Oh wow, okay wow, it is Friday, I am wearing a Super Yaki crop top that reads “in 1999 duel of the fates spent 11 days on trl,” the air smells like allergens, I drank a strawberry coffee, I am ready for this. Are you ready for this? Let’s go.
Recap
Part I
It is the Great Purge, and a classroom full of younglings try to flee the carnage as clone troopers attack the Jedi Temple. Their teacher is murdered, and one of them instructs the other children that they must escape. Ten years later, three Inquisitors arrive on Tatooine: the Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), Fifth Brother (Sung Kang), and Third Sister, also known as Reva Sevander (Moses Ingram). They are searching for a Jedi named Nari (Benny Safdie), who they find in a saloon; he manages to escape. We learn that Reva is intent on finding Obi-Wan specifically, but the Grand Inquisitor tells her to put this idea out of her head.
Obi-Wan is working at a meat processing plant on Tatooine and living in a cave. He has nightmares and calls out for Qui-Gon’s guidance, but receives no reply. He checks in on Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely) from a distance and leaves him a skyhopper toy he purchased from a Jawa. On the way home, Nari stops him—he’s been looking for Obi-Wan, he wants help in the wake of the Order’s destruction. Obi-Wan’s advice to him is to take his lightsaber, bury it in the sand, and hide forever. Their time has passed. The next day, Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton) gives the toy back to Obi-Wan and advises him to stay away from Luke. Obi-Wan insists that he should train the boy if he begins showing Force abilities, but Owen won’t hear of it after what happened to Anakin.
Reva and the Fifth Brother show up in the town square, asking locals for info on the Jedi they’re hunting. Reva zeroes in on Owen, asking about his family and whether or not he’s hiding a Jedi. Owen tells her he has no love for Jedi, that he thinks of them as vermin. Reva threatens to kill Owen and his family if the locals won’t give up the Jedi, but Fifth Brother puts a stop to it, telling her that she’s pushing things too far. Obi-Wan thanks Owen for his silence, but Owen points out that he didn’t do it for him.
On Alderaan, ten-year-old Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) is working very hard to duck her royal duties. She is found by her mother (Simone Kessell), and dressed up to see cousins—cousins who don’t seem to care much about all the terrible things the Empire does provided it turns a profit. Leia tears down one of those cousins when he suggests that she’s not really an Organa. Her father Bail (Jimmy Smits) tells her that she must apologize, but that she is their daughter and will be a great leader one day. Leia runs off into the woods again with her little droid companion Lola rather than apologize and winds up getting kidnapped by Vect Nokru (Flea) and his compatriots. The plan is Reva’s: Having learned that Obi-Wan and Bail had a connection during the Clone Wars, she presumes that kidnapping his child will be enough to bring Kenobi out of hiding.
Bail and Breha do immediately contact Obi-Wan to locate their daughter, and he balks, telling them he’s not the same man and they should find someone else. Nari is killed and strung up for everyone to see. Bail later comes to visit Obi-Wan in person, insisting that he’s the only man Bail trusts to bring Leia home. Obi-Wan reluctantly agrees, unburies his lightsaber, and gets on a transport to find the missing princess.
Part II
Obi-Wan arrives on Daiyu, a planet bustling with criminal activity. A young spice-dealer gives him a free sample and warns him to give up the search for his kidnapped friend—this is a place where people disappear. Obi-Wan is led to a Jedi on Daiyu who helps people in need, and comes upon Haja Estree (Kumail Nanjiani), a con artist who tricks people into believing he’s a Jedi and helps them… for a price. Obi-Wan threatens him at blaster-point into helping, and Estree gives him an address where it’s likely Leia is being held, a spice-processing plant. Obi-Wan disguises himself and causes a commotion so he can slip into the back hall. He has a confrontation which he struggles to win, then walks into the trap set for him. Nokru tells Reva they have Kenobi, but Obi-Wan breaks the spice canister he was gifted, getting the whole crew high as he slips away.
The Grand Inquisitor is again upset with Reva for going over his head in laying this elaborate trap for Kenobi. He tells her that she will stay out of this fight, but she clearly has no intention of doing so, and puts out an alert all over the planet to get the people to help her track the Jedi down. Obi-Wan locates Leia in the spice facility and tells her that her father sent him to collect her. Leia is displeased that it’s one man named “Ben” instead of an entire army, but doesn’t feel she has much choice. They do their best to stay out of sight, but Leia is completely enamored of Daiyu and how different it is from what she’s accustomed to. They run into Estree again, who tells them that he’ll help them get off-world on a cargo vessel. Obi-Wan wants to know how they can trust him, but Estree points out that they don’t have any other options. He holds off Reva by pretending to be a Jedi again, but she pulls some knowledge from his mind and continues on.
As they’re hiding, Leia notices the alert on Obi-Wan, that he’s the one being hunted. Since she knows that he hasn’t been telling her the full truth, she worries that he’s just another kidnapper, and runs from him. Obi-Wan gives chase and follows her onto the rooftops, where Reva is also waiting and searching them out. There’s a firefight between Obi-Wan and a bounty hunter as Leia struggles to get away. She falls between buildings and Obi-Wan uses the Force for the first time in years to ensure her safe landing. Leia realizes that Obi-Wan really is a Jedi, and they make for the cargo ship platform. Once they arrive, he tries to caution her that this may be a trap, but Leia insists that this is better than anything else they’ve been through. Obi-Wan marvels at how much she reminds him of her mother, though he doesn’t mention her by name.
Reva arrives, so Obi-Wan sends Leia to the cargo ship and tells her to leave without him if he doesn’t arrive soon. He keeps his head down as Reva taunts him, telling him that she means to bring him to Lord Vader. Obi-Wan freezes to the spot, and Reva realizes that he hadn’t known Anakin was still alive. The Grand Inquisitor shows up again to tell Reva off, giving Obi-Wan the chance to slip away and board the ship with Leia. Reva runs the Grand Inquisitor through for ruining her opportunity as the cargo ship takes off. Obi-Wan sits by Leia and thinks of Anakin (Hayden Christensen)… who opens his eyes in a bacta chamber somewhere across the galaxy.
Commentary
Sorry, head empty, no thoughts but BABY LEIA.
Genuinely, everything is Baby Leia and nothing hurts. She is perfect. That little actress is perfect, I could honestly die, I am so pleased that we’re not focusing on Luke because as much as I love him, Leia deserves this. Give me nothing but Leia trying to figure out what being a princess even means given her place and upbringing, give me Leia running away with her droid buddy to mark ship take-offs, make me watch Luke avoiding his uncle while pretending to pod race and Leia playing pranks on her mom so that I’m crying thinking about how much they deserved to be raised together.
Leia giving Obi-Wan side eye, Leia wanting a sparkly space outfit and getting stuck with a boring green robe but demanding cutoff gloves, Leia telling space criminals that she’s not afraid of them and you believe her. Leia being every bit the woman she’ll become at the tender age of ten, and Obi-Wan balking at it because Anakin was not like this as a child. I kept grumping about the focus on Luke in the trailers, kept hoping we’d see Leia somewhere, and they skip the amuse bouche and hand me a feast.
Also, when they did the dressing sequence (though it didn’t turn out to be her), I kept shrieking over her li’l slippers and tiny tabard and I am extremely aggravated at how well they have manipulated my emotions for this one. Fine. You win this round, Star War.
