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skullsandwineglasses · 2 years

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Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) - Eps 1-3 Impressions

I’m not a knowledgeable enough of a Star Wars fan to give an insightful review, but as a casual prequel fan, I have to say that this series is great fan service.

-The first 5 minutes of the first episode shows a highlight reel of the tragedy that are the prequels and Anakin’s downfall. Say what you will about the writing and dialogue about the prequels, but the dissolution of the relationship between Anakin, Padma, and Obi-Wan is almost Shakespearean.

-Obi-Wan indirectly referenced Padme like, 5 times already in 3 episodes. While I’m glad that Padme is finally getting the acknowledgement she deserves since The Clone Wars series, they still haven’t outright said her name yet. What are you afraid of??

-In Chinese culture, it’s often said that if you suffer in your relationship with someone, then it means that you must have owed them something in your past life and must now repay them in this life. Obi-Wan must have really owed Anakin in a past life because dang, he just can’t catch a break with the Skywalkers. It feels like Obi-Wan’s whole life has been devoted to guiding and guarding the family.

-In order to give Obi-Wan an excuse to leave Tatooine, he has to save Leia, who’s been captured to lure him out. I’m just wondering how he is able to safely go back into hiding now that everyone knows he’s out there.

-It’s nice to see Leia being talked about in reference to Padme, as well as Leia’s curiosity about her birth parents. I always felt that Leia never really cared for her birth parents like Luke did, which is understandable given that Leia had a much more loving and privileged upbringing than Luke. In the OT, Leia only talks about the birth mother once about how she has a distant memory of their mother being beautiful but sad. In the sequel trilogy, Leia doesn’t really talk about her Skywalker lineage at all, even though her son is obsessed with her father (in fact, the sequel trilogy seems to have so much disdain for the OT and prequels, as seen by the retconing of Luke and an overemphasis on Vader rather than Anakin). But Leia resembles Anakin in temperament (even though Obi-Wan says her stubbornness is more like her mother) and resembles Padme in leadership. You can see both of her parents in her. I wish someone would talk about Padme’s legacy with Leia because Padme’s leadership deserves to be remembered, and it would be nice to see Leia look up to her mother as a senator. In the Book of Bobba Fett, we see Ahsoka remark how much Luke reminds her of Anakin, and it’s almost heartwarming to see Luke being referenced to Anakin instead of Vader. And now, we see Leia being referenced to Padme. The sequels refused to connect the OT and prequels, but I’m glad that theses series are bridging that gap.

-I like how this series fleshes out Leia’s character, even though she’s only 10 years old in the series. You can see how her experience with Obi-Wan, and the conversations they have, influence her and will shape her in the future. Leia is clever and perceptive and can read between the lines. I’m sure that she’ll look back on this adventure with Obi-Wan and realize how much her birth parents mean to him and how great they were.

-In episode 3, you get a very distant view of Hayden’s hooded face as Obi-Wan hallucinates him. Poor Obi-Wan is haunted by Anakin. And in their very unbalanced confrontation at the end of the episode, we see that Obi-Wan is not just out of practice, but his trauma and guilt prevents him from matching Anakin. Anakin, now Vader, is like a ghost that has come back for revenge. And boy, does Vader crave revenge, as seen by how he recreated the flames from Mustafar and dragged Obi-Wan through them. It’s hard to watch. It’s sad. It’s unforgivable, but also frustratingly understandable.

-The prequels were all about building angst, from Anakin and Padme’s forbidden romance, to the brother-turned-enemy relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan. This series explores that angst. It’s probably the angstiest addition to the franchise. It’s emotional. It’s intense and full of rage. Even Uncle Owen lashes out against Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan, meanwhile, carries all of these memories with no one to share them with. He’s been alone for 10 years, living the same day over and over again. The only way he marks the passing of time is seeing Luke grow up, which then reminds him of having watched Anakin grow up. He’s stuck in the past, but the past no longer exists. Anakin no longer exists. Obi-Wan used to be a protector, but now out of self-preservation and protection of Luke, he watches idly as people are tortured. Bail Organa calls him out on favouring Luke over Leia. Obi-Wan is no hero, but he’s a damaged man. Instead of serving the galaxy, he’s serving the two descendants of his closest friends.

It’s hard to believe that I’m already halfway through this series. It’s obvious that things won’t be resolved in the next 3 episodes. Obi-Wan and Vader don’t confront and conclude their relationship until 10 years later. Maybe this is the last time that their paths cross. Anakin is also the closest (physically) he’s ever been to his daughter. We know exactly what will happen, and therefore we also know exactly what won’t happen. Anakin won’t find out about his children, Leia won’t learn the truth about her birth parents, and Obi-Wan won’t find peace. The point of this series isn’t to add or further anything. The point is to show us the emotional turmoil that both Anakin/Vader and Obi-Wan go through for the rest of their lives.

-Speaking of emotional turmoil and Padme, I wish they would show Vader mourning Padme. That’s not something that’s been presented in canon yet. In fact, it would be interesting to see Vader being haunted by the people in his past. He clearly has never stopped thinking about Obi-Wan, but what about Ahsoka and Padme? We all know Vader from the OT. He’s cruel and ruthless, and we see his merciless, sadistic cruelty in the third episode. But he was once human. He was once a boy who loved too much. And so, that’s why I think seeing him lash out at Obi-Wan for leaving him for dead on Mustafar is almost cathartic (albeit still difficult) to watch. It shows that Anakin is still in him. Vader isn’t cruel for the sake of being cruel. He’s cruel because he feels wronged as Anakin.

Both Anakin and Vader are unforgivable. I don’t even think he redeemed himself at the end of The Return of the Jedi. Killing Palpatine to save your son and bloodline isn’t exactly altruistic. It doesn’t repent for the fact that Anakin killed probably millions of innocent people. But knowing that Vader was once Anakin, Obi-Wan’s once padawan, brother, son, and friend, does evoke some sympathy.

-Overall, I won’t judge whether or not this series is well-written. I think I’m too emotionally invested to give an unbiased review. But I will say that it answers some questions we have about Anakin and Obi-Wan’s state of mind after Revenge of the Sith.

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ohgodmyeyes · 3 years

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hi! I was curious as to what are both your fav and least fav versions of anakin? (like aotc, rots, old force ghost, clone wars, etc)

This is such an exciting question, but I'll try to be succinct instead of long-winded and boring. (My stories are already there for that.) Here's a quick rundown of a few different Anakins, from my most treasured to the one (and only one) I tend to side-eye:

ROTJ Anakin / Force Ghost Anakin - I'm grouping these guys together, because I love them all for the same reason, and that reason is that they DID it. ROTJ Anakin is the Anakin who finds himself again; who takes responsibility for his family, and a huge step toward atoning for the things he's done. He spends ROTJ slowly changing; we see it in how he regards the Emperor, and the way he regards Luke. The closest thing he’s ever going to do to getting his wife back, realistically, is saving his son and finally openly defying Palpatine. It doesn’t matter that anyone else knows Vader has been rescued from himself, or that he was really a good man all along. Luke knows, and that’s enough; it’s part of why their relationship is so special to me. Luke is the only living person who says a proper goodbye to Anakin: He knew all along that it was worth it to try to know him. That’s beautiful.

His journey isn't finished at this stage, exactly, but his he's in a better place than he's ever been, and I love him for it. He's hope personified, even for the very worst of us.

As an aside— physicality isn't a barrier to any of this; I love him all busted up and dying, I love him as a fully-healed Sebastian Shaw, and as a pretty, young Hayden Christensen.

Padawan Anakin / AOTC Anakin / Jedi Quest Anakin - In second place is a much younger iteration of him— a sad, lonely kid who's easily excitable, and dangerous, somehow, without being at all frightening. He's a mixed-up kid who's had a less-than-ideal upbringing, bound to an ancient prophecy no one knows enough about. He cries out constantly to be held and loved; he's got his heart in his hand, and he's always ready to give it away to the next person who shows him kindness— or who even just needs him.

He's still so compassionate and well-intentioned at this point in his life, even when it doesn't benefit him. He can be petty and sensitive, although anyone would be, if they had to bear the kind of weight Anakin carries on his own shoulders at that age. His emotions sometimes run amok, but his heart is still so good... and more importantly than that, he knows it. He still has hope, for himself and for others, despite the overwhelming sense of 'otherness' he tends to feel. That's what sets him apart from Vader for me, even though I think AOTC Ani resembles the ultimate, 'suited' Darth Vader a lot more than the Anakin we meet at the beginning of ROTS.

