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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Mini Series Official "Obi-Wan Kenobi" Series Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Discussion in 'Star Wars TV- Completed Shows' started by Darkslayer, Feb 19, 2019.

  1. DarthTalgus

    DarthTalgus Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    Maul ofcourse, if they can force a confrontation with Vader into this they can sure as hell write in another confrontation with Maul. And then do some twisting of words''oh well Maul never exactly said that he hasn't seen Obi-wan since TCW''.

    Also makes sense from a business perspective, where do you go after Battle of the Heroes 2.0 and Darth Vader? Well you go with Duel of the Fates 2.0 and Maul. The money prints itself :p
     
  2. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2011
    https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/06/obi-wan-kenobi-explained
    Vanity Fair: Let’s begin with young Leia, played by Vivien Lyra Blair. What was your thinking as you put pen to paper and began showing us Leia as a little girl on Alderaan?


    Joby Harold: Obviously, to bring Obi-Wan out of hiding there has to be a pretty good reason for him to leave Luke. Putting that question on the board—what would be seismic enough to make him do so?— acknowledges the importance of the Luke/Leia equation that sometimes has been forgotten. Why is Obi-Wan watching one of them, and not the other? It always seemed a little unfair to me. That allowed us to look at the weight of responsibility in a slightly different way. Having her be the call to action made her important legacy-wise at a young age, as important as the farm boy was. It was a great opportunity to surprise the audience.


    There are always rumors, but her presence managed to stay hidden until the debut.


    I think marketing did a good job of hiding the football on that. I wasn't sure how the audience would embrace it until [the premiere screening] at Celebration, when we cut to Alderaan and the room lost its mind. It was so nice to see that they really enjoyed the notion of seeing this character in a more nascent form.

    Everyone has noted Young Leia’s sassy asides. What influence did Carrie Fisher have on how you wrote her?

    The [goal] was to craft the character in such way that honored what Carrie Fisher had done. But also you got to play a little bit of the nature/nurture question, where you see she's the best of her mother and her father [Natalie Portman’s Padme Amidala and Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker], but you also get to get to see her adopted parents [played by Jimmy Smits and Simone Kessell] and how they have formed who she becomes too.

    She's very much a byproduct of all those people. And we’re getting to see the untold story of how Obi-Wan was a part of her growing up too. That now informs “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.” It helps explain why she would call her son “Ben” one day. There are lovely pieces of the puzzle that are now complete, that we didn't even know needed to be completed.

    What were some of your influences in depicting their relationship after he rescues her?

    It’s the opportunity to have a two-hander in the middle of the show. I looked at Paper Moon and I looked at Midnight Run a little bit. Those are some of my favorite movies. You don't want to push it too far. Obviously that's not where the show is—but it's nice to give that energy to it a little. And then it comes down to casting. She's such a terrific young actor.

    What else do you hope young Leia conveys?

    In Episode Three, we start to skirt the edges of Padme. She's part of the story as well. The echo of her. Obi-Wan seeing her eyes in her daughter's eyes is very potent.

    The series begins with what was a very disturbing scene—especially shocking given the terrible tragedy in Texas just a week before. Order 66, the extermination of the Jedi, played a lot differently in that context. I’m guessing it probably played differently when you wrote it vs. when it aired. Why start the show with the Clone Troopers shooting their way through classes at the Jedi Temple?


    It was a part of the story that had been told before, and telling it again was a reminder to the audience of where this all began, where Obi-Wan’s journey began. That's why it was in the show. But you know, I'm a father of three and with everything happening in the world, it certainly wasn’t something—within the context of events recently—that was easy to watch. But it was a necessary part of Obi-Wan’s story. It belonged in a story about a Jedi who is in hiding, who has to face his past.


    It shows why he is hiding? That nobody is protected, nobody was shown any mercy by the the Dark Side when they came hunting Jedi?

    Yes, it's a way of establishing the stakes. The stakes are high for everyone, right from the beginning, and then they become higher and higher and higher with Obi-Wan being forced to go out and be exposed, to be more in the spotlight because of the Leia of it all.

