Tear Jerker / Obi-Wan Kenobi

---

Part I

• The series opens with another perspective of the massacre at the Jedi Temple. Except it's from the viewpoint of a small band of Jedi Younglings whose lesson is suddenly interrupted by murderous clone troopers. Trying to escape, they watch as their teacher and the Jedi around them fight valiantly before getting gunned down, all while Palpatine's voice repeats "Execute Order 66" above the carnage. It's a harrowing reminder of the event that led to this series and the rest of the Skywalker Saga to begin with.
• The moment where we're reintroduced to Obi-Wan after seventeen years. It's not a flashback to the Clone Wars, nor a somber moment of self-reflection on his relationship with Anakin. Instead, we simply meet him working in a product line, begrudgingly accepting the mistreatment from his boss and taking a small portion in a packet to feed his eopie. He was a Jedi Master and member of the Jedi Council, a general of the Republic Army and hero of the Clone Wars, the master of Soresu/Form III... and now he's a sad, tired, broken middle-aged man.
• Obi-Wan has a nightmare about Anakin, seeing him both as his student and friend and as the monster he became, showing how torn his psyche is over Anakin's fall to the Dark Side. The dream ends with alternating sights of Anakin as an innocent child and a burning wreck, at which Obi-Wan wakes up. Distraught, he tries to reach out to Qui-Gon's spirit for guidance, but hears only silence, driving home how alone Obi-Wan really is.
  • As he tries to speak to Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan's voice raises in pitch, making him sound like the young man he was in The Phantom Menace, and emphasizing how lost he feels without his master's guidance.
  • His nightmare is also intercut with Qui-Gon and Padmé's deaths, indicating that he feels he failed them as much as he failed Anakin.
  • In general, it’s sad to see Obi-Wan reduced to this state. Beyond a slight camaraderie with a Jawa trader, Obi-Wan has no friends, Owen distrusts him and won’t let him be a part of Luke’s life, and he works a soul-crushing job with an abusive boss for small bits of food. Obi-Wan is truly alone now, left with only the memories of his failures.
• Obi-Wan buys a toy ship off a Jawa and leaves it outside the Lars farm at night as a gift for Luke. The next day, Owen finds him in town and throws the toy back at his feet, angrily telling him they don't need anything from him and that he should stay away.
  • When an argument shortly ensues between Obi-Wan and Owen over whether or not Luke should be trained in the Jedi ways, a (justifiably) angry and fearful Owen accuses Obi-Wan of not actually caring about Luke, just whether or not he has Force powers. It's clear from the look on Obi's face that that cut deep.
    Owen: I am asking you to leave us alone, Ben. I mean it.
    Obi-Wan: Is he okay?
    Owen: You don't care if he's okay. You care if he’s showing.
  • At the end of the argument, Obi-Wan remains firm that Luke must be trained to use his gifts, which causes Owen to snap and point out his failure with Anakin got him killed. Obi-Wan has no response. It's sad on both sides; Obi-Wan just wants to do right by Anakin's memory, and Owen clearly blames Obi-Wan and the Jedi as a whole for the fact that he never really got to know his stepbrother, not to mention what happened to Anakin.
    Obi-Wan: When the time comes, he must be trained!
    Owen: Like you trained his father? ...Anakin is dead, Ben, and I won't let you make the same mistake twice. So leave him on the farm with his family, where he belongs.