Plus— although this is fairly irrelevant— AOTC Anakin happens to be Anakin at peak hotness. No damn wig is going to change that, nor is the sad fact of my own rapidly-advancing age. :)

Little Kid Anakin / TPM Anakin - The sweet baby version of Anakin comes in next for me. The altruism he struggles to hang onto until he finally falls is front-and-centre at this stage. He's tough by necessity (obviously, he's a fucking slave), but he isn't jaded yet— largely owing to his mother. Even when he loses Qui-Gon and gets to the Temple and struggles to integrate, his heart just stays enormous. God knows what he's already been through, but he never stops trying, and there's nothing fake about his confidence at this stage in his life. I love that; I think we could all stand to be a bit more like nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker.

There's an Anakin & Reader story on ao3 by @itohan called 'Kuebiko', and it's a beautiful depiction of what it might be like to be a caregiver for a very young Anakin. It's headed for some pretty sad places, to be sure, but there's a lot of sweetness and lovely (sometimes chilling) little insights into his character that I don't otherwise get to see very often. Anyone else with a soft spot for child Ani should go and read it.

'Classic' Vader, between the end of ROTS and the end of ANH - This is an enormous chunk of time, but again, I think it's more helpful than not if I just group these iterations of him together, at least for the purpose of compiling this list. It's horrific and tragic and a devastating waste of potential, but Anakin really does spend a huge amount of time mired in a thick, dark cloud of grief and anger. He convinces himself of a lot of stupid shit during this period in his life: 'Anakin is dead, I'm fulfilling my destiny, I can get Padmé back, she'd love all this ORDER I'm bringing, blah blah blah'. Every ounce of his extraordinary control is purely surface-level; he's a raging wildfire inside for a longer period of time than I think nearly anyone else could realistically sustain (as in, Kylo Ren was always going to die at 30, and I'm surprised I didn't, too lol).

He's empowered by his shitstain of a 'Master' to hurt and kill people against everything that once made him who he was, and no one can know he suffers for it (or for the loss of his wife, or the family he wishes he could have raised with her). No one can know anything about him; he's a man playing a part who can't ever take off his costume. Everything hurts him, and the only places he can turn to for comfort are the battlefield, and the inside of his own head. He has profound disabilities of every imaginable nature, and receives no more than the most cursory physical maintenance to remedy them. He escapes into his missions, but every one of those is a slight against his own better nature. His personal pursuits don't benefit him either; for basically twenty years of his life, he's living in an emotional storm— it ebbs and flows, but it never lets up, and his entire existence is set up specifically to reward the most despicable of his behaviour.

He doesn't make very many genuine emotional breakthroughs, because he's not allowed— just tricked and lied to and manipulated and taken advantage of, even when he's the one ostensibly in 'control'. His life only starts again when Luke comes into it; again, one more reason their connection is so special to me.

I'm going to go ahead and recommend another Anakin/Reader story by a different author; it's called 'mrfiveohone' by DarthDoritos, and it's on ao3. It's a brilliant exploration of what a strange, budding relationship with a youngish Vader might look like, and just an overall beautiful portrait of escalating intimacy on top of that. Another one I would highly recommend (completion status notwithstanding) is called 'Afterimage', and it is by garnettrees, also on ao3. It's a very dark Vaderdala story that gets right inside Anakin's head in the most wonderful ways. He never stops loving Padmé, and in that, he never truly stops being who he is.

This is the Vader I (admittedly somewhat dramatically) see the most of myself in. It puts us at-odds sometimes, but my urge to get up underneath that mask and make him feel worthy of his own name is insurmountable. I love him because if I didn't, I'd be in trouble.

Which brings us to TCW Anakin… who is, perhaps, the only version of Anakin I can honestly say I don't care for. Which is fine, because the show itself really isn't my kind of thing. Suffice to say, that particular depiction of him departs so dramatically from any of the other ones I've known (or listed here) that I just can't get into it, no matter how hard I try.

I'm going to end this with a shout-out to Lego Anakin! I've never seen a shitty version of Lego Anakin, whether in a cartoon or on my desk at home. :)

Thank you for asking, anon. That was fun to write out!

#anakin skywalker #thanks anon #fanfiction #headcanon #boring to everyone but me #i am trying to answer all of my asks #the nice ones anyway #late #too long

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topbestreviewer · 3 years

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Watch the Star Wars Movies

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace

Released to theaters in 1999 as the first installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, The Phantom Menace is the earliest set film in the timeline and kicks off the story of Anakin Skywalker, a precocious child who seems preternaturally gifted in the ways of the Force, a mystical, magical power wielded by heroes and villains alike in the Star Wars universe. You’ll meet the Jedi, an order of knights who use the Force for good, and the Sith, acolytes of the dark side of the Force who are usually trying to take control of the galaxy. It takes place about 32 years before the Death Star is destroyed.

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

In the prequel set of three's subsequent film, set around 10 years after the occasions of The Phantom Menace, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) has developed into a sullen young person and is proceeding with his Jedi preparing under Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by prequel set of three MVP Ewan McGregor). He likewise falls head over heels in love for Galactic Republic Senator Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) and begins to allow his rising indignation to improve of him.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

It's Anakin versus Obi-Wan in the prequel finale, as Anakin tumbles to the clouded side and in the long run turns into the awful Darth Vader. While he's off engaging his coach, Padmé brings forth twins, whom she names Luke and Leia. In the interim, the Republic is destroyed and the accursed Empire has its spot. The film happens around three years after the occasions of Attack of the Clones.

A Star Wars Story

A starting point story for the special one galactic dealer, Han Solo, which happens around 10 years before the occasions of A New Hope. Here Alden Ehrenreich plays youthful Solo, as he embarks to make his fortune and meets future Star Wars backbones Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian en route.

Maverick One: A Star Wars Story

Set preceding the first Star Wars set of three, Rogue One is an independent film that recounts the account of a gathering of Rebel spies who attempt to take the designs for the Empire's new clear-cut advantage – the Death Star. Maverick One will present your first genuine look at the Rebel Alliance, which has shaped to retaliate against the Empire.

Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope

Here it is, the first Star Wars film, and it includes the characterizing variants of a significant number of the establishment's most well known characters, including energetic ranch kid Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), daring Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and cocksure dealer Han Solo (Harrison Ford). Luke goes on an excursion of self-disclosure, and everybody unites trying to bring down the Death Star.

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

To a great extent considered the best of the Star Wars films (and in light of current circumstances), The Empire Strikes Back happens around three years after the occasions of A New Hope and finds our legends on the run from merciless Imperial powers. An insightful manikin named Yoda appears at train Luke in the methods of the Force, and Darth Vader uncovers reality to Luke that … 40-year-old spoiler alert … he is Luke's dad! (One of the negative marks of watching the movies in sequential request is that this exemplary bend gets demolished numerous movies ahead of time.)

Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi

The last portion of the first set of three happens about a year after the occasions of Empire Strikes Back and includes the last a conflict between Luke, Vader, and Vader's lord – Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), a Sith Lord who has been avoiding around the edges of the establishment since the start. Additionally included: A subsequent Death Star, a lot of brutal (however charming) teddy-bear-like animals called Ewoks, and an end to the Skywalker adventure that remained until …

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens

32 years after the first cast wrapped up their fight against the Empire (and three years after Star Wars maker George Lucas sold his organization, Lucasfilm, to Disney), Hamill, Fisher and Ford got back to the crease for chief J.J. Abrams' continuation of the adventure. The center, notwithstanding, went to another age of legends and scoundrels, including Rey (Daisy Ridley), a helpless garbage dealer with a solid association with the Force, and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), a covered hazard whose bloodline is profoundly established in Star Wars legend. The film happens around 30 years after the occasions of Return of the Jedi.

Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi

Set straightforwardly after the occasions of The Force Awakens, Rey proceeds with her Jedi preparing under a hesitant Luke and structures an improbable bond with a tangled Kylo Ren, while the remainder of the Resistance – a Rebel Alliance-esque branch directed by Leia – retaliates against the First Order, the underhanded system that ascended to supplant the fallen Empire.

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker

Sovereign Palpatine has returned. (Truly!) And it's up to Rey and her spin-off set of three companions Poe (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega) to save the universe unequivocally. Appearances are made by essentially every living adventure character (and surprisingly a portion of the dead ones), and the story wraps up the Skywalker adventure in epic design. Until further notice, in any case.

