3 Years Ago, Disney Made Its Biggest Mistake With Star Wars Canon

Star Wars‘ time under the Disney umbrella has been controversial, to say the least. While there have been great moments, such as the end of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the first couple of seasons of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, it’s hard to look past the mess that is the sequel trilogy. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is harmless for the most part, introducing a new generation of characters that will take the baton from Han Solo and Co. However, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker fail to mesh in a meaningful way, with the latter largely undoing the bold decisions made in the former.

There are still arguments online about the sequels’ treatment of Luke Skywalker and the decision to have Rey be a descendant of Emperor Palpatine. But Disney’s biggest Star Wars mistake came long after the sequel trilogy was over, as it decided to retcon one of the series’ most iconic lines to make a lackluster story feel a bit more important.

Obi-Wan Kenobi Isn’t the Star Wars Story Many Expected It to Be

Like the sequels, the prequels have their fair share of issues, but Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi isn’t one of them. Despite filling the shoes of the great Alec Guinness, McGregor brings layers to the Jedi. He can be a bit rigid, but he’s loyal and a great mentor to Anakin Skywalker. Of course, Obi-Wan and Anakin don’t see eye to eye, especially in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. After Anakin realizes he can’t trust the Jedi because they want him to spy on his friend Palpatine, he tells the Sith Lord everything and agrees to become his apprentice to save his wife. Obi-Wan can’t believe what’s going on, so he goes to confront Anakin on Mustafar. The two engage in an epic duel that ends with Anakin burning alive and getting put in his iconic Darth Vader suit. For 20 years, that was the last time the characters saw each other before their confrontation on the Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope, but Disney decided to complicate matters.

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi picks up about a decade after Revenge of the Sith. The Empire has a strong hold on the galaxy, and the Inquisitors are hunting down former Jedi, forcing Obi-Wan to lie low on Tatooine as he watches over Luke Skywalker. Leia Organa getting kidnapped throws a wrench in the Jedi’s plan, though, so he sets out to get her back for his old friend Bail Organa. The mission puts Obi-Wan in direct conflict with the Grand Inquisitor and his lackeys, who aren’t too much trouble for the skilled swordsman. Their boss, Darth Vader, isn’t happy about his former master’s reappearance, so he decides to take matters into his own hands. Once again, Obi-Wan and Vader fight, and once again, the Jedi proves victorious. The only problem is that there’s no way Obi-Wan should have let the Sith Lord walk away.

Disney Makes Obi-Wan Kenobi Out to Be a Coward

It was easy to believe that Obi-Wan hadn’t seen Vader since Mustafar in A New Hope because their dialogue made it seem like that was the case. There’s no doubt that Obi-Wan was the master on the lava planet and taught his former pupil a very valuable lesson about having the high ground. Obi-Wan left for Tatooine immediately after that, and with the Empire having bigger fish to fry, it never took time to set up a big presence on the planet. That allowed Obi-Wan to fly under the radar for 20 years until Luke Skywalker came asking questions and delivered the message from Leia. However, all of that is out the window due to the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Star Wars canon now features a second battle between Obi-Wan and Vader before A New Hope, which, while visually stunning, doesn’t make much sense from a character perspective. Once Obi-Wan gets the upper hand, he shouldn’t hesitate to kill Vader because he knows what he’s capable of and understands that he isn’t Anakin anymore. Obi-Wan doesn’t have trouble killing villains like Darth Maul and General Grievous, making his choice to let Vader leave peculiar. The only logical explanation is that Disney wanted to have its cake and eat it, too, even if it meant making one of its greatest Jedi complicit in so much horror.

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is streaming on Disney+.

Do you think it was a mistake to have Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader fight again? How would you have changed the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Let us know in the comments below!

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