Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the most iconic characters in all of Star Wars with some fans even believing that he is the franchise’s true protagonist. However, there was one key moment in his life where he did not live up to his reputation. This was in A New Hope, when he decided to play fast and loose with the facts and not tell Luke the truth about his father being Darth Vader. Later, in Return of the Jedi, he tried to rationalized his decision to Luke with the now-infamous line: “So, what I told you was true... from a certain point of view.” He was oddly unrepentant about lying to his young student and took some heat for his decision, both from Luke and from Star Wars fans, because he never really gave an explanation as to why he lied.
Now, the new canon biographical novel, Skywalker: A Family at War, by Kristin Baver makes an attempt to explain Obi-Wan’s rationale for lying. The coming Obi-Wan Kenobi series should better explain exactly how Obi-Wan spent his time, but one thing is for certain. He had a lot of time to think, and it turns out that lying to Luke was not a split-second decision. It was something that Obi-Wan had carefully planned ahead of time during his many years on Tatooine.
After his failure with Anakin, Obi-Wan had a simple goal in mind. He had protected Luke for nineteen years, and so, he “continued to protect him, shielding him from the darkest aspects of his heritage.” If Luke had any hope of becoming a Jedi, he needed to trust Obi-Wan. So, Obi-Wan appeared to come clean by admitting that he had trained and failed the man that became Vader. However, more important than trusting Obi-Wan, Luke needed to be able to trust himself. If Luke knew that he was the son of one of the most evil men in the galaxy, he might've been a lot less likely to trust his instincts while on his path to becoming a Jedi.
To his credit, Obi-Wan did plan on telling Luke the truth – eventually. He knew that “disclosing the shocking truth of Luke’s parentage—a revelation worthy of a Jedi trial—was best delayed until he became a full-fledged Jedi Knight.” Obi-Wan must have thought that only then could Luke be strong enough to acknowledge his inner darkness and heritage without falling to the Dark Side. Besides, Obi-Wan could not afford to fail the galaxy again, even if it meant coloring the truth a little.
Factually, everything that he told Luke was true, even if he didn’t tell him the whole truth or really take into account Luke’s personal well-being when making his decision. Clearly, Obi-Wan’s rationale was designed to serve the whole galaxy, so that he could atone for his role in creating Vader. Obi-Wan had seen Anakin’s apparent failure as the Chosen One, and now he believed that Luke very well might be the one to fulfill the ancient prophecy by bringing balance to the Force. Obi-Wan knew that if he was going to make up for creating Vader, he needed Luke to become a Jedi, regardless of what he had to tell the young boy.
There is another reason that Obi-Wan had to keep Vader’s identity a secret. If Luke was the Chosen One, then Obi-Wan knew that Luke “would have to vanquish Vader to restore balance to the Force.” In other words, Obi-Wan needed Luke to kill Vader, but he was much less likely to do so if he knew that the Sith lord was his father. So, Obi-Wan lied and demonized the dark lord as a mysterious, anonymous evil figure that Luke could willingly fight and try to destroy.
In doing this, Obi-Wan romanticized the Jedi Order. He gave Luke his father’s lightsaber, a weapon that “had been crafted by his father with care, a symbol of his dedication to the Jedi Order.” Now, “like a fairy tale sprung to life,” it became a symbol of Luke’s hopes and aspirations. He wanted to be like the Obi-Wan’s version of his father. So, when Luke saw that his aunt and uncle had been killed, he was ready to leave his home and chase his dreams.
Perhaps Obi-Wan was influenced by his own personal aphorism that the “truth is often what we make of it,” because he knowingly wrote his own version of the truth ahead of time and planned to make Luke believe it. And he did it so that he could personally atone for his mistakes, even if it ended up hurting Luke in the future.