In Episode I, you see a young Kenobi have the talents and skills to kill a Sith Lord. In Episode II, you see him mature into a mentor. In TCW, you see his care for people, especially civilian populations at every opportunity, and even saving the lives of his enemies at times. In Episode III, you see his true mastery in dueling, killing both General Grievous and, he assumed, Darth Vader.
Fast forward twenty years to the OT and what do we get? A Jedi who has just been sitting on Tatooine for decades, doing nothing while the galaxy suffered under the Empire. At some point during this time, he has figured out that Darth Vader is still alive and serving the Emperor, but he does nothing with the knowledge. He just waits for Luke to be old enough to learn the ways of the Force and then abruptly dies without really teaching him anything. He then almost forces Yoda to train Luke and then tells Luke he has to kill his own father, something Kenobi himself didn’t have the guts to do at Mustafar or anytime after.
Yet, since it was our introduction to Kenobi, people don’t question if these choices fit Obi-Wan’s character. In the general fandom, Obi-Wan is often regarded as one of, if not the best character in Star Wars. I never thought that after really thinking about his character arc as shown above.
I’ll end with this question: Would fan opinion of Obi-Wan being one of the best Star Wars characters be different if the films had come out chronologically?