Saga Anakin Skywalker - Character Discussion...among other things.

Two things...

While the way Shmi gets left in slavery never sat well with me, I think it is important to remember that Shmi doesn't die a slave, and doesn't die because she is in slavery. She was free, living as a free woman, and was killed. Her death was a lot like that of someone in the American West who got killed in a raid by Native Americans in one of the many conflicts between the two groups. You can argue that it would have been wiser for the Jedi to relocate her to somewhere safer (assuming she'd have gone for that), where her coming "to a bad end" was less likely, to put Anakin's mind at ease, but Shmi definitely did NOT die because "the Jedi left her in slavery". I also feel obliged to repeat that when we judge Anakin's reaction to that death, it should be remembered that Anakin isn't just "some guy" at that point. Despite years of Jedi training, he STILL goes on a murderous vengeful rampage that includes murdering women and children. That's troubling, or should be. And it DOES trouble Anakin - he KNOWS it is wrong, and a dangerous sign (oddly, it is Padme who rationalizes it!). Note too that Anakin never shares this with the Jedi. He doesn't say "Oh wow, something is REALLY wrong here, I better tell Obi-Wan or Yoda about this". He conceals it. He does that to protect his interests.

Another thing when giving the Jedi "the blame" for Anakin is we need to remember that however weird we may find the Jedi philosophy, it apparently worked for dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? More? I don't know that we've ever gotten a definitive count of the total number of Jedi, although I have seen some estimates that put the number at about 10K at the time of Order 66 (based on around 1% surviving, and that equating to about 100 Jedi). If the Jedi were around for many years - centuries? - then an awful lot of Jedi came through the training. That doesn't mean they handled Anakin perfectly or even well; every case is different. BUT those criticizing the Jedi most harshly, and especially those blaming them for "how Anakin turned out", tend to act as if the Jedi precepts are so weird and so wrong that no one could be expected to turn out well while living under them. Yeah, except that the vast vast vast majority of Jedi apparently DID turn out just fine, and in fact, turned out to be pretty heroic, selfless, giving individuals. I've read that only 20 left the order (not sure over how many years) - not sure how many were ever "expelled". My point is only that, in universe, the Jedi approach is pretty overwhelmingly successful. (Its a different question whether the Jedi philosophy has any useful lessons for those of us living in THIS universe!).

 

We've all already treaded over the Anakin sand-people thing and I've already explained by take (that I get that the lore intends Anakin to be regretful, but my issue has always been that I don't think the film coveys that), so I'll just let that be.

The twenty number refers to Jedi Masters who left (apparently voluntarily). The only two that are named are Dooku and Trennis (who may or may not end up being Keeve Trennis). In Legends Darth Ruin was another.

But yeah, your right; the system clearly worked - Anakin isn't even an example of it failing, but rather an example that reinforces the principle behind it; he fell because he decided to treat the rules as if they didn't have to apply to him and ended up getting in a position were he was emotionally compromised and able to be manipulated via his emotional connection to Padme.

 

To be as fair as I can be - while I am a big fan of the Jedi, I don't for a moment argue that they are flawless or that they handled the Anakin situation perfectly. I just feel that in terms of balance - Ha! - over the years I have seen a sizeable portion of the fan base who come close to arguing that the SW movies are "the story of how those weird dumb Jedi screwed everything up". ;-)

That being said, I have to agree with you that, interestingly, the biggest possible on-screen support for the Jedi precepts is given via the central storyline of Anakin. Anakin's fears, his fear of pain and loss, his attachments-taken-too-far, his fear of losing his status as a Jedi, his fear of the pain he'd feel for losing Padme to death, take him down the dark path that leads to billions suffering. Yoda's assertion that “Fear is the path to the dark side … fear leads to anger … anger leads to hate … hate leads to suffering.” couldn't get a more direct validation than through the story of Anakin.

 

@SHAD0W-JEDI retroactively I've actually always assumed Yoda had Anakin in mind when he told Luke that.

 

My point is the perception you can’t contact your family makes you then secretly do so, like Dooku, and then more secrets which feed the dark side.

I am aware Freud named the complex after the Theban play, my point is I wasn’t referencing his exegesis on it, I was referencing what happened in the play.

