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HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

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he

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Vader stepping on Obi-Wan’s cloak after he dies in ANH is so much more hilarious now in retrospect because he literally had to check to be sure he was actually gone. Because every time he thought he killed Obi-Wan, even burying him under a bunch of rocks, he still came back.

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Kenobi: Skywalker’s Only Hope

Let’s talk about Anakin’s final “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope” as seen (as I will argue) in the final episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Part VI) [spoiler warning!]

During their final duel of Kenobi (Pt VI), Obi-Wan is able to (literally) crack Vader’s facade. Behind the helmet, he sees Anakin. He calls his name, too stunned to do anything else.

Vader looks at him and tells him that “Anakin is gone.”

Yet as Obi-Wan cries and apologizes to Anakin, we see the facade crack more as we catch a glimpse of Anakin, tortured emotions across his face.

Vader then says something very surprising. He says “I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker. I did.”

This is significant for two reasons. 1) it’s a callback to Mustafar (“I have failed you, Anakin, I have failed you”) and 2) this is also, arguably, a sliver of Anakin here — whether it’s a desperate move by the suppressed Anakin to assuage Obi-Wan’s guilt or is simply (Anakin’s) self-loathing and self-hatred, which are also canonically emotions that fueled Vader, is up to you.

The brief raw emotional vulnerability quickly fades, however, and Vader is back to threatening Obi-Wan, who finally comes to the conclusion that Anakin is well and truly gone, and decides to leave him, turning his back on him as he had done on Mustafar.

But the thing is, Vader can’t keep going on without Kenobi. The passion he has for Kenobi- whatever nature that may be- fuels Vader’s power. As Obi-Wan walks away, Vader cries out to him, calling his name twice.

The fact that he calls Obi-Wan’s name twice is really important, because I argue that this is coded as Anakin’s ‘distress signal.’ In “Twilight of the Apprentice” (from SW Rebels s2), Anakin also calls out to Ahsoka after his helmet has been slashed by her. “Ahsoka…. Ahsoka,” he says, initiating the outreach. She responds by whispering his name back in return (twice), further showing the importance of the double use of the name.

Which is why it’s a really big deal (!!) that when Obi-Wan finally tells Vader he’s given up/finally believes Anakin is well and truly gone, Vader initiates the contact and cries out to him. Twice.

This was Anakin’s last attempt to communicate his ‘distress signal’ to Obi-Wan, to tell him that Anakin needed his help. Anakin knew that he would never escape Vader if even Obi-Wan came to believe that Anakin was gone. Anakin cried out to him, knowing that Obi-Wan was his only hope.

Reading the text this way makes Vader’s final scene all the more tragic. In talking to Palpatine, Vader reinforces his desire to chase Kenobi. “He will not evade me again,” he says. (He’s my only hope, I cannot let him evade me again). Like a moth drawn to flame, Vader (or really Anakin inside of Vader) needs his Master. He cannot give up the flicker of hope that Obi-Wan presents.

That is until Palpatine yanks on his leash, reminding Vader of his dependency on him. He calls him out for his feelings over Obi-Wan weakening him, then vaguely hints that if Vader cannot overcome his past, then there would be no further use for him, and Palpatine would destroy him.

This is the final nail in the coffin. Vader sinks back into his chair. Defeated. “I serve only you, my Master,” he says, and we hear the Imperial March swell in the background.

Vader has resigned himself to his fate. Anakin slips away inside of him, not to reemerge until Return of the Jedi ten years later with the aid of his son. Until then, we see an increasingly cold, detached Vader, one that truly lost all hope when Kenobi called him “Darth” and accepted that Anakin was gone. If Kenobi had lost all hope, so did Anakin.

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i wonder how much of anakin’s sense of betrayal toward obi-wan, his utter hate and resentment of him, is based on how if their roles were reversed anakin would stop at NOTHING to get obi-wan back. he will slaughter thousands to save his loved ones, he’s still trying to find a way to get padme back years later, but he stands there and tells obi-wan “anakin skywalker is dead” and obi-wan just… believes him. and walks away.

to anakin that level of non-attachment, that acceptance of reality, is unfathomable. they loved each other, they love each other, so they must continue to act out their feelings as they always have— obi-wan by trying desperately to help or reach anakin, and anakin by refusing him, by hunting him, torturing him, hating him because he loves him so.

when vader tells luke “obi-wan once thought as you do,” there is a profound grief behind those words. obi-wan thought he could reach me, but he gave up because he stopped loving me, because i made him stop. anakin could’t understand until the very end that obi-wan loved him, loved him always— but that in this life, the only way obi-wan had left to love anakin was to let him go.

