Obi-Wan Kenobi
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The Jedi Master Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi (57 BBY - 0 BBY) is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, a Jedi Master of legendary status. He teaches both Anakin and Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Force.
In Episodes I through III (the prequel trilogy), Kenobi is played by Ewan McGregor. In Episodes IV through VI (the classic trilogy), he is played by Sir Alec Guinness. He is voiced by Bernard Behrens in the NPR radio adaptation of Star Wars, and by James Arnold Taylor in the Clone Wars micro series. The role is loosely inspired by General Makabe Rokuruta, a character from The Hidden Fortress played by Toshiro Mifune, whom Lucas also considered casting as Kenobi.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is perhaps the most prominent character in the Star Wars film saga along with Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, as they, along with R2-D2 and C-3PO, are the only major characters to have appearances in all of Episodes I-VI.
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Early life
Kenobi was born in 57 BBY and trained as a Jedi Knight from a young age, first by Yoda (according to Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back), and later by Qui-Gon Jinn. Little is known of his birth family, though, according to the series Jedi Apprentice and the novelization of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan does remember a brother named Owen (Episode II: Attack of the Clones established the fact he is not related to Owen Lars, although in the Jedi novelization he is). It is indicated in the novelization of "Revenge Of The Sith" that he speaks with a Coruscanti accent, perhaps a clue to his home planet. (Edit: His Coruscanti accent holds no actual clue to his home planet. Consider that the Jedi Temple is on Coruscant and that Obi-Wan was trained in the temple from an early age on. Wherever he was actually born, his Coruscant accent comes from his having made Coruscant his home for his entire life).
The Phantom Menace
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At the beginning of Episode I: The Phantom Menace he is the Padawan (pupil) of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, whom he accompanies to Naboo, the planet ruled by Queen Padmé Amidala. After making an unscheduled landing on Tatooine, his master stumbles upon Anakin Skywalker, a young boy who shows tremendous potential with the Force. Master Jinn wants the boy to be trained as a Jedi. Obi-Wan disagrees, believing the boy is already too old and too emotional to become a Jedi.
Regardless, with the death of his master at the hands of Darth Maul, Kenobi honors his master's final wish to train young Skywalker, and the Jedi Council names Kenobi a Jedi Knight and reluctantly approves his request to take Anakin on as his Padawan. Apparently, the Jedi Council is impressed that Kenobi bested a Sith, an enemy that has not surfaced in a millennium.
Attack of the Clones
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Ten years later, in Attack of the Clones, Kenobi and Skywalker are tasked with protecting Padmé Amidala after an attempt on her life. Kenobi tracks a mysterious assassin to Kamino, and learns about a massive clone army that the Kaminoans are building for the Republic.
The situation is further complicated by Obi-Wan's tumultuous relationship with his young padawan: by now a headstrong, arrogant teenager, Skywalker is beginning to chafe under his leadership and, more dangerously, to ignore his teachings in favor of Palpatine's flattery and subtle denunciations of the old Jedi ways. Skywalker and Amidala have also fallen in love, an emotional attachment forbidden to Jedi knights.
Kenobi attempts to apprehend bounty hunter Jango Fett, but Fett escapes to Geonosis with his son Boba. Kenobi follows them.
On Geonosis, Kenobi uncovers a conspiracy of star systems that want to secede from the Republic, led by Count Dooku. Kenobi is captured shortly after sending a message to Skywalker. Skywalker and Padmé arrive on Geonosis, but they too are captured, and all three are sentenced to death by the Geonosians. The executions are prevented by the timely arrival of Jedi and clone reinforcements, led by Jedi Masters Mace Windu and Yoda. Kenobi and Skywalker confront Count Dooku and fight him. Count Dooku defeats both of them using the Dark Side of the Force, as well as his superior fighting style, and cuts off Skywalker's right arm (which is later replaced by a robotic prosthetic). Yoda arrives and fights Dooku as well, but the Sith Lord manages to escape.
The Clone Wars
Obi-Wan became a general in the Clone Wars as chronicled in the cartoon series Clone Wars and several books and comics of the Expanded Universe. It was during this time that he earned himself the nickname of "The Negotiator" due to the fact he resolved many conflicts without having to resort to a violent solution.
