Headscratchers / Obi-Wan Kenobi

As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Hiding

• For someone trying not to be found, Kenobi seems awfully easy to find. First the young Jedi locates him and then Bail. Maybe the Jedi found him because of a connection with the Force or maybe he was told about him by a citizen who knew, or suspected, that Ben was a Jedi. Either way seems likely to put Kenobi in a lot of danger. Then Bail manages to track him down. Did he already know where the cave was because Kenobi told him? Or did the comlink serve as some sort of tracking device? Again, not very safe.
  • The young Jedi said he saw Kenobi in town but wasn't sure until he searched for him. And what is so unsafe for Bail to know how to find Kenobi, they are friends and allies. Both watching over Leia and Luke, meaning they might have need of each other when it comes to the twins. Which it has.
  • Bail was present when Yoda told Obi-Wan to take Luke to Tatooine, and Obi-Wan said he would stay to watch over him. Bail knew where to find him.
  • But how did Bail know that he would find Obi-Wan in that cave? Obi-Wan said that he would take Luke to Tatooine and watch him there, not where he would live while watching him.
  • Perhaps Bail noticed Obi-Wan was inside a cave when he was contacting him. And probably knows he's somewhere near Mos Eisley (if that's the town seen in Part I).
  • Of course, it's a big planet with a lot of caves. The more likely explanation is that Bail does indeed know just where Obi-Wan lives; the cave looks fairly broken-in as a living space.

Younglings in the massacre

• In the Great Jedi Purge flashback sequence, how is it possible that Jedi Master Minas Velti and her younglings weren't aware of the massacre that was being carried out in the Jedi Temple? They were training as if nothing happened, whereas the younglings Anakin slaughters in Revenge of the Sith hide from the clone troopers, proving that they are aware of what is happening. Didn't Velti sense the massacre like other Jedi did during the purge? For example, Jaro Tapal feels it in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
  • This scene may well take place earlier in the assault. The Clones might have only just arrived at the temple and not start firing on the Jedi until pretty much right just now. For all we know, the younglings Velti is trying to protect could even be the same ones Anakin kills later. Alternately, she may not have sensed anything because she was distracted with her lesson. As we saw in Episode III, not every Jedi sensed the attack coming before it happened. Characters like Aayla Secura, Plo Koon and even Obi-Wan himself were caught completely off guard, likely because they were focused on other tasks.
  • It's entirely possible that the 501st didn't open fire until they'd already made their way into the temple. After all, why would the Jedi expect Republic troops led by General Anakin Skywalker (a Jedi Knight who sits on the Council alongside the Jedi Masters, no less) to mean them harm? It's possible that the fighting didn't start until someone tried to stop the intruders to figure out what they were doing there.

Nari escaping

• When Nari escapes from the cantina, why does the Fifth Brother just stay standing there before the Third Sister tries to kill Nari? They are hunting him, but doing nothing makes it look like the Fifth Brother wants Nari to escape.
  • Nari mentioned Obi Wan, one of the most wanted Jedi in the Galaxy. Because they now can sense him they were hoping he would lead them right to him.
  • He never mentioned Obi-Wan. It was Reva's actions and the Grand Inquisitor stopping her that allowed him to escape.
  • They didn’t know about Obi-Wan specifically but it seems to be general Inquisition policy to see if one Jedi found will lead to another, something which is spoken of there.

Grand Inquisitor and Third Sister

• Why does the Grand Inquisitor get angry with the Third Sister for endangering the cantina's owner if doing so made Nari reveal himself? It's not like the Inquisitors care about for collateral damage if that means hunting Jedi down...
  • What got the Grand Inquisitor angry with her was her trying to kill the Jedi prisoner before they could interrogate him for intel which is why he used the force to stop her swing so it only burnt his shoulder which as a result let to him getting away at the cantina.
  • The Grand Inquisitor is all about chain of command. He was handling things and the Third Sister stepped in, making him look weak. Throughout the first two episodes the other Inquisitors repeat that she does what she wants without following the proper procedures.
  • I don't think he was mad at her over the cantina owner at all, and it was just her nearly killing the jedi. The Inquisitors will resort to killing and torture if it gains results which it did here.
  • Pragmatic Villainy. Sure, they could kill the cantina owner right then and there and demoralize the Jedi before killing him, but that's one less citizen that they could potentially interrogate for further information later. After all, if one Jedi is hiding out on Tatooine, then it wouldn't be all that unreasonable to believe there are more (which there are).
  • They also didn't know Nari was in the room with them; she could have killed the cantina owner before he revealed the Jedi's location.

Kenobi and the Force

• Why doesn't Obi-Wan Kenobi use his Force powers to discreetly help people in need, like he often did in Attack of the Clones and A New Hope? In the first episode, he sees how his boss pushes one of his co-workers because he requested more credits to feed his family. Why doesn't he mind-trick the boss into giving more credits to his co-worker? The same applies to the scene in the second episode when he meets a drug dealer. Didn't he previously, while chasing Zam Wessell in Episode II, mind-trick a drug dealer to stop selling death sticks and rethink his life? Then why not apply the same mind trick to her? Jedi mind tricks are discreet, so performing them would not be as revealing as using the Force to stop projectiles or using a lightsaber to fight like a warrior.
  • When a Jedi uses the Force it can become a beacon for other Force users, drawing them to them. Obi Wan is hiding... the moment he does a mind trick or anything like that he could alert the Empire. This is also why Owen mentions Obi Wan worrying about Luke showing signs of Force powers.
  • He may also be out of practice. When he saves Leia it looks like it takes quite a lot of effort. Like an athlete who stops working out, it could be harder for him to use the Force now.
  • I thought he cut himself off from the Force like Luke did in The Last Jedi. He only reconnected when he had to save Leia from her fall. He's still an experienced soldier and operative, being able to locate Leia, infiltrate the facility, use blasters, and engage in unarmed combat. He picked up those skills as a Jedi and general in the Clone Wars.
  • Obi-Wan used the Force before catching Leia; he made a solution boil over and explode in the drug lab to cause a distraction so he could sneak in the back. Obi-Wan doesn't help the man not because he can't, but because he learned the same lesson the Inquisitors did: Jedi compassion draws attention. We also see him trying, and failing, to commune with Qui-Gon while in his cave. He's not cut off from the Force, just tormented and conflicted over the end of the war, Anakin's fall, and everything that followed.

