Star Wars Confirms What We’ve Known For Years: Qui-Gon Really Was Wiser Than The Jedi Council

Warning! This post contains minor SPOILERS for The Living Force by John Jackson Miller

Star Wars’ newest novel further proves that Qui-Gon Jinn’s wisdom was just as great (if not greater) than the entire Jedi Council. In the years preceding the events of The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi bear witness to troubling signs that the Jedi Order has fallen out of balance with the current state of the galaxy. To that end, Qui-Gon implores the Jedi Council to find a new perspective, one that many among the Jedi Order’s leading body had forgotten or taken for granted.

As seen in the new novel The Living Force by John Jackson Miller, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan discover that many beings across the galaxy think very little of the Jedi Order, the perception being that the Jedi think little of them. While this is not the actual truth, the Jedi Council shutting down outposts across the galaxy and keeping their eyes on the future with the Cosmic Force has inadvertently created feelings of abandonment and frustration. This prompts Qui-Gon to share key wisdom with the Jedi Council due to his key focus on the Living Force, that which is in the present.

Qui-Gon Is Able To Show The Council What It Means To Be A Jedi

“Help One Person”

Despite his reputation as a maverick who often questioned the decisions of those in charge, Qui-Gon was always humble and was highly respected by the members of the Jedi Council. He was even offered a position among their ranks which he ultimately turned down. At any rate, Qui-Gon manages to convene a Jedi Council meeting ahead of their decision to close down one of the largest Jedi outposts in the entire galaxy. Sharing his concerns in this new novel, Qui-Gon strikes a chord with his impressive wisdom, fueled by the Living Force itself:

“We know our work touches billions. We stop menaces, some before they even develop. We save whole star systems at a time.” He focused on an empty spot on the floor. “And yet, when was the last time one of us counseled someone who was bereaved? Helped someone overcome self-destructive behavior?” He looked up. “Told anyone that their decisions, their lives are important?” Silence. Yoda broke it. “From small sparks, grows the light.” Gratified, Qu-Gon bowed his head.

Generating an understanding and further discussion from the Jedi Council who agree to take his words to heart, Qui-Gon leaves the Council with a final, powerful challenge for them all: “Help one person. A Jedi needs no permission for that.” Taking place at the very beginning of the novel, the rest of the book sees the entire Jedi Council getting out of their chairs and leaving the Republic’s core world of Coruscant to travel to this Jedi outpost, finding those in need and responding to individual crises with the understanding that no problem is too small to warrant a Jedi’s aid.

Should Qui-Gon Have Accepted A Place On The Jedi Council?

Qui-Gon Was Never Meant For A Chair

It’s worth noting there were Jedi on the Council who gave the Living Force its due just as much as the Cosmic. However, the body as a whole very much needed to hear Qui-Gon’s words, especially at a time when the ever-changing galaxy was about to make that focus even harder to achieve with the dawn of the Skywalker saga. After all, The Phantom Menace was the beginning of the Republic’s corruption that led to the start of the Clone Wars (and the Jedi Order being subsequently compromised with greater pride and hubris).

Qui-Gon’s efforts at the beginning of Miller’s The Living Force might make one think that he should have accepted a seat on the Council, helping to guide the Jedi Order with his great wisdom and care for individuals in the present. However, it’s not hard to see why such a removal from the current state of the galaxy would have been found distasteful by one of the Order’s greatest and most wise Jedi masters. At any rate, seeing the Jedi Council rising to meet Qui-Gon Jinn’s challenge in The Living Force is both incredibly entertaining and heartwarming, reigniting a love for the prequel trilogy’s Jedi Order and all that they once were.