Saga - PT Beyond the Saga Refining Ideas for the Obi Wan Kenobi Series Eps. 1-4

I haven't been very pleased with how this show has been developed. This isn't a complete overhaul, no real recastings or dramatic overall story changes, but more a refining of the show's structure so far. For this, here are the ideas God, if He wills, has blessed me with:

First thing, a specification about the structure of Obi and Vader's character arcs and their intended conclusion with this pitch:

Obi's character arc is about the acceptance of his loss and failure. Since the end of ROTS, he's been in the bargaining phase, thinking that if he can teach Luke he can fix his failure with Anakin. He's been keeping his mind fixed on the future and the past, at the expense of the moment. When Owen tells Obi that he'll never let Luke be trained by him, the idea of that hope he was pursuing, that he can redeem his failure with Anakin is cut off and Obi, though relieved because he's afraid of failing with Luke as well, he becomes depressed. Later, he has this to the point where he really thinks, in a dark emotional place, he should've murdered Anakin on Mustafar. He has to come to the realization that nothing he does can fix the past, accepting that Anakin is also responsible for himself and that he has to let Anakin go.

Vader's character arc is almost a parallel of Obi's. Since mustafar, Anakin's been tormented with his anger, pain and guilt, and he seeks to take that out on everyone he can, obsessed with the past and seeking nothing but revenge in the present, unwilling to accept his own responsibility for what happened, blaming Obi-Wan in particular for his condition and the loss of Padme and his child. Anakin's arc is him, by the end, thinking Obi's dead, but not being sure, and feeling hollow at this, almost depressed, because his hatred of Obi is all he has left and now he can't take it out on him, some part of him missing Obi, even if it's out of unresolved, to Anakin, desire for revenge. Anakin is left feeling empty, still filled with anger, but nowhere to place it, only himself. He fully renounces Anakin as a part of his identity, placing his focus on achieving order in the galaxy, his goal of becoming emperor being placed in sharper focus, for him, to make all the terrible things he's done worth it, in his mind, still a part of him wanting to hold on to the Anakin identity of being the hero, and fulfilling his destiny.

EPISODE 1:

I felt the previously on was forced. I felt it'd have worked more, to me, if it's used more as a nightmare Obi-Wan is having and the nightmare reaches the part where Anakin is burning alive, intercut with Padme dying and Obi-Wan agreeing to watch over Luke, Bail saying he'll take Leia, Obi-Wan giving Luke to Beru and Owen, then showing Anakin burning alive, more and more, with the music rising and getting more intense, with Obi-Wan saying he loves Anakin, and Anakin screaming that he hates Obi-Wan, SMASH CUT to Obi-Wan waking up from his nightmare, as the words "I have failed you, Anakin" echoing in his head, and then show him going on about his day. Then deal with the other stuff. And Obi-Wan going on about his day is the opener.

The show takes place 7-8 years after Revenge Of The Sith, not 10.

The Inquisitors are never on Tatooine, going after that jedi. They're on another planet, and the jedi escapes on a transport. No exposition about Reva wanting Kenobi. Unravel that more slowly.

The Owen and Obi-Wan conversation is basically Obi-Wan's main conflict for the first episode. They talk once, Obi asking about Luke, Owen dismissing it.

Owen is in the episode more and talks with a young Luke, who has begun asking questions about his dad, knowing he's adopted. Owen struggles with what he should do here. Beru has more weight in this, having never known her dad, she feels like it's their responsibility to support his curiosity about his family. Owen decides he feels it's their responsibility to protect Luke, to ensure they he doesn't get caught up in the same delusions of grandeur that he thinks got Anakin killed, especially considering how the jedi were killed.

Obi-Wan lies to the jedi when they find him, about what he's doing there, in case the jedi would get caught, he wouldn't give information about what's going.

Don't cut to Leia, for the first time, until after Owen rejects Obi-Wan training Anakin outright. Obi is left depressed from that, the idea of his only remaining life goal having been taken from him, unsure how to move forward. He asks Qui-Gon for guidance, questioning how he can go on when he has no way to fix what's happened. But Qui-Gon still hasn't replied back. Then, from that, cut to Leia for the first time.