    Obi-Wan really does hold back. He doesn’t use his lightsaber when we first expect it. He seemingly can’t connect with the Force until he has to save Leia from a fall. Tell me about making the audience patient for those things.

    I heard something that JJ Abrams had said ages ago: “It should be a massive moment when a Jedi uses the Force.” So you can't ever throw it away. That really sat with me. You really have to earn the moment. He shouldn't just use it to pull his cup of coffee closer while he's sitting in the cave. Only Leia could pull that out of him.

    That’s why when we meet Kumail Nanjiani’s character and he's using the Force to close the windows, you know he’s a fraud?

    You're exactly right. Only a fake Jedi would throw it away on shutters and nonsense like that. It's funny watching that scene at Celebration too, because I know the character so well, but the audience didn't. You could feel it in the room—”Are you just doing a really bad job with this Jedi?”— before they realized what was going on. I love that character.

    It reminds me of the mediums and spiritualists from the last century who were basically con artists.


    Having a fake Jedi felt like such a fun thing to add to the vocabulary of Star Wars. The guy is completely full of it, using a bunch of magnets and nonsense. But I love that character.

    I was impressed by your and director Deborah Chow's willingness to go into the despair of Obi-Wan Kenobi. This wasn't a guy who was lying low and eager to get back to the fight. He really had given up.

    It was massively important. I fought very hard for it. There were some who say Jedi would never give up hope and would never say the time that the Jedi is done, but it was very important to me that the audience felt that. Hope is a big word in Star Wars. You don't wan’t to take it for granted as a precursor to existence as a Jedi. The notion that he would find it, even if it's the smallest glimmer of it, on his journey and have it reignite, which is part of what Episode Three is when he meets [Indira Varma’s character] Tala, and learns of The Path and that he's not alone. If he began in a place of feeling at peace and centered, those things wouldn’t have landed in the same way.

    I want to talk about the Dark Side characters, because I think in fantasy storytelling sometimes bad guys are very dastardly, but not actually evil. In this, you have Reva attack a woman just for speaking up, and she cuts her hand off. We learn in that moment she is willing to be cruel in order to get what she wants. Tell me about that.

    She's so brilliantly performed by Moses Ingram. Defining how singular of purpose she is through action and not just through monologuing was really important. It’s having her be unpredictable, having her choices be sudden. And that scene… there's a legacy. Obi-Wan does that in that [1977’s Star Wars], you know.

    That's a really good point. He does cut off a guy’s arm in the cantina.

    It has to be done sometimes! The effectiveness is in the way Deb covers the scene. It feels so sudden and immediate and speaks to Reva always impatiently wanting to push the agenda and wanting to achieve her goal.

    Reva devises the plan to kidnap young Leia as a way of drawing Obi-Wan out of hiding. I've seen some criticism where people say, Why didn't Darth Vader and the Grand Inquisitor do that before? Or why didn’t they go after her adoptive father, Bail Organa, since he was in the Galactic Senate? Can you explain why the Empire would be restrained at this point in the story?


    I think you said it very well. The Empire is in control, but they are a body that exists within the day to day life of the citizens of the galaxy. Many people believe they are doing what has to be done. There are people that sympathize with and believe in them.

    The Inquisitors aren't acting like renegade hot shots, cruising around going against the wishes of the Empire. Reva's unpredictability isn't consistent with their operating procedure. Certainly going after a senator's daughter is very much off limits. Reva's discovery of the potency of the relationship between Bail and Obi-Wan, and taking advantage of that is certainly not within the playbook.

    The Empire is still trying to act like they're not so bad, in other words?

    Yeah, but then she calls them out on that hypocrisy too. She says “We've done worse.” We established her as being more impulsive, more committed to her own personal goals, so it felt like we created enough room for her character to push further than they would.

    In Episode Two, Reva drives her lightsaber into her superior, the Grand Inquisitor. Yet we saw him meet his end a different way in the animated Rebels show. Is there a break in canon there?