Star Wars Movies arranged by Release

star-wars-9-the-ascent of-skywalker-daisy-ridley-rey-chewieImage by means of Lucasfilm

Watching the Star Wars films in the request for their delivery likewise has its advantages. You get a portion of the establishment's most grounded films front and center, and a few of its huge shocks are saved for their appropriate uncover. The delivery request is:

1. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)

2. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

3. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)

4. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

5. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)

6. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)

7. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)

8. Rebel One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

9. Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017)

10. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

11. Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

A few fans additionally propose a third method to watch the movies, now and again called "the cleaver request," which includes beginning with A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, at that point returning to watch the prequel set of three, preceding getting back to the regular delivery request with Return of the Jedi and proceeding to The Force Awakens from that point. The essential advantage to this request is it protects the Luke/Vader shock yet permits you to encounter Anakin's whole back-story prior to learning his definitive destiny.

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fearlessskywalker · 4 years

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HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN // have you met ANAKIN SKYWALKER yet? HE is a TWENTY-TWO year old CIS MALE HUMAN. they’re originally from TATOOINE and now show loyalty to THE SITH / HIMSELF. they are best known for being a JEDI KNIGHT, and i hear they’re pretty STRONG yet also ARROGANT at times; i hope they survive the clone wars.

THE PAST

Anakin had trouble adjusting to life as a Jedi padawan. He knew that others in the hall would stare. He could sometimes hear the whispers. Wondering just why he was allowed to stay in the temple. That he was far too old, too opinionated, too cynical and jaded for a nine-year-old human to ever make it as a Jedi. He knew of his new masters doubts on occasion or he thought he did. On occasion, he’d taste ash in his mouth over that word. Master. Something that would lurk over his shoulder forever he’d bet his soul on it.

He worked so hard throughout the clone wars to help others but again and again he saw the same thing he saw when he’d lived with his mother. Slavery. Cruelty. Pain. Something spread across the galaxy no matter the planet. It grew within him like a toxic shadow bringing doubt towards those who he had grown under. The mentality that the war was more important grated on him sometimes.

As things heated up he grew to feel more and more disconnected from his fellow jedi as Palpatine whispered in his ear and brought his insecurities up like a rising tide ebbing and flowing into something larger. His wife was his only light anymore. They were to have a child together. Something that was supposed to bring joy and yet they’d needed to hide them for all their sakes. Then the dreams started… Dreams of losing Padme. That darkness inside took over when he was offered the only chance to have all things he held dear survive.

He killed them. The Jedi ---young, old, hidden. He hadn’t cared about them not if it meant Padme would live. They quickly fell under his blade and the blaster fire of the troopers he’d once trusted his life with. Then came the Separatist Council on Mustafar. They’d fallen as well. Perhaps even more violently.

THE PRESENT

His hand was gone, he’d married the love of his life, they were to become a family. Those who had the potential to harm him and they were gone now. He’d done the job as a protector. Except… He was alone.

Waking up was hell. Or it could be where he’d woken up that was hell. Anakin had found himself in a fortress of sorts on Mustafar. He didn’t know how long had passed or what had happened to him. Until he broke into the various holopads strewn around the fortress. Darth Vader. His name had brought fear to the galaxy. But he’d lost his wife, hell he’d died! But this was a second chance. For what? He wasn’t sure but his wife was gone so his pain over his actions and her loss combined with every other fueled him in the force but especially the dark side.

Anakin is struggling in a fortress of his own supposed making. Struggling with learning that there are other Skywalkers out in the galaxy, with his actions losing his wife to an unknown Jedi. Palpatine’s betrayal and inability to fulfill the oath they had reached. Now though he seeks to learn about the current state of the galaxy. Yellowed eyes watching from the shadows.

PERSONALITY

Positive traits: Insightful, Loyal, Intelligent, Willful

Negative traits: Stubborn, Temperamental, Messy, Reckless

MBTI type: ENTJ

Moral Alignment: Chaotic Evil (Good)

Temperament: Choleric

Anakin cares for people, he does but he can be a bit selective on who exactly he cares about. He needs to warm up to those people and get to know them just a bit before he can like them and then grow to love them.

When he loves… He loves SO hard it can be scary at times. And its that quality that allowed Palpatine to manipulate his love for Padme into something so twisted that it allowed him to become Vader.

He’s always so scared of so many things that he doesn’t know if he’s coming or going at times. Yet his name by the Republic was: The Hero with No Fear. What a lie. Though his one true fear would always be losing those he loves except… He thinks he already lost them so what can he fear now?

He broods over mistakes he makes and he is aware of it. He often has to be pulled out of those moods by someone else and they usually involve him getting absorbed into some technological project where he upgrades C3PO, R2D2, or his ship.

When his mood is particularly dark... He fiddles with the prosthetic that is now his arm. The first week he’d had it he’d been so self-conscious until Padme made him see reason. But he still has moments after particularly bad days where he becomes all too aware he isn’t fully human any longer. That he needs to be able to take apart and put back together one of his own limbs.

#galactics.intro #updated for revamp #m: about

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gffa · 6 years

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Scattered Star Wars novels thoughts: - I have listened to an hour and a half of the Thrawn: Alliances audiobook, someone please tell me to stop torturing myself with this thing. It’s not even that it’s a bad book imo, but that it wasted so much potential! TELL ME TO NOT SPEND ANOTHER TWELVE HOURS ON THIS ONE. That said, re: the audiobook specifically, WHOA, Marc Thompson nailed Thrawn’s voice/Lars Mikkelsen impression, that is some spot on voice acting! His Padme sounds pretty much like all his other female characters unfortunately and his Anakin sounds like a slightly softer version of his younger characters (I’m thinking especially of Temmin) and I really like that choice, it feels like it’s a little closer to Hayden!Anakin than Matt!Anakin (who does a fantastic job, but when that’s often times the ONLY version of Anakin we see in stuff anymore, I start getting really wistful about movie-based prequels stuff, like, no, TCW wasn’t the only good prequels stuff!) but it is still hard to put it together with the Anakin in my head. And his Vader is surprisingly flat, like, I would have thought the barest special effects for that would have been easy? But it’s just a deep voice impression! I feel like Thompson’s roles are often like that, it’s very hit and miss. I love his book readings, he’s the go-to guy for a reason, but you know what I wish they’d do more often? Get the various voice actors together for different roles. I realize that’s probably a lot more work than they want to do, paying multiple people for the same book, but there was one I listened to recently (which I cannot remember for the life of me now) that got Thompson for his Han voice and January LaVoy for her Leia and it was FANTASTIC. I keep wishing that that’s what they’d do with this book--get LaVoy for Padme, get Thompson for Thrawn, get a different actor for Anakin, get some special effects for Vader, and it could be really great. Though, I recognize that the audiobook versions probably aren’t as much of a priority, but still! I want to treat them like audiodramas instead! Cater to what I want, LucasFilm! And while we’re at it, give me more animated TV series novelizations! Of Rebels AND The Clone Wars! AND A PONY!! - I finished Life Debt and I’m giving myself a little time to let it breathe before tackling Empire’s End--and maybe hoarding the last of it, because I’ve come to love these characters a lot. ;__; That’s one of the really big downsides of the expanded universe stuff--there are all these incredible characters that I get really invested in and, so often, they’re just there for a brief time and we never know what happens beyond that. I’m still sad that we haven’t gotten another book with Vi Moradi. I’m still sad that we haven’t seen any sign of post-Rebels’ Ezra getting to tell us what happened. I’m still sad that Eli Vanto was only in the one book so far. I’m sad that Sinjir and Jas and Norra and Jom probably won’t be in any more novels after this, that I’m lucky to have gotten three of them! I still want more of Iden Versio and we’ll probably never get much more than a cameo from her after this. I’ll keep reading and keep getting invested in these characters, the more there are, the more populated this galaxy feels, and some of them do keep showing up. Like getting to see Sana in Last Shot was a lot of fun! I have no doubt Rae will turn up in lots more things! I just want more of these characters, too! I know we already get, on average, like three or four books a month from all across Star Wars, but I WANT MORE, PLEASE. - One thing I realized about halfway through Life Debt is that, I CANNOT, for the LIFE of me, unsee Sinjir as Dorian Pavus. The darker skin and accent definitely felt reminiscent of him, but then the second half of the book made several mentions of the very noticeable mustache and now it’s ALL I CAN SEE and I’m half wondering if that wasn’t the inspiration. - I liked the ending of the book a lot! It reminded me of ESB in how much it felt like the middle piece of a trilogy, that it ended on such an explosive note and how much shit is going down. I certainly didn’t expect everything to blow up the way it did in the last parts of the book! I’ve also really come around on Norra and I think a lot of that has to do with how much shit Temmin gives her that’s not really her fault, so it eases up the strain I was feeling on her in the early parts of the first book. I’m really enjoying the vague Rae - Leia counterparts-of-their-respective-organizations stuff, too! Both are sort of the face of their side, but aren’t really the one at the head, both are feeling like outsiders in this fight that they’ve given everything to, that the organizations are going in directions that make them furious, because they both deeply believe they’re right. It makes me wonder how much this is meant to be negative images of each other or how much it’s meant to be a true parallel, that both of them are worthwhile people, but are putting forth some not-so-great ideas, Rae with the Empire and Leia with her inability to recognize that a government is different from a Rebellion. - I’m 4/5ths of the way through the Solo novelization and I think there’s a lot to be said about how I’m just not as invested in Han as a character, so the little details kind of slip by me. But it’s also fairly light as a novelization (in comparison to my favorites, but also it’s not the lightest I’ve read, either!) and so I was dearly looking forward to some Qi’ra insight, but there’s not really that much? The hints at what she went through are really interesting and I’m hoping that the climax of the story will give me more to work with, but this is definitely not going to be another TLJ novelization or even a Thrawn: Alliances level of I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO SAY. I’m sad that it feels like the book never read Most Wanted, because the junior novelization had a mention of Tsuulo (so far that was the most notable thing about it, but I think I’m only like three chapters in, so that’s not much time yet) that absolutely DELIGHTED ME, but the adult one hasn’t mentioned him or much outside of what was already there in the movie, so it does feel kind of light and disconnected, but it’s still worth the read to me. And I do think that the novelization’s version of the Imperial hearing scene was WAY funnier than the actual deleted scene, it nailed the timing of it in a way that not even the movie’s delightful acting could for me.

