Fridge Brilliance
- Obi-Wan is shown to have buried his and Anakin's lightsabers in the sand. As he once told Anakin, "This weapon is your life." In a sense, he has buried his old life in his exile, but is returning to what a Jedi should be when reclaiming it.
- It also serves as a Call-Forward to Rey burying Anakin/Luke and Leia's lightsabers. Where they had accomplished what they set out to do and could rest in peace, Obi-Wan hasn't truly reached that point yet. Also note that while Rey buries the sabers directly in the sand wrapped only in cloth, Obi-Wan packs his and Anakin's sabers in a box to protect them.
- Obi-Wan and Yoda's plan to hide Luke on Tatooine, Anakin's homeworld, suddenly makes a lot more sense with the reveal that Obi-Wan believed that Anakin had died on Mustafar. The two Jedi assumed that they wouldn't have to worry about Vader finding Luke because they thought Vader was dead. It also explains why Luke is still on Tatooine instead of being relocated. Obi-Wan likely realized that if Anakin hadn't come back to Tatooine in ten years for any reason, it was unlikely he ever would.
- In A New Hope, Vader says that he senses a presence he hasn't felt in a long time, which turns out to be his old master. Well, this is what he was referring to. For that matter, his cockiness in fighting Obi-Wan aboard the Death Star in that film gets additional depth. The reason why Vader/Anakin is confident in claiming superiority over Obi-Wan ("now I am the master")? Well, he has wiped the floor with him before and seen him at his lowest and most cowardly. Vader/Anakin's Broken Pedestal for Obi-Wan probably began to solidify here, in addition to everything that already went wrong for him in Mustafar.
- Part V, on the other hand, shows that from Vader's perspective, he's the better fighter, but Obi-Wan will always remain the better strategist. Obi-Wan's lesson about other ways to win besides weapons and power likely finally stuck with Vader after this incident, which is why he's so on-guard during the start of their fight on the Death Star: he knows he has Obi-Wan's number in this fight skill-wise, but he has no way of knowing if this is another of Obi-Wan's ploys like what let him escape on Jabiim. It's only after they trade blows and he realizes Obi-Wan is challenging him to a straight duel that he becimes aggressive, realizing it's his chance to finally kill him. Vader, not seeing the forest for the trees, still falls for it, as Obi-Wan dies quickly and cleanly by becoming one with the Force, taking all of his secrets to the grave and ensuring the escape of the Skywalker twins with their identities still unknown to Vader.
- Part VI also goes a long way in explaining Vader’s hesitancy to fight in Episode 4 — Obi-Wan, several years out of practice, yet fully in tune with the light side of the Force, utterly trounced Vader when he had the opportunity. Vader only becomes more eager to attack when he notes that Obi-Wan’s powers are weaker than they were, meaning that he actually has a chance to kill his old master this time, and even then he remains noticeably more cautious and patient compared to his usual blitz tactics.
- It's also important to note that Vader is now mostly cybernetic, somewhere around 260+ pounds, and this likely limits his ability to engage in lightsaber combat; compare Vader's movement with that of Anakin in Episode II and III (and Clone Wars, arguably, given the medium difference). He's still easily able to overpower most opponents, but it leaves him at a disadvantage when facing someone with superior experience, especially someone who knows him so well. Additionally, current canon seems to imply that your ability to use the Force effectively is impeded by emotional/psychological conflict, and Vader is likely experiencing the greatest emotional conflict he's had since... Well, the last time he fought Obi-Wan. Given that lightsaber combat is explicitly based around utilizing one's connection with the Force, it's not surprising that he'd be underperforming.
- Also, as Part VI shows, he's being driven by emotion and passion, but after being defeated (again) by Obi-Wan and speaking with the emperor, Vader finally gets over his obsession with Kenobi, finally not letting emotions get the best of him, as in Episode IV, never gets driven by emotions, being as calm as he can fighting Obi-Wan.
