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Peace over anger
Honor over hate
Strength over fear

Part of the deluge of new EU material resulting from the massive renewed interest in Star Wars after the release of Episode I, Jedi Apprentice is a series of Star Wars Legends books written for young adults by Jude Watson. Basically an extended prequel to The Phantom Menace (yes, a prequel to the prequel), it follows the adventures of Qui-Gon Jinn and his young apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Although some of the books are stand-alone adventures, most of the series is told in story arcs that are at least three books long. The first arc, about Qui-Gon's old apprentice and enemy, doesn't end until the eighth book (within it is Obi-Wan leaving and returning to the Jedi, which lasts four books).

There were eighteen books in total and two Special Edition books that crossed over with the Jedi Quest series (which was also written by Watson).


This series provides examples of:

  • Abdicate the Throne: Queen Veda of Gala's decision to end the monarchy in favor of democratic elections. In her case, it's the abdication of the entire system, which basically causes the plot of the book.
  • Ace Pilot: All Jedi are pretty capable, but Adi Gallia is one of the best.
    Her response time was amazingly fast, and her feel for her craft was instinctive. If anyone could lose four starfighters without risking damage to their craft, it was Adi.
  • Acid Pool: The pristine Sacred Pools on Telos were polluted into little ponds of opaque black acid so caustic it can dissolve an adult man in a matter of moments, but apparently have no fumes. Andra leans right over one without a problem, and nobody in the immediate vicinity of the man-dissolving is injured by escaping gas either.
  • Adventure Towns: Adventure Planets.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Subverted in book 1. One of the few Star Wars works to portray the Hutts in a positive light.
  • Antagonistic Offspring: Cerasi to Wehutti. Wehutti wants to continue the war on Melida/Daan, she wants to end it.
  • Arch-Enemy: Xanatos to Qui-Gon.
  • Arson, Murder, and Admiration/Arson Murder And Life Saving: How King Frane reacts to the news that his son, Taroon, had staged an attack on his planet in hopes of becoming heir in The Shattered Peace. He promptly appoints the boy heir.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Sith holocron in the second special edition is so evil that it makes the Jedi feel physically ill.
  • Assimilation Academy: Obi-Wan and Siri spend most of "The Fight for Truth" in one. Students who break the rules, ask too many questions, or have chronic illness are essentially Unpersoned to a shadowy basement level where they may be confined to sensory deprivation suits with a brainwashing audiobook.
  • Avenging the Villain: Xanatos wants payback for his father Crion's death. In Jedi Quest, its Spiritual Successor, Xanatos' own son, Granta Omega, seeks vengeance for Xanatos' death.
  • Back Story: Qui-Gon and Xanatos have a troubled history with each other.
  • Badass in Distress: Qui-Gon spends most of books 12 and 13 tied to a science apparatus in Jenna Zan Arbor's lab, being subjected to experiments and having his blood extracted.
  • Bad Boss: Baftu & Terra, Xanatos.
  • Bald of Evil: Ona Nobis, Jenna Zan Abor's bounty hunter.
  • The Baroness: Terra in The Hidden Past. She's got the cold demeanour, ruthlessness, and unchecked cruelty down pat.
  • Because Destiny Says So: At first, Qui-Gon does not want to train Obi-Wan, but when The Force wants something, it gets it.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Taroon and Drenna in The Shattered Peace, Den and Andra in The Day of Reckoning. Qui-Gon and Tahl in the aptly named The Ties That Bind.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed: Xanatos pulls this on Qui-Gon out of spite, ranting about how he's denying him the chance to kill him.
    "I am your biggest failure. Live with that. And live with this!"
  • Big Bad: Xanatos for Books 1-8 (when he doesn't appear, he's The Man Behind the Man) and Jenna Zan Arbor for 11-13. The last bit doesn't really have a clear villain.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: For The Mark of the Crown, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan have to contend with Prince Beju and Lonnag Giba, both of whom want to disrupt the democratic elections for separate reasons; Beju is acting on his own initiative to keep his power, Giba is operating with backing from Xanatos.
  • Big Brother Is Watching: On Kegan, there are records for everything the civilians do, say, meet with, write, etc.
