Obitine is still the greatest Star Wars love story ever told

Until Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Anakin and Padmé’s love story was the most forbidden of all. Then viewers learned about Obi-Wan Kenobi’s secret love story, and after that, everything changed.

Obitine — Obi-Wan Kenobi and Satine Kryze — met when Obi-Wan arrived on Mandalore with his Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. The pair was assigned to protect Satine, and Obi-Wan spent a year getting to know her.

The two fell in love, and Obi-Wan later revealed that if Satine had asked him to leave the Jedi Order to be with her, he would have done it.

Though their story ended in tragedy, what makes it the greatest Star Wars romance of all time isn’t just the fact that their bond was technically forbidden — so was Anakin and Padmé’s, and look how that turned out. Rather, Obitine reigns supreme in Star Wars love because of how much it added to the depth of Obi-Wan’s relationship with Anakin.

Fans long suspected that Obi-Wan at the very least knew there were strong feelings between Anakin and Padmé but never reacted. Then in the final season of The Clone Wars, Obi-Wan revealed he knew Anakin was making calls to her in secret. “I hope you at least told Padmé I said hello” all but confirmed he knew something was going on between them. Why didn’t he stop it?

It’s likely he didn’t comment on the relationship because of his past with Satine. Perhaps part of him knew that, even though Jedi were forbidden from forming such risky attachments, there was nothing to gain from pushing Anakin away from the love of his life the way the Jedi had pushed Obi-Wan away from Satine.

Giving Obi-Wan a more complicated backstory to contrast with Anakin’s forbidden romance was a greatly and successfully impactful move for Star Wars. On top of everything else, it made Obi-Wan’s love and respect for Anakin even more powerful. There are many types of love, many of which are displayed in various Star Wars stories. Sometimes loving someone means letting them go. Sometimes, it means letting them make their own mistakes, no matter how dangerous.

Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at Dork Side of the Force!