Work Text:
"This is Obi-Wan Kenobi: A phenomenal pilot who doesn’t like to fly. A devastating warrior who’d rather not fight. A negotiator without peer who frankly prefers to sit alone in a quiet cave and meditate. Jedi Master. General in the Grand Army of the Republic. Member of the Jedi Council. He is respected throughout the Jedi Order for his insight as well as his warrior skill. He has become the hero of the next generation of Padawans; he is the Jedi their Masters hold up as a model. He is the being that the Council assigns to their most important missions. He is modest, centered, and always kind. He is the ultimate Jedi. It is characteristic of Obi-Wan that he is entirely unaware of this."
That was then, in the before. And now, for the after.
This is Obi-Wan Kenobi: A phenomenal pilot who will never fly. A devastating warrior who refused to kill. A negotiator without peer who will live out his life as a hermit in a quiet cave. Jedi Master to a betraying apprentice. General in the Grand Army of the dead Republic. Member of the failed Jedi Council. He is wanted throughout the galaxy for his mere, traitorous existence. He was the hero of a generation of slaughtered younglings; he is the Jedi responsible for their deaths. He is the being to whom the Council assigned their final mission. He is heartbroken, forever tragic and lives without meaning. He is a Jedi in name only. It is characteristic of Obi-Wan that he is entirely aware of this.
Greatness was never his ambition. He only wants to perform whatever task he is given to the best of his ability. He became the great Jedi Qui-Gon always said he could be, but at the one task he undertook that truly mattered, he failed. A Jedi does not cling to the past, but to Obi-Wan the past is important- it is a reminder of his mistakes and failures.
And he is one of the last of the Jedi Order. He had not imagined this, does not know where to look to for guidance, but he is Obi-Wan Kenobi- he will figure it out. A Jedi does not cling to the past but is mindful of the present and looks to the future.
But what does a Jedi do when there is no future to look to? What does a Jedi do when there only stretches out before him blankness, and the remnants of death?
That is not to say the fate of the galaxy is as bleak. Obi-Wan knows- he can see, if only dimly- that there lurks a light in the shade, a new hope for the galaxy. But not for him, of that too he is well aware, there is no hope in the future-his time, as his kind, is gone; only the bright memories of days gone by to hold on to and only the lurking shadows of his past to hide from.
The prospect of death, of becoming one with the Force, of no pain, loss, fear or betrayal, is not unwelcome.