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

I guess I'm wondering if it really will be Reva vs. Owen/Luke in the end because I'm just not sure Obi-Wan can get there in time and I think he's going to have to have another scene with Vader directly as I don't think there's closure between them for this series yet, and it's not tying in yet to his attitude towards Vader in ANH...

This makes me wonder if really it could be Reva vs. Luke in the end... I didn't really want that because I thought it would make more sense if ANH Luke has never encountered anything like that... But who knows maybe Reva never activated her light saber in front of him, and he can just remember that one day when he was 10 this deeply troubled lady came to the farm.

I'm so sappy and like watching characters turn away from the dark side so naturally I would love to watch Reva just take even one step back from it and I've been thinking over this matter of what has Reva done so far... and I might be willing to bet she's never actually hurt a child before... for the following reasons:

- Reva seems new to the inquisitors... I doubt 5th brother or that other sister know about the evil machinations of Vader and GI in allowing her into the Inquisitors... So 5th Brother is pissy about it because it's SO UNFAIR! However, he needn't get this way about it because another thing I think I've been noticing about Reva is,

- She's undertrained. She doesn't even have the training of Fifth Brother. She was too young to receive much training as a child but she could use the Force ofc. The Inquisitors seemingly gave her the Inquisitors 101 course but nothing more advanced. All the other Force users can control her with the Force and there's nothing she can do about it. She's been Force pushed so many times she has an artful slide she does (unless I made this up)... She's very used to this. And by Episode 5 I kinda think if she could stop a Force push or Force hold she would... She didn't want Obi-Wan to Force push her back, for instance. The Sith have levels of Secrets of The Dark Side to teach, and they taught her like almost none of it (less than Fifth Brother!), and they didn't even teach her basic defense it seems. Her greatest dark side ability she stumbled into out of necessity, and it is the one that shows she's pretty strong with the Force (too strong to be pushed around so much). This BTW makes Vader and GI's demonstration to her by the end of Part 5 all the more cruel. THEY didn't teach her, and now they mock her for her lack of experience. But I'm sure in their minds they are just using it to make themselves feel more superior.

- In Part 3 after Vader murders that poor boy, it cuts to Reva and her reaction... I thought her reaction seemed like both being triggered and being shocked... Like, she knows this is what you do on the dark side... but... it's like she's never done that before... Then in Part 4 (sorry I just do these analyses of facial expressions so much and I could be reading into things and I could be wrong) it seemed like when she was telling Leia this is what she does to anyone who doesn't embrace the Empire, it's like she's trying to work herself up so she's capable of doing this by reminding herself it's just a general matter of "anyone," when it isn't. And when she says, "I'm sorry Leia, I really am," the way she moves her head is how you move it when tears are forming but you don't want them to fall or anyone to notice. By the time she's interrupted, she looks really miserable. I don't think she's done this before. I don't think she's ever hurt a child before. That's my theory. (And I'm sorry, if I say this and it looks like not focusing on Leia )

So this makes Part 5 all the more significant. She tells them to show no mercy, she's leading an invasion that is eerily reminiscent of Anakin and the Jedi temple massacre. And watching it again, I agree she did go with Obi-Wan's deal... I thought it was a good move of his to frame the question as "are you going to let him do it again, what he did to you?" because she doesn't have an opportunity to get defensive. He's in her victim space with her, not telling her you are what you swore to destroy, because if he put it that way he might not reach her. But it seems he did reach her, just a little. So it makes me more hopeful if she actually went with the deal.

I don't think Obi-Wan can reach her on the deepest level because she resents him. He trained Anakin. In her mind he let this happen, which is why she asks, "really Obi-Wan, do you really want to kill Anakin?" And even then he is filled with compassion and pain. And that compassion is in a way what failed Reva: making allowances for Anakin.

So I'm wondering if it will really come down to she has her chance to kill Luke and she can't do it. Luke might say something that reaches her. She can't hate or blame him. He's innocent like she was.

So I still believe Reva can turn away from this. It doesn't mean she'll become glowingly good in one moment necessarily, but I think she might be able to put this together, and just take one step back... and then later, another... until she could find a way to be okay again.

But I know that ppl will say what about all the evil things she's done... And this is where I always say this is the Star Wars universe... In real life it's not so easy to fall to the dark side. There isn't a mythical force pulling at you in which just one or two steps towards it, it pulls you in.

And the other thing is all Reva has is the dark side. It saved her life, when no one else would help her. This is why she's the anti-Leia. Leia is very prosocial, always telling Obi-Wan that if they can't do it on their own they are going to need some help. Reva refuses help. She is ON HER OWN. It's like Simba attitude: the world turned its back on you, you turn your back on the world. It's just Simba didn't exist in a mythic light side/dark side world, in which both are these magnets and if you get too close it pulls you so much of the rest of the way. So it's amusing that this show presents a paradox for viewers like me... my attitude would have enabled Anakin! ahaha! Yet Reva's rage at that turned her to the dark side. It's um all very ironic.

