Saga Mentors: Qui-Gon VS Obi-Wan VS Yoda

Since we're doing these sweet comparisons....
Who do you think was the better mentor? And the loss of which one had more effect on the character and the galaxy?

For me, it will always be this guy:

 

Yoda is probably my favorite, I love the idea of Obi-Wan coming back as a ghost to help Luke and Qui-Gon should have been Obi-Wan from the beginning. Maybe a just being Knighted.

 

Greatest mentor? Qui-Gon. Most skilled on the other hand would be Yoda. But, they are 2 entirely different things.

 

Qui-Gon Jinn always.

 

Obi-Wan. Though he took an apprentice too early, which is why he messed up so badly. If he had taken an apprentice around the time of ROTS I think he would have been much more successful. He is more levelheaded and by the book than Qui-Gon, but still not as indoctrinated with the Jedi as Yoda is.

 

Qui-Gon: believed in the boy who eventually became the Chosen One, acted against the Jedi Council even though it could be considered an inconvenience or even risk on his part, was right about Anakin all along, Luke ended up being quite like him

Obi-Wan: great mentor and friend to Anakin, but turns into a lying, bitter old man who manipulates Luke into trying to kill the man he now seems to resent

Yoda: much of the same as Obi-Wan, has no faith in Luke's ideas or Vader/Anakin

 

I agree with this. Luke reminds me more of a younger Qui-Gon than a Obi-Wan or Yoda. I think Anakin would have turned out better if Qui-Gon had been his mentor, not Obi-Wan.

 

Obi-Wan had the most plates to juggle, and obviously really bonded with Anakin -- note the reference to Anakin's own planet in the ROTS line, "Oh, I agree. However, it may turn out just to be a wild bantha chase" (embarking to face Grievous) -- but Qui-Gon is surely the more sterling figure: physically, mentally, spiritually, symbolically. The guy has warmth, grace, humility, charm, arrogance, patience, and cunning, all in tight alignment. Not a perfect mentor, by any means, but seemingly the most-rounded and best-composed. Yoda? Well, Yoda, I see as there to guide others, but often through finding fault or lamenting the blind-spots of others. He's more your wizened teacher you go to for advice, but not a mentor in the more intimate sense of playing the role of a strong father or a brother-in-arms.

Just my opinion, of course.

 

IMO Obi Wan is a good mentor, but it's questionable because his actions in AOTC don't really match up with the warmth and camaraderie he displays in ROTS. Qui Gon was also a good mentor but I felt that Qui Gon's actions were more out of his own interests rather than trying to set a good example for Obi Wan at the time - particularly by having his last lines be about Anakin, when he is dying in his apprentice's arms - IMO if he was really concerned with Obi Wan, he's probably have given Obi Wan some form of encouragement or something to go on with rather than simply telling him to train Anakin.

Yoda I don't really think we see enough of to make a judgment, he seems a good leader of the Jedi order but it's hard to tell as an individual mentor. I also personally thought that Obi Wan probably wasn't trying to manipulate Luke in the OT just because he wanted to kill Vader, or was evil - realistically he's seen Anakin get too involved with his emotion (particularly surrounding his mother) so I think he's trying to keep the truth from Luke to avoid him having the same ordeal. Because really if Luke was any weaker in mind & spirit, he might have fallen to the same path as Anakin did all those years ago. And looking at it that way, I don't really blame Obi Wan for trying to protect Luke a little bit. But I enjoy how it all gets laid to rest at the end of ROTJ when Obi, Anakin and Yoda are all together on Endor in spirit.

 

Liam Nees...I mean Qui-Gon Jinn

 

Yoda all the way. He is my favorite character, so I am biased.

 

QuiGon hands down

Yoda has the skill but, as seen from training Luke, not the patience or friendly, parental ways to mentor. A mathematician or literary genius can know what they are talking about and be unable to tell others.
Not ObiWan simply because he never developed his mentor technique. He wasn't ready to take on Anakin when he did and he was more of a teacher or protector to Luke (and old and kind of tired ). He never developed that QuiGon mentor gene.

(QuiGon was already handling three kids in TPM. And died for them)

 

Obi Wan as a matter of fact Alex Guinness is one of the few really good actors in ANH.

Also I can never get tired of watching this scene.

 

I honestly don't think any of the listed are shown as good mentors. My vote goes to Dooku far as potential in that goes.

