Obi-Wan Kenobi — An Idealist in a Cynical World
“Obi-Wan is a great mentor, as wise as Master Yoda and as powerful as Master Windu”
One of the most poignant moments in the entire Star Wars canon appears in the Rebels TV series. This scene is set in the era of the Galactic Empire, long after the Republic has fallen and the Jedi have been exterminated. It features an aged Obi-Wan Kenobi coming face to face with his old adversary Darth Maul in the deserts of Tatooine. This interaction is brief but incredibly revealing about Obi-Wan as a character. It is worth going over. Darth Maul — the ever-dangerous former Sith and the killer of Obi-Wan’s lover, Dutchess Satine, and his master Qui-Gon— is all set to finally take his revenge on Obi-Wan. But he starts off by mocking him.
“Look what has become of you. A rat in the desert.”
Obi-Wan calmly replies, “Look what I’ve risen above.”
Darth Maul then walks toward Obi-Wan and mockingly says: “I’ve come to kill you but perhaps it is worse to leave you festering in your squalor”.
Obi-Wan’s response to this is in many ways a summation of his entire worldview. He replies, “If you define yourself by your power to take life, a desire to dominate, to possess, then you have nothing.”
This only further angers Maul. He fires up his light-saber, all the while wondering why Obi-Wan is out here on this harsh little planet. Obi-Wan stays quiet but vigilant. It is only and only when Maul finally figures out that Obi-Wan is protecting someone on this planet, that he takes out his light saber. Maul runs at him in rage. The entire fight lasts for no more than a few seconds and by the time it ends, Obi-Wan has effectively defeated Darth Maul for the final time. But despite the deep and personalized enmity between the two individuals, Obi-Wan holds Maul as he is dying and comforts him. This is who Obi-Wan was. Kind, compassionate, wise, resolute, and patient.
In many ways, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a unique character in Star Wars. When we first saw him back in the original Star Wars, he very much fits the trope of the wise old mentor to our protagonist Luke Skywalker. And yet, as the prequel stories show, Obi-Wan was so much more too. He wasn’t just one of the last few remaining Jedi, he was the ultimate model of what it means to be a Jedi Knight. That’s not to say that he was perfect. He wasn’t. Obi-Wan too formed attachments, played with rules, used cunning tricks when it suited him and was always suspicious of authority. But perhaps, it is precisely these “flaws” that made him an ultimate Jedi who could survive the galactic-level purge and live long enough to guide the next generation to their eventual victory over the empire. And those flaws do not negate the fact that, at his core, Obi-Wan was an idealist in a dark world who kept on believing in the goodness of people and their resolve to fight against oppression.
Regurgitating Obi-Wan’s life trajectory is a pointless activity. The movies, the Clone Wars and Rebel animated series, and now the Obi-Wan live-action miniseries all provide us with enough Obi-Wan action. What I do want to talk about is Obi-Wan as a person in the days of the Republic, the Jedi Purge, the years of solitude and hiding, and eventually the return of the Jedi. Throughout his life, Obi-Wan chose to be an idealist, when it was perfectly possible (and even understandable) for him to turn into a bitter cynic who shuns society. Even worse, he could’ve turned to the dark side but such was his resolve and belief, that no tragedy could turn him away from the light.
Subsequent Star Wars stories have really put into perspective the strength Obi-Wan possessed. An aging Luke Skywalker’s retreat into cynicism & social isolation after his student Ben Solo turned to the dark side provides a good comparison point. Even attempts by other characters such as Leia and Rey to bring Luke back into the fold remained unanswered for as long as possible. On the other hand, we have the ever-resolute Obi-Wan. It is worth remembering that Obi-Wan did not just lose his student and surrogate brother to the dark side but also had to witness his entire world crumble. The Republic he served fell and a cruel Empire rose in its place. The Jedi Order, his ancient and long-lasting family, was all but exterminated and he was left behind as one of its last vestiges. He witnessed his own Master killed by a Sith. He lost the woman he loved deeply. And keep in mind that, unlike Luke, he had to cope with it all by himself at the peak of the Empire, while also protecting a child whose life would always be in danger. As the Star Wars anthology book so aptly puts it, “Every person Obi-Wan ever truly loved — -Anakin, Satine, Padmé, and Qui-Gon himself — -came to a terrible end. Three of them died before his eyes; the other fell to a fate so bleak that death would’ve been a gift.”
