Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Man, that's real bad if no one knows what Reva was doing in the finale. That was one of the major plot points.

It's been explained previously in the thread so I'm not going to go over it again but I knew exactly what and why Reva was doing what she was doing. There's no scene where someone delivers exposition to explain it but it's certainly not hard to figure out. Unfortunately, it seems like modern movies/shows have trained audiences to require an explanation for everything and if it's not there, they complain about "plot holes" when they could easily figure it out themselves.

I can only say that neither I nor my wife understood Reva‘s actions in the finale.

And Obi was not a subtle show. This is the show where Obi walks out with a girl laughably half-hidden under his cloak, while the Empire’s best and brightness don’t see it. Everything was telegraphed and made explicit. For it to suddenly become nuanced and hint-hint about major character motives is not what this show was doing.

 

[Tom-G]

All her friends were killed as kids. So she’s going to kill this random kid. For justice.

She couldn’t have nice things, so no one else can have nice things?

I was hoping for one of two interesting arcs for her: either she has a redemption arc, or she goes full dark side. But they managed to find a third, uninteresting arc where she’s just milquetoast inexplicable.

I was befuddled by Reva's attempt to kill Luke. It was already established that Reva wanted to kill Vader to avenge Anakin/Vader killing the Jedi younglings, so she goes off to Tatooine to kill a child. For justice, no less.

The writing of this show was painfully bad and there is a prime example Also, what is it with Disney and having the villains scream and yell to make them appear evil? They did this with Kylo Ren and now with Reva. Tarkin didn't have to raise his voice once and he instilled more fear than both of those Disney abominations combined.

 

[Tom-G]

I don't know, Vader is still pretty bad-ass to me. His disposal of the Emperor sealed it for me.

Which was all for naught when Palpatine returned in Episode IX. SMH. Disney does not know how to Star Wars.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Which was all for naught when Palpatine returned in Episode IX. SMH. Disney does not know how to Star Wars.

Yeah, we got you!

 

[Joe Wong]

It's some of the dialogue that leaves me exasperated, too. Before Ben goes down to fight Vader, he says something to the effect that either he dies or I do, meaning he has the intent to kill Vader. He is resolute. Then Vader asks him point blank if Ben is there to destroy him, and Ben says he will do what he must (which, for a Jedi, means "Hell yes."). The writers had two opportunities to foreshadow Ben letting Vader go, and they botched it both times. On the ship he could have said, "I don't know if I have the strength do what I must." (Kylo echo) And then when Vader asks if Ben is there to destroy him, he could have said, "I believe there is still good in you, Anakin." Or a dozen other things. Anything to prepare us for what is to come. But the writers don't do that.

And there it is.

We know both survive; that’s not my issue with the decision to let Vader continue his evil path. There should have been a reason why OBW just lets him go. I could go with the foreshadowing mentioned above.

 

[JimmyO]

I think they wasted a real opportunity with Neeson It would have been an ideal time for Obi to talk to Ginny before the Vader confrontation. They could have had dialog between them that fleshed out Obi's conflict about whether to kill Vader or not, and Ginny could have advised him on what a Jedi should do.

Saving him for the end was pure and simple fan service, They probably just had him in a remote studio with a green screen for a couple of hours.

 

[SamT]

Or even better, if he had appeared sooner, Liam could have gone and rescued Leia!

 

[Chris Will]

Season 2 plot leak...

Luke needs Obi-wan's help rescuing Leia from the Empire's new fortress, the Death Star. But a final confrontation with Vader could be the end of Obi-wan... or make him even more powerful.

 

[Chris Will]

I enjoyed the duel. Didn't like Obi-wan just walking away. Could have done something else to force Obi-wan to leave like stormtroopers descending on the scene or whatever. Reva was a mostly wasted character for the whole season and her plot in the finale was stupid. How did she even get to Tatooine so fast? How did Obi-wan get there so fast after the duel? They way it was inter-cut, it felt like a few minutes later. All these planets must have been on the same block.


