Obi-Wan Kenobi (spoilers)

[Maxperson]

But presumably killing Dooku was the first big step on the path/in that direction.

No. It wasn't. He was on that path from the moment Qui-Gon found him as an angry and fearful child. Yoda saw that right away. It wasn't the beheading of Dooku. It was the anger and vengeance behind it that pushed him farther along the path.

 

[Davies]

The point being, they both felt he should be dead for the good of the Galaxy.

Or they were lying or just plain naughty word wrong. Your refusal to deal with the fact that it was Vader who defeated the Emperor, not Luke, does you no credit.

 

[Zaukrie]

Or they were lying or just plain naughty word wrong. Your refusal to deal with the fact that it was Vader who defeated the Emperor, not Luke, does you no credit.

Which has nothing to do with decisions to that point, unless Obi knew the future, in which case it was preordained and nothing matters.

 

[MoonSong]

Probably they lost faith.

The story arc does parallel LotR, in that if Vader had been killed earlier, he wouldn't be around to defeat the Emperor*, and if Gollum had been killed earlier, he wouldn't be around to destroy the ring once Frodo was finally corrupted. In both cases evil contains the seeds of its own destruction, and fate/The Force required that the good people give mercy to the evil and corrupt.

(*I'm ignoring Episode IX, as it bringing back the Emperor is trash)

Headcannon episodes vii+ happened in an alternate timeline where Luke didn't redeem Vader and managed to overpower Sidious, but failed to propperly finish the job.

 

[billd91]

How is letting him walk away to keep killing a good act?

This kind of reasoning comes up a lot in various stories from the Avengers: Endgame to Minority Report. But you have to weigh being responsible for someone else abusing the mercy you've shown them vs not showing anybody mercy. Is it good to murder a baby if that baby turns out, in the future, to be a monster?

There's no perfect answer to the issue. Is it good to show mercy to a murderer? Are you responsible for the things he later does of his own free will if you do show mercy?

 

[Davies]

Hence my desire that something keeps Obi from killing him.

Something does keep Obi-Wan from killing him -- Obi-Wan's pity for the self-loathing monster that Darth Vader reveals himself to be. The fact that you view this as nothing does you no credit.

 

[billd91]

Which has nothing to do with decisions to that point, unless Obi knew the future, in which case it was preordained and nothing matters.

Well, if Obi-Wan doesn't know the future, he can't know that Vader will go on killing and thus be party to the evil he commits.

 

[Ryujin]

This kind of reasoning comes up a lot in various stories from the Avengers: Endgame to Minority Report. But you have to weigh being responsible for someone else abusing the mercy you've shown them vs not showing anybody mercy. Is it good to murder a baby if that baby turns out, in the future, to be a monster?

There's no perfect answer to the issue. Is it good to show mercy to a murderer? Are you responsible for the things he later does of his own free will if you do show mercy?

Without mercy, Batman's "rogues gallery" would have a far shorter list.

 

[Davies]

There's no perfect answer to the issue. Is it good to show mercy to a murderer? Are you responsible for the things he later does of his own free will if you do show mercy?

Edgelord: If you let him live, you're as good as killing everyone he later kills!
Me: Am I then responsible for all the lives he saves in the process?
Edgelord: What? What the hell are you talking --
Me: If he kills someone who would then kill five people, those five people are going to die if he doesn't kill the first person. If I kill him, I've killed those five people. And what if one of those five people will save countless lives in the future? By killing him and thus them, I've killed countless lives.
Edgelord: You can't know --
Me: Oh, so this morality play you've set up only works the way you want it to? How convenient. Go play with someone else. I have control only over my own choices and do not seek anything else. Anyone who does seek that is a tyrant in the making, and I would inevitably be one of the bodies in the foundation of any utopia they seek to create.

 

[Zaukrie]

Something does keep Obi-Wan from killing him -- Obi-Wan's pity for the self-loathing monster that Darth Vader reveals himself to be. The fact that you view this as nothing does you no credit.

I never said don't have pity. I never said his story isn't tragic and sad. I said he let a known murderer go free. Did nothing to detain him, at the minimum. Did nothing to stop him from continuing. Just walked away.

To be clear, people are saying it is ok to kill Vader in combat, but not to stop him from doing what you know he'll do in the future, right? How many children did he have to kill for anyone to think they should stop him? I assume bombing his home is also out, since he can't defend himself?

Again, I'd have been much happier had there been another reason Vader lives, than a warrior looking at his fallen foe, and deciding it was ok to let him live and keep hunting every force sensitive in the galaxy.

I'm ok with people disagreeing, and I'm pretty sure I've made enough posts here....