The thing about this show (so far, mind you) is that it’s got so much good loaded alongside a truckload of oddly-familiar bad. There’s great stuff going on here with the acting, the costuming, the sound and set dressing, but for some reason, we’re encountering the very prequel-esque mistake of forgetting to offload the dialogue clichés before you roll camera. It pops up all over the place at deeply cringe-worthy times, starting straight off with the Grand Inquisitor’s whole monologue about compassion being the Jedi’s undoing.
Like yes, we know, the Emperor will eventually tell Vader that Luke’s compassion for him will be his undoing. That wasn’t supposed to be a point of dogma for the Sith, just a thing that he said as the galaxy’s resident Worst Man Alive. Having the Grand Inquisitor spout that off weakens a later moment that had originally been quite effective. Which is the problem with fill-in stories overall: They’re supposed to make the impending narrative better, if you do them right, but that’s always a rough needle to thread. We’ve been promised that most of what this show will do (particularly around Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship) will heighten what we’ve already seen and know is coming. But that doesn’t mean that nothing else will get trampled in the meantime.
The other place where the dialogue clichés keep going hard is with almost every piece of dialogue Reva has, and I’m annoyed on her behalf. Moses Ingram is giving her all, she’s a great actor, but she can’t cover up the fact that they keep saddling her with lines like “Maybe you don’t go far enough” and having her hardcore parkour over rooftops in a sequence that looks stunningly cool but ultimately gets her nowhere? Seriously, how did that segment get framed so poorly, she looked like she was going to reach Obi-Wan well before Leia hit the ground, but was apparently nowhere near them, making the entire action sequence the equivalent to a layup that somehow never resolves.
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Of course, we’re meant to be questioning her personal vendetta against Obi-Wan, but the answer to that has a wide range of possibilities, only a few of which are genuinely sharp and exciting from a storytelling perspective. It’s likely that she was one of the younglings we saw in the opening scene, meaning that she was training to be a Jedi before the Purge occurred. Her anger toward Obi-Wan might literally just stem from the fact that he screwed up badly enough to not see Anakin’s turn coming. On the other hand, she mentions bringing Obi-Wan to Vader… which could indicate that she has a more personal relationship to Anakin. If Reva turned out to be a sort of “Dark Ahsoka,” we could get something much more interesting out of this dynamic.
I’m assuming that Reva is being setup toward a redemption arc for a number of reasons, one of them being the possible Jedi background, another being that she’s clearly considered beneath her fellow Inquisitors. It’s part and parcel of how Star Wars keeps trying to sideways glance at racism, and always does a terrible job of it: Being the relative outcast in a group of magic space fascists does not a parallel to racism make, but the script sure tries to make it sound that way. All that said, I really do hope they do right by her character because Ingram is owed that star turn. The brief moment where she got to play the horror movie villain, stalking Obi-Wan with taunts and that haunting red glow, was where the whole thing came to life for a brief and shining moment.
A gleeful aside for Joel Edgerton, who saw his shot to bridge the gap between clueless young Owen Lars and the curmudgeon we see in A New Hope, and took that shot with everything he was worth. The way he shouts for Luke is so pitch-perfect, some part of my brain wondered if it had been sampled over from the film.
Obviously none of these folks are the people the show is named after, and I’ve been waiting to get to him because my whole-ass heart is shattered and I’m not ready. More specifically, I’m not ready to get into Obi-Wan’s brokenness surfacing almost entirely under the subsets of fear and pain. I was ready for sarcasm, I was ready for bitterness, or even anger. I was not prepared for the way he averts his gaze and makes himself smaller, the panic in his eyes when Bail asks for his help, the way he barely puts up a fight when others are hurting, the way he appears to have developed Force arthritis?
His hands ache. My hands ache. This is going to be a whole thing for me.
Ewan McGregor said the draw to come back to the character was figuring out how you go from everything that occurred in Episode III to the relatively jovial man we encounter in Episode IV. And the only way you get there is by acknowledging that he probably wasn’t doing okay for a very long time. He’s got his eopie pal (and I do love how they stick with Obi-Wan’s affinity for animals while he always has a powerful distaste for droids), but he’s spent the past decade just existing. Watching life from a distance. Letting people cheat and ignore and intimidate him.
But the choice to say that he hadn’t known Anakin was alive this whole time? That’s one hell of a right hook to throw at your audience. Like I get why they went for it, but it’s a freaking low blow, okay? And then they immediately follow that up with the suggestion that after years of cutting himself off from the Force, Obi-Wan can’t stop himself from reaching out for Anakin—and Anakin knows, instantly.
It’s fine. I’m… you know what, you can all go, I’ll just. Be here. For a bit.
Sand and Jawa Junk:
- The title card being Obi-Wan’s name written out in sand was surely a Choice because all I could think while looking at it was “ah yes, the thing that Anakin hates because it’s course and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.”
- I have far too many feelings about Temuera Morrison’s cameo as an impoverished clone trooper that Obi-Wan is clearly terrified of (for fear that he’ll be recognized). Obviously we knew that was going to be a reality for more than one of them, but it was rough to see.
- So, Obi-Wan lives in a cave for at least ten years before eventually getting his little house? No wonder the man ages forty years in nineteen.
- I know that the Force can do many things, but one thing it cannot do is make up for shifting desert sands over the course of a decade. Like I’m sure they expect us to believe that Obi-Wan can sense the kyber cyrstals or whatever, but the fact that he could find the lightsabers that easily is bonkers, y’all.
- The costume designer on this show deserves every award, please give me space clothes, I will gladly pretend to be a spice dealer on a decrepit world.
- If they wanna give Kumail Nanjiani his own show, I’m good with that. Star Wars sitcoms, y’all, I’m telling you. (Flea was also hilariously well-cast.)
- Nokru’s whole spiel about Obi-Wan being so special yet having the gall to bleed on his floor was particularly bemusing if you remember how often Obi-Wan has always gotten the crap kicked out of him. He is one of the fandom’s main hurt/comfort hubs for that reason alone.
- The Grand Inquisitor is not dead, by the way. He’s gonna show up in Star Wars: Rebels about five years from now, so…
- Shoutout to pink mullet girl and her well-timed spice present. I think this might be the first time we’ve heard the term “glitterstim” on screen? Which is an excellent pull from the Legends canon—I’ve been waiting for someone to use it because it was always my favorite spice name. Which, I just realized that I have a favorite spice name and should now perhaps walk into the sea.
We’ll open the comments section on Tuesday morning after the long holiday weekend, and Obi-Wan is moving to Wednesdays for the reminder of its run, so see you in less than a week for the next episode!
Emmet Asher-Perrin is still just gonna be here for a bit. You can bug them on Twitter and Tumblr, and read more of their work here and elsewhere.
How can nobody catch this kid? I understand in the crowded market she might sneak under some benches or counters, but in the woods or on the rooftop an adult would have caught up quite quickly.
