George Lucas managed to differentiate the Star Wars prequel trilogy from the original trilogy by telling a completely different kind of story. The original trilogy revolved around three plucky heroes who came together by chance, but the prequels revolved around Anakin Skywalker’s fall from grace, so all the supporting characters orbit around him.
Although he’s in love with Padmé, arguably the closest personal connection that Anakin made was with his master, Obi-Wan. They had a heartwarming, if turbulent friendship marked by its inevitable tragic ending. This duo shared a number of iconic moments in the prequels, and even a couple in the original trilogy.
Obi-Wan Agrees To Train Anakin
Qui-Gon’s dying wish is that Anakin be trained by his young apprentice, Obi-Wan, who arguably isn’t ready to be a master. So, Obi-Wan speaks to Yoda and gets him to reluctantly sign off on it.
In the final moments of The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan approaches nine-year-old Anakin and tells him that the Jedi Council will let him train him. And so it begins.
“Good Job.”
When Obi-Wan lands on Geonosis, he’s quickly captured by the Separatists and chained up in a gladiatorial arena to be fed to a monster for the Geonosians’ amusement. Before this can happen, he’s joined by two other prisoners, Anakin and Padmé.
As the two are chained up next to him, Obi-Wan asks them what they’re doing there. Anakin tells his master that they decided to come and rescue him and Obi-Wan sarcastically looks up at his chains and says, “Good job.”
Taking On Count Dooku (The First Time)
After the entire Jedi Order and the Republic’s Clone Army show up to help Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padmé escape from the Separatists’ grasps on Geonosis, Anakin and Obi-Wan chase Count Dooku to his nearby lair.
They find themselves outmatched by the burgeoning Sith Lord, who has learned some Force lightning tricks from his master Palpatine, but they have each other’s backs throughout the entire duel.
“Oh, It’s You.”
When Anakin and Obi-Wan infiltrate General Grievous’ ship to save Chancellor Palpatine, they find themselves in an elevator with a bunch of battle droids and make short work of them with their lightsabers.
The two briefly get split up as R2-D2 screws up taking control of the elevator and when they’re reunited, Obi-Wan ignites his lightsaber, sees that it’s just Anakin, and nonchalantly says, “Oh, it’s you.”
“His Fate Will Be The Same As Ours.”
During Anakin and Obi-Wan’s rescue of Chancellor Palpatine in the opening of Revenge of the Sith, Count Dooku manages to knock Obi-Wan to the ground and crushes him with an entire floor.
After Anakin kills Dooku and frees Palpatine, the secret Sith Lord tells his budding young apprentice to leave Obi-Wan because they’ll die if they stick around to save him. But Anakin staunchly says, “His fate will be the same as ours.”
How Many Times Has Anakin Saved Obi-Wan’s Skin?
After bringing back half a ship from their rescue mission, Anakin and Obi-Wan are invited to spend a day with politicians. Obi-Wan doesn’t consider himself to be brave enough for politics, but encourages Anakin to go ahead.
Anakin says, “You owe me one, and not for saving your skin for the tenth time.” Obi-Wan corrects him: “Ninth time. That business on Cato Neimoidia doesn’t…doesn’t count.”
The Mustafar Duel
Obi-Wan is off on Utapau fighting General Grievous when Palpatine’s plan falls into place and Anakin is swayed over to the dark side of the Force in Revenge of the Sith. If he’d been on Coruscant, the story might’ve gone a little differently.
After Anakin’s slaughter of the younglings and the birth of the Empire, Obi-Wan confronts Anakin on Mustafar, quickly realizes he’s too far gone, and engages him in one of the Star Wars saga’s most heartbreaking lightsaber duels.
Aftermath Of The Duel
At the very end of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s duel on Mustafar, Anakin ignores Obi-Wan’s advice not to try fighting him when he has the high ground and Obi-Wan lops off three of his limbs. But it doesn’t feel like a victory; it feels more like a tragedy.
As Anakin burns alive, disabled him permanently, he yells out, “I HATE YOU!!!,” with genuine venom in his yellow Sith eyes. A heartbroken Obi-Wan says, “You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!”
Their Final Confrontation On The Death Star
Moviegoers in 1977 didn’t know the context behind Darth Vader’s lightsaber duel with Ben Kenobi in the original Star Wars movie, but it’s always been an emotionally charged scene. Knowing how their last confrontation went down does substantiate it a little more, though.
More than a decade after Vader’s rise began and Kenobi went into hiding, the former master and apprentice face off on the Death Star. This time, Obi-Wan isn’t the victor, but he’s cool with it.
Reuniting As Force Ghosts On Endor
After Luke heads up to the mid-construction second Death Star to coax the long-forgotten goodness out of his father, Anakin managed to redeem himself in the eyes of the Force in time for his lightning-induced death.
This meant that, despite slaughtering children and being a dictator for years, Anakin came back as a Force ghost. In his spectral form, he reunited with Obi-Wan and Yoda on Endor during the Rebels’ victory party.
