Kenobi Finale Barely Avoided A Huge Luke Skywalker Plot Hole

This article contains spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 6.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi finale narrowly avoided a huge Luke Skywalker plot hole. Star Wars has never been entirely consistent in terms of its canon and continuity. Indeed, that’s the very reason Obi-Wan Kenobi coined the phrase “from a certain point of view” – it was George Lucas’ fix for a change in direction, with a new backstory for Darth Vader written in from The Empire Strikes Back onwards.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ TV series always had the potential to damage continuity even more. Set during Obi-Wan’s exile on Tatooine, it sees the Jedi Master forced to head out into the galaxy to rescue Princess Leia from the Inquisitors. But the real risk came at the end of Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 5, when shamed former Inquisitor Reva stumbled upon a holo-transmission from Bail Organa that revealed Owen and Obi-Wan were protecting a Youngling on Tatooine. Reva was one of the Younglings attacked by the newly-christened Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, and she burned with resentment that Kenobi had protected this boy and yet had not done the same for her fellows. Reva headed to Tatooine, her sights set on young Luke Skywalker.

Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 6 saw Luke Skywalker forced to flee from Reva after she successfully fought her way past Owen and Beru. Fortunately, he never actually saw her in action – which meant, notably, he never saw Reva trigger her lightsaber. Had he done so, it would have been a major continuity problem, because Luke clearly had no idea what a lightsaber was in the first Star Wars film. A famous production still went so far as to show Luke staring down the wrong end of the lightsaber while playing with the trigger, with a bemused Obi-Wan looking on. That shot didn’t actually appear in the film – it’s just a set photo – but it’s seen as symbolic of Luke’s lack of knowledge of the Jedi.

Kenobi Finale Barely Avoided A Huge Luke Skywalker Plot Hole

This is the problem with Star Wars canon; writers and directors have to be careful not to change too much. There doesn’t seem to be too much concern about contradicting tie-ins – the opening scenes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 1 directly contracted a comic, for example – but any continuity errors involving George Lucas’ own movies would be noticed straight away. In the end, though, Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 6 did a masterful job. It came close to breaking canon without actually doing so, with episode 6 leaving Luke unconscious for key moments of dialogue to make sure the character didn’t know a little too much.

The brief conversation between Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan – complete with the iconic “Hello there” – doesn’t break canon either. There’s nothing in the first Star Wars film to suggest Luke had never talked to Obi-Wan before; he simply hadn’t spent any real time with him, mostly knowing him from rumors of a crazy hermit living out in Tatooine’s desert. The writers of Obi-Wan Kenobi really did do a great job of handling the story, telling a tale that feels as though it matters while being careful not to change things.

Obi-Wan Kenobi season 1 is now available to stream on Disney+.

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