- A Jedi Master, old and wisened, has fled to a far-off world, living in exile, cut off from the Force, and wracked with guilt that his actions caused someone he cared for to fall to the Dark Side, give rise to an evil empire, and bring about the destruction of the very order they served. While this describes Obi-Wan in this series to a tee, it also brings to mind the very boy he trained; Luke Skywalker, who pulls this exact move in The Last Jedi. The true tragedy of it all is that while Obi-Wan at least had a purpose in keeping Luke safe and training him, Luke would ultimately have none. That's why Obi-Wan never did what Bail did for him and called him out on his attitude; he couldn't, having been in that exact same situation. It would take a much wiser Jedi to show Luke the error of his ways.
- "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." Why does Leia address her message to Obi-Wan specifically? Now we know. He rescued her when she was kidnapped as a child. He is the one her father sent to rescue her; someone he thought was worth an army. When, years later, she is in another prison cell, it is no wonder that she trusts Luke as soon as he says "I'm here with Ben Kenobi!"
- Also, Bail Organa tasked Leia to seek out Obi-Wan in Rogue One, and it wasn't just because Obi-Wan rescued her. This means she had plenty of reasons to put all her faith in him.
- During the sequence where Darth Vader's suit is being reattached to him, there is a moment where nothing is holding his body up. While this might seem like a visual error, it's not — he's holding himself up with the Force.
- Aside from a nice Continuity Nod for fans, Quinlan Vos's namedrop in episode 3 shows how he continues to be a character foil to Obi-Wan. Despite the fall of the Jedi Order, Quinlan still continued to fight in a sense by helping others escape from the Empire, whereas Obi-Wan has hidden himself away as a broken hermit, wracked with guilt and self-doubt.
- Vader doesn't appear to be too concerned with the Third Sister stabbing the Grand Inquisitor — fitting, given that he's a Sith Lord, who are encouraged to challenge their own masters when the time arises, so this kind of squabbling within the Inquisitorius is likely to be encouraged, rather than dissuaded. Admittedly, as shown in related material (such as Star Wars: Darth Vader), the risk of this escalating into an Enemy Civil War was precisely why a) the Sith inaugurated the Rule of Two; and b) why Palpatine and Vader purposely kept the Inquisitorius below their strength.
- During his fight with Vader on Mapuzo, Obi-Wan cuts a gas line and uses the smoke screen to flee, which explains why Vader says "Obi-Wan has taught you well" when Luke later attacks Vader with gas from a cut carbonite wire.
- Another reason why Vader stops Obi-Wan from burning? Because that didn't really kill him either, so it seems appropriate to have him also know what it's like when it doesn't happen.
- Leia's cousin Niano being dismissive towards droids makes sense due to the attacks of the Droid Army during the Clone Wars leading to anti-droid racism, which Niano would have picked up through his father.
- We likely see the birth of Leia's allegiance to the rebellion in Part III: she got to witness first hand what a monster the Emperor's right hand is, and (even if it was a rare moment of Vader having lost his cool) saw how far he'd be willing to go just to get at one man. She likely has a particular disgust for him as an adult, which also makes her defiance of him even more awesome for her in hindsight; she knows what he's capable of and she still lies to his face and holds strong in the face of his torture.
- Also, in Star Wars: Bloodline, Leia is totally unwilling to forgive her father, thinking on the man as an utter monster whose existence only gave her pain and misery. Part III also showcases Vader lashing out at a father and a son in such a cruel and even spiteful manner, some short time after Leia wished to know if Obi-Wan was her father and she having a desire to meet him... and then Leia's illusion once she reaches adulthood gets shattered if not totally obliterated once she finds out that the homicidal monster who was willing to kill innocents just to get back at one man, razed a village and represents the worst of the Empire was her father all along (and eventually killed Obi-Wan in Episode IV as well, her old friend here). It's understandable Leia wouldn't take the revelation very well.
- During Obi-Wan's hallway fight and escape from the Stormtroopers of Fortress Inquisitorius, he noticeably uses very simplistic stances in trying to defend and deflect the blaster fire against him. While this could be chalked up to the general defensive style Obi-Wan has used throughout his appearances in the franchise, it probably makes additional sense to those familiar with lightsaber combat styles as documented in Star Wars Legends / the old Expanded Universe. Throughout his career, Obi-Wan was a master of the defensive Form III (Soresu, focusing on tight defense and economic movement) — most effective for deflecting blaster fire — but since he has been out of practice for so long, it is likely his instinct is to replicate the simpler movements of the very basic Form I (Shii Cho), if only to get the feel of his lightsaber back.
