Characterization

The character I chose to review is Obi-Wan Kenobi, focusing on his character in Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. In this film, Kenobi appears wearing both his dark brown jedi robes or his tan tunic with brown pants, and his glorious blue lightsaber. It is apparent there is an air of respect that he commands from those around him, as he has become a jedi master, a man dedicated to preserving peace and prosperity among the people. He is trying his very hardest to help his apprentice Anakin stay away from the lull of the dark side, but has difficulty doing so. In the final scenes of the film, Obi Wan is forced to fight his former apprentice Anakin, who has turned to the dark side and slaughtered a large number of jedi and jedi in training. During this battle, Obi Wan shows deep moral and emotional conflict as he is deeply saddened by his apprentices choice to move to the dark side, and still believes he can try to save him, even though this is against the jedi way. His internal conflict is whether or not to kill Anakin, and he struggles with this decision through the entire fight, and the obvious external conflict is the battle itself and saving himself. Obi Wan cuts down his apprentice and leaves him near the lava to die. Before leaving, he proclaims that he loved Anakin, but this was the way things had to be, Anakin had to pay for his actions. After leaving, we see Obi Wan shed a tear for Anakin, demonstrating his continued compassion for the apprentice, someone he considered to be his brother. His flaw is his compassion, but it is a flaw only in the sense that it is holding him back from pushing past the emotional and physical blockade of Anakin, and killing Anakin. He has to overcome this challenge, as the deciding blow in the battle was struck by Obi Wan, but if he did not strike this blow as Anakin was jumping at him, Obi Wan himself would have been slain.