The following contains spoilers from Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 1, now streaming on Disney+.
Ever since Darth Vader’s strode onto Leia’s ship in A New Hope, he’s been an iconic villain. His booming voice, Force choke and intimidating mask left quite the impression. However, some Star Wars fans don’t realize that Darth Vader was at his weakest in the original trilogy. He might have been the big, bad villain, but as soon as he found out that Luke was his son, Vader started to go just a little soft. That came to a head in Return of the Jedi, when Luke was able to redeem his father and bring him back to the light side of the Force.
Naturally, that’s why fans were so excited for Darth Vader’s hallway scene in Rogue One. Likewise, Obi-Wan Kenobi put the Dark Lord’s brutality on full display. In Part III, he snapped a kid’s neck and destroyed Obi-Wan in a table-turning lightsaber duel. Then, in Part V, he ripped what he thought was Obi-Wan’s ship from the sky. Clearly, most of Vader’s interactions with his former master were impressive. However, one crucial part of Reva’s storyline made Vader look weak.
Reva’s storyline wasn’t as secretive as the series implied. From the very first episode, most fans predicted that she was one of the younglings in the Order 66 scene. Yet, most fans didn’t expect that Reva had survived a lightsaber wound from Darth Vader himself. In fact, after escaping the Jedi Temple, she dedicated herself to becoming more powerful so that she could kill Vader and avenge the younglings that he had killed.
Unfortunately, all that fell apart in Part V, when Reva failed at her life’s mission. She made her move, but Vader quickly proved that she wasn’t nearly strong enough to defeat him. Then, when Vader finished toying with her, he plunged her own lightsaber into her gut and left her for dead, (without killing her) again. Before leaving, though, the Grand Inquisitor showed up. Together, he and Vader made it clear that they knew of Reva’s identity and treachery all along. The thing is, that was totally contrary to Vader’s established character.
For starters, Vader wouldn’t have let Reva live as a youngling. He fought in the Clone Wars; he knew how to kill someone, and he knew how to tell when someone was dead. So, it was pretty unlikely that Reva would have survived in the first place, but it was even more unlikely that Vader didn’t finish the job later. Because she survived Order 66, Reva knew that Vader was Anakin — and normally, Vader killed anyone who knew his secret identity.
Most notably, he killed Jedi Master Jocasta Nu and an entire squad of Clones in Star Wars: Darth Vader (2017) #10, just for learning that he was Anakin. Palpatine had commanded Vader to bring her in alive, but that didn’t matter because Vader had to protect his secret. So, when Master Nu told the clones who he was, he proceeded to kill all of them. Then, he told Palpatine that Master Nu had died in an escape attempt.
For some reason, though, Vader let Reva grow up inside the Empire. He knew that she knew that he was Anakin, but still, Vader did nothing. Playing the long game and egging Reva along might seem like a very Sith thing to do, but it wasn’t a very Darth Vader thing to do. Normally Vader is a blunt force instrument, so him waiting to punish Reva for her insolence made him look weak and nonchalant. All in all, Vader’s portrayal in Obi-Wan Kenobi was spot on, but it would have been much better if Reva hadn’t known his secret identity and lived to tell about it.
To see Vader and Reva’s interactions, watch Obi-Wan Kenobi. All 6 episodes are streaming now on Disney+