I ABSOLUTELY ADORED the first two episodes! Ewan did so good at portraying heartbroken Obi-Wan. Also I HAD NO IDEA that Leia was going to show up! Even the first scenes with her didn’t clue me in; not until her mother called her name. Then I just wanted to scream in delight! Sassy little Leia won my heart! (Don’t take any crap from your jerk cousin, Leia!) ‘Where’s the army?’ Oh, honey, you don’t understand politics yet, but you will. I think I’d be happy if the entire series was the Ben and Leia Road Show, but I doubt that will happen. Whatever happens, though, I’m definitely looking forward to it.
Also, also, they broke my heart with that clone veteran. (He already had fic devoted to him on AO3!) And that ending…DAMN! Ben just looks so devastated as he realizes Reva is telling the truth. They’re killing me like this is a Filoni show!
So, Kenobi has been here ten years already… and he’s still living in a cave? I know how prequels work with wanting to show how a character got all the stuff we see in the original, meaning the show will probably show him getting his house, but it seems a little unbelievable that he’s been living in a cave for a decade. Also a little unbelievable is that this appears to be the first time Owen has really gotten upset at Ben for hanging around. Anyway, Ben looks only a bit more weathered since we last saw him, meaning all this time in essentially the open desert hasn’t done much to him, so now whatever happens between now and when we see him around 7-8 years from now in rebels when he already looks 70 happened way quicker and dramatically than we thought. At this point I wonder if the show will try and explain this with a supernatural explanation.
I get the feeling we’ll be hearing lots of praise for Little Leia, so I won’t add to that here (yes, she’s amazing; you can clearly see her sarcastic streak has always been there and accented by her latent force sensitivity and early civics training). What I want to talk about is Alderaan as a whole: it’s beautiful! Besides the whole aesthetic and environment, I noticed specifically the palace guards are basically fancier versions of the soldiers from the beginning of A New Hope.
Also, is this the first live action appearance of Leia’s adoptive mother and Bail’s wife?
I actually think my top favorite moment (and I’m glad you mentioned it) was that moment with the clone veteran. It was some top notch acting from Ewan and there were just SO many things going on in that few second scene – Obi-Wan must have had a MILLION feelings going through his head at the moment at seeing a ‘familiar’ face – grief, bittersweet memories (Rex, Cody, et al), anger at the betrayal, instinctive fear…and Ewan sold it. And at the end…he still finds it in himself to drop a coin/credchit (whatever the currency was) in his helmet when we could have easily understood him just moving on. For me it was just…such a powerful scene and character moment. Obi-Wan knows just as well that the clones are as much victims as they are (even if perhaps he doesn’t know about the chip…I don’t remember at the moment if he was aware of Fives’s suspicions).
Regarding a few things in your review – I also am thrilled at the bait and switch with Leia. I love Luke, I love him so much (I have way too many pages of fanfic that ultimately attest to this) but of course he is not the ONLY Skywalker. That said I absolutely want to see more of him too, and I hope we actually get to see Beru do something more than bring a tray of milk to the table.
I really, really liked the compassion line when it came out in the trailer because to me it really gets at the heart of what the Jedi SHOULD be (even if by the time we see them in the prequels they’ve lost their way a bit, and of course as the Clone Wars go on they become drawn into that instead of their true mission) and I didn’t see it as a weird cop out or anything like that. Sure Palpatine says it, but Palpatine I think also has a pretty good read on the Jedi in general and how to destroy them (and how to undermine/weaken them). At any rate, it’s not like it’s that mindblowing of a method either – it’s a bit of a trope for the less than scrupulous to use the mercy/good intentions of a person they deem below them to ‘trap’ them.
I have to admit – I love when it gets all prequel cheesy, because I am at heart a huge prequel fan. So I love all the cheesy lines and over the top hamminess of it all. That said, when Bail was talking about how they had to handle ‘the taxation of the Outer Rim’ I burst out laughing because it was definitely a little nod to the ‘taxation of trade routes’. When the other guy basically cuts him off, I felt like that was also a little nod to how people get all up in arms about politics in their Star Wars.
As for Reva, I’ve seen a lot of divisive opinions on her, but I really like her – I also imagine she’s one of the Padawans from the prologue (and…while watching a reaction, it just occurred to me how sadly resonant/triggering it is given current events and now that I think about it, I’m wondering if anybody will ask them to cut it out…) and she clearly has a very personal stake and sense of betrayal when it comes to the Jedi. I am kind of wondering how much of her story will be a little like Trilla’s in Fallen Order. Even in the trailer, given the way she talked about Vader…it just felt personal. I WAS surprised to see she knew he was Anakin though, but if she was at the Temple, she likely saw him.
I will say I didn’t catch the racisim allusion at all in that her being an outcast is meant to imply some type of racism allegory…yes, she’s a Black actress but that seems like a leap to me…but ymmv. I did think the comment was strange because if she WAS a Padawan I’m not sure how that means she came from the gutter, but there could be something we don’t know. Maybe she wasn’t a Padawan at all, maybe she’s another kid from the outer rim that the Jedi never bothered to pick up.
I do think Obi-Wan was talking about Padme and I really want it to be her (we always make such a fuss about how much of Anakin is in his kids)…but I also can’t help but wonder if he was talking about Satine. Apparently Disney+ was promoting the Satine episodes as ‘required viewing’ in preparation for Kenobi. Thematically it makes more sense to be Padme, of course, but I wonder…could definitely be a both/and situation.
I do really enjoy what they are doing with Obi-Wan here – obviously there are divisive issues about if it was appropriate/desired to do this with Luke (and I have a lot of mixed opinions on that) but I am absolutely on board with it here. It MAKES SENSE here given that this is arguably one of the most depressing eras of the saga time line and Obi-Wan has dealt with a lot of personal trauma at this point. The whole point is to watch his character grow and have an arc. I do think it’s possible he was maybe overselling it a bit to the Jedi who approached him, since he CAN’T risk drawing ANY attention whatsoever and so has to play that role…but given his conversation with Bail, probably not by much. Like TLJ Luke he seems to have basically shut himself off from the Force. But can you imagine what it must have been like for that Jedi – presumably he watched Obi-Wan’s hologram message (that we see in Rebels) which had a much more hopeful spin to it, and then to meet his hero and have him basically tell him to give up.
During the little ‘previously on’ (which was basically the prequels, haha) even during the TPM scenes I was thinking, “Man, they are highlighting Qui-Gon quite a bit here”. I’ve had hopes this whole time we’d get to see some fo the communing so I’m really hoping Liam Neeson makes an appearance (even if it just in voice). One of my kids is really into Qui-Gon (he claims he doesn’t like Star Wars, because he’s contrary, but he DOES love Qui-Gon and wants to know why Qui-Gon doesn’t have a show) and this would thrill him. (Note that despite ‘not liking Star Wars’, he loves anything involving the Mandolorian, Grogu, Wookiees, Qui-Gon or anything Fallen Order/LEGO Star Wars related. But seriously, he doesn’t like Star Wars, guys! He was claiming he wouldn’t want to watch this show, but I saw him eying the Inquisitors, which he recognizes from FO, so I think if Qui-Gon shows up he will be all in).
My other fan hope was that we’d get to see some of Obi-Wan and Bail’s connection, as we know he trusts him enough to call for him later, and that would mean some incidental glances at Alderaan/Leia, and maybe even a reference to Fulcrum. The Leia stuff has definitely wildly exceeded that hope!