  • In the trailer, the take for "Like you trained his father?" was more incredulous and defiant. The take used in the show itself has Owen's voice crack slightly when talking about Anakin, making it sound as though Owen is about to cry. Even if he didn't get a chance to know Anakin very well, it's clear that he meant something to him, and that he would do anything to keep Luke from meeting that same fate.
  • Even worse, Owen doesn't know the whole truth of what happened to Anakin. As far as he knows, Anakin is dead and Obi-Wan failed to prevent his death. He has no idea just how deeply his Armor-Piercing Question cut Obi-Wan... especially when you remember the fear Obi-Wan and Yoda had of Luke falling to the Dark Side as well.
  • Owen isn't getting political here, he's just a scared father trying to protect his son. He and Lars couldn't have children, and Luke was a precious gift to them. No, he absolutely doesn't want his little boy getting caught up in galactic politics. This is the most intimate form of It's Personal.
• Nari, the young Jedi survivor on Tatooine who managed to escape the Inquisitors and locate Obi-Wan Kenobi in the desert as he’s walking home from Lars Homestead. Nari is at first joyous to find that the legendary Jedi Master is still alive, only to be heartbroken when Obi-Wan bluntly and callously refuses to help him fight the Empire and basically tells him to piss off and forget about being a Jedi for his own sake. A couple of days later, Obi-Wan sees the young Jedi again; the poor man's brutalized corpse is desecrated and hanging off a bridge in Anchorhead, having been lynched by the Inquisitors.
  • The fact he's still a young man ten years after the fact makes it likely he at most was a teen, if not preteen, when he was forced to flee while Order 66 killed everyone he knew, and has been on the run since.
• Bail confronting Obi-Wan in person, as he sees a man he calls an old friend and the only one he can trust to save Leia has been completely demoralized by his failure in the past. Calling him out on it only drives this unpleasant truth home.
  Bail Organa: This isn't about the boy, and you know it! You've made mistakes. We all did. It's the past. Move on. Be done with it. You couldn't save Anakin, but you can save her.
• Bail has a heart-to-heart with Leia after she refuses to apologize to her cousin, and brings up the fact that she’ll be in charge of Alderaan one day. One can’t help but remember that day will never come, and that this beautiful planet, filled with life and color, will be reduced to rubble in less than a decade.
  • Likewise, we see Luke's life at the Lars homestead to be a humble yet loving environment as Obi-Wan watches from afar. Years later, it will be a smoking wreck as the Empire razes the place and leaves Owen and Beru as charred skeletons for Luke to witness, and will be abandoned for decades thereafter.
• Though she moves past it and takes him apart with a "Reason You Suck" Speech, Leia's cousin saying she's not a real Organa clearly hit her hard, as she repeats it to Bail afterward.
• In Episode II, Anakin loses his lightsaber and Obi-Wan rebukes him for it, saying "Your lightsaber is your life." When Obi-Wan decides to go after Leia, we see where his lightsaber has been for the past ten years: Buried beneath the sands of Tatooine, in a simple wooden casket, alongside Anakin's lightsaber. Obi-Wan, at this point, believes that Anakin died on Mustafar; as far as he's concerned, so did the Jedi known as Obi-Wan.