 

Some comments,

Yes Shmi was freed and lived as a free woman for some time and died, not as a result of being a slave.
BUT, Anakin did not know she had been freed.
He missed her and worried about her. Part of that worry was tied to her being a slave on a world run by gangsters.
Had he known she had been freed and lived a good life, I think it would have eased his mind.
Anakin spent ten years worrying about her, fretting about his promise to come back and free her.
And then he got bad dreams about her to the point that he was not sleeping properly.

Imagine that you had a member of your family or close friend just vanish. You have no idea where they are, if they are alive or dead. So you worry, you fret and it eats away at you. This person might be alive and well but if you don't know that, that won't impact your thinking.

That the Jedi apparently could not see this or saw no reason to do anything about it, I think does not reflect well on them. They had never known their parents so had no idea what it felt like to be loved by a parent or love them in return. They had been raised in a controlled environment, where any overt display of affection was frowned upon.

As for how well these rules worked. I am no big reader of the EU but from what I've gathered, which might not be canon anymore, these strict rules were a fairly recent thing for the Jedi. Put in place about 1000 years ago. Prior to that and for most of the Jedi Order's existence, Jedi were allowed to marry and have families. But of those that did choose that, some but far from all, turned to the dark side. So it was decided that this was an unacceptable risk and all such things were banned. I think but could be wrong that this was also the time when they started this "Train from essentially birth and remove the child from their parents." thing. Which is another sticking point for me. It removes the choice from the Jedi to be. They are taken when they are very young, far too young to make any kind of adult choice. Yes they can leave but if you are 15 and 14 of those years have been spent with the Jedi and you have no memory of your parents or even know anything about them. How easy would it be to turn your back on all that you have known?

Also, Dooku and if Lucas is to be believed, Sifo-Dyas, both turned to the Dark side. And these were both Jedi masters that had been raised with this no-attachment rule and yet Palpatine was able to turn them both.

The Jedi knew that Anakin was a special case, he had attachments that no other Jedi to be had.
Yet they saw no need to do anything special here. They also assigned a Jedi that had never trained a pupil before. Did they not think that Obi-Wan, being a total newbie when it comes to training Jedi, might need some help here? Esp given Anakin's troubles and him being the most important Jedi alive.
I do not think the Jedi can shirk all responsibility here.

@K2771991

To A), if they made an attempt but Shmi had been freed, why did they not tell Anakin?
To B) how would Watto connect this random stranger offering to buy Shmi with Qui-Gon?
Plus Watto had lost a lot on the bet and was in debt so he would not turn down a sweet deal that could turn things around for him.
In short, freeing Shmi would not be difficult for either the Jedi or Padme and if they never bothered, that does not speak well for them. If they made the attempt but Shmi had been freed, why not tell Anakin?
If they tried but Watto would not have it, which sounds odd as he did sell Shmi eventually, again tell Anakin. But the films total silence on this makes it look like neither the Jedi nor Padme ever thought of doing this.
Some EU, which might not be canon, had Qui-Gon send a Tobal lens to Shmi so she could but her own freedom. Nice and simple and showed that Qui-Gon did not stop caring about Shmi as soon as he got Anakin.

Buy for now.
Old Stoneface

 

At the time, I think he was against it. Presumably the Lars situation was years later. And, though this is just my personal perception, I think I remember getting the impression Watto sold her while he was in dire straights. Maybe it was just seeing him essentially living basically on the side of the road or something, but I felt like he was shown to be financially under the line.

That I remember, Bella isn't looking to die without Edward and neither is Padme in ROTS. I think Padme was going through a lot, including the pregnancy and stress and such. I think it's much more about the personal emotional framework of the situation around her, to me, in the context of the overall fiction of the story.

 

He was against wanting to sell Anakin. He even played a game of chance with four sides colored for Shmi and two for Anakin; but Qui-Gon cheated and won Anakin. Now, maybe you could claim that Watto would be against selling Shmi to Qui-Gon because Watto is upset, but Watto does sell Shmi to someone else so he's clearly not against selling her.

