From day one, Star Wars has been told out of order. Though A New Hope was originally released as just Star Wars, by 1981 George Lucas had added “Episode IV” to the opening crawl, confirming that it was a middle chapter in an ongoing saga.
Ever since then movies, TV shows, games, comics, and books have come along to fill in the gaps, with the prequel trilogy showing the rise of the Empire and the fall of the Jedi, before the sequels showed that victory over evil is only ever temporary.
But for some fans, their knowledge of future events is a burden, one that’s getting in the way of them enjoying Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Disney Plus show finds the former Jedi General at rock bottom, hiding out on Tatooine as he devotes himself to his mission of silently protecting the young Luke, though adventure is soon knocking at his door.
There’s an ongoing discussion on r/Starwars saying that knowledge of Obi-Wan and Luke’s death is making it a tough watch.
The debate over Luke’s decision to become a hermit after the destruction of his Jedi Academy is still a sore point for Star Wars fans, and isn’t going to be settled anytime soon.
However, other posters in the thread make the good point that Luke’s teachers Obi-Wan and Yoda both went into isolation after their failure to detect Palpatine’s plan in the prequels. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Luke chose to follow in their footsteps when he found himself facing his own failure decades later.
Besides, as we see it, Luke eventually got a happy ending. Sacrificing himself to save his friends without a drop of blood being spilled is an extremely Jedi thing to do, and his actions resulted in Palpatine’s defeat in The Rise of Skywalker. Plus, Luke seems pretty chill as a Force Ghost.
While the focus in Obi-Wan Kenobi has so far been primarily on young Leia, we’re sure Luke will get a moment in the (twin) suns too. And when he does, let’s remember the long journey he’s got ahead of him.
Obi-Wan Kenobi airs Wednesdays on Disney Plus.