PT The Phantom Menace should have centered around Obi-wan ??

First off I just wanted to say that it's my personal opinion that Ewan did a great job portraying Obi-Wan, as after Alec Guiness' performance as Obi-Wan in the OT it wouldn't be very hard-nor would it be a strike against you-to fall into the huge shadow cast by this actor's presence as the character...

That said, I think that the PT was mostly about Obi-Wan in many ways. Throughout Phantom Menace he was always shown as annoyed with Qui-Gon's taking Anakin under his wing, and he was always quoted as being against Qui-Gon's methods which they showed time and time again...then he killed Darth Maul during a battle in which the entire time he was shown trying to keep up with Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn.

Same goes for Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, in my opinion, as he was featured primarily the entire time whether or not he was with Anakin...
Oh and also he was featured in the major climactic fight scenes in all three movies...

I truly feel that the entire franchise could have only benefited with more Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul, though...

 

TPM is very much about Obi-Wan, but essentially the film is dominated by the power of Qui-Gon and Padme's characters.

 

In fairness to Obi-Wan, he said that solely in reply to Qui-Gon saying he had to return to take care of some "unfinished business." He didn't know it was Anakin. If anything, that was more of a dig at Jar Jar since if this "unfinished business" is "another pathetic life form" then Jar Jar is most assuredly the first one.
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which makes Obi-Wan a bit of an *** then doesn't it?

I mean if Palpatine or Dooku said such a thing, it would be boooo hissss

 

Obiwan gets very little screen time in the movie, especially when they goto Tatooine. The first half of the movie is essentially about following Padme, QuiGon and Jar Jar as they meet Anakin and they eventually are able to leave Tatooine after the pod race. So we miss the whole Anakin/Obiwan dynamic for 1/3 of the trilogy! That was the movie to show them as good friends as you could have had them together the whole movie, and that would have made the fight on Mustafar that much more tragic. Most of AOTC and ROTS they are split up, and Anakin started creeping towards the dark side, so we only got small glimpses of their friendship at the beginning of both of those movies.

 

In this case, they're the same. TPM came from the mind of GL. As the creator, it was his place to decide what should happen and he happened to want Qui-Gon to take the lead. Ergo, what does happen is what should happen.





- I will not fight you.
- You will try!
/LM

 

You could call Ep. 1 "Star Wars: Qui-Gon's Big Adventure" and it would be a perfectly valid title. Odd, yes, but valid. He is the main character of the movie. The person who gets the story moving is Padme but it's like how Ep. 4 is about Luke Skywalker but the person who gets the story moving is Leia. As for Obi-Wan in Ep. 1, he's a supporting character and the twist (which, uh, is not a twist at all since it's a prequel) is that Qui-Gon dies and then he has to pick up the slack.

 

Of course they are...even formal logic must make exceptions* and 'step aside' for Lucas/SW.

* "in this case", ......

Right ..."cult of the auteur" - basically auteur-theory taken to an extreme level. It's only a step a way from "only the AUTEUR has good story ideas!!!"



- "This deal is getting worse all the time!!!"

 

No, for me Qui-Gon is essential to the trilogy even with his absence from II and III. In places like the "dreams pass in time" conversation I can't help but imagine Qui-Gon being there to steer both Anakin and the order itself away from stagnation. The fact that he's not there is one more effective degree of the moral and emotional hollowness that afflicts the galaxy and paves a way for a less shadowed form of tyranny to reign. And in terms of the six part saga, I like the harmony of the book end films respectively showing the death and knighting of a key Jedi.

 

Formal logic? I am thinking logically. This has nothing to do with auteurs. It's just common sense: The creator is in charge of his/her creation. Noone else is in a position to say "This is how it should be", because the creator's words are law. There are lots of good ideas out there, but the only ones that should be part of a creation are the ones that the creator chooses to include.
Now, if StarWars2015 had written "I would have preferred it/It would have been better if The Phantom Menace had centered around Obi-Wan", then I'd have had no reason to disagree. Everyone's entitled to their opinions.





- Have you ever considered that we may be on the wrong side?
- You rebel scum!
/LM

 

This. Qui-Gon's absence definitely leaves something missing, not just for Obi-Wan, but for Anakin. Obi-Wan is not Anakin's "father figure" in TPM; had he been then, things might have been different, yes, but Obi-Wan also needed some background so we see how he became such a "by the book" Jedi. This contrasts with Qui-Gon's style, and foreshadows Anakin's later issues.

"i.e. "The boy is dangerous." Yet he still believes in Qui-Gon enough to train Anakin despite his better judgment.