#novels

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thaeonblade · 2 years

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Logic's Insight: Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi

https://www.deviantart.com/thaeonblade/art/Logic-s-Insight-Star-Wars-Obi-Wan-Kenobi-919730230 Hello There!

If anyone was holding out hope, let Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi show you the truth.

As long as Disney owns Star Wars, it cannot and should not be saved.

In all fairness, the show doesn't seem too bad at all. It's good to see several returning actors and characters from the Prequel Trilogy again. Ewan Mcgregor does a great job as Obi-Wan Kenobi and once more steps into the role effortlessly. Darth Vader is again voiced by James Earl Jones whose still got it and is portrayed by Hayden Christainson who gets some redemption from his hit and miss record in the Prequel films.

In fact, there's a great flashback in the series where Padawan Anakin spars with younger Obi-Wan. Both are in character, the fighting is great and the lesson Obi wan imparts onto the impulsive and proud Anakin was really great. I actually wish that a scene like this was in the Prequel films because it shows Anakin's training in a way that demonstrates his strengths and fatal flaws. It's also a way for the story to convey what makes a jedi through action and visual story telling, something that was lacking in the prequels.

The effects both computer generated and practical all work well for the cinematography. John William's score for Obi-Wan was good and the action is mostly solid. If all you care about is some good Star Wars action and seeing beloved characters again and don't care about anything else, Kenobi will be alright for you. I'm not necessarily recommending it, but I'm not going to sneer at anyone who goes to watch it and manage to enjoy themselves.

But we need to stop giving ourselves false hope about the franchise as Disney is handling it. This show is showing many of the problems that we've seen in other bad stories by Disney and Disney's mishandling and combative response to critics and naysayers is stubbornly unprofessional and hypocritical. Even we put aside the political stuff, the show itself just doesn't hold up in terms of character or story telling.

It's at best an unnecessary cash cow banking on people's nostalgia for the old legacy characters (to be fair that's not new). At worst, Disney is manipulating people's love for old legacy characters as a trojan horse to force bad characters, bad ideas and bad politics down our throats.

I don't care what your politics are, Star Wars has always been about story telling and entertainment first and politics second. Period.

Sacrificing story telling for political propaganda and grandstanding never pays off. If you can't interweave your politics seamlessly with your story to make both and the characters great then just don't do it. Hell, the Lucas Era films and the EU were able to get this right.

The Knights of the Old Republic games are very political, but they're political in a way that adds to and enriches the world building. It invites discussion, conversation and exchange of ideas due to the topics and points brought up by the characters and situations. It helps gamers to increase their understanding of the Star Wars Universe and expand their views to consider things that they didn't think about before.

That's not what we got from Obi Wan Kenobi. That's not what we've gotten from any Star Wars story not written/directed by Dave Filoni. Filoni isn't above being political or biased either. However, his political views aren't so bad that it interferes with his ability to tell good stories and convey memorable characters and moments to the viewers.

So how did Star Wars Obi Wan Kenobi miss the mark?

The Story

Obi Wan Kenobi takes place ten years after Revenge of the Sith and stars a jaded Obi Wan Kenobi hiding on Tatooine. Obi Wan is being rebuffed by Owen Lars regarding training Luke to be a Jedi and is struggling with trauma from the events of the Prequels.

However, things get ruffled when three inquisitors including the Grand Inquisitor and the Third Inquisitor named Reva appear in search of a Jedi named Nari. Nari is found out and narrowly escapes, going to Obi Wan for help, but gets rejected. Nari is eventually found and murdered with his body put on display, but Reva believes that Obi Wan Kenobi is in the area. She wants to find Obi Wan to gain Vader's favor and raise in the ranks of the Imperial Inquisition.

As part of her plan, she hires bounty hunters to capture a child Princess Leia. With no one else to turn to, Bail Organa contacts Obi Wan and asks him to rescue Leia. Obi Wan initially refuses, but accepts and embarks on an adventure to save Leia. During this conflict, he'll have to fight bounty hunters, Imperial storm troopers and enforcers, deal with Inquisitor Reva and will have a fateful encounter with Darth Vader which will bring him face to face with an old friend.

Also spoilers for Episode IV, Obi Wan survives, saves Leia and returns to Tatooine while giving everyone the slip.

So just like Rogue One, this is a neat idea that really didn't need to be made.

Not that Disney cares, but this story also creates more contradictions within the timeline's continuity on top of the ones that already existed. I have a feeling that this was done for the purposes of answering questions that the writers felt needed to be answered. But all this does is raise more questions and create more plot holes. This happened with Rogue One as well, but at least that movie was a fairly inoffensive and entertaining action story with several memorable moments and characters.

While Rogue One was made around explaining the Death Star exhaust port “plot hole”, Obi Wan Kenobi seems to have had the Darth Vader “plot hole” in mind. Namely, some fans have wondered how Obi-Wan knew that Anakin had survived Mustafar if they never meet again until A New Hope. Now it's fine to speculate and ask questions as this can lead to good discussion and may inspire some to re-watch beloved movies. But don't dwell too much on a few questions if they're not important. Questions which were already answered in the films if you paid attention or could be inferred by the audience with the available information.

As several keen sighted fans have already pointed out, the exhaust port weakness was already well explained and shown in A New Hope. The Empire was supremely confident in the invulnerability of the Death Star and by all appearances, they were right. Even when the Rebels find the exhaust port weakness, it's not something that can be exploited without making a one in a million shot. A shot that even a veteran ace pilot like Red Leader couldn't make. A shot that Luke Skywalker was only able to make by using the Force after getting a lot of help getting that far and surviving Vader.

With Obi Wan Kenobi, I and other fans simply inferred that Obi Wan learned about Anakin's survival in between Episode III and IV. Considering how infamous Darth Vader is and how Obi Wan already knew Anakin had taken the name Darth Vader as his sith name, it makes sense that Obi Wan would eventually piece together the truth using the rumor mill. In fact, that's what happens in the Lucas EU books and Obi Wan actually panicked and needed to be calmed by Qui-Gon's ghost.

While I can see why people would enjoy the spectacle of Obi Wan and Darth Vader meeting again, it's not necessary.

One, it contradicts with the films and breaks the idea that Obi Wan and Darth Vader never met again until their final duel on the Death Star.

Second, Darth Vader was distancing himself his past as Anakin Skywalker and that included letting go of an obsessive hunt for Obi Wan Kenobi. That's why Vader was so shocked to sense Obi Wan on the Death Star and why Tarkin was surprised by Vader's belief that Kenobi was on the Death Star.

Tarkin's reaction doesn't match with someone who knew Obi Wan was stirring trouble about ten years ago.

Third, if Vader really is gunning for Kenobi and Tatooine is brought to his attention due to one jedi being caught and killed there, I can imagine Vader would scour the place himself for Kenobi. He may even go to Jabba the Hutt and ask for his assistance in exchange for rewards and bribes from the Empire even if Vader was disgusted with the hutts. In the process, Vader may actually learn about his step brother and in the process young Luke and everything goes to shit from there.

