Why do you think fandom perception and headcanons of Obi-Wan vary so greatly? I do think fandom views on other characters vary a bit too(ex: Anakin, Luke, Poe(as I typed this I also noticed that it seems interpretations are more consistent with the female characters?)), but I feel there is such a wide range and even extremes(that he’s either Obi-“Mom”-Kenobi(i.e. very nurturing) or harsh 24/7) with interpretations of Obi-Wan.
The “problem,” so to speak, is that Obi Wan Kenobi is an extremely complicated character. Fundamentally, this makes him a very good character, a very interesting character, but fandom has a tendency to be somewhat reductive in terms of how it views individual characters, particularly where meme culture is concerned. Tumblr culture is also a remarkable study in the psychological phenomenon of splitting - or basically, the inability to reconcile contradictory or morally incompatible ideas, especially within a single individual. The result is that you wind up with abstract ideas of characters, rather than the complicated whole as they’re presented in the original media.
Obi Wan is fundamentally a good person, but to be blunt anon, he can also an absolute cunt at times. This is a guy who devoted his life to the preservation of the galaxy and the pursuit of justice, but had absolutely no qualms about lying and manipulating Luke Skywalker into killing his own father or doing jack fuck all about Anakin’s mother being left behind in slavery (at least until it’s too late). He claims to serve democracy, but is extraordinarily cynical about politicians and the system in general - and has no sense of irony in describing Anakin’s decision to join the Jedi Order as a “choice.” The same movie where he kills a Sith Lord (fuck you, TCW, MAUL IS DEAD), he bullies a native into helping him and describes a former slave as a “pathetic life form.” He can be as cutting as he can be affectionate. He’ll criticize Anakin for being reckless and then jump out of the window of a multi-story building onto a flying droid in the middle of rush hour traffic. He is ferociously protective toward the people he cares about, but he won’t say the words “I love you” until his former apprentice is missing three limbs and burning to death.
These are not writing mistakes; Lucas fully intended us to see Obi Wan as a fully fleshed out character with flaws as serious as his heart is good. And more importantly, we understand the shittier choices he made. We get why Anakin’s own horrible decisions forced his hand where the twins were concerned, how he was trying to protect Luke from the grief that had destroyed his own life. We admire his tenacity and resilience and faith even in the face of failure and the madness of total loss. We understand that he was in an impossible situation where Anakin was concerned and literally knew no other way to raise him, as emotionally abusive as it turned out to be. We understand that all of his shitty decisions do not justify what happened to him. Ignoring either side of that equation - the cynical, hyprocritical asshole or the good-hearted and courageous man - is erasing the complexity of the character.
The prequel trilogy is about otherwise good people who refuse to see how their apathy to the external corruption is destroying their own moral integrity along with the Republic itself. There are so many places where somebody, somewhere (or a lot of somebodies from a lot of somewheres) should have intervened before it got to the point where democracy died with applause. What it took was self-awareness and the courage to risk everything, and well…even the best of us aren’t willing to make that kind of sacrifice. The Senate could have treatsied with the Separatists, but that would mean accepting their independence and having to work out the complexities of a new political arrangement. The Jedi could have refused to lead a slave army, even at risk of losing their financial backing by the state. Obi Wan COULD have recognized that Anakin was struggling and removed him from the situation, even at the loss of his own position as a Knight. And of course, Anakin could have, you know, not betrayed the entire Order, Republic, and clone army because he was afraid of losing his wife. The Republic is a painful mirror of our own reality, in which most of us who are comfortable living in modern, industrialized nations are too afraid to ask what we have to sacrifice for real justice to thrive in the world. People are always looking for monsters to blame during disasters - Lucas is telling us rather bluntly that we help make them ourselves.
This is why I love Obi most of all, and why I enjoy the prequels in spite of themselves. The contradictions, complexities, and political conundrums are the things that make the GFFA real. The Jedi and the difficulties of their dogma and religious hierarchy are not dissimilar to what we see in established earth religions and systems.
I personally find that this wading into the muck fun as a writer and a reader. And it does allow for a wide ranging (if sometimes oversimplified) characterization of Obi-Wan in particular in fandom. But even in a stereotyped or oversimplified form, I think a lot of truth comes out in all expressions of Obi-Wan.
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All of the above not only is true,but it also explains why Anakin had such confused,mixed feelings about the guy in AotC and RotS. Anakin made long rants about Obi-Wan being "overly strict" and "never listening",but also claimed he was "the closest thing he had to a father" despite Sheev "Master Manipulator Disguised as a Kind Old Mentor" Palpatine being in the picture for years - and it took Shmi dying a slow,painful death for Obi-Wan to lose the spot.
In RotS,Anakin is more secretive with his life and not very keen on Obi-Wan being in the his non-Jedi life,but also seemed to be more grateful and appreciative of his training.
Gosh,those two are a mess.