  • Blind Seer: Viso is blind, but knows his way around the palace, knows how to conduct the ritual to determine the succession, and is able to see the outcome of Beju's quest to become King: he will lose.
  • Bounty Hunter: Ona Nobis, from The Deadly Hunter.
  • Bread and Circuses: Used to great effect on Telos, where Xanatos operates massive gambling halls and uses their profits to fund his mining.
  • Bullfight Boss: Elan and the hill people versus a bunch of tanks in "Mark of the Crown."
  • The Butler Did It: Jono is the one poisoning Queen Veda in "The Mark of the Crown" because the end of the monarchy would mean leaving life in the palace to go back to his family of farmers.
  • Call-Forward: In The Fight for Truth, two people have been having prophetic visions. They say they see the Jedi surrounded by darkness that comes from within and engulfs them, they talk about masked soldiers bringing suffering, they predict a planet-destroying explosive. Qui-Gon finds it far-fetched.
    "There is no explosive device powerful enough to destroy a whole planet."
    "Not yet, perhaps."
    • Qui-Gon's brief vision of Obi-Wan as an old man in a desert, with nothing for company except memories.
  • Cat Folk: The Togorian pirates that make their appearance in the first book.
  • Catchphrase: Den: "Joke, right?" Guerra & Paxxi: "So/Just so/It is so."
  • Chekhov's Gun: Towards the beginning of The Dark Rival, when Obi-Wan is being held captive on the mining platform, one of their assignments is mentioned to be especially dangerous because of the presence of ionite, a material with a neutral charge that has a tendency to kill electronic devices, especially timers. At the climax of the book, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are faced with a bomb on a timer, which Qui-Gon would be capable of defusing, but he would need more time than they have. All seems lost until Qui-Gon makes an offhand reference to ionite in the mine where the bomb is planted, at which point Obi-Wan remembers the earlier situation and realizes he can use ionite to stop the timer, giving Qui-Gon the time he needs to defuse the bomb.
  • The Chessmaster:
    • Xanatos throughout the series.
    • Taroon in book 10, The Shattered Peace, who ruthlessly manipulates events to make his father pick him as heir over his brother. To be fair to Taroon, unlike Xanatos he never intends to actually kill anyone and is horrified when he learns that someone is in direct danger because of his plans.
  • Childhood Friend:
    • Bant Eerin, a Mon Calamari girl who is Obi-Wan's closest friend at the Temple.
    • In ''The Call to Vengeance" it is revealed that Tahl was this to Qui-Gon.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: The Jedi are supposed to help others, of course, but Obi-Wan is more likely to get sidetracked from their mission of the day wanting to help someone else. This comes to a boiling point in #5, where he refuses to leave with Qui-Gon and temporarily leaves the Jedi Order.
  • Cliffhanger: Three books end this way.
    • In #5, Defenders of the Dead, Obi-Wan refuses to leave the planet with Qui-Gon and Qui-Gon tells him if he stays, he's no longer part of the Order. Obi-Wan stays anyway.
    • In #11, The Deadly Hunter, Qui-Gon has just been shot in the chest and captured by the bounty hunter Ona Nobis, with no way of knowing where he's been taken.
    • #12, The Evil Experiment, After finally finding Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan is forced to leave him behind to save another life in captivity with him, making his search All for Nothing.
  • Clipboard of Authority: Qui-Gon teaches Obi-Wan that this is a valuable trick.
  • Collateral Angst: Tahl, for Qui-Gon. Cerasi for Obi-Wan, although her death sends ripples throughout the conflict.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: In addition to being an ex-Jedi, Xanatos in the head of Offworld, a downright nasty mining corporation with its hands in slavery, environmental destruction, and illegal smuggling operations. And that's just before lunch.
  • The Corrupter: Xanatos to Bruck Chun and the entire planet of Telos.
  • Covers Always Lie: The Threat Within displays Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan dueling on a series of catwalks. This turns out to be a normal sparring session in a more suitable location, which is tense mainly because Obi-Wan is growing out of apprenticeship.
