15 • “He is more machine now, than man… twisted and evil.” How does Obi-Wan know this?

Even if Obi-Wan knew that Anakin had survived their dual on Mustafar in ROTS… how did he know Anakin is now the menacing part-man / part-machine figure of Vader…?

We unfortunately don’t, as much like the topic above… this wasn’t shown in the Prequel Trilogy.

A best guess is that Obi-Wan likely saw or overheard news reports while he was in hiding on Tatooine. It must have been made more difficult for Obi-Wan hearing such reports over the years about the atrocities that this mysterious Vader was committing, yet unable to do anything about them. All the while attempting to reconcile this with the man who was his padawan, someone he also considered a brother, and a good friend (although we didn’t really see much evidence of this in the Prequel Trilogy).

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen someone complaining about that. But people seem to forget that the “more machine now, than man” line is from ROTJ. So there’s no inconsistency there, as Obi-Wan actually met and fought cyborg-Vader in ANH.