Warning: this article contains major spoilers for all six episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi! If you haven't already, be sure to check out IGN's review of the two-part premiere.
After years of waiting around like a desert hermit, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi has finally debuted on Disney+. The new series has managed to surprise fans and subvert expectations in many ways, including the appearance of several familiar faces from the Star Wars movies.
Even though the series has ended its six-episode run, we still have many lingering questions about the plot and the motivations of characters like Obi-Wan, Reva and Darth Vader. Here are the biggest questions that still remain, along with the questions the series did ultimately address. Will we get more answers in a potential Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2? We can only hope.
Note: this article was originally published on May 27 and was updated on June 23 to reflect the final episode.
Is It Actually Safe for Obi-Wan to Return to Tatooine?
The series ends in the only way it could, with Obi-Wan returning to Tatooine and resuming his watchful guardianship. There's just one problem – the events of the series make it very risky for Obi-Wan to remain on Tatooine. While Reva is the only member of the Inquisitorius who uncovered the full truth behind Obi-Wan's exile, having come so close to being exposed makes Obi-Wan more of a liability than an asset to the Lars family.
Unfortunately, this is one of several plot holes the series seems to have painted itself into. Based on the original Star Wars, we know Obi-Wan has to be on Tatooine for the next ten years. But based solely on the events of this series, that decision doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense.
Where Will Reva Appear Next?
As one of the few major, new characters introduced in the series, Reva's ultimate fate was always a compelling mystery. As the series ends, Reva is still alive and facing an uncertain future now that she's rejected the Dark Side and her quest to kill Lord Vader.
We can only assume Lucasfilm has future plans for the character. But where will Reva appear next? Will she take an active role in fighting the Empire or helping to rebuild the Jedi? Could we see her pop up in upcoming shows like Andor or Ahsoka? What about the video game Jedi Survivor? There are plenty of options with this character, should Lucasfilm choose to take advantage of them.
Why Doesn't Palpatine Care About Obi-Wan?
Ian McDiarmid makes a welcome cameo in Part VI as Emperor Palpatine, appearing just long enough to scold Vader out of renewing his vendetta against Obi-Wan. Palpatine seems to view this obsession as a distraction – a case of Vader pointlessly clinging to his past rather than increasing his command of the Dark Side.
It's actually not terrible advice, but we're not quite sure why Palpatine seems so disinterested in reports of Obi-Wan's return. Does he not fear the threat Obi-Wan could pose to his growing Empire? Why wouldn't Palpatine move Obi-Wan to the top of his to-kill list? That is the whole point of having Sith Inquisitors, after all.
How Exactly Do Force Ghosts Work?
The Star Wars franchise is 45 years old now, and we're still not entirely sure about the rules governing Force Ghosts. How exactly does a Jedi gain the ability to manifest after death? Why do only some Jedi learn that skill?
George Lucas seemed to set the record straight with the prequels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Lucas established that Force Ghosting is a skill forgotten to most Jedi, but one that Qui-Gon partially mastered before his death on Naboo. That's why he tends to appear as a disembodied voice rather than a full spirit. And it's thanks to Qui-Gon's otherworldly guidance that Yoda, Obi-Wan and Luke are eventually able to perfect this ability.
However, the finale seems to throw all of this for a loop when we see Liam Neeson in the flesh as Qui-Gon's Force Ghost. Since when can he do that? For that matter, why is Anakin able to go full Force Ghost in Return of the Jedi when he spent most of the past 25 years as a Sith Lord? Are there any consistent rules to Force Ghosts at this point?
Why Didn't Vader Kill Reva?
Episode 5 features Sith betrayals galore, as Reva makes her move against Darth Vader, only to learn the Dark Lord of the Sith was fully aware of her treachery. Vader makes short work of his new Grand Inquisitor, finally impaling her through the stomach and allowing the OG Grand Inquisitor to gloat over her fallen body.
Yet as we see in the immediate aftermath, Reva seems to be clinging to life. And should we expect anything less, considering that her predecessor did the exact same thing two episodes earlier? As we've seen from the Inquisitors and other Dark Side users dating back to Darth Maul, the sheer power of hate is enough to allow someone to cling to life and survive otherwise fatal injuries.
Why did Vader assume Reva is mortally wounded? Is it just that he holds her in such contempt that the thought of her surviving and returning to challenge him again doesn't enter his mind? Or is this all part of a larger plan, and Vader knows the disgraced Third Sister still has a part left to play in this story?
Update: Based on Part VI, it would seem Vader really just assumed Reva was dead. And as far as he knows, she is.
