10 Reasons You’re Wrong About The Star Wars Prequels
9. Duel Of The Fates Might Be Star Wars' Most Important Scene
Duel of the Fates might just be the most important sequence in the Skywalker Saga. It isn't just a flashy lightsaber duel between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul with a banger of a John Williams track in the background, but instead a pivotal moment that seals Anakin Skywalker's destiny then and there. As Dave Filoni so eloquently explained just after the conclusion of The Clone Wars, the scene in question is a literal duel of the fates. It is, primarily, a duel for Anakin.
Qui-Gon, already established as an unorthodox Jedi prepared to bend the rules, having long believed the Order had lost its way, was determined to train Anakin and let him fulfil his destiny as the Chosen One. He's the kind of father figure Anakin needed, but the duel instead leaves him with Obi-Wan as a master, as Maul slays Jinn in the Theed Palace.
Kenobi, who by that point had been contemptuous and at times envious of the attention Jinn had given Skywalker, only promises to train the boy after Qui-Gon asks him to with his dying breath. Although the two would grow to become friends - brothers, even - Kenobi was not the teacher Anakin needed, no matter how much he wanted to honour his fallen master.
It is such a powerful sequence, but one that takes on an added salience when you reconsider just how pivotal a character Qui-Gon was in The Phantom Menace, and how the result dooms Anakin to the Dark Side of the Force.