And there—a broken citibike. Beside it, a broken Jedi.
Obi-Wan! A citibike? What were you thinking?
Anakin dropped his airspeeder to the rooftop as though it were a brick. Force-leapt from the driver’s seat to land kneeling by his former Master’s side.
“Obi-Wan! It’s me. It’s Anakin. Don’t move.”
So much blood. Too much blood. Jedi weren’t immortal. Qui-Gon had told him that, then died to prove it.
Lying in a crumpled heap, awkwardly twisted, half on his side, Obi-Wan blinked slowly. His eyes were clouded, unfocused. His right cheek was deeply split along the bone. “Anakin …?”
Anakin leaned closer, too afraid to touch Obi-Wan’s burned, bloodstained hand. “Don’t talk. I’m going to call for help, okay?”
“Anakin …”
“I’m right here,” he said, even as he stood and backed away to the airspeeder for his comlink. “Don’t worry, Obi-Wan, I’m right here.”
Obi-Wan groaned. “Blast. I think I’m hurt.”
—Wild Space by Karen Miller
That mention of Qui-Gon was rude and extremely uncalled for, wow.
Obi-Wan’s just fallen who knows how far after getting caught in an explosion and hit by a bus and his only reaction is “Blast. I think I’m hurt.” That is so Obi-Wan but also. Obi-Wan please.
I think it also bears mentioning that in the scene immediately preceding this one, Anakin was doing his level best to shirk his duties and thus not have to leave leaving Padme’s apartment after spending the night there. And the SECOND he feels this happening, his entire focus reorients on Obi-Wan and his desperate need to find him because he senses that Obi-Wan is hurt.
you know, that luceno quote from labyrinth of evil gets posted all the time, but my favorite part is the bit that usually gets cut off.
“And you, Master. What does your heart tell you you’re meant for?”
“Infinite sadness,” Obi-Wan said, even while smiling.
even
while
smiling.
[aka: don’t ever come talk to me about obi-wan if you’re not ready to talk about hope and faith, because that is his essential core; hope on the days when he can look up and still see Light, and faith for the days when he can’t. faith carries him across the clouded patches, to starry skies and potential, possibility – dizzying promises of rebirth. he is able to smile, even in his grief, because he accepts this for what it is, that the new world will not be for him, does not need to be for him – it is enough that the new world will be.
force knows none of them were created for a life of ease. to be bereft of all his mortal loves is a burden, maybe, but to be still in the Light – that is enough, for a jedi.]
“It’s only that—well, I’ve been a bit worried about him. I was hoping he may have talked to you.”
“Why would he talk to me about—” She favored him with her best friendly-but-skeptical smile. “—Jedi business?”
“Senator—Padme. Please.” He gazed into her eyes with nothing on his face but compassion and fatigued anxiety.
“I am not blind, Padme. Though I have tried to be, for Anakin’s sake. And for yours.”
“What do you mean?”
“Neither of you is very good at hiding feelings, either.”
“Obi-Wan—”
“Anakin has loved you since the day you met, in that horrible junk shop on Tatooine. He’s never tried to hide it, though we do not speak of it. We… pretend that I don’t know. And I was happy to because it made him happy. You made him happy when nothing else truly could.” He sighed, his brows drawing together. “And you, Padme, skilled as you are on the Senate floor, cannot hide the light that comes to your eyes when anyone so much as mentions his name.”
My first reaction to this was pretty much to scream, “WELL, GOODBYE” because, holy shit, canon confirmation that Obi-Wan would leave the Jedi Order for Anakin, I’m going to revel in these feelings about my ship, go on without me.
But even beyond that I think it’s really spot-on characterization because Obi-Wan really and truly fully dedicated himself to Anakin, by this point he is 100% going to devote his life to guiding Anakin, wherever that takes him. He would never force Anakin into a choice that wasn’t truly his own, he thinks Anakin belongs with the Jedi (he’s too young, he’s not ready, being part of the Jedi means being part of something bigger/stronger–in other words, Anakin needs that structure in his life), but if Anakin truly wants to go, then Obi-Wan will go with him.
At the same time, one of the central points about Obi-Wan’s character is that one of his greatest flaws (if you want to call it that) is the same as Anakin’s: attachment.
Yoda began to pace the small chamber, the tapping of his gimer stick loud in its silence. "Know do you, Obi-Wan, why reluctant I was for Skywalker to become your apprentice?“
Did
he know? Not for certain. And once he and Qui-Gon had prevailed over
the Council, and Anakin had been made his Padawan, Yoda’s objections had
no longer mattered.
“Ah … no, Master,” he said cautiously.Yoda
flicked him a skeptical glance.
“Hmmm. Then tell you I will. Reluctant I
was because the same flaw you share, Obi-Wan. The flaw of attachment.” –Wild Space, by Karen Miller
The above moment is about Obi-Wan’s dedication to his vow to see Anakin trained, but that moment doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it exists alongside Obi-Wan’s tendency to become attached to that which he loves–and loves Anakin he does. (Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan directly tells Anakin that he loved him.)
This is why I say that Anakin Skywalker is the great love of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s life. It doesn’t matter if I mean it romantically or platonically or in a more familial sense, because he’s attached to Anakin, he loves Anakin, he’s chosen to dedicate his life to Anakin, he would leave the Jedi Order for Anakin, he spends the last 20 years of his life watching over Anakin’s child.
He’s not the only person Obi-Wan has loved, there have been many, in various forms. Qui-Gon Jinn, Siri Tachi, Satine Kryze, the Jedi Order as a whole. But his dedication to and love for Anakin are greater than all of them.
eirenical17 