Part II

• On Daiyu, Obi-Wan sees a disheveled clone trooper, reduced to being a homeless veteran, discarded by the Empire as uncaring Stormtroopers walk by. Even knowing what the clone troopers did, Obi-Wan can't help but take pity on him and give him a few credits — and it's a reminder of how the tragedy of the Clone Wars extends to the soldiers who fought in them, too.
  • The veteran clone trooper was a part of the 501st, which makes it worse, as he was forced to kill Jedi in the Jedi Temple thanks to his inhibitor chip.
    • Not only that, but given that the 501st was Anakin’s clone unit, this trooper probably brings back painful memories for Obi-Wan. Going further, when one remembers how often Obi-Wan and Anakin’s forces fought side by side, it’s not impossible Obi-Wan has met this trooper personally before.
    • If one is subscribed to the theory that this clone trooper recognizes Obi-Wan, this scene becomes even more depressing. It's been long enough that this clone trooper veteran no longer has any compulsion to attack Obi-Wan. His fighting spirit has been thoroughly crushed after the war and not having his brothers by his side anymore. All he can do is somberly and silently thank the former Jedi general.
  • Given the added context of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: The Bad Batch, it’s quite sad to see the clones reduced to homeless veterans.
  • Wanna know the worst part? Judging from the color scheme on his helmet, chances are good that clone could have been Commander Appo.
  • Word of God has revealed his name to be Nax. Nax is said to have been at Teth, Umbara, and Christophsis, only being forced to retire due to severe injuries, with shrapnel still in his legs. This guy got the worst ending any war veteran could get and that's sad on a whole new level.
  • Daiyu itself looks like something out of Blade Runner, with the filth, crime, and miserable underclasses sustaining a Crapsaccharine World. The fact that it's a teenager selling drugs to Obi-Wan (who then admits she was once "someone's daughter" before being kidnapped into the life she now leads) helps hammer home how much has not changed for the lower classes under the Empire.^note In a bit of Reality Subtext, the teenager being Esther Rose (Ewan McGregor's daughter from his first marriage, which ended pretty contentiously) also puts some sad undertones to it.
  • The scene can conjure up images of homeless and terribly off veterans like some of those who survived the Vietnam War.
• Leia snarking that Obi-Wan would be more appropriate as her grandfather when he instructs her to pretend that they are parent and child is funny, but also becomes sad when you remember that Anakin once regarded Obi-Wan as the closest thing he has to a father. In a way, yes, Obi-Wan is pretty much Leia's grandfather.
  • There's also a mostly unintentional Double Meaning when Obi-Wan assures Leia that her father is a close friend.
• When Leia finds out she was kidnapped because of Obi-Wan (mainly in that she was bait to lure him out), her already dim level of trust in him quickly plummets as she runs away, in a city that's clearly out to get her filled with all sorts of unsavory figures with no one she could trust. No child should ever find themselves in such a horrible situation.
• After fondly reminiscing of Padmé when Leia reminds him of her, Obi-Wan sadly tells Leia that "[his] friend" died years ago, and Leia offers condolences about the death of her own mother.
• When Haja addresses Obi-Wan by his real name and tells him he's not alone, the look on his face screams that he doesn't really believe that.
• We learn that, for the past ten years, Obi-Wan Kenobi believed that he had killed Anakin Skywalker — so when he realizes that he's still alive, he can only muster a look of shock, followed by Stunned Silence before whispering his name in horror, realizing that he'd ensured that his apprentice was kept alive in a Fate Worse than Death.
  Obi-Wan: (softly) Anakin...
• Obi-Wan hiding from Reva. Remember, this is the same man who dueled Darth Maul, Dooku, and his own apprentice. The same man who famously jumped from a higher ledge down to Grievous to say the much-memed line 'Hello there!' before dispatching the cyborg. After a decade of living on Tatooine, disillusioned and clearly out of practice, it can be distressing to see him so small and helpless when facing against another Force user.
  • When a cornered Obi-Wan takes out his lightsaber to fight the Inquisitors, he's visibly hesitant to activate or even hold it, having trouble finding the will to throw himself back into the fight against the Dark Side and clearly recalling the last time he used it.
• Imagine you adopt a cat. Imagine you love that cat and keep it safe for years. Imagine one day that cat becomes a Nazi. Imagine that cat starts killing everyone you love. Imagine you come home one day and learn that cat just committed genocide. Imagine that cat personally murdered all the children you ever knew and loved. Imagine you had to chase that cat to a lava planet and slice its limbs off and watch it die. In the lava. Imagine you learned your Nazi cat didn't die. Its Nazi-Satan God-Emperor turned it into a Nazi-Satan-Cyborg-Murder-Monster and IT WANTS TO KILL YOU. Good night, Obi-Wan.

