Duel on Mustafar

The Duel on Mustafar was a confrontation during the Great Jedi Purge in 19 BBY, where the recently-apprenticed Sith Lord Darth Vader fought his former best friend and Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Outer Rim planet of Mustafar. After gaining knowledge of Skywalker's downfall from Grand Master Yoda at the Jedi Temple, Kenobi arrived on Mustafar. The Jedi tried to reason with Vader and could not believe that the dark lord, Emperor Palpatine, who was identified as Darth Sidious&mdash;his alter ego, was controlling his mind. Vader no longer wanted to care for their friendship any longer and soon claimed Kenobi was his enemy.

Kenobi and Vander ignited their lightsabers and locked blades; the two former friends fought into the murder scene in the Klegger Corp Mining Facility, where Vader had previously slaughtered the members of the Separatist Council, the legislative branch of the now-defunct Confederacy of Independent Systems. The fight progressed on the structures of the massive facility that hovered over the deadly lava of Mustafar. Kenobi and Vader soon found themselves trapped on a structure collection arm connected on the facility when it was cut by the lava and descended onto a hot stream. Kenobi managed to fall onto a lava skiff that was heading in the opposite direction of the fallen collection arm in the stream. Vader soon followed and jumped onto a droid collector where the two continued to fight.

Kenobi managed to jump onto a high lava bend slope, and claimed that the duel was over due to his advantage. The Sith followed, but Vader failed to notice Kenobi's final blow, a Mou kei maneuver, which cost Vader his remaining organic limbs. Vader rolled down to the edge of the lava bend, and Kenobi painfully told Vader that he believed that Vader was the Chosen One and his destiny was to destroy the Sith, but instead he joined them. Unable to connect with his former best friend, the Sith was ignited by the fires of the lava that leaked onto the lava bend; leaving Vader to die, Kenobi retreated and took his former apprentice's fallen lightsaber. Vader's master, Palpatine found the injured Vader and took him back to the galactic capital of Coruscant to be resurrected with the suit he would wear for the rest of his life.

Prelude
The Great Jedi Purge had began after three years of fighting between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic, which reorganized into the Galactic Empire soon after Palpatine revealed himself to be Darth Sidious to Jedi Master Mace Windu. Anakin Skywalker approached Palpatine and Windu in the rising climax of their duel in Palpatine's Chancellor office in Coruscant. Windu was betrayed by Skywalker when the Jedi Knight severed Windu's lightsaber hand when Windu attempted to murder Palpatine to end the corruption of the Sith. Palpatine, who had fallen after Windu kicked him on the edge of the window in his office, blasted Force lightning on Windu and pushed him out the window to fall to his death. The death of Windu caused much turmoil in Skywalker and was convinced by Palpatine to join the dark side and become his new apprentice. Palpatine had dubbed Skywalker to Darth Vader, and concluded his plan to seduce Skywalker to the dark side with the fear of losing his wife, Padmé Amidala

Vader wanted to learn of the mysterious Sith power which Palpatine had told him few days before in the Galaxies Opera House in Coruscant, that could ultimately save his wife, Amidala. She would die from child birth due to the dreams that Skywalker had after the crucial Battle of Coruscant, in which CIS forces invaded the Republic capital to kidnap Palpatine. In order to grow strong within the dark side to learn the power, Palpatine had sent Vader to the Jedi Temple to kill every Jedi to end the "Jedi Rebellion", which began with the attempt on Palpatine's life by Windu. Vader was sent to the Mustafar system after he had killed all the Jedi in the Jedi Temple to end the Clone Wars by killing the remainder of the Separatist council. In the aftermath of the Mission to Mustafar, in which Vader slaughtered the Separatist Council, Security holograms in the Jedi Temple revealed Operation: Knightfall to Obi-Wan Kenobi, who witnessed the fall of his former apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, to the dark side of the Force. Skywalker began murdering Jedi with the help of the 501st Legion, who normally accompanied Skywalker during the Clone Wars. Kenobi went to Padmé Amidala, the incumbent senator from Naboo and the secret wife of Vader. Kenobi wanted more knowledge of Vader's whereabouts; Amidala told him that the last time she had seen Vader was the previous day, but didn't tell Kenobi that he had left for the Mustafar system. Kenobi revealed to Amidala that her husband has turned to the dark side. Amidala didn't believe Kenobi at first, but soon she acquired knowledge of the Raid of the Jedi Temple from Kenobi. However, Amidala still could not tell Kenobi that Vader was on Mustafar.