Honestly, I wish these Disney+ shows would expand the universe more. Let's get away from Tatooine and characters connected to previous films and shows. Now there are rumors of a Cal Kestis show. Can't we leave his story to the video games?

Supposedly, there are many different eras in the Star Wars canon, dating thousands of years before ANH. Can we not explore some of this other stuff instead of constantly rehashing the nine movies time period? At last Waititi has said he wants to "expand the world" so, maybe there is hope. (Star Trek has the same problem, constantly revisiting the well instead of pushing forward with new stuff).

 

[Tom-G]

The "rematch of the century" between Kenobi and Vader didn't live up to the hype. Virtually nothing was written well in this series, and the light saber duel was no exception. Vader leaves the Star Destroyer to face Kenobi alone, which doesn't make much sense given the fact that Vader said this to the Grand Inquisitor and the Grand Inquisitor's main purpose is to kill the remaining Jedi. But, I can buy that Vader would go it alone since the GI is subordinate to Vader and Vader is obsessed with killing Kenobi.

Cut to the scene where Vader and Kenobi meet and Vader says to Kenobi "Have you come to destroy me, Obi-Wan?" Um, what? Vader went to Kenobi not vice versa. They go through the obligatory light saber battle and Vader opens up the ground using the force but where does the dirt go? Was there just a big hole in the ground? I know, the force or something but the scene looked contrived. Then Vader covers up Luke with a bunch of rocks (more rocks being wielded by the force - just like in the Last Jedi). And what does Vader do? He walks away. If he can sense when Reva is going to kill him from behind, why can't Vader sense that Kenobi is still alive under the rocks? Disney doesn't understand the lore of Star Wars and the force. Not just in this series, but in the trilogy they did as well.

Kenobi escapes and here we go with a force Hulk-out. If that wasn't bad enough, Kenobi just leaves Vader. Instead of killing him. I realize that Vader can't be killed but this where good writing would have come in handy. A simple line from Kenobi such as "I couldn't kill you before and I can't kill you now" would have sufficed. Or, Kenobi could have said that he couldn't kill Vader because there is still good in him and that would have reinforced Luke feeling that way in Episode VI. I can't buy that Kenobi didn't kill Vader because Kenobi is a Jedi and it's not their way. 1). The Jedi don't exist anymore and 2) Kenobi killed Maul - or at least attempted to kill Darth Maul despite the silliness of Maul surviving to live on in the Clone Wars.

Now I see Kenobi as someone who had a hand in letting the Empire run amok with their authoritarianism and murdering people across the galaxy because Kenobi didn't finish off Vader. The creative team really needed to come up with something more than they did but when has this been the case with Disney Star Wars? They completely botched the trilogy of movies so it's no surprise they botched this.

I was really hoping that the Kenobi series was going to reinvigorate my Star Wars fandom, but they did the opposite. Their failure is now complete. I can't invest myself in anything new they put out. Am I mad? No, not mad. I really want to enjoy Star Wars again but I don't think that will happen. I'm disappointed as all heck. I've accepted that I will never see the magic I saw in the OT and that's fine but I do want to enjoy the great world of Star Wars that George Lucas created.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Now I see Kenobi as someone who had a hand in letting the Empire run amok with their authoritarianism and murdering people across the galaxy because Kenobi didn't finish off Vader.

Quite true. Kenobi now bears quite a bit of responsibility for all the horrific acts that follow in Episodes 4-6

 

[Tom-G]

Quite true. Kenobi now bears quite a bit of responsibility for all the horrific acts that follow in Episodes 4-6

Yes, that's the way I see him now and I realize others may disagree but I do believe this series did more harm than good when it comes to the character of Kenobi. And it really should have been an easy to thing to do the opposite with him. One can overlook Kenobi "creating" Vader in Episode III. There was no way to know that Anakin was going to morph into Darth Vader, but Kenobi knew the monster that Anakin became by the time they duel in that final episode. Just a few episodes earlier, Kenobi was there when Vader was killing people, including kids - just before their first meeting in the series.