My only real criticism so far is that I do think at times young Leia is just a tad too preocious and some of the lines feel a bit too ‘delivered’…it’s hard to articulate what I mean, but there were just a few times it felt a bit tropey. And others have commented that some of the chase scenes were a little too bumbly.
@3 – Breha did appear in the epilogue of Revenge of the Sith, but she was recast for this.
Anyway – I find that trying to reconcile the appearances of Ewan McGregor and Alec Guiness is just a fool’s errand. I think it’s just something that mentally we have to accept in that yes, they are the same person, the same way the two Dumbledores are the same even though they look nothing alike.
And I definitely did not get the impression this was the first time he and Owen had interacted, it seemed like they had discussed Luke several times before to me.
I’m loving The Adventures of Princess Leia, Featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi. Every moment of young Leia was perfect, and I hope she sticks with Obi-Wan for the rest of the miniseries. I don’t think it creates a continuity issue — if anything, it makes her hologram message in ANH feel like she’s contacting an old friend rather than just relaying a message from her father, and that gives it more meaning.
Although it does seem to me, ironically enough, that Leia is a little short for a ten-year-old…
I loved “Ben”’s banter with the Jawa too. I think it’s the first time we’ve gotten to see a Jawa as an actual character rather than just one of a mass of chattering plot devices. I’m not sure if we’ve ever seen Jawa speech subtitled before, either.
@3/Ecthelion: “it seems a little unbelievable that he’s been living in a cave for a decade.”
There are ascetics and hermits who have done so for far longer. Besides, Obi-Wan is trying to stay hidden from the Empire. He may have a fake address in Anchorhead under his cover identity, which is why he takes the train from the work site to the town and then rides his eopie out to the cave.
Plus, maybe he’s just punishing himself. He’s in a dark place in his life.
BTW, I love the idea of a whole profession based on harvesting meat from a giant dead animal (Krayt dragon?). A kaiju-based economy!
@4/Lisamarie: “I did think the comment was strange because if she WAS a Padawan I’m not sure how that means she came from the gutter, but there could be something we don’t know.”
Presumably the only padawans who survived the slaughter were the ones who hid their identity, who vanished into the streets and had to live as vagrants. So the Inquisitor wouldn’t know that she used to be one.
“My only real criticism so far is that I do think at times young Leia is just a tad too preocious and some of the lines feel a bit too ‘delivered’…”
Well, she was a senator at nineteen, so it stands to reason that she was precocious.
@5 / Lisa:
My other fan hope was that we’d get to see some of Obi-Wan and Bail’s connection, as we know he trusts him enough to call for him later, and that would mean some incidental glances at Alderaan/Leia, and maybe even a reference to Fulcrum. The Leia stuff has definitely wildly exceeded that hope!
I think we’re going to see more Obi-Wan/Bail interactions — and by interactions, I mean an argument/confrontation.
See, once he snaps out of Jedi Blue Screen of Death mode, I think Obi-Wan’s going to think it through…and realize Bail had to have known about Vader for most of, if not all, the last decade.
Think about it. How could he not? Bail’s Alderaan’s Senator, is based on Coruscant half the year, and he would’ve seen and/or heard of the Emperor’s new, mysterious lieutenant. Plus, he had the intel about the Sith that Yoda and Obi-Wan shared with him during ROTS. He knew Anakin and Palpatine’s Sith identities.
Hell, James Luceno went the same route in the old EU during his novel Dark Lord. The first time he saw Vader at a distance, Bail had no idea who Tall, Dark, and Scary was…until he heard one of the Clones address him as Lord Vader. Then he put it together and had an, “Oh, s**t !”reaction.
So why wouldn’t Bail tell Obi-Wan? Part of it’s likely risk. Bail knows he was one of Palpatine’s political detractors during the Clone Wars and is under surveillance. Sending even a basic message to Tatooine is risky (which is why they only broke the glass in case of emergency now with Leia’s abduction).
But I think Bail’s words in the cave in Part 1 when he comes to Tatooine in person are key: He knew it would do Obi-Wan no good to learn the truth about Anakin’s survival, that he wasn’t ready for, and didn’t need, this burden.
If nothing else, it would be a wonderfully ironic inversion of Kenobi keeping the truth from Luke re: Vader come the OT.
Overall, a very solid two episodes.
Little Leia, almost perfect. But she was a little too difficult for Kenobi to rescue. Her running from Kenobi made sense, but up until them I thought she was a bit much. She should be smart enough to listen to her rescuer (at least a little), until she’s out of danger. I’m all for a sassy and headstrong little princess, but they over did it.
And her running through the woods from her captors just looked silly. Leia being crafty and a handful I’m good with. Maybe postponing her capture for a few seconds–sure. I’ve seen kids her age that move like a blur, but not this little actress. She runs about as well as I imagine Carrie Fisher probably did at her age–not fast at all. Again they over did Leia being awesome at the expense of believability.
Joel Edgerton was perfect. I feel bad that little Luke can’t have a used toy. We know he gets one in the end though. My guess is that we will see more of Beru and little Luke. Luke recognizes Ben in a New Hope, so some interaction, however brief, must happen.
Wow, Jedi Temple security was crap and their doors were really soundproof! The whole temple is overrun and the kids are doing tai chi on the roof completely unaware.
Reva was well done. The fist shot of the series in the Jedi Temple has the camera zoom out from a young woman who is obviously going to be Reva. Even so, I really don’t want the Kenobi show to become all about her.
@6 – I am thinking that is the case (that Reva may have hid her identity first). However Fallen Order (and even a statement Ben makes in this show) does establish that at least some of the Inquisitors were known Jedi/padawans.
I think it does make sense with Reva’s character though, that she might have gone to ground for awhile, and is keeping her true origins secret. Especially if her real motivation is to get revenge against Obi-Wan – or maybe even Anakin himself – she might want to keep that close to the chest.
@8.
Wow, Jedi Temple security was crap and their doors were really soundproof! The whole temple is overrun and the kids are doing tai chi on the roof completely unaware.Wow, Jedi Temple security was crap and their doors were really soundproof! The whole temple is overrun and the kids are doing tai chi on the roof completely unaware.
It makes sense, in its way. The Temple was their sanctum at the heart of the Republic. The idea of a sacking, much less from their own government, must have been inconceivable. It’s just another instance of the Order’s arrogance and insularity.
More, the Temple was likely running on a skeleton crew between the galactic deployments and the losses the Order had sustained (I don’t know if it’s still canon, but the old EU’s stance was that the Order’s pre-AOTC size was 10,000 active Jedi and half of the Order had been KIA in the final days before Order 66 wiped out the remainder.)
@6 / CLB:
I don’t think it creates a continuity issue — if anything, it makes her hologram message in ANH feel like she’s contacting an old friend rather than just relaying a message from her father, and that gives it more meaning.
Absolutely.
Leia’s reaction to Luke busting into the Detention Block and saying he’s with Ben Kenobi also likewise plays differently now with this new context.
Also, it occurs to me that Bail’s plea to our protagonist basically boils down to “Help her, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re her only hope.”
Speaking of resonances with ANH dialogue, I’m thinking about Obi-Wan’s line from the movie that he hasn’t owned a droid in a long time, given that his security system that pops up in front of his cave appears to be the periscope thingy from an R2 unit. So is there a whole R2 unit buried under the sand there, or did he just cannibalize part of one?