Amidala left Coruscant in her personal yacht with C-3PO, her personal protocol droid built by Vader, to find her husband and learn the truth behind all of this. Shortly before Amidala took off, Kenobi secretly went aboard the yacht and hid inside one of the cargo hold storage rooms. Arriving on Mustafar, Vader noticed Amidala's ship and ran to her. The couple had a brief meeting where Amidala revealed that Kenobi knew that she was pregnant with Vader's child.

Heart broken, Amidala wanted Vader to stop and come back to the light because she loved him, believing there was still good in him. Upon seeing Kenobi emerge onto the boarding ramp of Amidala's ship, Vader incorrectly deduced that Amidala had sent Kenobi to kill him. The Sith apprentice force choked his wife, while Kenobi demanded that he release her. Enraged, Vader believed that Kenobi had turned Amdiala against him. Kenobi could not believe that his former apprentice let Palpatine mess with his mind. Unable to see eye-to-eye with his former best friend, Kenobi drew his lightsaber. Vader followed and leaped at his former master with his ignited lightsaber in his hand.

The duel
"My duel with Vader was awful in its savagery."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi

Using the jump as a fulcrum for a vicious overhand, Vader began a sudden flurry of bladework and drove Kenobi backward on a platform near the entrance of the mining facility. As they reached the end of the platform, Kenobi found himself with his back to the edge and attempted to rally, working his way around Vader. However, Vader easily held off Kenobi's attacks and kicked him in the chest, sending the Jedi flying. Kenobi was able to recover and landed on his feet, and Vader attacked, viciously driving Kenobi back along the corridors and catwalks toward the control room. However, Kenobi was able to hold off Vader's brutal Form V with his own defensive Form III training.

The duo entered a small antechamber outside the control room, Kenobi attempted to take advantage of an opening in Vader's offense, seizing the Sith Lord's left hand and pulling him into an arm-lock. Kenobi striked at the back of Vader's neck, but was unsuccessful, as Vader managed to bring his blade up to defend himself. Quickly wrestling himself free, Vader renewed his attack, forcing Kenobi to retreat through a small corridor into the control room. As they dueled through the control room, they eventually fought their way into the conference room.



Upon entering the room, Vader dropped his lightsaber on the floor, and Kenobi attempted to use his lightsaber against the Sith Lord. As their fight degenerated into a violent brawl, Vader took ahold of Kenobi's wrist with one hand and his neck with the other, bending him back. Kenobi managed to kick Vader off him, but Vader returned the kick. As Kenobi fell, he dropped the lightsaber, but was able to quickly stand up again. Vader followed suit, charging again, and prompting Kenobi to respond by hooking his neck with an outstretched arm. As Vader flipped over and landed heavily on his back, Kenobi called his lightsaber to his hand and attempted to finish the battle with an overhand blow. The Jedi Master was too late, as Vader retrieved his own weapon and blocked the blow.

As their duel resumed, their battle took them back into the control room, where they engaged in a swift flurry of swordplay. The two engaged in a bladelock; Kenobi attempted to end the lock with a sudden Force-push, but Vader countered with his own, beginning a vicious power-struggle. Eventually the air-pocket compressed by their combined Force pushes ruptured and exploded, sending both duelists flying against opposite walls. Vader recovered first, leaping across the control room at Kenobi, who managed to evade the attack. As Kenobi pinned Vader's blade against the console, their misdirected weapons accidentally destroyed the power controls for the facility's shields. Heat and flying lava weakened the collection arm systems on the complex exterior.



Vader renewed his attack, but Kenobi managed to direct one of his blows against the door controls behind him. As the door opened, Kenobi kicked Vader back to give himself a moment to regain his composure. Vader quickly charged again, driving Kenobi out onto the exterior balcony. As they battled along the balcony, Vader kicked Kenobi hard in the face, driving him further back, returning the favor for Kenobi's earlier kick.

Driven to the edge of the balcony, Kenobi leaped backward onto a steam pipe; the Jedi retreated along it with Vader in close pursuit. Attempting to gain the offensive, Kenobi attacked first, only to be driven back by Vader's relentless assault. Leaping off the pipe onto one of the collection arms below them, Kenobi again attacked. However, his blows were easily fended off by Vader, who knocked Kenobi aside with a backhand blow. Vader quickly seized the offensive, viciously driving Kenobi back along the arm, despite Kenobi's staunch resistance.