Returning the toy

• Why does Owen return the toy that Obi-Wan bought for Luke? Granted, Owen wants nothing to do with Kenobi due to him supposedly getting Anakin killed, but all Obi-Wan did was just give them a toy ship, not a Jedi toy, so that would not inspire Luke to become a Jedi like Owen fears. Besides, the Lars aren't wealthy, so Obi-Wan is acting like some sort of Santa Claus for their nephew.
  • Owen made it clear, he didn't want his family to feel like they owe Obi-Wan anything that would mean his lingering presence over them. All he wants is for Obi-Wan to leave his family alone and this nice gesture still kinda says Obi-Wan isn't going away which bothers Owen to warrant the direct confrontation. Owen could just tell Luke he bought it but Owen for all his faults arguably isn't one to take credit for such an act of kindness from someone even if he felt there's ulterior motives behind them.
  • Another possibility is that it was a more symbolic gesture to tell Obi-Wan that he wanted NOTHING to do with him. Not even covert gifts or behind the scenes help. Owen wants Obi-Wan OUT of his life, out of the Lars family's life, etc.
  • It's something of a call-forward to A New Hope. While Obi-Wan didn't give specifics, it's clear this even was one of those times where the ideals of the two men clashed. Owen has raised Luke as if he was his own son for ten years, and it's clear he wants Luke to be a farmer. He doesn't want Kenobi around to give tales of a Jedi Knight. Kenobi might be trying to open the door to get into Luke's life for eventual training, but Owen is slamming that door shut.
  • Obi-Wan's response when Owen turns the gift down is "There's more to life than your farm, Owen. He needs to see that." Obi-Wan clearly intended for the skyhopper to symbolize freedom and escape from the drudgery of life on Tatooine, and Owen balks at that, desiring a quiet life on the farm for Luke.
  • It's consistent with Obi-Wan and Owen being at loggerheads about what to do with Luke. In the NPR radio drama for A New Hope, Luke tells Threepio a story while the search for Artoo about Luke and one of his friends getting lost in a canyon, Ben Kenobi appearing to guide them back to the Lars farm, and then Owen running Ben off his property while seeming somehow afraid. All foreshadowing that Luke is a much bigger player in galactic events than he thinks and that Ben is part of showing Luke his true place, while Owen is intent on keeping Luke safe even at the detriment of the galaxy as a whole. Essentially, in The Hero's Journey, if Luke is The Hero and Obi-Wan The Mentor, Owen is a Threshold Guardian, trying his best to keep Luke from even starting the journey in the first place.

Obi-Wan the teacher

• How does Obi-Wan hope to train Luke if he let his skills rust over the years?
  • That was essentially the point. Obi-Wan clearly can't be an effective teacher for Luke with the way he was during the beginning compared to his older self by the time of the Original Trilogy. Despite claiming otherwise, Bail Organa and Owen Lars can see right through him and is aware of his guilt of failing as Anakin's teacher which greatly shook up his own confidence for ten years. The series is basically a character arc for him to set aside his personal demons and become the Jedi Luke needs as a teacher.

Owen blaming Ben

• This one must have been wondered about in other works, but let's ask it here. Owen expresses his hatred towards Obi-Wan Kenobi because of his taking Anakin Skywalker away from his mother, failing to train him properly and causing his "death". Yeah, Obi-Wan failed as a master but didn't kill him, yet that's justifiable because even Obi-Wan thought Anakin was dead, but why didn't he ever consider to informing Owen that Qui-Gon Jinn was the one who wanted to train Anakin and took him away from Tatooine? Even Obi-Wan didn't want his master to train Anakin in The Phantom Menace and thought he shouldn't be trained! Why not tell Owen about that issue so he can stop pestering him with that issue?
  • It's not just Obi-Wan, he probably blames the Jedi for not doing enough to help the galaxy.
  • The small details just can't wipe away the tensions. Qui-Gon may have took Anakin in despite the Jedi Council feelings it's arguably bad news, a decision that Obi-Wan once agreed with, but Obi-Wan himself took the task to train Anakin. That's frankly the one detail that really got to Owen because he can't help but wonder what exactly did Obi-Wan (and the Jedi Order) do that ultimately got Anakin killed. Also Obi-Wan could never slander his late master like that just to ease his guilt.

Yoda

• If Obi-Wan had initially refused his petition to rescue Leia from the Third Sister's clutches, why doesn't Bail Organa go to Dagobah and ask Master Yoda to rescue Leia instead? Bail knows that Yoda has exiled himself, and as much Yoda considers himself a failure for failing to kill Darth Sidious, he couldn't have refused to rescue Leia, considering that he wants to train her instead and that she was the "another" to her brother.
  • Yoda never planned to train Leia. If he had he would have had Obi Wan's force ghost appear to her too. And Obi Wan, as a human male, is much less recognizable than Yoda. And finally Bail had a deeper friendship with Obi Wan.

The clone

• When Obi-Wan meets up with a homeless clone veteran, why does he take pity on him? First of all, clone troopers tried to kill him during the Great Jedi Purge and killed many of his fellow Jedi. Secondly, was Obi-Wan ever made aware that the clone troopers were forced by the Order 66 protocol to turn against their Jedi Generals?
  • Obi-Wan was told by the Kaminoans themselves that the clones were genetically modified to be totally obedient. Even if he doesn't know the specifics, he knows that the clones couldn't make free choices and where in many ways victims of their own programming.
  • Also, despite everything, Obi-Wan is still a Jedi. Compassion and forgiveness are core tenets to the Jedi; letting go of past angers and fears towards those that have wrong you is important. He may not understand the full context of why the clonetroopers did what they did, but he can see what's right in front of him. A discarded and abandoned soldier trying to scrape by on the kindness of others.
  • Another part of it may be that Obi-Wan still remembers the clones he once fought with (Rex, Cody, and the rest) with fondness, and understands that SOMETHING happened when Order 66 went out. So when he sees a Clone who he once fought alongside, he still feels that he should help them.

