Why did Obiwan think he could beat Anakin?

In various threads I've been discussing the Anakin/Obiwan duel and how much the decked was stacked against Obiwan heading to Mustafar. I got to thinking, why, exactly, did Obiwan go to Mustafar by himself, prepared to fight Anakin if neccessary? Anakin had killed Count Dooku by himself, was a great warrior in the clone wars, and more powerful than Obiwan. Why was Obiwan so confident? Did he gain confidence because Yoda believed he could take Anakin? Or maybe that he felt he knew his apprentice like the back of his hand and that he could legitmately stop him? Or was he on a suicide mission? Privately hoping that Yoda could beat Sidious and slow down Anakin enough to set up a Yoda/Anakin duel? And please, that's curtail the discussion on the duel itself. We already have a thread for that, I'm interested in why Obiwan thought he could take Anakin.

 

He and Yoda both knew that if Vader was to ever be destroyed by them, their best bet was to attack ASAP. At the time Obi Wan faces against Anakin he was overwhelmed by his power and could not control his actions which made him vulnerable, where as Obi Wans calm and cool connection to the force gave him the upper hand. Plus, he's trained Anakin, he knows how he fights, his tactics and how to defend against him.

Of course, it doesn't make sense that a sith lord with a high midichlorian count and known as the most powerful jedi could be such an inferior oppenant.

 

Because obi-wan has a big ego and doesnt think he needs help..besides anakin is his former padawan..maybe he thought he could help him..

Alot of the master Jedi's go off by themselves to get things done,instead of asking for help(it's thier ego).and it doesnt turn out good for them either.

 

Anakin killed most of the Jedi, Only Yoda and Obi-wan were left. Where will he get help?
Yoda has to fight Palpatine and he is the only one who can so that leaves Obi-wan with Anakin and Jedi masters are wise they do not have ego's. That makes no sense!

Anakin was the Jedi with the ego, his ego almost got him killed a few times. After his deafet against Obi-wan he learned that having an ego is bad so he lost that ego. He seems to be more wise in the trilogy.

 

He still has an ego with obi-wan in the OT..he didnt lose it one bit...IMO.

 

If any Jedi's ego was a problem it was Anakin. Obi-Wan if anything was too humble about his abilities.


As far as the thread topic, I don't know that Obi-Wan believed he could beat Anakin. I think he knew he had to go and fight him, but I think that Kenobi thought the best result would be them both dying.

 

But he does not seem to make any foolish mistakes, he does have a grudge against Obi-wan but he knows what he is doing.

 

ok..if you say so..

 

This aspect wasn't even played up in the movie. Instead, it's like Yoda telling Obiwan that he isn't strong enough to fight Palpatine, so go and take on the former apprentice. I would have liked to see this, or some explicit reason of why Obiwan was the man for the job on Mustafar. And if the above had been expliticly stated, I wouldn't have mind seeing a really competitive back and forth duel between the two.

Exactly.

I would have liked to see both Obiwan and Yoda travel to Mustafar.

Still with what we see in RotS, it's still pretty gusty to think that Obiwan can even manage to destroy both of them.

 

Oh definitely, but Obi-Wan's overcome a Sith that he 'shouldn't' have been able to beat before, so I don't find it too terribly surprising that he'd think he could at least kill himself and Vader.

 

Master_Starwalker is right.

Obiwan didn't necessarily think he could beat Anakin. He only knew that he had to try.

 

I don't think Obi-Wan thought anything. He just did what he was told.

 

Agreed, it wasn't so much as him thinking he could beat Anakin, but that he had to.

 

Obi-wan didn't think he could beat Anakin. He went to Mustafar because he was ordered to do so by Master Yoda. And because it is his duty to stop the Sith. Obi-wan is not a coward. He doesn't want to fight Anakin because he doesn't want to run the risk of killing him. But he knew that he could not let this go without trying to stop him. In the end, Obi-wan went to do what he always did. Save the day either through negotiation or through combat. All that mattered to him once the fight was on, was to try and survive. Then he moved the fight outdoors hoping that they could both die out in the open. No such luck. So now it became a free-for-all. When Obi-wan saw that he had an advantage, he took it and tried to end the fight without bloodshed. Unfortunately for both men, that was not to be.

 

Obi-wan was close to being a stone cold Jedi at this point. He surely had thoughts, but Jedi are meant to serve.

Sidious told Vader that Obi-Wan triumphed over him because he went to Mustafar with one think on his mind: to kill Darth Vader.

So, there are no distractions. He is just doing what, in his mind, must be done.

 

Because he could!

FTW!

 

Good posts from all.

I guess I just find the conversation between Yoda and Obiwan in the Temple to be a little funny. Yoda just tells Obiwan to find Vader. There is no loss of confidence from the part of Obiwan. There isn't "But Master Yoda, Anakin is more powerful than I, I may need your help to stop him" And Yoda responds with "Master Obiwan, fear Vader do not, know your apprentice well you do, capable of stoping Vader you are" I mean Obiwan's going to face the guy that handed Count Dooku his ass. And Obiwan couldn't stop Dooku if his life depended on it.

 

Because he could Obi-wan was not flying off th handle druing the fight like Anakin was. On top of that Obi-wan was more skilled in that area then Anakin. Being really powerful does not mean much if you can't back it up with the skill.

 

When anakin fought darth vader on dagaobah in ROTJ, he knew he could win, but yoda said he had failed because obi wan came later and said he must kill his father or the emperor will win. Later, there was a death star sheild on dagobah that Anakin tried to destroy but instead he went to darth vader and turned himself in. Obiwan was not there! so how could he think that?

 

What are you talking about? 1st Anakin is Vader, he can't fight himself or turn himself in to himself. 2nd the DS II shield was on the forest moon of Endor, not Dagobah. 3rd, Luke fought a mirage Vader on Dagobah and turned himself on Dagobah to Vader. And how could Obi-Wan think what?

 

No, the death star sheild was eventually destroyed. Darth vader was on dagobah and lost to luke but that was in ESB! Obiwan does not come untill ROTS and tells him to kill darth because he knows he cant do it. He needs Anakin to fight ofcourse, but why would he not let luke in that case?

 

1st I never disputed that the DS II shield was destroyed. 2nd that wasn't Vader, that was a mirage of Vader. Unless you're telling me that Luke is Vader now. 3rd when does Obi-Wan tell Luke to kill Vader in ROTS? And when did Obi-Wan ever impede Luke from fighting?

 

Have you even seen starwars? Obi wan says to luke to kill darth vader and luke says he can't kill his own father. This is when obiwan appears to him on Endor as a ghost. Yoda is there but is a ghost too as he died just before luke sees obi wan. No luke is not darth vader because luke fights him. but darth vader knows anakin is his father but at first obiwan says luke is not strong enough with the force to defeat darth vader just before luke goes to the death star to rescue hans solo from the carbon freeze and the bounty hunters! So if obiwan could have defeated anakin then he wouldnt have told luke not to kill darth vader would he?

 

You obviously don't understand the subtletys of the story. Luke leaves endor to rescue hans solo because yoda shows it to him through the force. This is where vader has set a trap. Just watch the film again to see this for yourself.

How can Anakin = vader? Anakin died on genosis when he burned up. Darth Vader is the emperers new apprentice!