Mini Series Obi-Wan Kenobi - Part 4 - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Ewan also emits a certain warmth as Obi Wan. In some ways, the whole series has also been kind of like hanging out with a really old friend that you love so very much.

 

I've heard that although Kenobi has a movie budget, that doesn't equal movie quality because it's spread out over six episodes instead of an hour and a half or two hours. Hence, the inconsistent quality.

The creators have to pick and choose what they invest in, and it's one of the reasons we visit worlds that look Earth a bit too much, or like Tatooine, or Tatooine.

So we'd want more than 25 mil an episode if we wanted movie quality.

 

Tying back into something I said a while back, there are some real-life religions that believe cremating a body is necessary to release the person's soul into the afterlife, lest it be trapped in the rotting vessel.

I think the idea is similar with Jedi cremation, and the Sith preserving their bodies is keeping their "souls" or the energy that they possessed from joining the Force fully, and dark siders feed from their eternal torment. I'd like to think that at least, and the Luminara thing from Rebels seems to support that.

Agreed, there were some shots where I thought the VFX were unfinished until I realized the water was just that green. I found some complaints from Fallen Order fans about how the show basically looks nothing like the game, and I think being more accurate would've helped.

I agreed with everything except this part. Finn literally puts a trash can on a droid that comes up to a grown man's knees, and nobody noticed the moving trash can except another droid that spotted the Three Stooges two seconds after they walked in.

 

To me it was super clear that Ice Cube Jr was stridently protesting at the beginning because he knew he was going to end up helping. Not to mention that between him saying no and agreeing, Tala made it clear that Leia needed to be retrieved because she had information that could compromise the Path/ proto-rebellion. People keep ignoring that crucial bit of dialogue. Agreeing to send a Jedi into the FI to save a kid was one thing. But doing it to extract a kid who could expose them if left there was quite another.

 

You're outright trolling. You dont discuss or get into any arguments of your conversation partners. All you do throwing around with nonsensincal statements.

 

The trench coat scene was silly, but it's in perfect keeping with SW. SW has never taken itself 100% seriously. It's had giant slugs in space, teddy bears beating up stormtroopers, droids hiding under trash cans, cartoon frog armies, a strike team general tapping an enemy on the shoulder to get him to chase him. These are things that adults roll their eyes at, but kids squeal at with delight. Both my wife and I giggled at little Leia peeking out from the folds of the coat as it was a bit of light humour in what, up until then, had been a very dark episode. I think if anyone has problems with incidents like these, they may need to consider looking for another franchise to get invested in as to be an adult SW fan you have to be a kid at heart.

 

It just felt very unnatural. There's nothing wrong with him being reluctant until they convince him, but the problem is the way the scene was executed.

 

Well teddy bears beating up stormtroopers is something that always was and still is not something universally welcomed by SW fans, and even then, it's a cog in a meaningful story that actually feels like it has a reason for existing.

I wish I had a better way to articulate why, but BB-8 under a trash can is fine, while Leia popping out under Obi-wan's coat isn't. Maybe because that black BB unit spots them, or maybe because a box is a better disguise than....no disguise at all, when Leia's head pops out. Or maybe because there was a silliness established between Finn and Rose from the start of the TLJ amidst their drama, whereas Obi-wan is in the middle of a very serious depression and ptsd. The series presented itself as a much more adult story at the start, what with the repetition of montages of Obi-wan's mundane life, which is probably why people had a huge issues with the Leia chase scene in the forest. That might have been fine in TPM, but not here.

 

But to me it was super clear that he…knew he couldn’t refuse. And was angry that he was being put in that situation. So he didn’t really need convincing. Played very naturally, interpreted that way. And I think the writers and actor intended it that way.

 

It's hard to debate over things like this, because clumsiness in dialogues is not something that can be demonstrated like a theorem. He did not appear to behave like an actual person would behave, to me.
A posteriori we can argue what we want about his motivations, but the issue remains that the scene while I was watching it didn't feel smooth. At least to me. I don't know, maybe you didn't get the same impression when you first watched it.