 

Strange that they Sensed Danger in Anakins Training, but allowed his to be trained anyway............

Theres a lot about the prequels tha could have simply been done BETTER !!!!

 

As an OT fan I would've enjoyed the story of Obiwan. I felt that Qui Gon was forced into the story a bit and dilutes the Obiwan / Anakin aspect. Obiwan becomes the fill in. Seemed to me that GL wanted to use Qui Gon to include some kind of opposing / renegade Jedi philosophy but didn't really develop it and then threw it back in at the end as the force ghost explanation. Rather then building on what we knew it rather diminished it.

 

The original scripts had Obi Wan Kenobi playing the role of Qui Gon without any sort of sidekick. Adding Qui Gon does a few things that are quite beneficial.

The most visual baddie, Maul, gets to kill something which defines that he is deadly and elevates Obi Wan since he then overcomes that same bad guy.

GL was looking to introduce a theme of symbiosis throughout the films and one of those means of presentation is the master/padawan relationship.

Obi Wan gains a greater character advancement starting out as a padawan rather than a Master.

 

Obi-Wan and Anakin interacted for what, 20 seconds max (if that) in TPM? No. Just no. Biggest dropped plot point in the PT. I love Qui-Gon and all but Obi-Wan should have found Anakin and got the friendship going then than the mess we got in AOTC.

 

I agree with this. That way it could have been a interesting point for their relationship, on the one hand he did release him of slavery, but on the other hand Anakin could have blamed Obi-Wan for the demise of his mother, making it more of an unstable and difficult relationship.

 

He was going to be trained regardless of what the council said. "I gave Qui-Gon my word."

 

Also Obi-wan starting out as a padawan is very important to the character growth of Anakin/Vader. I would Imagine that as he got older Anakin was probably thinking things would be alot different even better if Qui-Gon had been alive or trained him. Starting Obi-wan out as an Apprentice also allows for a more brotherly relationship than a father/son one for Obi-wan and Anakin.

 

Cutting out Qui-Gon from TPM would be as nonsensical as cutting out Ob-Wan from ANH.

 

First, you don't need to cut him out of the film.
Either have what the first draft had, Obi-Wan is a knight and is sent alone to Naboo and Qui-Gon gets added to the story once they get back to Coruscant. He still dies at the hands of Maul. Or, have Obi-Wan as fresh Knight, sent on a mission with an older Jedi, Qui-Gon. Then have Obi-Wan be more active on Tatooine, meet Anakin, want to train him and so on.

Second, Obi-Wan in the OT has a far bigger role than Qui-Gon had in the PT. Unlike Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan appears in the next two films and contributes to the story and character growth of Luke.

To me, Qui-Gon dominated TPM to the point where most of the other characters didn't interact much with each other but only with him.
There was very little Anakin/Obi-Wan interaction nor was there much Obi-Wan/Padme interaction. Since many characters mostly interacted with him, after his death, all that character work went nowhere. Also his character was the one who got the most development and since he is in only one film, that is a bit of a waste. That time could have been better spent elsewhere.
To this day, I think this is a flaw with the film. You could still have Qui-Gon and kill him the same way but with Obi-Wan having more to do and be more active. The Anakin/Obi-Wan relationship is one of the most crucial ones in the PT and this meant that it got only two films instead or three and it wound up rushed and less effective in my view.

Bye for now.
Blackboard Monitor

 

They could have also had Qui-Gon as a master on the council and Obi-Wan could have been by himself up until the first fight with Maul. Then Qui-Gon could have been sent with Obi-Wan to help him investigate this new well trained, skillful and quiet dark character.

That way Obi-Wan could have indeed been the one that found Anakin, and it would also have given a reason for the Jedi to come to the conclusion of Maul being a Sith and that the Sith had returned.

 

The only thing I feel is missing from the Qui-Gon story, is having his Force ghost appear to Yoda (or even Obi-Wan) in Episode III.

But we all know why that didn't happen.

 

NO WE DONT..........WHY DID THAT NOT HAPPEN ??

 

He had a motorcycle accident.

 

Did you watch the Tatooine scenes? You know, the really important ones where they discover Anakin? The OP is about Obi-Wan kind of being omitted from this section of the movie, which is like 50 minutes long at least. And considering how Obi-Wan's future home IS Tatooine, you would think he would have discovered the planet himself and gotten to know it in the first film. He suggests going there, but doesn't leave the damn ship. Boring..

 

yeah yeah yeah, granted.

he also takes up his master's mantle and kills maul later in the same movie. that's undeniably dynamic.

EDIT: Oh right, castrates maul. my bad. even cooler imho