  • Crapsaccharine World: The isolationist world Kegan is an alleged spiritual utopia, where following the visions of their leaders have made it possible for everyone to be open and honest, pursue their passion, and everyone gets a vote. In practice, it's led to a nigh-totalitarian state, where people's discussions are always monitored, students are forced to go into fields by necessity, not interest, and extremists - or people with illnesses their outdated medicine can't cure - are locked in quasi-gulags so that they don't disturb the image of Kegan as perfect.
  • Create Your Own Villain: How Xanatos became evil.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Qui-Gon easily thwarts Lonnag Giba's clumsy attempt to attack him with Obi-Wan's lightsaber at the end of The Mark of the Crown.
  • Danger Room Cold Open: A number of books start with Obi-Wan in a training exercise at the Temple, frequently wearing a sight-obscuring hood so he'll rely on the Force.
  • Dark Action Girl: Ona Nobis.
  • The Dark Side: Inevitable in a series about Jedi.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Siri Tachi is always making sarcastic remarks and needling Obi-Wan.
    • Obi-Wan himself, being the probably snarkiest character in the franchise, starts to grow into this later on.
  • Death from Above: The draigons attacking in book 1.
  • Disney Villain Death:
    • Xanatos jumps into acid to avoid capture.
    • Nastily subverted in The Captive Temple. Bruck Chun falls off a waterfall during a duel, but Obi-Wan hears his neck snap on the rocks below and is haunted by the sound, to the point where Xanatos can purposely unsettle him by imitating it.
  • Disappeared Dad: Prince Beju of Gala lost his father, King Cana, at a young age.
  • Dual Wielding: Xanatos briefly uses Obi-Wan's lightsaber as well as his own when he duels Qui-Gon in The Dark Rival.
  • The Dragon: Ona Nobis to Jenna Zan Arbor. Xanatos appeared to be turning Bruck into one, but throws him away without batting an eye.
  • Dying as Yourself: Terra in The Hidden Past.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The first book was written by a different author (Dave Wolverton) than the rest of the series.
  • Evil Chancellor: Lonnag Giba, head of Queen Veda's Council of Ministers, attempts to fix the gubernatorial elections by eliminating the Hill People. He's also in the pocket of Offworld.
  • The Evil Prince:
    • Subverted. Taroon, in The Shattered Peace looks the part, and is a ruthless chessmaster out to escape his status as The Unfavorite by ruining his brother's reputation, even going so far as to kidnap his brother and risk war. However, his brother, Leed, does not want the job, a fact that Taroon is very aware of, and his manipulations ultimately prove that by local standards he will be the better king.
    • Prince Beju from The Mark of the Crown is a Royal Brat who attempts to run for governor so he can retain his political power. Beju's mother Queen Veda admits she doesn't want him to win the election, believing that he would be corrupted by power as her husband was. He eventually does a Heel–Face Turn when he learns that he is not the heir to the throne.
  • Evil Redhead: Jenna Zan Arbor.
  • Expansion Pack Past: Giving one to Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon is pretty much the whole point of the series.
  • Explosive Leash: In The Dark Rival, Obi-Wan is abducted and thrown into an ocean mining platform, which uses these to keep their workers in line.
  • Expy: Xanatos is Qui-Gon's Anakin/Vader, although he's never redeemed.
  • Extremely Short Timespan: Longer than most examples in the trope, but nine books the eighteen-book series takes place in the one year that Obi-Wan is thirteen.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Xanatos, Qui-Gon's former apprentice. He later talks Bruck, Obi-Wan's Rival into pulling one.
  • Fantastic Recruitment Drive: This series is one of the few places in Legends canon where we actually see the Prequel-era child Jedi recruitment in detail, discussed in #3 and #11 and seen beginning to end in #9. It comes across about as reasonably as it can. It's stressed that Coruscant is very travelable, it's mentioned (albeit in an early book) that parents can do visits with their kids, it's entirely voluntary, and the Order is essentially pitched as a prestigious and free boarding school that will help their child achieve their potential, with Jedi numbers always high enough that they're never tempted to recruit aggressively or be unethical.
    • In #11, a Senator with a Force-sensitive son who has recently died speculates whether he might've lived if she'd agreed to send him to the Temple as an infant, but Qui-Gon gently assures her that the Temple is just one option of many for someone with sensitivity, and he could've succeeded no matter where he was.
