So, I just finished re-reading "Revenge of the Sith". Not skimming it for the story, really reading it and taking notes. As you may be able to tell, I've been struck with serious insomnia (it's 2:38 AM where I'm at right now). I figured I can post this and see what you guys think.

It's the end of the saber duel, and Anakin is laying, nearly limbless, in the lava rock on Mustafar. Obi-Wan is standing above him.

"Obi-Wan ... ?"

I don't remember exactly how this was done in the movie - or if it was - as I've said, I've only seen the movie once. I'm using the book because there is so much more characterization in it.

But back to where I was going. Anakin speaks Obi-Wan's name. This could have been the turning point for this whole black night that has fallen on the Order, on the Republic, on the Galaxy.

Obi-Wan, at that point, could have saved him.

But he had been betrayed by the one man he cared about so much that he couldn't even admit it to himself. He had seen his brother cut down innocent Jedi, and innocent younglings, that the Order had promised to protect. He had seen him pledge allegiance to the Sith Lord that was slowly tearing democracy apart. He had had his heart set aflame and crushed watching hard evidence of Anakin's betrayal on the Temple's security holovid. Obi-Wan had had to let go his entire life up until that night, thanks to Anakin and his betrayal.

At that point, I don't think Obi-Wan had it in him to forgive Anakin. And I don't think he can be faulted for that.

I can understand that more than I can understand any of Anakin's actions after he apparently lost his dang mind. While it does not give Obi-Wan the moral high ground, by this point - after seeing everything he'd seen at the Temple, and watching Anakin choke his pregnant wife into unconsciousness - perhaps Obi-Wan finally realized that Anakin had always been chafing under the Order's discipline, that Anakin had always been prideful, and angry, and headstrong, and impulsive ... and that he always would be.

But ... one has to wonder how the course of Galactic history would have been changed if, instead of venting his pain on Anakin, Obi-Wan had scrambled down the bank and lifted his former student out of the lava and flames. If he had pulled Anakin back from the pit of the hell Anakin had thrown himself headlong into. If, at the end, he would have been able to do the impossible (given his lifetime of training): forgive the Sith Lord, and see past the trappings to the man crying out for help. I think his forgiveness might have redeemed Anakin, even at that late hour. All through the book, reference is made to how Anakin views Palpatine as the most human of everyone he talked to - the "human" touch on his arm, the ease with which he could talk to him. I believe that Obi-Wan pulling Anakin out would prove once and for all that Obi-Wan was who Anakin should have been looking to all along.

Bearing this theory out, in Palpatine's office as he's bombarding Anakin with lures to come to the Dark Side, all Anakin wants to do is talk to Obi-Wan. If Obi-Wan had been there, and Anakin had said those nine words to him, instead of Mace ... the entire course of history would have been altered. Anakin would have fulfilled his destiny without 21 years of suffering commencing in the interim.

However, I can't fault Obi-Wan for what he felt he had to do. Anakin had turned against the Order, against his former Master, against his wife ... against everyone who had been there for him, including Palpatine (although Obi-Wan obviously didn't know that ... or did he? How close was their connection?). Already, on Mustafar, Anakin is already arrogantly dismissing the Emperor, planning his takeover, and taking the same snooty attitude as he did with the Jedi. That alone makes me think that Obi-Wan did the right thing by leaving Anakin where he was.

While this choice broke Obi-Wan's heart once and for all (notice how older Ben barely ever smiles, while younger Obi-Wan used to?), it was what he had to do. What-ifs can kill you; I'm sure Obi-Wan hashed over them many times while he was out in the Jundland Wastes. For only 19 years passing, Obi-Wan sure got really old-looking ... guilt and regret can do that to you. I think that no matter how hard he tried to "let it go", that a part of that dual and the final disintegration of that relationship haunted him the rest of his days, until he saw Anakin rejoin him in the Force. And can you imagine how overwhelming that must have been for Obi-Wan, to see his student again, by his side? Wow.