 

Well this is what makes it a challenge for Obi Wan.

 

I think you're right about Reva's abilities and experiences! She's never killed or physically harmed a child (she did traumatize Leia, though) and it is definitely possible that she'll have the opportunity to kill Luke but realize that she can't. She can't bring herself to do what Anakin did. Especially since that deed is precisely why she hates him.

Will she survive Part VI, though? I'm leaning towards "No", but we'll see...

Maybe she stops herself and then gets shot by Owen?

 

it's so awful I am sorry everyone

I read this book years ago trying to understand lingering trauma: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+body...418160&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_46za8fu1iq_e

What I was taking from it is if you can get out of a situation with fight/flight (or gaining help, see below), you don't form PTSD. But if you can't, you break, and ever after you freeze. If Obi-Wan hadn't saved Leia she'd be permanently damaged. In the book it talks about a child during 9/11 who didn't develop PTSD, because he was saved. But no one saved Reva. She almost did to Leia what was done to her. And it's very fortunate Obi-Wan stopped it. That saves Leia and she can still be prosocial after because she wasn't trapped with no one to save her. But Reva was. So the trauma she went through... she lost faith in other people. And she almost did the same to Leia.

PS the book doesn't say that... it just says after you're trapped and there's no way you can go, the body remembers and it changes thereafter... Thereafter you are not whole. (Which isn't to say it can never be repaired...)

Also, forgot to add, there's another response often not mentioned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tend_and_befriend#:~:text=Tend-and-befriend is a,for mutual defense (befriending).

That's what would have been destroyed/damaged in Leia if no one helped her... That's what happened to Reva.

 

I would have assumed that when the actors were in the bacta tanks they would have some source of oxygen connected the mouthpieces. But apparently not. The actors need to hold their breath. I think Temuera also said he had to hold his breath in the tank.

 

Those damn racists!

 

Apologies if I've missed this, but has it been officially confirmed that there'll be a second series? I'm enjoying this one but I'd like to see them improve the scripts and visuals a bit in a second series. But if there is another series, who could be the main antagonist? There has to be a limit to how many times Obi-Wan can face Vader, but if it's not him who can be as threatening? And how can Obi-Wan get involved in more adventures that don't end up bringing the Empire to Tatooine?

 

Bold Prediction! Reva will be the big bad and she'll kidnap Luke.

 

Maybe...some Mandalorians? Obi-wan goes on a long journey of force discovery, with help from QGJ, and it takes him into other regions where some Mandos exist. Could get some more clone war mando flashbacks. So the fight has nothing to do with the Empire and Vader.

 

For those who read the leaks and have realized some of the inaccuracies along the way and the fact that they were probably gathered from info gained from scenes shot and pieced together does anyone else think there’s a chance that

Spoiler

The talk of Reva going back to the Inquisitors claiming she killed Kenobi, only for her to then be killed by Vader, makes no sense now and that it’s possible the shot of Vader stabbing her here with the GI present was what was just interpreted as the final ending even though it wasn’t?

If so, what do you think makes the most sense for her now?

 

Spoiler

The reliable leaker said that the ending was changed after they decided to keep Reva alive.

 

This line really took me out of the show. What set of beliefs/ideas does Reva really hold that, after witnessing the events of this series, she really believes that Obi Wan wouldn't want Vader dead? Like seriously. I get she's ostensibly supposed to resent the Jedi because they weren't there to protect her, but even that doesn't make sense. We saw her teacher actually try very hard to protect her in the literal opening scene, and Reva surely saw all the adult Jedi being massacred and knows they're basically extinct. So she's mad that every single individual Jedi wasn't at the temple to protect her during a surprise attack?

It just doesn't stand up to scrutiny and really IMO precludes the viewer's ability to make sense of what Reva's motivations even are and why she feels the way she does. They clearly didn't think it all through, and it makes her a much less compelling character than she could be.