Obi finds the jedi dead, not by the Inquisitors, but done by the crime run mob of Tatooine, as a warning to anyone, and as a way to keep the empire out of their business. Obi is left even more defeated by this, the struggle of trying to protect the future and the compromises he makes to do so weighing on him, the guilt of everything messing with his head, feeling responsible for everything.

Leia being adopted isn't known by anyone. Though Leia herself is developed to feel out of place, without really knowing why. Leia tells her parents about a dream she had of a beautiful kind, sad woman. Bail and Breha do tell her that she's adopted. She's uncertain, wondering wha this means for her. Bail her that no matter how she feels, she is their daughter, an Organa in every way and that's what matters.

No running scene with Leia, not in the way it was done.

Obi-Wan's first rejection of rescuing Leia is developed more in that he knows Inquisitors were hunting that jedi, that they could be watching close by, and that doing something could draw attention and get Luke killed/captured, maybe even draw them to Leia and her potential, though he is tormented by the past, he pushes himself to try and accomplish the final goal of keeping them safe, thinking that's all he has left.

Bail doesn't come to Tatooine. But instead makes his plea with him in the very same scene, which Obi does agree to, but struggles with, as Bail tells him that Leia's droid Lola has a tracker on it, tracing it to the planet Da-yu, though it's too far to get exact coordinates and the droid Lola could've been ditched by now, though suggesting that he looks there first. The reason for seeking Obi's help, and no one else, being that they're afraid Leia is showing signs of force sensitivity and he's the only other person who knows about that.

He doesn't flash the lightsaber at the transport, but keeps it hidden.

EPISODE 2:

Leia doesn't start running away from Obi. They're attacked by a swath of bounty hunters and separated.

Leia never learns that his name is Obi-Wan. But only ever hears his name as Ben.

Leia and Obi can still bond, she can begin to trust him (she doesn't fully know how, but she can feel his emotions, his pain, sadness, the fear he has of being caught, how closed off he is because of these things and his desire to protect someone close to him and that he helps her in spite of it), he likes her (maybe her sassyness reminds him of Anakin). Leia, someone who had no real idea of the outside galaxy's suffering and those who take heroic action in spite of it, is inspired by this man's heroic actions, as she witnesses some hardship that the empire has brought about. Obi-Wan is reminded of the drive to fight (having thought that all his destiny was left was to teach Luke) in this little girl's drive and resilience.

Reva doesn't find a connection between Bail Organa and Obi-Wan in the records. She finds visual recordings of Obi-Wan on coruscant after Order 66, but only after Bail Organa touched down for the emergency senate hearing, and she essentially makes a shot in the dark, that they may be connected.

The kidnapping of an imperial senator's daughter is never learned about by any of the Inquisitors. The Grand Inquisitor is reprimanding Reva, instead, for her going on an unsanctioned mission.

There's no fakeout death for the Grand Inquisitor.

Reva doesn't know Vader is Anakin.

EPISODE 3:

Obi-Wan carefully takes out his lightsaber when Vader is hurting people in the street. He looks at it, feeling the weight and pain of when he used it last, considering taking action, but, conflicted about what it would mean if he was caught (that Luke and Leia could be caught as well), he decides to hide, the pain of him hearing others be hurt shown on his face. Obi opts to attempt a distraction to catch Vader's attention. But it's not use, Vader senses Obi and goes after him. Obi, hiding, is faced with Vader in the quarry still. Obi carefully ignites the lightsaber, readying it for Vader, but instead uses the force to cause a gravel to fall between them, Vader's vision being obscured. When Vader gets a clear visual, Obi's gone. Vader calls him a coward. Obi continues to try and hide, as Vader's voice echoes throughout the quarry, taunting him, but is caught off guard by Vader's attack.

Leia does wonder why Obi was sent and why he's so committed to protecting her, if he's doing this on his own, asking him if he knew her parents, if he's her dad. Obi tells her that he's not.

Meanwhile, Leia isn't recaptured. Reva places a tracker on the ship that Leia, Tala and Obi-Wan are going to escape on.

