SW.com on Qui-Gon's Prime

Jedi Master Jinn possesses strong features and a piercing gaze. Powerfully built and speaking in a grave and determined voice, he has a very intimidating presence. He wears his long hair tied back so as not to obstruct his peripheral vision. Although a little past his prime, he remains a powerful warrior and a very active Jedi Knight.

https://web.archive.org/web/20000815063241/http://www.starwars.com/characters/qui_gon/

Thoughts on the implications of this? What to make of it?

This seems consistent with the TPM adult novel emphasizing his physicals are just beginning to decline.

It shows Qui-Gon is slightly better in his prime than he was in TPM, but not by much.

The only thing proves is that Jinn was better physically before TPM and was more successful. His loss in physicality, however, is compensated by his greater experience as of TPM which allowed him to give such a solid performance against Darth Maul. Debating a hypothetical pre-TPM Jinn is pointless.

Nothing groundbreaking. As Ant pointed out it corroborates what TPM novel already told us.

The novel refers specifically to his physicals, where this quote is referring to his overall prime. Strictly speaking, as HP pointed out, the definition of prime doesn't rule out Qui-Gon still being at his combative prime at TPM; which is supported by various secondary sources.

Meatpants wrote:The novel refers specifically to his physicals, where this quote is referring to his overall prime.

What is the assumption that it's referring to his "overall prime" based on?

Avatar of the Light wrote:The only thing proves is that Jinn was better physically before TPM and was more successful. His loss in physicality, however, is compensated by his greater experience as of TPM which allowed him to give such a solid performance against Darth Maul. Debating a hypothetical pre-TPM Jinn is pointless.

Yeah no lol. Qui Gon was "physically unable to compete" against Maul by TCSWE. You have to be stretching it to believe that 3 years of extra experience( example) doing basic missions that challenge him in no way that too when he is like nearing 60 is going to compensate for him being at peak in physicals

LOTL wrote:Yeah no lol. Qui Gon was "physically unable to compete" against Maul by TCSWE.

Other quotes defer to Maul's superior skill as the reason, so we can't just cherry pick one reason over the rest. The ultimate reason Qui-Gon couldn't win was because he was simply considerably weaker in the Force.

LOTL wrote:You have to be stretching it to believe that 3 years of extra experience( example) doing basic missions that challenge him in no way that too when he is like nearing 60 is going to compensate for him being at peak in physicals

Maybe, but Kenobi also notes that his mastery of the Force increased considerably "near the end of his life". We can't be sure, but there's no Qui-Gon you can really debate except TPM, and really I doubt three years made that much of a difference to him combatively in terms of physicals.

Okay so I've thought the quote through a bit more, and I'm thinking Qui-Gon may very well be post-prime as of TPM.

TPM Novelisation wrote:Qui-Gon was nearing sixty; his youth was behind him and his strength was beginning to diminish.

This is despite the fact that Qui-Gon kept himself physically active:

Star Wars Episode I Qui-Gon Jinn Mega-Collectible wrote:Though he is in his sixties, with his long hair turning gray, he is still an active and powerful warrior.

So his lagging physicals are purely the result of his body starting to degrade (i.e. getting old). Now, in School of Fear, Kenobi notes that Qui-Gon's power had increased "near the end of his life." Leaving that for a minute, let's re-examine the Databank quote:

Jedi Master Jinn possesses strong features and a piercing gaze. Powerfully built and speaking in a grave and determined voice, he has a very intimidating presence. He wears his long hair tied back so as not to obstruct his peripheral vision. Although a little past his prime, he remains a powerful warrior and a very active Jedi Knight.

Here, the reference to Qui-Gon's prime is in the same sentence as power and physicality, indicating that "prime" is referring to combative prime. If this is true, then Qui-Gon grew in power "near the end of his life", but in the few years or whatever time it may be leading up to TPM, his lagging physicals due to age outweighed his growth in power, resulting in an overall combatively weaker Jinn as of TPM. Thus, Jinn was in fact past his prime combatively in TPM.