 

I don't know, maybe the story as it happened?
Reva blames Obi-Wan at least in some form for Anakin's fall, he was his master after all. He is also alive, which means either he did nothing to help and went into hiding instead, or failed in doing something. Anakin is also alive, and not looking how he used to look. So something must have happened to him. If Obi-Wan is responsible for Anakin's state, yet somehow couldn't bring himself to kill him back then, there is little reason to assume that he could do it now. There could be a possible issue if she doesn't know, but for that, the following reasoning applies:

Since when are grievances rational?
A child suffered enormously in a traumatic event. It is the core element that made her the adult she is now. Her memories are warped, her thoughts driving by anger and lust for revenge. It is perfectly normal for someone with such emotional baggage to be all over the place. Sometimes people will blame themselves in such cases, sometimes they will blame whoever they can possibly blame. It is illogical to presume that a heavily damaged mind could only possibly follow a logical and perfectly rational line of thought. Heck, we have soldiers who suffer from survivor's guilt. They blame themselves for having survived when their friends and comrades died. Is that in any way logical? No. But the brain does all sorts of stuff to cope with experiences, and not all of them make sense from an outside perspective. Another case would be Anakin basically deluding himself at the end of ROTS, to justify what he just did.

I find it rather odd when some people try to press characters who suffered from extremely traumatic events (be it Reva, Obi-Wan, Luke in the ST) into a corset, by stating that they could only possibly act or think in a specific way. That's just not how trauma, or the mind in general, works.

 

Spoiler

I highly doubt they changed the entire plot of the next episode though. Unless Reva confronting Kenobi is season 2 I don’t think the Vader stabbing her and leaving her alive was her final fate. If her fate was changed it will be something in the next episode

 

Reva is so blinded by her lust for revenge that the dark side has consumed her to the extent that she is evil and selfish. She will kill anyone, even her fellow Jedi, women, children, if it means getting a shot at killing Anakin. She is literally mad with rage.

 

She’s probably even more mad now that she knows she never stood a chance against Vader

 

I don't even know where to begin with this show. Who to blame for the poor quality? The screenwriters (definitely). The director (probably). I am inclined to blame the director for the poor performances at least. The bad writing I guess thats not on her. Yes the actress who plays Reva is doing terrible acting. But guess what. So are all the inquisitors. It takes a talented director to get a genuine performance out of a child actor (see - Chris Columbus). Not many can do this. Its tough. Chow clearly cant.

Why even tease Quigon in the summary which started show? Liam Neeson's force ghost should have been featured heavily in the show. Also communicating with Yoda should have been something we saw.

The best idea I read somewhere was this show should have had a format like LOST. The show weaves flashbacks from Clone Wars with current time and ties the story together at the end with some kind of parable. Of course that would require good writing!

 

It’s hard to imagine how this could play out now? I wonder if the next episode will begin with a montage of her survival from Order 66 and her survival here. I also can’t imagine how Kenobi will determine Tattooine is under threat now. The previous leaks had

Spoiler

Reva telling Kenobi directly she knows of the secret he’s keeping and that made him need to balance all these variables of keeping Vader away so Leia could escape while also not wasting too much time so that he can get back to Tatooine. How can he be informed now? Qui-Gon tells him perhaps?

 

You keep saying bad writing but then just complain about things you didn’t get. Sounds like you had a head cannon with expectations for what the series should been. Personal problem. It looks cheap because it’s a TV show trying to be cinematic. They already did the flashbacks tying to the end with Boba Fett so that would have been unoriginal plus it failed miserably in that show.

 

It seemed perfectly logical that they wouldnt have both yoda and Qui-Gon in the show. I think only one mentor showing up is required for this show. And also that they wouldnt over do the force ghost thing. Qui-Gon appearing is gonna be treated as a big deal

Same if Anakin appears as a force ghost in ahsoka. You can bet it will only be once.

 

I’ve found bad writing is the laziest, most popular criticism out there. In reality, it really does amount to “I didn’t like it” as opposed to being objectively bad.

 

It's the same with the tired old "terrible acting". Most of the times I hear that, I sincerely wonder if we've been watching the same show - until I realize that they just dislike the character and think that means the actor did a bad job.

 

Spoiler

Kenobi is clearly sensing a disturbance in the Force centered around Reva at the end of the episode so it’s already setup that he knows something is wrong. Once he figures out Haja no longer has the hologram it won’t take a genius to work out what that disturbance must mean.

As for Reva’s end… once she realizes she can’t kill Luke maybe she returns to Vader to try and get some small measure of revenge by lying and saying she killed Obi-Wan. If she’s captured by the Inquisitors and tortured she may give up Obi-Wan and Luke but if she gloats in Vader’s face and he kills her the secret dies with her. Or maybe Owen or Beru kill her.

 

My main complaint so far is the shaky camera during action scene. I had the same issue in TBOBF.

 

Flashbacks to the clone wars could have worked fine. But its fair to say they set themselves a direction of what they needed to focus on and it clearly wasn't on Clone Wars elements or even PT era stuff.

Which i think will be an issue with alot of these shows vs the fan expectation. Fans desire a bucket load more of elements than what the creatives will see as important to the story they are telling.