Obi-Wan's Enemies
In each film of the Prequel Trilogy, Obi-Wan Kenobi crosses lightsabers with a pawn of Palpatine: Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and General Grievous. Each villain foreshadows the emergence of Palpatine’s most powerful pawn and Obi-Wan’s worst nemesis: his apprentice and friend Anakin Skywalker, who becomes Darth Vader, the villain of each film of the Original Trilogy.
In The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan and his master Qui-Gon Jinn have a fateful duel with Maul, a rage-filled assassin who initiates the long-desired revenge of the Sith against the Jedi. (“At last we will have revenge,” Maul says to Palpatine.) When Obi-Wan watches Maul kill Qui-Gon, it foreshadows how he will one day see Vader, another rage-filled assassin, kill many other Jedi to complete the revenge of the Sith. It also foreshadows how, in A New Hope, Luke Skywalker will watch Vader kill Obi-Wan.
In Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan and his apprentice Anakin try and fail to capture Count Dooku — a former Jedi turned traitor to the Order — and so end the Clone Wars just as they are beginning. Earlier in the film, Dooku tried and failed to tempt Obi-Wan to join him and together overthrow the Dark Lord of the Sith (Palpatine). Obi-Wan’s failure to capture Count Dooku foreshadows how he will one day fail to kill Darth Vader — another former Jedi turned traitor — and so end the Empire just as it is beginning. Likewise, Dooku’s failure to tempt Obi-Wan foreshadows how, in The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader will fail to tempt Luke to join him and together overthrow Emperor Palpatine.
In Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan hunts down and eliminates Grievous, a heavy-breathing cyborg responsible for the deaths of many Jedi. Later in the film, Obi-Wan will have to hunt down and try to eliminate Darth Vader, who is also responsible for the deaths of many Jedi. Grievously maimed during their duel, Darth Vader will become another heavy-breathing cyborg. In Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan’s ghost will describe Vader to Luke in much the same way he could have described Grievous: “He’s more machine now than man, twisted and evil.”
Of the three villains Obi-Wan has to face before he must face his own apprentice, it is telling that the only one he cannot kill is Count Dooku. Indeed, Obi-Wan loses to Dooku twice, at the end of Attack of the Clones and at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith. It is not the threat of an impersonal enemy like Darth Maul or General Grievous that will ultimately lead to Obi-Wan’s death, but the deeply personal betrayal of a friend.
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Characters: Anakin Skywalker / Count Dooku / Darth Maul / Darth Vader / General Grievous / Obi-Wan Kenobi
Films: Episode I: The Phantom Menace / Episode II: Attack of the Clones / Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / Episode IV: A New Hope / Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back / Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
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Concepts: cyborgs / friendship / revenge / treachery / victory and defeat
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