Fourth, the inquisitors have technology and techniques that help them detect if someone's force sensitive. It's pretty dumb for Reva to kidnap Leia and not realize that she's force sensitive by sensing her potential or checking her midichlorian count with a blood sample. The Empire was always on the prowl for force sensitives who they could indoctrinate and turn into dark side servants. Leia's potential was at least as strong as Luke's, so I don't see why the inquisitor's wouldn't look at her and say “Oh! Future Sith Queen here!”

Then with Leia in your clutches, you can do a paternity test and realize that Leia isn't the biological child of Bail Organa and his wife. This would obviously be suspicious and set off a chain reaction investigation that could lead to Leia's true parentage being uncovered. Now Vader has a reason to accuse Bail Organa of treason and thus the Empire becomes justified in openly moving against Alderaan or any of Organa's allies. Then Vader would take Leia as his secret apprentice as he did with Galen in Force Unleashed and train her to be his future heiress, only this time he'd be serious about it.

I don't know if the writers just didn't double check with the films and the relevant EU first or if they just didn't care. But it's clear that things that happen in the series' events happen because the writers want them to happen. That's of course fine for a writer to do, but they need to happen in a way that makes sense for the plot and the characters. Considering that Kenobi takes place in between two established stories, the show must also fit into the continuity of those pre existing stories and not do anything to mess up the narrative coherence of the star wars films.

For instance, I think Kenobi would be stronger if Obi Wan's storyline remained separate from Darth Vader's. Perhaps Vader is following the inquisitors in hunting down several jedi who are trying to lead an early resistance movement. One of said Jedi briefly passes through Tatooine where Obi-Wan advises that now is not the time for open conflict. But the rebel jedi values revenge over patience and so he leaves behind Obi-Wan.

Obi Wan then gets involved in a conflict between farmers and Tusken raiders as the raiders are led by a new fallen jedi. This fallen jedi wants to use the tuskens to takeover Tatooine from the hutts and build his own personal kingdom. Afraid that this guy's plan will threaten Luke's safety and the plan to hide him from the empire, Obi Wan reluctantly tries to become a peace mediator to avoid a war. Eventually, he also tries to convince the fallen jedi to repent of the dark side and return to the light. But the fallen jedi refuses and Obi Wan kills him unhappily, the encounter causing Obi Wan to harden his heart to idea of someone ever turning away or repenting of the dark side.

On Vader's storyline, he encounters the rebel jedi and a cool fight occurs between him and the inquisitors against the jedi and some of their ragtag apprentices. Obviously, Vader's side wins and the survivors are told to turn to the dark side or die. Some of the jedi survivors actually take the offer, but the rebel jedi Obi Wan talked to refuses and warns that a new hope would soon destroy the darkness and Vader along with it. Vader kills the rebel leader, but the leader says a line that Vader recalls Obi Wan once said, leaving Vader questioning whether his old master is still alive or not.

These two storylines would then be inter-cut with flashbacks with Anakin and Obi Wan from before Episode II, during the Clones Wars and right before Episode III. These flashbacks would be Kenobi and Vader thinking back on the lost past and comparing those happy days of brotherhood to the current present of isolation and pain. While Obi Wan is able to work through his pain and maintain his hope, Vader is filled with hate and anguish over the living hell he's chosen for himself.

Meanwhile in this mini-series...

Obi Wan Kenobi gets the Jake Skywalker treatment

Obi-Wan sadly gets the Last Jedi treatment and it makes even less sense here than it did in Last Jedi. Episode III and Episode IV make it clear that Obi-Wan was not abandoning the fight, but was hiding and waiting for the right moment. He was on Tatooine to watch over and protect Luke while also communing with the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn to continue training in the higher teachings of the Force such as how to become a Force Ghost after death.

So having Obi-Wan cowardly abandon another fleeing Jedi and initially refuse to go save child Leia is really out of character. This is the same jedi who infiltrated Coruscant right after Order 66 and stormed the Jedi Temple with Yoda to plant the message that saved any surviving jedi and telling them to stay in hiding. This is the same Obi-Wan who will stoically and unflinchingly fight and kill Darth Maul. He's supposed to hold the fire of hope until he can pass the torch to Luke Skywalker. Yet, Kenobi starts with him being a pessimistic, cowardly loser.

Now I'll make one slight concession, I like the idea of Obi-Wan struggling with PTSD and his grief over the events of the Prequels and the Clone Wars. Obi-Wan really did go through a lot of crap and lost so much in the span of 13 years. His Master and father figure Qui-Gon died; his girlfriend Satine was killed by Maul; his pupil and pseudo brother/son Anakin turned to the Dark Side, became Darth Vader and killed his fellow jedi including the younglings. Obi-Wan watched or learned of many fellow jedi and other friends dying including having to watch Padme die from childbirth and a broken heart. He had to fight Anakin and leave him for dead on Mustafar and lets not forget about the overbearing knowledge that the Jedi Order is gone and that the Sith have won.

Obi Wan's portrayal would be much stronger if he was hopeful and stoic in the face of bleak circumstances. It would be in this dark hour where Obi Wan would be meditating on the Jedi Code and finding an understanding of its ideas that he didn't see before. Perhaps we can see Obi Wan accepting his pain and then letting it go to keep from falling into despair and hopelessness. We would see an inner strength within the Exiled Jedi Master as he overcomes his trauma and sorrow and through finding serenity and inner peace, he deepens his connection to the force.

Remember being Stoic does not mean that you don't have emotions or that you don't get sad or that you can't cry. Stoicism simply means that you've self disciplined yourself enough to maintain control of your emotions even in highly emotional situations. Considering that this is part of the Jedi Way, it's kind of dumb for Obi Wan to drop it and act like a hopeless weakling for the first three episodes.

In all fairness though, Obi Wan does shake off the rust and eventually starts acting like the Obi-Wan that we know and love as time goes on. Some may argue that this was a feature rather than a flaw and that Obi Wan is supposed to start off depressed and weak only to regain his strength and wisdom as the series progresses. I'd argue that it's dumb to have Obi Wan lose his strength and wisdom in the first place if he's going to get it back anyway and we already know how this arc will end.

Blackwashing Obi Wan like this is just creating melodrama and that's a waste of time. I'd rather see drama about a character whose trying to be strong and hold onto hope while in a hopeless and bleak situation. It's much more admirable to see a hero continue to do the right thing and strive to do good even while handling emotional baggage. It shows conviction and resolve to see them barely holding themselves together and being ready to break down and cry at any moment, but they keep standing and they keep fighting because their willpower refuses to let them give up.

I don't know, I just don't see what I gain from waiting three episodes for Obi Wan to act heroic and strong rather than just having him do so from the start.

Why should we like Reva again?

A lot of controversy has been raised over the character of Reva, the Third Inquisitor of the Imperial Inquisition. Honestly, the character doesn't work and isn't necessary at all. She detracts focus away from the characters we want to see and she's terrible as a character and as a villain. How the character is presented is also confusing as if it doesn't know if it wants the audience to hate Reva, relate to Reva, or to feel sympathy for Reva. So this character is a massive mess and controversy surrounding the character outside of the show doesn't help matters at all.

While I'm not a fan of the character of Reva, I need to remind fellow fans to not harass the actress Moses Ingram. One it's just wrong to harass or insult actors period, we're better than that and we need to act like it. Two, this is the crap that Disney and the Media weaponizes to justify their nonsense, stop feeding them stuff that they can use against the rest of us. Three, if you are legitimately racist then go away and rethink your life.

But putting those bad faith actions aside, Inquisitor Reva is just a bad antagonist and she gets way too much screen-time over the main character Obi-Wan. People went to this show to see Obi-Wan Kenobi, not inquisitor Reva. Worst is that this character gets shilled to be greater than she really is while getting away with crap that lesser imperial officers and inquisitors have gotten killed for. She's also self-interested and ambitious to the point of self-sabotaging other inquisitors and by extension herself.

Granted, the sith have always adhered to the dark side idea of survival of the fittest at any cost. As I've said before, backstabbing is outright encouraged by the way of the dark side. The truly strong are those who take what they want and destroy anyone who stands in their way. Hell, Vader and Palpatine have been trying to betray and backstab each other constantly between Episode III and Episode VI. So I'm not necessarily condemning Reva for being a backstabber if its in keeping with her philosophy and character.

Reva's just bad at it.

