Star Wars’ Darth Vader, or Anakin Skywalker, is nothing if not iconic. Most people would be able to identify his silhouette, regardless of whether they’re a Star Wars fan. Some may even be able to do an impression of his voice, even if they’ve never seen a movie he’s been featured in. Despite how iconic Vader is, he’s always positioned as “the dragon,” a trope wherein a central antagonist is actually subordinate to someone else. In Vader’s case, he takes orders from the Emperor or Darth Sidious. Even in the original Star Wars movie (known as A New Hope), he is depicted as being inferior in rank to Grand Moff Tarkin.

However, with news about the new Obi-Wan Kenobi show coming to light, fans are speculating about the conflict of the series. Specifically, fans want to know who the main antagonist will be. With the relatively recent news that Hayden Christensen will be reprising his role as Darth Vader, fans are optimistic it will be him. However, having Darth Vader as the central antagonist of the Kenobi show may not be a good idea. While Vader can and should be a character within the show, the main antagonist should be someone new.

Kenobi and Vader Should Not Meet Before A New Hope

A lot of prequels suffer from at least some continuity errors. After all, it is a lot to keep track of, and often, what makes for a better story doesn’t align with what continuity demands of a prequel. Star Wars is certainly no exception to this. Eagle-eyed viewers may have picked up on some minor inconsistencies between the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy. For example, in Return of the Jedi, Leia mentions remembering her mother’s face. However, in Revenge of the Sith, we see her mother, Padme Amidala, die seconds after giving birth to Luke and Leia. But these inconsistencies are negligible. The plot isn’t severely impacted by whether Leia remembered Padme.


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Conversely, if Vader and Kenobi interact extensively in Obi-Wan Kenobi, it would create a significant continuity error that fans wouldn’t be able to just brush off. When Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi encounter each other onboard the first Death Star in A New Hope, Vader states: “When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master.” At first glance, this might not necessarily indicate they haven’t met since Anakin’s betrayal. Vader seems to be saying that he has become stronger than he was when he fought Obi-Wan on Mustafar. However, one must remember that Obi-Wan has been in hiding on Tattooine since the ending of Revenge of the Sith and that Vader wanted him dead.

It would make no sense for Kenobi to emerge from his exile at any point since he would have been bound to alert the empire (or, at the very least, he would be running that risk). Also, from a narrative standpoint, having him break his exile would diminish the emotional weight that his exile played in the story. It would not be healthy for the overall Star Wars story if Vader were the main antagonist of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

A New Villain Would Allow for the Inclusion of More Memorable Characters

For all the criticisms that are often levied against the Star Wars films, costume and character designs are not among them. Even in the universally mocked prequel trilogy, iconic and fan-favorite characters such as General Grievous and Darth Maul emerged. And in the much more controversial sequel trilogy, characters like Kylo Ren saw their fair share of marketing exposure. However, what makes these characters great is not necessarily their design (although that definitely helps) but their unique personalities.

The Droids from the prequels were goofy and dumb in a cute and naive sort of way with their high-pitched voices and the way they were bullied by their commanding officers. The First Order in the sequel trilogy is a far more passionate and Nazi-like (in the way it’s presented to the audience) than the preceding Empire. In essence, there is no shortage of unique personalities and motives as well as character designs that Star Wars can still employ.

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So, by not having Darth Vader return as the main antagonist in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, there are more opportunities for Star Wars to flex its creative muscles and introduce a new villain. Iconic characters are a key reason why Star Wars remains so beloved despite most of the franchise’s films being so controversial. And even though the subjective quality of each film and each era of the Star Wars universe, there have always been iconic original characters, and the Obi-Wan Kenobi series should be no exception to this.

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