Why Obi-Wan Kenobi Part V Has Fans Looking Twice At Qui-Gon Jinn's Death
This article contains spoilers for "Obi-Wan Kenobi" Part V
There's nothing that "Star Wars" fans like better than to dig their teeth into Bantha-hide thick chunks of the universe's lore. With "Obi-Wan Kenobi" now airing on Disney+, there are plenty of new tidbits for them to pick over. They've collectively begun to take note of the way this midquel miniseries jibes — or doesn't — with previously-established "Star Wars" universe canon.
During Part V, Reva (Moses Ingram) — newly crowned Grand Inquisitor by Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen and James Earl Jones) – closes in on Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his party. The Jedi land on the planet Jabiim, where they meet old friends, and Obi-Wan deals with concerned communiqués from Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits), who plans to head to Tatooine to look after Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely) if the danger to the twins persists. The audience is subsequently let in on a (not so) surprising secret from Reva's past, while Obi-Wan and Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) mount a daring escape for the rebellion members on Jabiim. The end result is a fight between Reva and Vader which hints that she's in for some dire consequence.
But among all of those breathless duels and daring, hairpin escapes, one particular moment made fans of the franchise raise their eyebrows, especially in light of the tragic "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace" death of Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson).
How did Reva survive when Qui-Gon Jinn is dead?
As Obi-Wan, Leia, and their friends make their getaway, Reva tries to stop them. But Vader intervenes, and the two have a lightsaber battle. Reva loses, is run through with the lightsaber, and lies severely injured, bleeding but alive, at Vader's feet. Reva and Vader are then confronted by a surprising party: the original Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), whose death earlier in the miniseries was apparently greatly exaggerated.
Fans posting to an episode discussion thread for Part V on the "Star Wars" subreddit noted that if Reva can survive her wounds, how could Qui-Gon Jinn have died when he suffered from a similar injury? "So getting run through with a lightsaber isn't lethal anymore? Poor Qui-Gon," joked u/the_mighty_hetfield.
Fans on the subreddit proceeded to try to puzzle out why each character reacted to their wounds the way they did. One, u/Setheran, leaned on the dichotomy between the light and dark sides of the Force. "It's like Maul: their hatred and desire for revenge grow their powers in the dark side and allow them to survive. That doesn't apply to Qui-Gon," they said, a point that was echoed by several other users. Meanwhile, u/Xylus1985 argued "It takes 3 hits to kill a storm trooper now. The quality of the lightsabers has really gone downhill."
But it was u/PKMNTrainerMark who provided the wittiest bon mot of all: "I guess he missed."