This article contains spoilers for the first two parts of Obi-Wan Kenobi, now streaming on Disney+.
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith is an iconic film on multiple levels. Not only is it the prequel film that directly sets up the premise for Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, but it’s also the film that depicts the fall of the Jedi and the births of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. It’s also the film that sees Anakin Skywalker descend into his more iconic identity as Darth Vader.
While Vader is a fearsome villain in the original Star Wars trilogy, he somehow manages to be far less redeemable when he’s still a fully able-bodied Anakin. Upon being knighted Darth Vader by Chancellor Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious, Anakin was given two tasks: murder all the Jedi at the Jedi Temple to catch them off guard, then murder Viceroy Gunray as part of Order 66. While no one expected Anakin to harbor any sympathy for Gunray given his involvement in the assassination plot against Senator Padmé Amidala, his actions against the Jedi were nothing short of shocking.
Prior to becoming Darth Vader, Anakin had two defining core traits: fierce loyalty to the most important people in his life and brutal justice whenever a loved one was harmed. In combination, these two traits made Anakin impulsive and highly unpredictable, which made the Jedi Council highly distrustful of him, even from the time he was a child. Despite Anakin not having a strong relationship with the Jedi, he was still loyal to them and protected their interests with his life. This was also true of his relationship with Obi-Wan Kenobi, whom he respected as a father figure, then later as a brother, even if he didn’t always get along with him.
Given what Anakin had already sacrificed for the Jedi prior to his fall to the dark side, it’s hard to believe Anakin would suddenly turn on the people he considered his closest friends. However, this isn’t even the most shocking thing Anakin does that catches viewers off guard. As part of executing Order 66, in one of the most infamous scenes from Revenge of the Sith, Anakin as Darth Vader murders all the younglings hiding inside the Jedi Temple. For a lot of audience members, this was the point of no return for Anakin, and the scene is also remembered for Obi-Wan’s now iconic phrase, “not even the younglings survived.”
Anakin’s brutal murder of the younglings was sickening to viewers for two reasons. First, it established how low Anakin was willing to fall to achieve his own ambitions, even his wife Padmé was horrified by his actions. Secondly, it established that Anakin is not beyond exploiting the trust of innocent kids as a means to an end, which is partly how he was able to kill all the younglings in the temple. He was not just a mentor to the younglings as he was highly admired by them for his skill, including by his own Padawan, Ahsoka Tano.
For the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, showrunner Joby Harold and director Deborah Chow appear to have taken viewers’ reactions to Anakin’s horrific actions to heart. Almost as if needing to issue a response to the younglings murder scene in the original film, Harold and Chow reconceptualized the events of Order 66 in a way that’s meant to give audience members some form of catharsis. While Anakin was murdering the younglings in one Jedi Temple (not visible in Obi-Wan Kenobi), in another temple somewhere across the galaxy, the younglings manage to escape with their lives.
While the new scene is not designed to redeem Anakin for his actions, it does, however, successfully present an alternative version of the attack that doesn’t leave audience members feeling grossed out. In the Obi-Wan Kenobi version, the younglings are being trained by a mentor around the same age as Anakin. When the Storm Troopers unleash their assault, the mentor is immediately seen defending her students by attacking them first and leading the younglings to safety. While the mentor doesn’t survive, the younglings do thanks to their mentor’s successful defeat of the Storm Troopers. These younglings presumably later become rebels in the years that follow.
New episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi air every Wednesday on Disney+.
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