Part III

• The episode opens with Obi-Wan trying desperately to commune with Qui-Gon's spirit for answers, or advice, or at least something to know he's not alone… and he fails yet again, as his mind is clouded with emotional distress. The poor man looks like he's just barely holding it together for Leia's sake.
• Shortly after they arrive on the planet, Obi-Wan tells Leia that Mapuzo wasn't always the barren scrubland they see now. It's yet another reminder how much The Empire has crushed the galaxy under its heel.
  Obi-Wan: There were fields and families, and then the Empire came in and ravaged it all.
  Leia: I thought the Empire was supposed to be helping us.
  Obi-Wan: Well, there are some, like your dad, who are trying to. Seems like a losing battle these days.
• Obi-Wan briefly lapses and calls Leia by her real name in front of some Stormtroopers. He covers by claiming that "Leia" is actually her late mother's name, and that he gets confused because she reminds him so much of her. As he speaks, it becomes clear that he's actually talking about Padmé and how much he misses her.
  Stormtrooper: I thought her name was "Luma".
  Obi-Wan: That was her mother's name. I get confused. Like I said, it's not been easy. Sometimes when I look at Luma, I see her mother's face. We all miss her very much.
• After the Stormtroopers leave, Leia figures out that Obi-Wan knew her biological mother, and asks if he's her real father. Obi-Wan of course denies this, and talks about what little he remembers of his own biological family, including the fact that he has a younger brother out there. Even when he tells her that he found a new family with the Jedi, it's tinged with sadness at the knowledge that he lost them too.
  Obi-Wan: As Jedi we're taken from our families when we're very young. I still have glimpses, flashes really; my mother's shawl, my father's hands. I remember a baby.
  Leia: A baby?
  Obi-Wan: Yes, I think I had a brother. I really don't remember him. I wished I did.
  • Remember Obi-Wan's final words to Anakin? "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you." Even though he got saddled with the responsibility of being his Master, Obi-Wan truly did come to see Anakin as the little brother he never had. Now the memories of both his birth and adopted families are painted with regret.
  • Leia sadly mentioning she does wonder what her biological father looks like, even as we know many years later she would be horrified to find out that said father is one of the galaxy's most notorious mass murderers who helped destroy her life.
  • Obi-Wan's denial. "I wish I could say I was". It hits on two levels: Obi-Wan did know love, and considered (briefly) leaving the order and having a family, and he also knows things would be far easier for Leia if he were her father rather than Anakin.
    • And a third level being that part of Anakin's reason for turning against Obi-Wan was because he believed his master stole his wife.
    • This hits home minutes later when she and Obi-Wan both witness Darth Vader tearing through the town. Leia wishes she knew her biological father, but how little she knows... he's right there, the second-worst monster the galaxy has ever known, and the right-hand man to the worst.
• As Darth Vader tears through the mining town on Mapuzo searching for Obi-Wan, he uses his powers to pummel and brutalize any villager unlucky enough to be near him, straight up killing a few of them. After he finally spots Obi-Wan and goes off after him, the villagers are shown all crying in grief and fear over their fallen family, while their homes are ransacked behind them by stormtroopers at Vader's command. This is what it's like living under the Empire.
• Obi-Wan is shaken upon seeing what happened to Anakin Skywalker. When the two finally get a chance to exchange words, this exchange highlights Obi-Wan's guilt, and Anakin's simmering hatred.
  Obi-Wan Kenobi: What have you become?
  Darth Vader: I am what you made me.
  • Vader sounds almost in disbelief that Obi-Wan has the gall to ask that question. Combined with his below-mentioned statement, it really hammers home how much he loathes the man he used to call brother, and how much he blames Obi-Wan in particular for how his life has turned out.
  • One might also interpret his response as him using Kenobi as a proxy for his hatred of the Jedi Order for what they did to him during the Clone Wars, especially as Obi-Wan was usually responsible for persuading Anakin to go along with the Council's decisions.
  • Not to mention Vader saying Kenobi should have killed him when he had the chance. It's no taunt, but a genuine human expression of just how much despair Anakin feels about his situation, of how far he's fallen and yet remains alive. The man lost his family in one fell swoop, having been convinced that he murdered his wife and their unborn child (actually children) with her, shattering his once-indomitable will, to the point where any hope he had to free himself from being Palpatine's slave is gone. Death would have been a mercy for him, and he hates Kenobi because his former mentor could have granted him at least that leniency, but didn't, because he couldn't.
• Leia almost breaking into tears when she explains that she didn't mean for things to end up the way they did when she ran into the forest. Obi-Wan comforts her, but it's obvious she blames herself for why they're in this situation. There's a big possibility that her Good Is Not Nice exterior for most of A New Hope (coupled with her general Deadpan Snarker personality for the rest of her life) is rooted in this entire incident, a significant contrast to the Spoiled Sweet princess we were introduced to in Part I.

Part IV

• Roken, one of the leaders of the Path, is extremely reluctant to aid Obi-Wan, even outright stating the Jedi Master should leave, as he'll likely bring the Empire down on their entire operation. Obi-Wan implores him to offer his help, stating he can't know the horrors the Inquisition will torment Leia with. Roken then coldly informs Kenobi he has some idea, as his wife was Force-sensitive. She tried to hide it, but the Inquisition eventually came for her. The pain on the man's face as he relates the story is heartbreaking.
• While searching the lower levels of the Inquisitors' fortress, Obi-Wan discovers that the Force users captured by the squad, including Tera Sinube^note confirmed by the official Star Wars Twitter account, are all suspended in an amber substance and placed in a tomb in the fortress' lower levels. As if the row of victims wasn't upsetting enough, the final one Obi-Wan sees is a Youngling, still wearing a training helmet from the Temple, who was subjected to the same fate.

