Fanfic / A New Jedi in an Old Republic

Starting out as a simple question on SpaceBattles.com, namely "How would Kyle Katarn affect the Clone Wars?", the answer to that question was agreed that the resulting conflict would be won by him. Then came the follow-up question - "How? And what happens next?"

"A New Jedi in an Old Republic" is a Star Wars fanfiction written by JonBerry (also of Seven Days Survivor and A Certain Electric Deliveryman) that attempts to answer these questions. When Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors are thrown into the past via a Hyperspace Jump gone wrong, what do they do? Armed with knowledge of the future, they'll now have the chance to set right what once went wrong.

The story is hosted on SpaceBattles.com Here. As it has been dormant since 2020, this fic is likely dead.

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A New Jedi In An Old Republic contains examples of:

• A Father to His Men: Surprisingly enough, Tarkin gives the impression, as his utter pragmatisms means that, after being wounded in the destruction of his flagship, decides to not take bacta treatment or a medical bed in place of lower-ranked spacemen who need it more. He's ultimately shown to be someone who demands from his men the same attempt at perfection he pursues first, and his crew love him for that.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted: Armor can be useful, and Jedi start rebuilding their old armor because of that.
• Badass Crew: Delta Squad makes an appearance, working with Kyle and Mace Windu.
• Badass Normal: The Crew above? Yeah, Jan is there too, and holds her own against Saato, a Dark Acolyte, long enough to get away.
• Both Sides Have a Point: When Grievous is called to explain his actions when facing Tarkin's fleet – specifically, fleeing, not recalling his fighters, and having them execute suicide attacks – Dooku reprimands him for quitting the field of battle, and for wasting the droid fighters, whose memories could have been used to help improve the next generation of fighters. Grievous counters that the Republic had already destroyed one of his capital ships, and his tactic preserved several hard-to-replace capital ships from being wrecked as well. He also points out that droid fighters, by their nature, are meant to be mass-produced. Sticking around to recover them could have resulted in them losing more capital ships instead of easily replaceable fighters.
• Brutal Honesty: Tarkin has no qualms telling to the Jedi Council exactly what he thinks of the Jedi's combat skills or lack thereof and what he expects them to do to correct that. He also does the same with the Republic Navy's high command, and expects his men to do the closest thing allowed by military discipline with himself.
• Character Development:
  • Because Tarkin and Anakin meet much earlier in this story than they do in Canon, they start to affect each other differently. Anakin is given a military role model that appeals to his "Man of Action" tendencies, while also tempering him with the experiences of combat away from the Jedi. Tarkin encounters the Jedi in a far more positive light, as people who are searching for a way to act properly, which military discipline and the chain of command can help with; Anakin signs on as a Fighter Pilot, where his status as an Ace Pilot meets Tarkin's approval, as Anakin doesn't take on responsibilities that he isn't ready for, and is sticking with something that he is (as opposed to what would have happened if the Jedi had all blindly taken on the role the Senate was thrusting on them, that of Generals).
  • After meeting Kyle, Ventress is seriously reconsidering her apprenticeship with Dooku, wondering what it really means to be a Sith.
  • Returning to Anakin and Tarkin, in the wake of their mission together, Tarkin and Anakin have grown wiser. Anakin warns the Jedi Council that due to the empathic nature of their abilities, it is a massive emotional strain to constantly feel your allies dying around you. Tarkin, in turn, admits that he had misjudged the Jedi – while they have flaws, they're wise enough to know that they shouldn't lead and admits that empathic powers would be a hindrance on the battlefield (and has new respect for them for knowing their own limits). In short, Anakin isn't hotheadedly rushing into things now, and Tarkin sees the advantages of the Jedi, rather than the pessimistic view he had earlier.
• Combat Pragmatist: As mentioned in Failed a Spot Check, Kyle keeps this trait, and is quite determined to teach it to everyone, friend and foe alike.