Fleeing to Corellia

• When Haja Estree helps Corran and his mother flee from Daiyu, why do they ask him to get them a ship to Corellia? If they wanted to escape from the Galactic Empire and/or wanted a better life, Corellia isn't the best place in the galaxy because, the Empire is also established there and the planet's population is mostly poor, as shown in Solo.
  • Maybe Corellia wasn't like that yet. When exactly does Solo take place?
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi takes place about a year after Solo; 9 BBY and 10 BBY, respectively. The prologue in the latter work featuring Corellia took place in 13 BBY.
  • Given that Haja claimed that he did genuinely help the two find a place of safety despite taking all of their money, it could be likely there are people waiting in Corellia to further help them out. He is shady and greedy but his knowledge about The Path does give the impression he's at least sincere in helping people.
  • Firstly, not every place on Corellia is an Industrial Ghetto and even Solo tie-in works feature them. Given that Corran and his mother are Corellians in Legends, maybe they're Corellian nationals looking for a way back to their homeworld?
  • Corran and his mother don't exist in Legends. They are exclusive canon-only character. Or is one assuming that this Corran is Corran Horn from Michael A. Stackpole's X-Wing novels?
  • To the above: Yes. Corran Horn from Legends is basically the Corellian Jedi. That they give this Corran that character's name, list his mother as being named "Nyche" on the call sheets (his mother's name in Legends), and mention Corellia as their final destination, point heavily to this Corran being a Corellian. They're drawing too heavily on the character's background not to go the distance.

Sparing Haja

• After the Third Sister interrogates Haja, why doesn't she kill him after he tells her the information they need? He got in her way and tried to prevent her from reaching Obi-Wan Kenobi, and it's not like the Inquisitorius care about killing those who get in their way or complicate their tasks, an example being how the Grand Inquisitor kills Vect Nokru seconds earlier for aiding Reva in putting a bounty on Obi-Wan's head.
  • Haja comes off as a ridiculous nobody and Reva's way too focused on chasing down Kenobi to waste even a second on someone so unimportant. Haja may have actually been able to provide some intel, but the Third Sister seems very apparently obsessed with her pursuit of Kenobi over any other factors.
  • Added to that, Reva's later revealed to have joined the Inquisitors in order to kill Darth Vader out of Revenge for the Jedi, not out of a commitment to the Empire's cause. She's perfectly willing to murder people in order to get what she wants, but killing Haja doesn't help her accomplish that, so she doesn't really have a reason to do so.
  • Worst-case, Obi-Wan will sense Haja dying, and that gives away her position or proximity to him. It'd also clue him in that their escape route is no longer safe, which would make finding him harder as opposed to boxing him in.
  • Why waste a useful source of info?

Inquistor's death

• How exactly does it make sense for the Third Sister to kill the Grand Inquisitor at the end of the second episode? The Grand Inquisitor canonically dies years later in Star Wars Rebels, and his spirit is even seen in the Star Wars (Marvel 2015) comic book series. Or is this Grand Inquisitor a predecessor to the Rebels one?
  • Or you know...He might not be dead but incapacitated for most of the series? Let's just wait and see since this is a universe where darksiders can survive being cut in half (Maul) or lose all their limbs and be burnt beyond recognition only to survive after all (Anakin) or be tossed down a pit and explode yet manage to come back from death (Palpatine).
  • Or, the Grand Inquisitor IS actually dead, and has been for all of his appearances in Rebels. His ghost form is just the second stage of his undead servitude to Vader, with the first being as a physical Dark Side zombie.
  • He was definitely alive in Rebels, otherwise him dropping himself into the fire and his "some things more frightening than death" wouldn't make sense.
  • Or maybe, he said that because he didn't like death due to feeling it as a member of the undead, so he didn't want to be subjected to a Fate Worse than Death (which ends up happening as seen in the comic books).
  • There's no canonical way to cheat death AND have an intact and functioning corporeal body. Even Palpatine's best efforts after years and years of cloning research only yielded the miserable decaying half-shell he was in The Rise of Skywalker. The Grand Inquisitor would not have been as mobile or spry as he was in Rebels if he was undead.
  • As of the third episode, the Third Sister has stated that the Grand Inquisitor died. Nevertheless, it would be very strange if that's the case, considering that Rebels co-creator Dave Filoni worked on this show, so he could have warned the showrunners about the Continuity Snarl killing off the Inquisitor would cause.
  • Reva doesn't state that the Grand Inquisitor died. Vader cut her off as she says, "Kenobi will pay for the Grand Inquisitor's —".
  • Well, the subtitles state that Reva was saying that Kenobi would pay for the Grand Inquisitor's death, at least the Latin Spanish subtitles.
  • You can't really take translated subtitles as canon, as there could have been a mistranlation.
  • It's worth noting that whenever it is shown, none of the other inquisitors sit in the Grand Inquisitor's seat. If he were dead, they would be all jostling to sit in it. Also, in episode 4, Tala gets past a security guard by threatening to report him to the Grand Inquisitor. Again, if he were dead (and Vader hadn't promoted anyone else yet), the guard would have realised she was a spy from her outdated information.
  • But if the Grand Inquisitor has been recovering from his injuries then, why doesn't he rat Reva out? She stabbed his stomach, not his mouth.
  • Maybe he's still in a Bacta tank (where they shove that breathing device in your mouth)? Also, tattling to Vader doesn't really seem like his style. He might be plotting his own revenge when the time is right, or is expecting Reva's arrogance to be her undoing.
  • Chapter Five shows him alive and well. He states that revenge does wonders for a person’s will to live, implying he survived the same way Maul did: the power of hatred.

Jumping after ship

• If the Third Sister could use all those Force-assisted parkour moves to jump across the rooftops, why didn't she jump onto the cargo ship when it was taking off?
  • Parkouring on a stationary buildings is not the same as jumping onto a moving ship that is heading for space.
  • Especially when you're going to have to find a way in once your parkour is finished to avoid asphyxiating in space.
  • As seen in The Rise of Skywalker and the Siege of Mandalore, using the Force to try to stop or catch moving ships usually results in collateral damage. Obi-Wan is too valuable to accidentally crush.

