Obi-Wan had high hopes for Luke. At the end of the day, Luke was his last Jedi student, and in A New Hope he was the one who first taught him to trust the Force. But there was also one part of Luke that clearly frustrated him: the moment Luke stopped listening and chose to act on pure feeling instead. In one story, that reaction hits Obi-Wan especially hard, because what he sees in Luke at that moment reminds him too much of Anakin Skywalker.
Luke’s Choice on Dagobah Reminded Obi-Wan of Anakin
In “There Is Always Another”, the scene takes place on Dagobah during the moment in The Empire Strikes Back when Luke decides to leave his training after seeing his friends in danger. The story is from Obi-Wan’s point of view, and he is standing there with Yoda watching Luke get ready to go. Obi-Wan is already tense because he knows what this kind of choice can lead to. He had hoped death would free him from the Skywalkers, but instead he is still standing there trying to stop another one from making a reckless decision with huge consequences.
As Luke starts packing supplies into the X-wing, Obi-Wan watches him move around in anger and urgency. Luke is not calm, and he is not really listening. He has already decided he must go save Han and Leia, and now he is acting on that feeling. Obi-Wan and Yoda both warn him not to leave, but Luke keeps going. Obi-Wan notices that this is exactly the kind of moment that always made Skywalkers dangerous: once their emotions take over, they stop hearing anything else.
While Luke is doing this, Obi-Wan’s mind keeps going back to Anakin. He remembers very specific things about him, not just broad ideas. He remembers Anakin’s sideways smile, his bad posture, how he lost lightsabers, how he stayed up too late, and how his neck used to flush when he got worked up. Then Obi-Wan looks at Luke and sees the same kind of flushed face and the same intensity. He even thinks that life would have been easier if the Skywalkers did not care so much, because that same fierce emotional attachment is exactly what is driving Luke now. Luke is not leaving because he has thought the situation through carefully. He is leaving because he cannot stand the idea of his friends suffering while he stays behind.
The story also says very directly that Skywalkers do not listen well once they have made up their minds. Obi-Wan thinks about how arguing with Anakin used to feel like Anakin was responding to some version of Obi-Wan inside his own head instead of to the words Obi-Wan was actually saying. Then he looks at Luke and realizes Luke is doing the same thing. So Obi-Wan’s frustration is not random. He has seen this exact pattern before: strong feeling, quick decision, refusal to listen, and total certainty that action has to come now.
The biggest moment comes when Luke climbs toward the cockpit. Obi-Wan calls after him, desperate to stop him. In his thoughts, he almost says Anakin. He almost says my best friend. He almost says your father. But instead he stops himself and says Vader. Then Luke turns back, Obi-Wan sees that wild glint in his eyes, and his thought is immediate: “There is Anakin.” That is the point of the whole scene. Obi-Wan is not just generally reminded of Luke’s father. In that exact moment, he sees Luke falling into the same emotional pattern that once made Anakin impossible to stop.
