‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Continues the Trauma Tour for Ben
One of the aspects of the Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi series that has been consistently fascinating to me is the exploration of grief and trauma that is happening not only for Ben but for Anakin, as well. As we saw in “Part V,” their shared grief isn’t something that either is really working through, and we got to see how their pain manifested, from their past relationship with each other up to the scenes we see them share throughout the series. While, sure, Ben is clearly upset about what happened with his former Padawan, he’s at least still connected to him and Padmé through Luke and then Leia. But for Anakin, he’s just lost in the grief of his own making.
But episode 5 gave us a specific scene that really gives us some insight into their relationship and just how deep the pain runs for both Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
**Spoilers for the first five episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi lie ahead**
Anakin and Obi-Wan training together was something we didn’t see a lot of throughout the Star Wars prequels. We didn’t get to see them actually have teaching moments with one another because Attack of the Clones threw us right into Anakin having to protect Padmé. So, getting to see a training sequence between the two, with Hayden Christensen back as Anakin, was emotional for us, but pair that with the parallel between what Obi-Wan is saying to Anakin and how Anakin is interpreting it was a lot to unpack.
In the scene, we see the two fighting one another, and eventually get Anakin to his famed chopping technique with his saber, but what’s the most interesting to me is that it doesn’t seem to be a flashback for Obi-Wan but is, instead, Anakin thinking back to their moment and their time together.
Anakin is struggling too
One of the things that Obi-Wan says to Anakin is that his desire to win is going to be his downfall, and it is, for the most part. In this episode alone, Anakin is so determined to find Obi-Wan that he isn’t thinking logically and pulls down what he thinks is a ship that Obi-Wan is on, only to quickly discover that it is actually a decoy, and the rebels all get away without a problem.
Vader’s determination to win caused him to miss the obvious bait and switch that was sitting in front of him, and Obi-Wan knew it would work because he knew how Anakin would have reacted. And their shared memory, that lesson, was a beautiful parallel not only for Anakin and Obi-Wan but for Reva, as well. She was so determined to find Vader herself and take him down that she didn’t see the easy path before her. She wanted to get her revenge, she was “hunting” him as Obi-Wan figured out, but she didn’t care how it ended outside of Vader dying.
The parallel between what Obi-Wan was teaching Anakin and both Reva and Vader’s responses to things just hit in a way that showed that both Anakin and Reva were lost to their pain and didn’t care how they got their revenge, as long as they did it. And Obi-Wan, I think, knew exactly how at least Anakin would react.
Having that scene and having it actually be Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen again, even if they are both twenty years older than they were during Attack of the Clones, meant a lot to me. It felt right seeing them fight together, and for Ben to give this lesson to Ani, and I know we only have one episode left, but I hope we get at least one more moment like this.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
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