Watto invites Padme and Anakin inside to look through his records so he does still own a shop, he's just outside for some reason. (Let's be honest, there's a lot going on in that TPM set for Watto's shop. The crew already had to recreate the Lars homestead, there was no way they were gonna waste their time recreating that shop for one scene)

 

The only thing they can do is offer to buy Shmi - they (and the Republic) have no legal authority in Hutt Space to do anything other then that.

I think Legends had it be that they put the restrictions in place following the Great Sith War (so around 4000 years prior to ANH).

But Legends *also* had it be so that expectations were made under specific circumstances (like with Bastila and Revan and Kai-Adi Mundi). It also seems to be okay to just have kids, but not get married, since not only does Satele Shan never get outed from the Order after it's discovered she had a son, but she ends up being grand master.

I highly doubt Anakin is the first person in 25,000 years to enter the order with pre-existing attachments.

If TCW is any indication;
A) your first apprentice seems to be assigned to you after you reach knighthood.
And
B) other Jedi help you impart wisdom onto them (for instance Ashoka learns things from Yoda and Tera Sinube, Obi-Wan advises Anakin on training her from time-to-time and Plo Koon basically acts as Ashoka's secondary master.

Not to mention the Jedi didn't really have a choice with Obi-Wan training him; he basically forced it on them by going "I'm going to train him either way, no matter what you say".

A) I would assume if they did do that they would have told him, and it just never gets brought up because it's not important to the plot.
B) I doubt an official representative of the Jedi Order, on official business and operating with good-faith intentions, would go to conduct a business deal and conceal their identity from the person their doing business with.

IMO it's pretty easy to imagine that Watto might be willing to sell to Cliegg, who he has no bias against, but not the Jedi - not to mention he could have just cooled down in general by that time.

 

Wanted to share with fellow Anakin fans:

 

I have no idea. I was looking up Sith pics, specifically Sith masks and it came up.

 

Sure they could do more, when they have freed her they could offer her to leave the planet. I would imagine that Padme and Naboo would be more than happy to take Shmi in and give her a home.

I am mostly going on what people here have told me, that the strict "no-attachments" rule came about about 1000 years prior to TPM. After the fall of the Sith empire. Because of those Jedi that did marry and have kids, more of them turned to the dark side. So the rule came about to reduce the risk of turning.

But his attachments were severe enough to make the Jedi initially reject him. And I got the idea that the only reason they changed his mind is because the Sith were back and Anakin was the only one who could destroy them. So they needed him. Had he not been the chosen one, they would have sent him packing.

Again, based on what people here have said. Yoda trains every Jedi in the basics. That the first years of training is handled by Yoda. Like what we saw in AotC. Then when the Jedi-to-be gets older, then are they paired off with a Master.
So Yoda have trained every PT era Jedi in the basics of Force use, except Anakin.
Plus, if a Jedi knight is given a new pupil who is say 3 years old, that knight can't really leave the temple for quite a while.
Also, who says that there will be a pupil ready when a Knight graduates? The number of Jedi would vary.
Plus, if we have someone that has just graduated say High School and then goes back to teach High School. It happens but it is not really ideal. I would imagine that when a Jedi takes on their first apprentice, they have another, more experienced Master, as support. Someone who is there to help them.

They could say that Anakin will be trained but Yoda or some other older master will handle the basic stuff and Obi-Wan will take over when Anakin is a bit older. Or they could say that Obi-Wan will share the role of Master and others will aid and support him.
Anakin is the most important Jedi that lives and he has baggage that no other current Jedi have and Obi-Wan is a total rookie. Going the extra mile here make all the sense.

The film offers no indication that Anakin knew that Shmi had been freed. He goes to Watto who tells him that he sold Shmi years ago. If Anakin knew that already, why have those lines there?
The film instead suggest that Anakin went to Watto because he thought he still owned Shmi.

Only if that Jedi is Lawful Stupid. Jedi can lie and hide the truth. Obi-Wan played it cool on Kamino and never let on that he had not been sent there to check up on the army.
So since Tatooine is not part of the Republic and the Jedi would not want to ruffle the feathers of the Hutts, why would they go around openly saying "I AM A JEDI!! HERE TO BUY A SLAVE!!!"
Qui-Gon did not advertise what he was. He was not subtle with his use of the mind trick but was lucky that Watto dismissed it.
So any Jedi sent to Watto could just pretend to be some off-worlder looking to buy a slave. Or they could go and talk to Shmi and ask her the best way to accomplish this. In some EU, Qui-Gon sent her a tobal lens so that she could buy her own freedom. This is not difficult.