    As you know, we would never break canon. So, that's all I'll say. [Laughs.] Canon is everything

    So fans should wait to see where that's going before judging it as a mistake or a retcon?

    I can't speak to it beyond that. We all know where we're going in the show [from previous films and TV shows] so anytime you can undercut that, pull the rug on that, have a reversal …


    What was it like watching that scene at the premiere at Star Wars Celebration, with thousands of fans in the audience who know the full arc of that character—or believe they did?

    I was sitting with Rupert Friend [who plays the Grand Inquisitor.] I was right in front of him when it happened and we talked about it beforehand. I was like, “How's this gonna be?” It was an audible gasp. The people like people were not expecting that at all. That was quite gratifying because that's the intention to show. It begins with the Grand Inquisitor, well, grandstanding and enjoying the sound of his own voice. I don't think we anticipate that voice suddenly being cut off as it was.

    That brings us to Episode Three and obviously the emergence of Vader. We get Vader and Obi-Wan face to face. But the sequence where Vader is walking down the street slaying innocent bystanders has people saying this is the scariest Vader has ever been.

    It was a thousand percent the intention. From a Vader point of view, we're all living with the memory of the end of Rogue One, and how effective that was. It was very gratifying to see Vader finally be unleashed in a sequence like that, so we wanted to try to trump it if we could. It was a lot more extreme, at one point.

    Really? Tell me more…

    I got pulled back a little bit on that. It was so important to define Vader's anger and rage. There's an emotionality to the choices he's making that are a little further than we're used to seeing with Vader. He's pushed a little more than the Vader we know. Obi-Wan isn't the finished article before [the original Star Wars], and we can look at Vader in the same way.

    He is emotionally invested in that hunt to the same degree that Obi-Wan's emotionally invested in running away. What a tremendous vehicle to try to articulate rage when you have Darth Vader on the board and you have that silhouette. It is a scary sequence, but it was entirely by design and it had to be because everyone's running from something that's terrifying.

    He's walking down a street, grabbing and killing innocent bystanders just as he walks. They're not even doing anything. I couldn't help but think of something like Michael Myers from the Halloween films with the stillness of the mask that shrouds the emotion beneath, making it seem detached. Am I reading this right?


    I know what you mean. That just makes him all the more intriguing. As he's going down the street and doing those things, he's doing them to draw the Jedi out. We've established the language: the Jedi hunt themselves—because they cannot stand by and watch innocents be killed. So Vader is very cognizant of what he's doing as he's walking down that street. The horror of the moment has an emotional weight because it's calculated.

    And to your point, you don't get to see the emotion beneath the stoicism of the silhouette. So it creates something that's really scary. Plus the mix is great in that scene. The sound design is very effective. You are just hearing the breath and the footsteps and seeing the light of the red saber getting close. It’s the feeling of being hunted by that which hates you. It's terrible.

    They finally come face to face, and obviously there's a lightsaber duel. But when Vader gets the upper hand, he ignites some fuel and tries to burn Obi-Wan alive, as he burned in the lava when Obi-Wan defeated him in their last encounter. How did you approach that? Tell me about the process of creating that moment.

    His choice is revealing the character beneath and the torture beneath—the pain inflicted and the eye-for-an-eye of it all. It’s a chance to hint at something beneath the mask. Vader can't be talking about, you know, his feelings. So it has to be in action. That comes from dragging people down the street behind you to try to pull the Jedi out of hiding, and that comes in inflicting the same pain upon the Jedi that he did to you. It's awful, but he should be awful. He's Darth Vader.
     
  3. Chris0013

    Chris0013 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 21, 2014

    I am not talking about an ISD over every world....but show older ships like Victory, Venator and Gladiator class ships or Dreadnoughts. Show that there are still a massive amount of Clone Wars era ships still in service with the Empire. Also Arquitens and Gozantis. They made them for The Mandalorian...get some mileage out of them.

    I just really want to see more ships on screen...particularly ones that have not been seen in live action before.