Bail outing himself

• Isn't Bail Organa now in incredible danger? While the Third Sister is very impulsive, her plan DID work. The Empire now knows that Bail Organa is able to get in contact with one of the two most wanted Jedi on Palpatine and Vader's kill list almost casually. And bring him into the open to go rescue his daughter. It seems highly unlikely, Senator or not, that Vader wouldn't be on his way to Alderaan ASAP to have words.
  • It's likely we're going to see the consequences of that.
  • I think it's been implied before that the Empire has been suspicious of the Organas for a long time but never had any concrete proof to pin them with.
  • The Inquisitors have no proof that Bail and Breha asked Obi-Wan for his help. They may be running on the assumption that Obi-Wan is still the man he was during the Clone Wars and would have been keeping watch, jumping on the opportunity to do the right thing. The Jedi Code is like an itch, after all.
  • Third Sister's entire plan was based on very obscure information about Obi-Wan in their archives, mainly that he had a very minuscule connection with Bail Organa during the Clone Wars (they don't know that Bail helped him and Yoda after Order 66). This already pissed off the Inquisition because while it somehow did work, there's hardly any evidence that Bail and Obi-Wan are still in touch and kidnapping a Senator's child all because of a hunch frankly just looks completely stupid no matter how much you can explain it unless they can actually catch Obi-Wan. While this may raise suspicion, there's just isn't enough for the Inquisitors to get Bail in hot water without getting the Senate on their asses.

Obi-Wan hearing about Vader

• How is it that in ten years, Obi-Wan hasn't heard that Vader/Anakin is still alive? He wasn't living a completely isolated life on Tatooine, and Vader had been making a name for himself in that timeframe. If nothing else, one would think the Organas might've given him a heads-up at some point. ("Hey, Obi-Wan, turns out Anakin's not quite dead...")
  • The Organas probably wouldn't contact him unless it was absolutely necessary, given the stakes of the secret.
  • Also during this time Darth Vader wasn't a particularly public figure, with most of his focus being on hunting down stray Jedi. Given what we've seen of Vader when he does get directly involved, it's not likely that many people get much word out about him. He's not exactly going around introducing himself and if the Empire is concerned about the collateral damage of Vader's rampages, they're not exactly the sort to have a problem with disappearing witnesses.
  • Also, remember that Obi-Wan is trying to keep a low profile. He keeps to himself as much as possible, so he probably isn't chatting about current events with the locals. He only knew who the Inquisitors were when he saw them in town. As for the Organas, we don't know how much they knew about Anakin/Vader. Yes, Bail and Breha know that Anakin is Leia and Luke's father, and it seems like Bail knew that Anakin turned and Obi-Wan failed to save him. But based on their conversation in Part 1, Bail, like Obi-Wan, seems to believe that Anakin is dead. They may not know that Darth Vader is Anakin's Sith title. They weren't present in Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan and Yoda saw Sidious refer to Anakin as Lord Vader. They may know of Darth Vader, but they might just assume he was a different person than Anakin.
  • He might not be living in complete isolation, but he's still living in the Outer Rim, where the grasp of the Empire is looser. It's entirely believable that they never got information on Darth Vader.

Obi-Wan's family

• While riding on Freck's transport in Mapuzo, Obi-Wan talks with Leia about his family. If Obi-Wan remembered that (as most Jedi are taken from their families when they are babies), why didn't he try to look for them after Order 66? Considering that he thought that Anakin was dead so no one would come looking for Luke, then why not seek his family at Stewjon so he could finally get to know them to fill the void the loss of his fellow Jedi left? The Jedi know their birthplaces, and Kenobi isn't a common last name in the galaxy like Vos. If Owen didn't want Obi-Wan to visit Luke, then why not try to meet the relatives you were taken from so young?
  • Perhaps Obi-Wan has no real attachment to the vague memories he has of his life before the Jedi, or he's concerned that, as a known survivor of Order 66, he thinks the Empire would be keeping a watch on his biological family in case he *does* go to them.
  • If anything, Obi-Wan had long made his peace about the matter as he accepted his life as a Jedi. He admits it was sad as he would probably never see them again but it was again so long ago as well.
  • Also, Obi-Wan has to stick close to Luke. Who knows when he'll be ready for training, or when something might happen to put him on the Empire's radar that Obi-Wan will need to do something about? Packing up and leaving Tatooine long-term just isn't an option for Ben.
  • Obi-Wan was taken to the Temple as a baby. He has no memory of his parents and brother, save for the odd flashes here and there. He has no emotional attachment to them. He recognizes that they’re related to him, but he just sees them as random people. His true family — the family he’s ever known, was the Jedi Order. Even if he could track his biological family down without putting either them (or Luke via his absence) in danger, he has no incentive to. For example, my great-grandmother died when I was two. I have photos of her, I recognize she’s related to me but I’ve no personal, emotional attachment because I was too young to form any real memories with her. While yes, we don’t know whether or not they’re still alive, the fact is that Obi-Wan would have no emotional need to track down a family he’s literally never met since he was an infant.

Disabling the fence

• When Obi-Wan and Leia reach Mapuzo's Imperial checkpoint, Obi-Wan disables the checkpoint's laser gate so they can pass. Wouldn't have it been easier to, well, go around the checkpoint without having to deactivate the lasers? They didn't take Freck's transport, because if they had, then it would make sense for them to have turned off the gate's lasers.
  • Honestly a flub on Obi-Wan's part. The probe droid definitely got a good look at Obi-Wan prior to him blasting it to pieces. For all he knows, he and Leia better get the hell out of dodge before more Imperials show up, and he doesn't think of other options.
  • If I were the Empire, I’d put mines around the perimeter of the fence so if someone tried to get around the fence, BOOM. Obi-Wan, from his experiences in the Clone Wars, likely knows that if he and Leia try to simply go around, both would end up blown up.