It is even easier to imagine that Watto, who was established a greedy and also established as having lost a lot on the race, that he will jump at the chance to make some money in selling Shmi.
It is much harder to imagine a Watto that will cling to his wounded pride to the point of going totally out of business.

Bye for now.
Blackboard Monitor

 

How can they offer to take her off the planet once she's been freed...without freeing her first?

They very clearly only allowed him to be trained because Obi-Wan wouldn't back down.

Why would Anakin need to go to Yoda's classes? The kids we see in those are super young; by all indications Anakin's level of maturity and ability to use/grasp the Force was already past the point of being a youngling.

Anakin's not a three-year old though.

There might not be, but that's not relevant because their very clearly was a pupil ready when Obi-Wan became a knight.

My point was that it doesn't seem uncommon for newly-minted knights to be given padawans.

And why are you assuming Obi-Wan did not have this?

Firstly (and again) we have no reason to think that Obi-Wan was given no assistance in training Anakin.

Secondly, Obi-Wan's lack of experience doesn't seem to have negatively affected his training of Anakin; he did a great job based on what we know - especially with someone as disobedient and willful as Anakin - and Anakin didn't even fall to the Dark Side until three whole years *after* he stopped being Obi-Wan's apprentice. So I'm not even seeing the issue here; Anakin clearly didn't need "special treatment" beyond that which a regular apprentice would have.

If the Jedi hypothetically offered to free Shmi and Watto refused, then obviously Anakin wouldn't think she had been freed and would believe Watto still owned her.

Obi-Wan didn't hide that he was a Jedi, though.

If a priest offers to buy my house and I say no, and then later the Collage of Cardinals sends another priest to try and convince me to sell, is it more likely that priest would show up in his cassock and collarino say "I'm Father Richard O'Reilly, I'm here on behalf of the Vatican to further discuss the matter of your house" or that he'd show up in a T-shirt and jeans with sunglasses going "Hey yo, my names Dick. I was just walking by and I gotta say, I like your house dude!"

Why would the Hutts care if a Jedi is buying a slave from a local junk dealer?

Obviously being a Jedi and walking around Hutt Space doing private business is not, in and off itself, an issue.

He didn't exactly hide who he was either.

I think your underestimating just how much spite and bitterness can overrule good judgement (or even greed).

 

Why would they do that? It's only happening as a result of Qui-Gon's death and Obi-Wan's insistence. They rejected him being trained, on their own. I think they were skeptical about Anakin's importance.

 

The other members of the Jedi Council had no problems with allowing Anakin to become a part of the Order after his performance in the Battle of Naboo. Only Yoda had a problem with Anakin becoming a Jedi. And he had a problem with Obi-Wan agreeing to serve as the boy's mentor.

 

Yoda was right. Anakin was clouded in darkness. Even when the rest of the Jedi Council became blinded by Anakin’s Battle of Naboo feats, the Little Green Friend sensed the fear in Ani that would become anger and hate.

 

The dialogue indicates otherwise; while Yoda does initially say "*I* do not" when talking about Anakin being trained by Obi-Wan, when he finally relents he says says the council will allow it.

Obviously Windu at least was still opposed at the point, since he was always the one who was most wary; even Yoda seems to have more or less come around to Anakin in time, while Windu remained uneasy around him right up until the end.

As for the others I don't think their are any canon sources indicating how they individually felt regarding Anakin.

 

The TPM novelization extends his conversation with Obi-Wan a little, making it clear that the Council is going against Yoda's advice.


