Star Wars Question #34: Was Obi Wan negligent?

At the beginning of Episode 1, Qui-gon and Obi Wan haul ass when the destroyer droids show up. They run FAST! So when Obi Wan needs to catch up to Qui-gon when he was fighting Darth Maul, why didn't he run as fast? Why did he allow himself to get caught by those beam things?

And what the hell were those things anyway?

Please do not recommend this thread. Serious offers only.

Too easy to run into the forcefield right when it turns on. And since force fields are really thin... and they repel on either side. So going too fast could have easily led to a filleted Obi-Wan AND a dead Qui-Gon, rather than just a dead Qui-Gon.

Now the real question is... since it appeared to be completely safe to stand both inside and outside the room with the bottomless shaft... why the futz was there a series of forcefields there in the first place?

My personal opinion: the only way to truly beat a Sith Lord involves them falling down a bottomless shaft of some sort. And with Darth Sidious being as influencial as he was, he managed to pass a law (at least on Naboo) to make sure that bottomless shafts are protected by several force fields.

We shall call that the "DarkTirade shaft theory."

see, I was planning on making a set of Mandalorian armor... and since I make lightsabers, and have a few lying around, I figured I'd have a few hanging off my belt as 'trophies', and go for a Jedi Hunter character.

So every now and then I figure I'll break out into an aussie accent and say something like, "Crikey, this one's a real beaut! What we have here is a genuine Old Republic Sith Lawd, with a double soided lightsabeh. Now the key to taking out these cheeky buggehs is to pick youah battle ground. Make sure you foight 'em near a bottomless pit of some koind..." ect ect. :P

We're dealing with Jedi and Sith, not average beings. It's entirely possible that the force-fields existed because there was radiation present in the core that would kill (or at least injure) a normal person, radiation which they were able to shield themselves from using their Jedi powers. Which, in fact, ties into my theory re: quick-running. Since using Force abilities drains a Jedi of energy, Obi-Wan had to be careful to conserve his powers for the fight ahead. With an impending lightsaber duel against Darth Maul, and deadly core radiation to shield himself from, it would've been irresponsible to waste his energy on quick-running and leave himself weakened for the battle ahead.

Or, if you prefer, he was powerless in the face of a merciless and unrelenting plot device.

You present an awesome argument.

The fatal flaw in the argument would be that the force-fields all open and close simultaneously, leaving the outer rooms exposed and making the multiple-force-field system completely and totally useless. But I try not to think about that.

He was up against the most powerful force in the universe... the scriptwriters.