Obi-Wan Kenobi is a tragic figure in Star Wars when you examine his life. He lost his master and father figure, Qui-Gon Jinn, and the love of his life, Duchess Satine Kryze, to former Sith Lord Maul. Then, he loses his best friend, Anakin Skywalker, to the Dark Side of the Force.
Obi-Wan subjected himself to his own failure to save Anakin by watching Luke grow. The boy grew into a young man with the same longing for adventure as his father. When the Empire suddenly comes calling, Kenobi ventures off Tatooine for the first time in years and pushes the Skywalker twins back together, just as Yoda foresaw all those moons earlier on Polis Massa.
After his death at his former apprentice’s hand, Obi-Wan continues to guide Luke from the netherworld of the Force. After Yoda dies, Kenobi reveals to the young Skywalker that Leia is his twin sister and that only he could stop the Emperor and bring about the end of the Empire. Like his mother before him, Luke knew there was good within his father and made it his mission to bring him back to the light, despite Obi-Wan’s objections.
A couple of years later, Leia and her husband, Han Solo, named their son after the man who had bought them and Luke together. However, even the boy’s name couldn’t shed the so-called Kenobi curse.
Obi-Wan Should’ve Learned From Qui-Gon’s Death
As the Obi-Wan Kenobi series comes closer to release, we thought we’d examine aspects of Obi-Wan’s life, and how they could tie in with the show. We thought we’d start with Qui-Gon’s death and how there should’ve been growth.
Qui-Gon’s death at Darth Maul’s hand hit Obi-Wan in the feels, and it showed when he started training Anakin. Kenobi’s approach to teaching the boy was different from how Jinn would’ve done it. After all, Obi-Wan was barely out of his own training when he took up Skywalker as his apprentice.
Jinn had patience, whereas Obi-Wan had it, but not a lot as Anakin constantly fought against him. As Skywalker voiced to Padmé Amidala after his mother’s death, he felt Kenobi was holding him back. While he was venting due to the overbearing grief of losing Shmi, deep down, he suppressed the feeling. He valued their friendship more than his animosity.
Over the years, Qui-Gon taught himself and later Obi-Wan and Yoda to manifest in the Force after their deaths. At first, Jinn could only project his voice but later managed to show his entire being. Showing himself to his former student on Tatooine during Kenobi’s self-imposed exile would’ve served as relief for him after spending so long alone and watching Luke grow.
Perhaps the series will touch on Qui-Gon’s impact on how Obi-Wan taught Anakin back in the day.
Losing Satine And Maul’s Revenge
One of the biggest losses Obi-Wan faced in life was the love of his life, Duchess Satine Kryze, the leader of Mandalore. Her death, at the hands of his adversary Darth Maul, would’ve been difficult to swallow. After all, the former Sith Lord was still bitter over being cut in half a decade and a half earlier on Naboo during the same duel, in which he killed Qui-Gon.
To have two of the most important people taken from him should’ve destroyed Obi-Wan internally. However, these moments weren’t enough to shatter him. Anakin’s fall to the dark side is what makes everything hammer home.
Prior to Satine’s death, Obi-Wan had never met her sister, Bo-Katan. That is until she helped free him from Maul’s warriors after the duchess’ murder. He realised who she was upon talking with her and gave his condolences. While their first interaction was brief, the second time, wasn’t so friendly.
When Maul took over Mandalore, Bo-Katan, with Ahsoka’s assistance, contacted Obi-Wan and Anakin for help. Kenobi reminds Kryze that if the Republic assists in conducting a siege, it could destroy the treaty and start another war that they didn’t want or need. He then says they need the permission of the Jedi Council.
Bo-Katan pleads that there isn’t time to get permission and rounds on him, angrily questioning his love for her sister. This prompts Obi-Wan to say he still loved Satine, but he couldn’t allow himself to be blinded by his emotions of what could’ve been.
Years later, Maul, still on his quest for revenge after more than two decades of hatred, took on Kenobi… and lost, dying in Obi-Wan’s arms, just as Satine had years earlier.
Addressing Satine’s death and Maul might be a way for Obi-Wan to cleanse his soul.
The Shift In Relationship With Ahsoka
Obi-Wan and Ahsoka had a relatively close friendship, given they were both within Anakin’s inner circle. Kenobi feigned innocence when Tano first came on the scene at fourteen, pretending she was selected to his apprentice, not Anakin’s.
However, Ahsoka revealed that she had been assigned to Anakin with Skywalker working out that it had been his master’s idea from the beginning. Jumping forward three years to Ahsoka’s trial for the crime she never committed, while he was on the Jedi jury that issued her expulsion, he did not actually believe she was capable of murder.
Obi-Wan knew the teenager well enough to know she wasn’t capable of killing innocent people. However, he did not publicly defend her either. This prompted his relationship with her to sour. Though, he admitted that he agreed with Anakin that the council “wasn’t always right.”
