Darth Vader and Obi-Wan's fight in A New Hope is one of Star Wars' most classic duels, but it almost never happened -- which would have changed a lot.
At first glance, Star Wars: A New Hope operated on a strict plot and character structure. Influenced by Joseph Campbell's Monomyth ideas, George Lucas made Luke Skywalker his warrior protagonist. Assisting Luke on his hero's journey, was Han Solo: the outlaw, Obi-Wan: the mentor and Leia: the damsel in distress. Opposing Luke was Darth Vader and the entire, evil Empire.
Contrary to that first impression, though, A New Hope actually subverted a lot of traditional expectations. Princess Leia was anything but a damsel in distress, and Han Solo switched from being an outlaw to an ally because of Luke's heroic influence. However, the most shocking subversion was how Obi-Wan sacrificed himself and left Luke without a mentor.
The thing is, Obi-Wan #5 (by Christopher Cantwell, Adriana Melo, Wayne Faucher, Dono Sánchez-Almara, VC's Joe Caramagna and Phil Noto) showed that the final duel between the two almost never happened.The Obi-Wan comic series is telling different stories from Obi-Wan's tragic life. Shortly before A New Hope, a terrible sandstorm started brewing, so the Jedi Master hunkered down and passed the time by making a journal. In Issue #1, Obi-Wan recounted the first time he tried a Jedi mind trick, and in Issue #2, he remembered killing Darth Maul before writing about a strange mission from his time as a padawan. Then, Issue #3 explained why Obi-Wan never joined the Rebellion, while Issue #4, referenced the Old Republic. Now, in Obi-Wan #5, the Jedi Master told a story called "Ben."
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