Relationship Spotlight: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Leia Organa (Obi-Wan Kenobi)

*Spoilers.*

Yes, there’s also the indirect interactions in A New Hope to consider, but today, I mainly want to talk about this relationship as it exists on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Along with Ewan McGregor’s performance, it’s my favorite part of that show and everything I didn’t know I wanted. Say what you will about Obi-Wan Kenobi, but I will always appreciate it for this.

In the years after Anakin’s fall and Padmé’s death, Obi-Wan becomes a hermit on Tatooine, somewhere between self-imposed exile for his failure to save his former padawan and a penitent mission to look after Anakin’s son from afar. His days are bleak and largely unvarying, and his connection to the Force has dulled.

When Bail Organa comes to him, urging him to help rescue Leia from kidnappers, Obi-Wan is resistant. He doesn’t think he can leave Luke, for one, and after the tragedies of his past, he isn’t sure he can be of help to anyone anymore. But Bail is insistent, and so Obi-Wan reluctantly ventures back out into the galaxy.

Slowly, the mission reignites some of the strength and hope he once had. Leia inspires this in him by simply being herself, eight feet of attitude in a four-foot frame. At first, she’s wary of this guy who claims he’s here to rescue her—she has plenty of scrappiness to show her kidnappers, but it turns out she takes much the same approach toward would-be rescuers, and she’s not about to just trust him and do what he says.

Naturally, this exasperates Obi-Wan, and it’s a hoot watching him try and wrangle a confident 10-year-old girl. When he goes to buy them cloaks to wear as a disguise, I love that Leia also tries on a pair of pretty gloves and willfully ignores all his attempts to point out that they’re not necessary. Eventually, he realizes it’s easier to just buy the gloves and be done with it. She’s still not sure if she wants to follow him or run from him, but when they get into a scrape and Obi-Wan has to call upon the Force to save her, Leia’s estimation of him improves greatly.

Not that they proceed without any further attitude or argument—Leia’s reaction to this new information is practically, Aren’t you a little old and sad to be a Jedi? And their adventures together are frequently marked by Leia not doing what Obi-Wan tells her to, either because she thinks he’s overly cautious or because she doesn’t want to be sidelined. But as they gradually fumble their way back toward safety, they start to see each other differently.

Obi-Wan is reminded, painfully, of both Anakin and Padmé when he looks at Leia. She realizes from his words that he knew her birth parents and begs him to share what he knows. She helps him recognize that there are still good people in the galaxy worth fighting for, and he does everything to keep her safe when she charges ahead. His first priority is getting her home safely, but when they come across some fledgling rebels in a desperate situation, he listens to her pleas to help them.

The way the story is set up, I have my doubts that there was anything else between them until A New Hope. But I think I’m okay with that. Theirs is a sweet, delightful connection that means a lot to both of them and isn’t any less important because it only lasts for a short time. For Obi-Wan, he rekindles his connection to the Force and finds a renewed purpose to life beyond punishing himself for his past mistakes—even though the fundamentals of his day-to-day life don’t change radically after this experience, his state of mind does. And Leia’s adventures with Obi-Wan set her on the path to becoming the Rebel princess we know and love, a spunky fighter who holds her head high in the face of intense strain, someone who fights for something so much larger than herself.

Favorite Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars)

*Obi-Wan-related spoilers.*

Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master and old man in the desert, started out very firmly as an archetype, albeit a beloved one. A quintessential example of the wise old mentor, I love that the nature of Star Wars as the franchise grew and expanded meant getting to see this iconic character from new angles.

In classic Star Wars fashion, let’s begin with Episode IV, with Luke Skywalker puzzling over the name he hears on the message Leia hid inside R2: Obi-Wan Kenobi. He wonders if this mysterious figure is any relation to Ben Kenobi, locally regarded as the crazy old hermit who lives in a cave. But when Luke ventures out that way, finding out that Ben is Obi-Wan turns out to be the least of his discoveries.

Obi-Wan fought in the Clone Wars. He knew Luke’s father, which is more than Luke can say. What’s more, he’s a Jedi, a member of a special order that was thought entirely lost in this time period. Even though the Empire’s reign isn’t all that long, they practically turn the Jedi into myths in less than two decades. Obi-Wan is a relic from a past that scarcely seems real anymore.

Suddenly finding himself with a willing and eager student, Obi-Wan settles quickly back into his old ways, teaching Luke the ways of the Force and the Jedi. He leaves his seclusion to join Luke on a daring mission to rescue Leia and carry R2’s message to the Rebellion. Along the way, he imparts wisdom and gives counsel, but he also demonstrates the glint in his eye.

The only thing more archetypal than a wise old mentor is a wise dead mentor, and after Obi-Wan sacrifices himself fighting Darth Vader, his remaining appearances in the trilogy are as a Force Ghost, offering Luke guidance when he needs it most.

After decades of loving Obi-Wan in A New Hope, the notion of meeting a young Obi-Wan in the prequels was an enticing one for fans, and I’m not alone in the opinion that he’s the best thing about the prequels. The Phantom Menace was my introduction to Ewan McGregor, which didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t just McGregor’s performance. It was Obi-Wan himself.

