No matter what happened on Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, there was no way it was going to match Mustafar. Back in 2005, audiences saw Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) fight to the near-death on the lava planet in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. George Lucas’ visuals in the scene were stunning on their own, but John Williams’ music, titled “Battle of the Heroes,” really brought the scene together. The music beautifully illustrated all of the built-up tension and fear those two characters were feeling in a way only Star Wars can.
Almost 20 years later, Anakin and Obi-Wan met again—twice, actually. This time, Anakin might have had the full Darth Vader armor from the original Star Wars trilogy, but he also still had that same distaste for Kenobi. Their battles on the Disney+ show were suitably epic, but even composer Natalie Holt’s excellent new score couldn’t quite match the emotion of John Williams’ original. That’s why YouTube user CineVore, via Nerdist, took those scenes, edited them together, and set it to “Battle of the Heroes.” Instantly, Vader and Kenobi are in a much, much more emotional battle. Check it out.
Some may wonder why director Deborah Chow didn’t just do this: use that same music as Revenge of the Sith as a way to parallel the importance of these two facing off. And while we don’t know specifically if that choice was ever on the table, we can safely speculate about why. Themes get reused a lot in Star Wars—but rarely, outside of the opening fanfare, does that extend to a full-on retread of the exact same piece of music for several minutes in a row. Williams writes these scores with very particular scenes in mind. And this battle, cool as it may be, is simply not supposed to be as dramatic and terrifying as the first one. So not using the music isn’t just an easy choice, it’s not a choice at all. It’s a different time, a different place, with characters who have changed. And yet, it’s pretty damned cool to see it play out like this for fun, right?
All six episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are now on Disney+.
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