Star Wars: Incredible theory shines NEW light on moment Darth Vader kills Obi-Wan Kenobi

The post on Reddit by user mybustersword has been 97% upvoted and garnered support from thousands of users.

The scene, in the original 1977 Star Wars movie A New Hope, sees Vader coming face-to-face with his old master, Obi-Wan.

It’s the first time the two meet since Vader, formerly Anakin Skywalker, dons the iconic villain’s outfit and succumbs fully to Emperor Palpatine.

When he kills Obi-Wan with a strike of his lightsaber, Obi-Wan’s entire body disappears, leaving only robes on the floor.

This was after Obi-Wan warned him that if he did commit the murder, the wise older Jedi would “become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”.

There’s a beat after the death when Vader appears to nudge the robe, though his face – through the mask – is of course unreadable. Fans have assumed he was confused by the body disappearing, but this theory puts a new spin on it.

The theorist wrote: “Vader wasn’t as confused as he was surprised. He knew what happened, Obi Wan warned him that he would be more powerful if struck down.

“He gives a hint to the power he was promised by Palpatine, eternal life. A power he could not get from a a Jedi.”

They added: “Yet we know that in Episode II Qui-Gon has contacted–in a way – Anakin during his slaughter of the sand people. He heard his voice.

“We can assume Qui Gon had been contacting Anakin/Vader in some way throughout his life, and if we assume that Vader has at least had a suspicion of becoming one with the force, it brings much more context to Vader awkwardly pushing around the robe after Obi-Wan disappeared.”

This, if true, makes the scene more significant than anyone really realised.

“He can’t believe what happened. He can’t believe it’s true, the Jedi can teach eternal life, Palpatine lied to him, and he’s been manipulated the entire time,” the Redditor went on.

“This is the turning point we see in Vader this early on in the trilogy, and gives more credence to his turn from the Emperor and request to Luke to join him.

“This is the moment he learned the true nature of the dark side.”

One of the top comments, from user sjogerst, reads: “I like this. I like that he goes from taunting ‘your powers are weak, old man!’ to ‘wtf, did he just vanish? wait a minute, I still feel his presence. wtf is going on here?’

“It really highlights why he was never made a Master. Yes there was the whole politics parts of the Jedi but overall Anakin never embraced the Force as anything but a means to more and more power.

“A true Master knows that the real power behind the force is knowledge and enlightenment of the universe. Vader watches Obi Wan literally achieve a form of enlightenment in front of him and is left with broken confidence that his path has led him away from such power.

“I like to think Vader heard Godmode Obi Wan shout ‘RUN, LUKE, RUN!!’ [which happens moments later] loud and clear.”

Luke Skywalker went on to have a similar death in Episode 8 – not directly at the hands of anyone in particular, just on his own on Ahch-To – as if becoming at one with the Force.

Mark Hamill is reprising the role for Episode 9, so we’ll have to wait and see if we learn more about life after death for such Jedi.