@6 – I was also thrown by how tiny Leia was – and indeed the actor is only just about to turn 10 now. So they clearly went for the look and performance they wanted over an exact age match, although it does make me wonder why they needed it to be 10 years post ROS. I also thought the scene with her and Bail talking on the balcony seemed to be edited in a way which exaggerated that smallness even more.
Really enjoying the series so far and hope they’re able to manage a light touch with including the twins, keeping that aspect fun while not giving in to temptation to ‘explain’ / undermine / fill out too much established continuity. That’s always a game with diminishing returns.
@12 I took it as just being a salvaged droid part. Obi Wan left Utapau in Grievous’s starfighter which didn’t have a droid slot. He could have acquired an astromech on Tatooine or received one before leaving Tantive IV, but that doesn’t seem like his style.
@3 You minimize effects of deep depression and PTSD. Ben was only doing basic things necessary for his survival – shelter, sustenance, safety and watching over Luke. To get a more comfortable place to live would have seen unnecessary to him. Plus he was also punishing himself as he blamed himself for missing Anakin’s fall and subsequent destruction of Jedi order. I don’t think it was his first gift for Luke. Pretty sure he gave more stuff for Luke and Owen returned or discarded them. Probably not first Owen’s blow-up on Ben either. Still he persisted…
@9 I agree. Reva is most likely one of the younglings from the opening. She probably survived in the slums, till she was rescued by one of Inquisitors or maybe even by Vader. She maybe angry at Jedi and Obi-Wan in particular because of his message warning Jedi to avoid Jedi temple, thus leaving her abandoned. Or maybe she does want revenge on Vader for destroying her life and Obi-Wan for not stopping him in time.
Re: Obi-Wan’s appearance in the series and then in Ep. IV: Ewan McGregor is almost the exact same age that Alec Guinness would have been 11 years prior to Star Wars.
And here’s a picture of Guinness in 1970 (starring as King Charles I in Cromwell). Honestly, he doesn’t look that much different than McGregor does in Obi-Wan.
Al @13:
Keep in mind that Jimmy Smits is 6’3″, so that probably also contributed. Also, Carrie Fisher was 5’1″, so it’s completely believable that she would be smaller than normal for her age growing up.
Like most people, I loved young Leia. I definitely want to see more of her. I’ve always liked Jimmy Smits as an actor, but this role has never worked for me. Something about his diction is just off-putting to me.
I really enjoyed these, especially after the disappointment of Boba Fett.
@8 Wow, Jedi Temple security was crap and their doors were really soundproof! The whole temple is overrun and the kids are doing tai chi on the roof completely unaware.
If I remember correctly, the novelisation stated that the Temple was in lockdown after they discovered the identity of Sidious, with only members of the Jedi Council knowing the code, of which Anakin was one. I haven’t counted how many clones were at the purge of the Temple, but I’m guessing the ratio was at least three to one, seeing as how it was an organised assault, and a lightsabre can only do so much. Or it could just be that the Jedi were complacent enough to not have security, as the idea of the Republic turning on them after so many milennia seemed inconceivable.
As for the doors being soundproof, it could be that they were blast doors, although this is Star Wars, where ships that can fly in hyperspace are built like cars in your garage and, yes, sound travels in space, so I never really minded. I thought it portrayed the change of mood from tranquil to chaos perfectly, though yes, it did make uncomfortable viewing in light of recent events.
As for the episodes, I loved them. So many great moments that have already been mentioned, yet for me Joel Edgerton and Ewan McGregor’s scenes could have been the whole show, you see Owen’s fear for Luke, making the very good point that Obi-Wan trained the Padawan who purged the Jedi, and that Luke’s life if he were trained as a Jedi would be a life of constant fear of discovery, there being no Rebellion at this time.
As for Obi-Wan living in a cave, I think the Kenobi novel told a perfect story of Obi-Wan’s first days on Tattooine, so Lucasfilm were probably trying to avoid repeating certain aspects of that.
Did I say how much I loved these episodes? They captured the balance of what makes Star Wars work, so yes, ten year old children and monologuing Sith are part of that. It seemed to mix the best of the prequels with the original trilogy, and as it’s set midway between both, it makes sense to me.
As for Obi-Wan struggling to use the Force to stop Leia falling, I can only say Gwen Stacy.
@18,
If I remember correctly, the novelisation stated that the Temple was in lockdown after they discovered the identity of Sidious, with only members of the Jedi Council knowing the code, of which Anakin was one.
Yes, that was Stover’s take on the Temple’s defense as well.
Not changing Anakin’s code (just in case) was one of Mace’s biggest mistakes that night — thought the cardinal one was not even notifying the rest of the senior Temple staff or their allies as to what they’d discovered.
But even without codes, the Clones had the firepower and the manpower. They’d have easily have gotten in one way or the other.
@10 & @18, I agree there are plenty of explanations for the Jedi Temple security faults, I was mostly poking fun!
And @18 I’ve always wished there was more negative interaction between Anakin and Own in Episode II. There isn’t much of any, and I always felt that a little more would add depth to his interactions with Luke in ANH. So yes, more Owen and Ben arguing over how to raise Luke please.
Finally, like many have already expressed, the Leia arc is great. I expect we will see a little bit of drama with Ben saving Luke at some point, with Luke being kept in the dark for the most part. Too many adventures with Luke and we’ll spoil the whole premise of Luke desperately wanting to escape the monotony of Tatooine.
We Love Tatooine
Question from a casual fan: So, what is the Empire now? The original trilogy strongly implied it was a fascist dictatorship for white guys only with a strong distaste for aliens (“Where are you taking this… thing?”) In recent years I’ve been seeing more and more people of color and aliens in its ranks. So, what are they about at this point? Better yet, what philosophy is at work? And who is the target of their bigotry? Is it mainly the Jedi? Is it like a space communist crusade against their religion?
@21 – well, the Emperor is a Sith, so yeah, I think the general purpose is basically unlimited power and to eradicate the Jedi. I’m not sure that a desire for power/order and all that necessarily means you have to care about skin color or species on a galactic scale (although I’m sure plenty did on a smaller scale). Plenty of Sith were non-human, after all.
But I also think some of that was just an artifact of 1970’s casting – casting stodgy British white guys is kind of an easy visual trope for what the Empire is. Yeah, they were dismissive of Wookiees but Leia also seems to have no problem calling him a walking carpet.
(And even in the EU, which did hew a little more explicitly to the ‘white guys only’ trope, there were always special examples made for certain women and aliens that had proven themselves, but they were notable in being exceptions. Thrawn, Ysanne Isard, Juno Eclipse, Daala, the Noghri, etc… It’s not like our own history doesn’t also have examples of tokens/collaborators. And given that the Inquisitors themselves are a special group, I can also see that being a bit more relaxed in who is allowed in their ranks, and they are probably viewed with a bit of loathing/distrust by the other officers).