Yoda's gaze was distant when he spoke. "Decided, the Council is," he repeated. "Trained, the boy shall be."
Obi-Wan felt a surge of relief and joy flood through him, and a grateful smile escaped him.
Yoda saw the smile. "Pleased, you are? So certain this is right?" The wrinkled face tightened. "Clouded, this boy's future remains, Obi-Wan. A mistake to train him, it is."
"But the Council—"
"Yes, decided." The sleepy eyes lifted. "Disagree with that decision, I must."
There was a long silence as the two faced each other, listening to the sounds of the funeral preparations taking place without. Obi-Wan did not know what to say. Clearly the Council had decided against the advice of Yoda. That in itself was unusual. That the Jedi Master chose to make a point of it here emphasized the extent of his concerns about Anakin Skywalker.
Obi-Wan spoke carefully. "I will take the boy as my Padawan, Master. I will train him in the best way I can. But I will bear in mind what you have told me here. I will go carefully. I will heed your warnings. I will keep close watch over his progress."
Yoda studied him a moment, then nodded. "Your promise, then, remember well, young Jedi," he said softly. "Sufficient, it is, if you do."
Obi-Wan bowed in acknowledgement. "I will remember."
Together, they went out into a blaze of light.

In AOTC, Mace comments on Anakin's exceptional skills reassuringly, when it's Obi-Wan that worries that Anakin is not ready for the mission.

So, in the context of TPM and AOTC, I would suggest that after the Battle of Naboo, when they voted on whether or not to bend the rules to allow Anakin into the Order, Mace voted for, Yoda voted against, and the "for" votes won. And that ROTS Mace's distrust of Anakin is a fairly new thing - it's not a case of him nursing TPM-era distrust of Anakin for the next 13 years.

 

Fair enough. But Yoda still ultimately agreed, so I would think his wariness to have him trained was just because of the "great danger" he (correctly) sensed in his training.

As for Mace, he's pretty consistently wary of Anakin throughout the canon, isn't he? (and he can still be complimentary of him and be distrustful of him). For instance in Anakin and Obi-Wan, which only takes place a few years after TPM IIRC.

He definitely seems like his trying to hold his tongue and be diplomatic about the issues related to Anakin's training around Palpatine.

Maybe Mace only agreed reluctantly, and then game to belief he may have been mistaken in his vote later? (Or maybe he voted against it with Yoda and was simply outvoted by the others?) - honestly I just don't find it likely (and in fact, I think it would be borderline OOC) for Windu to vote in favor of training Anakin unless it's *very* reluctantly (and given their characterizations I'd imagine Yoda would relent to something like that before he would).

 

I thought it was less "Yoda agreed" and more

"The council makes some decisions by voting, and Yoda isn't able to override a majority Yes vote, even if his personal vote is No."

Main reason I think it works better for Mace to vote Yes - Mace was elected leader of the order for a time - he, like Yoda, has disproportionate influence, and so, if Yoda votes No, it needs a really prominent Jedi to vote Yes to sway the rest of the Council to a Yes vote - and Mace is the most prominent Jedi after Yoda.

 

I did say "when they have freed her" so I was countering your argument that the Jedi can not do more than try to free her. They can do more once they have done that.
And they could give Shmi some money to free herself, which Qui-Gon did in some EU:

And

Nope, you are ignoring context. Yoda mentions Anakin may be the Chosen One when he talks to Obi-Wan. That clearly is major part of them changing their minds. Qui-Gon reported on the Sith being back and the council were skeptical of that. Then he brought up Anakin as the Chosen One and since the Jedi think that the Chosen One will destroy the Sith and thus bring balance, the two are connected.
So they send Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to Naboo to see if this dark warrior is indeed a Sith. And despite not really learning much, they do decide that the Sith are indeed back and thus Anakin, as the their chosen one and the only Jedi that can destroy the Sith, now his training is in a whole new light.

The whole reason why Qui-Gon was so insistent that he be trained was because of this, him being the chosen one. If Anakin had just been a regular kid with an above average connection to the Force, would Qui-Gon have gone to the lengths he did? I doubt it. Would the council care? And lets say there were no Sith. Would they allow his training? Doubtful.

The first lesson Luke got was the same as those young children and he was far older than them.
Anakin needs to first learn the basics of using the Force. If you leap into something way too advanced, you run significant risks.
Anakin has a strong connection to the Force but no training in how to use it consciously. To make it do what he wants. To control it.