 

Sure, this one is open to interpretation. And you’re right. I didn’t get the same impression you did because the way he acted from the beginning was very reminiscent of how I acted before I adopted my dog. A friend brought the dog over to my house without warning, I said “no way no way no way, I can’t do this right now I’m too busy and it’s just not the right ti…” and then I looked at the dog and said “OK, I’ll adopt her.” And gave her a name a couple minutes later.

 

When they are interrogating a captured rebel they bring them there to warn them of what will happen in case they don't cooperate.

 

That's not a tomb and not people in jars. That's Darth Vader's personal amber room.
Soon he will start to clone them for a Jurassic Jedi Theme Park

 

I suspect that the best has yet to come in terms of use of budget and even writing and direction. Chow herself has said her favorite episode is the finale and the two part finale is written by Pixar’s legendary Andrew Stanton himself. It wouldn’t shock me if most of the budget was reserved for the next two episodes and that these two will feel slightly more cinematic, larger scale and also feature a great mix of character and thematic storytelling. Stuff Stanton had proven time and time again to be amazing at. Pretty exciting for those of us who have been happy with the show so far and perhaps even encouraging for some who are less pleased at the moment but also haven’t set their mind up that there’s no possible way for the show to win them back.

 

2 part finale ?
Does that mean we're getting episodes 5 & 6 next week ?

 

No. That wording was just my own for the fact Stanton is involved with the final 2 parts of the show. Sorry for making it sound like that.

Regarding the tomb some think it might be a slight foreshadowing of how the Grand Inqisitor later combined dead bodies with hologram tech to lure out Jedi who could still sense the presence of former friends even from their bodies.

 

A lot of people don’t think they are dead it seems

 

They belong to Darth Jar Jar of course.

 

Could be any one of these IMO:
1. Trophies
2. Scorecard
3. Emperor's experiments
4. Just because it looked good on screen
Without further official clarification, I just don't know for sure

 

The Emperor likes to keep his Jedi mint in box.

 

Seems like a lot of people like the latest episode. I liked the first episode quite a lot (8/10), thought the second was oke (6/10), found the first confrontation between Obi-Wan and Vader to be simultaneously cool, and underwhelming (7/10). However, for me this fourth episode is just plain bad:

1. Episode doesn’t move the story along one bit, instead giving us the second Leia rescue in four episodes. The infiltration of an Imperial base or something similar has been done too many times already.
2. There’s hardly any character development, which in combination with no movement in the story is a cardinal sin in my view for a six part mini-series.
3. The base nobody would be stupid enough to attempt to invade doesn’t have a simple thing as radar to detect incoming ships in Vader’s personal corner of the galaxy of all places.
4. Tala is acting very suspiciously in plain sight, and the only guy noticing it gets killed in the same room a few feet away from other officers with nobody noticing.
5. Reva, remains extremely one note and uninteresting as a character, despite the show’s weird fetish with her. The fifth brother is even worse.
6. Reva kills the guy from The Path in the previous episode, but thinks a little kid, who was thrust into this situation by Reva herself, can provide brilliant insight into the workings of The Path and the Jedi.
7. Leia apparently was already on the radar of the Empire at 10 years old as a Jedi sympathiser, and should have been identified as being strong with the Force after resisting Reva’s mind probe (whos job it is to kill Jedi and kids with Force potential), but still manages to become a Senator and a covert leader of the Rebellion. The same can be said for Bail Organa, who's now been outed as a Jedi sympathiser by contacting Kenobi. So, the Organa family should now be viewed with great suspicion. Not a very logical position to put yourself into as a future leader of the Rebellion when other options such as using Alderaan's security forces or bounty hunters are an option.
8. Reva calls old Ben Obi-Wan to Leia’s face, so there can be no doubt she has a strong personal relationship with Obi-Wan Kenobi, despite ANH clearly suggesting she only knows General Kenobi as a former associate of her adopted father.
9. Tala conveniently escapes from Reva by literally slapping a Stormtrooper unconscious, a new low for Stormtrooper competence.
10. The good guys escape while the base is on high alert with Leia hidden under a coat walking past hundreds of troops and officers without getting noticed. Are you kidding me?
11. One of the most important imperial bases can be almost destroyed by cracking one window with a single blaster shot (for the second time!).
12. I hoped Vader let Obi-Wan escape on purpose in the last episode, but I guess not, since he was clearly very pissed when Reva let Obi-Wan get away in this episode. This ruins the ending of the last episode, because vader could have easily grabbed Obi-Wan with the Force, or put out the fire as he did moments before. So, now Vader is incompetent as well. The entire Empire has sadly been reduced to a bunch of bumbling fools who's actions are dictated by where the writers want them to be rather than in-universe logic.
13. The entire tracking Obi-Wan concept makes no sense. Did Reva expect Obi-Wan to come and rescue Leia again? If so, why not have all the Inquisitors waiting for him to arrive? Heck, why is Vader not in the same room as Leia? How does Reva know Obi-Wan and Leia will join up with the people involved with the Path following their escape? Why would Obi-Wan not immediately contact Bail Organa to send security forces to pick them up and take Leia to Alderaan? Seems to me Reva still failed big time with the tiniest chance of a lucky break if Obi-Wan and Leia are dumb enough to lead them to the people involved with the Path. Vader let her off too easy.