- In A New Hope, after fleeing from the Death Star, Leia warns the overconfident Han that the Empire will have put a tracking device on the Millennium Falcon in order to track her back to the rebel base. Leia is able to know this because the same thing happened to her before, here, when Reva puts a tracker on her droid companion Lola to track her and Kenobi back to the Path's hideout on Jabiim after they manage to escape from Fortress Inquisitorius.
- Obi-Wan telling Luke that Vader "betrayed and murdered [his] father" is not simply a Metaphorically True statement. This is what Vader told Obi-Wan in Part VI. With no regrets or remorse, he gloated that Anakin wasn't Obi-Wan's failure after all, and that Vader killed the man Obi-Wan knew. To Obi-Wan, the man standing before him is not even worthy to be associated with Anakin, and Vader gave him the perfect excuse to separate the two. It's also why Obi-Wan refuses to address Vader as anything but Darth. He's such a pathetic wretch and loser in the end that he doesn't even deserve to be addressed by his unique title, only the title that he shares with every past Sith, making Vader just a regular Sith to be dispatched.
- Except Obi-Wan doesn't dispatch him: When given the opportunity to correct his prior failure, the one that allowed Darth Vader to exist, Obi-Wan does the same thing he did back on Mustafar, and he walks away. He may have come to terms with his past, he may have accepted that Anakin is gone, but Obi-Wan is still unwilling to strike him down. Given the parallels between their previous duel and their most recent one, it's unlikely to be a case of Cruel Mercy, which would be incredibly irresponsible anyway, given what Obi-Wan knows Vader can do. Perhaps he thinks that, since he badly damaged Vader's life-support system, Vader would die before Imperial aid could arrive, without Obi-Wan having to strike the final blow. Either way, it seems clear that Vader is not just another Sith to Obi-Wan, and the latter addressing him as Darth could easily be seen as Obi-Wan's attempt to further separate the monster that needs to be destroyed from the man that Vader used to be.
- Does Obi-Wan leave him thinking he'll die this time? Does he leave him thinking his brother might learn and atone? Does he spare his apprentice because he thinks the man's children might change him? Or is he following the will of the Force? Is Uncle Ben weak, compassionate, wise...?
- Considering how the sides of the Force are shown/implied to work throughout the franchise, it could be a lot simpler: "Strike me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!" - Jedi are willing to kill, but take care to make the distinction between "killing" and "cold-blooded murder", taking care to never ever do the latter, and also not to do the former out of emotion, only in defense of others. As pointed out above, Vader is most definitely not just another Sith to Obi-Wan. They know each-other and have a deep, if extremely troubled and complicated, emotional connection even during this duel and Obi-Wan knows this. He may have let go of his guilt, but the connection is still there and if he kills Vader himself, it will be emotionally motivated and he'll lose himself all over again, if not outright fall to the dark. So he walks away.
- Leia having known Obi-Wan/"Ben" when she was a child means it makes a lot more sense that she named her son after him.
- Beru revealing a hidden stash of rifles in the Lars homestead in Part VI comes off as rather surprising, but given what happened to Shmi Skywalker and the very real dangers of Tatooine, from Tuskens to criminals under the Hutts, it quickly makes sense why Beru is Crazy-Prepared.
- The willingness to take on an enraged Inquistor hell-bent on killing Luke also contextualizes Owen and Beru’s deaths in A New Hope. It’s possible that the reason why they were killed as opposed to being captured was because they likely put up a fight against the Empire when they traced the Rebellion’s droids to them.
- Had they been captured, the Empire would’ve potentially learned about Luke and old Ben Kenobi and ended the Rebellion’s Death Star assault before it even began. As such, they went out guns blazing.
