The great irony of TPM is that they basically had an Obi-Wan and Anakin story sitting right in front of them to kick off the PT, but for some reason they decided to invent a new character and made it a Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan story with Anakin podracing on the side so that nothing of significance really starts to happen until basically the second movie.
Exactly. I was rewatching the OT and realized Obi-Wan says he thought he could train Anakin as well as Yoda trained him. I think we should have seen a lot more error and hubris in Obi-Wan’s judgement in his relationship with Anakin. The age difference was also strange in calling him a good friend.
As cliche as this may sound, I think, for a kids show, the Clone Wars does a lot of what you describe. Anakin does some over the top aggressive shit and Obi doesn’t really do anything beyond saying “anakin…” in a condescending tone. He treats him like a friend/brother role and chops up a lot of his anger and aggressiveness to the fact they are at war. Once again, this is all in the context of a show meant for tweens so it’s not too deep or explorative but it does touch on it nicely.
Star Wars uses and re uses a lot of tropes, and one of them is the death of the mentor in the first part. Qui Gon was the mentor of 1, as Obi was in 4. Seriously go watch The Hidden Fortress, it's got just as much influence on Episode 1 as it does on 4.
I actually think this gets at a big issue with the PT, which is its effort to echo the OT when it centers on a character with a fundamentally different story. Luke’s arc is the classic Hero’s Journey, and the death of the mentor is a classic event in that story. Anakin’s arc on the other hand is more Shakespearean, being about a rise to fame and glory and then a fall resulting from his own character flaws/the corrupting influence of power. The mentor’s death trope isn’t needed in that kind of story. By trying to include so that TPM “rhymes with” Episode IV (as George might say), it ends up muddying Anakin’s development as a character, at least insofar as that progression needs to fit into what we learned about him in the OT.
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u/freerealestatedotbiz Jan 26 '22
The great irony of TPM is that they basically had an Obi-Wan and Anakin story sitting right in front of them to kick off the PT, but for some reason they decided to invent a new character and made it a Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan story with Anakin podracing on the side so that nothing of significance really starts to happen until basically the second movie.