Overall a very disappointing episode (4/10).

To elaborate further, I found the Leia interrogation scene to be quite confounding, like it was written more for the benefit of the viewer, who have more knowlegde than the characters. The only link Leia has with Obi-Wan is the one Reva herself created. However, in the episode she throws the wooden symbol, which she ripped out of the wall on the table as if it should mean something to a ten year old. Additionally she starts to question Leia about the Path, and Obi-Wan as if a ten year old would have any clue about the locations she was in, and the people she briefly met while being hauled around the galaxy involuntarily.

The whole scene makes very little sense. It would be much more logical for Reva to present herself as a friendly face, and a representative of the Empire put in charge of bringing Leia to the safety of her parents, in hopes of getting at least some information. All Leia knows is, that she was taken by some pirates, and then apparently rescued by a former Jedi, who themselves are wanted criminals. There’s no subtlety in Reva’s character. She’s just a one note villain, who’s inept at interrogating a little kid, fails to recognize her innate Force ability (which is her job), and wants to torture her for information, she likely doesn’t have. Presenting a friendly face would make the Reva character more interesting, and competent, being able to do more than just yell and scowl. These Inquisitors are supposed to be the best, the brightest and most powerful agents of the Empire. So far, the only intelligent one was seemingly killed off in the second episode.

 

He doesn’t want their price to go down

 

Whatever the ultimate application intention of the area with the bodies encased in amber it is dark and disturbing regardless. Even if one was to imagine the Empire as merely a means to an end of Palpatine’s larger goal of Sith rule out in the open the idea of a Jedi museum would make some sense in a really twisted way for those to see the last of their kind on display. Kenobi would make quite the addition to the collection.

There is also now the idea of Palpatine wanting to plan for ever lasting life by constantly shifting his consciousness to new vessels capable of his dark side essence without decay. We know in the EU that he’s trying many different ideas there now and into the future. Bad Batch suggests he’s now seeking to apply clone tech to the mix with Nala Se’s expertise and we know that he later attempts to clone himself multiple times but all of those vessels fail until to make strong enough hosts until he makes Dathan who is stronger but ends up not being force sensitive and is deemed a failure until his naturally created offspring (Rey) ends up getting the kind of power Palpatine hoped for Dathan. He seems to become intrigued by the possibility of Luke first and later Rey becoming possible bodies for him to take hold of. This is strongly implied by the events of TROS and some of his talks with Luke. His most successful creation via clone tech beyond Dathan seems to be Snoke but even he seems to have issues of rapid decay and accelerated aging due to his formidable dark side use. Clones just don’t seem to do well with the dark side in the GFFA so far. It’s possible that prior to the clone tech he held onto these Jedi as backups for those experiments.

As much heat as TROS took I do think long-term some of the things it set up in canon will be worthwhile. It allows them to work up to some very interesting clone stuff in Mando, Bad Batch, and other content ahead. Heck, they could even have it so that Thrawn himself is one of the first who suspects Palpatine has found a way to live indefinitely.

 

Jar jar is the key to all of this