The Obi and Vader fight does show how out of practice Obi is, where he's outmatched by Vader, and the fight still ends with Obi being dragged through burning coals, Vader telling him he will make him suffer the same way he has. Tala fires on a water tank, spraying the water on the coals and knocking the tower down between Vader and Obi. Stormtroopers and Reva rush to Vader's side, Tala and her droid getting Obi out of there as well. Reva begins to order the stormtroopers to go after them, but Vader stops her, asking if she placed the tracker. Reva says yes. Vader responds that that's good, because Vader doesn't want this hunt to end quickly, then saying to Obi-Wan through the force that to run, because he can hide from him no longer.

EPISODE 4:

The opening is intercut between Obi being taken, burned, injured to the bacta tank and Vader entering his hyperbaric chamber room, disrobing from his suit, and entering into his bacta tank.

In the first flashback, a 14 year old Anakin is being given lessons about the control of emotions as a jedi in the midst of battle. This is his first active lesson on real physicality. Anakin is faced with the challenge of succeeding in controlling his emotions during a duel with Obi-Wan. Anakin is high strung, hard on himself, constantly pushing to perfect every little detail, and when he falls short, he's insecure, angry, feeling dismissed by Obi-Wan, Anakin trying to prove himself, prove he can beat Obi-Wan. Obi is exasperated, not knowing how to handle the situation. He shuts Anakin down, telling him that if he's going to continue to not understand the point of the lesson, to not listen to him, then he should stop. Obi regrets it, and Anakin sulks away, angry at Obi, telling him that he doesn't even care if he becomes a jedi, because he doesn't care about him, stating that he's not Qui-Gon, as he storms away. Later Obi walks up to Anakin, as he attempts to calm himself. Obi is apologetic, understanding but also direct about Anakin's conflicts, telling him that it's okay to fail, to not always succeed. Anakin tells Obi that Obi doesn't understand what he's feeling. Obi says that he may, because he's felt anger and frustration before, but that as jedi they're responsibility is to live with the weight of how they feel, of what they feel, and strive to control it, that to control their emotions can help them focus, and that they have to have that focus to help others, beyond themselves.

As they scan Obi's life signs, Leia is afraid for him, feeling his pain. Tala comforts her.

Obi begins having flashbacks to events where he feels he failed Anakin. The first of these flashbacks is Anakin's trials to become a jedi knight. The clone war has just begun and the jedi council suggest the need for Anakin to be placed at a higher rank for his bravery in the battle of Geonosis. Obi-Wan is asked by the council if Anakin is ready, but Obi is unsure, sensing unbalance with Anakin. Obi confronts Anakin about his doubts, sensing an unease with him. Anakin admits to him that he went to tatooine to find his mom, discovered that she'd been freed and married someone, then telling him about Owen, then telling him that he found out she'd died. Obi is comforting of this, also feeling responsible because he ignored Anakin's dreams, but also concerned at what this means for him. Obi can sense there's more than Anakin tells him, but doesn't push. Anakin asks him to not tell the council. Obi promises he won't. At the trial of the council to decide if Anakin's ready, Obi gives his recommendation, in spite of sensing Anakin's conflict.

Third flashback is during The Clone Wars. It's a live action recreation, in part, of the deleted scene from The Clone Wars where Anakin and Obi talk about Ahsoka leaving. Anakin misses Ahsoka, is frustrated, angry, at Ahsoka for leaving, at the council for happened. Obi attempts to assuage Anakin's feelings, but finds himself unfit to.

Fourth flashback is the battle of mustafar at the end of Revenge Of The Sith. Obi maims Anakin and tells him he loved him. The flashback however shifts into a a shared dreamstate between Vader and Obi, in their respective bacta tanks, where the ground beneath Anakin crumbles and his body slides into the burning lava, him screaming out in agony at being burned alive as Obi watches on in horror. But Anakin then emerges from the lava, his body morphed into Vader. Vader tells Obi that if he loved him he would've killed him. Obi battles Vader in this state, briefly. Obi takes his arms and legs off again, then his Vader helmet, leaving a helpless, freshly scarred Anakin's face looking up at him, a brief moment of vulnerability showing on his face, asking Obi to please kill him. Obi, in a moment of dark thoughts, murders Anakin in his mind. This moment causes Obi to jerk awake, screaming in horror at what he did, what he, on some level, wants to do, to not only prevent Anakin's pain, but also prevent all that he's done.