- Why doesn't Luke make any connection between Darth Vader and the Sith Inquisitor who broke into his home when he was 10 wielding a glowing red blade, attacked his aunt and uncle, and then chased him into the desert? Because he suffered a head injury, one serious enough to knock him unconscious for however long it took Reva to have a crisis of conscience and then carry him all the way back from the gulch to the Lars farm. He probably doesn't remember anything about that night, something Owen and Beru will not be in a rush to correct.
- Luke also never actually saw Reva with her lightsaber ignited. He was already fleeing up the ladder when she got into the inner chamber and she didn't ignite her saber again until after he'd been knocked out. All he really saw was a tall cloaked figure chasing him in the dark.
- Owen's unwillingness to let Luke leave the family farm in A New Hope is completely recontextualized in this series: here he not only knows Luke is almost certainly Force-sensitive (something that's never been confirmed before) but knows full well what the Empire does to those with the Force, and has already had several close-encounters with the Inquisitors that he just barely manages to shield Luke from. By the time Luke is nineteen, Owen is reduced to coming up with increasingly implausible excuses to keep him on Tatooine and off the Empire's radar, and knowing that it's not going to work much longer.
- With the revelation that Qui-Gon could always appear to Obi-Wan as a Force Ghost, but chose not to, it answers the question of why Obi-Wan wasn't always by Luke's side as a Force Ghost during the OT. If Qui-Gon had shown up whenever Obi-Wan asked him to, the latter would never have overcome his guilt, fear and trauma on his own, weakening the lessons he would have learnt. He came out stronger because he reached the conclusion on his own. Obi-Wan not always being by Luke's side as a Force Ghost is a sign that he's taking his master's example to heart - but with his own twist. Obi-Wan's and Qui-Gon's teaching styles are different: while Qui-Gon was completely silent until he revealed himself, Obi-Wan was a little more direct, not always there, but more willing to give Luke little hints to keep him safe ("run Luke" and "use the Force, Luke").
- Qui-Gon and Palpatine's cameos further solidify how much of a foil they are to each other: Qui-Gon establishes that he had always had faith in Obi-Wan and accompanies him onward; Palpatine talks down to Vader and subtly threatens him.
- Small bit of visual fridge brilliance here: who is the first character we properly see in the series after the flashback ends? Yep, the youngling that turns out to be Reva Sevander. The show set up her importance from part 1 on.
- Unlike in Rogue One or the Original Trilogy, Vader can often be heard grunting and screaming whenever he's attacking Obi-Wan or using the Force. Seeing as though Vader is still young enough to the point of having Hayden Christensen's voice and appearance, he likely still has much of the vocal inflections of his past self, and that he gradually grew out of it as the years pass.
- Remember how in Return of the Jedi, Vader says, ‘And now [Obi-Wan’s] failure is complete.” Except, how did he fail? He was able to protect the twins and get Luke onto the path of being a Jedi. Simple: Obi-Wan’s failure was not killing Vader when he had the chance, as Vader bluntly puts it in Ep. III of this series. In the finale, he even helpfully tells Obi-Wan that Anakin is gone, thus removing any hesitance or excuse to not kill Vader because he’d think he’d be killing Anakin. And yet Obi-Wan still doesn’t do it. This is Obi-Wan’s failure. By not killing Vader, he condemned the galaxy to decades of suffering, and if it weren’t for Luke resisting the pull of the Dark Side, he very nearly failed that mission too.
- By the time of Return of the Jedi, Vader must have figured out Obi-Wan was planning for Luke (and possibly Leia) to face and kill him as a means to circumvent this failure. Especially a Luke who didn't know about his real father. And Vader can't have that. Not only does he want to rebuild his family with his long-lost son, but he wants Obi-Wan to know from the netherworld of the Force that this wouldn't have happened if he had just personally killed Vader in the first place.
- Why doesn’t Obi-Wan mention Padmè to Vader? Not only would it be a very bad idea since it would enrage and empower Vader’s hatred, but there’s another underlying reason. Obi-Wan doesn’t consider Padmè worth mentioning since Anakin has turned into a monster beyond redemption that Padmè would be ashamed of.
