CT Obi-Wan Kenobi's mission to Alderaan

If Obi-Wan had known that Princess Leia was on the DeathStar, would he have abandoned his mission to take the tractor beam out of commission and avoided facing Vader? Or would he have sent Luke and Han to take the tractor beam down, and go face Vader and leave the rescuing of the princess to Luke and Han? None of them could have known that Alderaan would have been blown up, but only a short time after Obi-Wan tells Luke and Han that he must go alone, Luke discovers that Leia is on board the Death Star.

 

I'm guessing that the cell block and the tractor beam were nowhere near each other. It would have changed nothing. Obi-Wan would not have been able to rescue the Princess and confront Vader.

 

Obi wanted to make sure Luke escaped the DS, since he represented the future, so Obi went to disable the tractor beam while Luke was suppossed to stay close to the Falcon in the observation tower Obi left Luke and Han in. Obviously, Luke had other ideas after discovering the princess was still alive.

In addition, the best way to disable the tractor beam would be through stealth and sneaking around and we all know that's not exactly Han's strong suit.

Also, I believe Obi never planned on returning to the Falcon to escape but rather wanted to confront Vader.

 

I dont believe he wanted and planned to confront Vader. He wasnt looking for him, he got surprised by him and perhaps knew that he cant win. Thats why Luke was the last hope - to resurrect Jedis and defeat Vader and the Emperor. Obi Wan just wanted to deactivate the beam and return to the control room and split with the others and then continue Luke's training. If he had known that Leia is held captive and about to get killed he would definitely try to rescue her

 

If Obi-Wan tried to rescue her, he would have failed. Luke and Han would have escaped but the thing is that Vader knew where Obi-Wan was, he could sense his presence. Vader would have defeated Obi-Wan and recaptured Leia. Also, I think that Obi-Wan knew Leia was on the Death Star. I can't really explain why, but I think he did.

 

Im sure he wouldnt leave her there. No way would he just ignore her and take off. He would try to sneak in and rescue her, even if it meant sacrificing his own life. THATS more like Obi Wan, rather than just leaving daughter of Padme, young girl and one of 2 last hopes for saving universe for execution just so he would take a risk. He alone was able to sneak up through a heavily populated Death Star, reach its tractor beam core and deactivate it. He sure would try to free Leia as well, whatever means necessary

 

No doubt there. However, had he been the one to rescue Leia and had Luke and Han deactivate the tractor beam, then he would've still been killed by Vader and Leia would have been reecaptured, thus rendering the rescue useless. It's better to have Luke and Han rescue her because Vader wouldn't confront them since he doesn't know them. And I think he knew she was there and didn't tell Luke or Han because Luke would have insisted that Obi-Wan come with and the whole plan could have seriously failed.

 

I agree. I think he sensed Vader was near, but he was trying to avoid him. Only when Vader cut his entrance off to the hangar where the Falcon was, did he realize he had to face him.

If he knew Leia was there, yes I'm sure he'd have done something...or at least tried to. Their WHOLE plan may have been quite different, if that was the case.

 

Obi-Wan would have definitely done something since he and Luke left Tattoine on Leia's behalf. But even if he knew Leia was on the Death Star before he told Han and Luke that he had to go alone to undo the tractor beam, he would have instructed Luke and Han to rescue the Princess and if it came down to it, depart the Death Star without him with her on board the Falcon.

 

If Obi-wan knew that Leia was onboard - the plan would have been the same - it worked afterall

And I think the chances are he did know the basics facts he knew:

Leia was on her way to Alderaan, but captured
In Alderaans orbit is a Imperial Battle Station... and no Alderaan

It wouldn;t take much guesses to work out where she was

Obi-Wan knew he wasn;t coming off the Death Star Alive, so there is a good chance he knew Leia was there too

 

I think we need to consider that Obi-Wan had been cultivating a new awareness of the Force through Qui-Gon Jinn's tutelage during his Tatooine exile. Once Luke shows up with two droids that Kenobi can hardly fail to recognize given the context, and once Obi-Wan sees Leia's message, he knows that great matters are afoot.

