OBSESSED with the use of fire in this episode and the way it both unites and separates Obi-Wan and Vader, because it’s their past, it’s the breaking of everything they were, it’s the moment that literally and figuratively burns away any chance Anakin has at regaining the life he abandoned, and now Vader is forcing Obi-Wan through that—Vader wants Obi-Wan to suffer as he has suffered and to lose as he has lost. He wants Obi-Wan to hurt, to break, to forget what he was as Anakin has forgotten but in doing so, in using fire, Vader reveals that he hasn’t forgotten who he was. The tragedy of Mustafar is not the burning, it’s the loss. The tragedy of Mustafar is Anakin’s final rejection of everyone who loved him. When Anakin forces Obi-Wan into flame, he’s not just replicating the injury, he’s trying to replicate the result. He wants Obi-Wan to hate him. He wants Obi-Wan to reject everything he was. He wants Obi-Wan to forget the before and think only on the misery of the present. If Obi-Wan forgets, then he can forget as well. But the fire separates them! The fire saves Obi-Wan! It’s a boundary again, this time not between beforeandafter, but between Vader (who is the Empire) and Obi-Wan (who is the Jedi). It’s the same split as Mustafar, played out again in a different key. Anakin tries to break Obi-Wan, tries to finally move past that moment and what it means for what he had, and in doing so only brings them back to it again.