Will Reva Try to Kill Luke? (SOLVED)
Bail Organa makes a brief appearance in Episode 5, as he sends a desperate message to Obi-Wan promising to return to Tatooine and protect Luke. Unfortunately for everyone, that message is left behind and falls into the hands of the not-quite-dead Reva.
No doubt this twist of fate will factor into series' climax in a big way. Will we see Reva travel to Tatooine and try to kill Luke? Having failed to exact vengeance on Anakin Skywalker himself, she may settle for robbing him of the son he doesn't know he has. Of course, Reva's entire journey began when she herself was an innocent child wronged by the Empire, so she may come to see the hypocrisy of her actions.
It's also possible Reva will bypass Tatooine and try to confront Vader directly. Maybe she hopes to use the knowledge of Luke's existence against her former master? The series may have limited options here, however. We know Vader doesn't learn of Luke's existence until the Battle of Yavin, and it's only thanks to Boba Fett that Vader learns Luke is his long-lost son.
Update: Reva does indeed travel to Tatooine to murder a young Luke Skywalker. Fortunately for him (and the galaxy at large), Reva realizes the hypocrisy of her actions and spares Luke's life.
Will Quinlan Vos Get His Own Series?
Chapter 3 gives The Clone Wars fans an unexpected treat by name-dropping Jedi Master Quinlan Vos. Obi-Wan discovers an inscription left behind by his former colleague, suggesting Vos is still out there fighting the good fight in a galaxy ruled by the tyrannical Empire.
Vos is an unusual character in that so much of his story happens offscreen and in the pages of the Star Wars comics and novels. He made a tiny background appearance in The Phantom Menace and was meant to play a bigger role in Revenge of the Sith, before he was cut from the story. Vos does appear in a Season 3 episode of The Clone Wars, but his planned follow-up appearance was among many storylines cut short by the series' cancellation. Instead, that storyline was adapted for the 2015 novel Star Wars: Dark Disciple.
In short, Vos is a character who's never been given his proper due in the live-action and animated realms. We'd like to think this cameo is an acknowledgment of that, as well as a hint that there's more to come on the Quinlan Vos front. Could Chapter 3 be teasing a Quinlan Vos spinoff? Fingers crossed.
Is There a Significance to the Ben Kenobi Name?
We've never entirely understood Obi-Wan's decision to go into hiding under the pseudonym "Ben Kenobi." Why not alter his last name to make it slightly less obvious that a former Jedi Master is camped out on Darth Vader's home planet. And why Ben, of all names?
After three episodes, it's unclear whether the series is going to lend any insight into the origins of the Ben name. Obi-Wan is already using that name by the time the series opens. Maybe a name is just a name, in this case.
However, Chapter 3 does show Master Kenobi reflecting on his faint memories of his family, which in turn revives an obscure piece of Star Wars lore. Could the series be building toward a lengthy flashback sequence, one that will reveal Obi-Wan took the name of his father or brother? Obi-Wan has some serious wounds to recover from following his first rematch with Vader, so now would be the time for a good, old-fashioned fever dream flashback.
Why Did Vader Let Obi-Wan Escape on Jabiim?
Given how little Darth Vader appears in the first two chapters of the series, it's surprising to see the Dark Lord of the Sith play such a key role in Chapter 3. By the end, Obi-Wan and Vader have had the first of what we assume is multiple battles, and Obi-Wan is very much the worse for wear after his ordeal on Jabiim.
It's enough to wonder how Obi-Wan managed to escape Vader's wrath in that sequence. Yes, Indira Varma's character Tala literally pulls him out of the fire, but how did she manage to hoodwink a Sith Lord? Why does Vader just passively stand there when Tala intervenes, potentially letting his decade-long quarry vanish all over again?
The only plausible explanation is that Vader wanted Obi-Wan to escape. Not out of a sense of mercy for his former master, but out of disgust over what Obi-Wan has become. Vader can clearly sense that Obi-Wan is a shell of the Jedi he once was. He may hope that by allowing Obi-Wan to flee and recover, he may return to put up more of a fight next time around. To draw a comparison to the Dragon Ball franchise, Vader is like Goku, putting everything at risk because he'd rather test his skills against an opponent at full strength. We'll see how well that works out for him.
Update: Not well, as it turns out.
Why Didn't Obi-Wan Know Anakin Was Still Alive?
Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader doesn't play a significant role until he dons his armor in Chapter 3, but the shadow of Anakin Skywalker looms large over the series. We learn two important details about the Anakin/Obi-Wan dynamic right out of the gate. One, Vader has been obsessively hunting Obi-Wan ever since their fateful duel on Mustafar ten years earlier. Two, Obi-Wan had no idea Anakin was still alive.
That's a pretty surprising reversal, considering that the movies always suggested the opposite. We always pictured Obi-Wan quietly observing his fallen pupil's crimes from afar and waiting for the day he could train Luke to confront Vader. Meanwhile, in Episode IV Vader behaves as if he's surprised to see Obi-Wan alive. Though as we've covered in the past, this series promises to add some significant new wrinkles to the Vader/Obi-Wan relationship.
Why did Obi-Wan never connect the dots between Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker before Reva came along? Is he really that isolated from the Force that he can't sense Anakin's lifeforce? And what about Yoda? Is this news to him, too, or have Yoda and the spirit of Qui-Gon been keeping this knowledge to themselves? Neither option paints Yoda in a particularly flattering light.
Obi-Wan Kenobi – Second Trailer Stills
Is the Grand Inquisitor Actually Dead? (SOLVED)
The series makes it clear Moses Ingram's character Reva is an outcast among Darth Vader's assassins, the Sith Inquisitorius. She has skills, to be sure, but her fellow Inquisitors view her as a low-born upstart who isn't worthy to be among their ranks. She doesn't exactly help her case when she betrays Rupert Friend's character, the Grand Inquisitor, and impales him with her saber.
This betrayal raises some pretty significant questions about continuity. How can the Grand Inquisitor die in Obi-Wan Kenobi when he's alive and well several years later during the events of Star Wars Rebels: Season 1?
There are several possible explanations here. One option is that this Grand Inquisitor isn't the same character as the one in Rebels (which would also explain why Disney didn't have Jason Isaacs reprise his voiceover role in live-action). But why have two Grand Inquisitors who look and sound almost exactly alike? Are they brothers?
That theory also clashes with Marvel's Darth Vader comics. 2017's Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith reveals that the Grand Inquisitor of Rebels has been with Vader since shortly after the end of the Clone Wars. Is the series just going to ignore that book entirely?
Another possibility is that the Grand Inquisitor isn't as dead as he seems. Perhaps the Inquisitorius have access to some of the same Sith technology that keeps Vader alive and eventually allows Emperor Palpatine to clone himself. The Inquisitors could even be guinea pigs for Palpatine's cloning experiments. Maybe Vader has a Supreme Leader Snoke-style tank full of Inquisitor bodies he can activate as his minions die.
This theory may actually gel with what we've learned of the Grand Inquisitor in Marvel's comics. The current Star Wars series shows Luke traveling to a forgotten Jedi temple and claiming a yellow lightsaber to replace the one he lost on Bespin. There he's confronted by the spirit of the Grand Inquisitor, who's been forever bound to the temple as punishment for his failures. If Vader can manage that, then maybe bringing his minions back from the brink of death is child's play.
Update: It turns out there's a simple explanation for this one. The Grand Inquisitor returns in Episode 5, revealing his anger and thirst for revenge helped him stay alive. He does appear to be the same character from Rebels after all.
Why Does Reva Hate Obi-Wan So Much? (SOLVED)
The series shows us us that Reva is unusually fanatical. She's consumed by her single-minded quest to hunt down Obi-Wan Kenobi, and she's not afraid of cheating, lying and backstabbing her fellow Inquisitors along the way.
Naturally, that raises the question of why Reva hates Obi-Wan so much in the first place. What did this kindly Jedi Master ever do to her? She can't have been that old when he went into hiding.
This rivalry may tie back to the opening flashback in Chapter 1, where we see a group of Younglings fleeing the carnage at the Jedi Temple. We've already seen one of those characters – Benny Safdie's Nari – resurface in the present-day storyline. It stands to reason we'll meet the rest over the course of the series. And we may just learn that Reva was one of those Younglings. She could be the second character from the left in this image:
If so, Reva may hate Obi-Wan for failing to stop Order 66 and dooming her to a life as an orphan. Though why she'd single out Obi-Wan for the collective failure of the Jedi is unclear.
It's also worth pointing out that Reva may not be motivated by hatred, necessarily. She's clearly fanatical, even by the standards of the Inquisitorius. She may not hate Obi-Wan so much as she idolizes Darth Vader. Because Vader craves vengeance against his former Master, so does she. That would also explain why she's reckless enough to openly defy and possibly kill the Grand Inquisitor. She knows she has the Big Guy's support.