Fire barricade

• Why did the second fire stop Vader when facing Obi-Wan Kenobi in Mapuzo? He put out the earlier one quiet easily, but he just stood there and watched as one of the people he hates most in the Galaxy gets rescued.
  • You mean the person, who last we saw before this had his limbs chopped off and then BURNED ALIVE didn't feel like walking into fire? Possibly has some reticence going into things that may burn him.
  • I think the OP is asking why Vader didn't put out this fire like he did the last one? He doesn't have to walk through the blaze, just...do what he literally did three minutes ago and use the Force to stop the droid from picking Obi-Wan up. Bam, he got his quarry.
  • Vader was cat and mousing Obi-Wan the entire time (as seen when he simply moves back to the dark when Obi-Wan flees to re-emerge further along later). He wants to torment Obi-Wan as much as possible for a long time something he all but states when putting out the fire, so could well be prolonging this out of sheer sadism (and/or to root out the friends Obi-Wan has been proven to have by his rescue).
  • Are we sure Vader put the flames out with the Force? He spills some kind of crystals on the ground, then ignites them with his lightsaber, but when the fire goes out, the crystals seem to have burned away to embers. Then Tala shoots a container similar to the one Vader knocked over, perhaps spilling more of the same stuff (or something else that ignited on contact with the smoldering crystals) and created a more thorough fire barricade.
  • To be sure, there have been moments in the books and comics depicting Vader walking through literal fire without even a flinch so clearly his suit can protect him. That said, I agree, Vader was being sadistic and draggng it out longer than necessary. The latter, of course, entirely being within his character.

Reva's belief in Leia's knowledge

• Reva's sudden belief that Leia knows where The Path safehouses are. She orchestrated Leia's kidnapping based off a hunch that her father knows where Obi-Wan is and luckily that worked in her favour. Where's the logic here, Leia is a small child who's just been rescued and recaptured, the chances of her knowing anything she actually wants to know are minute.
  • There's no harm in asking. Even if Leia doesn't have that particular information she might have picked up something useful she'd be willing to divulge. And it's a way to pass the time while waiting for Kenobi.
  • It's also a good opportunity to show again how much of a spine Leia has and how she can think on her feet. And also sets up her torture as that much more horrific because we know Leia doesn't know anything, can assume Reva knows this too because she set this whole kidnapping up, and Reva just goes and does it anyway.
  • This itself doesn't make sense as of the revelation that Reva isn't actually aligned with the Empire and balks at killing a defenseless Luke. Yet torturing a kidnapped little girl for apparently no reason is... fine?
  • She does spare Luke but only after her life's goal was revealed to be impossible and she went through emotional and physical wringer, which loosened the Dark Side's grip on her. Before that she was focused on her revenge and and too angry to realise the implications of her actions towards Leia.

Torturing Leia

• How does the Third Sister think that torturing and/or mutilating Leia is a good idea? Just like the Grand Inquisitor pointed out, it was a terrible idea to kidnap Leia because of her status as an Imperial Senator's daughter, to which the Third Sister assured that she was just using Leia as bait for Obi-Wan Kenobi, giving the implication that she would return Leia to Alderaan once she captured Kenobi. But hurting Bail Organa's daughter would not be a little risky? It could have potentially disillusioned the Imperial Senate because Organa would have likely spoken about the torture his daughter endured at the hands of the Galactic Empire.
  • There is a rather consistent thing about Reva and it's that she really does not care of the potential consequences of her actions. The other Inquisitors have called her out on it but with Vader putting her in charge, they can't do much but complain. As far as she knows, the Organas may as well be guilty, and there will be punishment for them once she captures Obi-Wan (and shut down The Path as a bonus). Again, not much proof to take the Organas down unless Obi-Wan is captured and sucessfully interrogated. So yes, Reva's actions towards Leia were pretty extreme and not a good idea but her arrogance won't let it stop.
  • Reva is all-in her gambits with Leia. Vader wants results, and isn't particularly concerned with the methods (he never has been). Vader isn't going to kill her less brutally if she fails. Nor is he going to reward her less if she maimed Leia in the process. Once Reva launched her plot, it was succeed or die, and the fate of Leia is totally unimportant to her. She's really only useful as bait, a source of information about the path, or a tool to find both it and Kenobi.
  • At that point there was no evidence linking Leia's kidnapping to the empire other than the testimony of Obi-Wan. (Who can't appear in public without being arrested and likely wouldn't be believed by anyone who wasn't already a Jedi sympathizer.) Reva was likely planning on either killing Leia once her usefulness ran out or keeping her in captivity indefinitely, then blaming her disappearance on the (conveniently now dead) criminals she hired.

Force mind-reading

• Once the Third Sister realizes that Tala Durith is lying to her, why doesn't she try to use the Force to read her mind, like she had previously tried to do with Leia to discover the Path's location? She failed to do it with Leia because of her strong Force sensitivity as Anakin Skywalker's daughter, but Tala isn't Force-sensitive, so her mind would be easy to read. By the way, doesn't this mean that the Third Sister should have realized that Leia was Force-sensitive the moment she couldn't read her mind, and requested her superiors to keep Leia in the fortress?
  • Resisting mind probes and mind tricks is something that anyone with a strong will can do, not just those that are Force-Sensitive. People with the Force tend to be strong-willed, but there are plenty of strong-willed individuals that don't have the Force. Jabba the Hutt literally laughed off a mind trick and Watto shutdown attempts to manipulate him with the Force. Cad Bane resisted Mace Windu's, Obi-Wan's, and Anakin's combined efforts to probe his mind for information, though it cost him a great deal of effort and pain to do so.

Glass walls

• Why aren't the walls in the hallways of Fortress Inquisitorius built of another material if the show takes place after Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order? Due to what happened in that game when Cal Kestis and Cere Junda infiltrated the base, one would think that Darth Vader ordered the hallways to be rebuild with a material other than glass to prevent it from breaking and allowing any intruders to escape, as he was previously forced to hold back the water with the Force while Kestis and Junda escaped from his grasp.
  • Honestly, assuming there's an order made to rebuilt the fortress after one incident is asking a little too much for a fictional universe. It's like saying why doesn't anyone add railings on ledges which Star Wars is notorious for rarely having any.

Hiding in a coat

• How is it possible that Obi-Wan was able to hide Leia inside a big coat when he and Tala tried to escape without being detected? None of the Imperials present in the hangar noticed that there were four legs under the coat of a single man?
  • As Tala demonstrated earlier, a lot of Imperials are not in the habit of examining their superiors too closely; if a stormtrooper catches sight of a couple of officers walking with purpose in the middle of an alert, they don't get in the way. When you work in an environment filled with short-tempered, ambitious jerks that are all looking for anyway to blame their own failings on someone else, you tend to keep your head down.
  • But there were a ton of other officers as well. Also, there's looking a bit out of order, and then there's sticking like a sore thumb with this cartoony set-up. It'd be one thing if they say, chained Leia up and put a bag over her head, so that it might look like they're escorting a prisoner/hostage, or stuffed her in some container they could push or carry. But I'm pretty sure that walking a child under a trenchcoat would raise instant red flags even at the most cursory glance.