  • The difference between this attitude and standard Jedi methods is shown during the "Trap" arc, when Kyle kills two Dark Acolytes and drives off Ventress by talking to her, and Delta Squad (following his instructions) gets rid of the other Dark-Side users. Whereas Mace gets bogged down with fighting one Dark Acolyte. In his defense, both were using Vaapad and once the fight is over he is ashamed of himself for losing control like that, and vows to atone for it.
  • Tarkin and Grievous are shown to be this in their battle from the start, with the former firing all the guns in his squadron to a single target to both take it out from the start and enjoy the morale effect on both his forces and the enemy organic commanders coming from proving he could and the latter using droid starfighters to soak it up, something Tarkin admits it's a legitimate use of droid fighters (but not ones with an organic crew).
• Crossover Cameo: The Unnamed Barber makes an appearance as an anti-militarist demagogue in Coruscant's Undercity.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Kyle's fight with the twin Dark Acolytes is this - they are so outclassed they don't realize they are following his script until he kills them both.
• Distinction Without a Difference: During space combat, Anakin's internal monologue goes like this.
  "And a Jedi never left their partner with a problem. Anakin may have caused more than his fair share of problems for Obi-Wan, but he never left his mentor to deal with all the fallout by himself."
  "Mostly."
  "Only when Obi-Wan could handle it."
  "And when he was needed elsewhere."
  "To do something important."
• Human Shield: In battle, Grievous used his droid starfighters to soak up a turbolaser barrage. Tarkin, whose ships had fired said barrage, considers it an acceptable use of the droids and would have done the same if his fighters hadn't been crewed by organics.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Ahsoka Tano (of The Clone Wars fame) first makes an appearance in a class Kyle is helping with, but she's still an Initiate, rather than the Padawan that we see her as in the series.
• Enemy Mine: Ventress, Jan, and eventually Padme team up to stop a smuggling ring on Mandalore. Jan and Ventress do it because they want to stop smuggling, Padme stumbles into the thick of it by sheer luck. Unfortunately, Padme (and eventually Obi-Wan) don't know about the Enemy Mine situation until after Obi-Wan walks into their suite and finds a Sith Assassin working with the senator he's supposed to be bodyguarding.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • In chapter 14, a Jedi training droid, having been designed for sparring with lightsabers, fails to register Kyle's blaster pistol as a weapon. This results in its head being blown off without it even trying to block the shot.
  • According to Kyle, the Jedi do this every time they meet the Chancellor. Not the Force stuff, but because the whole office is covered in discreet Sith iconography, even as simple as the coloration.
  • Ahsoka runs into one of the Iron Knights of Dweem, and thinks that it's a cleaning droid, not even trying to reach out with the Force to see the truth. To everyone's credit, the Knight decides to use this as a teaching moment and Ahsoka begins to try to find a way to apologize and be better in the future.
  • Padme doesn't realize that Ventress is a Sith until Obi Wan finds the two of them – with Jan – in their quarters and asks why a Sith is talking to the Senator.
• Frontline General: Played with by Tarkin, as during the fleet action he has no qualms about using his flagship to draw fire away from one of his other ships and give her time to recharge her shields. Given Tarkin's pragmatism, he then manouvers so his ship can recharge the shields.
• Had to Be Sharp: Jan and Kyle are implied to be this on the basis of living in a much more dangerous time than the Republic Era – which makes sense, as the galaxy they've lived through is recovering from the Clone Wars and the following Rebellion, not to mention all the various Warlords and such that started making waves as the central government was destabilized in the wake of Palpatine's death. By contrast, prior to the start of the Clone Wars, the only real armed conflicts that the Republic had engaged in was the Stark Hyperspace War (which in text is described more as a police action) and the Trade Federation Occupation of Naboo, which was over in less than a month. Other than that, they've had about roughly a thousand years of peace with only occasional flare-ups of violence.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Palpatine receives the coordinates to where the EMP guns are being made, so in his Sidious persona, he passes it on to Dooku and assumes that's the end of it. The problem is that this operation was a setup – there were multiple coordinates that were passed around for where the factory was, on different sites and worlds... and only the one that Palpatine knew about was attacked, which implicates him and his office as being a source of leaked information. He gets out of it, but it is a close call.
