Obi-Wan Kenobi lied to Luke Skywalker in the original The Empire Strikes Back. While Kenobi’s description of Anakin and Darth Vader being two separate people was a lie within context, Lucas shared Obi-Wan’s point of view, demonstrating this in his 2004 DVD special edition of Return of the Jedi.
The Star Wars film series was initially made with Obi-Wan’s description being true from all points of view, with even The Empire Strikes Back’s first story treatment confirming that Anakin and Vader were separate people. It wasn’t until Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan revised Leigh Brackett’s story that Darth Vader’s identity as Anakin was added, becoming one of cinema’s most famous plot twists. This allowed Return of the Jedi to give Luke and Vader astoundingly compelling character arcs, with Luke seeking to redeem his father as he fights his own internal battle with the dark side of the Force.
Thanks to sentiment rather than might, Luke redeemed his father, who killed Emperor Palpatine but was mortally wounded in the process. In Return of the Jedi’s finale, Luke saw the Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker looking on alongside Obi-Wan and Yoda, but the 2004 DVD special edition (and all subsequent re-releases) replaced Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christenson, proving that George Lucas saw Anakin and Vader as different people. In subsequent interviews, Lucas explained that the change not only connected the original and prequel trilogies but also showed that Anakin’s Force ghost went back to where it last left off, which was as the good man who was Anakin, not the monster he became as Darth Vader.
Obi-Wan was heartbroken to see Anakin, his best friend, and former padawan, killing fellow Jedi in the temple’s security footage and couldn’t bring himself to kill him. Yoda explained that the man he once knew was twisted by the dark side and consumed by Darth Vader, which Obi-Wan had to believe in order to go after him. Obi-Wan would use a similar approach for Luke, as shown in the original trilogy.
Anakin’s children were essential to Obi-Wan and Yoda’s plan to defeat the Sith and bring the Jedi back, so although Obi-Wan’s lie to Luke was morally dubious, especially considering that he would have had him unknowingly commit patricide, Kenobi felt that what he did was right. Kenobi was defending Anakin’s honor but also speaking to Luke from the same point of view that he had to adopt when going after Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith. For Obi-Wan to accept killing his former pupil (or sending another to do so), he had to believe that Anakin and Vader were different people, so he was lying to himself as much as he was to Luke.
Obi-Wan’s point of view was not completely out of line, however, as the dark side changes a person when they’re consumed by it. Using the dark side takes a toll on Force-s, removing who they truly are and corrupting them into the horrific perversions of themselves. Anakin made a Faustian bargain in the Star Wars prequels to save his wife, becoming Darth Vader but losing himself in the process. George Lucas demonstrated his belief in this view excellently with his new version of Return of the Jedi’s ending.
