No, Star Wars Continuity Was Not Broken by Obi-Wan Kenobi

Back in 1977, audiences who witnessed Star Wars: A New Hope learned that there was a history between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi, ultimately leading to Kenobi’s death at the hands of the Sith Lord. In 2005, audiences saw what they assumed to be the last confrontation they had together prior to the events of A New Hope, which recontextualized Vader’s line in the 1977 film, “I sense something, A presence I’ve not felt since…” The new Disney+ series Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi has once again recontextualized that piece of 1977 dialogue, or at least confirmed that their last meeting was not on Mustafar. Despite the cries of a vocal minority of audiences, after four episodes of the new series, Obi-Wan Kenobi has not broken the overall continuity of the Star Wars series, especially in regards to the relationship between Obi-Wan and Leia Organa. Or, at least, it hasn’t broken continuity yet.

Heading into the series, audiences knew the narrative would explore Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan roughly ten years after his conflict with Anakin Skywalker, with trailers even giving us glimpses of a young Luke Skywalker. Much to our surprise, the series has largely focused on a rescue mission Kenobi reluctantly accepts in order to protect a young Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair). The reason this plot point has sparked some debate among fans is that, in the original trilogy, Leia never explicitly reveals that she knew the Jedi Master. With two more episodes to go, audiences could learn exactly how Leia would come to forget about Obi-Wan being her protector “Ben” and fully explain these supposed “plot holes,” or anyone willing to take the overall narrative on good faith can realize there isn’t a plot hole to begin with.

The issue at hand ultimately boils down to one of two explanations, both of which are equally as logical.

Theory 1: Leia Doesn’t Remember Ben Is Obi-Wan

Throughout her encounters with Kenobi in the series, he refers to himself as Ben. The most straightforward explanation would be that Leia knows the person who rescued her is Ben, and never connected the dots that Ben is actually Obi-Wan. Surely complicating matters is that various characters have referred to him as Obi-Wan in her presence. However, it’s worth remembering that Leia, regardless of her maturity, is still only 10 years old. It’s not a difficult deduction to assume she’s not making the connection between adult strangers calling the person who refers to himself as Ben as actually being someone else named Obi-Wan.

With the events of the series unfolding only over a few days to this point, there’s also an argument to be made that the experience could be so traumatic that Leia blocked out the details of it. Or, conversely, with how little we know about the next eight years of her life, Leia could have experienced a number of other even more traumatic experiences during her time in conjunction with the Rebel Alliance and that she’s undergone even more harrowing encounters than her time with Ben, making her memories of him somewhat insignificant.

Some fans have also already even wondered if otherworldly elements could be at play and if the Force was somehow manipulated to impact Leia’s memories. 

Whichever of these ideas seems most plausible, they could all explain why Leia didn’t remember this experience with Obi-Wan by the time the events of A New Hope happened.

Theory 2: Leia Actually Does Remember That Ben Is Obi-Wan

In Leia’s desperate message to Obi-Wan Kenobi that she stores in R2-D2 in A New Hope, she pleads, “General Kenobi. Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire.” Some viewers have wondered why, if she had such an intense experience with Ben and knew he was also Obi-Wan, why she wouldn’t have mentioned that in her transmission.

This message is less of a personal proposition and more of a formal invite for Kenobi to come out of hiding to join the Rebel Alliance, which we saw him attempt to avoid early on in Obi-Wan Kenobi. As we know Leia has the spirit of a Rebel, we also know that she often needs to act as a diplomat, and also conveys that she’s sending a message on behalf of her father, a figure Obi-Wan has more of a history with than she had. 

Later in the film, when Luke Skywalker claims he’s rescuing her and he is with Ben Kenobi, Leia questions, “Ben Kenobi? Where is he?” This echoes the idea that she has a familiarity with Ben, yet still spoke in her original message as if the two had never met, as referenced by her addressing him by his connection to her father. 

Even though audiences don’t explicitly see Leia detailing the connection she had to Kenobi over the course of her cinematic appearances, this doesn’t mean those encounters never happened, yet they weren’t entirely relevant to the big-screen adventures. In this vein, R2-D2 never explicitly confirms to other characters throughout the original trilogy that he had experienced a number of adventuress with Obi-Wan, Anakin, and C-3PO over the years. Either the trusty droid kept those experiences to himself, or merely didn’t express that in any film’s run time.

Whichever of these ideas seems most plausible, they could all explain why Leia remembered this experience with Obi-Wan by the time the events of A New Hope happened, just never explicitly addressed them.

“From a Certain Point of View”

In A New Hope, Obi-Wan tells Luke that he knew his father, as they were both pilots in the Clone Wars, and also that Darth Vader murdered Luke’s father. In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, we learn that Vader is actually Luke’s father, with Luke confronting the ghost of Obi-Wan about the issue in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. When questioned about the previous explanation, Obi-Wan admits, “What I told you was true… from a certain point of view,” which ultimately conveys the nature of the Star Wars canon. 

For 45 years, audiences have been presented with countless stories and details and characters and adventures, which rarely contradict objective truths about the details of the saga. Even if any of these theories presented don’t seem entirely logical, they all offer explanations of how supposed “plot holes” aren’t actually plot holes or canonical contradictions after all. 

While we can’t say that the sprawling Star Wars franchise will never offer such contradictions, the nature of supplemental stories, whether they be TV series, video games, or comic books, is that they can recontextualize established details of the franchise to see new meaning that can come with major ramifications, from a certain point of view. 

Unfortunately, as is the nature with many fandoms and surely not limited just to Star Wars, some audiences would prefer to make bad-faith arguments that any possible reveal that hadn’t been previously established creates a plot hole or breaks the canon, as opposed to accepting the countless ways in which these reveals can be explained, offering nuance and new context to established details. 

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi releases new episodes on Wednesdays on Disney+.