• Hope Spot: Anakin has a brief one, when he realizes that Kyle and Jan's marriage is completely normal for them, and begs them to tell him how to keep both his Jedi career and his wife. They have to gently explain to him that yes, Kyle is considered a Jedi, but only by technicality, and his title as "Knight-Errant" reflects that. As far as the Council will admit, he is an extreme outlier and not a viable path for a Jedi. The best advice they can give him is that eventually, either his Jedi career or his marriage will end, and the most he can do is choose in advance and make the most of himself as long as he has both, but have a choice ready for when the break comes so he is ready for it.
• Innocently Insensitive: Kyle suggests that if the Jedi want to learn how to fight, they hire a Mandalorian. When he comes from, the only Mandalorians he knows are of the classic "Warrior" type, who live up to the Proud Warrior Race Guy archetype. Master Windu, however, knows that the Mandalorians of his time have largely given up fighting, and thinks that Kyle is claiming that even total pacifists could fight better than the Jedi at this point.
• Insistent Terminology: Kyle is constantly called "Master" by other Force-users who can sense his power. He repeatedly tells them to just call him "Kyle". They never do.
  • Because they were programmed and trained the way they were, Clone Troopers always refer to Jedi as "General".
• Internal Reveal: Anakin, after finding out that Jan and Kyle are romantically involved with one another, spills the beans that he's married. The point is that he wants to find out how Kyle and Jan are both married and a Jedi, so that he can do it too! The two have to break it to him gently that while they're not judging him for the marriage- they're supportive, actually- they can't help him like that. They do say that they'll help him deal with the burden, though.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Tarkin is, to not put too fine a point on it, somewhat of a jerk with a very narrow field of vision. He believes that military service is paramount and that precision and service are necessary to win the war. While he could be a bit more diplomatic, not only is Anakin shown being better for being under Tarkin's command, but when one looks at the Admiralty Board of the Republic, it's not hard to see *why* he's so disdainful of fools and incompetents.
• Jumped at the Call: Anakin's choice to join Tarkin's fleet is this, though he knows that he will be called to task by the Jedi High Council when he returns.
  • Played with when the Jedi initially leap to be made generals and commanders of the Grand Army of the Republic, only to get talked out of it by Kyle.
• Master of None: The Acclamator and the Venator are called out as this, having been designed on paper to perform multiple jobs and not really excelling at any.
• Mentor Archetype: Anakin has two: his canonical one in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Tarkin while he's part of Tarkin's task force.
• Mole in Charge: Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Kyle and Jan have tried to flush him out via a sting operation, but he's managed to evade most of the suspicion. Dealing with him is a long-term plan of theirs.
• More Dakka: Jan, Kyle, and the Jedi Order all agree that if you aren't Force-capable and are trying to kill a Force-user, drowning them in volume of fire is one of the better ways to do it. Jan and Kyle know this from experience over the decades, while the Jedi learned this lesson on Geonosis when 200 Jedi in the arena were cut down to about two dozen through blasters alone.
• Muggle Power: Kyle says that the biggest failing of the Jedi and the Sith is that both of them underestimate the strength of those who can't use the Force.
  • Out of the group that stopped the Dark Acolytes on Garramond, only two out of the seven had Force abilities. The rest managed to hold off a horde of Dark Jedi with their wits and weapons.
  • Jan and Ventress team up on Mandalore to stop smugglers hurting both the Republic and the CIS. Ventress is forced to, in some situations, rely on Jan as while her powers are great, she's not that experienced in actual spy and investigation work.
• Negative Space Wedgie: Kyle and Jan are thrown into the past after a hyperdrive malfunction.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: Averted, since Kyle visits his childhood home and holds the timeline's native Kyle with no negative effects.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Anakin gets subjected to this on his return from Tarkin's mission. While his reasoning was good, was well-within the goals that the Council is trying to accomplish, and got a letter of recommendation and personal words of support from Tarkin, he still left his post without telling anyone and technically went against the wishes of the Council. As a result, they have him be the one to work with the other Jedi sects while Kyle is out.
