Order 66 started Star Wars‘ Dark Times by decimating the Jedi Order and plunging the galaxy into tyranny. While that was bad enough, Obi-Wan felt a personal responsibility for it all. Anakin Skywalker — his closest friend and ally — had betrayed everyone by pledging himself to the dark side and becoming Darth Vader. So, Obi-Wan went to Mustafar to kill his former apprentice as a way to atone for his mistakes. In the end, Obi-Wan did emerge victorious, but as he left Anakin to die, he left as a broken man.
Ten years later, he still hadn’t recovered from the trauma of Mustafar. As Obi-Wan Kenobi opened, he was living in exile and had clearly lost his faith in the Jedi way. That was proven when he refused to help Nari and when he was hesitant about rescuing Leia. Now, we all know that he eventually rekindles his hope in the galaxy and reestablishes himself as one of the greatest Jedi of all time. Yet, Obi-Wan has one, particularly bad habit that repeatedly causes problems — he’s a liar.
While calling Obi-Wan a liar might seem like a bit of a hot take, there’s a long history of the Jedi Master playing fast and loose with the truth. It all started in the very first Star Wars film — A New Hope. After Obi-Wan saved Luke from the Sand People, they went back to Obi-Wan’s house. Soon, they were talking about the Clone Wars and Jedi business. And it wasn’t long before Obi-Wan told Luke that his father had been a great Jedi and that Darth Vader had killed him.
That line of thought might be true “from a certain point of view,” but it definitely gave Luke the wrong interpretation of reality. Of course, the merits of giving Luke a limited dose of the truth could be debated, but the fact remains. Obi-Wan chose to lie to Luke about his father’s evil identity.
Now, in Obi-Wan Kenobi Part III, the Jedi Master is back at it again. While running from the Empire, he and Leia adopted fake identities. At one point, though, Obi-Wan messed up and accidentally called Leia by her real name. Some attentive Stormtroopers caught the error, so Obi-Wan had to think on his toes. Without missing a beat, he told the troopers that “Leia” was Leia’s mother’s name — saying that it had been a hard time since she passed.
At first glance, it was a brilliant cover story. There was a bit of truth in there (after all, it had been hard since Padmé died), but Obi-Wan didn’t stop there. After the Stormtroopers left, Leia asked if he really knew her mother. To that, Obi-Wan blatantly lied and said no. Granted, he hadn’t gotten over Padmé’s death, but refusing to tell Leia about her mother was too far. It probably would have helped to get his feelings in the open — especially to the intuitive Leia — but he refused. Instead, he bottled up his emotion, kept his secret and told yet another lie. In fact, with his propensity for not telling the truth, it’s a wonder that Obi-Wan is such a popular character.
To see if Obi-Wan ends up telling Leia about her mother, watch Obi-Wan Kenobi. New episodes stream every Wednesday on Disney+.