gffa:gffa:gffa:The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy | by Alexandra Bracken –an image that w
gffa:gffa:gffa:The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy | by Alexandra Bracken –an image that was further reinforced by the old man’s stroking a hand over its domed head. “It’s good to fly with you again, my old friend,” the old man said, so softly Han wasn’t sure he had hear him right.therapardalis replied:‘I don’t remember ever owning a droid …’ R2 must have been side-eyeing him SO MUCH XD!I LOVE THE CONTEXT THIS PUTS ALL OF THIS INTO, TOO.When Obi-Wan and Artoo first see each other again, Luke doesn’t even give the droid’s name or anything, just answers why he’s out here with, “This little droid.” and Obi-Wan IMMEDIATELY gives Artoo this look:OH HE FUCKING KNOWS THAT IS ANAKIN’S NIGHTMARE DROID.But more than that he doesn’t just immediately go into WELP LET ME TELL YOU THE WHOLE STORY because Luke’s nowhere near ready for the full horrible truth (wouldn’t be for years yet, not until after ESB), but also because the only way to keep Luke safe was to keep his mouth shut and not give everything away.Of course he’s going to feel the situation out, see where things go.This is Artoo probably beeping indignantly at him, too. FUCK YOU, KENOBI, YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHO I FUCKING AM, this foul-mouthed little shit is probably saying.A lot of people want to play Obi-Wan’s line of, “I don’t seem to remember ever owning a droid.” as a technicality, like he says it just because technically he didn’t own Artoo, but that really misses the much more important context of WHY OBI-WAN IS ON TATOOINE IN THE FIRST PLACE. He’s not going to just let the cat out of the bag the second he sees a droid that may or may not be Anakin’s nightmare droid.It’s after Luke says the droid’s name is R2-D2 that Obi-Wan is like, WELP, I guess it’s time to get things rolling, and says, yes, he knows Obi-Wan Kenobi, that’s me. I haven’t heard that name in a long time….And it’s pretty clear from Alec Guinness’ performance that Obi-Wan is going through a whole lot of shit that this is bringing up for him–which we have context for now, with the prequels. Everything that happened with Anakin, all the horror of the clone wars, the exhaustion and worry about whether or not the time is finally right to act, because this is galaxy saving importance, the things he’s dealing with.“I don’t seem to remember ever owning a droid,” can be played off at least party as Obi-Wan trolling the hell out of that foul-mouthed droid, it can also partly be written off as that the movies’ story evolved as time went along and we do the best we can to get it to make sense with the stuff that came later.But I do see it as Obi-Wan deliberately lightening the mood, trolling Artoo, because this is still really hard for him. From a Certain Point of View shows that, for all Obi-Wan has remained true to his path, for all that Rebels showed us Obi-Wan has risen above the genocide of his people and the entire life’s work they devoted themselves to, they died for, all the people he couldn’t help because the Empire made it impossible– for all that Obi-Wan has a steadiness in the face of horror most of us couldn’t imagine, he is still deeply affected by this and by everything associated with Anakin.(From a Certain Point of View | “Time of Death” | by Cavan Scott)This isn’t easy for Obi-Wan. He’ll do what he must, he will eventually rise above it, but everything–everything–to do with Anakin still tears at his heart, threatens to undo him.Seeing Anakin’s droid? Of course he’s going to shore himself up with trolling the droid, give himself some breathing room until he can quietly and fondly say that he missed flying with the little shit. He’s not going to dump all of that on Luke before he’s ready (as Master & Apprentice shows, as Luke’s suicidal reaction at Cloud City shows, he’s right about that), so instead he makes the conversation lighter (as he does when Anakin starts to panic in Attack of the Clones, before they’re about to see Padme again) and gives everyone room to breathe and think. Very much including himself, because he has a lot he needs room for.LISTEN, I MAKE MYSELF SAD OFTEN ENOUGH, I DON’T NEED THIS SHIT ADDED ON TOP OF IT.Artoo thinking Anakin is dead (and he might as well be), so instead he belongs to Obi-Wan, but Obi-Wan can’t take him to Tatooine, it’s too dangerous and too conspicuous there for him, so instead Artoo is going to watch over little Leia and help in the Rebellion as best he could, but always sad because Anakin would have wanted him to go with Obi-Wan, would have wanted him to help Anakin’s Master.But he can’t, that’s not really an option, and this is a good path as well, but not even being able to honor Anakin’s wishes, the last good wishes he asked of Artoo, before everything went to shit?THANKS, I’M FINE THINKING ABOUT IF THAT HAPPENED. -- source link