To make it worse, when Ahsoka and Bo-Katan asked Anakin and Obi-Wan for help, Kenobi said they had to go through the usual channels. After being thrown a barb about his feelings towards the late Satine, Tano threw one of her own at him. She said that the Jedi were still too involved in politics, hence the reason the public were losing support for them.
Obi-Wan attempts to defend himself against her quip by saying they needed to protect the Coruscanti people. Ahsoka interjects and says rescuing Palpatine takes importance. This is the last time Kenobi and Tano see each other. It is unknown if they reach out to each other after Anakin’s fall to the dark side.
Anakin’s Descent To The Dark Side
For almost twenty years, Obi-Wan carries a lot of baggage regarding Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side. Given he was there when it happened and had to choose between being killed himself or attempting to kill his best friend, he chose the more painful option.
Anakin would’ve been a danger to the galaxy if he’d been allowed to run around free. However, Obi-Wan left him to die on the banks of Mustafar and he had to live with this. He would never be able to make amends for what he did that day. Though, he did hear Padmé out as she uttered her final breaths of life; there was still good in her husband.
How much Obi-Wan knew about Anakin and Padmé’s relationship is a discussion that fans are still having to this day. However, The Clone Wars episode, A Distant Echo puts some of this topic to rest. When Skywalker is talking with the senator in private, Captain Rex is standing guard outside when Obi-Wan pops up and asks what is going on. When Anakin walks out of the meeting, Obi-Wan jokingly quips, “I hope you told Padmé I said hello.”
We need to note that this doesn’t mean much. Obi-Wan is aware that Anakin had feelings for Padmé but we don’t believe he knew about their marriage, at least not until he found out about Padmé’s pregnancy and pieced together the paternity. It’s unclear as to whether he’d put two and two together regarding Skywalker’s fall was partly due to his visions of his wife’s death.
Obi-Wan also knew that Anakin struggled with the death of his mother to the point, he didn’t talk about it. This was why he told Ahsoka there were certain things from Skywalker’s past that weren’t common knowledge.
Obi-Wan And The Internal Struggle – Watching Luke Grow Up
In the years after the duel on Mustafar, Obi-Wan watched from afar as Anakin and Padmé’s son, Luke, grew up under the watchful eye of his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. However, that time would be torture for him.
As the boy got older, he began resembling Anakin, with two primary similarities standing out. The first was his love of flying. The second was his thirst for adventure and to leave Tatooine far behind.
Owen hated the former Jedi’s guts and wanted him nowhere near his nephew as he saw Obi-Wan as a curse given Anakin’s “death.” Beru, meanwhile, understood why Kenobi was hovering and snuck Luke things Obi-Wan left in places only she would look.
Also, Obi-Wan was present when Luke and Leia were born. Not to mention, he was there when Yoda concluded the Skywalker twins needed to be separated to protect them from the Emperor and their father.
Separating Luke from his sister wouldn’t have been an easy decision, especially when Obi-Wan knew about it and couldn’t say anything.
Guiding Luke
Obi-Wan seems to be a more engaged teacher to Luke than he was to Anakin. After the deaths of Owen and Beru, Obi-Wan encouraged the boy to take up his dream of leaving Tatooine and following through with it. What he left out was how Leia was related to the boy.
After his death on the Death Star, Obi-Wan continued to guide Luke through his training and instructed him to find Yoda. When the seasoned Grand Master passes, Kenobi appears to Luke again and reveals some of his father’s back story that he didn’t already know, including that he’s “more machine than man.” At this moment, young Skywalker echoes the final thoughts of his mother, Padmé, who said there was still good in Anakin.
While Obi-Wan is skeptical of whether Anakin is still in there, Luke knows that his father can be bought back. This is the same thing he tells Leia after he reveals their familial connection as twins.
Ben
A few years after Obi-Wan’s death and a year after the Battle of Endor bought an end to the Emperor, Vader, and the Empire for good, Leia and her husband, Han Solo, welcomed a son they named Ben.
While the boy bought their small family joy, his conception almost didn’t happen. Leia and Han feared that a child born of Skywalker blood would be tempted to the dark side. They proceeded with the pregnancy anyway, and throughout, Leia could feel the Force fighting for control over her unborn son’s destiny.
Named after the man who had bought his parents and uncle together, young Ben was ultimately kept in the dark about his mother and uncle’s paternity. All his life the young Solo wrestled with his emotions and his abilities with the Force. As he grew older, he became prone to explosive temper tantrums that would put his grandfather’s temper tantrums to shame. However, his world was thrown into chaos as Darth Sidious corrupted him after his mother’s paternity was revealed. This forced him on a collision course with having no control over which side of the Force he choose.
