Star Wars: Obi-Wan's Anakin Flashback Duel Has Some Heartbreaking Easter Eggs

Poor Anakin. The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series has only made the fall of "The Chosen One" and his long dark road to redemption that much more powerful. Episode 5 of Obi-Wan is being hailed as one of the best Star Wars stories we've ever been told – in large part due to the return of Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker, who showed up in a key flashback sequence that provided the major thematic framework for the episode's story. 

However,  a lot of Star Wars fans are now noticing some pretty heartbreaking (and deep) Easter eggs that were in that sparring duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan, before everything fell apart: 

The lightsaber duel choreography of the Star Wars Prequels has been studied in full detail by fans – so of course, it was immediately noticed that Obi-Wan was dropping that Easter egg in its flashback duel. A lot of the sword strokes and parrying that Obi-Wan and Anakin did in their sparring session flashback were exactly the same ones from the duel on Mustafar during Revenge of the Sith. 

It's a deep connection in that the larger point of the sparring session is Obi-Wan trying to show Anakin how his aggression (and arrogance) are the weaknesses that could be his undoing. It's a lesson that Obi-Wan obviously fails to teach, as Anakin loses the duel on Mustafar for exactly the same reasons he lost the sparring duel.

 Suddenly that "I have the high ground!" line is a lot more powerful... 

The other big Easter egg reference many Star Wars fans spotted is how Anakin's brutal and aggressive fighting spirit come back to bite him in the butt. During Return of the Jedi, when Luke Skywalker succumbs to the Emperor's taunts and nearly murders his father, he beats Vader down in just the same way Anakin tried to crush Obi-Wan. It's just deeper evidence of how the shadow of the Skywalker legacy was passed down – and what Luke truly achieved by learning what Anakin never did: sometimes the way to win is by NOT fighting. 

Obi-Wan Kenobi is rapidly climbing out of the cloud of divisiveness in the fandom, as it delivers another big high point for Star Wars TV. Director Deborah Chow is understandably getting lots of praise for not only telling a really great Star Wars story in this episode but doing it on levels that ripple throughout the entirety of the franchise – from the movies to the comics, to the games. 

Obi-Wan Kenobi is streaming on Disney+.