Obi-Wan tries to speak to Qui-Gon one last time as he observes his lightsaber. Saying it’s me or him and one of us needs to die. This is quite a line as Obi-Wan doesn’t normally live with such absolutes, but he knows that Vader wants to kill him and if he doesn’t succeed, then he’ll fail yoda, luke and everyone of the jedi who counted on him before. Obi-Wan heads to the planet nearby, as Vader falls for the bait, and orders the ship to follow Kenobi, as he takes his lambda t4a imperial shuttle down to meet Obi-Wan. The Grand Inquisitor disagrees with this move.
Maybe Quinlan Voss arrives in season 2.
Reva arrives at the Lars homestead.
Vader arrives on the planet, and he faces his former Master, obi-wan kenobi.
Have you come to destroy me, obi-wan?
I will do what I must, says obi-wan, the same line he says to Anakin on Mustafar, as he gets into his Kenobi clone wars stance, the same stance he tried to fight maul in on tatooine a few years later, until he changed his stance to the qui-gon jinn one.
So with this stance, it means Kenobi is pretty much as powerful as he was in revenge of the sith, like when he fought Grievous.
Then you will die, replies Vader, just like when he fought Ahsoka, as he charges kenobi, and we get them fighting with intense aggression and speed against one another. Keep in mind, this is Vader’s body, he’s immobile and this is really pushing his bad outdated cybernetics to the absolute limit as sidious gave him the literal worst mechanics in order to subdue him and punish him for losing to obi-wan kenobi on mustafar. In the old legends books, Vader was so immobile he couldn’t even raise his hands over his head, so all this is a stretch for him. In the brotherhood novel, it explains Anakin’s new robotic hand lags behind his organic one, so i can only imagine how Vader feels here. they get back to back like in their training flashback on coruscant. A lot of their fights are still mimicking their training as anakin and obi-wan in the good old days. It’s a nice connection.
Kenobi and Vader go at it, shredding rocks with their sabers, throwing boulders at each other with the force. As Kenobi drops a massive stone on Vader, who only shows him up in the force. It seems whatever vader lacks physically, he makes up for in the force. He performs a hulk smash with the force, breaking the floor as he gets the high ground on Kenobi, throwing boulder after boulder upon him, trapping Kenobi.
Obi-Wan has a hard time as he’s collapsing under the pressure of the boulders, when he hears voices of anakin from their duel on mustafar, from their training on coruscant, and from Vader now, as he crumbles in defeat until he remembers Leia and his purpose in life now, to protect the children, to live for a new hope. He’s the last line of defence for them. This gives him enough power and belief in himself to fight for something important, as he sends the boulders sky high, and breaks out of there. Now i know people in th watch party had an issue with this part as he sneaks up on Vader, I think it’s because he’s using the force to stealthily move up to him, but of course Vader feels it. Jedi can suppress their footsteps and use the force to sneak around. Kenobi is using some of Anakin’s old moves, behind the hand twirl and spins, he’s using form 3 soresu, but he’s one the offence, which isn’t all that much like obi-wan, he’s much more of a defensive fighter, which is what form 3 soresu is.
We see Anakin, Hayden’s face, as Obi-Wan drops his guard and is brought to tears as he cries for Anakin.
Vader says, anakin is gone, i am what remains. This is all so sad. Obi-Wan tells him i’m sorry Anakin, for all of it. Now this is where i feel the directing was really well done, as we see the reflection of blue and red on anakin’s face, showing his inner conflict between the light and dark, between anakin skywalker and darth vader.
Vader tells him he is not his failure, that obi-wan didn’t kill anakin skywalker, he, himself, did. And I will destroy you, As he looks sadistic and psychotic. You can tell Vader is consumed by hatred, Anakin is still there, but he’s twisted and turned by the dark side.
Obi-Wan says in pity, then my friend is truly dead, as he walks away. He knows Vader is no longer a threat, and just feels sorry for him. There’s no need to kill someone he’s beaten now twice. It’s inconsistent with what kenobi tells luke to do later, to kill his father, but maybe Vader goes super psycho powerful over the next 10 years, who knows what the story of Vader will be going forwards. The scream Vader does for Obi-Wan tops the maul kenobi scream for me. It’s haunting and so full of rage and pain at being beaten and pitied.
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