“As hard as it was to become a Jedi, it was even harder to stop being one.”
“They were all gone. All the Jedi. And sometimes I wondered if I should have gone with them.”
“You never trained me for this, Master Qui-Gon. You never taught me how to fade away.”
"There’s a strength and nobility in restraint. I know that’s what you’d tell me, Master Qui-Gon. But nothing about this feels noble. The people here are dying. While I do nothing. I cannot fight as a Jedi. I cannot train the boy. I am lost here, Master.”
"My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. The last of my Order. But this is not the end of the Jedi. All it took was a young boy’s courage to assure me of that.“
Now that we have the teaser trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi out, I’ve been wanting to reread these issues of Star Wars about Obi-Wan’s time on Tatooine. Who knows how well they will or won’t fit together with what the show gives us, as I doubt they’re much on the radar of the show. But that’s not the point of why I wanted to reread them, and it’s more that I love this storyline.
Because the Obi-Wan we see at the end of Revenge of the Sith is heartbroken, he feels responsible for not being able to prevent Anakin’s fall to the dark side, he’s lost his entire family, his community, his people, his culture. And he cannot even speak openly of that loss, he cannot practice his own faith, he would be hunted down and killed–or worse–if anyone knew what his faith was. That he was born as Force-sensitive and raised as a Jedi, that alone was enough that the Empire was hunting him down to kill him, much less that he was Obi-Wan Kenobi.
And that’s what really tortures Obi-Wan. The loss of his family and people devastates him, but that he cannot even lean on his faith, he cannot even be a Jedi anymore, that every cell in him wants to help people, but he cannot, because it would call attention to him, call attention to Luke.
This is the central conflict Obi-Wan faces, because he is a Jedi to the core.
“Jedi cannot help what they are. Their compassion leaves a trail. The Jedi code is like an itch. He cannot help it.”
“I cannot fight as a Jedi. I cannot train the boy. I am lost here, Master.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi is lost because he only has the thinnest of threads to hold onto in a galaxy that has frayed and snapped and broken every other one. He is the survivor of a genocide of his people, a galaxy of lights he used to be able to feel in his mind are now dark, and he cannot even talk about it, because there would be no shelter and it would only drag down more people. Would only snuff out the last few candles of light left. Cannot help anyone because it would only make them suffer more. And that conflicts with everything he was taught to be, everything he wants to be–someone who helps people because of his compassion for them, an itch that lives under his skin and that he must hold himself back from scratching.
And the story is about finding the balance there. Because the danger still lurks, but learning when and where you can still help, learning how to find a way to be a Jedi in a galaxy that is so vastly different than what it used to be, to find a way to hide who and what you are until the time is right, without losing yourself to it. That’s Obi-Wan Kenobi’s journey and there is still so much room for story in that.
Especially because, whatever happens, we know he does get to be a Jedi openly again. Maybe only for a brief moment, but when facing Vader on the Death Star, there’s no question that Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Jedi, that is his culture, his faith, and his purpose. One that will help save the galaxy, one that will help create a moment for Luke and Leia and Han to escape and find their own path forward, one that will eventually allow him to become a Force Ghost and continue to help guide Luke and eventually reunite him with Anakin.
Do we know what happens ultimately with Obi-Wan? Yeah, of course, we’ve seen A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back and Revenge of the Sith. We know how this story ends, but the journey there is one that I’m very interested in, because it absolutely aches to think of a Jedi who cannot even be who they are in a galaxy that would kill them just for existing, and how they must grapple with the horror and pain of that, how they find their way through such a deep cutting into their spirit and still moving forward, still trying to find the light and hope again.
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