I think that, as long as they were insisting on having Obi-Wan and Vader face off, a thorough and humiliating beat-down at the hands of Obi-Wan was the only option for ending it. Otherwise Vader’s Episode IV dialogue “We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner. Now, I am the master.” would make even less sense than it does now.
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