A massive spurt of lava erupted onto the collection arm. Retreating to the relative safety of the structure at the end of the arm, the two watched as the heat and weight of the lava melted the superstructure of the arm, lacking the shield to protect it. As the arm broke off the complex, the combatants fled up along its length as the arm plummeted into the river of lava below. As the collection arm was dragged along the river, Vader kept up his onslaught, driving Kenobi further up the arm. As the river dragged the collection arm toward a lava fall, Kenobi leaped onto one of the severed support cables with Vader in pursuit. After a quick bout of swinging attacks, Kenobi swung out away from the arm to the utmost limit of the cable and let go, landing on a large repulsorlift platform.

As the arm began to topple over the lava fall, Vader swung back onto it and charged along its length before leaping onto a droid lava collector. Directing the collector toward Kenobi's platform, Vader resumed his attack.

Fall of Vader


Kenobi was cut off by the nimble lava collector droid Vader was perched on. Slashing at Vader, Kenobi began another bout of bladework with the Sith Lord before Kenobi broke off. Again attempting to reason with Vader, Kenobi only received more pro-dark side rhetoric and a threat. Vader leaped above Kenobi onto the platform, landing awkwardly and almost losing his balance. Kenobi attempted to take advantage of this and attacked, but Vader defended himself and counter-attacked, beginning another flurry of swordplay. As they locked blades, the platform neared the shore, allowing Kenobi to disengage and leap to the higher ground.

Perched on a rise above the lava river, Kenobi warned Vader not to attack, but the Sith Lord ignored him in his arrogance and rage. Vader leaped at Kenobi, blade angled for the kill. Vader left himself open, allowing Kenobi to executed a Mou kei finishing move, dismembering Vader with two swift strikes. Vader's left arm and both of his legs were severed. Dropping his lightsaber, Vader rolled to the brink of the lava river. Attempting to scramble up the shore with his remaining arm, Vader only slid closer to the lava.

Kenobi took Skywalker's lightsaber while expressing his regrets, shame, and disappointment. Vader's clothing ignited from the lava, burning him horribly. Kenobi refused to kill the Sith Lord, believing that his ultimate fate would be decided by the Force, and doing so would cause the Jedi Master himself to start down the path of the dark side. Kenobi left Vader to whatever end he was destined for as the flames slowly calmed down from the immolation.

Aftermath


After his victorious duel with Yoda, Palpatine, sensed that his new apprentice, Vader, was in danger had left Coruscant. The Dark Lord was accompanied by a squad of Clone shock troopers. Journeying to Mustafar in a Theta shuttle, they landed in the Klegger Corp Mining Facility and recovered the injured Sith apprentice. Darth Vader's maimed, crippled body was taken to the Emperor Palpatine Surgical Reconstruction Center on Coruscant for treatment; Vader would wear a respirator and full body suit for the rest of his life.

Padmé Amidala knew that Anakin Skywalker had turned to the dark side, and even though she believed there was still good in him, her heart was too badly broken. Amidala died shortly after giving birth to two twins, Luke and Leia, on Polis Massa, an Outer Rim territory that was dedicated to medical purposes. After helping to deliver Amidala's children, Kenobi went into exile. He took Anakin's son Luke to the desert planet of Tatooine to be raised by Skywalker's stepbrother and his wife, while his twin sister, Leia, went to Alderaan to be raised by Bail Organa, the incumbent senator from Alderaan, and Queen Breha, his wife. Kenobi hid on Tatooine, and waited for the day when Luke would be trained as a Jedi.

Kenobi, who had assumed Vader was dead for good, was shocked to learn that he was still alive after watching a HoloNet news report in a cantina on Tatooine about Vader's victory at Kashyyyk. The Force ghost of Qui-Gon, Kenobi's former master, however, told Kenobi that Vader would never return to Tatooine, as the planet held the remnants of his former persona of Anakin Skywalker, which would be too painful for Vader to face.

Nineteen years after the duel, Kenobi gave Luke the fallen lightsaber which once belong to Vader. Kenobi had recovered the lightsaber after their duel on the high lava bend slope on Mustafar. However Kenobi could not have told Luke that Vader was his father and the problems he had encountered after the Clone Wars. Instead he told Luke an alternate point of view of Vader's past with the Jedi.

