We all remember the moment: Anakin Skywalker, now Darth Vader, cut down by Obi-Wan Kenobi on the lava shores of Mustafar. Burned, broken, left for dead—until Palpatine arrives. For years, fans have debated how exactly Obi-Wan managed to defeat the most powerful Jedi of his generation.
But in the novel Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, we finally get the answer straight from Palpatine himself.
Vader Admits His Failure
In Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, we follow a moment not long after the rise of the Empire—when the war is over, the Jedi are gone, and the Sith have finally taken control of the galaxy.
Palpatine treats it like a victory. He speaks of the dark side, of power, of what they’ve built. But Vader isn’t focused on that. What’s on his mind is how easy it is to be replaced.
He looks at what happened to Count Dooku—used, discarded, and replaced by someone stronger—and wonders how long it will take before the same thing happens to him. He asks Sidious directly what would happen if someone more powerful came along.
Palpatine doesn’t lie.
“Darth Tyranus knew what he risked, Lord Vader. If he had been stronger in the dark side, you would be dead, and he would be my right hand.”
Vader’s answer is simple.
“And if you should encounter someone stronger than I am?”
Sidious brushes it off. He tells Vader no such person exists. That no one in the galaxy can rival what Vader is becoming.
But Vader isn’t fully convinced. He’s still holding onto the moment that proved otherwise. Quietly, without defiance or emotion, he brings it up:
“I wasn’t strong enough to defeat Obi-Wan.”
It’s not an excuse—it’s a fact. And for all of Sidious’s confidence, that moment on Mustafar still lingers. The war may be over. The mask may be permanent. But the failure isn’t gone.
Sidious Reveals the Real Reason Obi-Wan Won
After hearing Vader speak about his defeat on Mustafar, Sidious doesn’t try to twist it. He agrees. Vader wasn’t strong enough—because Obi-Wan had already made his choice.
“No, you weren’t. Obi-Wan triumphed because he went to Mustafar with a single intention in mind: to kill Darth Vader.”
That was the difference. Vader still carried the conflict—still torn between Anakin and the Sith, still haunted by Padmé, still unsure what this new path was meant to become. Obi-Wan wasn’t. The Jedi Order had fallen. His brother was gone. And when he stepped onto that platform, he didn’t come to reason with Vader. He came to finish it.
Sidious doesn’t just stop there. He makes the message even clearer:
“If the Jedi Order had shown such resolute intention—if it had remained focused on what needed to be done rather than on fears of the dark side—it might have proved more difficult to topple and eradicate. You and I might have lost everything. Do you understand?”
To him, this wasn’t about strength. It was about conviction. Obi-Wan had it. The rest of the Jedi didn’t. And that’s why the Sith won.
If the Jedi had fought like Kenobi from the start, maybe the Clone Wars would’ve ended differently. But they didn’t. They hesitated. And Palpatine turned that hesitation into an opening he never gave back.
For Vader, the meaning is simple. Obi-Wan didn’t win by luck. He won because he meant to.