Fitting stories into the Skywalker Saga is getting increasingly tricky. Lucasfilm’s ‘unified canon’ means that all movies, games, TV shows, books, and comics are equally canon, which is leaving smaller and smaller gaps in which to tell stories that make sense. Ever since it was announced, fans have been worried that Obi-Wan Kenobi would retcon the beloved 1977 original A New Hope.
The years after Revenge of the Sith were supposed to have seen the Jedi lying low as a desert hermit, keeping careful watch over a young Luke. But, as of the third episode, Obi-Wan is currently on a galaxy-spanning adventure with a ten-year-old Leia and tangling with Darth Vader. So, how does that square with Leia not mentioning this during A New Hope, or Vader saying “when I left you I was but a learner, now I am the master”?
The issue is being discussed in detail on r/StarWars, with fans thinking they’ve figured out how the two stories don’t contradict one another.
The OP points out that Leia and Obi-Wan don’t actually meet in A New Hope, and that her frantic distress call to him isn’t the right time to reminisce. The Vader line could be read as him referring to the episode three encounter, as he doesn’t say when they last “met”, but when I “left you”, which took place during Revenge of the Sith.
It’s also pointed out that Obi-Wan may even close a small plot hole. In Return of the Jedi Obi-Wan says “he’s more machine than man”, which he wouldn’t necessarily know unless they’d met up in the interim years.
Fingers crossed, Obi-Wan Kenobi continues to balance on this narrative tightrope. We’ll see more on Wednesday in episode 4 on Disney Plus.