It's a truth (and a George Lucas quote) universally acknowledged in Star Wars that its stories are "like poetry - they rhyme." And the greatest cyclical story is, of course, the tragedy of the Skywalkers. The sins of the father carry on in the son -- sometimes they are overcome, sometimes they are too deeply set -- and storylines and character journeys and traits repeat and rhyme.
While Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin Skywalker, ultimately makes choices that align with the Light side of the Force, he is intrinsically tied to Anakin. Yoda in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back even remarks of Luke that there is "too much anger in him... like his father." But it's not just in Luke's Jedi journey that he mirrors his father. As the recently released Obi-Wan Kenobi teaser shows in a brief glimpse, young Luke and young Anakin are very much alike.
Even though young Luke is shown only briefly through Obi-Wan's electrobinoculars, that quick glimpse says a lot. A young Luke has climbed on top of the entryway of a building at Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's home. He has on thick, slightly too large for his face flight goggles and is happily engrossed in playing make-believe as a pilot, flying an imaginary spaceship.
It's no surprise that a young Luke would be interested in flying. In Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, he bemoans not being able to leave Tatooine like his friends and fly away (though, at the time, he would have been rather OK with joining the Empire.) And he showcases considerable skill in flying anything, from a landspeeder to an X-wing. Though not a nine-year-old breaking down species barriers in a dangerous space race, Luke could still outfly and outmaneuver most other people and was never afraid to fly something new.
But there's more to this brief glimpse of Luke than just reinforcing his future proclivities. From his slight stature to his clunky flight goggles, he almost perfectly mirrors Anakin at that very age on that very planet. Anakin was a skilled child podracer, but was also always dreaming of flying away from Tatooine. From Luke's gleeful immersion in his imaginary flight to his playtime accessories, he is very much his father's son at that age.
The Skywalker saga has always been about the tragedies that lie in generational parallels, so this one detail, coupled with how Luke, too, will grow to dislike life on Tatooine, foreshadows his other similarities to Anakin. From skill with the lightsaber and the Force to an inability to let go of the past to, now, a shared childhood dream, the traits of the Skywalker men run strong in the family. What's left to learn is how big of a role Obi-Wan will play in Luke's childhood from afar, and how that will parallel the role he played in Anakin's.
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 25th on Disney+.