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swiftsnowmanean excerpt from TPM novelization
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In the home of Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn stood silently at the doorway of the boy’s bedroom and watched him sleep. His mother and Padme occupied the other bedroom, and Jar Jar Binks was curled up on the kitchen floor in a fetal position, snoring loudly. But Qui-Gon could not sleep. It was this boy - this boy! There was something about him. The Jedi Master watched the soft rise and fall of his chest as he lay locked in slumber, unaware of Qui-Gon’s presence. The boy was special, he had told Shmi Skywalker, and she had agreed. She knew it, too. She sensed it as he did. Anakin Skywalker was different. Qui-Gon lifted his gaze to a darkened window. The storm had subsided, the wind abated. It was quiet without, the night soft and welcoming in its peace.
The Jedi Master thought for a moment on his own life. He knew what they said about him at Council. He was willful, even reckless in his choices. He was strong, but he dissipated his strength on causes that did not merit his attention. But rules were not created solely to govern behavior. Rules were created to provide a road map to understanding the Force. Was it so wrong for him to bend those rules when his conscience whispered to him that he must? The Jedi folded his arms over his broad chest. The Force was a complex and difficult concept. The Force was rooted in the balance of all things, and every movement within its flow risked an upsetting of that balance. A Jedi sought to keep the balance in place, to move in concert to its pace and will. But the Force existed on more than one plane, and achieving mastery of its multiple passages was a lifetime’s work. Or more.
He knew his own weakness. He was too close to the life Force when he should have been more attentive to the unifying Force. He found himself reaching out to the creatures of the present, to those living in the here and now. He had less regard for the past or the future, to the creatures that had or would occupy those times and spaces. It was the life Force that bound him, that gave him heart and mind and spirit. So it was he empathized with Anakin Skywalker in ways that other Jedi would discourage, finding in this boy a promise he could not ignore. Obi-Wan would see the boy and Jar Jar in the same light - useless burdens, pointless projects, unnecessary distractions. Obi-Wan was grounded in the need to focus on the larger picture, on the unifying Force. He lacked Qui-Gon’s intuitive nature. He lacked his teacher’s compassion for and interest in all living things. He did not see the same things Qui-Gon saw.
Qui-Gon sighed. This was not a criticism, only an observation. Who was to say that either of them was the better for how they interpreted the demands of the Force? But it placed them at odds sometimes, and more often than not it was Obi-Wan’s position the Council supported, not Qui-Gon’s. It would be that way again, he knew. Many times. But this would not deter him from doing what he believed he must. He would know the truth about Anakin Skywalker. He would discover his place in the Force, both living and unifying. He would learn who this boy was meant to be.
This whole passage speaks for itself – Qui-Gon has such faith in Anakin, and such belief in his ‘promise’, and that alone makes him the ideal mentor for this child . It is likewise important to note that, at this stage, what Qui-Gon seeks, aka ‘the truth about Anakin Skywalker’, is at once solid and tangible (that he is the Chosen One) as well as mutable. There are still, at this point in the story, ‘many possible futures’. It is no coincidence that Qui-Gon is described here as someone who is able to focus on the needs of the present – he, of all people, is perfectly poised to assist someone like Anakin, who already by this point regularly experiences powerful, confusing, and often terrifyingly-vivid dreams and visions of the future.
And what is more – we are meant to see here that Qui-Gon stands apart from the majority of the Jedi (on the Council, at least) in his views and approach. It is outright stated that he is far more compassionate (i.e. able to not merely feel but also demonstrate unconditional love) than most, and is thus someone who could have been both mentor *and* father(ly) figure to Anakin, providing this fearful young boy with much-needed warmth and compassion, not to mention a far more understanding—and far less rigid—path toward the brightest versions of said ‘possible futures.’
** Original post HERE.