Obi climbs out of the tank, still feeling the pain of his burns, healed well enough, but not fully, redressing as he's confronted by the leader of the path, who tells him that as sympathetic as he is to helping them, they're going to have leave soon, as he doesn't want to risk gaining unwanted attention from the empire. Leia comes in and is happy to see Obi okay. He comforts her.

Vader, without his suit, in his hyberbaric chamber room, speaks to Reva about her goals, his face obviously obscured by his healed burns and a breathing mask. This gives Hayden Cristensen more scenes, more to do. She's taken aback by what's been done to him. Vader explains to her what his goals are, how he's in torment just to breathe and that Kenobi is responsible, and that he's going to punish him for it.

Afterward Obi is shaken, emotionally tormented by what his thoughts are, his mind consumed by the image of him murdering Anakin.

Meanwhile Vader and Reva are in a ship that's traveling through space, tracking the ship, locking in on the coordinates of Obi-Wan's location. Vader knights Reva with the title of Grand Inquisitor, as a reward for her work.

They're informed that they secured the location. Reaching it. Scanning for further life, they say that he's surrounded with other life signs.

Vader then says that that's good, because they can use them to push Obi-Wan, until he can do nothing but break.

Episode 5 is in the next post!

 

EPISODE 5:

This episode opens with a flashback of younglings being trained by a jedi... Until they're shaken by blaster shot noises. The blastdoors open and clone troopers flood the room, opening fire without hesitation. This is the night of Order 66, the jedi purge. The jedi battles them, escaping the room with the younglings. The younglings are confused and terrified. More attack. Some younglings are killed, the jedi protecting the younglings that are left, trying to escape with them.

Fairly similar setup as the actual episode here. Vader wants to coerce Obi-Wan out by attacking the base he's in and threatening the lives of those who are helping him. The point is to make Obi sweat. That is why they don't break down the base's doors immediately. Vader is commanding this from his destroyer, sending Reva down first, to lure Obi into a false sense of security. They have the base surrounded and have the outside power cut. There's panic, fear, even resentment towards Obi-Wan for what they think is his fault, that the empire has been led to them. Obi doesn't know what to do. He blames himself as well, though not in the way they think. They consider turning him over.

They only have 2 small ships, and both of those together can only barely contain the children and parents they have, and only one of them has a functioning hyperdrive to escape with. They come up with a plan, as a way to ensure that the children can escape. But they need to open the above hangar doors, so the ship can get out, and since the power has been shut off, they need to reroute the backup power to them, which is only available through a small vent, as this place is old it and is a damaged building, the original entrance being cut off by a collapsed ceiling, from a battle during the clone wars. Leia volunteers. Obi is uncertain. Leia tells him that she sees how he never gives up, in spite of the pain she can see he's in, so what right does she to not do something to help those who need it. Obi is proud of her, insisting that she be careful while doing it.

Leia, with help from Tala, reroutes the backup power.

Reva doesn't know Anakin is Vader. The reason she's so aggressive in going after Obi-Wan is because she thinks Anakin is still out there and that Obi can lead her to him, so she can get revenge on him for the family she lost, because she was one of the younglings that was attacked during Order 66. The jedi who protected her was killed by Anakin and she was shot over the balcony by a clone trooper. She hid among the bodies of other younglings, and was almost found as the clones searched the bodies for survivors, when Obi-Wan and Yoda entered and fought the clones, her escaping as that happened. That's how she knew that Obi was on coruscant, but only after Bail had arrived, because she'd seen him, as Yoda and Obi-Wan avoided getting recorded to ensure they had the element of surprise. Reva reveals that she was captured a year or so later and tortured until she became an Inquisitor.

Obi tells her that Vader is Anakin. He tries to appeal to her jedi instincts, but she rejects that, saying that she only wants revenge now, stating that she now knows how to get it.