    • On the positive side, a couple in #9 happily sends their baby away because they know the Temple will give her a life of education and opportunities that she'd never be able to access on their home planet.
    • It's also shown that unlike someone like Anakin, a number of Jedi are from still-existing, affluent families, and the Temple can't just refuse to let them meet. It's played in a dark way with Xanatos's father's poisonous influence, but also more-or-less positively with Bruck Chun.
  • The Fettered: Jedi in general, to the frustration of a young Obi-Wan. When Obi-Wan becomes Older and Wiser, Siri starts having a role in the books so she can be frustrated by it.
  • First-Name Basis: On Kegan, people have one-word names, but female names are prefixed with "O-" and male names with "V-". If someone becomes friends they remove the prefixes, so V-Davi becomes Davi.
  • Foil: Xanatos is a deliberate contrast to everything we know about Anakin/Darth Vader as a Jedi who fell to the Dark Side:
    • Instead of a slave on a backwater with a single mother, Xanatos had a single father, was born into a noble and wealthy family, and on the financial powerhouse planet of Telos.
    • While Anakin never embraces his family after the events of Episode II, even after leaving the Order, Xanatos takes advantage of his departure to inherit his family's wealth and is even proud of his relation to his father.
    • Vader was a solitary, reclusive, and ascetic bad guy, whereas Xanatos cultivates many friendly connections, enjoys making money, and happily participates in its public sports.
    • Whereas Darth Vader is middle-aged, ugly, and quiet, Xanatos is youthful, handsome, and silver-tongued.
    • Ultimately, Vader dies trying to do what's right and honoring his son's wishes, whereas Xanatos deliberately refuses to change his ways and kill himself solely for the purpose of inflicting a final pain on his "family," Qui-Gon.
  • Foregone Conclusion:
    • A plot-arc in the middle of the series has Obi-Wan leave the Jedi Order. Since he's a member in The Phantom Menace, we know he'll come back.
    • Earlier, Qui-Gon rejects Obi-Wan as as potential apprentice, causing him to be sent off to the Agricultural Corps, never to become a Jedi Knight. Again, The Phantom Menace makes it clear that this situation is not permanent.
    • Order 66 and its aftereffects eventually result in Obi-Wan and Yoda being the only Jedi left alive, meaning that every Master, Knight, Padawan, and student Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan interact with is going to die.
      • Subverted, as many of the cast went on to be characters in other Legends publications, including after Order 66.
  • Fun with Acronyms: The POWER party stands for "Preserve Our Wild Endangered Resources".
  • The Ghost: During the Melida/Daan story arc, it's mentioned that the grandson of the Daan factions leader is one of the Young, but he never appears in person or interacts with Obi-Wan. Cerasi also mentions having an older brother who left to work at a munitions plant before she and Nield founded The Young.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Xanatos has a crescent scar that stands out on one of his cheeks. He burned it in with his dead father's signet ring, and a design based on it serves as the Offworld logo.
  • Greed: Xanatos and his father, Crion, both suffered from it, starting a War for Fun and Profit in order to enrich themselves, and Xanatos' current objective seems to be to make as much money as he can or die in the attempt. In The Day of Reckoning this trope is discussed by Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, who can feel the greed and lust for money that has infiltrated Telos since the Katharsis gambling event was created.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: King Frane and Prince Taroon in The Shattered Peace.
  • Handicapped Badass: Tahl really tries, despite her blindness.
  • Icy Blue Eyes: Xanatos' are cold and frozen.
  • Innocent Aliens: Arconans.
  • It's Personal: Xanatos vs. Qui-Gon is very personal for both of them, no matter what Qui-Gon says.
  • It Was a Gift: Obi-Wan receives a river stone as a thirteenth birthday gift from Qui-Gon. He's disappointed not to have received something more impressive or practical, but tries to appreciate it for its beauty. The stone then turns out to be Force-sensitive and its presence helps Obi-Wan in a dire situation. Qui-Gon says he didn't know it was Force-sensitive, but Obi-Wan thinks that might be a joke.