Part V

• The Heroic Sacrifice of Tala to save Obi-Wan.
  • Likewise, The Reveal of why Tala joined the Path. She was an Imperial officer who worked with the Inquisitors to round up four Force-sensitive families. 14 people were killed, and six were children.
• Obi-Wan's flashbacks to a sparring match with Anakin, admonishing him for his crippling desire to prove himself. Since Obi-Wan uses that fact to elude his grasp, it shows that his Padawan still hasn't learned anything.
  • What begins as a friendly sparring match between teacher and student slowly becomes rather uncomfortable, as Obi-Wan's admonishment and Anakin's frustrations raise tensions, and their movements start to become similar to their heated duel on Mustafar. While it's defused, as Obi-Wan does acknowledge Anakin's skill, Anakin's somber expression says otherwise, as though he does want to understand Obi-Wan's lesson but can't fully accept it.
  • Alternately, if you view this scene as a combination of memory and Force Bond communication between Obi-Wan and Vader, it's yet another instance of Obi-Wan reaching out to Anakin and trying to teach him another lesson / give him the strength to turn from the Dark Side.
  • This entire scene puts a brand new perspective on Anakin's complaints about his master to Padmé in Attack of the Clones. What now looks like unnecessary and childish whining now genuinely has some merit, even if Anakin himself is still reacting inappropriately.
  • If you watch the Clone Wars, it is shown how Anakin beginning to let go of his desires for victory in favor of solutions that would save the most lives. This shows how far Anakin went back to the learner when he switch sides.
• Obi-Wan finds a stack of Jedi uniforms and lightsabers in the Path’s hideout. While heartwarming in the implication that these belonged to the Jedi the Path has successfully helped, the fact that these people had to leave behind the few possessions they had, and with them key parts of who they were, is sad, and seems to give Kenobi a moment of somber reflection.
• Obi-Wan finally deduces who Reva is; she was one of the Younglings from the Jedi Temple. She saw Anakin slaughter her friends, which is how she figured out he was really Darth Vader. Her vicious attitude cracks for a moment as she remembers playing dead to escape, and how her friends' bodies had gone cold as she hid pretending to be one of them. She's been playing the long game as an Inquisitor to finally get close enough to kill him and take revenge. She ultimately fails since Vader is way, way more powerful with the Force than her, meaning it was All for Nothing.
  • Reva is left severely wounded after her failed effort to kill Vader. To further rub salt in her wound, Vader brings out the Grand Inquisitor, revealed to be alive and well, before both mocking Reva for thinking they hadn't figured her out from the beginning and that they exploited her rage for their own purposes, and now, as it's of no further use to them, neither is she. As a last spiteful touch, the Grand Inquisitor reclaims his badge of office from Reva and sneeringly mocks her dying in the gutter where she belongs.
    Darth Vader: Did you really believe I did not see it, youngling?
    Grand Inquisitor: Hello, Third Sister. Revenge does wonders for the will to live, don't you think? Your rage was useful. Now, it is tiresome. We will leave you where we found you, in the gutter where you belong.
  • It was too much to hope that the younglings from the first episode's opener escaped the Temple. They ran into Vader, and he killed all but Reva, who survived.
  • Right as Reva is about to be stabbed by Vader, she briefly flashes back to when she first encountered him as Anakin Skywalker. As he leans in for the kill, his mouth slightly curls as he goes in for the kill, making his dark, dejected face seem almost apologetic for what he's about to do. Both this scene and the tears he sheds on Mustafar are subtle reminders that while Anakin may have killed multiple children during Order 66, there's a part of him that still hates what he did.

