Honestly Obi Wan not knowing Anakin was alive the whole time changes everything. When Padme tells Obi that there’s still good in Anakin its seemingly implied that Obi Wan doesn’t want to tell her that he’s a sith now but it’s actually showing that Obi Wan fully believed that Anakin, Padmes wife, the father of the newborn babies, was dead and that he himself had killed Anakin, and couldn’t bring himself to tell her seconds before she died still believing
in canon anakin and obi are described as “two halves of a single warrior”, “closer than friends, closer than brothers”, “knew each other more intimately than lovers”, they “became men together” despite their age difference, best friends, “obi wan… always chasing after skywalker”, “if kenobi was there skywalker was never far behind”, “you were my brother anakin, i loved you!”, “you’re the closest thing i have to a father”, “neither can imagine life without the other”, erstwhile master and padawan, total equals, co-generals, brothers-in-arms, inseparable, “obi wan would want no other man by his side”, anakin is in canon the only person Obi-wan ever says I love you to, obi wan is upset bc he imagined anakin would be with him when he died, ahsoka considers them in canon her adoptive parents, obi-wan watches over and raises anakin’s kids from afar, anakin is both obssessed with and jealous of obiwan, obi wan literally longs for anakin and is undone with grief over losing him, they still have a vivid linked force connection 10 years after parting, obi wan buried their lightsabers together, anakin once ponders if he loves Obi-wan more than his wife
so literally any and all interpretations of their relationship are valid and correct, and id say their psychic/physical Force soul-bond transcends any single category and spills over into a soulmate love that is undefinable to our understanding of roles “on Earth” and is hopelessly tangled in the best of ways
darth vader’s approach through town at night when he is a waking nightmare, a vicious monster, and obi-wan stands and watches is exactly what i hoped it would be. vader kills innocents without hesitation or regret, with the act of ending of a life is so trivial to him, killing so easy and familiar. obi-wan could barely breathe the whole time, he could probably feel him in the force, feel his malice, his icy presence so near and overwhelming. when he asks what vader’s become, it’s less of a question than a rebuke, because he knows intimately what he’s become, and getting chased and burned was probably almost preferable than those interminable moments of vader’s approach, that infinity of hanging suspended in the knowledge that anakin was there, really there, just outside andthat fog of evil and pain and death was anakin. this show is dark, very dark, at times, and vader was a perfect walking atrocity, and obi-wan’s suffering at his approach was exactly right haha
i still can’t get over how obi wan physically could not tear his eyes away from him. like, even when he was telling tala and leia they needed to run, tala had to repeatedly force obi wan’s eyes away from the scene in the street because he could not stop staring at vader, at anakin, what he had become and what he had BEEN becoming these past ten years and ugh the pain in his eyes it’s just such lovely suffering
“Are you my real father?” hit like a truck because Leia Organa is tremendously powerful in the Force, some part of her remembers her mother, just vaguely, but she does. “She was beautiful, kind, but sad,” Leia says in Return of the Jedi. She remembers that day on Polis Massa in some way, just brief, fleeting memories, but she does.
“Sometimes when I look at Luma, I see her mother’s face. We all miss her very much.“ rings with so much truth in the Force that Leia, with her ability to see into people, to know when they’re lying, to read them like an open book, knows that’s true.
Somehow, he knew her mother. From there, it’s not a big leap to, “Are you my real father?”, it’s a reasonable conclusion, if the wrong one.
But some part of her feels it, too. Because some part of her must remember him as well, Obi-Wan was there that day, even if she may not knowingly recognize him.
If Leia remembers her mother, she likely remembers Obi-Wan, too.
I understand Obi Wan is going through a bit of a fucking crisis at the moment, but literally how is he letting Darth Vader sneak up on him lmao, like that is NOT a quiet man! He is quite physically incapable of being so naturally!!! is Vaderkin holding his breath or something?
