Will 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Explain This 'A New Hope' Inconsistency?

Explain This, Please

By Culture SlatePublished 2 years ago • 4 min read

The premiere of Obi-Wan Kenobi is fast approaching. Starring Ewan McGregor in possibly his final return to the titular role, this limited series is set to tell an epic tale between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Starting off with the famous Jedi Master on Tatooine, a sudden change in the status quo will cause Obi-Wan to have to leave the planet and temporarily abandon his role of protecting Luke Skywalker, all the while being hunted by Jedi hunters sent by Obi-Wan's fallen apprentice Darth Vader. The chase will culminate in another meeting between Obi-Wan and Vader, which may serve to explain how the aging Jedi ultimately loses any remaining hope of turning his old friend away from the dark side. Needless to say, the hype surrounding this series is immense, as it will be changing the context of the original trilogy and fully bridging the gap between it and the prequel trilogy. Plus with the show giving us another duel between the former pair of friends, it presents an opportunity for Star Wars to finally correct an inconsistency that has still yet to be explained onscreen.

In A New Hope, we see the last confrontation between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader as the Jedi distracts his former pupil just long enough for the crew of the Millennium Falcon to escape with Princess Leia and the Death Star plans. While this duel does still mesh fairly well with the current canon, there is one specific detail that has never been addressed onscreen. This is the fact that throughout their fight, Obi-Wan refers to the Sith Lord as "Darth," rather than "Vader" or "Anakin." In an out-of-universe context, this is due to the fact that Vader was not originally planned to be Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker. In fact, in the original script for A New Hope, "Darth Vader" was not the character's Sith title, but rather his actual first and last name. “Darth” as a title rather than a given name would not become canon until the reveal of his true lineage in The Empire Strikes Back. This retcon would be further embraced by the prequel trilogy, in which "Darth" was established as a Sith title with the naming of Darth Maul. This naming convention for the Sith would continue on to this day.

So with the current canon, how could Obi-Wan Kenobi explain this inconsistency in A New Hope? Well, if you want the answer to that, you will not have to look any further than From a Certain Point of View. Published in 2017 to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of Star Wars, this book contains forty different short stories from forty different authors, each one focusing on a different secondary, tertiary, or background character in A New Hope, and depicting their reactions to various events in the film. In one of these stories, “Time of Death” by Cavan Scott, we see Obi-Wan relives his entire life through quick flashes as he is killed by Vader at the end of their final duel in A New Hope. During the duel, Obi-Wan explains in his personal narration that he calls Vader "Darth" due to him not wanting to acknowledge the Sith Lord as his former friend Anakin Skywalker. Therefore, Obi-Wan calling Anakin "Darth" is his rejecting the idea of this being his old pupil, and instead choosing to see him as just another Sith.

This makes perfect sense and adds even more tragedy to Obi-Wan's character. He is unable to bear the idea of Darth Vader being Anakin Skywalker and must call him by his Sith title in order to confront him. At the time of writing, this explanation remains solely in the current books. However, if there is ever a place for it to be officially confirmed onscreen, it would be in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi.

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