His admonishment to Han and Luke to stay where they were reminds me of Qui-Gon's admonishment to Anakin, "Stay in that cockpit!" I think he knew then that he would not be returning ("Your destiny lies upon a different path") and also that while he undertook his own mission to disable the tractor beam, Luke and Han would discover the princess on board and would stand a better chance of rescuing her if he, Ben, were able to distract Vader.

Ben had spent twenty years learning how to die. He knew the proper time when he approached it. I think as soon as Leia's message had been played, he knew his last adventure had arrived. He trusted in the Force to lead events where it would. I think the plan we see on the Death Star was made with the strong suspicion, if not certain knowledge, that Leia was Vader's prisoner, and that his job was to divert Vader's attention long enough for the twins to meet and to escape.

 

This.

 

This indeed... well said.

 

Old Ben wouldn't have changed a thing even if he knew Leia was on board the Death Star. The force was guiding him, and he would have let it guide him no matter what.

 

Unless my memory failed me, they split up shortly after discerning where the Princess was. Obi-Wan's role was to shut off the tractor beam and of course didn't bother mentioning that an all powerful, all asthmatic Dark Lord of the Sith was stalking the corridors of the Death Star. He knows that Luke will succeed in rescuing the Princess but he'll need Obi-Wan to shut off the tractor so the escape part is done.

 

Obi-Wan's role is to shut off the tractor beam (and presumably, face Vader), but he leaves to do that before they find out Leia is there...

Luke: The droids belong to her. She's the one in the message. We've got to help her.
Han: Now look, don't get any funny ideas. The old man wants us to wait right here.
Luke: But he didn't know she was here.

 

Well, to branch off abit, does anyone else think Leia's message strongly implies Bail wanted Obi-Wan to assume a leadership role of the Rebellion's military?

Leia addresses him as "General Kenobi", not "Master Kenobi" or "Jedi Kenobi"; the first part of the message is recalling how Obi-Wan served Bail (and the Republic) during the Clone Wars, and then implores him to deliver R2 to the Rebellion (which wasn't originally part of the game plan; Leia was going to Tattooine to meet him) anyone else think this suggests what I think it does?

 

Yep.

In fact, that was clearly what was intended - Obi-Wan was meant to survive the Death Star & be involved in the Rebel attack from Yavin. This wasn't a hangover from an earlier draft, it was changed mid-shoot. In the original shooting script, he was there on Yavin, helping direct the assault.

When the scenes on Tatooine were shot with Obi-Wan receiving the message, it was still the case that he would be alive at the end of the film.

 

Hah, cool. Don't suppose the original shooting script is floating around online anywhere?

 

Yeah, in fact, Alec Guiness was pissed that Lucas decided to kill off his character when that hadn't been in the cards when he signed on. Lucas supposedly said that he just couldn't have Obi-Wan sitting around with nothing to do for the last half hour of the movie.

 

Yeah, I've heard about that; but "standing there for half an hour with nothing to do" really doesn't describe the role of being the Rebel leader for the frickin Battle Of Yavin....

 

I thought it was Guinness' idea to kill off the Kenobi character in the first place. Lucas said he had planned for him to be in the Yoda role.

 

No, killing off Obi-Wan was Lucas' idea.

 

But that's pretty much all Leia did during the last half hour of the movie.

 

This is the 'shooting script', but it still has Ben being killed by Vader, which includes revisions made during the shoot, as opposed to what existed on Day 1 of shooting (changes occur on any shoot, you get given new pages, often different colours, & swap them with the existing ones):

http://starwarz.com/starkiller/2010/03/star-wars-the-adventures-of-luke-starkiller-revised-fourth-draft/

However, this is basically what they went into pre-production with:

http://starwarz.com/starkiller/2010/03/star-wars-the-adventures-of-luke-starkiller-as-taken-from-the-journal-of-the-whills/

This includes a number of scenes which never made it to shooting stage. The most notable I can think of is the Docking Bay 94 scene, in which Han has to deal with an officer called Montross, not Jabba The Hutt. The role of Montross was actually cast. Ben Kenobi is still alive at the end.

I don't know if there's a version of the original Revised Fourth Draft (shooting script) around.