    No Sith in there is a 2nd season. If they want t Force based villain then do something with a dark Jedi. Otherwise have Ben dealing with just some criminal types. Or a serial killer who preys on people on Tattooine.
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2022
  4. Ender_and_Bean

    Ender_and_Bean Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    I read this last night and it made me optimistic about the final 3 episodes. The writers seem to be having the right conversations and they’ve clearly put a lot of time and thought into character work. Which IMHO is one of the main strengths of the show.
     
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  5. A Chorus of Disapproval

    A Chorus of Disapproval Head Admin & TV Screaming Service star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    For the first time in over 40 years, I now find it indescribably sad that Leia and "Ben" never met (again) in ANH.
     
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  6. Intergalactic Lawman

    Intergalactic Lawman Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 26, 2020
    Some of the scenes between Ben and Leia have been outstanding!
     
  7. Ender_and_Bean

    Ender_and_Bean Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    Agreed. Dialogue that’s among the best in Star Wars live action which has been well acted by not only Ewan but also Vivian herself. I love the way they allude to Padme in different ways.
     
  8. Yanksfan

    Yanksfan Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 3, 2000
    Yeah, I don't get this either. Especially in the first episode--doesn't it take place in Anchorhead? ANH gave the impression that probably wasn't that diverse, if you go by Luke's reaction when they enter the Mos Eisley cantina and see all those different alien species. My impression was that his life was very sheltered, and part of that was just living on his farm and hanging out with his very human friends. Obi-Wan is literally the one to introduce him to the greater galaxy. Which is even more appropriate now when you think about the conversation he had with Owen.
     
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  9. Lord-Skywalker

    Lord-Skywalker Hangman Host star 10 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 2002
    …. and now more emotional damage for the scene with Leia consoling a distraught Luke on the Falcon after Vader kills Obi Wan.
     
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  10. Jedi Knight Fett

    Jedi Knight Fett Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2014
    When Leia almost certainly has more of a connection than he does.

    I hope in some book we see Leia talk to Obi WAN’s ghost
     
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  11. RokurGepta

    RokurGepta Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2010
    Re: alien diversity, nothing jumped out at me as overly lacking. I was excited to see a Pasaana’n in the first episode.
     
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  12. gezvader28

    gezvader28 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 22, 2003
    I guess I'm missing the gag - but what is that picture in the banner ? it looks like Ewan but what's it from?
     
  13. RokurGepta

    RokurGepta Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2010
    Fargo TV show
     
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  14. gezvader28

    gezvader28 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 22, 2003
    I assume this takes place in a similar time to Solo , so have there been any crossover connection elements ? characters / incidents mentioned etc.

    .
     
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  15. K2771991

    K2771991 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2019
    The were waiting until the Force itself indicated the time was right; the "time being right" happened to involve Luke getting a droid with a message meant for Obi-Wan was'nt something they forsaw (in fact, since Obi-Wan waits three years before telling Luke to go to Yoda to complete his training the events of ANH might not have actually been the "right time", but rather just Obi-Wan getting his hand forced before Luke was ready).

    Around a conference table on Tantive IV, Bail Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda met to decide the fate of the galaxy. “To Naboo, send her body …” Yoda stretched his head high, as though tasting a current in the Force. “Pregnant, she must still appear. Hidden, safe, the children must be kept. Foundation of the new Jedi Order, they will be.”

    “We should split them up.” Obi-Wan said. “Even if the Sith find one, the other may survive. I can take the boy, Master Yoda, and you take the girl. We can hide them away, keep them safe—train them as Anakin should have been trained—”

    “No.” The ancient Master lowered his head again, closing his eyes, resting his chin on his hands that were folded over the head of his stick. Obi-Wan looked uncertain. “But how are they to learn the self-discipline a Jedi needs? How are they to master skills of the Force?”

    “Jedi training, the sole source of self-discipline is not. When right is the time for skills to be taught, to us the living Force will bring them. Until then, wait we will, and watch, and learn.”

    (...)

