A to Z Challenge Day 17: Qui-Gon Jinn (the Jedi Knight)

I chose one of my characters from (in my opinion) one of the greatest trilogies of all time. Now I choose one from one of the worst.

Okay, I’ll admit that the Star Wars prequels had their moments, and as a long-time Star Wars fan I couldn’t help but get a little bit of enjoyment out of watching them. That said, the one of the three that I was able to glean the most enjoyment out of was the first, and that was simply because of the presence of the Qui-Gon Jinn character. I’ve read complaints online from people who think that this particular character was not done well, that he makes a lot of stupid decisions in the movie and regularly sets himself and his companions up for disaster. And I’m not saying that any of that is untrue. But I, personally liked the Qui-Gon character. For one thing, I enjoyed the opportunity to study a wise, older, well-trained Jedi in the Star Wars Universe. In the original three movies we had Obi-Wan and Yoda, but the former was only around long enough to teach Luke the absolute basics and to help the younger men get through the Death Star, and the former was old, decrepit, and barely did anything other than lecture. Qui-Gon, on the other hand, was an older Jedi, a mentor, but still in his prime, still an excellent fighter with plenty to teach. I found that an interesting viewpoint, to actually see a Jedi Knight during his heyday, so to speak.

For another thing, I simply liked the feel of the character, the way that he is calm and yet stern, grandfatherly and yet able to dole out the commands. I loved the portrayal by Liam Neeson, but I also quite enjoyed the way authors Dave Wolverton and Jude Watson wrote Qui-Gon in the Jedi Apprentice series, which follows the story of a young Obi-Wan and his relationship with the Jedi Knight who became his mentor. The books are written for a bit of a younger audience, but I personally enjoyed them quite well, thank you very much, and that is in a great part due to the wonderful dynamic between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon throughout the series.

All in all, the Star Wars prequels were not a great boon to the franchise, in my opinion, and I’ve only watched them a couple of times, as opposed to the dozens of times I’ve watched the originals, but in the end I’m glad they existed just so I could be introduced to this character.