well, funnily enough, Pablo said in a recent hyperspacethread that QGJ will be shown as +/- essential in EPIII
he said this on march 3 (I'm not a member, so I got it from sithclan, translated from french):
"The SW fans will understand why the actions and choses of QGJ in TPM play a very important role in the events in the saga."
Originally posted by Lames.s.
A very suttle point of Episode I was to show that Obi-Wan really wasnt ready to train a padawan, especially one as powerful and with as many issues as Anakin. He was kind of dumped by Qui-Gon as soon as he was told that Anakin would not be trained to be a Jedi. You see that he is clearly surprised when Qui-Gon offers to take Anakin as his padawan, kinda like "o.k......I am ready to take the trials".
I also believe that to some degree Anakin felt abandon by Qui-Gon when he died because he is the one who "liberated" him from slavery. I dont believe Anakin had as much respect for Obi-Wan as he did Qui-Gon because when they first met, he was only a padawan.
That's exactly how I've always seen it. Obi-Wan took Anakin as his apprentice to fulfil his promise to Qui-Gon, Anakin wasn't the motivation for it, if that makes sense. Obi-Wan almost feels betrayed.
The tension between the two is shown clearly in Clones. Anakin feels supressed by Obi-Wan, pretty much blaming him for his mother's death. The bond Anakin shared with Qui-Gon was very different to the relationship he has with his master.