But if a Jedi becomes a knight and has to be given a pupil right away and the only one available is three, then the knight will get saddled with a three year old.

My point is that this system seems impractical. A newly minted Jedi Knight is still a rookie, still new to this and has not done anything on his own. He or she has been with a master all the time. So now they need to learn to stand on their own. Get more experience.
To immediately give them a pupil, when they have had no training in how to train and no experience as a Jedi on their own seems not that smart.

Because the films gives no indication he did. I won't make things up in order to shore up a films weakness.

We are also given no reason to think he did.

This does not answer the question what the Jedi did at the time of TPM. They would have no way to know what would happen. Unless they had read the script. All they knew is that they have this kid, who is dangerous, whose future is clouded, who they rejected at first. Now they have relented to train him but given all their misgivings and how super important Anakin is, they should have considered the idea that maybe they need to do a bit more than the usual here.
But it seems they did not and that I think the Jedi are shown to be rigid, dogmatic, unwilling to change, to think outside the box. And that is part of the reason, I think, why the Sith outfoxed them.

And I think the ten years between TPM and AotC were important.
He spent that time worrying about his mother, missing her, the promise to free was left unfulfilled.
He could not let go of his attachments. The feelings festered inside him while he pretended they were not there. Then the dreams came and things got worse and worse until he left to save her. But he came too late and she died a horrible death and he lashed out in hate and grief.
After that he made a dangerous promise not to fail again, not to let anyone he cares about die.
Had Shmi been freed soon after TPM and Anakin knew she was free and lived a good life, I think that would have helped hin letting go. If Shmi had not been on Tatooine and the whole Sand People thing had never happened, that would have been a major impact on Anakin and significantly reduced the risk of him turning. No Shmi death, no Sand people massacre and no dreams that he would think are true. So while he likely would still be infatuated with Padme, he would have less reason to think that any dreams about her would be signs of he rcertain death and thus Palpatine would have less to tempt him with.

You misunderstand, scenario A was

So the Jedi went to Watto to buy Shmi but he had already sold her. If that had happened, why would they not tell Anakin? And if they had told him, then what he does in AotC does not fit.

He hid plenty else and he never introduced himself as a Jedi, they assumed he was one.
So he did not advertise the fact, he did not lie about when it was brought up. There is a difference.

Except Watto did not know Qui-Gon was a Jedi and if this total stranger shows up some time later, why would Watto assume he was a Jedi or connected to Qui-Gon?
So in your scenario, a guy offers to buy your house, you refuse but take part in a high stakes bet with the guy and looses. Now you are facing serious financial problems and could loose that house.
But then some time later another person shows up and offers to buy your house for a pretty sweet deal and this could save you.

And assuming Watto is this insanely suspicious and seeing Jedi everywhere, talk to Shmi. Give her some money and ask is she knows someone that she trusts and that person can buy and free Shmi.
Again, this is not difficult.

And Lucas could have solved it very easy. Soon after TPM ended, Padme sends a person to buy and free Shmi. They also offer to take Shmi to Naboo but Shmi elects to stay.
Then in AotC, Anakin knows about this and this is another reason why he thinks so fondly of Padme. But when he keeps getting the dreams and decides to leave. They got to Mos Espa but Shmi is no longer there. So they go to Watto and asks where Shim is and we get much the same info.
Simple. Why he did not do this, I think, is that Lucas simply forgot that Padme and the Jedi would have reasons to free Shmi after the film was over.

A jedi going around saying he or she is there on official business and making sure everyone is aware of that could cause the Hutts to think something is up. So much better for said Jedi to keep a low profile and not advertise his/her presence.

But he didn't have big neon sign saying "I AM A JEDI" over his head, which you seem to argue this Jedi sent to buy Shmi must have.

And I think you are underestimating how powerful an ally greed can be. The film even talks about it.

Not to mention how powerful desperation is. Anakin turns to the Dark Side pretty much out of desperation.

So Watto is established as Greedy and he is shown taking bets and then loosing a lot. Or everything as he says in the film. And he did sell Shmi.
So on the balance, the argument that he would refuse to sell Shmi to someone he has no reason to connect with Qui-Gon or out of stubborn pride has little merit.