((And as an aside I always find it a little weird to talk about ‘white’ and ‘black’ in the Star Wars universe because, at least as a 21st century American, those words have a lot of baggage to them due to history, culture, identity, various social structures, associations, etc…what would it even mean in a galaxy with millions of other planets and species to be white, for example? Are we to assume the SW galaxy has a similar history of colonization/expansion by primarily light pigmented humans? Would Finn or Lando even identify based on their skin color, any more than they would by their hair or eye color? That’s a rhetorical (but genuine, I’m not trying to be snarky/dismissive) queston, I really don’t know. But I guess – due to practical limitations – humans/humanoids are always going to appear the most populous/dominant in visual media, and it also tends to be white actors. A trend that is not helped by a loud minority on social media constantly frothing over ‘woke’ Star Wars any time somebody who is NOT white is cast. The comics/novels/animated shows at least have a little more freedom in this regard.))
Broken Obi-Wan is depressing. I’d much rather watch the adventures of mini Leia, or even the story of an acolyte gone wrong as an inquisitor though Reva sounds disappointingly like the angry, violent Strong Female Character TM we see all to much of these days.
#22
Well frankly, those issues matter to us because it’s made for us. The original Star Wars was released just a few decades out from WW2 when real fascists were on the march, and the pain was still fresh for many in the world. Lucas was certainly playing with those cultural elements, and not at all in a subtle manner.
I guess my issue is how what we’re seeing now dilutes the Imperial “brand,” so to speak, and the real-world commentary. Now, when we have real fascists, racists, and paranoids very much in the world, it would be nice to see some sort of consistency in the messaging here in Star Wars, rather than this muddled… all races and genders deserve a chance to be evil… I guess?
But, practically speaking, in business terms, this is about marketing, isn’t it? It’s about kids young and old from any group being able to dress up like their favorite villains and not having the baggage from that real war with those real stormtroopers. I mean, if that’s the case, then Star Wars has less to say about the real culture it has mined and alloyed for so many years. Then it becomes an exercise in surface-level things that anyone can buy. Even a Mickey Mouse version of fascism.
Well, yeah, I don’t think evil is bound to any particular race/gender (as a white woman) and I think there can also be a more subtle danger in assuming (at least for women – I can’t speak to racial issues in any personal sense) women can only fit into a few tropes, even if they are positive. But yes, I am sure it is about marketing/representation, depending on how cynical/idealistic you want to be about it. I personally do enjoy seeing women in a variety of roles, with different motivations.
I still find the brand/messaging fairly recognizable, but that said I’ve never been one of the people who thinks Imperials/Sith are cool…it was definitely kinda weird last time I was at Disney (this was years ago) during one of the Star Wars parades and everybody cheered for Phasma and the stormtroopers and all that. Like…it was just really weird to me, haha. I mean, I can certainly enjoy a cool villain and I understand it’s a fairly normal phenomenon but in terms of costumes, rpgs, etc I always pick a light side character. I also am never a fan of plot/story twists involving characters going dark, it just makes me sad, haha. So even though it has been done 5000 times in Star Wars, I won’t even complain if Reva gets a redemption arc (which people are already pre-emptively complaining about in some other circles I follow).
@21 I think the Empire was always more of a pro-humanity ideology than a pro-white one. The fact that most of the Original Trilogy officers were white is due to the low budget of the original movie, which meant casting British TV actors of the time, and there were very few people of color on UK TV In 1976. Lisamarie also answers this perfectly in my opinion.
Re: Templar. I didn’t think you were being critical, lord knows there’s enough arguing over Star Wars in social media as is.
I did miss out the notion that Jedi Temple Security is a misnomer of sorts, as the Temple is full of Jedi, ha.
#25
I enjoy seeing women in various roles as well, but when it becomes untethered from our reality I struggle to find interest. I mean, I have no frame of reference for a Black woman who fought for the Nazis and hunted Jewish people. When the makers of Star Wars expand inclusivity to that point, perhaps for cynical reasons, I don’t know what to make of it anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, inclusivity is a good thing. I’m all for it. Any place that wasn’t the Empire appeared to be all for it, too, in the original trilogy. I just don’t see why they couldn’t continue to cast in that direction.
@23:
Broken Obi-Wan is depressing.
…I mean, we kinda knew that going in.
If anything, that was one of the selling points of this sho for me: Riding the gap between the broken Obi-Wan of the end of ROTS and the more Zen Master Obi-Wan of ANH.
#26
Granted, that’s true of the original movie. The Rebels were chock full of white British people as well. But that didn’t continue with the sequels. Lando was brought aboard. Then we got Mon Mothma and a whole lot of aliens — who fought for the Rebels. While the Empire remained the same. This also happened in Rogue One.
Again, this is something that goes beyond mere casting limitations. It’s saying something about our world, not just that galaxy far far away.
Pink mullet girl who used to be somebody’s daughter is Ewan’s real-life daughter, Esther Rose McGregor..
@30
I love it!
I also think young Leia is continuing a trend started by Grogu and then Taweret for stealing the show from the title character.
I like the fact that Leia learns his name. It recontextualizes “A New Hope” while changing nothing.
I predict we’ll have a better understanding of Leia’s contempt for Vader by the end.
@22/Lisamarie: “But I also think some of that was just an artifact of 1970’s casting – casting stodgy British white guys is kind of an easy visual trope for what the Empire is.”
Basically, yeah, but Rebels very much carried it forward. The Imperial characters on that show were mostly humans, with occasional exceptions like the Grand Inquisitor and Thrawn, whereas the Rebel characters were overwhelmingly nonwhite humans or aliens, with the only exceptions being returning movie characters like Obi-Wan, Wedge, and Mon Mothma. (Ryder Azadi might be considered white, but Wookieepedia lists his skin color as “copper,” so it’s ambiguous.)
@29. Oh, the Empire were always the Nazis in the Original Trilogy, I was merely pointing out that the notion was expanded upon to be more inclusive of human-looking species as the novels and the movies progressed.
In regards to Star Wars commentating on where humanity is now regarding gender and race, that is a subject that leads to a thousand Twitter posts, which I will not discuss here.
Edit: I feel I should clarify some things in my original post which were worded poorly. The Empire being the Nazis refers to the tradition of World War Two movies, George Lucas famously viewing the Empire’s attitude and reliance on technology being closer to the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
The pro-humanity notion of The Empire was mentioned in the Revenge of the Sith novel, in regards to Count Dooko’s belief that the Republic would be transformed into a more human-led Autocracy rather than the diverse democracy it was, after the defeat of the Separatists. This, of course, didn’t work out as he planned.
@32 – well, Rebels is pretty consciously aping the style of ANH (including a lot of McQuarrie’s original concept art) so I wonder if some of that is subconscious. But Rebels also established the Inquisitors, who were all non-human.
But, yes, species-ism does have more of an established presence. Even in the old EU, it was very notable that Thrawn was an alien. A lot of alien populations were enslaved/used for labor.
I understand clarity of the message and being concerned about that but I also don’t feel like I specifically need a frame of reference for Reva because her actress is a Black woman, and Black women in our history didn’t fight with Nazis and hunt Jews. I am not sure that the commentary needs to be THAT specific for the message to come across. The Empire aren’t literally Nazis, they just represent the same evil Nazis represent, but that’s going to look different in a different context.
(Not to mention that this is all kind of assuming they cast her on purpose as opposed to she just happened to be the person who did the best in the audition. I truly have no idea how the casting process works).