Tracker

• When did Reva have the opportunity to plant a tracker inside Lola and how did Leia get Lola back? We see Reva holding Lola while interrogating Leia but Leia never takes her eyes off her so it would be difficult to plant a tracker without Leia seeing it. Plus there is no indication that Reva put Lola back in Leia's pocket before the stormtroopers took her away. Not to mention that Reva planting a tracker in the first place implies that she knew Leia would be rescued somehow.
  • On the last point, Reva is lying about Kenobi being dead. She knows he isn't. Or at least she knows he wasn't abandoned the way she claims, which would imply that he survived. She was probably pinning her hopes on him attempting a rescue, in the traditional Jedi manner. As for the former, she could have passed the droid to one of the Stormtroopers, 'force floated' it back into Leia's pocket or sleight-of-handed it in directly. She does sit down next to Leia in the scene after the one where she is holding Lola.

Reva faking her death

• According to Reva, she faked being dead during Order 66 so Anakin would not kill her. The problem, however, is that she was in front of Anakin: how was Anakin so dumb to think that a youngling in front of him suddenly died without him touching her with his lightsaber?
  • This is Anakin we're talking about. He was so gullible he fell for a promise to help save his wife from a man who had admitted being the hidden hand behind the entire conflict which included ordering multiple assassination attempts on said wife, so tricking him isn't exactly difficult.
  • While a bit of a stretch, there's a flash of an implication Anakin did strike Reva during his slaughtering of the kids. It just wasn't as fatal as he thought and Reva used that to act like she was killed by the strike. Seeing how Anakin was actually in emotional conflict with himself in Revenge of the Sith, he may not had bothered to check if he did indeed killed any of those students.
  • Later episodes show that Reva was stabbed through the chest, which explains a lot. That should have been a killing blow, so she would have needed to use her thirst for revenge to tap into the Dark Side to survive. That impressed Vader enough that he let her into the Inquisitors.

Tactics of the bait

• If the Third Sister wanted so desperately to use Obi-Wan Kenobi as bait for Darth Vader, why does she cut open the Path's door so her troops can enter? She knew through the Force that Obi-Wan was standing behind it, so she was definitely lucky that Obi-Wan avoided her blade. If she had killed Kenobi then and there, Vader would have had no mercy in their upcoming duel...
  • Reva honestly does not care. She hated both Vader (for killing her friends aka the only family left) and Obi-Wan (for not being there as well as his handling as Anakin's teacher) that much so frankly this was her greatest chance to kill two birds with one stone. Seeing how she tried to strike Vader from behind while he was unarmed, it's definitely certain she isn't planning some proper duel.

Corran

• Why are Corran and his mother in the Path? Didn't Haja send them from Daiyu to Corellia?
  • Maybe the route was to go from Daiyu to Corellia, but Haja's contact had to think fast once the spaceport was locked down and got them out by routing first through Jabiim.

Vader and Third Sister

• During his duel with the Third Sister, why doesn't Darth Vader use his lightsaber instead of breaking the Third Sister's double one so they could duel with it? Did he miss it? He has it again in his later appearances chronologically.
  • For the same reason he doesn't use any lightsaber at all at the start — it's all part of the process of proving to her that she is completely outclassed no matter if he uses a 'broken' lightsaber (that's actually completely even with her, since they're both using half of the same lightsaber), or even no lightsaber at all.
  • Also, it's not 'broken', it's also a splitsaber, akin to Cal Kestis' own final lightsaber. you see the crescent guard for the spin function retract when Vader separates it, and Reva later reclaims it recombined.

Letting Third Sister live

• After Darth Vader stabs the Third Sister and the Grand Inquisitor recovers his title again in front of her, why don't they bother to kill her to stop her once and for all? If the Grand Inquisitor was able to survive due to his hatred and wish for revenge, shouldn't they consider the possibility that the Third Sister might survive through the same method as well?
  • Vader simply decided to put Reva through the same scenario Grand Inquisitor underwent: for the Sith Lord, it doesn't matter if she survives the ordeal. Both GI and Vader left her to die because they're confident that Reva's levels of hatred are not enough to sustain her.
  • They probably don't even care whether she survives or not, which is the greatest insult of the whole scenario. Vader just demonstrated to her at length that she is no threat to him personally and never will be, and if she survives to continue to pester Obi-Wan, that helps the Imperial cause too. There are no significant enemies to the Empire that she could help: the Rebellion seems to not even exist yet, and it's not like the Path would welcome her with open arms. Even if Reva survives her wound, her choices boil down to "disappear off the face of the galaxy and never bother the Empire ever again" or "continue to cause trouble and get hunted to hell and back by a squad of Inquisitors."

Vader's scar

• Why was the scar by Anakin/Vader's right eye missing in the scenes where he is shown unmasked (as well as when Luke unmasks him in Return of the Jedi)? Was it probably healed by the bacta treatments, while his injuries from Mustafar were too severe to fully heal?
  • Chronologically, Anakin gets that scar during The Clone Wars — and therefore before Revenge of the Sith. He doesn't have it in flashback scenes because they take place during his Jedi Padawanship, before Attack of the Clones events kick in. So yeah, bacta treatments during his tenure as Darth Vader might've healed the scar completely.

Bail's message

• When Bail sends that message to Obi Wan in part 5 why is he so clear and explicit about where he is going? If he thinks Obi Wan has been captured/in danger why does he send a message that not only reveals Luke's location but hints at his true identity too?
  • People who are afraid often make bad decisions. Bail's been afraid ever since Leia was abducted. He's not thinking clearly.

