It is customary to think that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda went into exile during the reign of the Empire. Although they kept a low profile to ensure their safety, they never gave up on their ideals and never let evil triumph. They waited and made sure that Anakin’s children were able to train as Jedi in order to overthrow the Sith and the Empire. Thereby, for nineteen years, between Revenge of the Sith and A New HopeObi-Wan lived on Tatooine, calling himself Ben Kenobi and only revealed himself to Darth Vader once aboard the Death Star.
Go incognito with a Sith power
But how could he manage to live hidden for nearly 20 years on Darth Vader’s home planet without being detected? According to one theory, it seems that the Jedi wielded a power commonly associated with the Sith allowing him to hide their presence from other Force users.
This ability is known as Force concealment and is considered to be one of the base Force powers. It exists in two forms: hide any connection one may have with the Force by removing the aura of the Force or concealing one’s affiliation to the light or dark side without concealing one’s power. However, this power should not be confused with that of Altus Sopor, which allows his presence in the Force to be completely concealed.
Among the users of this power are Darth Sidious who managed to hide his connection to the Force without any member of the Jedi High Council exposing him. The Sith also used it after the establishment of the Rule of Two instituted by Darth Bane.
So Obi-Wan Kenobi most certainly must have had use this power to avoid being spotted by Darth Vader while living as a hermit on Tatooine.
A power used as much by the Sith as the Jedi
However, even though this ability is usually affiliated with the Sith, hiding his presence does not necessarily have a power intrinsically linked to the dark side of the Force. The proof here with Obi-Wan who probably used it to protect himself and Luke and Leia.
In fact, the Jedi has used Force Concealment before. As in Attack of the Clones when he spies on Count Dooku on Geonosis. The latter does not spot his presence when even if they have never met, they share a bond through Qui-Gon Jinn who was Kenobi’s master and Dooku’s apprentice.
Finally, in the series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Obi-Wan fakes his death and disguises himself as Rako Hardeen, a bounty hunter, for several episodes. He interacts with Anaki, Ahsoka Tano, and Count Dooku without any of the three noticing. Again, he most certainly resorted to Force cloaking. And this is the reason why, we are entitled to think that this ability, often associated with the dark side, but just as much used by the Jedi and by the Sith allowed him to protect him and Lue Skywalker, from Darth Vader between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
We should definitely find out more thanks to series Obi-Wan Kenobi devoted to the character scheduled for Disney + on May 27.
