Alternate History What If Ben Kenobi killed Darth Vader on the Death Star?

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Wow.

That's an AU I have never considered.

Firstly its extremely unlikely due to the power of Vader

Secondly, Obi Wan has to escape back to the Falcon.

Thirdly Palpatine will be furious.

If we're using legends-he has a few options for an apprentice. Mara, Shira, Tremayne.

I'll have to give more thoughts tomorrow
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
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It definitely seems rather unlikely. Obi Wan Kenobi kind of went into the confrontation apparently knowing he was doomed, but on the other hand the contextual explanation for Darth Vader's seemingly poor performance in the duel itself was that he was rather cautious with trepidation in having to fight Obi Wan Kenobi again, especially considering what happened last time.

But maybe that would be enough for Obi Wan to pull the upset. The result wouldn't change anything in the immediate I feel. They'll still be forced to flee the Death Star and Tarkin will want to enact his plan even with Darth Vader's shocking death. And with Darth Vader not there, there's little reason as to why the Rebels couldn't blow up the Death Star since Luke would have the Force and Obi Wan there to guide him in a far less ghostly voice.

Beyond the events of the first movie though there would be some serious butterflies since the Empire would be reeling from all of the losses at the Battle of Yavin PLUS Darth Vader expiring.
 

Quickdraw101

Beware My Power-Green Lantern's Light
Well Luke never loses his hand later on, but the Rebel Alliance will almost certainly not get a chance to kill Palpatine over Endor.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
The Rebels should be in a better position after destroying the Death Star. Vader was responsible for what, about three quarters of their losses there? Tarkin didn't even bother to send TIEs so without Vader sending his personal squadron losses would be light. This would be even more of a propaganda coup, the Rebellion takes out the Death Star in exchange for maybe three or four X-Wings instead of losing all but two.
 

Skallagrim

Well-known member
With Vader dead, Obi-Wan can tell Luke and Leia that they're siblings shortly after the battle of Yavin. That would change the personal dynamics of our hero team. (Considering that Obi-Wan has no problems bending the truth just a bit, I think he would just tell them that they're the kids of his late friend, the heroic Jedi Anakin Skywalker, without ever mentioning that Darth Vader was really Anakin.)
 

absenceofmalice

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Temporarily Banned
With Vader dead, Obi-Wan can tell Luke and Leia that they're siblings shortly after the battle of Yavin. That would change the personal dynamics of our hero team. (Considering that Obi-Wan has no problems bending the truth just a bit, I think he would just tell them that they're the kids of his late friend, the heroic Jedi Anakin Skywalker, without ever mentioning that Darth Vader was really Anakin.)
Wouldn't do anything to keep ms. "I've always known" away from that D.
 

Bassoe

Well-known member
And with Darth Vader not there, there's little reason as to why the Rebels couldn't blow up the Death Star since Luke would have the Force and Obi Wan there to guide him in a far less ghostly voice.
For that matter, there's no reason for Obi Wan not to fly the death star trench run himself.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
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For that matter, there's no reason for Obi Wan not to fly the death star trench run himself.

He hasn't flown in a while though I imagine. Plus thematically he'll be unable to do it as his purpose for the narrative is to guide Luke. If he tried to do the trench run himself, he would lose his plot armor and go down faster and more tragically then Porkins did. 😢
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
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They have a mentor to help them know more about what the jedi and Emps are capabale of, perhaps getting a general capable of helping a lot.
Of course, Emps may be a lot more reckless in what he does, or go full BDZ on every planet
 

Val the Moofia Boss

Well-known member
Depends on which incarnation of Star Wars we are talking about.

If we are talking about the original Star Wars movie, and discount the lore that was retconned in the sequels, then killing Vader shouldn't have actually hurt the Empire that much, as in the original film Vader wasn't anything particularly special. Given the way the imperial officers treated him as just the muscle and talked down to him, it's safe to say that he was replaceable, and was nowhere near as important as later films made him out to be to the Empire's security. So it'd be a small victory, mostly meaningful to Obi-Wan and no one else. Little implication for the war or the galaxy at large.

If we take the original trilogy as a whole, then killing Vader is basically a death knell for the Empire, as he is basically the second in command who intimidates people into doing what the Emperor wants, and basically has to be present for any plan against the Rebels to succeed. With Vader dead, the Emperor will be hard pressed to find an adequate replacement, and the Emperor certainly won't be able to train any new apprentices in time before said apprentice is strong enough to be worth anything.

For that matter, there's no reason for Obi Wan not to fly the death star trench run himself.

If we go by prequel trilogy lore where Obi-Wan is shown to be a pilot, then yes. He would probably be one of the best pilots present.

If we go by the original film, or the original trilogy, there is nothing to imply that Obi-Wan was a pilot. It was implied that he was merely a warrior on the ground in the clone wars.
 

f1onagher

Well-known member
Luke gets a proper Jedi training regimen and depending on how much Ob-Wan wants to hug the Force the Jedi may get restarted in the middle of the Galactic Civil War. The Emperor loses his primary hatchet man and is forced to rely on his less reliable assets to hold his power together so the Empire starts to unravel faster. The Alliance gets a big propaganda boost since they now have a no-shit Jedi war hero on their team and depending on whether this is Legends or Disney a number of other Jedi may come out of the woodwork to join, especially since Vader is no longer around to hunt them down.

Honestly, the war itself doesn't change too much, but Luke will no longer be stuck trying to reassemble the Order out of his half-assed training and a few books. That on its own is big since it means a functional Jedi academy a lot earlier.
 
Luke gets a proper Jedi training regimen and depending on how much Ob-Wan wants to hug the Force the Jedi may get restarted in the middle of the Galactic Civil War. The Emperor loses his primary hatchet man and is forced to rely on his less reliable assets to hold his power together so the Empire starts to unravel faster. The Alliance gets a big propaganda boost since they now have a no-shit Jedi war hero on their team and depending on whether this is Legends or Disney a number of other Jedi may come out of the woodwork to join, especially since Vader is no longer around to hunt them down.

Honestly, the war itself doesn't change too much, but Luke will no longer be stuck trying to reassemble the Order out of his half-assed training and a few books. That on its own is big since it means a functional Jedi academy a lot earlier.

Question, do you think the combined forces of yoda, obi wan and a trained luke are enough to take on palpatine?
 

f1onagher

Well-known member
Question, do you think the combined forces of yoda, obi wan and a trained luke are enough to take on palpatine?
Personally? Yes. Two high-tier masters and a Skywalker is enough raw power to bring down even palps. Yoda came within a hair's breadth of doing it on his own. The problem is that Darth Ball Sack didn't get that far by ever letting himself get into a fair fight, so the trick would be who he replaced Vader with.
 
Personally? Yes. Two high-tier masters and a Skywalker is enough raw power to bring down even palps. Yoda came within a hair's breadth of doing it on his own. The problem is that Darth Ball Sack didn't get that far by ever letting himself get into a fair fight, so the trick would be who he replaced Vader with.

Probably a darth maul clone or Barris Offee. If we go by legends it maybe Jerec or an Evil Galen Marek clone.
 

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