Leia takes Lola's tracker out.

They pile the children, Leia included, onto the functioning hyperdrive ship. Obi tells Leia that they'll ensure she gets back to her parents. Before Leia leaves, she asks if Obi at least knew her mother, to which Obi tells her that he did. She asks if they'll see eachother again. Obi says he doesn't know. Leia hugs him, and, slyly, puts Lola's tracker in Obi's boot.

Vader lands, now giving the order to destroy the doors. The stormtroopers set up a canon to destroy the front doors.

This leads to further panic amongst the people. The doors are blasted open, stormtroopers rushing in. Obi-Wan fights them off with his lightsaber. The stormtroopers push the adults backwards into the ship docking bay of the building. Tala is shot, her robot taking further shots for her, it shutting down. Tala closes the doors and Obi is unable to stop them, setting off a grenade to take out most of the stormtroopers.

Vader enters, pulling out his lightsaber, and using it to cut through the weaker inner blastdoors. He tears through them, in time to see one of the ships take off, him stopping it mid air, pulling it down. As he does this, Reva takes her opportunity, igniting her lightsaber to kill Vader in revenge. But Vader stops her, pins her to the wall, holding the ship in place, these taking all his power. But he's unable to stop the second ship as it takes off, the children in it. They activate the hyperdrive, escaping with the children, the leader of the path on it. Vader fully pulls down the first ship, tearing off the sides, Obi-Wan being the Pilot of that one, the parents on the ship. Obi exits it and, hands shaking, takes out his lightsaber.

Vader sees his fear and mocks it, telling Obi that he was wise to let Reva be his pawn, lifting him up with the force and pinning him to the wall, as well.

Vader lets Reva go and, to prove a point to Obi-Wan, duels her, beating her the same way, before he stabs her, leaving her to die in front of Obi.

Vader has all the parents taken by the stormtroopers, slaughtering several of them purely to punish Obi-Wan, to make him suffer, though still leaving most of them alive, sending them and the stormtroopers out, and once they've left, he tells a still pinned Obi that he knows he won't personally let these people die. Vader explains that if Obi wants these prisoners to live, he will come to him, give himself up willingly, for one more duel, and if Obi wins, he will let the prisoners go free. Obi begs him to stop, to not hurt anyone else, calling him Anakin. Vader chokes Obi, enraged at him using the name. Vader tells him that Anakin died with his wife and child, that he was burned alive, that when Anakin lost everything, he ceased to be. And Obi will pay for taking everything from him, because he will take everything from Obi, break his spirit, until he has lost all the hope he has. Vader arrogantly tells Obi that he will give him time prepare, so that Obi can stand some chance against him, stating that Obi will find him where Anakin Skywalker died.

Vader leaves Obi and a dying Reva.

Obi is angry, shaken. He's willing to confront Anakin now. In spite of this, he still patches up Reva. Reva doesn't understand why he's helping her. Obi tells her that in spite of what she's done, he can't turn his back on those that need his help. He tells her that that's why he will confront Anakin and end all of this, because he refuses to be responsible for what he's done. Reva mocks him for thinking he can defeat Vader. Obi tells her that she has helped the empire do exactly what was done to her, in the name of revenge, and now more families could be torn apart, like jedi were, like both of them were. Reva asks Obi if hates Vader for taking Anakin from him. Obi doesn't answer. Reva suggests that Obi, on some level, is looking for revenge too. Obi simply leaves Reva.

Obi ponders what Reva said, the vision he had of him killing Anakin, the feelings he has right now, the desire to take Vader's life, for everything he's done and everything he could do. Obi reaches out, asking for help, admitting that he feels he failed Anakin because he let himself become attached to Anakin, that's what he hasn't wanted to admit to himself, the idea that he broke the jedi code, that he failed not just Anakin, but Qui-Gon as well. In this moment, he allows himself to truly connect and hears Qui-Gon speak to him. Obi opens his eyes, finally reuniting with Qui-Gon.

That's it, so far! I may post other episode ideas, after they're released, but this is it for now!

PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!