I love seeing Obi-Wan as a young man, a fairly serious and observant padawan who’s nonetheless ready to throw down when the situation calls for it. We then follow him through Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, where he serves as Anakin’s master. We see the wry, good-natured way he scolds his padawan, maybe a little too indulgent even as he tries to cool Anakin’s recklessness and quick temper. We see him fight alongside Anakin and go on solo missions, delving into secrets that the burgeoning Separatist movement is trying to hide from the Senate and the Jedi Council. We see how it destroys him when Anakin turns to the Dark Side, the pain with which he battles his friend and former student. In the original trilogy, I felt Luke’s turmoil when he finds out that Vader is Anakin (a.k.a. his father,) but I didn’t really feel Obi-Wan’s until Revenge of the Sith.

That leads us to Obi-Wan Kenobi. A lot of fans are fairly down on this series, and I recognize that it has some issues, but I think Obi-Wan’s story is beautifully done. Even though the plot is a bit constrained by what has to come after, it’s a great exploration of his struggles after Anakin’s fall and the rise of the Empire. The Jedi are either dead or driven into hiding. For his part, Obi-Wan is hiding out on Tatooine, not just for his own sake, but to watch over Luke from afar as he grows up. His lonely life is haunted by memories of his losses, and he repeatedly tries to reach out to the Force Ghost of his former master Qui-Gon, but he feels like the Force is not with him.

The series puts Obi-Wan even more through the wringer, because he’s assumed for the last ten years that Anakin died of the injuries his master inflicted on him at Mustafar.  It’s not until now that he learns Anakin survived, that Anakin has become Vader. Facing off against his old padawan again, at a time when Vader has never been stronger in the Dark Side and Obi-Wan is probably at his weakest, is grueling, both physically and mentally/emotionally.

But at the same time, this is the experience that rekindles the strength that Obi-Wan once had. When he’s called on to leave Tatooine and conduct a secret mission to rescue young Leia from kidnappers, he has to summon up his old skills again. The time he spends with Leia brings painful but lovely memories, because she reminds him so much of Padmé, and her spirit and determination help him find the hero inside himself again, aiding some proto-rebels and protecting innocent people from the Empire.

I don’t know whether we’ll get more of the series—personally, I’m happy with what we got, although I certainly wouldn’t say no to more of McGregor in the role. But either way, I’m so glad that Obi-Wan had this experience, that he met Leia during the lowest period of his life and managed to recover a little hope. It’s a nice gift to a character who spent a lot of time giving to others, but also a lot of time blaming himself for the people he couldn’t save.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

*Premise spoilers.*

The latest Disney Plus Star Wars series was polarizing, for some legitimate reasons and some trash ones. Personally, while I acknowledge some flaws and inconsistencies, I ultimately came down on the side of loving it. As someone who’s lukewarm at best on the prequels but whose admiration for Ewan McGregor began specifically with The Phantom Menace, I thought the miniseries did an excellent job of offering up entertaining adventure and strong emotion in the gap between the prequels and the original trilogy.

Ten years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi has been quietly languishing on Tatooine. He’s there to keep an eye on Luke, but Luke’s uncle doesn’t even want him doing that, so he spends his days in drudgery and his nights wrestling with his regrets of the past. However, when Leia is kidnapped back on Alderaan, her father begs Obi-Wan to help recover her.

At its heart, the series is pretty simple. It’s about Obi-Wan rediscovering his connection to the Force, in large part through his growing friendship with young Leia. But within that, there are a lot of individual threads weaving in and out of the main storyline. We have a look at the galaxy under the Empire, the fledging rebellion, an Empire Inquisitor who’s hell bent on capturing Obi-Wan, Leia’s uncertainty about her own future, and painful, much-hyped encounters between Obi-Wan and Anakin, now Darth Vader. That’s quite a bit to juggle in six episodes, and there are moments where plots feel rushed or handwavy, but the characters are always compelling and the emotions always hit home.

Because if I was going to sum up Obi-Wan Kenobi in one word, it would be, “Feels.” Oh, so many feels! The interactions with the characters range from uplifting to heart-wrenching, and they get me every time. I especially love the journey between Obi-Wan and Leia as she learns to trust him and he recognizes her parents in her, and while the Obi-Wan/Anakin scenes are used sparingly, they’re every bit as good as advertised. I’m also pleased that the series remembers Padme and gives her her due, and I’m always here for scrappy rebels fighting for something bigger than themselves.

Ewan McGregor is simply splendid in his return to the role of Obi-Wan, a broken man who’s finding the sparks of strength and hope that remain in him. I teared up multiple times watching his performance, and he also made me laugh. In just a few scenes, Hayden Christensen demonstrates that he’s capable of far more as Anakin than the prequels gave him to work with (as is almost always the case with Star Wars, though, I need to acknowledge that he’s an ablebodied actor playing a disabled character.) Vivien Lyra Blair is just wonderful as Leia, who’s a little firecracker full of attitude and heart. For me, she’s the Grogu of the show: the adorable badass you didn’t know was going to be in it, but whose arrival almost immediately reveals the shape the series is going to take. Moses Ingram turns in a fine, understated performance as Inquisitor Reva, a woman driven by anger and pain. The series also features nice turns from Indira Varma, Kumail Nanjiani (who’s now 2/3 of the way to a Disney triple crown!), and O’Shea Jackson Jr.

Warnings

Violence, scary moments for kids, thematic elements (including PTSD,) and ablebodied actors playing disabled characters.