Revenge of the Sith | Deleted Scene | Obi-Wan Visits Padmé
“I am not blind, Padmé. Though I have tried to be, for Anakin’s sake. And for yours. Anakin has loved you since the day you met, in that horrible junk shop on Tatooine. He’s never even tried to hide it, though we do not speak of it. We… pretend that I don’t know. And I was happy to, because it made him happy. You made him happy, when nothing else ever truly could.”
The deleted scene of all SW deleted scenes! The one that the PT fandom would give anything to see but probably never will due to Disney’s anti-Prequels policy: The moment Obi-Wan Kenobi officially admits that he is Anidala shipper and wordlessly confesses that he really does love Anakin Skywalker!
“You love him, too, don’t you?” When he didn’t answer she turned around. He stood motionless, frowning, in the middle of the expanse of the buff carpeting. “You do. You do love him.” He lowered his head. He looked very alone. “Please, do what you can to help him,” he said, and left.
It reveals so much about the relationship between the three, long-time friends, and sheds new light on the complexity of it, but most of all it reveals the extent of Obi-Wan’s love for Anakin when he openly admits to Padmé he has known about their forbidden relationship from the beginning and that not only has he tacitly allowed it but also silently supported it for all those years! (It’s something that got almost completely lost in ROTS, aside the tacit acknowledgement of Padmé’s pregnancy.) It explains so much about his behaviour at the end of AOTC when he sent Anakin to escort Padmé back to Naboo despite the fact that he knew better than anyone else about the possible consequences. It explains his behaviour in the hangar—it’s the moment when he chooses Anakin over the Jedi Order and decides to give him the only thing he knows that can make him happy, Padmé.
Considering he spent all his time with Anakin, Obi-Wan must have been blind not to notice him mysteriously disappearing and the sudden addition of R2 as their new teammate. Though, I’m sure the pragmatist he was Obi-Wan must have thought he still got the better end of the bargain since he didn’t need to listen to C3PO’s statistics on how low his odds of survival were. The saddest thing about it is that Anakin never realized that his friend knew nor how much he was loved by him or how fiercely protective and loyal he was. Just the mere fact that he, the stickler for rules, cared more about Anakin’s happiness and well-being than the Jedi and all their dogmas. What makes it even more special is that his visits follows the moment he told Anakin about his mission to spy on Palpatine, so him going to Padmé was the direct result of it, because Obi-Wan knew how much it hurt and disillusioned him, It shows that Obi-Wan understood Anakin and recognized how much different he was from all the other Jedi and he ACCEPTED HIM, EVERYTHING OF HIM, instead of trying to change him. It’s obvious he wanted to protect his singularity and happiness because he loved this complex, flawed man with all his flaws and weaknesses.
“I was very happy to learn of his appointment to the Council.” - Padmé
“Yes. It is perhaps less than he deserves—though I’m afraid that it can be more than he can handle.” - Obi-Wan
Futhermore, though it is short, this is such an important and private moment between Padmé and Obi-Wan - her husband’s best, and probably only, friend, the closest thing to a brother and a father he had, the man who loved her son and protected him him from the shadows even after he sacrificed himself to save him and his sister. Which was so fitting because in that way he repaid Anakin all those times he had saved his life. Also, it would be awesome to watch Padme’s reaction at hearing Obi-Wan speak about the depth of Anakin’s feelings for her, because here was the man who knew him the best and he was telling her how much and openly her husband loved her, because for all she knew, no one but a couple of droids, a priest and a handful of people loyal to her were aware of her love affair with the Jedi Knight and she no one to confide in about her private life.
Finally, the final part of the scene when Obi-Wan receives the message from Mace Windu about Grievous’s whereabouts reveals the sheer hopeless turmoil Padmé had been living through during her marriage with Anakin—that their time together was limited and that her husband could be called to war any moment and taken away from her.
This scene was cut, when there were a million totally unnecessary to the plot scenes that could’ve been cut instead. Worse, I’m pretty sure most of the Clone Wars books make it seem like Obi-Wan was actually in the dark because the movies weren’t clear if he was or not. This scene would’ve helped fans AND Star Wars authors. I never understood how I was expected to believe that someone as brilliant as Obi-Wan couldn’t figure out his best friend was secretly married. The answer being that he DID know and was quiet to protect them makes way more sense.
In the final season of The Clone Wars (the one that was only on Netflux, I think), Obi-Wan confirms that he’s known for some time that Anakin was in love with Padme, but he thought it was like his relationship with Satine Kryze where they chose duty over being together. (Or rather, that she chose duty and he followed along, as Obi- Wan told Satine at one point that he would have left the Jedi Order if she had asked him to.)
So in the current canon, Obi-Wan DOES know that Anakin is in love with Padme long before Revenge of the Sith (and Ahsoka Tano implied that she knew as well in the previous season) and that there’s a good chance that she reciprocates, but he doesn’t know that they actually got married.
It’s also very telling that Obi-Wan didn’t actually make a move to stop Anakin until AFTER Padme had tried–and after he attacked Padme. Obi-Wan knew that Padme stood a better chance of saving Anakin, that maybe she could bring him back–but when he sensed Anakin’s mood darkening, he moved closer, and when he actually attacked Padme, Obi-Wan finally stepped in.
Even after watching his brother murder children, after seeing all that Anakin had done, it wasn’t until Anakin had tried to kill his own wife that Obi-Wan finally knew he had to be stopped.