Reva getting a ship

• How did Reva get to Tatooine so quickly? There didn't appear to be other spacecraft in that hangar outside the one Vader destroyed.
  • Just like the refugee ship that did make it, it's not a stretch to think that the decoy ship had a dropship like the one Obi-Wan takes to divert Vader's attention. There's even the fact that we're shown it has a hyperdrive.
  • There is no indication of how long the refugee ship had been fleeing the Star Destroyer. The hyperdrive was damaged, so they were going sublight, and it took some time for Vader to return to his Star Destroyer. In addition, that vicinity seemed to have a fast route to Tatooine, given how quickly Obi-Wan traveled there after his duel with Vader. The only missing piece is whatever ship she used.

Reva's choice

• Why was Reva so reluctant to kill Luke when she finally had him at her mercy? She likely killed any Jedi younglings who survived Order 66 (if that youngling corpse from the fifth episode is any indication) and Luke was unconscious, so it wouldn't be the same as killing him while he was conscious and scared.
  • I think this ultimately implied that while Reva was certainly no saint with her share of atrocities in her pursuit for revenge, killing children in cold blood is a line she refused to truly cross and watching Vader willingly crossing it is unsettling, which Obi-Wan figured and called her out on. Her chance at revenge against Vader failed miserably with the likelihood she'll never have another chance so in desperation sought out low bearing fruit just to get something accomplished only to realize she just isn't as vile as she believed she is now that she's no longer an Inquisitor. She joined an obviously evil group for the sake of revenge and without that, she now sees she's not cut out to be evil.
  • In addition to the above, Reva was corrupted by the Dark Side. Once her revenge attempt failed the resulting emotional turmoil let her think more clearly, ironically enough.

Luke's training

• What did Obi-Wan and Owen mean by Luke "needs to be a boy" (or however they put it)? Does that mean Obi-Wan no longer wanted to train him or use him to help against the Empire? He seemed pretty willing to give him Anakin's lightsaber 9 years later.
  • My guess is that he decided not to force Luke into Jedi training at such at young age and wait until Luke is old enough to make his own decision (remember that while Obi-Wan does prod him a bit, Luke chooses to become a Jedi).
  • Obi-Wan was never meant to train Luke from birth as Anakin "should" have been trained, since part of the reason this whole mess exists is the ideological inbreeding of the old Jedi Order which was unprepared to truly help Anakin overcome his darker urges. Obi-Wan and Yoda didn't know exactly what form it would take, but knew they needed a Jedi who wasn't held back by the stultifying dogma they'd been taught. At the start of the series, Obi-Wan knows he needs to train Luke at some point, but also knows he isn't ready to do so. By the end, Obi-Wan is now ready to train Luke. . . and part of that is recognizing that Luke isn't ready yet. So Obi-Wan will wait until Luke is, and until then, yeah, he should get to be just an ordinary boy. Which, by the way, turns out to be the key to defeating Vader and the Emperor: Luke, as a boy who never knew his father, is prepared to believe he can redeem and save Anakin Skywalker, while Yoda and Obi-Wan wholly believe Anakin is beyond hope, functionally dead.

Force ghosts

• How is Qui-Gon Jinn's Force ghost able to appear physically at the end? It was previously stated in Star Wars: The Clone Wars that Qui-Gon didn't finish his training so he could only manifest as a voice, barring his appearance at Mortis due to that realm acting as an amplifier that served as a conduit through which the Force flows. By the way, if Qui-Gon was able to fully manifest as a Force ghost, then why didn't he assist Luke during the original trilogy or join Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin during the victory celebration at the end of Return of the Jedi?
  • Why would he appear to Luke? It's not like Luke ever met him, nor did Obi Wan and Yoda ever mention Qui Gon to him. As for how he's appearing here, it's possible that the time between his appearance on The Clone Wars and now, he's managed to finish his training. I don't think it was ever stated he couldn't finish it as a ghost, after all.
  • Well, Qui-Gon spoke to Rey in The Rise of Skywalker (interestingly still as a voice instead of a Force ghost even though that film happens after this show), and Rey never met him, so the argument of Luke not seeing Qui-Gon because they never met doesn't hold up.
  • Rey was communing with all Jedi of the past, including those who didn’t even become Force Ghosts at all; her situation was rather exceptional, and shouldn’t be held as a general precedent for Force Ghosts.

Walking away

• The big question: Why does Kenobi walk away from a second chance to kill Vader? It's not because he's against killing, because he kills at least one bounty hunter and many stormtroopers over the course of the series, some of them completely by surprise, before they had a chance to fire a shot at him. He knows Vader is unrepentant and will likely kill many more people. In fact, years later in Return of the Jedi he tells Luke that he is their last hope to destroy Vader. So why didn't he do it himself when he had the chance?
  • Seeing Anakin's face did a number on him emotionally, and while Vader is hurt, he's still a dangerous opponent. Obi-Wan probably made the mental calculus that he might not be able to kill Vader and more to the point he has something he has to live for.
  • To be fair, in the comics Vader, on multiple occasions, managed to kill his Force wielding opponents while being in way worse conditions. Even in the show Vader almost buried Kenobi alive with the Force alone and it was shown that Obi Wan was tired and hurt as well. Instead of going for the kill while emotionally compromised he chose to retreat.
  • Note that while Obi-Wan correctly identifies Anakin's biggest flaw as his aggression and his thirst for victory, Obi-Wan's flaw is the exact opposite. He is defensive, conservative, willing to give up if he thinks the prize isn't worth the cost. That works great for him a lot of the time, but it backfired on Mustafar when he couldn't bring himself to finish off Anakin, and again here in almost the exact same situation. He's emotionally compromised, so he falls back to his old standby of "be merciful and retreat."
  • He likely knows killing Vader is the only logical, perhaps even the only moral thing to do. Every reasonable thought and urge is probably telling him he not only should, but has to, as everything will undoubtedly be worse if Obi-Wan lets Vader live. Even as Vader mocks Obi-Wan by stating that Vader killed Anakin and Anakin is dead, removing the only possible reason Obi-Wan might have to try and spare him. . . Obi-Wan still can't do it. Every bit of rationality may be screaming at him that Anakin is dead and gone and Vader is little more than an animal to be put out of everyone's misery, but that doesn't mean Obi-Wan actually has the emotional fortitude to go through with striking the deathblow on the man who used to be his apprentice, brother, son, comrade, and friend. In all likelihood, he knows he should kill Vader, may even want to. . . but in the end, he just can't.
  • Another possibility is that he FEARS what will happen if he were to kill Anakin. That killing a beaten, defenseless person he has a personal attachment to will lead him down a dark path. It's not necessarily that he's afraid of killing, it's that he's always of what will happen if he doesn't stop.