She backstabbed her boss at a critical moment when they had Obi-Wan in their clutches. Thanks to her stupidity, Obi-Wan was able to escape capture and the Inquisitor's strongest member and leader is incapacitated. In fact, it's pretty stupid that the Grand Inquisitor, the guy who was a former Temple Guard and the strongest of the inquisitors, went down like a little bitch. All to make Reva look stronger as if we're supposed to be rooting for her somehow. Hell, she was going to sadistically torture captives earlier and the Grand Inquisitor made her stop so that the prisoners could be interrogated for information.

Also, Reva's stupidity in having Princess Leia kidnapped is beyond belief. Remember that at this time, the Emperor isn't openly doing anything against the Imperial Senate because he still needs the Senators to keep the various systems of the galaxy in check. It wasn't until the Death Star was built that Palpatine felt confident enough to dissolve the Senate and rely on the moffs to enforce order through fear and power. Even as a token entity, the senate could still cause civil war within the Empire if enough senators were provoked by Palpatine.

So imagine how pissed Palpatine would be if he learned that an inquisitor kidnapped a senator's daughter without his knowledge or permission and in direct violation of her orders from the Grand Inquisitor? Imagine how angry Palpatine would be if he learned that this same inquisitor not only stabbed her boss in the back, but allowed Obi-Wan Kenobi to slip from her fingers not once, but twice? This is the kind of story that Palpatine's enemies in the Senate could use to rally more support for their cause and help the Rebel Alliance get born even sooner and with even more support than before.

Reva needs to hang out with Cersei because they need to take notes on being terrible villains.

Also, if you're going to try to kill Darth Vader then at least read HK-47's guide on killing Jedi and Sith. It's still Vader that you're up against, but at least you'll stand a slim chance. The apparent reference to the legendary Revan is an insult as Reva is nothing like the the KOTOR character even at his worst. Revan would be spinning his grave to know that an idiot named after him his fumbling so badly at being both a villain and an avenger.

If Reva was just a mediocre villain than I'd shrug and move on like I did with Director Krennic from Rogue One. But it doesn't help that Disney is yet again race-baiting and broad stroking every one of Reva's critics as being racist and that “there's no place in Star Wars for you”. Yep, Disney is still holding up that blanket excuse as a shield no matter how many holes have been poked in it. Another tactic to put people on the defense and another sign that Disney will never change or that they learned nothing from the Sequel Trilogy's backlash.

In fact, the Star Wars Twitter account put out a tweet celebrating Pride Month and a Star Wars related product coming soon. Someone responded and spoke for us when he said, “Stop making Star Wars political.” Of course, Star Wars has always been political in the right way. What this responder was talking about was how Disney has used Star Wars as a vehicle to push their hypocritical self-contradicting and combative politics onto people who just want to enjoy Star Wars and have fun.

How did the official twitter account of the Star Wars franchise respond? With a disingenuous tweet that strawmanned the original responder and tacitly encouraged several of their millions of followers to dog-pile and gaslight this responder for not being a sheep. It's really ironic for Star Wars twiter to have previously said that there's no place for toxicity on their platform. Now here they are sending a toxic strawman backlash against a critic and encouraging other people to beat them down into submitting or going away.

So I think it's pretty clear to anyone who is paying attention or accepting the truth that Disney is only inclusive and diverse in name and appearance only. They don't like it when people don't fall in line and swallow their garbage and want to marginalize or beat down anyone who encourages dissent. Even with the rising number of people walking away from them or calling them out on their nonsense, they just keep doubling down into denial.

So either Disney is really committed to their lies or they've deluded themselves into really believing their own nonsense. I actually have a feeling that they're committing to the lie simply so that they don't have to admit that they don't actually care about the politics their throwing out. They're just using said politics for the sake of controlling and manipulating people into giving them money by tricking them into thinking that Disney believes in the politics that their baiting people with. But do your research and look behind the curtain, you'll see just how hypocritical Disney really is and so for them to claim that all of Reva's critics are racist is pathetic.

It's odd for Disney to start throwing around the term racist when it's a known fact that Disney has a fairly colorful past in regards to racism.

Do I need to remind anyone about Song of the South?

Remember the hyper-tokenism and waste of potential involved with Finn in the Sequel Trilogy?

Also, Disney tends to bend over backwards on their activism and diversity focus as soon as China is involved don't they?

To piggy back off that point, Disney knowingly marginalized representations of black actors in posters for Black Panther and the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. Seems pretty racist for you to marginalize your own black cast members just to appease China doesn't it? If you were sincere about your diversity aims, wouldn't you just keep the posters with the prominent black characters on them and tell China to deal with it?

Or wait, I guess you're diversive and inclusive unless your bottom line is in danger right?

How are those child abuse allegations going for you Disney?

In fact, I heard a few of your employees got arrested for involvement with human trafficking?

Didn't you also hired a known convicted pedophile?

There's so much more that I could bring up, but I'll tie it up to a simple question for Disney: Are you really trying to claim the moral high ground?

I rest my case.

Anyway, I'm not sure why Reva keeps being shilled into our faces apart from obvious hypocritical feminist nonsense. I can't imagine how the writers thought we'd feel anything for Reva after she kidnapped and tortured a child just to lure out Kenobi. Not only is she a horrible villain, her turn to the dark side is worst when its revealed that she was a youngling who survived the Jedi Temple attack.

Jedi Knights died protecting you, Anakin/Darth Vader killed your friends and nearly killed you, and yet Reva wholeheartedly embraces her role as an inquisitor. She has absolutely no redeeming qualities even when compared to child murdering Darth Vader. And yet, this is the character that Disney wants to put up as the break out role of this series. This is the character that Disney thinks is more important than the titular main character Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Not even the knowledge that Reva was trying to kill Vader isn't enough to make me respect her. She became the very thing she hated, so even if she had a chance of succeeding her victory over Vader would be worthless. She'd just take his place as an enforcer of the sith and arguably more sadistically and cruelly than even Vader was. I'm also confused about whether we're supposed to pity her or think of her as tragic when it turns out that Vader and the Grand Inquisitor were just toying with her and don't consider her more than a nuisance.

There's also a leak on the show's ending and true or not, I hate it. I won't say what happens in the ending leak that I read and I can't confirm if its true (though most other info in said leak have been accurate), but the ending basically tries really hard to make you like Reva. It's basically a rushed attempt at redemption that doesn't work and the story wants to scream at you about how she's some martyr and a good person in the end. This one act is meant to make you forget about all of the horrible things that she did or tried to do, things that made even her fellow inquisitors look at her like a mad dog.

As an example of how the universe bends over backwards for her convenience, Vader never would have kept Reva alive if he was in character. Vader has a low tolerance for failure and considering the thin ice Reva's already on, Vader has no reason to keep her alive after her failures in part 4. If anything, Vader would have killed Reva and used her tracker to find Kenobi himself rather than relying on the clearly unreliable Reva.

Also, Vader playing along with Reva's revenge scheme doesn't make sense. Vader wouldn't waste time entertaining Reva's revenge plot and probably would've killed her for so much as winking at him. This is the Sith Lord who hunted down and killed two competent inquisitors because they were friends with each other. Does this sound like the same sith lord who will tolerate naked scheming and backstabbing of fellow inquisitors? That kind of thing makes the Inquisition look bad and by extension it makes Vader look bad because he's the organization's overseer.

But no, Reva gets to survive Vader's wrath where other people have died for lesser reasons or were killed for things that weren't even their fault like Captain Needa. Why? Because the plot says so and the writers can't do any wrong.

A False Hope

In truth, I'm kind of glad that Kenobi is so problematic because that will wake people up to the truth about the state of Star Wars. As I've said before, Star Wars cannot be saved while it's owned and managed by Disney and Kenobi is just the latest exhibit to add to evidence. It's also something that's exposing how it is that Disney is tricking fans and new audiences into giving them money despite the skeletons in their closets.

Basically, Disney knew that they were in trouble after the Sequel Trilogy. Despite their media manipulation and gaslighting, Disney knew that they screwed up on how they handled the Sequel Trilogy. They didn't plan ahead and so each film doesn't synch with the each other; each director had wildly different ideas, themes and plans for how the trilogy should go; the third director Colin Trevorrow got cut out of nowhere and JJ Abrams had to put together the mess into a coherent third movie.

Add to this the failure of Solo, the declining merchandise and toy sales, and the increasing outrage of the Star Wars longtime fans, Disney knew that they had to do something our their four billion dollar invested would be inverted into a loss. So Disney decided to switch gears and come up with a strategy to win back the crowd and more importantly, secure future profits for whatever they do with Star Wars.

