Editor's Note: The following article contains spoilers up to Episode 5 of Obi-Wan Kenobi.It is easy to look at the noble Jedi and think that they are the embodiment of what good looks like especially when compared to the Sith and their violent methods. That is why it is all the more impactful when Jedi Masters, like Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and even Yoda fail, because it shows us, the audience, that even the greatest heroes in the galaxy can have moments of defeat. We got to see this form of character progression through Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) during the sequel trilogy, and we are seeing it now again through Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) in the latest Disney+ series. These two Jedi, both masters of the light side in their own times, have strikingly parallel experiences with failures, and more importantly, how they overcame their failures.
Looking at the journey of Luke Skywalker first, he was destined for greatness from the moment he was born. The original trilogy sought to show us how strong a Jedi could be not from their years of training, but rather from their ability to be pure of heart. Luke Skywalker was projected to be a force of good that was so strong he even turned Darth Vader, one of the strongest Sith ever to live, back from the dark side. The original trilogy showed Luke as a true hero who always knew right from wrong, and it wasn’t until the sequel trilogy was released that we got to see what happened when such a grand hero falls from the graces of good.
When audiences saw Luke Skywalker, savior of the galaxy, in the sequel trilogy, it felt very different from when he was last seen on the big screen. Luke, now much older, was cynical and jaded. Something in his life had made him feel so disappointed that he even cut himself off from the Force, the energy that all Jedi and Sith are known to have connections with. He initially refused to train Rey (Daisy Ridley) and seemed to be set in the mentality that the days of the Jedi were truly over. He had accepted defeat and was content to live a solitary life under the mentality that the Jedi had lost. Later it is revealed that Luke’s downfall came when he sensed great darkness in his nephew, Ben Solo (Adam Driver), and for a split moment, he thought about taking the young Jedi-in-training’s life. That split moment of weakness and the look of fear in his own nephew’s eyes is what caused Luke to withdraw from the world and from the Force. After the reveal, Luke attempted to burn the tree holding the last sacred texts of the Jedi Order, but his eyes were opened with the help of Yoda in his Force ghost.
Yoda imparted great wisdom upon Luke, stating that he must teach Rey: “Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery…but weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is.” Yoda himself knows this lesson well, as it was his failure to recognize the evil within Palpatine that caused the fall of the Jedi Order in the prequels, and he also initially refused to train Luke in the original trilogy until persuaded otherwise by Obi-Wan Kenobi’s spirit. From Obi-Wan to Yoda to Luke, all three Jedi masters at one point struggled to accept and overcome their own failures. Luke went on to help Rey against the First Order, becoming so in touch with the Force again that he could project himself on a faraway planet with such detail that nobody even knew it wasn’t real.
As mentioned previously, Obi-Wan Kenobi is going through a similar arc within the new series, named after the Jedi Master. Like Luke Skywalker in the sequel trilogy, we first see Obi-Wan as he remains hidden on Tatooine, silently watching over Luke during his childhood until the day comes that he must be trained. When he receives news that Luke’s secret sister, Leia, has been kidnapped by some unknown threat, he initially refuses to help. He explains that the Jedi Order has failed and that he is no longer the man that he once was back before the rise of the Empire. As he sees it, he is now just an old man hiding for his life. It isn’t until Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) goes to see Obi-Wan personally that he agrees to go after the young princess of Alderaan.
Throughout the second and third episodes of the series, we see Obi-Wan struggle to use the Force and to even trust anyone. Unlike his former time as a general for the Republic during the Clone Wars, he is reserved and does not speak much. He, who was once a man known for his abilities to negotiate out of battles, is now staying silent while the world echoes around him. He even remained almost entirely speechless upon witnessing Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen/James Earl Jones), his former apprentice, for the first time. The only thing his mouth is able to speak is four words: “What have you become?” This is the moment where Obi-Wan is faced with his greatest failure: the loss of his apprentice to the dark side.
It is only from the stubbornness of Leia and her belief that there are those willing to help that he is eventually able to start slowly opening up more. In Episode 4, we got to see Obi-Wan become more in touch with the Force, holding off the immense pressure of water against a cracked glass dome just long enough to secure the safety of his allies before unleashing the torrent onto the stormtroopers attacking them. In the latest episode, Obi-Wan even goes against the advice of others when Leia offers to help the group escape from the approach of the Empire, trusting her and allowing her to help fix the doors to their freedom. While this may seem like a small detail, it is actually a huge moment for the man who otherwise didn’t trust anyone else to do anything for the longest time. It was also Leia’s convincing that allowed Obi-Wan to find the rebel help in the first place back when she convinced him to trust Haja (Kumail Nanjiani) even after he was revealed to have been swindling people out of credits, admittedly still ferrying them to safety.
While there is still more to come from the new Disney+ series, it is clear that this is the story about Obi-Wan Kenobi and his journey to overcome his greatest failure. Whatever may happen, we know that he goes on to be the wise Ben Kenobi that teaches Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy, and he faces Darth Vader with no fear left in his heart for the one he let down the most. Obi-Wan learned from his failures, and he then helped Yoda overcome his failures, which lead to Luke eventually overcoming his. It is worth re-stating that in the case of these three Jedi Masters, failure is the strongest teacher they have.