    "Settled it is, then. To Tatooine, you will take him." Bail moved toward the door. "If you'll excuse me, Masters, I have to call the Queen ..." He stopped in the doorway, looking back. "Master Yoda, do you think Padme's twins will be able to defeat Palpatine?"

    "Strong the Force runs, in the Skywalker line. Only hope, we can. Until the time is right, disappear we will."

    Bail nodded. "And I must do the same-metaphorically, at least. You may hear...disturbing things...about what I do in the Senate. I must appear to support the new Empire, and my comrades with me. It was...Padme's wish, and she was a shrewder political mind than I'll ever be. Please trust that what we do is only a cover for our true task. We will never betray the legacy of the Jedi. I will never surrender the Republic to the Sith."

    "Trust in this, we always will. Go now; for happy news, your Queen is waiting."

    And the absolutly most they might be aware that Bail has some sort of pro-Republic agenda of his own that he's going to be working towards ("I will never surrender the Republic to the Sith"), but all that's discussed between them regarding the future of the twins is using them to defeat Palpatine and the only specific thing Bail tells them he's going to be doing is providing a cover for that plan.

    If the Rebellion was something they're plans required it would have been something they discussed and it would have been something Yoda and Obi-Wan took an active part in helping form (heck, in ESB they both seem to regard it as a distraction, if anything)

    Yeah; plus even if it is a more diverse city we only saw *one* street - for all we know that street is like Little Corellia or Alderaantown, and so most of the people living their are Humans

    Solo is set the year prior to Kenobi (the prologue is four years prior), so Han and Lando would look like Ehrenreich and Glover at this point in time; it would be cool to see the latter show up (the former, though, unlike Leia and Luke, pretty explicitly never met Obi-Wan or Leia prior to ANH). Qi'ra might be interesting to see as well.

    Actually in hindsight, given Legends Lando's propencity for scams, it might have been neat if they used him in place of Haja (Glover's definantly got the comedic chops).
     
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  16. Lord-Skywalker

    Lord-Skywalker Hangman Host star 10 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 2002
    Stills from his audition for Filch. Unfortunately got beat out by David Bradley.
    [​IMG]
     
  17. K2771991

    K2771991 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2019
    I want to live in the alternate reality were David Bradley played Obi-Wan instead of Alec Guiness.

    "You can't win, Vader, heh. If you strike me down, mayhaps I'll become more powerful than you can possibly imagine, heh."

    The Tuskans run off to the sounds of The Rains of Castamere rather then the call of a Krayt Dragon...
     
  18. KyleKartan

    KyleKartan Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 4, 2004
    Concerning the GI:


    All the fuzz for N O T H I N G
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2022
  19. cwustudent

    cwustudent Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 25, 2011
    End credits scene of GI in bacta tank reference to TBOBF?
     
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  20. K2771991

    K2771991 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2019
    Maybe Reva meets her end when the GI comes back with a vengence to take her down? Obi-Wan vs. Vader intercut with GI vs Third Sister?
     
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  21. KyleKartan

    KyleKartan Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 4, 2004
    Iam pretty sure he has a big grudge on her...and wont be as forgiving as Vader ;)
     
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  22. K2771991

    K2771991 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2019
    That's what I'm going for; it's not either of them would be any match for Vader or an Obi-Wan whose head is in the game, so might as well give them both a chance to do something towards the end and show us what they're actually capable of when they're going all-out agianst foes that would'nt get stopped by.
     
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  23. JEDI-RISING

    JEDI-RISING Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Apr 15, 2005
    lol i just saw a meme with Vader standing in for the company saying 'pray i don't alter the canon further'
     
  24. Sarge

    Sarge Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Oct 4, 1998
    :ben: Do you expect me to talk, Darth?
    :vader: No, Mr Ben, I expect you to become one with The Force.
     
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  25. chris hayes

    chris hayes Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2012
    Obi-wan is definitely the closest thing to a star Wars movie you could get - it is awesome to say the least.

    I really think there would be room for only 1 more 6 part series cause you don't want to push it to far and over dilute it.
     
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