He kept on waiting for a new hope to emerge but honestly, for the longest time, it wasn’t there. Then, once things started to move, he had the responsibility of training and guiding the next generation of Jedi. He did it without any support or aid from anyone. But none of that stopped Obi-Wan. My purpose here is not to problematize Luke, who is a hero in his own right. But here we can recognize the sheer mental strength and immense belief it must have taken for Obi-Wan to do what he did in the story, after having lost everything.
Throughout his life, Obi-Wan always had multiple choices available to him. That he always chose the more difficult option in pursuit of his own principles and stood firm in the face of overwhelming circumstances is a lesson for us all. When Qui-Gon died, he asked Obi-Wan to train the boy they had identified as the Chosen One. Obi-Wan could have easily chosen to accede to the concerns of the Jedi Council and not train a potentially dangerous boy. Obi-Wan could’ve lived his entire life as a highly respected Jedi Knight without ever having to take on this trouble. But he knew the stakes at play. He showed belief in Anakin and trained him as well as he could.
He showed the same resolution when faced with a choice between his love and the Jedi Order. That’s not to say that Obi-Wan did not contemplate leaving the Jedi Order to have a great life with Dutchess Satine. He certainly did. It was a tempting option. He even says it to Satine. But in the end, he knew he had a larger purpose to serve, which did not allow him to have all the good things in life. And no matter how deeply he loved Satine (and he did truly love her), he chose his Jedi ideals. Whether that was a good or bad choice is irrelevant, what matters is Obi-Wan’s ability to put a larger purpose above his own personal desire. This choice seems a lot more powerful when compared to how Anakin dealt with the same conundrum. Where Obi-Wan chose a more difficult path, Anakin went for self-satisfaction. And the cost of that choice was paid for by everyone. Star Wars canon has yet to explore Obi-Wan’s trauma after having lost the love of his life in the intrigue of the last days of the Republic.
When Obi-Wan finally realized Anakin’s turn to the dark side, he again had to make a choice. Either he could’ve walked away leaving the fate of the galaxy to others and rue over his failure to protect his student from the dark side or he could’ve faced it head-on. He chose the latter. Throughout their fight on Mustafar, Obi-Wan — the ever compassionate Jedi — tried to appeal to the goodness of Anakin. But at the same time, Obi-Wan did not hesitate to hurt Anakin because he wasn’t gonna let his love for Anakin overtake his concern for the wider galaxy. It’s a choice not made easily, as Luke Skywalker’s eventual journey will show us much later.
Once the Sith had won, Obi-Wan had to go into hiding at Tatooine so he could watch over the boy. And there he stayed beaten and broken until one day duty came calling for him. Again, Obi-Wan could’ve chosen the easier route of staying where he is and not fighting anymore because his force strength had diminished. But he chose to go out and save Leia. Obi-Wan did not have any selfish reasons for it. He was gaining no reward. If anything, it caused him to directly face his biggest failure. But he still did it.
And then, we finally come to the events of the original series. Luke Skywalker saw old man Ben in the desert after a long time. However, the man Luke met wasn’t just a mumbling, delusional hermit in the desert. He was Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Knight who had gone through so much for so long and had still kept his faith long enough to be able to guide Luke Skywalker on his journey to defeat the Empire. This wasn’t just misplaced optimism that guided him. It was radical hope in a better world that kept him going. Throughout his entire journey, not once did Obi-Wan lose his compassion, and always made sure to listen to others’ points of view. And if there is still any gap left, Obi-Wan filled it with his innate sense of humor.
I am sure there are valid critiques about Obi-Wan as a character and certainly, not every story featuring him is good. Nonetheless, Obi-Wan still remains one of the most unique and likable characters in the story. He is also among the most traumatized. That he still chose to act in the right way and keep his belief intact in a dark reality is what really makes him stand out. He is as good a role model as you can get in a harsh world where it’s easy for us to fall prey to cynicism, but difficult to keep going. As he himself says, “You can kill me, but you will never destroy me. It takes strength to resist the dark side. Only the weak embrace it.”