Part VI

• Leia begging Obi-Wan not to leave her on the transport ship, and refusing to just let Obi-Wan go off and sacrifice himself for her and the other refugees.
  • Made even worse by the fact that nine years later, Obi-Wan does sacrifice himself to Vader to allow Leia and Luke to escape the Death Star.
• Obi-Wan essentially telling Leia that he's scared (of Vader) too.
• Despite all the terrible things he's done, it's hard not to feel bad for Darth Vader as he starts resorting to desperate, wild swings to no avail, as Obi-Wan easily counters his attacks and severely damages his suit. The sight of him stumbling around, groaning, gasping for air and letting out cries of anger, sadness and pain, are a reminder that this nigh-unstoppable force is still, ultimately, a physically disabled, psychological mess of a human being.
  • With the above in mind, remember that from the perspective of both Darth Vader and Obi-Wan, none of this was supposed to happen. Anakin was prophesied to bring balance to the Force and destroy the Sith, Obi-Wan was to train the boy to achieve that goal, as he swore to Qui-Gon all those years ago on Naboo. In all the nostalgia of seeing Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen back in their iconic roles and duking it out, the moment that Obi-Wan targets Vader's life support and the music swells, we're reminded: this is a tragedy.
• After Obi-Wan defeats Vader by slicing his mask open, he sees the ruined face of his former apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. Upon seeing this, Obi-Wan is shocked and on the verge of tears.
  • Obi-Wan apologizes to Vader and calls him Anakin, saying that he is sorry for everything. However, Vader emphasizes that Anakin is gone and he is all that remains. Vader's tone sounds sorrowful and regretful when stating this, reminding the audience just how much he's lost.
    Obi-Wan: (tearing up) Anakin...
    Vader: Anakin is gone. I am what remains.
  • For those that grew up watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the Prequels, this scene is incredibly heartbreaking, as we got to see Anakin during his Glory Days and all the close bonds he had with the likes of Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Padmé, and Rex. To see how far Anakin has fallen is very depressing, especially given how it’s Hayden Christensen behind the mask.
  • Despite his apology, Vader states that he wasn't a product of Obi-Wan's failure and "killed" Anakin Skywalker himself, then declares he will destroy Obi-Wan. His voice even fades back and forth between the Vader voice and Anakin's real voice.
    Obi-Wan: (sobbing) I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Anakin. For all of it.
    Vader: ...I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. You didn't kill Anakin Skywalker...I did. The same way I will destroy you.
    Obi-Wan: Then my friend is truly dead. Goodbye, Darth.
  • Dear god, how Hayden struggles to even say "An-a-kin...Sky..wal-ker...": partially because without his life support he's a half-alive husk, pathetically struggling to even breathe...and perhaps partially because he hasn't even spoken his real name aloud for decades, so it's like he's slowly pronouncing the name of an unfamiliar stranger.
  • There's also another layer of tragedy if one remembers the first passage of Vader in the novelization of Revenge of the Sith. Vader saying that he killed Anakin is not just because he burned all bridges of his past life by his betrayal - by turning on his family (the Jedi) and trying to kill Obi-Wan - but also because his rage lead to Padmé's death along with their unborn children (though he doesn't know yet that they are fine), and Vader knows this, and has always been haunted by that knowledge. It's not hard to realize that Anakin doesn't stop being Vader out of hatred, but out of despair.
  • What makes this even more tragic is there is a faint blue glow that appears on Vader's face, only for him to display an evil smile through the helmet's opening. Then, a red glow appears on his face after Vader says he killed Anakin, showing Obi-Wan that the brother he once had was truly gone. As a result of this, Obi-Wan realizes that his friend is truly dead. He then leaves the injured Vader behind, acknowledging him as "Darth" for the first time ever.
  • Obi-Wan acknowledges Vader as "Darth" again on the Death Star years later, showing that Obi-Wan is beyond trying to redeem Vader. His best friend and "brother" is truly gone. This is why he later told Luke that Vader betrayed and murdered Anakin. He truly viewed them as two separate people.
  • Vader looks to be touched by the apology for a moment, as if Obi-Wan actually managed to reach out to a sliver of Anakin left in there...until Vader takes back control.
  • Vader telling Obi-Wan "I am not your failure" and that Vader killed Anakin, not Obi-Wan, could also be seen as Vader absolving Obi-Wan of guilt for letting Anakin fall, and that Anakin's failure was Anakin's alone.
• There is suddenly more added context of why Obi-Wan considers Vader to be completely irredeemable in the Original Trilogy. Vader looked Obi-Wan dead in the eyes and essentially told him that he consciously chooses to be evil, since that is all that he has left.
