Saga Anakin's training....why OB1?

Ok, OB1 out of loyalty to Qui-gon is determined to train Anakin(in ANH he says he thought he could do a better job, anyhoo). Of course the council reluctantly agrees to let Anakin b trained.

But why did they let OB1 train him? He was still a Padawan. Barely out of his training, & even if Qui-Gon thought he was ready for the trials, that didn't mean he was ready to teach someone.

So, why didn't the Council then say, ok, Anakin will b trained, but we will have a more experienced Knight or Master train him.

 

I'm baffled by this too. I'm of the opinion that, story-wise, Obi-Wan should have been the one to discover Anakin and insist on training him. Also, Obi-Wan should have been a Knight (or possibly Master) from the start. It would have fit better with the theme of Obi-Wan's personal failure for him to take on Anakin's training against the council's wishes, only to eventually lose his apprentice to the dark side.

 

No. Due to his feats, he became a Knight. And they've let him train Anakin because he could, and to honor Qui-Gon's dying wish.

 

Obi-Wan Kenobi was one of a select few who had killed a Sith Lord.

If Anakin will destroy the Sith, shouldn't he be trained by one who experienced combat against a fully fledged Sith Lord?

 

Not necessarily. He may have had some skill but that doesn't mean he was ready to teach. There is a guy where I used to work that was very good on the job. A LOT of knowledge. Knew the job specs & computer systems inside & out. Yet he was a lousy teacher. Very knitpicky, just could not teach well.

I think this was the case with OB1 & Anakin. I think he wasn't ready to teach yet. He needed more exp. just bc he killed a Sith Lord doesn't mean he's ready to mentor someone.

 

I'm baffled by this too. I'm of the opinion that, story-wise, Obi-Wan should have been the one to discover Anakin and insist on training him. Also, Obi-Wan should have been a Knight (or possibly Master) from the start. It would have fit better with the theme of Obi-Wan's personal failure for him to take on Anakin's training against the council's wishes, only to eventually lose his apprentice to the dark side.


I don't see how allowing Obi-Wan to be the one who discovered Anakin would improve the story. Especially since he was the one who ended training Anakin, anyway. But the hint of some bad feeling between the two, due to their connection to Qui-Gon made their story a lot more interesting to me.

And Obi-Wan never claimed that he had discovered Anakin.

Although the Jedi Council finally decided to admit Anakin into the Order, after his actions during the Battle of Naboo; I suspect they were still leery about dealing with him personally. He was simply too different. Which is probably why they stupidly allow Obi-Wan to become his Jedi master.

Why not accept the Jedi's decision as one of several bad ones they made, instead of trying to re-work the story in order to make them look good or near perfect?

 

If not Qui-Gon, who would be a better candidate than Obi-Wan?

 

If they'd been extinct for a "millenia", surely he'd be the only one

 

Or so everyone thought.

 

If you're ready to become a Knight, then you're also ready to pass on what you have learned. That's part of what Jedi Knighthood is about.
Obi-Wan may have chosen to train Anakin out of obligation to Qui-Gon, but that doesn't make him less capable. He did train Anakin to Knighthood, after all. He may not have done a perfect job with it, but I believe that most Jedi Masters would've found Anakin to be quite a handful (and Darth Vader did not happen because of his training. Anakin knew exactly what he was doing when he joined Sidious. It was his choice alone and he made it out of greed. A greed that very few Jedi would've been able to train out of him).





Knights - they pass things on
/LM

 

I agree that the Council wanted to keep their distance, but I don't think it was stupid to allow Obi-wan to train him. For one, he was capable. He is strong and wise. He helped settle the conflict at Naboo and defeated a Sith Lord on his own. They also sent Obi-wan to find and fight Grievous when it has been suggested that Mace Windu was the strongest fighter, and Dooku mentions how Yoda always "spoke very highly" of him. Clearly, his competence is not an issue. He was as star pupil Second, this was the first act of "defiance" that Obi-wan had displayed. He followed the will of the Council even when it meant contradicting his master. Anakin would be well versed in Jedi doctrine under Obi-wan, as we see, and the Council could easily monitor and control his training. Also, he may have simply insisted that he be the one to train the boy.