Revenge of the Sith
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By this time, Kenobi is a storied general, a galaxy-renowned hero of the Republic, who has won many battles while in charge of Republic Clone forces. Additionally, Kenobi has been given a seat on the Jedi Council. Within the order, he is also now known as one of the greatest swordsmen the order had ever seen, and the definitive master of Form III (Soresu) lightsaber combat.
Shortly prior to the Battle of Coruscant, Kenobi and Skywalker have been leading a regiment of clones in the Outer Rim sieges, battling the forces of the Separatists far away from the core worlds. Due to this, they are far from Coruscant when General Grievous sweeps in and kidnaps Palpatine; however, the Council recalls them to rescue the chancellor when battle erupts in orbit above Coruscant.
In an audacious move, the pair of Jedi board Grievous's flagship, the Invisible Hand, and fight their way to the Chancellor. In the process, the two duel the Sith lord Count Dooku, who manages to render Kenobi unconscious during the fight before being slain by Skywalker. Unfortunately, Grievous is able to escape.
At Kenobi's urging, Skywalker is accepted by the Jedi Council—but denied the rank of Jedi Master. Kenobi then unintentionally makes things worse by asking Skywalker, already angered by the perceived snub, to spy on Palpatine, whom he considers a friend and mentor. Already alienated from his teacher, Skywalker becomes more and more influenced by Palpatine, who tells him the Dark Side of the Force holds great power that the Jedi envy. He also manipulates Skywalker into believing that the Dark Side of the Force is the only way he can save Padme (now his wife) from dying in childbirth. Skywalker discovers the chancellor is in fact the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, and alerts Kenobi's friend Mace Windu to arrest him. During a heated lightsaber duel between Windu and Palpatine, however, Skywalker panics at the thought that his only hope of saving his wife and child will die with Palpatine and cuts Windu's arm off, allowing Palpatine to kill him. Skywalker then betrays the Jedi and becomes Palpatine's apprentice: Darth Vader.
After General Grievous' location on the planet Utapau is discovered, the Council dispatch Kenobi and his regiment of clones to kill or capture General Grievous and attack the Separatist droids on the planet. After a prolonged fight, Kenobi kills Grievous, only to be attacked by his own clone forces shortly afterwards, who are acting under Order 66 to kill their Jedi Generals. Kenobi escaped by stealing the late General Grievous's starfighter and rendezvousing with Senator Organa and Master Yoda aboard Organa's ship, the Tantive IV.
Along with Yoda and Organa, Kenobi returns to Coruscant, where he and Yoda discover, to their horror, that every Jedi in the Temple has been murdered, even the children. They kill the clones remaining at the Jedi Temple from the attack there led by none other than Kenobi's former partner and apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, now a Sith Lord. Kenobi reprograms a beacon which had been instructing all remaining Jedi to return to Coruscant (where they surely would be slain) to instruct them to scatter across the galaxy and remain in hiding.
Subsequently, Kenobi and Yoda split up to confront the two Sith Lords, Darth Vader (Skywalker) and Darth Sidious (Palpatine) respectively. Kenobi hates the thought of having to fight his beloved pupil. But Yoda insists, saying, "Powerful enough to defeat Sidious, you are not."
Kenobi and Skywalker duel on the volcanic moon Mustafar, resulting in the teacher nearly killing his former student, severing his legs from his knees and his remaining arm. However, Kenobi can not bring himself to deal a fatal blow to his former apprentice, partner, and friend, and so leaves Skywalker burning on the volcanic slopes. Skywalker is later saved by Darth Sidious (Palpatine) via the extensive medical prosthetics that become central to his new identity as Darth Vader.
Accordingly, this clash failed to halt the rise of the Galactic Empire and Kenobi himself is forced into hiding on the remote desert planet Tatooine where he goes by the name of Ben Kenobi. In accordance with the counsel of Bail Organa and Jedi Master Yoda, he also assists in hiding Anakin's children after Padme's death. Luke is put on Tatooine with Owen Lars, so that Kenobi can look after him in secret, and Leia is put on Alderaan with Bail Organa. In the original novelization of Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan refers to Owen Lars as his brother, but nothing depicted in the films or novelizations of The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones reference this. In fact, Attack of the Clones introduces Owen Lars as the stepson of Shmi Skywalker, Anakin's mother, who is married to Owen's father Cliegg Lars for a short period before her own death. Episode I implies that Kenobi has never been to or heard of Tatooine before, so it seems unlikely that he is "really" Owen's brother in any meaningful way. Most fans hold this plot point to be one that has been superseded, much like several others before.
