Character Analysis
When The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, Star Wars fans hadn't seen ol' Obi-Wan Kenobi for sixteen years. And then he'd been dead for a while… not that he'd let a little something like death get in the way of delivering life lessons to his latest student, Luke Skywalker.
In The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan is alive and well, but the master has become the student… as well as revealing a shocking fact: young Obi Wan was a hottie with a body. As such (a student, not a cutie-pie) his journey in The Phantom Menace is a coming-of-age story, and we witness his growth from cocky youth to more sensible Jedi knight.
So Was I If You'll Remember
When Luke Skywalker first meets Yoda, the wise Jedi says of the boy, "All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing! […] You are reckless." To which Obi-Wan calmly replies:
"So was I if you'll remember."
When we are introduced to Obi-Wan in The Phantom Menace, we see exactly what he meant by that:
OBI-WAN: I have a bad feeling about this.
QUI-GON: I don't sense anything.
OBI-WAN: It's not about the mission, Master. It's something… elsewhere, elusive.
QUI-GON: Don't center on your anxieties, Obi-Wan. Keep your concentration here and now, where it belongs.
OBI-WAN: But Master Yoda said I should be mindful of the future.
QUI-GON: But not at the expense of the moment. Be mindful of the living Force, young Padawan.
We learn two things from this exchange. First: a tad contradictory in his teachings Yoda is, hmm? And second: Obi-Wan is no longer the master but the youth in need of lessons. Like Luke, he's looking to the future while his mind should be on the present task of negotiating an end to the blockade.
For most of the film, Obi-Wan follows Qui-Gon and learns from him and his example. We see another lesson for Obi-Wan when they visit the Gungan City to secure transportation to the Naboo capital. When Boss Nass agrees to give them a bonga, Obi-Wan is all set to leave, but Qui-Gon stops to consider Jar Jar:
JAR JAR: Deysa setten yousa up. Goen through da planet core? Bad bombin'. Mmm… any help here would be hot.
OBI-WAN: Master, we're short on time.
QUI-GON: We'll need a navigator to get us through the planet's core. This Gungan may be of help.
Obi-Wan's ready to leave Jar Jar to his fate, but Qui-Gon believes in a living Force that controls the fate of the universe for good, not coincidences. Obi-Wan will learn the lesson again on Tatooine when he snidely remarks, "Why do I sense we've picked up another pathetic life-form?" and Qui-Gon informs him he is picking up Anakin, the boy who rescued them from Tatooine. Massive guilt slam.
While it's not entirely obvious in The Phantom Menace, we see Obi-Wan take these lessons to heart in the later films. In A New Hope, the old master doesn't send R2-D2 away claiming he never owned a droid. He invites Luke and the droids into his home and sees what path the Force has in store for him.
Later in the film, Obi-Wan disagrees with Qui-Gon about Anakin:
OBI-WAN: It's not disrespect, Master. It's the truth.
QUI-GON: From your point of view.
OBI-WAN: The boy is dangerous. They all sense it. Why can't you?
QUI-GON: His fate is uncertain. He's not dangerous.
Again, we see Obi-Wan learning from Qui-Gon's lessons. He later apologizes to his master for disagreeing with him about Anakin, and in Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan lays the "truth from a certain point of view" lesson on Luke.
Mentor Achievement Unlocked
During the lightsaber duel with Darth Maul, Qui-Gon is killed by the Sith. Angered (bad Jedi), Obi-Wan engages his enemy and is able to overcome him, killing Darth Maul after a furious fight.
Hearing his master's dying wishes, Obi-Wan agrees to take Anakin as his apprentice. This is the moment that Obi-Wan grows from student to Jedi knight and from youth to adult. Later, Yoda confirms this when he says:
"Confer on you the level of Jedi Knight the council does. But agree with your taking this boy as your Padawan learner I do not."
Obi-Wan has faced his enemy and didn't give into his hate despite Qui-Gon being slain. He has also taken on an apprentice, and Obi-Wan's role in the saga from here on out will be as a teacher to the Skywalkers, both Anakin and Luke.
Obi-Wan Kenobi's Timeline