Forget about Anakin Skywalker, his fall to the dark side, and his ultimate redemption in Return of the Jedi. Star Wars fans can unanimously agree that the most heartbreakingly tragic character in all of the galaxy far, far away and its extensive history is none other than Obi-Wan Kenobi, the man who lost everything but his faith.
We’re talking about a man who forsook his love out of duty, lost his mentor and father figure, had to witness the love of his life die in front of his eyes because of the same person who killed that mentor, and to top it all off, Obi-Wan watched as what he had fought to preserve for decades went up in flames, with the Jedi all but destroyed and his padawan, friend, and brother lost to the shadow.
As if that weren’t enough, Obi-Wan was sent to kill that brother for the monster he had become. And for the next 10 years, he would live on knowing that, above all else, he failed Anakin.
And folks wonder why the Obi-Wan we meet in the Disney Plus series is fighting severe depression and PTSD. Well, another parallel in the Skywalker Saga that’s gaining a lot of traction on Reddit proves once again why Obi-Wan is the most tragic character of all.
What makes Obi-Wan Kenobi’s life even more harrowing is the fact that the man did everything right and still had to suffer all this pain.
And despite it all, he refused to give in to the Dark Side.
We can almost hear George Lucas shouting somewhere in the distance that it’s all poetry, and every stanza rhymes with what came before it.
As Obi-Wan once said, “It takes strength to resist the Dark Side, only the weak embrace it.” And as far as the man himself was concerned, he lived by those words to the bitter end.