CT Escape is not his plan...

I think that Vader meant that escape was not Obi-Wan's immediate plan. Obi-Wan was planning to escape after facing Vader, but his immediate plan was to face Vader. That meant that Vader didn't have to stop Obi-Wan from escaping; he simply had to wait for Obi-Wan to come to him.

 

Given that Obi-Wan is possibly the most powerful known enemy to the Empire (and definitely to Vader), is it not possible that Vader might have thought Obi-Wan might take down the Death Star? He wouldn't have been totally wrong - Obi-Wan did sabotage the tractor beams and probably would have taken down the weaponry, for example, if he'd had the chance.

 

if you think about it , Vader probably figured obi-wan didn't just happen to be on the Death Star LOL. He probably figured he must be there for a confrontation or something big.

 

No really, I think this is accurate.

 

It's not that much of a coincidence really - the biggest enemy of the Empire has taken on the Empire's biggest weapon.

But Obi-Wan believes there's no such thing as luck/coincidence, and he probably taught that to Anakin. So yes, Anakin probably assumed (rightly) something of significance was going to happen.

 

BTW, whith my last post, this also means that the Stormtroopers were not bad shots. They were probably ordered not to kill the escapees but to drive them back to their ship where the homing beacon was waiting to track them.

 

I always thought the homing beacon was a last minute decision, given how agitated Tarkin is after they leave and that he doesn't mention it in his scene with Vader while the carriers of the plans are on board.

My interpretation is that there's probably a missing scene somewhere during the escape from the Death Star where the powers that be decide that it's getting difficult to catch them due to the stormtrooper costumes, and come up with a much better plan - the homing beacon. But Vader's job is still to take out Obi-Wan, as clearly there's no way they could pass up the opportunity to catch a criminal who'd been on the run for 19 years. Especially as Obi-Wan would probably never have given them another shot at it.

 

One possible interpretation is Vader's saying, "Escape is not his plan." It's possible Ben, unlike Luke at Jabba's palace, was basically following the idea of the Indy Ploy. He'll go to shut down the tractor beam and make up the rest as he goes along. If he can get past Vader and return to the Falcon, fine. If he has to face Vader, also fine. And if he has to die in order to keep Vader busy, OK.

In Jedi terms, Ben has left his fate in the hands of the Living Force, and wherever it leads, he'll follow, even into physical death. And Vader, knowing Ben from the old days, may be sensing this.

 

This. Stormtroopers are very dangerous in all parts of the Saga except for ROTJ. No excuse for that.