I CAN’T EVEN GIF THIS SCENE, IT’S TOO MUCH. The intensity of it, the absolute badass fight scene, contrasted against how sad this fight is.
It’s truly a successor to the Mustafar fight from Revenge of the Sith, which is a fight that none other in Star Wars has yet to beat when it comes to dramatics and emotional impact going hand in hand.
We have these two just flinging each other around, Obi-Wan and Vader know each other intimately, they weave and twist around each other all throughout the fight, even ten years later when they’ve both been so worn down or twisted by their time separated, they still know each other. They are still surprisingly evenly matched. They still are each others’ vulnerabilities.
No one can fight each other like these two fight each other.
The fight was incredible, it was epic, and yet the core remains these moments. This is the heart of the fight, of their relationship, of the series.
One of absolute and utter sorrow.
These two are larger than life, incredibly iconic characters, it would be so easy to get lost in how epic they are and how incredible this fight was. Obi-Wan was flinging him around like a rag doll! Vader was destroying the ground right under their feet! Obi-Wan lifted approximately five hundred rocks to fling at him! Vader crashed down on him like a tidal wave! Obi-Wan slammed into him until he literally took Vader apart!
But that’s not the heart of the fight. This is. The pain, the loss, the tragedy, the sorrow of what Anakin had become. Obi-Wan so desperately wants Anakin to come back, to see his old friend again, there is no question that he would help Anakin Skywalker back to the light. He reaches out with compassion when he sees Vader’s face, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Anakin. For all of it.” He sees Vader and it breaks his heart, he cries for this broken man, he would do whatever he could to help set it right.
Again, this could have been a badass moment where Vader leans into epic, undiluted rage. But the dark side isn’t just rage. it’s also fear. And pain. And suffering. That cutting Vader open to see the core of him isn’t just going to show us something cool and awesome, but someone sad. Someone lost in the dark. Someone suffering and afraid. Someone who says, “I am what remains.” as a lamentation of what he has become just as much as a vow.
When Obi-Wan cries for the death of his friend, we understand that some part of him still hoped, so desperately, that his friend would return. For years he couldn’t let go because Anakin’s death haunted him, he couldn’t live without the guilt and loss and suffering of having lost Anakin. But then Anakin is alive. And he’s done terrible things, but Obi-Wan can’t want him deal, Obi-Wan still loves him, some part of Obi-Wan is still holding on, because he wants his friend to come back.
But seeing Vader’s face, seeing that he knows this is the way of pain and suffering, but he’s choosing it anyway, Obi-Wan has to let go. His friend is truly dead. And it’s a loss. For all that this was an incredible battle between two powerful Force users who know each other intimately, the scene ends on loss and one letting go, while the other still clings to their pain.
We cannot help but remember Anakin Skywalker, the brilliant and shining young man that we all loved, that Obi-Wan loved so much. We cannot help but think of their parting on Mustafar, where Obi-Wan won the fight previously as well, that that too was an epic battle that ended in sorrow. Anakin flinging hateful words at him, but Obi-Wan only had tears and “I loved you.” for him.
This scene is the successor to that moment on Mustafar. “I’m so sorry. For all of it. My friend is truly dead. Goodbye, Darth.” and Obi-Wan still can’t kill him, even when maybe he should, but he has to let go, this cannot consume him anymore. He walked away on Mustafar, thinking he’d killed Anakin, but taking the weight of it with him. This time, he walks away knowing Vader lives, but leaving the weight behind with him.
For Obi-Wan, this is the completion of the circle of letting go. He’ll still offer Vader one more chance on the Death Star, will hold his weapon up instead of in position, will let Vader make the choice, will give him one more piece of advice in a warning, but it is here that Obi-Wan lets go of the weight in his soul that was holding on to Anakin Skywalker.
And all of it is a tragedy, Darth Vader is terrifying, we see him do impossibly brutal and terrible things, but when you cut him open, he is weak, he is miserable, and he keeps himself prisoner in the dark despite that he knows what it’s doing to him. And it’s so sad. None of us should ever want to be Darth Vader, no matter how cool he can sometimes be.
Because, at his core, he is nothing but fear, misery, pain, and suffering.