A New Hope
Some twenty years after the events of Episode III, Kenobi rescues Anakin's son, Luke Skywalker, from Tusken Raiders while Luke is in the wilderness of Tatooine looking for a droid named R2-D2 that has an important message for the old Jedi Knight, as chronicled in Episode IV: A New Hope. Kenobi eventually hears R2-D2's message from Princess Leia Organa asking for his assistance in delivering the schematics of the Death Star to Alderaan. Kenobi is willing to help, and takes young Luke Skywalker under his wing in order to teach him the ways of the Force with the intention of fully training the boy later, on Alderaan. When Luke asks Kenobi about his father, Kenobi lies to him and says that "a young Jedi named Darth Vader killed him." In Kenobi's way of thinking, this was not entirely untrue: Anakin Skywalker died the moment he betrayed the Jedi, completely becoming Darth Vader.
Kenobi is constantly referred to as "old man" and Grand Moff Tarkin states "surely, he must be dead by now," despite being only 57 (it may be that Tarkin thought he was killed in the Great Jedi Purge).
Kenobi, Luke, and the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 buy passage to Alderaan on smuggler Han Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon. Before they can reach their destination, Alderaan is destroyed by the Death Star. The Millennium Falcon is captured by the Death Star; however Kenobi manages to deactivate the tractor beam to allow the ship to escape. Unfortunately for him, his return to the ship is cut off by Darth Vader, who challenges his former mentor to combat. Kenobi distracts Vader and his Imperial Stormtroopers, allowing Luke and the rest of the crew to reach the Falcon. Sacrificing his hope for escape in order to give Luke his, Kenobi concentrates for a moment and vanishes in an apparent form of ascension, his body disappearing entirely just as Vader's lightsaber, instead of severing his body, passes through his empty robe.
Postmortem
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As it turns out, Kenobi does not vanish entirely. Rather, he becomes a Force ghost who advises Luke as a mentor that the Sith cannot touch. Most importantly, he tells Luke to use the Force to destroy the Death Star.
In The Empire Strikes Back, Kenobi tells Luke to go to the Dagobah system for further training with Yoda. After he has been successfully trained as a Jedi, Kenobi appears in Dagobah to try and dissuade him from going to Cloud City, where Vader is holding Han and Leia hostage, as he feels his young apprentice is not yet ready to face Vader one-on-one. When Luke leaves anyway, Kenobi says sadly that he can't help him.
Luke is nearly killed in a lightsaber duel with Vader, who tells him he is his father and tries to enlist him into the Dark Side. Luke escapes, but is haunted by the truth Kenobi withheld from him.
After Yoda dies in Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Kenobi appears on Dagobah to explain to a heartbroken, troubled Luke why he did not tell him the truth about his father and to confess that Leia is his sister. Kenobi admits that his own pride is partly to blame for Anakin Skywalker's fall from grace—"I thought I could train him as well as Yoda. I was wrong."—He then tries to explain to Luke that killing Vader is the only way to destroy the Empire and save the galaxy, even if it means committing patricide.
Luke tries to persuade Vader to return from the Dark Side, but Vader and Palpatine nearly succeed in converting him by appealing to his anger and fear for his friends' lives. At the last minute, when an out-of-control Luke is about to kill Vader (which would turn him to the Dark Side and make him Palpatine's slave), Kenobi's teachings return to him and he refuses, proudly proclaiming himself a Jedi. Palpatine then tries to kill him with Force Lightning, which awakens in Vader his old, pre-corrupted self, giving him the strength to destroy Palpatine and return to the Light Side of the Force as he dies in his son's arms.
Kenobi appears alongside the spirits of fellow Jedi Yoda and a redeemed Anakin Skywalker on Endor, watching over Luke and his comrades as they celebrate the destruction of the second Death Star.
