The Secret Star Wars Prequel Detail Hidden In The Original Trilogy
The Star Wars prequels were filled with Easter eggs and other details for fans of the Original Trilogy to find. This ranged from very obvious ones like the appearance of major characters (including Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt) to more subtle ones (like the relationship between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa). Years later, however, a Star Wars short story would confirm at least one detail from the prequels hidden in the Original Trilogy: Yoda’s blanket on Dagobah is actually the cloak that Qui-Gon Jinn wore on Naboo in The Phantom Menace.
The Canonical Cloak
When the original Star Wars movies were coming out, there didn’t seem to be any special significance to Yoda’s blanket, and nobody knew who Qui-Gon was or what midi-chlorians were. This bit of cloth was just one more feature in Yoda’s very simple life on Dagobah. In fact, the only reason most fans paid any attention to the blanket in the first place is that we got a slow-motion look at it when Yoda died and became one with the Force.
Obviously, nothing from the prequels is explicitly mentioned in the Original Trilogy, so how do we know that Yoda’s blanket was once Qui-Gon’s cloak? This information comes to us courtesy of the anthology book From a Certain Point of View. The book came out in 2017, and as such, it helped to reinforce the Star Wars canon while adding its own wrinkles to franchise lore with each short story.
There Is Another
One of those stories is called “There Is Another.” It begins with Master Yoda on Dagobah using the Force to sense some of the events of A New Hope (before the Qui-Gon connection is made), including the rescue of Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s final duel with Darth Vader. Even as he senses all of these events from far away, Yoda has to deal with an immediate problem: several Imperial Probe Droids that have landed on Dagobah.
Hand-Me-Down Through Retconning
In a truly unexpected twist, Yoda ends up using Force lightning to destroy some of the droids, one of whom crashes into his sack and sets it on fire. Fortunately, the Jedi Master is able to retrieve his blanket from the sack before it is damaged. At this point, the text makes it clear that Yoda’s blanket used to be Qui-Gon Jinn’s cloak before he was struck down by Darth Maul on Naboo.
The Qui-Gon Connection
Most of the rest of the short story involves Yoda arguing with the Force spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi about training Luke Skywalker. They bicker a bit and then make up, with Kenobi calling his former mentor a “luminous being.” Presumably, this is meant to set up Yoda’s own “luminous beings are we” quote from the Original Trilogy, and the story ends with Yoda wrapping Qui-Gon’s old cloak around himself and going to sleep.
An Obvious Detail You Can’t Unsee
As Star Wars short stories go, this one is a mixed bag…frankly, it’s a tad weird to think about Yoda and Obi-Wan regularly arguing like an old married couple, and it’s even weirder to think that Yoda was regularly using Dark Side-style Force lightning to blow up droids. However, we did enjoy the story clarifying that Yoda has been rocking Qui-Gon’s cloak for all these years. Now we know that a forgotten detail from the prequels has been right in front of us for decades, allowing us to enjoy our favorite trilogy in a whole new way.