  • Jumped at the Call: Obi-Wan really, really wants to be a Jedi Knight, and his impulsive actions in the first two books nearly result in that never happening. He can also get very swept up in whatever local conflict is happening, which has disastrous consequences in the fifth and sixth books.
  • Kick the Dog: Xanatos tries to break Obi-Wan during their final battle by playing on Obi-Wan's guilt of accidentally killing Bruck. It fails, but it was still extremely cruel.
  • Kid Hero: Obi-Wan is only a few weeks from his thirteenth birthday in the first book, and then turns fourteen a handful of books later. Most other kid characters are about the same age.
  • Kids Versus Adults:
    • The Melida/Daan conflict has a third faction called the Young. It's made up of teenagers from both sides of the conflict who are just sick of the endless cycle of vengeance. Although it costs them dearly, they eventually achieve their goal with Obi-Wan's help after he chooses to stay with them.
    • The Vorzydiak are a much lighter generational conflict. The youth movement is simply trying to change the workaholic culture because they don't want to spend their whole lives working and then die at retirement like their grandparents do.
  • Kill Him Already!
  • Lean and Mean: Xanatos, later Ona Nobis (whose leanness and flexibility is a species trait, not so much the meanness).
  • Living Macguffin: The force-sensitive baby O-Lana in the ninth book. She brings the Jedi to the planet; when she vanishes, Qui-Gon and Adi learn a lot about the totaliarian nature of the planet over the course of their search for her, and Obi-Wan and Siri eventually find her in the Re-Learning Circle. Really, any baby could have fit the bill.
  • Loveable Rogue: Den from The Day of Reckoning.
  • Love Makes You Evil: The Jedi Council believes that Qui-Gon is in danger from this trope after the assassination of Tahl. Consider at this cover, for example.
  • Made a Slave: Obi-Wan in the second book. In legal terms, it's not actually named slavery, but when they strap on a collar that explodes if you escape....
  • Mad Scientist: Jenna Zan Arbor, who kidnaps Qui-Gon so that she might conduct experiments on the Force.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Xanatos to one of the candidates (Book 4), Bruck in Book 7, and god knows how many other people across the galaxy. Jenna Zan Arbor to Ona Nobis.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Xanatos. He utterly screws with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's heads during all of their encounters, turns Bruck to the Dark Side, and manipulates public opinion with ease.
  • Measuring the Marigolds: The villainous scientist Jenna Zan Arbor's motivation is her desire to break down and measure the Force. She attempts this by kidnapping and torturing Qui-Gon Jinn.
  • MegaCorp: UniFy in The Day of Reckoning is a MegaCorp that through bribery and legitimate business dealings controls all of Telos' sacred spaces. UniFy is itself a front for Offworld, Xanatos' mining corporation, which has a hand in half the illegal dealings in the galaxy.
  • Missing Mom: Princes Leed and Taroon's mother died when they were quite young.
  • My Greatest Failure: Xanatos tries to force Qui-Gon to admit that he is his. Qui-Gon declines to dwell on it to that degree.
  • Myth Arc: Two in the form of Obi-Wan's growth as a Jedi and Xanatos's quest for revenge against the Jedi. In-between, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon spend most of their time solving the problems of Adventure Towns (problems in which Xanatos may or may not have an indirect hand).
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Qui-Gon shows severe Genre Blindness in choosing to trust a kid named "Xanatos".
  • Odd Friendship: Qui-Gon and diner proprietor Didi Oddo. Obi-Wan is shocked when they greet with a hug.
  • Oddly Small Organization: The POWER party on Telos is really just Andra (and Den, but only because he likes Andra). In fairness, there used to be more members before it was outlawed. Those who weren't "disappeared" decided to quit.
  • Offered the Crown: Queen Veda gives Elan the option of claiming her rights as the king's firstborn, but she declines as she has been a hill person for her whole life.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Our dragons are giant airborne fish.
  • Panthera Awesome: The first book introduces us to the Togorian race, a species of cat people.
