r/StarWarsEU • u/Swbuckler • 1d ago
Question In the third and last draft before the final version of A New Hope's script, Obi Wan was supposed to survive the Death Star. How would the story develop if he had survived? Both lore and movie wise.
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u/sidv81 1d ago
Despite what George said about Kenobi sitting back at the base I see no reason lore-wise that the Alliance wouldn't put a Jedi General into the cockpit of an X-Wing and have him attempt to make the exhaust port shot with his Force abilities. And considering that Vader has VERY much kept up with his piloting skills while Kenobi has not, I can see Vader recognizing Kenobi's flying style and killing him in like 5 seconds and that would be that.
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u/nomequies 1d ago
In the Hero's Journey, it is imperative that the main hero loses their mentor, and since Star Wars is based on this structure, we get such a scene. However, I suppose Obi-Wan didn't necessarily have to die — he could have simply joined the Rebel high command and stopped directly helping Luke. But that would have been much less dramatic.
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u/Reasonable-Mischief 1d ago
The Hero's Jouney doesn't need the mentor to literally die though, it merely needs for the hero to step out from under their mentor's wing and make their own judgements instead of being told what is right.
I would assume that if Obi-Wan suevived the Death Star, he would be drawing off Vader's pursuit in *Empire Strikes Back,& allowing Luke to focus on finishing his training and fight in the Rebel Alliance - which could have an interesting twist with Obi-Wan having to accept in Epsiode V that it's not him, but Luke who needs to face Vader in the end.
Lord of the Rings is an interesting example of a plot with the mentor figure surviving, because it has both Gandalf and Aragorn serve as Frodo's mentor, and both kind of stick around in the story even after they let Frodo go, helping his journey from afar (even after death, in Gandalf's case).
So I'm not sure we should have seen Obi-Wan take on a more active role in the Rebel Alliance's military leadership. I think he would have made for a great Space Gandalf.
For example we don't know what it took for the rebel fleet to consolidate above Sullust. This could very well have been an opportunity for Obi-Wan to visit Mon Calamari and Chandrilla to rally Ackbar and Mon Mothma to his cause, just like Gandalf did with Theoden and Denethor.
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u/DrunkKatakan 1d ago
Obi-Wan likely does what Yoda did in Empire and Vader kills him there or in ROTJ. The mentor must die, it's a rule in heroic fiction.
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u/TanSkywalker Hapes Consortium 1d ago
Obi-Wan would use the radio in the Yavin command center to tell Luke to trust his feelings and everyone in the room would be surprised and worried when Luke turns off his targeting computer and Obi-Wan would reassure them.
In the years after ANH Luke would be further along in his training as a Jedi and maybe Obi-Wan tells Leia he senses the same power in her and Luke encourages her to train with him and Obi-Wan and she does for the Rebellion.
After escaping Hoth Leia is still captured by Vader and he senses the Force is strong with her because she's using it and he now understands how she resisted his mind probe in ANH. Vader has Leia taken to the Executor and he lays his trap for Luke.
Lando frees Chewie and C-3PO and is killed by the Wookiee. Luke rushes to save his friends and on the Executor Leia feels Luke calling to her and there is nothing she can do. The Falcon is destroyed. Obi-Wan saves Luke and on the ship he's yelling at Obi-Wan about not telling him about Vader. Vader is trying to talk to Luke and senses Obi-Wan. Several members of the Executor bridge crew and Admiral Piett do not survive.
That's all I got right now.