Now, in universe – one thing I CAN believe, no matter how species-ist the Empire is in its military ranks or government, is that Inquisitors could be more diverse. Since it’s been established that many of them were former Jedi, and they were a more cosmopolitan group, that would mean the candidate pool, so to speak, would be more diverse. And Palpatine would absolutely not be above using them regardless of the Empire’s general feelings on human-superiority. And disposing of them, once they’ve met their purpose. (Not that I think, as a Sith, Palpatine gave two figs about it – his Empire might have, because it’s a convenient way to rile a power base- but the Sith philosophy, for all its faults, doesn’t really seem to care about that as there are plenty of non human Sith).
I guess I wasn’t watching closely enough but Obi-Wan didn’t look all that broken to me at the end of Revenge. Ten years later seems awfully late to be addressing that particular issue. I’d expect the first few years on Tatooine to be very hard as he adjusts to life in hiding.
Ten years later I’d expect the issue to be the conflict between him and Owen over Luke. Why didn’t Obi-Wan train Luke whatever Owen and Beru wanted? Wasn’t that why he was there? What persuaded him to keep his distance? There had to have been a very good reason.
People are fussed about Reva’s supposed redemption arc because they think the show is going to be about her instead of Obi-Wan. A story about a lost acolyte returning to the Jedi could be quite interesting, but does it belong in a show called Obi-Wan Kenobi?
Leia was great. Yeah, I thought she was a bit young / short for 10 also, but whatever. Somewhere in the imaginosphere there’s a great little buddy comedy starring her and Lyanna Mormont.
@35/Lisamarie: “well, Rebels is pretty consciously aping the style of ANH (including a lot of McQuarrie’s original concept art) so I wonder if some of that is subconscious.”
I doubt it, because in ANH, all the characters on both sides are white, while in Rebels, all the original human Rebel characters are nonwhite while the Imperials are overwhelmingly white. That seems like a deliberate choice.
As for the Empire including aliens or POCs, racist or sexist institutions have always made the occasional exception for people who worked hard enough to overcome the barriers. The institutions just tend to make life harder for them and give them less credit. For instance, there have been a lot of female scientists and inventors who achieved important things but were shut out from the recognition and honors given to their male colleagues, like Lise Meitner or Rosalind Franklin. And there have been people who achieved celebrated things but whose ethnicity is glossed over when talking about their accomplishments — for instance, I was in my 30s before I discovered that Alexandre Dumas was black (and that was after seeing him portrayed by John Rhys-Davies in a 2000 television series).
The portrayal of Reva here is very like that — she’s included, but not welcome, and her superior marginalizes her and rejects her input. From the way the Grand Inquisitor talks about the “gutter,” and given that he’s nonhuman himself, that may be more classism than racism, but she’s definitely portrayed as a character fighting against an institutional glass ceiling.
@34:
The pro-humanity notion of The Empire was mentioned in the Revenge of the Sith novel, in regards to Count Dooko’s belief that the Republic would be transformed into a more human-led Autocracy rather than the diverse democracy it was, after the defeat of the Separatists. This, of course, didn’t work out as he planned.
Right. I remember Stover also pointed out it was no accident non-humans comprised the leadership of the Confederacy.
Sidious and Dooku were deliberately capitalizing and fanning the flames of anti-human sentiment they knew 3 years of galactic warfare would unleash as a stepping block to the institutionalized Humanocentrism.
@38 – yes, that is the point I made in post 22 – that even within the realm of species-ism, there are always ‘exceptions’. (Also fun aside: -I never had a girl, but Rosalind was on a shortlist of girl names for me, specifically after Rosalind Franklin :D)
I think there are two separate -isms being debated here. Species-ism – which I can buy in universe (but still has room for known exceptions, especially within the Inquisitorious), and in-universe racism which mainfests in the same way that racisim in our world does which I am more skeptical of. Yes, the visual language was there, and I think that can have multiple causes – casting limitations, our own biases, etc. However, I do not think the franchise needs to be beholden to that imagery, which is kind of what spurred this discussion, which is debating what better serves the message – either casting diverse actors in a variety of roles, or maintaining the imagery of an all (or mostly) white/male Imperial presence. (Although again, I think regardless, the Inquisitors/Sith are going to be a different ball game).
Which in some ways I think is some of the tension in Star Wars – it’s definitely built around a lot of tropes, archetypes and visual language, not necessarily deep/nuanced storytelling (see: Padme dying of heartbreak which is definitely meant to be a more symbolic/poetic thing to represent the death of the Republic, especially while juxtaposed with the birth of Vader, not necessarily something steeped in realism in what should be a medically advanced society). In some ways that is part of its charm. BUT, as the franchise expands there’s a desire to build more and more worldbuilding. So from a *visual* standpoint, I see the argument, but from an *in universe* standpoint, I’m just not sure that the color of a human’s skin would have the same meaning it does for us. ((Which…not to say that on individual planets there wouldn’t be clashes between different groups, species, races, tribes, etc that could result in those kinds of prejudices/biases. Maybe Coruscant IS just super racist and now that’s spreading outward through Imperial culture.)).
Back to Reva specifically – I definitely agree she’s portrayed as an underdog. I’m still not sure if it was written to be an extended metaphor/commentery (especially given that the other Inquisitors are aliens). But maybe that IS an example of the visual language being used as well, but I don’t know if the story directions were chosen before or after they cast this particular actress, or how much the casting then influenced the direction. It’s definitely food for thought though.
@40,
Back to Reva specifically – I definitely agree she’s portrayed as an underdog. I’m still not sure if it was written to be an extended metaphor/commentery (especially given that the other Inquisitors are aliens). But maybe that IS an example of the visual language being used as well, but I don’t know if the story directions were chosen before or after they cast this particular actress, or how much the casting then influenced the direction. It’s definitely food for thought though.
I think at the very least, Reva’s meant to be an ironic, dark mirror of Anakin.
She comes from an impoverished background, is likewise obsessed with Obi-Wan,has pride and anger issues galore, and she doesn’t really fit into the machinery of the Inquisitors (with the leadership’s exasperation and strained patience mirroring Mace and the Council’s Anakin stance).
I went in to this show cautiously optimistic. I still have deep regrets over SW after what Disney did to the sequel trilogy, especially Rise of Skywalker. If it weren’t for Dave Filoni’s commitment to Mandalorian and Boba Fett, my passion for Star Wars would be on shakier ground now. That those two shows worked as well as they did is a testament to all parties involved (even if Boba Fett was a bit on the inconsistent plotting side).
But dealing with a direct sequel to Revenge of the Sith, my all-time favorite SW film, was always going to test me. I hold Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Sith in high regard to this day. For better and worse, those movies represented George’s vision of SW. A vision that never had to go through marketing, research, story groups or shareholders the way this last trilogy was.
Thankfully, having Mandalorian director Deborah Chow on the driver’s seat gave me some hope. Having seen the first two episodes, I’m glad to be pleased so far. We’ll see how the rest of the story goes from here. But so far, Ewan McGregor reminds me of just how influential and watchable Obi-Wan was during the prequel era. While the early Tatooine scenes feel a bit repetitive, I think that’s the point and feeling they were going for.
But to me, it was episode 2 that really made the opening night worth it. I gotta give credit to whoever put the trailers together. I had no idea they were going to deal with Leia rather than Luke. And when you stop and think about, it makes perfect sense in every way! Some superb casting on that side as well. And it doesn’t violate a single shred of continuity. If anything, it gives new meaning to 19 year old Leia’s hologram plea on A New Hope. The minute I saw the exterior shot of Alderaan, my heart skipped a beat. They were going there, and her introduction during the costuming scene was pitch-perfect.
