Return Of The Jedi: Obi-Wan Explains

ANOTHER one to expand on a scene - in this case, Obi-Wan telling Luke about Vader. A bit of a retcon re Anakin's training.

Yoda's hut

In his last moments as a corporeal being

"There...is...another...Sk - ky...walker..." Yoda managed with his last breath. His eyes closed, and his head drooped.

He was gone.

Yet another mentor was dead, though at least this was of natural causes. As Luke watched, grieving, Yoda's body faded away, and his blanket settled onto the bed. He was one with the Force.

Luke joined Artoo at his X-Wing - this time, knowing what to expect, he'd had no trouble setting down onto dry land. Artoo was performing welding repairs on a landing strut. He looked back at Yoda's hut. As he watched, the dim firelight went out, leaving it dark. It was as if the hut had died with its owner.

Artoo bleeped uncertainly. "I can't do it, Artoo," Luke murmured. "I can't go on alone."

A deep, reassuring voice was heard. "Yoda will always be with you, as will I."

"Obi-Wan," Luke said. He had so many questions for his former mentor, who had not died on the first Death Star as Vader (his father?!) had believed, but had instead been accepted into the netherworld of the Force, as he'd learned from his own Master, Qui-Gon Jinn. But one question above all consumed Luke. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"As I recall, Yoda already has told you," the Force ghost quipped. "We wished to spare you the burden until your training was complete and you were ready. But you chose to rush off and face Vader. Surely you must realise that that was precisely why he was hurting your friends: to draw you to him."

"Yes, but I had to help them!" Luke protested.

"And did you? It was they who had to rescue you," Obi-Wan pointed out fairly. "As we feared, you accomplished little by rushing to face him. I warned you about your impatience. And," he added with compassion, "you paid a high price for a lesson you should not have needed."

"True," Luke admitted, looking down at the legacy of his rash decision: his artificial hand. It was a more than adequate substitute, though the loss meant he was a little less capable with the Force than he had been, rooted and generated as it was in living tissue. Then again, his greater knowledge of the Force now gave him such focus that the loss of a hand actually meant little. He returned to his questions. "You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father."

"Your father, Anakin Skywalker, was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin, and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I told you was true...from a certain point of view."

"A certain point of view?" Luke echoed hollowly.

"Luke, you're going to find," Obi-Wan told him wearily, "that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly upon our point of view." He sat on a log, more for Luke's benefit than his own. "Come, sit," he invited, "I'll tell you everything." Intrigued, Luke did so. "When I first knew him, your father was already a great pilot, even at the tender age of nine. It might surprise you to learn he was a slave in Mos Espa, until he was freed by my Master."

"How did you meet?" Luke asked curiously.

Obi-Wan smiled. "At first, we didn't. My Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, did - he was looking for spaceship parts. Anakin was working for a Toydarian in a shop. Only later, when a Sith Lord attacked them, did I meet the lad. But my Master was amazed, as I was later, by how strongly the Force was with him. Qui-Gon was convinced that finding Anakin was the will of the Force. Perhaps it was," he reflected, and went on:

"When my Master was murdered and I became a Jedi Knight, I took it upon myself to train Anakin as a Jedi; I had promised Qui-Gon. I thought that I could instruct him just as well as Yoda. I was wrong." He looked bleak. "I failed him, Luke. I failed to notice how deeply he was involved with your mother, Padmé Amidala of Naboo. Attachment - or, in his case, obsession - was forbidden to the Jedi for a very good reason. It could serve as a distraction...leaving one vulnerable to the Dark Side. So it was, years later, with Anakin.

"He became a powerful Jedi, and in fact he could perceive the future. Unfortunately he began to perceive that Padmé would die in childbirth. No-one knew, then, that he was the father. He sought desperately for a way to save her. Chancellor Sheev Palpatine - or, to be more accurate, Darth Sidious - gave him one...allegedly. Anakin could save her, Sidious claimed, if he turned to the Dark Side. At first, to give him credit, Anakin resisted. But when Master Mace Windu confronted Sidious and was about to execute him, Anakin snapped and stopped him, giving Sidious the opportunity to kill Mace.

