you may see a completely different story being told through familiar lines and events. In the pages to come, you will learn that that many of the truths we cling to—about the story of Star Wars you think you know—depend greatly on our own point of view.

Whether this amounts to an AU story or not is up to your interpretation. The novella began as an effort to answer questions about the saga from the perspective that everything we see and hear in the films is accurate to the universe: why is the Millennium Falcon so maneuverable in The Force Awakens, and so clumsy in A New Hope? How did Obi-Wan age so quickly between Episodes III and IV? Why does the greatest duel of the entire saga, Obi-Wan and Vader's final battle, look as if it's the worst-choreographed duel ever filmed? How do we reconcile the story in our mind's eye with what we see on film?

In the same manner that Rogue One unearthed the plausible story for the Death Star's oddly convenient self-destruct mechanism, this book is an attempt to answer why some of the unexpected, unexplained, and seemingly implausible happenings in Star Wars happened to unfold the way we did. I have taken painstaking care to answer these questions in a way that does not quite contradict anything shown to us in canon—but might change the way you perceive that canon forever.

Acknowledgments

This novella could not have been written without George Lucas, who will always be the creator of Star Wars. He can sell whatever he wants to Disney for however many billions, and that will never change. But Star Wars, as this "hidden-canon" tale suggests, is more than just one man's story, now. I'm hugely indebted to a number of great resources here:

I've tried to remain faithful to Episode IV – A New Hope most of all, as most of this book is contained in the timeline of that film. But I'm deeply in debt to all 11 Star Wars features: the 8 numbered movies, Rogue One, Solo, and yes, even the Star Wars Holiday Special. I think the two Ewok TV movies were the only ones not referenced here—though I managed to slip in a reference or two to the Droids cartoon somewhere. I am also indebted to Brian Daley's national public radio broadcast of Star Wars, which filled in many significant details cut from the final film and fleshed out the events surrounding it.

This story also incorporates information from Star Wars: Rebels and The Clone Wars, from the licensed Marvel comics in 2015, and also the old Marvel Star Wars comics of the late 1970s. I made use of numerous official and unofficial sourcebooks, of numerous Legends novels, of maps and other information from the d6 and d20 Star Wars roleplaying games, of the X-Wing and Jedi Knight video game franchises, and of several tie-in books, and of the diligent work done by fans on Wookieepedia. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this amazing universe I've come to play in.

A final Plug for Original Work

Fanfic must be free, and should be free. The fanfic community is a giving one. But gone are the days when "those who can, write; those who can't, write fanfic." There are some amazing professional writers here, and a lot of them have original commercial work out there, too. If you enjoy this story, and want to support what I do, the best way to do that is by checking out & supporting my original work. My début CD of original music, Desolation Sound, is available now online on CD Baby dot com (I can't link it here, but I'm not hard to find).

If you enjoy this story and want to check out & support my other original work, that's one place to do it. Thanks for your time! Now, with that out of the way,

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. . . .