Power In The Pause

When Stopping Changes Everything

June 17, 2025
by Mish'al K. Samman

There’s a kind of courage that doesn’t raise its voice.
It doesn’t swing a lightsaber.
It doesn’t need to win the fight.

It just… stops.

There’s a moment in Star Wars: A New Hope that always sat differently with me. Not because of how loud it was ... but because of how quiet it became.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is fighting Darth Vader. It’s tense, classic, and everything you’d expect from two legends on opposite sides of a decades-long war. And then, mid-duel, Obi-Wan just… looks.

He sees Luke. He sees the future. And without saying a word, he just ... stops.

He chooses not to finish the fight.

And in that choice ... that stillness ... there’s more power than in any Force push or saber clash. He tells Vader, “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” And then, he lets go.

That pause? That surrender?

It shook me as a kid.
Not in a noble-sacrifice kind of way.
In a what just happened kind of way.

I remember feeling the same grief Luke did. The same confusion.
Like: wait ... why would he do that?

And then you hear his voice again.

That’s when it starts to settle in. That Obi-Wan wasn’t giving up.
He was putting his money where his mouth was.
Showing us ... and Vader ... what true power looked like.
Not in domination, but in legacy.

Movies usually hand us emotion on a silver platter. This time, I didn’t know what to feel. Not right away. And maybe that’s why it stayed with me. Because sometimes, the bravest move isn’t striking first… it’s not striking at all.

A pause can feel like surrender, but stillness, when chosen with intention, isn’t weak.
It’s weaponized clarity.

And it lives in all kinds of moments ... not just epic space duels.

It’s when someone lets the other person finish yelling… and doesn’t respond.
It’s when a leader walks away instead of escalating.
It’s when a parent locks eyes with their child and says nothing ... because the silence says enough.

A pause isn’t always hesitation.
Sometimes it’s punctuation.

The moment that turns a sentence into a statement.

That’s what Obi-Wan did.
He paused ... and the story of the galaxy bent around it...
The beginning of something unstoppable.

About the Author
Mish’al Samman is a writer, performer, and lifelong fanboy who began his career covering comics, film, and fandom culture for Fanboy Planet in the early 2000s. With a voice rooted in sincerity, humor, and cultural observation, his work blends personal storytelling with pop-culture insight. Whether he’s reflecting on the soul of Star Wars or exploring identity through genre, Mish’al brings a grounded, human perspective to every galaxy he writes about.