Third, and most importantly, Obi-wan said he trained Anakin in the original trilogy.

@MrFantastic: Before I watched TPM, if you had told me that Obi-wan wasn't going to be the one who discovered Anakin, I would have thought it made no sense and been in complete agreement with you. Since seeing the film, however, Qui-gon adds so much to the saga thematically that now I couldn't imagine it playing out any other way.

 

Here's a question, would anyone else have done any better? Would Yoda have been a better master for Anakin? Consider this. We've seen Yoda train a Jedi. He trained Luke and Luke had as much of an emotional attachment to someone as Anakin did and like Anakin, Luke couldn't let go of those attachments. He ran off to Cloud City to save his friends in spite of Yoda's warnings. Yes, Luke ultimately passed his final test by throwing down his lightsaber, but it was his attachment to his father, his compassion that won the day and even then, it wasn't his compassion that prevented Luke from turning to the Dark Side. It was realising that he was turning into what his father had become.

So imagine that Yoda trained Anakin for 10 years and one day, Anakin comes across a girl he's thought about all that time. More than that, he senses that his mother is in pain. If Yoda and Anakin stuck together, perhaps Anakin wouldn't have gone to Tatooine, but if Yoda played the Obi-Wan role and went to Kamino, leaving Anakin alone, would anything Yoda had said in the previous 10 years have stopped Anakin from going to his mother? Obi-Wan would have said pretty much the exact same things.

Ultimately there's only so much you can do. You can pass on knowledge, you can teach the Jedi Code but it doesn't matter if you're Obi-Wan or Yoda or Mace Windu or Qui-Gon Jinn. The student has to make decisions for himself.

 

Exactly my point.





Vader - he was Anakin's choice
/LM

 

I agree somewhat. I feel that the void of Qui-Gon's death created this permanent sense of distance between the two, no matter how close they got.

Anakin would say "Obi-Wan and the council don't trust me."

Obi-Wan did, the council didn't. The void could not be repaired.

I feel Anakin would be more open about Padme and his mother to Qui-Gon. That would ease the whole trust issue between Anakin and his master.

 

The fact that Anakin is the only Jedi that Yoda did NOT train throughout his 8-century career is the reason why Anakin fell hard to the Dark Side. If Anakin had been trained and mentored by Yoda like Luke was, then Anakin would never have any reason to go to PalpSidious for support and his corrupting influence. I know someone is going to bring up Yoda's training of Dooku but let me say that the reason he fell to the Dark Side is due to his attachment to Qui-Gon Jinn. His death hit Dooku so hard that he blamed the Jedi not only for sending Qui-Gon to his death but for being ignorant as to dismiss both the corruption in the senate and Qui-Gon's claim that the Sith are back. Yoda's training of Luke may have hit a few bumps but it was successful nonetheless so he could've been successful with Anakin as well if he had the chance.

 

Since Anakin went to Yoda for help instead of Obi-wan in ROTS, that showed that Yoda could've made a difference with Anakin's training. Even though Anakin didn't like what Yoda had to say, he still went to him for help.

 

I think other sources had previously explored this, so I suppose Luceno was just being consistent with those sources.

 

You know this is a good point qhy would Obi-Wan train Anakin when Obi himself was still young. My guess is that the Council didn't really want anything to do with Anakin so they gave him to Obi-Wan since he was willing to train him.

 

The movie doesn't really support the novelization since it showed Anakin telling Padme flat out that he didn't need Obi-wan's help. Furthermore, Luke didn't like what Yoda had to say either especially when it came to the whole "leave your friends to die" part but that didn't cause Luke to seek guidance from a Sith Lord. That's the main difference between Luke and Anakin which is that PalpSidious wasn't around to influence Luke like he was with Anakin.

 

Anakin is most likely conflicted over if he wants Obi-wan to help him or not. They may be on good terms with each other but Anakin hasn't forgotten how Obi-wan helped him the last time with his previous premonition of Shmi. Then, as you pointed out, Palpatine interfered and convinced Anakin to never trust Obi-wan or any other Jedi.

 

Yoda hardly did a stellar job with Luke. The kid almost blew everything, in spite of everything he'd learned. Clearly, something was missing in Yoda's method of teaching.





Kids - they blow things
/LM