Why did Obiwan not finish off Anakin in ROTS???

[garhkal]

Well, as i got the ok to post this here, have at it.

many other sites have asked people this question, and the answers are interesting to say the least. But in your opinion, why did Obiwan not finish off anakin after he sliced off his hand/legs?
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[Gry Sarth]

Obi Wan never wanted to kill Anakin, from the get-go. He was forced to face him in hopes he might turn him back to the light side. Things didn't fare so well and he ended up slicing and dicing his old friend, and then saw him be burned to a crisp. As far as he knew, Anakin was done for, he couldn't possibly survive much longer in those conditions in that place. He found it unnecessary and welcomed to the idea of not having to actually deliver the killing blow on his old padawan, if he could just leave him to die. So he walked away, confident that Anakin would soon be dead. And he would too, if it wasn't for the dark side keeping him alive long enough for Palp to show up.

That's how I see it.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Argamoth]

Ditto

[Ray]

Only his hate and rage allowed him to survive, calling furthur and furthur upon the Dark Side, corrupting him yet more. A vicious circle of pain and suffering, coming closer and closer to death, and needing more and more of the seductive power to keep his small spark of life from snuffing out.

All he had was the pain, the suffering, the humiliation. Those, and his thoughts.

His thoughts were the worst. Would he ever see Padme again? Would she be all right? Would their child survive?

That small flicker of light gave him even more power, and allowed him to survive long enough to see his new Master start walking towards him...

[Scrawprin]

As it was mentioned a couple of times in the movie, Obi-wan thought of Anakin like a brother. After the adrenaline rush of fending off his friend's fury and obviously incapacitating him, the reality of it all started to sink in and he probably couldn't go up to his defenseless ex-friend and finish the job; emotions got in the way. And he may also have realized that it was best to just let Anakin die on the planet (Anakin displayed so much rage and hate that Obi felt he was to far gone to be brought back to the Light side).

:twocents:
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Team ORJ

[KageRyu]

Yup, Obi thought of Ani like a brother. He even begged Yoda not to send him to face Ani. Even before the final stroke of the fight, Obi begged Ani, "Don't make me do this!" So, he figured the lava would finish him off. He never wanted to kill Ani, and tried througout the fight to turn him back to the light.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[scott2978]

It's interesting to theorize what the Star Wars universe would be like if Obi Wan had killed Anakin that day...

[Gry Sarth]

Yeah, I wonder if it would really make much of a difference. I mean, do you think the newly-created empire would crumble right away if Darth Vader wasn't around?

To me the prequels greatly diminished Darth Vader's importance in forging the Empire and wiping out the Jedi, from what I had originally imagined.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Jedi Skyler]

I have to agree with that. Sure, there's only so much one can put in a two-hour or so movie, so I can understand the use of Order 66. But to portray it in such a way as to make it seem that Yoda and Obi Wan were indeed the only two to survive takes away from a whole host of information already put out about the Purge, the Grand Inquisitors, and the like. Darth Vader was supposedly the driving force behind the extermination of the Jedi, yet Order 66 casts a shadow on that idea.

And I have to also agree with Gry on his take on the issue of "Why not?" For all intents and purposes, Anakin was as good as dead. He was being burned to a crisp as Obi Wan walked away, and Obi Wan took Ani's lightsaber- his only weapon- with him when he left. So he left Anakin defenseless and helpless; in other words, Anakin WOULD have died had Palpatine not come by in time to save him. Obi Wan begged Yoda to send him after Palpatine because he COULDN'T kill Anakin. So it's not at all hard to see why he didn't deliver the killing strike personally.

And going on all the information that came out before the prequels, had Obi Wan actually killed Anakin at that point, the galaxy would actually have been several billion people larger in size. Sure, Palpatine was in control, and sure, he groomed individuals to be Dark Side Adepts, Emperor's Hands, and Grand Inquisitors, but there was not a single one that came close to being Vader's equal. Palpatine said it himself to Yoda- "He will become more powerful than you OR me!" I think that ridding the galaxy of that kind of potential could have only helped.

But then we wouldn't have a basis for one of pop culture's absolute FAVORITE villians! 8)