I was wondering - it’d probably necessitate some VFX work alongside some sound effects reconstruction and flipping some shots for continuity/180-degree rule - if there’s a way to reconstruct the duel so it ENDS with Ben getting buried, Vader walking off, and Ben escaping the hole and leaving the planet.
Basically, duel starts as normal, when we get to the part where Obi-Wan tries to topple a pillar and Vader catches it, throws it at him, cut to the 2nd half of the fight where Ben is out of the hole, they clash again, Obi-Wan throws him, then throws all the rocks at him and cuts his helmet half off. They talk, Obi-Wan says “Goodbye, Darth” and then after Vader screams “Obi-Wan” then have him slap the ground and send him into the hole?
It’d be tricky (aside from shaving some shots down carefully and re-using one or two from earlier in the duel - and might necessitate generating sparks from the helmet and/or some head replacement of cracked helmet Vader) but it honestly seems like that’s how the fight SHOULD go. Vader literally “leaves” Obi-Wan (When I left you…) and thinks he’s dead, and walks off. Obi-Wan escapes with nobody knowing he’s gone and heads back to Tatooine to watch over Luke (who is in that vision that inspires him to push all the rocks out of the way and jump out of the hole)
Once he’s out of the hole just cut to the ship leaving the planet.
Totally agree. I saw someone suggesting that online in another site another day, and also thought that this is what should have happened during the ending. After Obi-Wan escapes the planet, it could be cool too if Vader, already in his castle in Mustafar, senses Kenobi through the force and say just “Obi-Wan…” (or something like this, just to show that Vader sensed that Obi-Wan could still be alive, maybe even intercutting with the last scene of the flashback). I say this because in ANH Vader say clearly that Obi-Wan is in the Death Star, because he sensed it, so he must have at least a clue that Kenobi could still be alive.