"If you choose to face Vader, you will do it alone. I cannot interfere." Why not?

Vader: I am your father.

Luke: Ben?

Obi Wan: Blast it! This is why I hate lying!

 

As far as I am concerned this is an easy one:

The OT is a retelling of the classic "hero story". Some charactersitics of this plot are:

The hero has some sort of mentor- In this case Obi-Wan in spirit and physical forms. Yoda is another mentor.

The hero has some sort of 'talisman' or 'amulet' - ie, Anakin's lightsaber.

The hero has to descend into some wort of underworld and experience a physical or spiritual rebirth- Luke gets his hand cut off and has it replaced, and he discovers a truth that rattles the very fiber of his being- He is the son of Darth Vader. Luke is essentially reborn by this fact.

The hero is changed by this experience- that's easy to see. He's not a wide-eyed farmboy in RotJ.

Probably the biggest one: THE HERO MUST FACE HIS ULTIMATE CHALLENGE ALONE. In ESB, the challenge was Vader. Luke has to face his father on his own because he is the hero and is, therefore, the only one who can. By the very nature of this kind of story, Obi-Wan CANNOT help Luke when he faces Vader- it would interfere with Luke's 'rebirth', as it were.

For an interesting read, check out "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell. It's all about the classic hero myth.

 

I always saw it as; Luke is in the middle of his training. If Obi-Wan was there, for moral support as I saw it, he would be giving Luke a crutch, that would leave him high and dry if in the future he ever was cut off from the force.

But of course, it was probably just more dramatic if it was a man to man confrontation, as opposed to a man to man with voices in his head.

 

It was Lukes choice and he had to deal with the consequences. Obi-wan couldnt be there to save him all the time. To be a true Jedi Luke had to face possible death.

 

Uppity!

 

what???to be a true jedi luke had to face possible death?..he faced that anyways when he wasnt a jedi..on the farm with the sandpeople around all the time..

i just think obi-wan was making him be on his own..besides obi-wan was dead..how much help could he be..his advice wouldn't be much help..he could hardly remember his own name 20 years before.

 

I always just thought it was part of some ethic jedi code....Once you "pass away", you can't get involved in real life affairs. You can guide, and suggest things. But you can't interfere.

 

I think he could have interfered. Since both Darth Vader and Palps were force sensitives, they would have been able to hear and see Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan could have freaked them both out at the right opertune time, allowing Luke to kill the Emporer.