 

[Joe Wong]

Honestly, I wish these Disney+ shows would expand the universe more. Let's get away from Tatooine and characters connected to previous films and shows. Now there are rumors of a Cal Kestis show. Can't we leave his story to the video games?

Supposedly, there are many different eras in the Star Wars canon, dating thousands of years before ANH. Can we not explore some of this other stuff instead of constantly rehashing the nine movies time period? At last Waititi has said he wants to "expand the world" so, maybe there is hope. (Star Trek has the same problem, constantly revisiting the well instead of pushing forward with new stuff).

Agreed. Move forward. There's a whole universe out there!

 

[Tom-G]

Let's get away from Tatooine and characters connected to previous films and shows. Now there are rumors of a Cal Kestis show. Can't we leave his story to the video games?

Supposedly, there are many different eras in the Star Wars canon, dating thousands of years before ANH. Can we not explore some of this other stuff instead of constantly rehashing the nine movies time period? At last Waititi has said he wants to "expand the world" so, maybe there is hope. (Star Trek has the same problem, constantly revisiting the well instead of pushing forward with new stuff).

I could not agree more. We went from Tatooine being a planet where nothing happened -- the planet that was farthest away from the bright center of the universe -- to being the central planet in nearly every Star Wars story. And, it's not just Disney. George Lucas made this same misstep in Episode I. I thought so back then I still think that.

As for expanding the world -- I don't have any hope. I was hoping for that 10 years ago when Disney acquired Lucasfilm. The story I really wanted to see was Knights of the Old Republic. If Disney needs a legacy character to anchor a story, they have that in Yoda with him living for 900 years. Assuming KOTOR is in that time frame of Yoda, that is.

 

[RMajidi]

Several posts here state that knowing Obi-Wan and Vader would both survive their battle took away all suspense out of the drama.

I don’t subscribe to this view. Many films - and just about all bio-pics - tell stories where the endpoint is known, yet it’s the journey that is absorbing. One that immediately comes to mind is Fred Zinnemann’s The Day of the Jackal.

The suspense comes from wondering how seemingly impossible situations are navigated or escaped, and that depends on how well the story is told.

In the case of Obi-Wan, I think the story-telling (by writers, director, actors, set designers, cinematographer etc.) was compelling. I wasn’t looking for perfection, and frankly would have been surprised if they had managed to make all strands connect perfectly. Some of the plot development devices suggested by members here would have made some of the character motivations more satisfying in my opinion, but I was happy with this story as told.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been interested in episodic ‘TV’, but after my children encouraged me to watch episode 1 of this series, I was hooked and couldn’t wait to see each new instalment. I think the last time that happened to me was Foyle’s War and the British edition of Life on Mars.

 

[Tom-G]

Something I intended to mention in my earlier post about Kenobi leaving after the duel with Vader: that would have been the optimal time to have Kenobi try and lure Vader to turn from the dark side of the force. Doing so would have called back nicely to the line Vader said to Luke "Obi-Wan once thought as you do."

 

[Sam Favate]

Doing so would have called back nicely to the line Vader said to Luke "Obi-Wan once thought as you do."

Gotta save something for season 2.

 

[Tom-G]

Gotta save something for season 2.

I thought of that, but another meeting of Kenobi and Vader? No thanks. A second season is a bad enough idea.

 

[Tom-G]

I also don't understand the cry for Obi Wan to commit MURDER.

During the duel would have been one thing, but once the duel was finished, it would have been the Hero cold-bloodedly murdering another person (even if Vader is evil, it still would have been murder).

Kenobi murdered Darth Maul. Mace Windu murdered Jango Fett.

 

[Sam Favate]

I thought of that, but another meeting of Kenobi and Vader? No thanks. A second season is a bad enough idea.

I was kidding. Mostly.