Duel on Mustafar/Legends

"I have failed you, Anakin. I have failed you." "I should've known the Jedi were plotting to take over!" "Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine is evil!" "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil." "Well, then you are lost!"

- Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader

The Duel on Mustafar was the event in the Great Jedi Purge in which Darth Vader was almost killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi on planet Mustafar, and would later be transformed into his cybernetic form. It would prove a decisive moment in galactic history; had Vader not suffered his injuries, he would have become twice as powerful as his master.

Prelude
"If you're not with me, then you're my enemy!" "Only a Sith deals in absolutes. I will do what I must." "You will try!"

- Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi

The duel occurred in the aftermath of the Mission to Mustafar, in which Darth Vader slaughtered the Separatist Council and ended the Clone Wars. He met up with his wife, Padmé Amidala, during the aftermath of the massacre. Obi-Wan Kenobi, hiding in the cargo hold of her Naboo Skiff, appeared to Vader, making it seem like it was a trap laid out by Padmé. In his rage, Vader strangled his wife to near death, knocking her unconscious. The former best friends were forced to confront each other in battle.

The Duel
"It's over, Anakin! I have the high ground!" "You underestimate my power!" "Don't try it!"

- Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader



The two battled each other on the landing platform and made their way through the hallways of Klegger Corp Mining Facility. In the conference room, Vader and Kenobi each tried to kick each other mutiple times, in which Anakin forced Kenobi's lightsaber handle into his throat, temporarily paralyzing him, and attempted to decapitate his former master. Kenobi held off as best he could. Kenobi managed to fling himself out of his former Padawan's grasp. Then, he knocked Anakin down and called his lightsaber to his hand, thinking he could put Anakin at blade-point, forcing a surrender. He failed and the two proceeded into the control room. The two forced each other into opposite ends of the room with a combined Force push. Attempting to kill Kenobi, Vader jumped at the Jedi and missed, accidentally destroying the controls for the facility's shields, allowing heat and flying lava to weaken the collection arm systems outside the complex.

As the two dueled on, Anakin forced Kenobi back in a furious attack. While this was going on the lava collection arms outside, the lack of shielding proved too much for the superstructure, bringing it down. It smashed into the river of lava, and both contestants barely held on for dear life. The lava river below dragged the collection arm down a lava-fall and nearly killed Vader. However, both he and Kenobi managed to leap off the arm, landing on a droid lava collector and a repulsorlift platform, respectively.

Fall of Vader
"You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!" "I HATE YOU!" "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader

It was then that Kenobi accepted that Anakin was consumed by Vader, and realized the Sith before him would have to die. As the two dueled their way to the shore, Obi-Wan leapt, gaining the high ground over Vader. In his rage and overconfidence, Vader made a blunder and risked his life jumping over Obi-Wan, losing half of his left arm and his two legs severed around the knees in a blink of an eye, leaving him with no full organic limbs, making him unable to use force lightning. He tumbled down to the shoreline, maimed and immobilized.

Kenobi took Anakin's blue lightsaber whilst sorrowfully expressing his regrets. Vader's clothing ignited from the nearby lava at Mustafar's hot shore, burning him horribly. Kenobi refused to kill the Sith Lord, believing that his ultimate fate would be decided by the Force, and left Vader for dead as the flames slowly calmed down from the graphic immolation he witnessed.

Aftermath
"Obi-Wan? Is Anakin all right?"

- Padmé Amidala



Palpatine, sensing that his new apprentice was in grave danger, left Coruscant after a duel with Jedi Grand Master Yoda, and, accompanied by a squad of shock troopers, journeyed to Mustafar in a Theta shuttle. They landed in the Klegger Corp Mining Facility and recovered the dying Sith apprentice. Darth Vader's maimed, crippled and burned body was taken to Coruscant and the Emperor Palpatine Surgical Reconstruction Center for treatment in order to save his life. There, he was transformed into a cyborg. Darth Vader would wear a respirator and full body suit for the rest of his life.

Padmé Amidala's injuries on Mustafar, as well as the horror of seeing her husband consumed by the dark side, led to her death in childbirth&mdash;giving birth to Luke and Leia&mdash;on Polis Massa. Kenobi went into exile after helping to deliver Anakin's children on Polis Massa. He took Anakin's infant son Luke to Tatooine to be raised by Anakin's stepbrother and his wife, while his twin sister, Leia went to Alderaan to be raised by Bail Organa and Queen Breha. Kenobi hid on Tatooine, and waited for the day when Luke would be trained as a Jedi.

Obi-Wan, who had assumed Vader was dead for good, was shocked to learn that he was still alive after watching a HoloNet news report in a cantina on Tatooine about Vader's victory at Kashyyyk. Qui Gon's Force ghost, however, told Obi-Wan that Vader would never return to Tatooine, as that was where the last remnant of Anakin Skywalker was.

23 years later, Darth Vader confronted Luke Skywalker onboard the second Death Star. The young Skywalker tried to use high ground for his advantage. Apparently, Vader learned from his mistake at Mustafar and did not follow Skywalker, but used saber throw instead.

Behind the scenes

 * During the animatics stage, Steven Spielberg participated in the production of this duel.
 * In the video game version, an alternate ending would have Obi-Wan getting impaled through the torso, and Vader getting his new red lightsaber from Darth Sidious, which he would then plunge into Sidious's chest, declaring that he now ruled the Empire. In addition, Padmé was not even present in the duel of the video game and a number of lines were not there.
 * This battle is the second of only two times in the whole Star Wars series that the same colored lightsabers fight each other. The first is Obi-Wan's fight with General Grievous.
 * Star Wars: Complete Locations appears to map the battle incorrectly, showing the combatants abandoning the arm almost immediately, never even making it to the falls, and traveling downriver on the droid and repulsor platform.
 * Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen practiced the duel constantly for several months. As a result of their practice, the speed in which Obi-Wan and Vader engage the duel (in the completed film) is the speed in which it was filmed, and was not digitally accelerated.
 * The Duel on Mustafar is the longest fight scene between two people in Star Wars movie history. The duel went for about 12 minutes.

Appearances



 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novel
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 4
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith game
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * The Farlander Papers
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novel
 * Dark Nest III: The Swarm War