Update: Episode 5 addresses all of our Reva questions. We learn she is indeed one of the Padawans seen in the opening flashback, and she faked her death after watching her classmates be murdered by Anakin Skywalker. While she hates Obi-Wan for failing to stop his apprentice from destroying the Jedi Order, Vader himself is the true target of Reva's wrath. She became an Inquisitor in the hope of getting close enough to Vader to kill him, though that doesn't seem to have worked out for her.
Why Didn't Leia Mention Her First Meeting With Obi-Wan? (SOLVED)
Disney managed to keep some major characters under wraps until the first two episodes debuted. Not only do we see Jimmy Smits' Bail Organa and Temuera Morrison as a homeless clone veteran, the series introduces Vivien Lyra Blair as a 10-year-old Princess Leia. We quickly learn that Leia and Obi-Wan's relationship goes back a long way, as she was the one person capable of making him leave the relative safety of Tatooine.
Knowing Obi-Wan risked his life to save Leia years before the events of Episode IV, it's strange to think that Leia never mentioned her first encounter with the Jedi Master. Why does she address him so formally in her holographic message – "Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars" – rather than say something more direct like, "Hey, I need you to bail me out again!"?
This reveal also makes Luke seem like even more of a jerk during the scene where Leia consoles him aboard the Millennium Falcon after Obi-Wan's death. Not only is she mourning the destruction of her home planet, she knew Obi-Wan a heck of a lot longer than Luke.
We have little doubt future Star Wars stories will retroactively work this detail into the Luke/Leia relationship. Perhaps Marvel will publish a comic showing Leia reminiscing about her adventures with Obi-Wan. It also adds new context to Leia and Han's decision to name their son after him.
Update: This question is lightly addressed in the finale. Obi-Wan briefly reunites with Leia on Alderaan and reminds her that they have to keep their friendship a secret. We can only hope that a future Star Wars project picks up this loose end and explores Leia's private grief over Obi-Wan's death.
Is Obi-Wan the Reason Leia Remembers Padme?
Based on the original trilogy, we know Leia doesn't really become aware of her Jedi abilities until Luke reveals the truth about their family history on Endor. That said, the sequels make it clear she's every bit as strong in the Force as her brother, and we see hints of that strength in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
Leia seems to have a natural gift for Force empathy. She can instinctively sense what others around her are thinking and feeling, which comes in handy when she needs to put a snobbish cousin in his place.
We can't help but wonder if this budding power will allow the series to address one of the bigger, lingering mysteries about Luke and Leia. Episode III shows that they were both taken away from Padme shortly after their birth, so why does Leia remember her where Luke doesn't? Maybe her empathic gift was active even then, but could her encounter with Obi-Wan as a child have something to do with it?
In Return of the Jedi, Leia describes their mother as "Very beautiful. Kind, but sad." That sounds exactly like the way Obi-Wan might describe Padme, a woman he cared for but never had a particularly close relationship with. It even mirrors the way Obi-Wan describes his vague memories of his own family in Part III. Does Leia subconsciously absorb Obi-Wan's memories and develop a hazy mental image of her mother that way? That's certainly one explanation.
Everything We Saw at Star Wars Celebration 2022
Why Is Fifth Brother So Merciful?
The Grand Inquisitor isn't the only Star Wars Rebels villain to make his live-action debut in this series. The Fast and the Furious' Sung Kang takes over the role of Fifth Brother, meaning Kang has gone from playing Han Seoul-Oh to rubbing elbows with Han Solo.
The first two episodes do leave us a little confused as to Fifth Brother's motivations, however. He's surprisingly mellow for a guy whose job description is hunting down and slaughtering Jedi. Compared to Reva, he's downright merciful. He'd rather reward civilians for providing information rather than resort to torture. He's very much the good cop of this bunch.
Is there a reason Fifth Brother is so much less bloodthirsty? Given what we know about the Inquisitors from Rebels and Marvel's comics, they're constantly scheming against one another and currying favor with Vader. They're aspiring Sith Lords, and they act accordingly. Reva's characterization is arguably more in line with those other stories. Hopefully the series will find time to explore Fifth Brother's backstory and why he prefers to do things by the book.
For more breaking Star Wars news, find out what was shown in The Mandalorian: Season 3 sizzle reel and what six words Hayden Christensen used to drive the audience wild at Star Wars Celebration. You can also check out IGN's full breakdown of everything announced at Star Wars Celebration.
Note: This story was updated on June 23, 2022, with the final batch of questions we have about the show.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.