Twenty-three years later, Luke Skywalker confronted Vader in the forest moon of Endor and Vader brought Skywalker to his master, Palpatine aboard the second Death Star. Palpatine attempted to use Dun Möch, a Sith method of torturing ones opponent, to lure Skywalker into the dark side by killing Palpatine. However upon retrieving his lightsaber from Palpatine's hand, Skywalker ignited his lightsaber and waited for Vader to do the same. As they fought in front of Palaptine, whom was siting in his chair, The young Skywalker tried to use high ground to his advantage by force jumping onto a ceiling walkway, but Vader had apparently learned from his mistake at Mustafar and did not leap up after his son, instead opting to dislodge him from his perch using a throw of his lightsaber and shifting the advantage to himself. Skywalker soon defeated Vader after Vader's Dun Möch attempt failed, which Vader told Skywalker of his twin sister and she will turn to the dark side. Luke severed Vader's lightsaber hand and was applauded by Palpatine who witnessed Vader's defeat by his son. Though, Skywalker underestimated Palpatine after he denied to join the dark side, Palpatine blasted Force lightning at the young Skywalker for his lack of faith. Ongoing, Vader watched as his master, Palpatine, tortured his son. Skywalker called out to his father, Vader, in pain. However Palpatine, who showed no mercy towards Skywalker, continued which caused Vader to redeem himself and turn against Palpatine. The redeemed Anakin Skywalker picked up Palpatine and threw him down the Death Star's reactor shaft to his first death.

In 35 ABY, Luke sent his astromech droid, R2-D2, to the outer rim planet of Ossus to undergo repairs. Zakarisz Ghent, a slicer and Crypt Chief of the New Republic, was able to unlock a recording of a lightsaber battle from R2 while he was repairing the droid. Luke Skywalker was shown holographic images of the climatic duel on Mustafar from the droid. Luke saw the first time his father fought his old mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Padmé Amidala, Luke and Leia's birth mother, was shown to be mortally injured from Vader's Force Choke before the duel.

Behind the scenes


The duel was a highly anticipated event in Star Wars fandom. It was already established in creator George Lucas' notes and canon that Master and Apprentice had a semi-final duel, and that Vader owed his severe injuries to lava. Mentions of that duel and Vader's fall had been mentioned in A New Hope, where Kenobi dueled Vader aboard the first Death Star. Origins of the duel could be traced to the Original trilogy, during which Vader had numerous of visible scars on his pale white head, and after Luke removed Vader's mask in Return of the Jedi, as well as early versions of The Star Wars in the early 1970s.

The duel itself took Lucas nearly two weeks to complete, and only took up half of a paper. During the animatics stage, Steven Spielberg, a filmmaker in Hollywood and a friend of Lucas, participated in the production of the duel. Ewan McGregor, who portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel trilogy and Hayden Christensen, who portrayed Anakin Skywalker in Episode II and Episode III, practiced the duel constantly for several months. As a result of their practice, the speed in which Kenobi and Vader engage the duel (in the completed film) is the speed in which it was filmed, and was not digitally accelerated. This battle is the second of only two times in the whole Star Wars series that people wielding the same-colored lightsabers fight each other; the first was Kenobi's fight with General Grievous.

In the video game adaptation of Revenge of the Sith, an alternate ending has Vader impale Kenobi's torso. Vader receives his new red lightsaber from Darth Sidious, and then plunges it into Sidious's chest, declaring that he now ruled the galaxy. In addition, Padmé Amidala was not present in the duel of the video game, and a number of lines were omitted. The official ending that appeared in the game had notable quotes that were not used in the film. When fighting in a section of the facility, which never appeared in the film, Kenobi cries out to Vader by saying "Anakin, come back to the light! Face up what you have done, I can help you!". Toward the end of the duel when Kenobi jumps out of the lava skiff onto the side of a lava bend, the Jedi Master recalls that he has the high ground and it is over. Instead of Vader saying "You underestimate my powers", which appears in the film, his line is "You underestimate the powers of the dark side". After he jumps, Kenobi severs Vader's organic limbs, and the Imperial March plays over while Kenobi picked up Vader's fallen lightsaber. Kenobi then leaves the scene without talking to Vader, a notable difference from the film.

In other media and the novel, Vader's line, "I hate you!" was spoken after Kenobi said, "You were my brother Anakin! I loved you!"  Star Wars: Complete Locations appears to map the battle incorrectly, showing the combatants abandoning the arm almost immediately, never even making it to the falls, and traveling downriver on the droid and repulsor platform.

In the LEGO Star Wars trilogy game series, the duel consisted of differences such as reorganizing certain parts of the duel inside the facility, which also differed in appearance from that of the film, to allow hidden easter eggs to be found. Notable dialogue that appeared in the film between Kenobi and Vader was not mentioned, and the game only had them dueling while Imperial March and Battle of the Heroes played over.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novel
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith junior novel
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith comic
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith game
 * The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * The Last of the Jedi: Against the Empire
 * The Farlander Papers
 * Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novel
 * Star Wars -Phantasmagoria-
 * Dark Nest III: The Swarm War

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Notes and references
Duelo en Mustafar Duel sur Mustafar Duello su Mustafar Pojedynek na Mustafarze