• Not So Above It All: Dooku muses idly that the newly-freed senators in the Senate of the Confederacy were gleefully passing bills that continuously got caught up in committee or were ignored by their counterparts on Coruscant. Dooku thinks that they are fools... but then admits to himself that he enjoys working with them to get those same bills passed.
• Oh, Crap!: Anakin is briefly furious at Kyle and Jan, thinking they are mocking him by flaunting their union... and then he realizes that, as far as they know, it is perfectly normal, and he is the one not only making a scene, he's just revealed he's married as well.
• Omniscient Morality License: The Jedi get theirs revoked fairly early on. A recurring subplot is that the Jedi, for all their wisdom and skill, don't know certain things and are just as responsible and answerable to the people as everyone else is. Some take to this lesson better than others.
  • Mace learns swiftly how this can turn out on the mission to Garamost that he invited himself on. Not only did his presence not help as much as he thought, his presumption gets him in hot water with the Council and Republic Intelligence (for inviting himself on a classified mission and for taking a prisoner that he refuses to let RI interrogate (as said prisoner is a Jedi who fell to the dark side)).
  • One of the Empire's big lessons taught in its schools were about the failures of the Jedi in the Clone Wars – specifically, because they treated the Clone Wars like they were an extension of normal events, they made major military blunders early on since they didn't know how to conduct a war properly.
  • This is further deconstructed when Tarkin meets the Admiralty Board- the view of Jedi as superior in every way (and thus of course they would lead armies) is so pervasive that the rest of the galaxy is left scrambling when the Jedi refuse to become leaders of armies and fleets.
• Pass Through the Rings: Anakin briefly encounters this in a training simulator as a Shout-Out to TIE Fighter. Amusingly, thanks to the Force he actually has negative reaction times (as in, reacting before the Simulator brings obstacles up).
• Patchwork Fic: The author has stated that he's taking information and plot points from both Legends and Canon with regard to the events both before and during the Clone Wars, as well as characterization.
• Ramming Always Works: Tarkin loses his ship when General Grievous uses a Zerg Rush of fighters to cover his escape by setting them on a collision course.

• Reasonable Authority Figure: More than a few:
  • Upon taking Jan in her service as an agent, Mon Mothma makes sure to use her future knowledge at its best and doesn't ask any excessive service from her.
  • As much as what he believes is Mon Mothma's initiatives irritate him, Armand Isard has no problem collaborating with her as soon as he's made aware of it, and during the sting operation has no problem with the locals' request that the factory for the DEMP weapons will be set up away from cities.
  • Tarkin, of all people, demonstrates himself one, asking and praising his men's sincere opinions, rewarding skills and initiative as long as it's within the boundaries of military discipline, refusing to use fighters as shields for his ships or ramming attacks because they're crewed by organics and not non-sentient droids, and, once he's injured when his ship is shot down, refusing treatment because there's only so many bacta tanks and medical beds and his injuries are quite light and he doesn't mind the scars.
  • Even more unlikely than Tarkin, Grievous is one... With his organic crews and the expensive warships, as he uses quite cavalierly expendable droid starfighters as both shields and improvised missiles to preserve his ships.
• Refusal of the Call: Played with. Thanks to some advice from Kyle, the Jedi decide to not become generals and admirals of the Clone Army in this story, under the justification that they are not at all suited for the position. They do promise to assist in the war effort however they can in areas to which they are more suited, such as advisors, special forces, pilots, medics, diplomats, etc.
• Resigned to the Call: Before traveling into the past, the couple had intended to go on vacation. However, after realizing that they were now at the start of the Clone Wars, they realized they couldn't sit idly by.
• Running Both Sides: Palpatine, of course, is running both sides of the Separatist conflict.
• Running Gag: Kyle repeatedly insists, "Don't call me Captain/Master/[Insert title here]." No one ever does.
