PT Did Anakin actually want to fight Obi-Wan

Do you think Anakin actually wanted to fight Obi-Wan or that deep down he truly did not want to kill his friend, but felt it necessary. Some of their lines prior to, and during the fight are questionable (the whole jedi are evil thing may be read as Anakin subconsciously trying to get Obi-Wan to turn him back with rhetoric) and during the novelization (giving Obi-Wan several chances to run away prior to the fight, and outright saying that he wishes he didn't have to kill him), then again, he also seemed to feel almost pure rage at Obi-Wan throughout the fight, so, what do you think?

 

he wanted him dead because he didn't agree with him which is the main problem the world has in real life.

 

I don't think that Anakin wanted to fight Obi-Wan or had intended to kill the latter . . . despite being angry over finding Obi-Wan aboard Padme's ship. He even told Obi-Wan to walk away. But when the latter refused to do so, the fight began.

 

"He doesn’t want to do it because its his duty. It's his destiny. Now he must confront his friend who wants to bring justice -just like him. So they both want to do the same thing. One is doing it out of strength and power and doing things he knows is wrong and the other one (Kenobi) is doing the inevitable things that he has to do but he really doesn’t want to have to do which is get rid of his friend."

--George Lucas, ROTS DVD Commentary.

So there is that. Anakin doesn't really want to do it until the end of the duel, just before his injury.

 

he looked pretty pissed before that.

 

I can't really pick one - going by the movie alone? Movie and novel?

At some level, by that time, Anakin was certainly willing to kill Obi-Wan, but he took his time before getting serious about doing so.

 

No, I don't think he wanted to fight him at all, really. I think he wanted to have things his way, and he wanted Obi-Wan to just stay out of the way.

Of course, Obi-Wan cannot allow it, and forces Anakin to choose. Anakin made his choice.

In other words, Anakin was trying to have his cake and eat it, too. No, you can't betray and help destroy the entire Jedi Order, along with replacing the Republic with an Empire....and not get into a fight with your friend Obi-Wan over it.

Anakin was hoping he could avoid the fight, however. It was a foolish hope.

 

i picked number 3. it's kind of hard to tell really. That smile he has when Padme tells him Obi-Wan wants to help them kind of tells me he's happy to hear it and ashamed inside at the same time. i get the impression if Kenobi hadn't told him 'i will do what i must' he would have let him go.

 

I picked number 3 as well. That scene where Padme asks him about Obi-Wan and Anakin says that they can only hope Obi-Wan has remained loyal to the Chancellor. I get the feeling from that scene that Anakin wants to believe Obi-Wan will be on his side side even though he knows deep down that Obi-Wan won't be.

The bit on Mustafar where Anakin says "If you're not with me, you're against me" seems to suggest to me that Anakin was still entertaining hopes of Obi-Wan siding with the Empire and only at that moment finally realises that this will never happen.

 

I think Anakian didn't care. Obi-Wan was opposing him so he felt justified in attempting to murder him.

 

I think that he was too far gone to care.

 

Obi-Wan was like a father to Anakin though. I refuse to believe that just a few hours as a Sith Lord could wipe away all feelings he had for this father figure. Sure enough, Anakin does try hard to kill Obi-Wan but I really do get the impression that he wants to avoid the fight.

 

i think some people need to watch the duel again. there's punching, kicking, choking and full on rage. anakin was in full-on kill mode.

edit: oh and he had just finished force choking his pregnant wife!

 

Hypothetical. A random stranger attacks me and engages in a fight I do not desire, but it's a fight to death. I punch, I kick. After receiving several blows, the pain sends me into a rage. The fight moves to the ground, and because I know that this person will kill me, I choke this person in an attempt to kill them first.

There's a fight I did not want, but there's punching, kicking, choking and full on rage. In the end, to save my own life, I was in full-on kill mode.

Please do not bother pointing out the differences between this hypothetical and the duel on Mustafar, it would be an exasperatingly foolish response. The point is just to show that one can not want to fight, but fight to the death, anyway.

Personally, I meant that Anakin did not want the fight, would prefer Obi-Wan just stay out of his way, but once the fight began he was fully willing to kill Obi-Wan.

Not wanting to fight someone who isn't fighting you and fighting someone who is intent on killing you are not mutually exclusive.

 

Anakin specifically tries to warn Obi-Wan away. "Don't make me kill you." This is even after he thinks Obi-Wan came there with Padme to kill him.

Anakin was angry at Obi-Wan and in the end it didn't take much to set him off, but there was definitely a big part of him that didn't want to kill his best friend.

 

Anakin's biggest problem was with attachments. Next to Padme, Obi-Wan was the closest thing he had to family, and thus, he cared for him. I think by the end of ROTS, Anakin was hoping that Obi-Wan would just stay away and not interfere. He didn't want to be put in a position where he had to confront him. So no, he didn't really want to kill him, but when he realized Obi-Wan wasn't going to simply leave him be, the only thing he could do was fight back. By the end of the duel, if he could've killed Obi-Wan, he would've.

 

I have to agree with @CT-867-5309 . There was no way Anakin was getting out of a fight with Obi-Wan. That he would've seriously entertained the notion that Obi-Wan, a staunch defender of the Republic, would walk away from him after everything Anakin had done is the epitome of stupidity. He may not have wanted to fight Obi-Wan, but seriously?

 

Obi-Wan says "I will do what I must" activates his Saber and assumes some sort of fighting posture.

Then Anakin says "You will try" activates his Saber, blackflips towards Obi-Wan and the duel begins.

So it's actually rather difficult to say who started the duel.

 

The one who attacks first starts the duel - that means Anakin.

 

But he didn't actually attack until Obi-Wan assumed a fighting stance, I know he began the duel, but that seems to indicate he was avoiding it.

 

Exactly. Obi-Wan, by activating his lightsaber and by saying "I will do what I must" could just as easily be seen as the person who starts the duel.

 

I never said Anakin wanted to fight, but Obi-Wan's actions made him realise what he already knew deep down: that Obi-Wan would not stand by and allow him to continue down the path of destruction he had chosen.

On Mustafar, Obi-Wan's situation is equal to that of a policeman arresting an armed and dangerous criminal. We know that in such situation the policeman (for good reason) is quick to draw his weapon and point it at the criminal - not to kill, but to let the criminal know that he will not be allowed to walk free, that surrender is the only acceptable action, and that if he shows sign of agression, the policeman is prepared to use his weapon. So in that situation, would you blame the policeman if the criminal responds by shooting, and the arrest ends in a gunfight?

Anakin knew why Obi-Wan was there, and he also knew that Obi-Wan, being a Jedi, wouldn’t attack if he surrendered. Anakin problem was that he was so drunk on power that he actually believed that what he was doing was right and therefore had no intention of surrendering.

 

Basically what everyone else is saying–he didn't want to kill him, not inside, but he was willing to if he had to. Almost the same as Obi-Wan–neither one wanted to kill his friend but they were both willing to do it if they had to. But by the end of the fight, Anakin really did want to kill him–probably from the point Obi-Wan said "Well, then you are lost!" It probably made him mad that Obi-Wan no longer had faith in him, and he was fully willing to kill him for it. By the time they were on the bank where Obi-Wan jumped off, he wanted to kill him. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, never stopped wanting to spare Anakin–he couldn't even finish him off to put him out of his misery.