Bye for now.
The Guarding Dark

 

Yoda makes a mention of it as a response to Obi-Wan bringing up Qui-Gon believing in him, but it's not used as a reasoning it happened. You're adding that on. It's not said or shown in the movie.

 

They can't do any of that other hypothetical stuff until they free her, though. So it's all a moot point.

Obi-Wan makes it pretty clear that he was going to train Anakin irregardless; if their was no Sith they'd need to chose between loosing a promising young Jedi who just (as far as they know) killed the first Sith Lord in over a thousand years over a petty matter or being stubborn. I find it unlikely that they'd chose the former over the latter, since at that point Obi-Wan's value would seem to outweigh the potential risk of Anakin (who is getting trained either way)

He doesn't need to go to Yoda to learn that stuff though; Obi-Wan is perfectly qualified to teach him it on his own (and if, for whatever reason, he proves unsuitable, the Jedi could - and likely would - step in)

I don't think younglings become apprentices that young.

Presumably if their is no apprentice available a knight will not get one immediately; but that A) doesn't seem to be a common issue and B) is totally irrelevant in the case of Obi-Wan and Anakin.

It's clearly not, though, because it worked perfectly fine for thousands of years as far as we know.

He or she has been with a master learning about how to use the Force and gaining wisdom and experience, which is precisely the knowledge they need to train an apprentice.

Obi-Wan and Anakin trained Anakin and Ashoka perfectly fine despite being newly-minted knights. It's clearly not an issue - heck, freaking Kanan never even completed his training, and he did a great job instructing Ezra.

We see in TCW that padawans seem to be tasked with, at the very least, guiding and instructing lightsabers during the gathering, so it's possible that helping instruct younglings in other ways is a normal part of a padawan's training.

Your assuming that a larger Order that possesses expansive training facilities, has dedicated combat instructors who train padawans and is straight-up shown to have it's members receive support/advise from other members in the training of their students wouldn't help a teacher if they needed it?

It's not about "making things up", it's about logic; it's far more reasonable to assume Obi-Wan had access to assistance then that the other Jedi were just ignoring him and refusing to help.

Why would they feel the need to do "a bit more than the usual" unless they were given a reason to think this? There's zero reason for them to interfere with Obi-Wan's training unless he proves incapable, and there's zero evidence that he did.

None of that is the Jedi's fault, though; it's all either things they had no control over or things they stright-up did'nt know about.

They would have.

And because of that obviously a (hypothetical) Jedi attempt to buy Shmi would have to occur *before* Watto sold her to Cliegg (and likely before Padme's own attempt to find her); presumably it would have happened right after TPM, with the Jedi either sending a representative or acting through whatever ambassador the Republic maintains in the region (assuming their is one).

He was also not on official business as a represented of the council. Which is the key point here.

I'm reasonable sure Watto figured out what Qui-Gon was; the dude was dressed in robes, carrying around a laser sword and straight-up tried to mind-trick him; even if he obviously didn't realize it right away, I think it's a safe bet he did by the end, if only because the evidence was to overwhelming - and even if he didn't, the moment a Jedi showed up right afterwards trying to buy Shmi he'd quickly put the pieces together.

If I have a grudge against the Church because I got swindled by them in that high stakes game and suspect they cheated I probably wouldn't be very eager to sell what I have left to the people who run the Church.

IMO that doesn't seem like something the Jedi Council would condone, though.

Padme does do exactly this, though.

She just isn't able to until 28 ABY (because she had to wait until she was a private citizen), at which point her agents were unable to find any trace of Shmi or Watto.

The Hutt's territory is a mix of Las Vegas, 1990s Mogadishu, Tijuana and Tortuga, and their crime lords who don't really care whose doing what as long as it doesn't effect them; Jedi probably come and go through the region all the time, and I don't think they'd care if one is reported carrying out a transaction with some local small-fry junk dealer.

The Jedi who would go to buy Shmi would be on official business as a representative of the Jedi Council (and the republic), so it seems logical that he would identify himself as such.

I don't think it has little merit; I think it makes perfect sense based on Watto's characterization and the events of the film that he would have a bias against Jedi (at least in the short term) that he wouldn't have against a random dude like Cliegg.