Kenobi's Finale Fixed Original Trilogy Darth Vader Lines & Plot Holes

Warning! This post contains spoilers for the Obi-Wan Kenobi season finale.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi season finale kept Star Wars canon intact by both fixing and improving some lines from the original trilogy. When a show centered around Obi-Wan Kenobi was announced, many wondered how the series would be written to stay canonical with the wider Star Wars universe. With the Obi-Wan Kenobi season finale, the team at Lucasfilm has gone above and beyond by keeping canon intact and even improving on lines from the first Star Wars trilogy.

Much of the excitement surrounding Obi-Wan Kenobi upon its announcement came from the returning cast of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker respectively. However, with Kenobi and Vader expected to have a rematch in Obi-Wan Kenobi, a rematch featured in the season finale, many speculated how this meeting would change the context of some original trilogy lines. As with every Star Wars project released that slots somewhere into the expansive timeline, figuring out how to make everything flow together was one of the main challenges facing head writer Joby Harold and director Deborah Chow.

With Kenobi and Vader meeting at multiple points throughout the series, the risk of breaking canon and negatively impacting the original trilogy grew larger. It is even more impressive then, that Obi-Wan Kenobi season 1 managed to improve not just lines from A New Hope, but Return of the Jedi as well. The main ways in which these lines were improved could be found in the final meeting between Vader and Kenobi in the Obi-Wan Kenobi season finale.

Why Obi-Wan Said Darth Vader Killed Anakin Skywalker

Darth Vader Anakin Skywalker Hayden Christiansen(1)

There are many lines from the original trilogy that were held in high regard by fans of Star Wars that Obi-Wan Kenobi needed to adhere to in order to keep canon intact. However, one line that wasn't mentioned often, and was simply improved by Obi-Wan Kenobi, was Kenobi telling Luke Skywalker that Darth Vader killed Anakin Skywalker, Luke's father. In A New Hope, Luke asks Obi-Wan Kenobi how his father died. In response, Kenobi tells Luke that the former's old pupil, Darth Vader, betrayed and murdered Anakin Skywalker. Of course, Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker, however, the idea of this was only conceived of during the production of The Empire Strikes Back. As somewhat of a retcon, George Lucas wrote a line in Return of the Jedi in which Kenobi tells Luke that what he told him was true, from a certain point of view.

Obi-Wan Kenobi improves upon this inconsistency during the final confrontation between Vader and Kenobi. Much of Kenobi's character arc in the series surrounds coming to terms with what happened between Anakin and himself in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan's guilt over leaving Anakin to die, only to find out he is alive in Obi-Wan Kenobi unbalanced him. The end of the fight in the Obi-Wan Kenobi finale, however, shows Kenobi apologizing to Anakin for what happened. Vader, in response, tells Kenobi that the latter didn't kill Anakin Skywalker and that Vader himself did. This is what absolves Kenobi's guilt, alongside his newfound relationships with Luke and Leia, and leads him to truly believe his former friend is dead. All of this is why Kenobi tells Luke that Vader killed Anakin all those years later, meaning Obi-Wan Kenobi truly improved upon one of the original trilogies' most famous scenes.

Why Obi-Wan Calls Vader Darth In A New Hope

The original Star Wars sees Kenobi and Darth Vader meeting once more aboard the Death Star for another duel. In the scene, Kenobi consistently refers to Vader as simply Darth. Obi-Wan Kenobi introduced the reasoning as to why Kenobi calls his old friend this in A New Hope. After the scene in which Vader states he was the one who destroyed Anakin, and Kenobi comes to terms that this is true, Kenobi simply says "goodbye, Darth". This indicates that once Kenobi realizes Anakin is gone forever, he begins to separate Vader and Anakin into two separate people. In calling him Darth, Kenobi accepts that the man standing before him is simply an evil Sith Lord like Palpatine and not the padawan he once knew.

This explains why Kenobi continues to call him Darth in A New Hope. One of the lines from the film is only improved by this scene in Obi-Wan Kenobi, specifically the line in which Kenobi states: "only a master of evil Darth." This reinforces Kenobi's view of Vader after their confrontation in Obi-Wan Kenobi and further enforces how Kenobi believes Anakin to be gone for good.

Why Darth Vader Says He Was Still A Learner

One specific line from Star Wars that Obi-Wan Kenobi had to follow to keep canon intact came from the same scene mentioned above, in which Kenobi and Vader meet aboard the Death Star. In the scene in A New Hope, Vader insist he is the master over Kenobi when he was once but a learner. This line is given the context it needed in Obi-Wan Kenobi, proving that the show didn't break canon and only improved upon the line. The context comes from two separate scenes, one being the final fight between Vader and Obi-Wan, as the latter comes out on top, and the other being a flashback scene.

Firstly, the fight between Kenobi and Vader ends with Kenobi disabling the majority of Vader's suit. This greatly diminishes Anakin's threat due to his struggles with breathing and moving without the Darth Vader suit. In doing so, Kenobi bests his former padawan and wins the fight, allowing him to retreat with his life, proving he is still the master over Vader until the two meet again in A New Hope. The second scene, the flashback with Anakin and Obi-Wan from the time of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, provides the line with even further context. In the scene, Obi-Wan and Anakin are sparring with their lightsabers. Anakin's aggression and intense desire to be victorious gets the better of him, however, allowing Kenobi to outsmart him. Kenobi then states that should Anakin never overcome his need for victory, he will always be a padawan. A New Hope echoes this, with Vader's need to be victorious over Kenobi allowing Luke and Leia to escape and bring about the downfall of the Empire.

Why Vader Compares Luke And Obi-Wan

In Return of the Jedi, Vader says to Luke that Obi-Wan once thought as he did, meaning that there was still good inside of Darth Vader. That line was often theorized to be the basis of Obi-Wan Kenobi's story, with Kenobi trying to bring Vader back to the light side of the Force. While this wasn't necessarily the case, Obi-Wan Kenobi still improves upon the line and even fixes it. The last time Kenobi and Vader saw each other before A New Hope chronologically, before Obi-Wan Kenobi that is, was Revenge of the Sith. Before Obi-Wan Kenobi came out then, Vader's line in Return of the Jedi made no sense, as there was no hint of Kenobi ever thinking Vader was still Anakin and no instance of the two meeting between Episodes III and IV.

Obi-Wan Kenobi being placed between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope in the timeline though fixes this line completely. Again, much of Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 1 sets up Kenobi's guilt over what happened with Anakin. The last scene between the two in the series features Kenobi directly addressing Anakin and apologizing for what happened. After Vader says that he himself destroyed Anakin, Kenobi calls him Darth, indicating that before this he still thought Anakin was alive beneath the suit. This is where Vader's line comes from in Return of the Jedi, completely recontextualizing and fixing the original scene.

All of this only goes to prove why Obi-Wan Kenobi keeps Star Wars canon firmly intact. From the improvement of lines from A New Hope to the complete fixing of others, the series solidifies its place within the Star Wars timeline without causing any inconsistencies, and even reversing some. On top of this, from the brief final fight of Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 3 to the fully-fledged rematch that was promised in the season finale, Obi-Wan Kenobi season 1 delivered what was promised upon the announcement of Ewan McGregor's return to a galaxy far far away.

Next: Obi-Wan Kenobi's Force Ghost Cameo Explained

Want more Obi-Wan Kenobi articles? Check out our essential content below...