- One moment on the show helps explain a long-time incongruity between A New Hope and the rest of the franchise. In that film, during their final battle Obi-Wan addresses Vader as "Darth." Up to now, this was the only point in the entire franchise when Vader is ever addressed that way by anyone. It was a reflection of the fact that when the movie was made, the name Darth Vader was initially conceived as the character's real name, with Darth being his actual first name. The idea that it was a changed name, and that "Darth" was a title given to Sith Lords, was developed later in the franchise, making this early scene somewhat anomalous.note On the show, during their final confrontation Vader tells Obi-Wan that Anakin is dead and that only Darth Vader remains. Obi-Wan replies, "Then my friend is truly dead. Goodbye, Darth." This puts a new spin on the scene from A New Hope: when Obi-Wan calls him "Darth" in that scene, he was simply reminding him of their earlier dialogue, seen on this show.
- Adding to this, it's a small way of rubbing salt in Vader's wounds. It's Obi-Wan SPECIFICALLY telling Vader that for all the things he did, everything he destroyed and lost, all the hurt and misery he caused both himself and the Galaxy... He's just a pawn in someone else's game. He's just another Darth, no better than Maul, Tyranus, or any other Sith. He gave up everything he could have had... to become a servant.
- Besides wanting to redirect Vader from Obi-Wan, Palpatine showed his Pragmatic Villainy in telling Vader to drop his chase. In the process of hunting him down to curry favor, an Inquisitor hired thugs to kidnap an Imperial Senator's child, let her witness some phenomenal cruelty towards innocents, and nearly being tortured for information. Bail Organa is absolutely the type of man who would call attention to all of her experiences during the season as an example of the Empire overreaching, especially with this being his daughter. While the initiation of the plot was all Reva going over everyone else's heads, from Palpatine's perspective Vader's obsession with Obi-Wan had created a situation where he'd have to dance around some very frustrating questions to keep the senate under his control. If he let Vader keep going, the Dark Lord's rage and lack of subtlety could have legitimately endangered the Galactic Empire's future on political backlash alone.
- Sith Lords gain their power through anger. Palpatine surrounded himself in his early days with people he hated, forced to pretend to be their friend, in order to boost his powers in the Dark Side. For Anakin he was placed in a suit that constantly hurt him and limited his movements, meaning he couldn't use his natural fighting instincts; he also chose to make his home on the planet where he lost everything. Forcing Vader to call off the search is another way to further entrench Anakin in the Dark Side: him knowing that Obi Wan is alive, beat him in a duel, and he isn't allowed to do a thing? Anakin will be left full of frustration and anger that will only make him stronger.
- Where did Obi-Wan learn that the lesson that "need for victory is a weakness" to Anakin? Yoda. Listen to how Obi-Wan says it "Your need to prove yourself is your undoing. Until you overcome it, a Padawan you will still be."
- Bail jokes that one day Leia will get to boss her Jerkass cousin around if she becomes a Senator, making her and the audience laugh. Except, it's unlikely any of Leia's adopted family survives the destruction of Alderaan just 9 years later, including her cousin.
- Reva's hatred of Obi-Wan may seem random, until you remember that she was a child during Order 66. Worse? She might have seen Anakin Skywalker during the siege, even from a distance, killing fellow Jedi. Over the next decade, she would've had time to do research/hear about how Anakin — the man she saw killing Jedi — was now Vader. So, she blames Obi-Wan for what had happened. His failure in training Anakin caused him to become Vader, which caused the downfall of the Republic and the Jedi. You know how Obi-Wan blames himself for why the galaxy's so messed up? Well, imagine what she must be feeling.
- Part V canonizes this entire paragraph. Worse? Despite serving the Inquisitorius, Reva is ultimately gunning to actually avenge herself and the killed younglings by killing Vader — only to get her lightsaber-stabbed by Vader in her gut for her trouble. It once again shows how the fall of the Jedi corrupted those that were left behind onto the path of vengeance, even at the cost of their lives.
- Tala lies to Reva and says that the Path is based out of the Florrum system. While the end of the episode and the tracker will prove that's a lie, it's not out of the realm of possibility the empire might send them there anyway just in case there's more cells. Guess we know what happened to Hondo's pirate crew between the end of The Clone Wars and when he appears again all alone in Rebels.