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HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN as ANAKIN SKYWALKER — STAR WARS EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH

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I absolutely adore that while it’s Luke’s love and forgiveness that saves Anakin, that finally convinces Anakin to turn on Palpatine once and for all, the child who only knows him as he is and can only ACCEPT him as he is without the burden of really knowing who he WAS, it’s Leia doing the same thing that saves Obi-Wan.

It’s this child who meets Obi-Wan at his lowest, when he’s tired and broken and barely able to even touch the Force. This child who only has known Obi-Wan as this version of himself and loves him anyway, accepts him for who and what he is. It’s Bail who is able to kick Obi-Wan’s ass into gear initially, but it’s Leia whose love saves him. The person who can’t compare him to a better version of himself and find him wanting. This girl who can hear him say he’s scared and needs her little droid to help him feel brave and then just secretly gives him the droid when he runs off to sacrifice himself. Her small gesture of love and support that ultimately helps him decide to unbury himself from the manifestation of his grief and guilt and fear. Because Leia loves him, Leia loves him so much that she was ANGRY with him for doing this and still made sure he had a friend with him to keep him safe. 

It’s Leia who likely gives him the first friendly comforting touch he left Polis Massa. Bail keeps his distance in the cave, likely respecting the nonverbal boundaries Obi-Wan’s putting up and not wanting to push him, but Leia just sees someone in pain, someone who came to save her against all odds, and holds his hand.

It’s Leia who finally gets him to laugh by refusing to place a burden upon his future and just telling him he should get some rest. Now that he finally CAN, now that he can finally probably lie down and not be besieged by nightmares of his past, he should get some rest. Because Leia worries about him, not because of what she personally loses if he’s gone, but simply because she cares about him and is perceptive enough to really know him, despite how little time they’ve actually had together.

Obi-Wan was Leia’s only hope, but Leia became so much more to Obi-Wan and I can’t thank Deborah Chow enough for giving me this relationship I’d really never thought about before and now can’t imagine going without.

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these are gifts from your father

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OBI-WAN KENOBI (2022) / PART VI + tumblr text posts

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After that hug he will go to sleep of course

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Okay but the humanity and kindness and empathy to Anakin’s line “I am not your failure,Obi-Wan.” There is so very little good in him,and we have seen it so deeply buried beneath an ocean of hatred and blinding pain. But I am so stuck on this line in particular,the entreaty and wavering earnestness to his voice as he bids Obi-Wan to not blame himself. This is the only real humanity we see in him until Luke,this small moment of Anakin so clearly shining through. It is not Vader’s pain in his voice,it is Anakin’s. We see the yellow recede from his eyes and the rounded, desperation to them as he says the words. It’s such a curious thing,that as much pain and misery he wanted to inflict on Obi-Wan,in this he did not want him to shoulder the blame. This line better than anything in Star Wars so perfectly illustrates that Anakin knows what he did,and he knows what choice he makes every single day. He killed the light within Anakin Skywalker,not Obi-Wan or anyone else. I killed Anakin Skywalker.

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Not to brag but like, no other OTP is ever gonna be able to compare, especially after all this.

"Oh my OTP is crazy about each other" um cool my OTP are literally insane about each other, they have a spiritual connection that makes them share dreams and sense each other from across the universe, their breakup was the most dramatic thing I've ever seen, one of them built a gigantic castle NEXT to the site of said breakup so he could stare at it all the time, one of them was so destroyed by their breakup he figuratively buried them both together and then slept on a rock in a cave for TEN YEARS. Your OTP is obsessed? MY OTP SET EACH OTHER ON ACTUAL FIRE.

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Both were exceptional people. Who bore an exceptional daughter.  — OBI WAN KENOBI - EPISODE VI

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obi wan kenobi part v + tumblr text posts

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physically ill bc vader’s single goal for ten years was to find obi wan and make him suffer. but when he does, he finds a man just as broken as him. vader is physically damaged, but extremely powerful. obi wan is physically fine, but extremely weak. they have both been suffering for a decade. and instead of making obi wan suffer more, he sets him free—you did not kill anakin skywalker.

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If you weren't crying already, apparently Hayden said in the Q&A that the "I am not your failure" line was the little bit of Anakin left in Vader trying to absolve Obi-Wan of guilt.

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I love that Palpatine is a die-hard Sith but after ten years of Vader’s obsession with Obi-Wan, even HE’S like “idk maybe the Jedi had a point about letting some shit go”.