That strategy is called give them Hope.

So Disney brought back Dave Filoni to finish the Clone Wars and head the Bad Batch spin-off. They got Jon Favraeu to direct the Mandalorian series with Dave Filoni on board as the story executive. They kicked EA's ass until EA came out with a good single player Star Wars game in Star Wars: Fallen Order. All of these projects were somewhat successful in reigniting people's engagement and love of Star Wars. Which in turn lead to more projects like a series for Ahsoka being greenlit and so the Star Wars fanbase was filled with hope that Star Wars could be good again.

It was a lie.

Disney merely let you think that things would be better by giving you just enough to want to come back. This is like an abusive spouse showing token remorse and making a grand gesture to try and show how sorry they are for hurting their husband or wife. The abused victim will then come back with hope that the abuser has changed and for a while, it seems like the change is genuine. But eventually, the abuser will show their true colors and it turns out their their previous change of heart was just a ruse to lure back their victim.

That's because abusive relationships often are fixed around power and control. The abuser uses physical, sexual, emotional, spiritual, financial and other forms of abuse to hold control over their victim. It can happen between parent and child, husband and wife, boss and employee, one friend to another and any form of relationship that can put one person over another. The abuser feels the need to show their power by hurting other people and since they don't respect the other person, they don't see anything wrong with using harm to enforce their control despite supposedly “loving” their victim.

So when the abuse victim decides to leave, the abuser scrambles to keep them around. The abuser needs someone around to beat down to make themselves feel good. After all, a lot of abusers were once abused themselves and so the abuse they perpetuate is done as a symptom of issues that they've failed to get help for. So when their victim is about to leave and seem serious about, the abuser will know that coercion and force won't stop them. So they pretend to be sorry to play at the victim's emotions an try to get the victim to stay in the relationship.

That's why I said that Disney's relationship with Star Wars fans is similar to an abusive relationship. Disney storms into Star Wars with promises that things would still be good for the fans. Then whenever Disney makes a change that the fans argued against or challenged, Disney disrespects and insults the fans while making more decisions that ruins and kills Star Wars. When fans first got disillusioned and when their own way, Disney let them believing that enough fans would stick around to accept their way of doing things.

But after the Sequel Trilogy and other blunders, the number of people walking away from Disney's Star Wars accelerated and Disney had to go into damage control. Realizing that wouldn't be enough, they brought in the writers and show runners with talent and creativity and told them to make products that will bring the Star Wars fans back with their money.

Now I'm not saying that Dave Filoni sucks or that Jon Favrau is a sell-out. What I am saying is that their successful projects did something worst for the fanbase than if they'd bowed out. Good projects like The Mandalorian, Fallen Order, Clone Wars season 7 and Bad Batch gave Star Wars fans hope. Enough hope to come back and believe that Star Wars was going to get better going forward and that we could all sweep the Sequel Trilogy under the rug.

Then Book of Boba Fett came out.

Book of Boba Fett appears to have been hit and miss and may as well be The Mandalorian 2.5 as it actually invalidates the ending of Mando season 2. However, Boba Fett along with Kenobi seem to be a start of Disney deciding that they don't need to pretend to be sorry anymore. Now they're going back to the same bad habits and using the same victim blaming deflection tactics as they were using before. Hopefully, this is the wake up call that gets some of the hardliner fans to finally face the music and accept the reality that Disney and Lucasfilm have chosen for themselves.

A reality that you don't have to be apart of.

Since it's clear that Disney only cares about your money and your attention, the only way that they'll hear you is to hit them where it counts. That's why I've chosen not to get Disney plus or buy any Disney era Star Wars products, not even the good ones. Any inch given is just validation for Disney to keep going with their ego trip and sometimes you need to let someone hit rock bottom before they realize they need to pick themselves back up.

Does that mean stop being Star Wars fans?

Hell no!

I've been a Star Wars fan since I was a child and I don't plan to stop anytime soon. I just enjoy Star Wars on my own terms and pretty much create my own canon. As the Disney timeline has no creative legitimacy or creative merit, it has no legitimacy. We the fans are free to substitute and alter the Star Wars canon to our liking and each of your versions of Star Wars will be just as valid if not more so than Disney's.

My point being is to enjoy Star Wars the way that you want to enjoy it. Don't let Disney dictate to you how you must like Star Wars or make you feel bad for not being their bitch. Ignore Disney, ignore the politics and ignore the ignorant naysayers who've fallen for the propaganda and lies. Don't waste your energy arguing or debating with people who are stubborn and willfully ignorant like brick walls. Life is short enough, let your enjoyment of Star Wars be something that gives you fun and adventure like it was intended from the beginning.

In Conclusion

As much as I've criticized this show, I don't actually hate it.

I honestly wouldn't recommend Obi Wan Kenobi as much as it hurts me to say it.

But it's not completely unwatchable or devoid of entertainment. Kenobi is far from the worst Disney Star Wars product I've seen (That would be Last Jedi with Rise of Skywalker being a close second), but it's far from the best.

Ewan McGregor's performance and Darth Vader are the only things that keep this show from being truly mediocre, but there isn't enough of them to really save it. If Reva's role was cut down or reworked and the politics around her was absent, then the show would be in the okay range.

I'm not going to tell you not to watch it or anything, but you should gear back your expectations if you decide to check it out.

This show is not going to save Star Wars and its going to show more of the nonsense that we've been fed up with for years. If you can find something to enjoy about the show in spite of everything that I've mentioned or warned you about, then more power to you.

With that said, May the Fourth be With you friends...

Wait...I missed that? That was last month?

Wow. I need to get out more.

THE END

#obi wan show #obi wan kenobi #star wars #darth vader #reva #inquisitor reva #review

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herbnosis · 6 years

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The Last Jedi Thoughts: Luke Skywalker

Second in a series of posts about Star Wars: The Last Jedi (a.k.a. Episode VIII). Not recommended.

Also, lots and lots of spoilers. Don’t read unless you’ve seen the film or want it ruined for you.

“I saw Star Wars and I have something to say.” –me, and every other nerd ever.

Lots of things to praise and (to some) more to complain about. Very quickly: I loved it, it was a worthy entry, and I look forward to watching it again many times.

My first post on TLJ was in December, very close in time to when I watched the film. Now it's been over four months, and my thoughts are stale, both in the grand scheme of all things Internet, and that I've only see the movie once, and it was four months ago. So not only have lots of people wrote about TLJ, their takes were probably fresh and with the benefit of multiple viewings.

That's just a long way of saying "Not Recommended."

Luke Skywalker. You may remember him as the grand master Jedi, the ultimate good guy, the one who redeemed Anakin Skywalker, perhaps the greatest Jedi ever (if you read the EU books, which I did not).

I remember him as the whiny brat from Tatooine, the kid who whined all the way through Yoda's training, and the dolt who ignored Yoda and left to help his friends on Cloud City (to be fair, Yoda certainly messed up his fair share, as his ignorance of Palpatine's true nature through all of the Clone Wars cartoons shows, but Luke knows nothing about that when he decides he knows better than that green freak job). When you watch The Empire Strikes Back the first time, you sort of know Luke is being stupid and walking into a trap. When you rewatch Empire, with the benefit of knowing all the other Jedi from the prequel trilogy and Clone Wars, you can see that Luke is a colossal disaster compared to even most Padawans, and that he really is a desperate last chance for the light side, and even then only based on his heritage in a tiny family tree. All this to say, if you think TLJ's Luke took a dip (or a dive) in power and/or character quality, you and I are starting in different places when it comes to Luke.

In fairness to original trilogy Luke Skywalker the character, I need to point out two related things. First, Mark Hamill was not a great actor in the original trilogy, and the script wasn't great either, such that better acting skill may not have made a huge impact anyway. On one hand, you can look at almost anyone in the prequel trilogy and judge them as bad actors, because the script and direction were so incredibly dreadful. I didn't realize until I saw another movie, after the prequel trilogy, that Natalie Portman can act (and, to me, the jury will forever be out on poor Hayden Christiansen, because I haven't seen anything with him that post-dates the prequel trilogy). On the other hand, Harrison Ford managed to escape the script, but is he the only one? (James Earl Jones, but that's a tangent I don't want to take right now.)

So, to me, Luke was not a favorite, probably not even in my top five. He was a necessary plot piece and he did a lot of important things, but Luke was not what made me like Star Wars. In fact, that the Force Awakens starts up with an obsession over Luke Skywalker's absence was nothing I was excited about. Luke Skywalker needed to be a part of this trilogy, but he didn't need to be the focal point of even one episode. His contribution could have ended and I would have been fine with that.