  • Planetville: An attempt to subvert this trope is made, but the writers having no sense of scale gets in the way. Gala has multiple towns and lots of farming country, plus multiple biomes, but manages to be occupied entirely by three tribes. Melida/Daan has lots of cities and towns, but this is irrelevant as all you apparently need to be considered ruler of the planet is the city of Zehava. The planet Kegan has only one city, the rest being used for agriculture and animal raising, but its population is small and there are some other structures elsewhere.
    • It's often justified, though, since the type of communities that need to send for Jedi are ones without effective infrastructure or bureaucracy.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: Bant is Obi-Wan's best friend—she accepts him back immediately after Melida/Daan and he often thinks about how much he values her companionship, but there's no mention of any romantic feelings. It helps that she's a squid-faced Mon Calamari and so there's unlikely to be strong physical attraction.
  • Police State:
    • Phindar is ruled by a totalitarian crime syndicate and memory-wipes anyone who offends them.
    • Kegan is a less violent one. They try at benevolence, but their laws are quite smothering.
  • Prequel: A prequel to a prequel, even.
  • A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Xanatos to Qui-Gon.
  • Redhead In Green: On the cover of "The Defenders of the Dead", Cerasi, who has copper-colored hair, is shown wearing a green tunic.
  • Revenge: Xanatos wants it on the Jedi. The people of the Crapsack World of Melida/Daan have it as a way of life.
    • Revenge Before Reason: The people of Melida/Daan put avenging past defeats ahead of feeding and educating their children, using what little farmable land they have left to build mausoleums they call "Halls of Evidence" so that they might encourage future generations to fight harder. They've wrecked their world, and for the most part, don't care.
    • Sins of Our Fathers: The Melida and the Daan will cheerfully butcher one another over wrongs that happened a hundred years ago.
  • The Rival:
    • Rival Turned Evil: Bruck Chun to Obi-Wan. He lets his rage drive him to sabotage, attempted murder, and worse, all while trusting Xanatos.
    • Siri takes the Rival role later on, which ends up as an Odd Couple dynamic as they get to know each other.
  • Rock Beats Laser: The Hill People on Gala soundly beat the royal tank corps thanks to their superior knowledge of terrain and weather conditions. They are on proper swoops, but they're widely considered to be primitive barbarians.
  • Royal Brat: Prince Beju of Gala, who is absolutely incensed at his mother's decision to end the monarchy. He responds by entering the gubernatorial race and plotting to throw the election with an engineered bacta shortage.
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: There are only three tribes on the entire planet of Gala.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Bruck Chun, oh so very much. Xanatos is also this, though in his case, he established the connections specifically so he could screw the rules.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Xanatos, via Offworld, his mining corporation.
  • Secret Legacy: King Cana had a secret marriage to a Hill tribeswoman named Tema, who bore a daughter named Elan. This would mean that she would be ruler because of the Mark of the Crown, which designates who would be ruler.
  • Self-Disposing Villain: Xanatos, who commits suicide rather than submit to capture.
  • Sense Loss Sadness: Tahl is blinded and struggles to come to grips with it and the automatic pity people feel for her. Oddly, while this is a galaxy in which prosthetic eyes are easy to come by, they give her an annoyingly talkative seeing-eye droid and lessons in boosting her other senses instead.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: In The Day Of Reckoning, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan help a pair of ecological activists expose the effects of Offworld's operations on Telos. In the Special Edition book The Followers, it turns out that the planet was destroyed by more industrial companies some years later.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: In The Shattered Peace. On the one hand we have Leed: The Wise Prince, The Ace, and a pacifist who has gone native in captivity, and seeks peace between his birth world and his adopted one. On the other we have Taroon: a physically awkward Chessmaster who wants the power that Leed is so willing to throw away, has a Hair-Trigger Temper worthy of their Hot-Blooded father, and loathes the Senali as much as Leed loves them (at least until he begins falling for Drenna). Surprisingly, Cain and Abel is averted; the brothers love each other even if they can't see eye to eye.
  • Spiritual Successor: Followed by Jedi Quest, which took place between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones and featured similar adventures for Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker. Future kidlit series - The Last of the Jedi, taking place after Revenge of the Sith, and Rebel Force, between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back - have a similar tone and many callbacks, but are a little different.
