Mini Series Obi-Wan Kenobi - Part 3 - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Most visually brutal thing besides melting Anakin and Vader dragging Obi Wan through a fire LOL! Some intense moments in this series *FER SHER*

 

Bold Predictions! Obi-Wan gets his mojo back and defeats Vader in a rematch and after a season of telling people that he's Ben Kenobi he'll tell somebody that he's Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's back baby! But then he'll promptly return to sitting around Tatooine, looking over Luke.

Also Leia will be returned safely to her parents. Shocker!

The OG GI will come back and probably kill Reva per Vader's command after she fails to deliver Kenobi to Vader.

 

IMO, Deborah Chow is one of the few Star Wars creators who seems to totally get it.

Obi Wan's fear. That just worked so well for me. When Obi Wan walks through the Death Star and confronts Vader, there is a fear in his eyes. Over the years, that fear has sort of been lost, at least when I saw it, because I knew Obi Wan, and Obi Wan was not fearful of Anakin/Vader when we last saw them. In ROTS, I saw a man filled with dread. But not fear. Yet in ANH, it was originally fear I felt as a kid. Now, all these years later, that fear was restored. I hope they don't have Obi Wan overcome this fear of Vader.

And Obi Wan's conversation with Leia, and her questions...just brilliant writing, IMO.

In both cases, I felt like I was watching Lucas' Star Wars again, constantly being surprised by the depth and complexity beneath the surface of it all.

Now, sorry to complain, because believe me, the Obi Wan series is a bright light in the right direction, and it's not Filoni/Favreau at the helm. That's a good thing. But I can't help but lament the fact that I should have been watching this with my friends in a sold out theater on opening night as opposed to at 3am alone at home on my TV. That is nothing short of a tragedy, IMO. This should have been seen on a big screen with a crowd. Blame Covid, blame Disney, blame KK, blame RJ...whoever. IMO, it just sucks.

But what an episode!

 

Vader toyed with Kenobi like some sort of sadist. It brought back visions of ESB with him essentially tossing Luke around before he got serious. Vader wants Kenobi to suffer greatly. He's not in a hurry. He's got him in his sights now, and he's even more arrogant than in RotS, as he sees how...broken...Kenobi is at this juncture.

He definitely let him get away. Whining about this is akin to whining about Vader letting the crew escape from the Death Star in ANH.

 

The decision to make this a show instead of a movie was late well before Covid the idea for this to be a movie was scrapped years ago.

 

Few more loose thoughts:

- I am pretty sure that we'll hear Qui-Gon's voice later on in this series. They've been setting it up for a while now, in all three episodes including the opening prequel montage, and since Neeson's been confirmed to reprise the character in Tales of the Jedi it wouldn't make sense for him to not appear in this series. That means that this series will end up having (at least) seven (!!) actors from the prequels reprising their roles (McGregor, Christensen, Edgerton, Piesse, Smits, Morrison, Neeson)... not even counting Daniels who was also in the OT. Seven. Christmas for prequel fans. (Come to think of it, every single live-action Disney Star Wars thing--apart from the ST, obviously--has had at least one prequel actor reprising their character.)

- I really hope this series will get into the "Obi-Wan once thought as you do" thing. It hasn't looked like they've been doing that so far but we're only halfway in.

- In the opening of this episode we see Vader getting his helmet and mask on at the same time. I'd have preferred it if they were put on one at a time, I think that would be more in line with the way it's portrayed in ROTS, ESB, and ROTJ. Oh well, I suppose there are multiple ways to put a helmet and mask on.

- the mole guy was pretty funny (On a mining planet! Who's kind of a mole for the Empire! Geddit?) but it does raise one issue I have with Disney Star Wars; the overall dearth of alien characters. If there's a mole guy on this planet, why isn't everybody else in the village of the same species? I get that it's a budget thing. TBOBF did it mostly right, though. Mostly. Oh well, I'll live.

- It struck me that maybe the GI issue won't be resolved in this series but in another one (Andor?). That might actually be fun. I already can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth already.

- And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the minutests of nitpicks: I wish these episodes had episode titles.

 

Was Daniels not in the ST?

 

I meant actors who were introduced in, or specific to, the prequels. Daniels' character was introduced in the OT. But yes he was in the ST.