 

Qui-Gon.

 

I'd say Qui-Gon.

 

Totally disagree qui gonn can be blamed for the fall of the Jedi if he would've just left anakin we would have no vader. He also put the unfair pressure on obi wan to train anakin when clearly obi wan wasn't ready. He basically just forgets about obi wan when he meets anakin trying to push him to the trials and train a boy the council knew had to much anger and fear in him.

To me at the end of the day I believe yoda cleans up all the mess by mentoring luke. He teaches him to be patient to be calm and at peace which in the end is what ultimately helps defeat vader and the emperor.

 

The blame rests just as much on Palpatine for seducing him to the dark side, if not more. I believe if Qui-Gon had been Anakin's master and not Obi-Wan, it would have been a lot harder to turn Anakin

The point is, Qui-Gon is responsible for setting Anakin down the path that would lead him to fulfilling the prophecy, regardless of how rocky the road may have been

 

Yeah all those innocent children died because qui was to stubborn to accept the councils decision IMO. Why be in the council if you were just going to what you wanted anyways? Also anakin is the only Jedi to turn because like the council said he was dangerous the council knew anakin was trouble qui forced him into a life he couldn't handle IMO

 

Were you paying attention when they explicitly said that Dooku turned to the dark side as well?

If you know your EU, you'll know that no fewer than 20 Jedi turned before Anakin in fact, each one memorialized by a bust in the archives

 

I know but he didn't comitt the terrible acts anakin did. I don't care about the EU and the whole story of the PT is the tragedy of anakin skywalker a tragedy that could've been avoided if qui were to listen. He put anakin and obi in tough spots because of his stubborn ways. The big 3 of the PT fate was changed the day qui gonn brought little ani on that ship. Still loved him as a character but he wasn't the best mentor IMO.

 

In my book:

Yoda OT > Qui-Gon > Ben Kenobi > Obi-Wan PT > Yoda PT

 

What the...?! The children died because Anakin killed them. That's all there is to it. There's no logic in blaming Qui-Gon, the Council, Watto or background character #231 because none of them told them to do it. It was Anakin's decision (under Sidious guidance) so the blame goes to him alone (and maybe Sidious for deceiving him).

 

I like them all and think they were all effective in different ways and had different flaws. That said, Qui-Gonn surviving to teach Anakin probably would have made a vast difference as he would have fulfilled the paternal role that Palpatine went on to usurp. On the other hand, it would be unfair to blame Obi-Wan entirely as he was too young and inexperienced to fill that role himself but he did the very best he could to teach Anakin anyway. Anakin would certainly have been a different person under QG's mentorship but better? We'll never know that for sure. For all we know, Anakin as taught by Qui-Gonn may have ended up going up entirely too far in the opposite direction and becoming a lone wanderer like QG but wasting his potential through sheer pig headed determination to be an individual, man. I like Qui-Gonn a lot but he gets a lot of mileage out of dying before the mess really spun out of control - some people just assume that he would have made everything alright but we don't know that he wouldn't have made all kinds of mistakes if he'd lived long enough to.

Yoda on the other hand... well, he's the perfect teacher for the Jedi as they were. But the Jedi as they were happen to be rather flawed and you have to say that a Master who has been around for several centuries has to take at least part of the blame for that. They stagnated and stalled instead of evolving and he was right there for the entire process. Is that his fault? No. But it seems that in all that time he never once even wondered if there was another way, and that is complacent at best and arrogant at worst.

 

Woah actually voting against Obi Wan here and putting my vote in for Yoda. Honestly, if everybody had listened to him from the start things wouldn't have SNAFU-ed. "Don't train Anakin", "don't worry about Padme", "make sure you kill Anakin", "Don't run off to Bespin"... The guy has over 800 years of experience, someone should take a hint.

Obi Wan is too busy taking on the responsibility of the entire galaxy to worry about one more, and he's just too trusting that Anakin will snap to his senses. Surprised that most here seem to think Qui Gon is the adaptable, benevolent mentor.

Qui Gon is too reckless and short-sighted to be effective as a long-term mentor, as his treatment of Obi Wan in TPM suggests. He also seems to be the least likely to listen to and accept alternative opinions ("That should be enough for you, now get on board"), and was utterly convinced he was right (in the prophecy, in training Anakin), without much regard for the consequences.