Leia and Obi-Wan in A New Hope

• How come Episode IV Leia doesn't act like she met and got to know Kenobi and got rescued by him as a child, and barely reacts to Kenobi's death, looking more sorry for Luke being devastated by his sacrifice.
  • Leia barely reacted to the destruction of her own planet, at least in ANH. "We have no time for sorrows," as she says near the end. If she can hold off mourning her homeworld, she can do the same for one man until the mission is complete.
  • This takes place years before NH. Also, Leia calls him only hope and is instantly excited that he has come to her rescue, so I'd say it matches. It's not like she had a crush on him or anything.
  • In A New Hope Luke is seen playing with the toy Ben gave him as a present. This suggests that for a period of time, Ben was a very important person in Luke's life. Even though they bonded, Leia's relationship with Obi-Wan was essentially transactional, she needed to be rescued, so her father sent him to rescue her. When Obi-Wan died, Leia could probably see that Luke's loss was greater and decided not to make the moment all about herself.

Lola tools

• Why was Lola - a toy droid designed as a companion for a child - be equipped with, among other things, an actual, working buzz saw? Doesn't it seem a bit... dangerous?
  • Real life has seen Easy-Bake Ovens, lawn darts, slingshots, and other dangerous toys marketed to children. We're not much better.
  • This was also a droid designed as a companion for an adventurous rich girl. Her parents probably figured that any potential danger would be offset by Lola's ability to get her out of danger.

Palpatine and Kenobi

• Why does Palpatine force Vader to give up his vendetta against Kenobi? Isn't hatred and seeing revenge through to the end standard Sith practices? He basically tells him "forgive and forget, that's my motto" when it should be more like "you will never reach the true power of the dark side until you kill Kenobi and cut your final ties to your old life"
  • Here, Palpatine is presumably less concerned about maintaining the Dark Side's teachings of hatred and revenge, and more about maintaining an efficient Empire. Remember that Vader let a wanted band of rebels and refugees get away just so he could chase down his personal vendetta, only to get himself nearly killed because of it. As far as Palpatine is concerned, Vader's obsession with Kenobi is a distraction that leads to poor decision-making, and he cannot allow that. Alternatively, there's the fan interpretation that Obi-Wan did manage (however briefly) to get through to Anakin at the end of their duel, and Palpatine views that as a potential liability and wants to ensure it doesn't happen again.
  • I always thought running an empire came second to wiping out the Jedi when it came to Sith, surely Palpatine wanted all the Jedi hunted down and would see it as a failure on Vader's part if he didn't do that. He must have known even one Jedi left alive would come back to bite him (which it did).
  • It is the other way around: Palpatine does want to end the Jedi but he does not want to maim his Empire too much while doing so, something Vader was loudly promising to do. Anyway, based on his lines he seems to believe that Kenobi brings Anakin in Vader which is something Palpatine is very much against. He would not mind Vader killing Kenobi so long as his allegiance to the Dark Side and the Sith remains unwavering. Hence his non-reaction at the Death Star's duel.

Fragile Life Support

• This has probably been brought up before, but why does the life support on Vader's suit not have any protection? If it can be damaged by just a few strikes with a lightsaber pommel, then one stray blaster shot could as well, leaving Vader gasping for breath and unable to even stand. Even if Palpatine deliberately designed the suit this way in the hopes that Vader would be killed, allowing Palpatine to find a replacement, what's stopping Vader from modifying the suit himself?
  • It's apparently not really all that fragile. Obi-Wan smashed up the chest panel but good and took a huge chunk off of Vader's helmet, and Vader is a bit out of sorts, but is able to stand there and have a conversation with Obi-Wan and prepared to continue the fight if necessary (though probably at a significant handicap). And the next time we see Vader, he apparently got back to his shuttle, his Star Destroyer, and his castle none the worse for wear. Seems a pretty robust piece of technology to me, if it can take that kind of licking and keep on ticking.
  • While we can all agree that while Palpatine likely, definitely, 100% designed the suit to make life as miserable for Vader as humanely possible, he also doesn’t want Vader to get killed stupidly easily. It’s likely the whole suit, mask and life support box included, can withstand heavy blows. Plus, from what I remember it was a glancing blow, he didn’t lop the whole thing clean off. Still messed up enough to slow Vader down, but not kill him instantly.
    • This is a misconception from Legends. In the Canon comic series Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith we see Darth Vader modifying his suit to his wishes. He even gets mad at the idea of repair droids doing it for him.

Third Sister can warp through time and space?

• In the third episode, Leia is escaping through the tunnel/the path. She's been running and walking for quite some time, before The Third Sister finds the secret entrance. How in the name of all that's George Lucas can she not only catch up to Leia, but arrive AHEAD of Leia (and kill the contact that was supposed to meet up with Leia). It's just not possible?
  • She took a different way.

Vader's identity

• So it's revealed that Darth Vader knows exactly who Reva is and her plot to kill him. This would mean that he knows that she knows his identity. We all know Vader's quite the stickler for people knowing he's Anakin. That's part of the reason he hunts down his former loved one's so much; he wants to eliminate every trace of Anakin in the galaxy. In the Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comics, we see him kill a bunch of clone troopers because Jocasta told them he's Anakin. Why would Vader suddenly be chill with Reva knowing his identity? Even if she's useful, Vader should kill her before he even considers it, considering what he did to those clones.
  • My interpretation is because just killing her wouldn't be enough, he wants her to rise up to where she *thinks* she actually has a chance to kill him only to tear it all down which is exactly what we see during their fight.
  • Hate to say it, but the comics and books aren't canon, only the movies (and latterly the TV shows) are. If a film/TV script takes something from other media and uses it that makes it official but, until then, it's not. We've never seen any evidence - on screen - that Vader will kill to keep his Anakin identity a secret. I doubt he even cares, given that he longer considers himself to be Anakin Skywalker but that's just conjecture on my part.