Does Heavy "Force" Use Cause Dementia In Elder Jedi? Or Was Obi-Wan Just Kind Of A Dick?

What is it with Jedi and severe memory loss?

If you think about the Star Wars Saga from start to finish, one thing is glaringly obvious by episode IV: Obi-Wan Kenobi suffers from dementia.

Kenobi, as well as Yoda for that matter, black out and forget multiple very impactful events and figures in their lives.

Or do they…

I have written previously about how Jedi are the galaxy’s worst mentors. All their Padawans end up either falling to the dark side, losing a hand before being killed or all of the above. This includes Obi-Wan Kenobi (still has hands, but dead), Count Dooku (both hands and dead), Anakin Skywalker (one hand and dead), Luke Skywalker (one hand but still kicking) and Ben Solo (still has his hands, but fell to the dark side).

In Obi-wan’s case, he either blacked out the first 40 years or so of his life due to some serious Midichlorian induced dementia (perhaps brought on by PTSD from the Clone Wars) or he is simply kind of a dick!

Some of the early signs of dementia are anti-social behavior, abrasiveness towards others and of course absent mindedness.

A small case could be made for PTSD which I will address in a bit but for now, let’s explore the dementia theory.

Let’s look at a few examples:

1. What is more antisocial than exiling yourself to a desert planet that is the farthest from the bright center of the universe?

The rationale used by Obi-Wan and Yoda to bury their heads in the sand (and swamp) at the end of episode III was rather stupid. But was it brought on by early dementia? I doubt a couple military generals in their right mind would decide the best course of action is to let their foe consolidate power, hone their powers and continue to build their army for decades while the generals age horribly and let their powers dwindle away.

Apparently 20 years in the desert ages a Jedi pretty hard.

2. He hands Luke a lightsaber business end first and doesn’t warn him about the ignite button.

The Jedi academy must have had some type of “weapons safety course” for Padawans right? The equivalent of the “treat every gun as if it were loaded” type rule they beat into you during any gun safety course (or any common sense life course). If Luke had just hit the button by mistake, this movie that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away would have been a really short.

3. Like Yoda, he forgets about R2-D2 as well.

I am willing to give Yoda a pass on forgetting R2-D2. They only had a few scenes together in the prequels after all and probably had their most interactions bumping into each other at the food trucks or kiddie urinals between takes.

He was 900 years old by the time he met Luke and probably should have been put into some type of intergalactic assisted living center. He was pretty senile, hunchbacked and wore that same robe around the house everyday. Much like most our grandfathers do before we ship them off to a home.

 

 

However unlike Yoda, Kenobi and R2-D2 had a lot of history together. While technically Kenobi is correct that he never “owned” R2, they still saw some serious $#!T together! How was R2 not terribly offended by that “I don’t remember ever owning a droid” remark!?!

Kenobi and R2 went through multiple battles, death-defying adventures and 3 prequels worth of horribly written dialogue together. How could he not remember the Star Wars galaxy’s favorite droid!

And don’t tell me he acted like he didn’t remember the droid “to protect Luke from blah blah blah…” The reason I don’t believe that? See the previous and the following examples…

4. Kenobi ghosted idly around while Luke open-mouthed kissed his sister!

Ok, so Kenobi wasn’t in the room at the time, but he was still able to manifest in front of Luke both before the event and after, so he could have warned Luke.

Even a vague warning like “Now Luke, I know Leia is attractive, but that sort of thing is frowned upon anywhere outside the rural Appalachians…”

So do we assume he temporarily forget about Leia? How is that possible?

He was there at her birth!

I have been present at a birth and take my word for it: YOU DO NOT FORGET ANY IT! ANY. OF. IT! 

Side note: This picture brings up a topic for a whole other article: What the hell kind of prenatal care was Padme getting? She didn’t know she was having twins!?! The Senate’s health insurance didn’t cover ultrasounds? Kenobi in the room at the time with no mask and wearing battle torn clothing stained with the ash and blood of Luke’s own father!?! Then Padme dies of a “broken heart”!?!  This is a long discussion for another day.

He remembers about her in Return of the Jedi because when Luke questioned him about the “other” Yoda spoke of, Kenobi said that is “your twin sister.” So did he forget about the twin and Yoda just reminded him of her off screen between episodes V & VI? Or…

Is Kenobi a male chauvinist jerk?

Ok, so we have already established that Kenobi was present at the twins’ birth. We do not need to relive the birth scene again.

This brings our question back: did Kenobi simply forget about Leia? Or did he just dismiss her as being of no hope because she is a woman?

After this scene was cut, was Kenobi making jokes about Leia having no chance because women “lacked a lightsaber” or some crack about her belonging in a kitchen?

Maybe he honestly forgot about her and responded with a simple “Oh yeah! I forgot about the chick!”

Either way, it doesn’t look good for the old Jedi.

So what do you think?

Was it Midichlorian induced dementia brought on by convincing too many Stormtroopers that the droids were not the ones they were looking for?

Is Kenobi just kind of an ass?

Was the dialogue of the prequels just terribly written? (Just kidding, we all know the answer to that one.)

Leave your comments below.