• Shout-Out: A rabblerouser cribs heavily from the speech in The Great Dictator in chapter 40.
  • Aside from the ships named for in-universe people and places, or have cannon names, all the Republic ships are named for ships from FreeSpace. Including the ship Anakin was deployed on - the Sathanas.
• Time Travel: Kyle and Jan travel to the start of the Clone Wars. Jan even gives it a Lampshade Hanging about how unlikely it is at the same time as explaining how they will avoid Temporal Paradox in their actions.
• Values Dissonance: In-Universe, this causes more than a few problems for Kyle's efforts to bring together various Jedi Sects that have split from the Coruscant Temple. Much weight is put on how different he is from the "normal" Jedi, from the version of the Jedi Code he uses to the fact that he's quite clearly in a relationship with Jan. Kyle finds them equally bizarre, and more than once he's had problems trying to figure out how to approach various Sects that are more objectionable to the current Order, with the best example being the Jensaari, who incorporate the Dark Side into their teachings.
  • Part of the problem is not just that Kyle is from years in the future, but that he comes from a time where the only Jedi knowledge left is fragmented, hard to come by, and much of what was was lost in the Jedi Purges. Many of the New Jedi Order's doctrine and skills came from necessity, rather than rely on tradition or resources. For example, in the New Jedi Order, marriage and taking mates is allowed, on the basis that many of those who Luke contacted were already married and it would be wrong to split them up.
  • Another issue of Necessity is that, since Palpatine wanted to eradicate all non-Sith force users, the New Jedi Order are forced to rely on anything they could find relating to Force training. That means that the half-completed training Luke got from Yoda are supplemented by Dathomiri magics and Corran Horn's Green Jedi upbringing, for example.
• We Have Reserves: Separatist Droid fighters throw themselves into the turbolaser blasts coming from Tarkin's fleet in Chapter 37 to prevent them from killing a Separatist ship. Grievous is eventually called to task for that by Dooku, but he does make his own case for why he did it.
• We Will Wear Armor in the Future: The Jedi start rebuilding their old armors, and the High Council decides it'll be standard issue as soon as they have made them.
• Weaksauce Weakness:
  • The armies of the CIS are droids. Implacable, able to operate in vacuum, tireless... Too bad that Kyle has a directed EMP gun that he just turned over to the Republic for reverse-engineering.
  • The Jedi's empathic abilities are a great strength... Except that in battle against the droid armies, the only thing they'll be able to feel in the Force is the deaths of their friends and allies.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Both Obi-Wan and Cin Drallig react very negatively to Kyle using a blaster in his trial of combat against droids. Kyle rebuts that not only was it not specified that he was only supposed to use lightsabers, only implied as such, but that it was a test of his combat skills, and that a lightsaber and a blaster are simply tools to be used for combat.
  • Obi-Wan has a brief one when he finds Ventress working together – and in the same suite as – Padme Amidala.
  • Padme delivers one to the Senate about how they're "throwing tantrums" about the Jedi not stepping up as generals and admirals. It works so well that Palpatine muses that she must have some form of Force ability related to throwing wrenches in his plans.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Kyle decides to try this option in a training test against lightsaber-equipped droids. When the droid doesn't even try to defend itself and is reduced to smoking scrap, he promises to not do that again. This highlights the difference between Kyle, a Combat Pragmatist, and the other Jedi, who are offended that a Force user will stoop to using a blaster.
• You Didn't Ask: The way that Kyle characterizes the New Jedi Order is thus. They don't hide the fact that they're Jedi, and will tell people that they are when asked. It's just that these Jedi consider themselves as people first before they're Jedi, instead of being "just" a Jedi.
• Young Future Famous People: In-universe. As someone who lived through the Galactic Civil War thrown into the start of the Clone Wars, Kyle ends up meeting more than few people who fits this.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Kyle has this reaction when he realizes that Tarkin (as in "I blew up Alderaan to make a point" Tarkin) approves of his presence and questions at the Jedi Council meeting. He openly wonders how long he'd have to bathe in lava to make the feeling go away.