It took some time, but Star Wars has officially explained why Qui-Gon Jinn was the only Jedi who could have saved Anakin Skywalker - because only Qui-Gon learned the truth about the Dark Side that Obi-Wan, Mace Windu, and even Yoda never realized.
To be clear, Qui-Gon Jinn is still responsible for taking the risk of recruiting and training Anakin Skywalker, setting him on his path to becoming Darth Vader. But in a new one-shot comic book revealing Qui-Gon's crisis of faith long before Episode 1, the Jedi Master's doubts and true intentions are finally explained. Qui-Gon didn't fail to notice the Dark Side boiling up inside of Anakin Skywalker: he believed that darkness was exactly what was needed to bring balance to The Force. Showing once and for all that Anakin could have brought peace to the galaxy... if Qui-Gon Jinn had trained him.
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Qui-Gon Realizes The Truth of The Dark Side
If you're a staunch believer in the version of The Force explained by the Jedi, you've heard it already: light side good, dark side evil and terrible. But for all their talk of "balance" the Jedi Order of the Star Wars movies had grown rigid in their prejudice. And in the pages of Star Wars: Age of Republic: Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi's crisis of faith long before The Phantom Menace is finally shown. Not to overstate it, but Qui-Gon seems to realize what no other member of the Jedi Council is noticing: that they have lost their vision. And to get his back, he leaps blindly into hyperspace with only The Force to guide him, and accepts the lesson it has to teach him.
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On an alien world teaming with both life and deadly, "dark" growth, Qui-Gon communes with The Force. Sensing both the life-giving Force and the darkness to balance it, he awakens from his vision to see that the darkness has been driven back. Light triumphed over it, returning true "balance, but through a means beyond conflict." The lesson sticks, and Qui-Gon returns to the Order keeping this knowledge to himself. The Jedi believe the Dark Side to be resisted by any means necessary... but only in the face of darkness can light restore the balance. A principle that clearly occupies Qui-Gon's mind when discovering a small slave boy on a planet called Tatooine.
Qui-Gon Chose Anakin For His Darkness & Light
It can't be overstated that this experience, this crisis of faith must force each Star Wars fan to re-contextualize every decision Qui-Gon makes when introduced in Episode 1 (it left a mark, which means his character was certainly doing the same). The lesson taught by The Force was clear, so when he, of all possible Jedi, happened across a boy conceivably born of The Force itself, Qui-Gon knew it was no accident. As he tells the Jedi Council in Episode 1, "It was the will of The Force, if that I have no doubt."
Which is where the prequel must now be re-assessed. Because when Qui-Gon confirms that he believes Anakin Skywalker is the One prophesied to "bring balance to The Force," he and the Jedi Council are imagining two different victories. For the Council, it means The Force has produced a champion to vanquish the darkness, leaving only the light. While Qui-Gon's encounter with The Force has shown "balance" to be the acceptance of darkness, so that light might overcome it. The Council senses the potential for the Dark Side in Anakin, and views it as a threat. Qui-Gon would have sensed the same, but understand Anakin's potential for darkness was the entire point of The Force's lesson (and by extension, the prophecy).
If Qui-Gon had lived to train Anakin himself, that lesson would almost certainly have proven true. Because by that point, even Qui-Gon had come to realize what Anakin eventually would: that the Jedi had lost their way.
Page 2 of 2: Qui-Gon Jinn Knew The Jedi Were Wrong
Qui-Gon Knew The Jedi Forgot Their Oaths
One of the most unpleasant truths to accept when digging into the Jedi Order is that by the time audiences meet them, either in Star Wars or Phantom Menace, they are painted as knights; chivalrous saber-slingers enforcing the will of the Republic. Noble, sure, but not at all what the Jedi monks were intended to be. And in Star Wars: Age of Republic: Qui-Gon Jinn, Qui-Gon expresses that very concern to Master Yoda (who, despite his wisdom, fails to consider it). After a rescued dignitary wonders why Qui-Gon didn't let his blade do the talking, he realizes just how far the Jedi Order has strayed from their intended mission.
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The Jedi no longer serve The Force, but the government, using The Force to help them do it. And for all Master Yoda's navel-gazing assurances that it's hard for outsiders to grasp the truth of the Jedi's actions, Qui-Gon argues that "our actions are a reflection of our purpose." That years spent enforcing have made the Jedi think like enforcers, until even Yoda can not see the danger Qui-Gon does before them: that "violence sows the seeds of the Dark Side. Unchecked, the Jedi could become that which we fight against."
Stay blind to this reality too long and it would be possible for the Jedi to, say, march into the office of the democratically appointed head of the Republic to kill him in the name of defeating darkness - giving even a good man reason to think that from his point of view, "it is the Jedi who are lost."
Qui-Gon Saw The Same Hypocrisy as Anakin
The comic makes it clear that Qui-Gon kept his newfound understanding of The Force and the Dark Side to himself, raising the fact that the Jedi must remain more flexible and open to changing beliefs than their ancient enemies, the Sith. But after meeting resistance from his own Jedi Master, concluding the chat by conceding to Yoda's (Sith-like) absolutes concerning the Dark Side. Just in case anyone needed a bit more proof that Qui-Gon Jinn was the only Jedi who could possibly have understood how to train and educate Anakin in the truth of his power. And, let's not forget, fulfill his destiny as the One to restore balance to the galaxy "through a means beyond conflict."
At least, that's assuming The Force really did create him, imbue him with both light and darkness, and drop him into the lap of the one Jedi Master who could help him truly restore balance, knowing his darkness was to be understood, not branded as bad, wrong, flawed, and to be ignored until it consumed him. Now the only question to consider is how much Darth Sidious may have sensed the will of The Force himself, sending his apprentice Darth Maul to kill Qui-Gon before he could serve his purpose.
The death of Qui-Gon Jinn was always heartbreaking for fans, but will be doubly tragic, now that Star Wars fans know The Forces hopes for Anakin Skywalker died along with him. And for that, comic fans owe writer Jody Houser and artist Cory Smith all of the credit.
Star Wars: Age of Republic: Qui-Gon Jinn #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.
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