Summary

• Qui-Gon Jinn's death establishes that Jedi can die, breaking the belief that they fade away like spirits upon death.
• Qui-Gon's body being burned symbolizes the fate of all Jedi, mirroring the destruction of the Jedi Temple in Revenge of the Sith.
• George Lucas subverts the symbolism of Qui-Gon's death by bringing him back as the first Force ghost, ending his story on a hopeful note.

Qui-Gon Jinn is one of the few Jedi in Star Wars to foresee the fall of the Jedi before his untimely death in The Phantom Menace. But George Lucas didn’t kill Qui-Gon off merely because he’d figured out the truth about the Jedi too soon. Qui-Gon sacrifices himself at the end of the film in a duel against Darth Maul, one of the first Sith to appear in over a millennium. Till that point, the Jedi believed the Sith to be extinct. While Qui-Gon had trained and honed his skills under the tutelage of Count Dooku, he probably never expected to come face to face with a Sith assassin.

In a way, Qui-Gon was responsible for the fall of the Jedi, since he insisted Anakin be trained as a Jedi. But at the same time, if Qui-Gon hadn’t died, the audience would have missed out on George Lucas’ subtle foreshadowing of Order 66. Qui-Gon’s death left an impact on Anakin and Obi-Wan, yes, but his demise also served to teach the viewer more about what the Jedi were like during the Republic. He was one of the first on-screen Jedi Masters the audience got to follow.

Qui-Gon Jinn's Death Establishes That Jedi Can Die

His death shows that Jedi don't always fade away

It's important to that Qui-Gon’s death was the first on-screen Jedi death since the original trilogy. At this point, many viewers believed all Jedi faded into nothing, just as Obi-Wan does in A New Hope and Yoda in Return of the Jedi. Qui-Gon breaks this trend by dying a real, physical death. His body doesn’t go anywhere, and is instead burned by the end of the film. Therefore, Qui-Gon’s death teaches the audience that Jedi are real people. And while they do possess a mystical power through the Force, they are not all spirits who fade away upon death.

In The Phantom Menace Commentary from 1999, George Lucas says Qui-Gon’s death was meant to tell the audience the Jedi “are people who are vulnerable, just like every other person.” In other words, Qui-Gon’s death sets up the Jedi to die en masse in Revenge of the Sith; he is the first domino in a chain that will eventually lead to Order 66. Lucas was obsessed with his work rhyming like poetry, and Qui-Gon’s death serves as the beginning of the end of the Jedi in more way than one.

Qui-Gon's Body Suffers The Fate Of All Jedi

Qui-Gon was cremated long before the Jedi Temple went up in flames

As if Qui-Gon’s death wasn’t poetic enough, what happens to his body afterward is also symbolic of what will occur. Traditional Jedi funerals involved the cremation of the body, which is why Qui-Gon was burned by the Jedi Council. Oftentimes the fallen Jedi would be transported back to Coruscant to be cremated at the Jedi Temple, but Qui-Gon’s funeral took place on Naboo due to his heroic sacrifice for the planet. And just as The Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon going up in ashes, so too does Revenge of the Sith end with the Jedi Temple going up in flames.

In a more literal sense, Qui-Gon’s body becomes a part of the past. Nothing is left of his physical form, yet his ideas live on in both Obi-Wan and Anakin. Despite the Sith snuffing him out, Obi-Wan and Anakin carry on his fight against corruption. Similarly, the Jedi Temple is cleaned out and destroyed at the end of the prequel trilogy. But the idea of the Jedi is carried on by the Jedi who survived Order 66. The Sith extinguished both Qui-Gon and the Jedi Order, but Lucas chose not to end their stories in flames.

George Lucas Deliberately Subverted His Theme In Revenge Of The Sith

Despite dying, Qui-Gon is the first Jedi who becomes a Force ghost

Despite all the poetic significance surrounding Qui-Gon’s death, George Lucas subverted all of it at the end of Revenge of the Sith by bringing him back as the first Force ghost. Qui-Gon became the first Force ghost because he learned the technique from Force Priestesses, who Yoda later finds in The Clone Wars season 6. Of course, Qui-Gon’s training wasn’t complete, explaining why he didn’t fade away at the end of The Phantom Menace. But this is also a good thing, because if he had, the viewers would lose out on the symbolism of his physical death.

As far as symbolism goes, it may have been better to leave Qui-Gon dead rather than resurrect him as a Force ghost. But Lucas chose to end his story on a hopeful note, as Qui-Gon is able to return and teach the remaining Jedi the same technique. Similarly, Luke Skywalker was able to bring the Jedi back from the brink of extinction, and like Qui-Gon, he teaches what he knows to the next generation of Jedi. Nevertheless, almost everything that happened to the Jedi Order in Star Wars happened to Qui-Gon first in The Phantom Menace.