The Podrace. Was it a fix?

Something was amiss in the Phantom Menace podrace. The eerie calm that Qui-Gon has throughout the entire process. Does he realize that if Anakin does not win they are basically all stuck on Tatooine for the rest of their lives? Unless Qui-Gon intended to just take the saber to Watto silently afterword if things didn't go their way, it seems that Qui-Gon knew everthing would be alright.

Anakin was a terrible podracer indicated by the continual references to his past crashes and losses. These are the best podracers in the Galaxy about to beat by an 8 year old human beign in one of the biggest races in the Galaxy? Fishy at its most innocent.

Qui-Gon had connections and deep influence on people. Did he somehow fix this race? Or was he so well connected to the force that he guided Anakin's racer out of harm's way at every potential pitfall?

 

Eh, if Qui-Gon was willing to fix the race, he might as well have killed Watto, taken Anakin, his mom, and the necessary parts, and then bounced before anyone realized what happened. Really, if he went through that much trouble employing more ethically questionable actions in some elaborate bet, you have to wonder why he didn't just take the straight route from point A to point B.

Or hey, Watto's immune to mind tricks, but others aren't. He could have used the mind trick to rob half the city for the money he needed for the part. Or simple get one rich mark, get his bizarre Outer Rim currency, and buy the damn hyperdrive part. Really, there are so many logic bombs in that sequence that it isn't worth going over again.

Long story short, Anakin needed to get to Coruscant. "THE PLOT IS S-S-STROOONNNNGGGGG WITH HIMMMMMM....."

 

I don't think Qui-Gon fixed the race; I don't know how he could have, unless he sabotaged Sebulba's pod. I think that eerie calm was just his normal peace of mind. He just did what he could and did not worry about anything else. "A Jedi knows no fear..."

 

Qui-Gon felt Anakin was the Chosen One. Chances are he just truted that the Force was going to help them escape if this were the case.

 

Well, the coin toss was most certainly manipulated by Qui Gon. I think it's clearly implied that Watto was attempting to use a trick coin, and then Qui Gon used the force to alter the outcome, thus Watto's shocked reaction when it landed on heads. So I don't know if Qui Gon fixed the pod race, but it's definitely a possibility. Towards the very end of the race, as Anakin and Sebulba are entangled and everyone else is looking away because they can't watch, it looked to me that Qui Gon might have been mentally involved somehow. Whether that means he was using the force to keep Anakin from losing control, or whether he simply had seen the future and was confident of Anakin's victory, we'll probably never know.

But I think the question is definitely a good one, and worth asking.

Good post, rechedelphar.

 

A very good question, but there are too many variables present for the "fixed" theory.

1. His Pod barely got off the starting line

2. Sebulba did everything he could to sabotage Anakins Pod and smear him into the landscape

3. The indirect fire from the tusken raiders.

While Qui-Gon may have helped calm the boy, I think it's safe to say the Force guided him through it as opposed to any direct tampering.

 

Sebulba's dirty tactics could easily be explained away as Anakin already either experiencing them or seeing them done to other racers so that he knew what to expect.

That and the force wanted him to win.

 

Watto had it figured out - "You swindler! Somehow you knew the boy would win!"

Qui-Gon didn't alter anything, i.e. fix the race, but he was connected enough to the Force to know that Anakin was meant to earn his freedom & come with them. Somehow it would happen, & his instincts told him that gambling it all on the podrace was the best way to ensure that it did.

What he did do was cheat in the die toss, in order to free Anakin, should he win the race. Doing something like that to potentially free a slave (it's merely done to determine which Skywalker would be the prize if, & only if, Anakin won) would hardly be considered wrong by other Jedi.

 

I don't think the race was fixed. Qui-Gon may have been somewhat out-of-line with the Council, but he wasn't going to break the Code by cheating on something that big. A dice roll to potentially free Anakin, that's one thing, but fixing an entire race with his mind seems kinda far-fetched.

Now, I'm not saying that he didn't have foresight into the results and thus "help" Anakin win, but I don't think he directly tampered with any of the other pods to make sure that Anakin would end up winning.

 

I think if anything, all Qui-Gon did was just help him use the Force to help with the race

"Feel don't think, use your instincts"

He made sure that Anakin went into the race with the ability to use the Force as much as he could with no Jedi training

but did he fix the race? No