Why Didn’t Yoda and Obi-Wan Kill Darth Vader and the Emperor? Why Wait for Skywalker?

In Revenge of the Sith, both Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi confront the Sith directly. Obi-Wan faces Anakin Skywalker on Mustafar. Yoda confronts Darth Sidious in the Senate chamber. By the end of the film, Darth Vader and the Emperor are still alive, while Yoda and Obi-Wan go into hiding and wait for the new generation of Skywalker?

Obi-Wan Believed Anakin Was Already Finished

On Mustafar, Obi-Wan doesn’t hesitate to fight Anakin. He matches him blow for blow, gains the high ground, and ends the duel decisively. He disarms Anakin, cuts off his remaining limbs, and leaves him burning on the bank of a lava river. Anakin is screaming in pain, his body destroyed, unable to move, and surrounded by fire. Obi-Wan watches for a moment, then turns away. From his point of view, the fight is over. There’s nothing left to duel, and nothing left to save.

Nothing in Revenge of the Sith suggests Obi-Wan believes Anakin can survive what he’s just been left in. He doesn’t know Palpatine is on his way. He doesn’t know Anakin will be recovered, rebuilt, and kept alive through machinery and the dark side. As far as Obi-Wan understands the situation, Anakin Skywalker has been mortally wounded and left to die.

That understanding carries forward for years. In Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan reacts with visible shock when he learns that Darth Vader is still alive and that Vader is Anakin Skywalker. The revelation is treated as new information, not something he suspected all along. Until that moment, Obi-Wan believes Anakin died on Mustafar.

Because of that, Obi-Wan has no reason to think Darth Vader exists in the years following Order 66. From his perspective, the Sith apprentice was dealt with, even if the Emperor remained. His decision to go into exile isn’t about sparing Vader or choosing not to finish the job. From his point of view, the job was already done on the banks of the lava river.

Yoda Couldn’t Defeat the Emperor

Yoda’s confrontation with the Emperor happens in the Senate chamber near the end of Revenge of the Sith. Unlike Obi-Wan on Mustafar, Yoda goes into this fight fully intending to end it. He tells Obi-Wan directly that he will confront Darth Sidious, while Obi-Wan goes after Anakin. There’s no hesitation and no indication that Yoda expects to retreat.

The duel itself shows how evenly matched they are at first. Yoda and Sidious trade blows, but the fight quickly shifts into a battle of endurance rather than technique. When Sidious begins hurling Senate pods across the chamber, Yoda is forced into defense, spending more time surviving the assault than pressing forward. The duel ends when Yoda is knocked from the central platform and separated from Sidious, landing several levels below.

At that point, Yoda chooses to withdraw. He doesn’t attempt to climb back up and reengage. Instead, he escapes with the help of Bail Organa. In the Revenge of the Sith novelization, Yoda recognizes that this isn’t a temporary setback. He understands that he has failed. The novel frames the duel as a loss, with Yoda realizing that the Sith have adapted while the Jedi have not, and that his traditional approach can no longer defeat Sidious in direct combat.

That realization carries immediate consequences. Sidious now rules openly as Emperor, commands the clone army, and controls the machinery of the Republic. The Jedi Order is gone, and Yoda has no allies, no support, and no realistic way to attempt another direct strike. Another confrontation wouldn’t be a rematch on equal footing; it would be a lone Jedi attacking the most powerful man in the galaxy, fully prepared.

Obi-Wan Saw Luke as the Hope Anakin Could No Longer Be

After Anakin fell, Obi-Wan’s role changed from fighting the Sith directly to protecting the child who might one day oppose them. Official Star Wars material says that after Luke was taken to Tatooine, Obi-Wan remained there “where he would watch over him,” and that “when the time was right, he would reveal to Luke his true origins, and train him to be a Jedi.” The Jedi Order databank puts it even more clearly: “And there was a new hope. On Tatooine, Obi-Wan watched over Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin, until he was ready to be trained in the ways of the Force.”

That was not just exile. It was a long-term choice built around Luke’s future. Star Wars Rebels later makes Obi-Wan’s thinking even clearer. In “Twin Suns,” when Maul realizes Obi-Wan is protecting someone and asks if that person is “the Chosen One,” Obi-Wan answers, “He is.” The episode ends with Obi-Wan watching Luke from a distance on Tatooine, making it clear where his hope is now placed. In other words, once Anakin was lost, Obi-Wan no longer believed the answer would come from his former apprentice. It would have to come from the next Skywalker instead.