#ewanmcgregoredit

[supersoldatbarnesstuff]

I'M CRYING FOR THIS😭😭😭😭

i've been debating this in my head for years and i'm still not sure which side i land on. some people argue that obi-wan leaves anakin alive on mustafar because he can't bear to actually strike the killing blow against someone he loves so much who has become so unredeemably wicked. others argue that obi-wan leaves anakin alive on mustafar, burning and suffering, as an act of anger and revenge.

My gut instinct is that it is the former, but let's dig into the Legends and Canon sources and see what they have to say. Moving from least canonical to most canonical:

The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi by Ryder Windham:

"You were the Chosen One!" Obi-Wan shouted. Anakin retained his prosthetic right arm, and as he struggled to pull himself away from the lava, his eyes continued to blaze with fury at Obi-Wan. "It was said you would destroy the Sith, not join them!" Obi-Wan continued. "Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!" Unable to look at his former apprentice, he turned away. He spied Anakin's fallen lightsaber, and bent down to pick it up before he turned to look at Anakin again. "I hate you!" Anakin roared. Obi-Wan stood in silence, stunned as he faced the seething, ruined remains of Anakin. "You were my brother, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, "I loved you." Anakin's clothes caught fire, and he screamed as he was suddenly engulfed in flames. For a moment, Obi-Wan hesitated. He's gone, Obi-Wan thought. Anakin is gone. Obi-Wan finally turned away. Anakin kept screaming.

Revenge of the Sith by Patricia C. Wrede (Junior Novel):

Anakin — no, Obi-Wan reminded himself, not Anakin. Darth Vader. Darth Vader scrabbled at the sand with his metal arm, trying to pull himself away from the lava river. Obi-Wan looked down on his maimed body, and at last felt tears sting his eyes. "You were the Chosen One," he said, not to Darth Vader, but to his dead friend Anakin, the man whose spirit Darth Vader had murdered. "You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them. You were supposed to bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness." He swallowed hard. He couldn't see the body through his tears; he could barely make out the shine of Anakin's lightsaber on the ground at his feet. "I hate you!" Vader screamed. As Obi-Wan bent and picked up Anakin's fallen lightsaber, Darth Vader slipped too close to the lava, and his clothes caught fire. In an instant, the flames engulfed him, and he screamed. Obi-Wan stared in horror, unable to make himself move. But as the flames began to die, he murmured his response to Darth Vader's final cry of anger and hate: "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you." The screams died, and the flames. Dashing tears from his eyes, Obi-Wan turned away — and saw the shuttle coming in to land. Whoever it was, Obi-Wan didn't want to meet him. He ran back to Padmé's skiff. C-3PO and R2-D2 had already taken Padmé on board, and he was glad. All he wanted now was to get away from this place. Later... later he might be able to think about what would come next.

Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover:

Anakin dropped his lightsaber, clawing at the edge of the cliff with his mechanical hand, but his grip was too powerful for the lava bank and it crumbled, and he slid down onto the black sand. His severed legs and his severed arm rolled into the lava below him and burned to ash in sudden bursts of scarlet flame. The same color, Obi-Wan observed distantly, as a Sith blade. Anakin scrabbled at the soft black sand, but struggling only made him slip farther. The sand itself was hot enough that digging his durasteel fingers into it burned off his glove, and his robes began to smolder. Obi-Wan picked up Anakin's lightsaber. He lifted his own as well, weighing both in his hands. Anakin had based his design upon Obi-Wan's. So similar they were. So differently they had been used. "Obi-Wan...?" He looked down. Flame licked at the fringes of Anakin's robe, and his long hair had blackened, and was beginning to char. "You were the chosen one! It was said you would destroy the Sith, not join them. It was you who would bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness. You were my brother, Anakin," said Obi-Wan Kenobi. "I loved you, but I could not save you." A flash of metal through the sky, and Obi-Wan felt the darkness closing in around them both. He knew that ship: the Chancellor's shuttle. Now, he supposed, the Emperor's shuttle. Yoda had failed. He might have died. He might have left Obi-Wan alone: the last Jedi. Below his feet, Darth Vader burst into flame. "I hate you," he screamed. Obi-Wan looked down. It would be a mercy to kill him. He was not feeling merciful. He was feeling calm, and clear, and he knew that to climb down to that black beach might cost him more time than he had. Another Sith Lord approached. In the end, there was only one choice. It was a choice he had made many years before, when he had passed his trials of Jedi Knighthood, and sworn himself to the Jedi forever. In the end, he was still Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he was still a Jedi, and he would not murder a helpless man. He would leave it up to the will of the Force. He turned and walked away. After a moment, he began to run. He began to run because he realized, if he was fast enough, there was one thing he still could do for Anakin. He still could do honor to the memory of the man he had loved, and to the vanished Order they both had served. At the landing deck, C-3PO stood on the skiff's landing ramp, waving frantically. "Master Kenobi! Please hurry!" "Where's Padmé?" "Already inside, sir, but she is badly hurt." Obi-Wan ran up the ramp to the skiff's cockpit and fired the engines. As the Chancellor's shuttle curved in toward the landing deck, the sleep mirror-finished skiff streaked for the stars. Obi-Wan never looked back.

None of these reflect any sort of active desire for revenge, but rather more a passive form of allowing the consequences of Vader's actions play out. He is unable to make himself move to act, and withdraws. To grant Vader mercy, to grant him death, is an action that he cannot take.

This is arguably very cruel, but it is in character for him in terms of letting go. His focus immediately pivots to escaping the Emperor and saving Padmé. Anakin is already dead to him, in a way. I think those that want him to be angry and revengeful are kind of projecting onto his character, rather than seeing him for who he really is.

I think Ewan's performance of this moment is telling. Does that look like a face of anger and revenge, or unimaginable grief?

He loves him, and he won’t kill him. He can’t. That’s my read on it.

[lordvaders]

EWAN MCGREGOR | Vanity Fair | 2024

[ewandaily]

ENDLESS EWAN McGREGOR (3/∞)

[adam-scott]

REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005)┃Bloopers & Gag Reel

[olyphant-tim]

EWAN MCGREGOR ph. by Harper Smith The Hollywood Reporter // 2021

[dilfgifs]

EWAN McGREGOR for Moto Guzzi V85 TT, 2019

[brendanfraserss]

EWAN MCGREGOR

Sasha Gusov 1994

[charliecale]

– DOCTOR SLEEP ( 2019 ), MIKE FLANAGAN.

[mancandykings]

EWAN MCGREGOR

Sasha Gusov 1994

[housewilson]

GET TO KNOW ME ☆ Favorite Films » Trainspotting (1996)

Personality, I mean that's what counts, right? That's what keeps a relationship going through the years. Like heroin, I mean heroin's got a great fucking personality.

[mcgregor]

Christian, I'm a courtesan, I'm paid to make men believe what they want to believe. MOULIN ROUGE (2001)

[lordvaders]

EWAN MCGREGOR on discarded draft for Obi-Wan Kenobi show.

Vanity Fair | 2024

[ewandaily]

ENDLESS EWAN McGREGOR (4/∞)

[adam-scott]

EWAN MCGREGOR & HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN @ MegaconOrlando | February 4, 2024 [x]

[soundsofmyuniverse]

Ewan McGregor as Oliver Fields in Beginners (2010) dir. Mike Mills

[dilfgifs]

EWAN McGREGOR Long Way Up, episode 11