Vader, holding his breath and turning his light support off and back on for dramatic effect: obi-wan’s gonna be so terrified hehehehehe
*wheezes* ok one last thing, but based on their meeting it feels like Vader’s vengeance plans for the last decade have just been him furiously listening and crying to Burn from Hamilton on repeat until he can enact his fantasies in person
lol ok but also I’m adoring how Leia took one look at Obi Wan this episode and was like “so obviously I’m the one protecting this damaged old man”
“He’s very distressed about nobody coming to meet us, but that’s okay, I’ll get us a ride home”
“Hmm he’s not a very good liar, that’s alright, I’ll give us a cover story”
“There are a whole bunch of murderers outside spreading fear and death and Ben was obviously terrified and if he fights them he’s gonna get himself killed, as a sheltered 10 year old I can obviously take care of myself, I should definitely send my protection to him”
IF I DON’T GET APPROXIMATELY TEN MILLION ANSTY FANARTS OF OBI WAN WITH HIS MATCHING BURN SCARS ON HIS ARM TO VADER NOW I’M GONNA BE HIGHKEY DISAPPOINTED IN EVERYONE HERE
The GREAT Negotiator™, known across the galaxy for his silver tongue and way to talk his way out of any situation: *almost gets his ass caught by regular stormtroopers and a giant mole like ten times if he didn’t have a ten year old to lie for him*
Yk what kills me about this. Obi-Wan really had every right to be just as angry at the clones as Kanan did. Yes he was older and he didn’t witness his master being murdered in front of him BY THE CLONES ANYWAY, but he lost literally every single one of his friends on the Council (aside from Yoda) to Order 66 and Palpatine. Order 66 almost killed him too. He heard Cody asking for confirmation of his death almost immediately after getting shot down. He had to kill members of the 501st just to survive Coruscant and change the signal being broadcasted out of the temple. And then he sees a clone for the first time in 10 years. The face that he first fought in the rain all those years ago on Kamino. The face of his Commander. The face of Anakin’s Captain. The face of every single clone that he’d fought side by side with for an entire war, the faces that he knew killed the closest people he had to a family. And what does Obi-Wan do? He does not ignore him, he does not show any signs of bitterness nor resentment. He gives him money. Maybe in doing so he silently thanks every single clone that ever died for him, maybe he sees a bit of himself in an old beaten down veteran who was once the face of goodness and hope and everything the Old Republic stood for, scavenging in the streets and just trying to survive. Perhaps for Obi-Wan, it’s getting to say goodbye to the friends he maybe never really knew why he lost. Or maybe it really was just Obi-Wan, for the billionth time, being so selfless and kind when almost nobody in his shoes could have done the same.
Fixing the moment in canon when Obi-Wan learns Anakin is still alive is interesting because of what it implies about Obi-Wan’s motivations in seeking to train Luke. He sees the boy as a future champion against the Empire writ large, not his father in particular. He believed in good faith that Anakin was dead, and was seeking to train Luke regardless. He perhaps believed in bad faith that he was dead after learning the truth, and the ethical debate over his reticence to reveal Vader’s identity aside, it’s just interesting to know that he wasn’t from the beginning manipulating to train Luke to slay his father. He was trying to train him to defeat an Empire. He believed in his larger potential, because no child of Anakin Skywalker could ever be anything other than extraordinary, for good or ill.
You’re kind. You have no reason to be anymore. You would rather not be. It leaves a trace. It’s not about protecting yourself but about protecting something far more precious. They string your people up and you bury your life in the sand. Still, you’re kind. You buy a toy for someone you’re not allowed to know, so he can dream. You give your credits to someone who killed all you’ve ever known. You take the time to try and comfort a little girl with a broken friend. You keep being kind and sometimes, there’s a little kindness paid back to you, and it’s never enough but it’s enough that it exists. (This is what an ember looks like.)
Vader always thought the Death Star was stupid anyway so we all know once he got past the initial rage at Kenobi for hiding his child from him he was extremely proud that the rebel pilot who blew the dumb thing up turned out to be his own son.