"I later realised that Anakin's visions were actually part of the Dark Lord's plan...he was receiving them from Sidious. The Dark Lord was manipulating him. He succeeded. He convinced your father that the Republic Senators, in league with the 'evil' Jedi, would kill them both...unless they took action. So Anakin led the 501st Legion of clone troopers to ransack the Jedi Temple and slaughter everyone...even the younglings. Then he went alone to Mustafar, to wipe out the Separatist leaders as Sidious had commanded.

"Yoda tasked me with finding him, which I did, by following Padmé - who was heavily pregnant, as I had just discovered, and knew where Anakin had gone, as I correctly guessed. We fought. It was the hardest combat I had ever engaged in," he said heavily, "because Anakin and I knew each other so well. Each knew the other's combat moves. But finally we came to a lava river - Mustafar is a volcanic moon - and I took the high ground. I called upon Anakin to surrender.

"But as I feared he would, he leapt to engage me instead. He'd already lost his right hand in a duel with Count Dooku, a fallen Jedi turned Sith. I took his other hand, and both legs below the knees. He was crippled and helpless. He had fallen too close to the river - and his clothes caught fire...and he with them." Obi-Wan looked weary. "He burned, screaming. I was sure he would die, but I...I could not bring myself to end his suffering. With hindsight, I should have. But I was certain he would die soon, if he wasn't dead already, and so I took his lightsabre and left."

"But...he didn't die," Luke murmured.

"No," Obi-Wan confessed. "Though I only found out ten years later, somehow Darth Sidious kept him alive long enough to take him back to Imperial Centre - back then it was known as Coruscant, formerly the centre of the Republic as Imperial Centre is now the heart of the Empire - and place him in the suit which both serves as life support and encases him in armour, as you have seen. But he is purely Darth Vader now. Everything that was Anakin was burned away on Mustafar. Only Vader remains."

Stubbornly Luke persisted, "There's still good in him."

"So your mother said with her last breath," Obi-Wan told him, but shook his head. "You are as wrong as she was. He's more machine now than man," he went on bitterly. "Twisted and evil."

"I can't do it, Ben," Luke protested, using the name Obi-Wan had adopted on Tatooine.

"You cannot escape your destiny," the ghost demurred. "You must face Darth Vader again." He sighed. "It is inevitable - because even if you do not seek him out, he will seek you out. Eventually he will find you. Far better to face him at a time and place of your choosing."

Luke insisted, "I can't kill my own father."

"Then the Emperor has already won," Obi-Wan returned tiredly. "You were our only hope."

The only hope...

"Not the only hope," Luke denied. "Yoda spoke of another."

Then Obi-Wan delivered another proton torpedo. "The other he spoke of is your twin sister."

The younger man was utterly startled. "But I have no sister!"

"Mmm," Obi-Wan nodded. "To protect you both from the Emperor, you were hidden from your father when you were born. Senator Organa and I allowed the galaxy to think that Padmé had died before giving birth; when she was buried on Naboo, she still appeared pregnant, by subterfuge. The Emperor knew, as I did, that if Anakin had any offspring, they would one day be a threat to him. That is the reason why you were sent to live with your family on Tatooine, with me - well, with Ben Kenobi - watching over you...and your sister remains safely anonymous."

With a shock of insight, likely born of the Force, Luke realised abruptly who his sister was. No wonder she heard him when he cried for help from the underside of Cloud City!

"Leia!" he gasped. "Leia is my sister!"

"Your insight serves you well," Obi-Wan complimented him. But he warned, "Bury your feelings deep down, Luke. They do you much credit," he allowed, "but they could be made to serve the Emperor."

I will, Luke swore to himself, but...I have a sister. All those years I wished for a sibling, and I had one all along!

THE END

"You cannot hide forever, Luke."

"I will not fight you!"

"Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can

save your friends. Yes...your thoughts betray you! Your feelings for them

are strong...especially for..."

No! No!

"SISTER...! So, you have a twin sister! Your feelings have now

betrayed her, too! Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his

failure is complete! If you will not turn to the Dark Side...then

perhaps she will!"

"NOOOOO!"

- Return Of The Jedi