Jedi Apprentice

"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 Expanded Universe books written for "young adults" (ie. tweens).

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. Don't be fooled, though; it's much better than it has to be.

""I am your biggest failure. Live with that. And live with this!""
 * Adventure Towns
 * Exclusively Evil: Subverted in book 1. One of the first Star Wars works to portray the Hutts in a positive light.
 * Arch Enemy: Xanatos to Qui-Gon.
 * Arson, Murder, and Admiration/Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: 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.
 * Avenging the Villain: Xanatos wants payback for his father, Crion's death. In Jedi Quest, it's Spiritual Successor, Granta Omega seeks vengeance for Xanatos' death.
 * Backstory: Qui-Gon and Xanatos have a troubled history with each other.
 * Badass: Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan's well on his way. Xanatos and Ona Nobis are excellent villainous badasses.
 * Badass Long Hair: Qui-Gon Jinn
 * Handicapped Badass: Tahl really tries, despite her blindness.
 * Bad Boss: Baftu & Terra, Xanatos.
 * Bald of Evil: Ona Nobis
 * 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.
 * Better to Die Than Be Killed: Xanatos pulls this on Qui-Gon out of spite, ranting about how he is denying him the chance to kill him.

""There is no explosive device powerful enough to destroy a whole planet," Qui-Gon said."
 * Big Bad: Xanatos for Books 1-8 and Jenna Zan Arbor for 11-13. The last bit doesn't really have a clear villain.
 * Blue Eyes: Xanatos' are cold and frozen.
 * Bounty Hunter: Ona Nobis, from The Deadly Hunter.
 * Bullfight Boss: Qui-Gon versus a bunch of tanks in "Mark of the Crown."
 * Catch Phrase: Den: "Joke, right?" Guerra & Paxxi: "So/Just so/It is so."
 * Call Forward (Continuity Nod): In the Fight for Truth:


 * Qui-Gon's brief vision of Obi-Wan as an old man in a desert, with nothing for company except memories
 * The Chessmaster: Xanatos throughout the series; Tyron in book 10, The Shattered Peace, who ruthlessly manipulates events to make his father pick him as heir over his brother.
 * Clipboard of Authority: Qui-Gon teaches Obi-Wan that this is a valuable trick.
 * 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.
 * Create Your Own Villain: So, the Jedi council has this problem kid, Xanatos. Too much anger and whatnot. And they decide that hey, we're not sure we can trust him, we need to put him to the test. So they send him and his master to intervene in a conflict where his dad is the Man Behind the Man, and everyone knows it, in the hopes that he'll screw up and they can boot him out. Well as it turns out, the plan works a little too well. Xanatos Face Heel Turns, his Master is forced to kill his father, and he swears bloody revenge on the Temple, going on to become a Corrupt Corporate Executive and Manipulative Bastard out for Jedi blood, who spreads slavery and death wherever he goes. Nice Job Breaking It Heroes.
 * Dark Action Girl: Ona Nobis
 * The Dark Side
 * Death From Above: The draigons attacking in book 1.
 * Disney Villain Death: Xanatos jumps into acid to avoid capture.
 * The Dragon: Ona Nobis to Jenna Zan Arbor. Xanatos appears to be turning Bruck into one, but throws him away without batting an eye.
 * Dying as Yourself: Terra in The Hidden Past.
 * The Evil Prince: Subverted. Taroon, in The Shattered Peace looks the part, and is a ruthless Chessmaster out to escape his status as The Unfavourite 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.
 * 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.
 * Expy: Xanatos, the beloved padawan whose master doesn't foresee him falling to the Dark Side because attachment blinds him. Dunno about you, but that kinda reminds me of someone... Tall, Dark and Asthmatic
 * Face Heel Turn: Xanatos, Qui-Gon's former apprentice. He later talks Bruck, Obi-Wan's Rival into pulling one.
 * The Fettered: Jedi in general.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Hot Scientist: Jenna Zan Arbor would be quite attractive if she weren't a homicidal lunatic.
 * Innocent Aliens: Arconans.
 * It's Personal: Xanatos vs Qui-Gon is very personal for both of them, no matter what Qui-Gon says.
 * Jumped At the Call: Obi-Wan.
 * 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.
 * Kill Him Already
 * Lean and Mean: Xanatos, Ona Nobis.
 * 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 . Consider at this cover, for example.
 * 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, with shades of Magnificence. 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.
 * Mega Corp: UniFy in The Day of Reckoning is a Mega Corp 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.
 * 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.
 * Xanatos is mentioned in book one and his company is the backer of the villain in book 4.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Qui-Gon shows severe Genre Blindness in choosing to trust a kid named "Xanatos".
 * The Obi-Wan: ....not Obi-Wan himself in this series. Qui-Gon is Obi-Wan's Obi Wan here.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Our dragons are giant airborn fish.
 * The Plan: Xanatos in here...did not name a suptrope of this, but he is somewhat good at using this trope and others like it.
 * 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.
 * Prequel
 * A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Xanatos to Qui-Gon.
 * 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: Bruck to Obi-Wan.
 * Rival Turned Evil: Bruck Chun to Obi-Wan. He lets his rage drive him to sabotage, attempted murder, and worse, all while trusting Xanatos.
 * Self-Disposing Villain: Xanatos, who commits suicide.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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. Surprisingly, Cain and Abel is averted; the brothers love each other even if they can't see eye to eye.
 * 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.
 * Two Lines, No Waiting: The point-of-view swaps between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon at regular intervals.
 * The Unfavourite: Taroon in The Shattered Peace.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: Xanatos in Day Of Reckoning.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Taroon in The Shattered Peace, whose father prefers his older brother Leed to him.
 * Whip It Good: Ona Nobis.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Bruck Chun.
 * 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.