The Revenge Of The Sith Video Game's Alternate Ending Killed Obi-Wan Kenobi (And Palpatine)
The Prequel Trilogy remains a fascinating thing within the larger "Star Wars" canon. It's a mixed bag that angered many lovers of the series at the time of its release and yet, for a new generation, it's the "Star Wars" they group up with and wholly embrace, in no small part thanks to "The Clone Wars" TV series expanding that corner of the galaxy greatly. One thing that is widely agreed upon, however, is that 2005's "Revenge of the Sith," aka Episode III, is the best of the bunch. It's also maybe the biggest "What if?" moment in the history of the franchise, as the events could have unfolded any number of ways. The tie-in video game that was released along with the movie included an alternate ending that would have – not to be dramatic — changed the course of "Star Wars" history as we know it.
As was more common at the time, the movie had a tie-in game that also hit shelves in 2005. Published by the now-defunct LucasArts, "Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith" was released on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 to coincide with the release of the film in theaters. Famously, the film concludes with Obi-Wan Kenobi reluctantly defeating Anakin Skywalker in a heartbreaking duel on Mustafar. Anakin is left for dead and limbless on the shores of the lava-soaked planet, only for Palpatine to find him and turn him into the Sith Lord we all know as Darth Vader. The alternate ending plays out very differently, to say the least.
That leaves much to discuss. The alternate ending attached to the game sees Anakin successfully besting his former master, leaving Obi-Wan Kenobi for dead on Mustafar instead of the other way around. And by the looks of things, Obi-Wan won't be brought back to life with a fancy suit.
A fascinating What if? for the Star Wars galaxy
Even more fascinating is the fact that Anakin takes the whole thing a step further. Rather than waiting more than 20 years and two Death Stars later, he just kills Palpatine right then and there. This makes Darth Vader the sole ruler of the galaxy and the leader of the Empire. But not the scary, armor-clad Vader that audiences first came to know in 1977. Rather, this would just be Anakin in his human form who had fully succumbed to the dark side. The ramifications of this outcome are hard to wrap one's head around. What would become of the galaxy under this version of Vader's rule?
Yes, Anakin had gone full-blown evil at this point. Let us not forget that he killed all of those younglings in addition to striking down Obi-Wan. There's really no coming back from that. What he saves us from in this version, however, is decades of Palpatine's rule. Would Vader rule the galaxy more diplomatically without having to answer to the Emperor? It's questions like that we're left to consider when looking at this version of events unfolding. Maybe the Rebellion never defeats the Empire in this version. And who knows? Maybe they don't need to. Maybe things don't go as poorly. We'll never know.
Granted, there's no evidence to suggest that Lucas ever considered this ending for the film. We do know that other endings were considered that never made it to theaters, including one where Padme tried to kill Anakin. This is also pretty outdated and the graphics don't hold a candle to modern standards. The alternate ending doesn't exactly unfold cinematically. Be that as it may, it leaves fans to ponder all the same.
A tale only video games could tell
Aside from completely altering the "Star Wars" canon as we know it, this alternate ending does bring to mind major changes that have occurred over the last 15 years or so when it comes to have these major franchises are managed beyond the screen. For starters, we don't really have too many direct movie tie-in video games anymore, even though they were once big business, for better or worse. Yes, we still get video games tied to big franchises, but they don't just rehash the stories from the films.
In the case of a galaxy far, far away, Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, which put "Star Wars" in the hands of the biggest media company on the planet. That resulted in the sequel trilogy, bringing live-action "Star Wars" to TV with shows like "The Mandalorian," and most importantly, creating a united canon. Disney ejected what we used to know as the Expanded Universe and has since dubbed those tales as Legends. From 2014 forward, everything released — from books to video games — would be canon right alongside the movies.
That allowed Disney to clean things up and create a cohesive galaxy for these stories to exist in, yes. That much is true. But it does mean, for the most part, that "What if?" things like this have a much harder time getting through. Do we all need to mourn the loss of middling tie-in games? Not really, but having to be so married to a well-managed canon does take some interesting stuff off the table.