The Tragedy of Qui-Gon's Death & Anakin Skywalker Analysis

And how this and the death of his mother led him down the wrong path

Qui-Gon Jinn is a complicated character, on whom I’ve explored at great length, and one whom I’ve delved into the backstory of in relation to the movie. But he’s one who has one of the best death scenes in Star Wars history.

Where some such as Mace Windu hardly got a decent one, Palpatine had a well-deserved one and others such as Yoda had a quiet one, with Malak’s being pitiable (for the gamer crowd), the truth is Jinn’s was pretty good and pretty tragic.

Where his Master would spend his last moments begging if only with his eyes, Jinn for his part in the novel version of the movie, is expecting to an extent his own demise as the battle continues to rage on, and he begins to lag behind.

Qui-Gon is nearing 60 you see, and is not in as good shape as say Obi-Wan or Maul, and so struggles to keep up with them.

There’s no shame in that, or in how he has a deeper understanding of the Force though. Bear in mind he has discovered the secret of the Shaman of the Whills, though he has yet to perfect the technique but he will within a few years of crossing over to paradise.

It so happens that this old man is taken off-guard by Maul’s sneaky assault as the Sith Lord strikes him with the hilt in what is one of the cleverest attacks in Star Wars history. There can be no words to describe just how surprised I was when I first saw this move in theatres, it was so clever, so fierce that a part of me respected Maul even back then.

We French love to win, and dirty tricks are ones we can respect half the time (I say half because we detest them being used on us). It so happens that Obi-Wan had a different sentiment than I did though towards this move.

Flying into a rage, he strikes at Maul with an unmatched ferocity and then proceeds to be cast down into a pit, before he pulls himself out of it to strike Maul dead with Jinn’s sword.

Now I get into this moment because it is important, as it will be the defining moment of Anakin Skywalker & Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lives.

You see Qui-Gon was to do something which my eldest brother Chris always felt was kind of manipulative and cruel, but which I think I can somewhat sympathise with; with his last words he was to beg for Obi-Wan to train Anakin.

At that moment Obi-Wan was faced with a stark choice; to refuse and disappoint his father in his last moments, or to go along with it. The fact that Obi-Wan did not like this idea, and was disapproving towards Anakin, and felt that they had wronged him in some way by tearing him from his mother, and that there was a darkness in the youth did not factor in.

So that for this reason Obi-Wan was to give his word, and promise to train the boy. This is where my oldest brother always felt rather cynical about this moment, whereas I was always fairly on the fence.

Obi-Wan should have some say, but that was torn from him. Regardless of his disapproval he was forced to if only for his Master’s sake, agree to train Anakin.

This can’t have been easy, and yet he still gave it his all and in time came to love Anakin as a father should his own son.