  • Sword Fight: Obi-Wan gets challenged to one by Prince Beju in The Mark of the Crown. He needs a bit of time to adjust to the sword's weight as it throws off his footing.
  • The Syndicate: "The Syndicat" which appears in The Hidden Past is a criminal organisation that has managed to seize control of the planet Phindar, controlling all supplies, and memory wiping those who oppose them.
  • Tank Goodness: When the Galan Royal Guards have a problem, their initial reaction is to throw tanks at it until it dies.
  • Time Skip: There is one between "The Day of Reckoning" and "The Fight for Truth", and mention of months passing. Obi-Wan is still thirteen, but somewhat less impulsive than before.
    • There's another one between "The Dangerous Rescue" and "The Ties That Bind," taking Obi-Wan from thirteen to sixteen.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: Obi-Wan decides to leave the Jedi in Defenders of the Dead, not wanting to abandon the Young just because the mission is over. It turns out badly for him, and he spends the next two-and-a-half books trying to regain Qui-Gon's trust.
  • Town with a Dark Secret: Loads of them.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting:
    • The point-of-view swaps between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon at regular intervals. They usually separate (intentionally or not) early in the story to conduct a full investigation of what's going on.
    • The Special Edition books switch off between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan starting a mystery and Obi-Wan and Anakin solving it years later.
  • The Un-Favourite: Taroon in The Shattered Peace.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Xanatos in Day Of Reckoning.
  • War Is Hell: The entire point of the Melida/Daan arc. The planet has been embroiled in a 300-year long Civil War that's left the cities in shambles, economies are entirely driven towards new weapons, there is no food, no medical supplies, and the entire middle generation has been wiped out. It's no surprise that the planet is a Crapsack World that can't even agree on a name; the slash between Melida and Daan is a compromise by the Republic.
  • Weapon Stomp: Obi-wan ends his duel with Prince Beju in The Mark of the Crown by leaping into the air and landing on the Prince's wrist.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Taroon in The Shattered Peace, whose father prefers his older brother Leed to him.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kegan's rulers, V-Tan and O-Vieve, had visions of a very dark future - the Empire - and took steps to try to protect their planet from it by completely isolating it from the galaxy, which does mean its technology is far behind and people regularly die from otherwise treatable diseases. They also monitor the every move of their citizens - who vote but only on things V-Tan and O-Vieve allow them to vote on - raise them to be xenophobic and trusting of their leaders, and secretly take willful or chronically ill children into solitary confinement to strap into "sensory deprivation suits" where the only sensation is of a voice whispering propaganda.
    "Everything we have done is to protect our citizens from a fate they cannot imagine. Perhaps some of our measures seem harsh, but they are only for the General Good."
    • It's hinted that the visions were of the planet falling victim to one of The Empire's superweapons. If ending their tyrannical rule did mean Kegan was better known later and got blown up, that makes The Fight For Truth a Shoot the Shaggy Dog story.
      • That vision does not come to pass though, as Kegan survives to be conquered by the Yuuzhan Vong, not that this is a great fate itself.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Obi-Wan gets this from nearly everyone after he decides he wants to rejoin the Jedi after Melida/Daan. Of note are Qui-Gon, who takes two entire books to accept him back, and Siri, who tells Obi-Wan that his actions have caused tension between almost all Master-Padawan pairs.
    • Qui-Gon gets called out by Yoda and Tahl for all but forcing Obi-Wan to leave in the first place by making the boy to choose between staying with the Jedi and leaving his new friends and hundreds (perhaps thousands) of kids to die or leaving the Jedi and staying to help them.
  • White Hair, Black Heart: Bruck Chun, Obi-Wan's Jerkass rival. He eventually falls under the sway of Xanatos and becomes his evil Padawan.
  • Workaholic: Vorzyd IV's society and identity is completely structured around work, to the point that they get panic attacks from work disruptions, and many lose the will to live after retirement. The young Vorzydiaks start an underground movement to try and relieve this.
  • World Half Empty: Not the galaxy in general, as Jude Watson portrays it, but the war-ravaged planet of Melida/Daan very much so.
  • You Killed My Father: One of the many, many reasons that Xanatos wants Qui-Gon Jinn's head on a plate.

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