 

This one was very bad lmao

 

Oh! Even that’s wrong by just a bit. As Ewan Mcgregor did voice Kenobi in TFA and TROS. As well as Hayden.

 

I’m kind of envious of the kids who haven’t yet seen any Star Wars in their lives who will be beginning their journeys in chronological order. These episodes had me on the edge of my seat and I already know the fates of the characters. Imagine being totally unware of any of the story after the prequels and watching the prequel trilogy without any idea of what’s next, then watching this and having no idea who dies ahead. It would be anxiety-inducing. Lol.

 

Okay, so I watched the episode again and I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around. I normally don't watch the same thing twice in one day, but it was bugging me that this episode didn't land for me given how much I loved the first two. Like I said in my first post in this thread, the hype hurt this episode on a first viewing. I was also in a weird mood, partly because of Moses Ingram's video about the horrible messages she's been getting. That doesn't exactly put you in the Star Wars mood.

This duel isn't destined to go down as one of my all time favourites, but I paid closer attention to everything else in the episode and that elevated it. One thing I noticed in particular is how much Vader selecting Reva as his favourite Inquisitor makes sense. She's young and impulsive, just like he was. And she's underappreciated by her seniors just like he was with the Jedi Council. It makes me wonder if Vader wants to make her his secret apprentice, if she isn't already. That would be really cool.

I also appreciated the subplot about the Path more and how that appeared to affect Obi-Wan. There's no formal Rebellion at this point and whatever hope Luke and Leia hold must seem tenuous at best, but seeing that there are networks of people working against the Empire to help people must inspire at least some hope in Obi-Wan.

 

Blame the fans reactions to the sequels and the Solo movie for that.

 

Great point about why Vader would would see potential in Reva and why she might remind him of a younger version of himself at times. Very true. And he might also see a tiny bit of Ahsoka if she’d turned to the dark side in her also.

 

YEP. My oldest is scared _______less by this show. He's seen everything except for the more gruesome elements of ROTS/Mando/BOBF, and in our excitement I made the mistake of not screening it before showing him the first two episodes. He really doesn't like that Leia got kidnapped....sooo, we're gonna return to this when he's older. Back to Bluey LOL

 

I forgot about the voices part.

Alright then; all live action Disney Star Wars have had prequel actors reprising their characters. (McDiarmid was already from the OT)

That's kind of always how I watch prequels and the like; I'm trying to view it through the lens of someone who's viewing it all for the first time in chronological order. I can't turn it off.

 

My son is 5 and he keeps asking to see the moment where Anakin got burned in the original recap. My wife is less pleased about that and spoke to me already about the parts I will have to skip with him and his older sister tonight. He’s too young for this and much of Star Wars but he absolutely adores it and it’s so hard to say no. He will literally sneak out of his bed and down to the steps and get low to try and watch aspects if we try without him. so, now I have to pre watch everything and skip big sections with the kids and tell them what happened in less gruesome ways. They love it regardless though. Even if I’ll probably have to cut out like 15 minutes of this. He’s read everything in kid book form so he knows most of the mythology and he loves Rebels.

 

I wonder how much Ewan was paid for saying 5 words in TFA

 

Reva was a little better in this one...seemed to tone it down a little.

But something was kind of bugging me about her beyond the performance. She has kind of been presented as the 'extra special' Inquisitor. She gets to have a name beyond Third Sister spoken on screen and as mentioned before she knows that Vader is Anakin.

That 2nd one would not be so bad if they had shown (or are going to show) that during the attack on the Jedi Temple she saw Anakin and heard a clone trooper refer to him as 'Lord Vader".

 

She’s an extra special inquisitor because she is the main inquisitor for the show

 

And GI, 5B and 7S were the 'main' ones in Rebels...but they did not get that sort of treatment.

 

I think Vader knows that the GI is alive and just wants to see if Reva is strong enough to get Obi. I would be not surprised that he and the GI destroy Reva as soon as she fails (btw. I think Reva is a great villain)

For me scared Obi doesn't work at all and really takes me out of the show. He is a Jedi and knows that fear is the path to the dark side. Obi Fear Kenobi feels out of place.

 

He’ll work his way up. That’s why his force and lightsaber skills have been lacking. Fear is blocking his light

 

The music when they land on the Joshua Tree planet is very TCW