WARNING: Spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi season 1.

The epic conclusion to Obi-Wan Kenobi proved that one of Qui-Gon Jinn’s key teachings to Obi-Wan was right. From the beginning of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) was the quintessential reluctant hero. As he made clear to his fellow Jedi on the run, Nari (Benny Safdie), “the fight is done, we lost." Hope appeared to have been extinguished from Obi-Wan's heart and the only thing that remained was his duty to watch over the young Luke Skywalker, while he tortured himself over the traumas of his tragic past.

By the time he confronted Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series finale, much of his old strength had been regained. Naturally, there were echoes of Obi-wan and Darth Vader's previous duel encounter on Mustafar in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. However, despite being a much more even fight than in Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 3, Vader eventually gained the upper hand and left Obi-Wan trapped and unable to move beneath a pile of rocks and earth.

Related: Obi-Wan Vs Vader Perfectly Tied To 1 Subtle Return Of The Jedi Detail

The means of his subsequent escape could be seen as Obi-Wan finally learning the first lesson taught to him by Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. In the opening moments of the movie, Obi-Wan uttered the classic Star Wars line, “I have a bad feeling about this.” When he explained to his Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn, that “It’s not about the mission Master. It’s something elsewhere, elusive,” he was advised by the older Jedi to "Keep your concentration here and now, where it belongs." Obi-Wan’s failure to concentrate on the moment was repeatedly displayed in Obi-Wan Kenobi through his fixation on the guilt and trauma of the past. Ultimately, it was by letting go of the past and concentrating on the present that Obi-Wan was able to escape and defeat Darth Vader again.

Obi Wan fights Vader in Kenobi

The switch in his focus was certainly made clear. Obi-Wan’s initial reaction to being buried by Vader was to focus again on everything he had lost and, specifically, the guilt of failing to stop his best friend, Anakin Skywalker, from becoming Darth Vader. This was hardly surprising, since this “bad feeling” was effectively all he had known and felt before the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Ten years of pain after leaving Darth Vader burnt and maimed on Mustafar was a lot to overcome, but in this moment of apparent defeat, Obi-Wan's thoughts turned away from visions of the past. Instead, he found a way to focus on visions of the present and the hope for the future in the form of the Skywalker twins Luke and Leia. This, in turn, gave him the strength to release himself from everything that had been holding him down, both metaphorically and literally.

The potential significance of the part played by Qui-Gon Jinn’s teachings was backed by his appearance as a Force ghost in Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 6. Throughout the series, Obi-Wan had tried to contact Qui-Gon through the Force, but it took until the final moments of the series for him to appear. When he did, Qui-Gon told him, “I was always here Obi-Wan. You just were not ready to see." The implication of this could be that mindfulness of the present and of “the living Force,” as Qui-Gon put it in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, allowed Obi-Wan to see his old master.

The irony of Obi-Wan’s “bad feeling” in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace was that it turned out to be an effective and accurate foreshadowing of the events of that movie, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Nevertheless, Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn and his sage words had an even larger significance in terms of how Obi-Wan could be understood. More than this, the use of such a subtle call back in Obi-Wan Kenobi showed how Qui-Gon’s simple lesson was powerful enough to help Obi-Wan break free of his guilt and trauma.

More: Darth Vader’s Imperial March Gains A Whole New Meaning After Obi-Wan

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