Obi-Wan’s 10 Best Moments In ‘Star Wars’
Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the best Star Wars characters, and that is not just because of his overall personality and charisma. It is because of all of the moments that make Obi-Wan…well…Obi-Wan. It is the moments that fans watch over and over and quote in real life. Here are some of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s best moments.
10. Duel With Darth Maul On Naboo
We have to start off with one of the best moments of Obi-Wan’s entire character arc, his fight with Darth Maul on Naboo when he was just a Padawan. During the epic battle on Naboo at the end of The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan ended up fighting Darth Maul in an epic lightsaber duel. Darth Maul sadly killed Qui-Gon, while Obi-Wan was trapped by energy shields. When Obi-Wan was able to get through, he finished the duel with Darth Maul, defeating him, and becoming the first Jedi to defeat a Sith Lord in open combat in a thousand years. Of course, this moment is made all the better by one of the most amazing music by John Williams.
9. Iconic First Line
Star Wars fans were first introduced to Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Sir Alec Guinness, in A New Hope. He made quite an entrance when he scared off an entire group of Tusken Raiers who were attacking Luke Skywalker and R2-D2. Then, he said “Hello there” to R2-D2, much in the same way that Ewan McGregor would say to General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith. He followed up with another quotable line, “Obi-Wan Kenobi... Obi-Wan? Now that's a name I haven’t heard in a long time... a long time… Well of course I know him. He’s me.” Thus began the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
8. The Mos Eisley Cantina
In A New Hope, Obi-Wan, Luke, and the droids went to Mos Eisley in search for a pilot to take them off Tatooine. They arrived at a cantina, which is where many pilots hang out. After expertly using the infamous Jedi mind trick on the stormtroopers, telling them, “These are not the droids you are looking for,” Obi-Wan and Luke entered the Cantina. Before they really had a chance to find a pilot, Luke accidentally made one of the customers, Dr. Evazan, angry. Obi-Wan came over to try to reason with him, but Evazan just kept getting angrier until Obi-Wan had to draw his lightsaber. The man lost an arm, and that was the end of that.
7. Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul And Savage Oppress
Midway through The Clone Wars series, Darth Maul and his brother Savage Oppress teamed up to fight Obi-Wan and Adi Gallia on the planet Florrum. The Jedi were able to hold their own for a bit against the brothers, but then Adi Gallia was struck down by Savage Oppress. Obi-Wan now had to fight both of them at once. He retreated at one point with Hondo and his pirates to an underground shelter. Before long the brothers found him and they continued their fight. Obi-Wan managed to maim Savage Oppress, but was then separated from Darth Maul and Savage Oppress, leaving the duel unfinished. This duel showed how awesome Obi-Wan really was with a lightsaber, which we are reminded time and again with his many amazing battles and duels, and how Obi-Wan did not hesitate to take on both Dark Side followers.
6. Younger Obi-Wan In Yet Another Bar
In Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan and Anakin were assigned to protect Padme Amidala from an assassination attempt. During a chase with the would-be assassin through Coruscant, Obi-Wan and Anakin ended up at a bar. Obi-Wan told Anakin to try to find the assassin, and then he went for a drink. While Obi-Wan is drinking, he was approached by Elan Sel’Sabagno trying to sell him some death sticks, a highly addictive illicit substance in the Star Wars universe. Instead of just simply saying no, Obi-Wan used the Force to persuade the peddler that he did not want to sell death sticks and that he should rethink his life. Elan agreed and left.
5. Obi-Wan’s Sacrifice
Obi-Wan was an instant fan favorite the minute he arrived on the screen. When he helped Luke escape Tatooine and began training him, people expected him to be around for a bit. However, that was not the case. When the Millennium Falcon was pulled into the Death Star's tractor beam, Obi-Wan went off in search of someone. As the characters were just about to escape when we saw Obi-Wan fighting Darth Vader in a lightsaber battle. However, this one was not quite as good as his other battles. In the end, Darth Vader killed him after Obi-Wan purposefully let his guard down. Obi-Wan told Vader, “If you strike me down now, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Vader did not know what this meant, but Obi-Wan knew that in order to protect and mentor Luke, he needed to become one with the Force.
4. Fighting Jango Fett
In Attack of the Clones, we saw the first meaningful Jedi vs. non-Force user duel when Obi-Wan fought Jango Fett on Kamino. Jango obviously did not have a lightsaber. However, he was able to hold his own against Obi-Wan using a vast array of weapons and his jetpack. Obi-Wan ended up losing his lightsaber during the fight and had to fight Jango in actual unarmed physical combat, which we do not see a lot of, and did an amazing job of it. Obi-Wan was a great warrior, with or without his lightsaber.
3. Fighting General Grievous
A list of iconic Obi-Wan moments would not be complete without talking about his battle with General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan was sent to Utapau to find Grievous, who was the head of the droid army. Obi-Wan's original goal was reconnaissance, but he ended up fighting General Grievous. This duel started with another one of the most iconic Obi-Wan moments ever. Obi-Wan jumped down from the rafters right in front of General Grievous and said, “Hello there.” To which General Grievous answers: “General Kenobi.” And thus, a meme was born. General Grievous and his four lightsaber-equipped arms was still no match for Obi-Wan. The duel ended up as more of a hand-to-hand (metal hand?) combat. Obi-Wan then shot Grievous with a blaster, ending yet another epic duel.
2. Satine Kryze
Obi-Wan knew that Jedi were not supposed to have romantic relationships. However, that did not exactly stop him from bending the rules just a little bit for Satine Kryze, the Mandalorian Dutchess. He met Satine during the Mandalorian Civil War when Obi-Wan was still a young Padawan under Qui-Gon Jinn. They were able to resist the attraction between each other, and chose to remain true to their duties. When Darth Maul won the Darksaber and became the rightful ruler of Mandalore, their paths crossed again. Darth Maul captured Satine and Obi-Wan. Maul Force choked her in order to get Obi-Wan to tap into his rage and lash out at Maul. However, Obi-Wan resisted the temptation of the Dark Side. Darth Maul, enraged, hurled Satine right into the ignited Darksaber and killed her. When Satine expressed her love for Obi-Wan with her dying breath, we saw how much losing her really affected Obi-Wan. This moment was very poignant, however, in showing that even though losing his love hurt him so much, it was still not enough to turn Obi-Wan to the Dark Side. He remained true to his ideals.
1. The Battle on Mustafar
The epic lightsaber battle and quotable lines galore made this one of the most absolute iconic Obi-Wan moments in the entire Star Wars canon. Obi-Wan followed Anakin to Mustafar after learning that Anakin had turned to the Dark Side. He confronted Anakin, and a lightsaber battle between the two ensued across all sorts of shaky platforms, over lava, and down into the lava. It was truly probably the most notable lightsaber battles in canon, once again accompanied by another one of John Williams’ epic scores. During this battle, we saw how much this fight hurt Obi-Wan emotionally. He had lost his pupil, friend, and brother. When a floating piece of debris on the lava broke up, Obi-Wan jumped to safety on the high ground, but Anakin did not quite make it. Obi-Wan said one of the most iconic lines, “It’s over, Anakin, I have the high ground.” When Anakin refused to stand down, and screamed his hatred, we could hear Obi-Wan’s heart breaking as he told Anakin, “You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you.” Anakin tried to go after Obi-Wan and got burned in the lava. Obi-Wan picked up Anakin’s lightsaber and left him presumably for dead. Not only was the duel itself beautiful, but the exchange between Obi-Wan and Anakin was just heartbreaking when Obi-Wan realized that Anakin was gone beyond redemption.
Sources: IGN, Dork Side of the Force, IMSDb