  • Furthermore, Vader's dialogue with Luke on Endor in Return of the Jedi makes a lot more sense as well. Obi-Wan tried to futilely bring Anakin back to the light by apologizing to him and trying to appeal to him. Thirteen years later, Luke tries to bring Vader back by stating there was still good in him. "Obi-Wan once thought as you did", indeed.
  • In addition, Luke's response of "Then my father is truly dead" makes a lot more sense on why it left Vader saddened as well, since Obi-Wan stated that his "friend was truly dead" years beforehand before leaving Vader behind. To Vader, that was Luke saying that he isn't worth his time to redeem, and having his father being dead would’ve been easier. Ouch.
  • In a way, Vader's declaration that he killed Anakin shows that, more than anything, he blames himself for what he has become. The way he says "I am what remains" also implies that he knows how far he's fallen from the man he once was, and all that's left is an Empty Shell in service of the Emperor.
  • On a more hopeful note, it was Darth Vader's way of accepting Obi-Wan's apology, because deep down, Anakin Skywalker could not stand to see a man he still loved be in so much pain for the consequences of his own wrongdoing, and absolved him of this guilt to free him.
  • Vader screaming out Obi-Wan’s name in rage when the latter walks away at the end of the duel can be interpreted as him pleading for Obi-Wan to come back so that he could finally be put out of his misery.
  • Obi-Wan realizing that Vader wants to "destroy" him, not just kill him. He wants to bring Obi-Wan into the darkness with him. AND Obi-Wan realizing that if he kills Vader, even after everything the Sith Lord has done and will likely do in the future, the fact that Obi-Wan is too compromised emotionally by Anakin/Vader means that it would destroy who he is in the process. So he walks away and once again leaves Anakin's fate to the will of the Force.
  • Obi-Wan's departing words: "Goodbye...Darth." He has finally accepted that Anakin is no more, and he is distancing the mechanical monster in front of him from his lifelong friend.
  • Vader telling Obi-Wan that Vader killed Anakin, not Obi-Wan. Was that him showing a moment of forgiveness? Or was that him twisting the knife?
• Reva finally has a chance to strike down an unconscious Luke... and she can't do it. She remembers what Anakin did during the raid on the Jedi Temple, and realizes what she has become. She calmly brings Luke back home, and breaks down crying in front of Obi-Wan.
  Reva: I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it! I failed them. He killed them all, and I couldn't do it...
  Obi-Wan Kenobi: You haven't failed them. By showing mercy, you have given them peace. You have honored them.
  Reva: ...Have I become [Anakin]?
  Obi-Wan Kenobi: No. You have chosen not to.
• In a twisted way, the scene of Palpatine and Vader communicating. Vader is fully intent on finding where Obi-Wan has fled to, until Palpatine implies that Vader's usefulness will run out should he let his emotions get in the way of his duty. At that point, Vader contemplates for a moment, then lifelessly replies to Palpatine that "Kenobi means nothing" to him, and that he only serves Palpatine. Despite his immense power, Vader is truly just a slave to Palpatine, adding to his already-miserable existence.
  • Also noteworthy is why Palpatine wants Vader to stop pursuing Kenobi: This is the closest Vader's come to being Anakin since that suit was bolted on. It's why Palpatine claimed that Anakin was responsible for the death of Padmé and their unborn child/ren (possibly ensuring Padmé's death himself), and why Palpatine immediately orders Luke killed when he's discovered: Anything from Anakin's past, anything that reminds Vader of something beyond his misery and hate, risks giving him the motivation to break free of Palpatine's control. Eventually, that day will come... but that day is not today.
  • The last we see of Vader is the descending zoom-out shot away from his throne, as the Imperial March blares in lowered, more menacing tones. While this song usually plays when the Empire is doing something ascendant or oppressive, here it serves to highlight the Dramatic Irony of Vader/Anakin's continuing existence. As much as he wishes to claim his allegiance to the Dark Side is something he stands by and is proud of, the recently-concluded conversation with Palpatine (plus the framing of his throne room dwarfing his own size) highlights how much a slave of Palpatine he actually still is.
• Obi-Wan and Leia's farewell. She asks him if she'll ever see him again and Obi-Wan tells her: "Maybe. Someday. If you ever need help from a tired, old man." The next time she sees him is on the Death Star after she's lost her parents, her family and her entire world. Then she loses him too.
  • Obi-Wan has been chosen by Leia as her Family of Choice, just like Anakin chose him and Luke will later choose him. The fact that she (likely) never sees him again until the Death Star is heartbreaking.
  • Made even worse by how the scene parallels Anakin leaving Shmi on Tatooine, when he asks his mother the same question as he left to begin his Jedi training.
  • Made bittersweet by the fact that we know Leia takes strength and hope from the time she spent with Obi-Wan, while Anakin's own memories of Shmi push him towards the Dark Side.
• Seeing Alderaan as the beautiful and peaceful place that it is, for the last time. The next time we see it is from the Death Star as it destroys the world.

---