In an early draft of Return of the Jedi, Kenobi returned from his existence in the Force to become a living human being again. [1] (http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/scripts/revenge_revised_rough_draft.htm)
Personality
In his youth (circa The Phantom Menace), the loyal and dedicated Obi-Wan Kenobi possesses a dry sense of humor and sarcastic wit. Yoda says that he senses Jinn's defiance in him; nonetheless, he speaks very highly of him. Jinn himself reflects upon Obi-Wan's considerable knowledge. As a Jedi Knight, he is cynical, though wise beyond his years. In addition, his humble and soft-spoken demeanor belie his warrior prowess. Despite his numerous feignings during flight, Obi-Wan is quite the skilled pilot. Kenobi carefully measures his actions in any situation, giving him the nickname "The Negotiator" during the Clone Wars. In the original trilogy, he appears as a kindly and eccentric old hermit of the Jundland Wastes and wizard to those not familiar with the ways of the Jedi. Obi-Wan retains his traits of patience and foresight as well as gains the quality of boldness reminiscent of his youth—perhaps a characteristic acquired this time from his brash apprentice, Anakin.
It is interesting to note that Kenobi loses some of his youthful audacity that was seen in Episode I and assumes the role of a more cautious and conservative mentor in Episode II. Obi-Wan becomes more of the "Ben Kenobi of Episode IV" during Episode III, and Obi-Wan's total loss of youth is complete hence Episode IV.
Expanded Universe
Kenobi speaks to Luke again in The Truce at Bakura immediately after the Battle of Endor, warning him of the threat posed by the invading Ssi-ruuvi Imperium.
Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin again appear to Luke in spirit form a few months later to warn him of the dangers presented by the Dark Lord Flint, apprentice of Lady Lumiya, heir to the Sith legacy. Because of their warning, Luke is able to redeem Flint, leaving the reigning Sith Master without an apprentice. This is the last known time Luke saw his father and Yoda, though Anakin Skywalker speaks to Luke's nephew, Jacen Solo, decades later in the New Jedi Order novels Balance Point and The Unifying Force.
Obi-Wan appears to Luke again 5 years ABY to alert him to the presence of the Jedi Prince Ken, the grandson of Emperor Palpatine, who soon becomes a pawn in a coup orchestrated by a group of false Prophets of the Dark Side set up by Imperial Intelligence.
In Timothy Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire, which takes place in 9 ABY, Kenobi, still a spirit, visits Luke for the last time in a dream. Kenobi tells Luke that he must move on from his spirit form to another realm. As Kenobi explains it, from the time of his death until the time of the novel, Kenobi's spirit has been in an intermediate stage between life and the afterlife. This is Kenobi's final appearance in the timeline of the Star Wars universe. His final words are: "Not the last of the old Jedi, Luke. The first of the new."
In case one wonders what happened to Obi-Wan's lightsaber after he was killed by Darth Vader, in Kenobi's Blade, a young reader novel featuring Anakin Solo, Anakin Skywalker's grandson, it is revealed that Vader hid it in a retreat on Vjun. Unsurprisingly, Solo and company recover the lightsaber from Vader's palace.
Jedi Apprentice
The Jedi Apprentice series of young reader novels by Jude Watson chronicles Obi-Wan Kenobi's exploits with Qui-Gon Jinn. The books span from approximately 44 BBY to 32 BBY; Obi-Wan is twelve years old at the beginning of this series. During this time Obi-Wan meets many Jedi who would later be important friends, including Bant Eerin, Siri Tachi and Quinlan Vos.
Jedi Quest
The Jedi Quest series of young reader novels by Jude Watson takes place between the events of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones and explores the relationship between and events that occur to Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker.
Trivia
- In Grabowiec, a village in Poland, one of the streets was named after Obi-Wan Kenobi in April 2005.
- In Episode III, actor Ewan McGregor took special effort to make his portrayal of Obi-Wan similar to that of Sir Alec Guinness's.
- The line "Hello there." was delivered by McGregor in Episode I and III, and Guinness in Episode IV.
- In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the action starts at a Shanghai club named Obi Wan.
See also
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