Have I dumped on Luke enough? Well, it's necessary, because--to me!--The Last Jedi was really about Luke's redemption. Not the redemption he needed as a result of the offscreen issues with Ben Solo, but his redemption as a meaningful, relatable character who did not merely become a caricature of Yoda and Qui-Gon Jin.

This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think

As TLJ opens, the first meaningful thing we see is the resolution of the cliffhanger from TFW: what was Luke going to do when Rey handed him the lightsaber? His response: throw the lightsaber over his shoulder as a meaningless piece of garbage.

Because it is.

As moviegoers, we may look at that lightsaber as a historic piece in the story, a Skywalker relic, a force of good wielded by Anakin Skywalker, who slaughtered three billion droids and led the Republic to many victories over Count Dooku and his droid army. This the lightsaber version of Excalibur, right?

Certainly it is to Ben Solo, and a little bit to Rey, if only because she had a fairly weighty vision when she touched it.

But to Luke, it is a tool, and the wrong tool to make the changes needed, if indeed any changes are possible.

The lightsaber represents everything that failed in Luke's attempt to resurrect the Jedi religion. It also represents everything that failed in the prequel trilogy. The lightsaber didn't stop Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith (though his lightsaber made short work of several Jedi masters). The lightsaber didn't finish Anakin before he turned into Darth Vader--in fact, Obi-Wan's maiming of Anakin likely helped put the chain on Vader that more completely made him the Emperor's tool. If you watched the Clone Wars cartoon, you know the lightsaber didn't even stop Darth Maul, even when it did.

The lightsaber is what sent Ben Solo over the edge that Luke was desperately trying to avoid.

(Before I go any further, I'm not trying to turn this into a proxy for a gun debate. Lightsabers don't kill people; people kill people, right? Not saying I agree with that, nor am I saying that lightsabers are guns and Luke wanted to ban all lightsabers. If you're reading this so narrowly, you're not receiving this post in the spirit in which it was intended: to add even more nerddom to the critical epicenter of all nerdiness).

Being a Jedi doesn't start with the lightsaber, Luke is saying. In fact, being a Jedi doesn't have to involve a lightsaber at all (as we SORT OF witnessed in Rogue One, even if Chirrut Imwe would never classify himself as a Jedi, and even if you don't, either). It certainly isn't the place you start.

That message is crucial to who Luke has become as a result of his failure to resurrect the Jedi religion. In an instant, he contemplated ending a possible threat with the lightsaber. He doubted the ability of himself and the light side of the force to redeem a Ben Solo who was struggling with the dark side. If Luke never brought that lightsaber to confront Ben Solo, what happens? It's a painful question that Luke must be asking himself over and over, for which he will never have a satisfying answer.

So let's say Luke doesn't know who this Rey chick is (but let's also assume he probably does). His point is this: if you came here to be a Jedi, we ain't starting with that thing.

We Don't Need Another Yoda, Or Another Qui-Gon Jinn

Of course, as we learn, Luke's not too keen on training anybody in the Force. He thinks it may be the problem to the point where he's cut himself off from the Force. This is a big deal for obvious reasons. There's one reason that I thought was pretty important ever since we saw him on this beautiful planet, and it relates to Yoda, who hid himself on Dagobah because his huge light side carbon footprint was well-hidden because of Dagobah's huge dark side vibe. Yoda did this to avoid detection (and it worked). So why wasn't Luke so easy to find if he's chilling in tiny paradise?

You can argue it was because of the presence of the dark side sphincter that Rey eventually explores, but I think the better explanation is Luke cutting himself off from the Force. How can you use the Force to find someone if that person isn't with the Force? I don't think Luke did it to avoid detection; that was merely one of the perks.

Luke doesn't have to use the Force to know that Rey's circumstances in seeking Luke are similar to the reasons he sought Yoda. Here's the Millennium Falcon, here's Chewie, here's R2-D2... Where's Han? Leia felt Han die. Did Luke? If we accept that he cut himself off from the Force, he didn't know (which was interesting foreshadowing). People are in trouble, and Rey is in a hurry, even if she doesn't know it yet.

Yoda either didn't know Luke would need to hurry, or didn't care. Yoda may have believed external events didn't matter; only Luke's training in the way of the Jedi will be enough to redeem the galaxy (and Yoda's own colossal errors). Or worse: if we only half-train Luke, he will repeat the mistakes of his father, who himself started the training too late (another narrow-minded notion stemming from the idea of Jedi perfection).

Having lived that reality, Luke knows better. Not only was his training quasi-sufficient, but it would have been better for Yoda to give him a crash course than (what could have been, hard to say) starting from Padawan 101, or at least the best version we have, one-on-one in the swamp dump. Luke knows time is limited, he knows Rey will be pulled away faster than traditional training can take place. He's teaching on the fly because he knows he needs to. First lesson: dump the lightsaber.

Also, he's aware that the Jedi principles of his father and his father's mentors didn't work. The Jedi taught not to have relationships for #reasons. That didn't give Anakin a whole lot of guidance when the pull to relationship was irresistible. Luke's instantaneous decision to ignore the relationship of uncle/nephew was very Jedi and very disastrous. Luke has to revise the training because there are parts that are fatal. But, he hasn't really planned on taking on any new students, either, so he doesn't have the curriculum mastered. He's teaching on the fly because he never planned on teaching again, yet knows his old lesson plans aren't going to cut it.

Finally, he's attempting to teach about the Force whilst being cut off from the Force. That's intriguing in ways I'm struggling to put into words, except to say it will either provide tremendous insight or incredible blindness (perhaps both). But how could he possibly teach the same way as Yoda and Qui-Gon if he's currently outside of the Force?

Another Yoda, another Qui-Gon, would have been freaking dull. It may be what Luke "deserved," what he earned for his years of service and mastery of the Force. Frankly, I don't think he earned that, because of where I think Luke started--not as the Grandest of All Heroes, but a desperate grasp for survival. What he earned was what he gave us: incredible perspective on a complicated thing (The Force), having lived and learned from his own mistakes, context of past mistakes, and a huge responsibility after a messy break up with the Force. What he gave us a fantastic, fresh story and character, one that was a thousand times more interesting than what we thought we wanted for him.

And it helps that Mark Hamill is a decidedly better actor. He's capable of being a complex character, and he nailed it (even if we believe reports that he disagreed with Luke's character changes).

Some Other Thoughts

Luke's image wielding the blue lightsaber was huge, for a few reasons. First, it was a mental cue to the audience that all is not what it seems. Luke doesn't have the blue lightsaber, and we're not really sure he still has the green one, either. The audience knows the former, because we saw the blue lightsaber destroyed. In fact, Kylo Ren saw it destroyed too. But he lusts after the blue lightsaber as a relic of his grandfather, and the power that must have been thrust upon him as a result. The blue lightsaber draws Kylo Ren into the illusion even when he should know the blue lightsaber has been destroyed (criminy, the little jerk probably saved the pieces and put it on the alter with the deformed Vader helmet!).

Related to this: the X-Wing under water is a red herring. We know from Empire that X-Wings can handle being under water for long periods of time. It doesn't explain how Luke could not have been physically present, whereas the blue lightsaber was a clue that perhaps he wasn't.

If you're unhappy with the way Luke died, and you're also unhappy about Luke's character changes, let's take a look at Enoch from the Bible (specifically, Genesis 5). Qui-Gon was killed in battle with a Sith Lord. Obi-Wan was cut down (er, maybe, and if so, voluntarily, though its hard to see how much longer he could have lasted) by Darth Vader. Yoda died of oldness. They all died (well, maybe not Obi-Wan). Luke... did he die? Or was he simply taken into the Force? This reminds of Enoch, a biblical figure who "walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." Genesis 5:24 (KJV). Lots of biblical figures were flawed, some deeply. Even its greatest heroes still bit it hard, with the greatest of their kings, King David, sleeping with a married woman, then deliberately getting her husband killed to sort of fix the situation. Enoch was (probably) not these things. He was the only person, it seems, who did not die, as scholars opine that he did not have to taste death before entering the kingdom of heaven. Whether you believe that or not, you can appreciate the literal comparison to Luke, who arguably did not die (at least not at the hands of anybody, or of oldness), but simply disappeared, presumably to be one with the Force. Comparing Luke to Enoch feeds into Luke as Jedi GOAT (Greatest Of All Time, for the uninitiated), if that's where you started or you prefer to see him.

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