Admittedly, I was a little underwhelmed at first by Reva’s arrogant attitude. I assume this underdog thing is building to something more than just Anakin 2.0. But I have no issues with Moses Ingram and her performance. It’s classic petulant Sith apprentice behavior we’ve seen before. In regards to casting, I have no problems with Ingram in the role – but I do with casting Kumail Nanjiani as the con artist. He’s a brilliant comic actor, but I think casting someone as recognizable as him takes away from what made Star Wars in fact Star Wars (especially when we’ve just had Marvel’s Eternals on the big screen). These kind of secondary roles were ones in which actors disappeared into without leaving a trace of themselves. It’s a recurring problem also on Mandalorian and Boba Fett – casting these new roles with actors that are too expressive and distinct.
Also, where are the aliens with major speaking roles? Phantom Menace had Watto, Jar Jar and Boss Nass. Clones had Lama Su, Taun We and Dex. Sith had that Utapau minister with a distinct voice and teeth. The current shows spend way too much time dealing with recognizable human beings.
But I still have hopes for Reva as a character. I was more disappointed by the Inquisitor – he almost seemed like a nerfed videogame character. In Rebels, the Inquisitor had more of an impact. Plus, shouldn’t he and Reva be able to sense other Jedi through the Force? I guess Obi-Wan must have cut himself off the Force completely to be able to slip by unnoticed for this long. It would also explain why he was never able to sense Anakin’s presence in 10 years.
And yes, Obi-Wan just now discovering Anakin’s alive makes perfect sense. I’ve seen Revenge of the Sith enough times to know he thought Vader/Anakin was 100% dead – I memorized the dialogue. His only line at the end of the film was discussing that they had to take Luke and Leia to somewhere the Sith wouldn’t sense their presence. He was clearly talking about Palpatine and other potential dark underlings.
Although it does seem to me, ironically enough, that Leia is a little short for a ten-year-old…
@6/Christopher: The actress is actually quite a bit younger than 10 year old Leia (when she filmed it, that is). It might be one of the only instances I’ve ever seen where they cast a child actor younger than the part. It’s usually the other way around. And even for her age, the actress is very much on the short side (just like one that played young Rey on Force Awakens).
#22 and #24
Here is the thing about Star Wars and real life: both in Star Wars and in real life, everyone has the capacity for evil and for goodness. So I buy all walks of life (and aliens) being both sith and Jedi, rebellion and empire. It makes sense. It’s a diverse universe.
@42/Eduardo: “I think casting someone as recognizable as him takes away from what made Star Wars in fact Star Wars.”
Err… Sir Alec Guinness? Peter Cushing? Christopher Lee? Liam Neeson? Samuel L. Jackson? The franchise has always cast famous actors in supporting roles. For that matter, Ewan McGregor was already a breakout star from Trainspotting before he was cast as Obi-Wan.
@44/Christopher: Here’s the thing: all the actors you mentioned were famous, but it never felt like I was watching a big personality movie presence or movie star moment taking away from the story itself. Guinness and McGregor both became Obi-Wan naturally. Lee’s Dooku was markedly distinct from Saruman. Neeson was a Jedi even before he took the role of Qui-Gon (a much better fit than the gruff action hero persona he plays these days). Cushing had the accent and authority nailed down for Tarkin. And even Jackson, who was pretty splashy in other roles even back then, managed to tone it down for Mace Windu in a believable way. The right actors for the right roles.
But I just don’t feel the same over a character like Haja Estree. He feels more like a Pakistani/American comedian (closer to his Silicon Valley or Eternals characters) than a con artist that grew on the Outer Rim. It was such a blatant con job that I had a hard time believing anyone would fall for his shtick. And this isn’t meant as a slight of Nanjiani’s talents or his natural charisma; just my own take on what I feel is a character that doesn’t feel like he belongs on the Star Wars universe. He’s not the only case either. There have been other actors on both Mandalorian and Boba Fett that felt way too out of place, despite their talents.
#43
Indeed, but there is still plenty of room to show a diverse universe of good and evil and all points in between outside the Empire. Look at Fennec Shand. Great character. Great actress. She could maybe go either way on the good or evil thing. And she doesn’t have to be a Sith or a Jedi to tell those stories.
If they really wanted to bring horror back to the Empire, maybe they should let Jordan Peele take a crack at it. Just imagine a character like Reva being mind-controlled and receiving injections to turn her skin white, as pale as Palpatine, because it fits the monolithic mindset of a dictatorship. Then she has to fight against that horror.
Have Thrawn strapped down, his brilliant brain removed and transplanted inside a white guy’s noggin. Don’t be subtle about it. Really go for the jugular with this stuff. Make the Empire evil again. Then it would make the victories against them mean something again.
Kumail Nanjiani didn’t work for me either, honestly, for exactly the reasons cited by Edward @42 & @45, despite the examples given by Christopher @44. Nice insights by Lisamarie @40 on the -ism conversation; thanks. On to Chapter Three.
The first two episodes were great. I totally bought into everything that was going on, and the acting and the special effects were great. I especially like the fact that they are focusing on Obi Wan’s adventures with young Leia rather than young Luke. That little actress is knocking it out of the park.
@47, Worse, what if she’s totally onboard with being bleeched because she wants to look like Palpy?
However I’m not entirely comfortable with the concept of White = Evil being paler than Casper the ghost myself.
@50/roxana: “However I’m not entirely comfortable with the concept of White = Evil being paler than Casper the ghost myself.”
It’s not “White = Evil,” it’s “excluding everyone but whites (or humans) = evil.”
I was massively underwhelmed.
This is poor. If it wasn’t labelled “Star Wars” it’d be considered junk regardless of the lead actor. This show is style over substance.
The meat processing is so un-realistic (who leaves a production line of meat overnight in the desert with no shift change, or security? How can OWK keep stealing and not get noticed, and it’s clear he’s not using the force) just one example of how lazy this production is. But hey… they can throw in a flying bus back to the town and it’s all good?
Why is Leia so unlike any child I’ve ever met, the dialog is trite. Least realistic character out of a bunch to choose from.
How come the inquisitors are able to find a Jedi in a backwater bar on Tatooine yet having done the hard bit can’t, with the might of the empire behind them, capture him in that bar and lose him until he’s been rejected by OWK in a desert in the middle of the night? Also they are so not threatening, they are camp. If they were even a tiny bit evil the Grand Inquisitor would have throttled the 3rd sister using the dark side the moment she showed the slightest sign of dissent. If Dr Evil were running the inquisitors they’d be more scary!
How come knowing the relationship between the Organas and OWK can’t the Inquisitors/3rd Sister just FOLLOW Bail Organa to Tatooine, if you can kidnap a royal kid from their back yard surely that couldn’t be too hard to do, but, no, kidnap the kid and then when you have OWK cornered blab on and on and on until he escapes with a 10year old (who looks way younger than 10) who despite living in a royal palace all her life magically can operate an unmanned freighter. Oh and while they do that you get on with killing your boss.
This is NOT the Star Wars where Han Solo shoots Greedo first this is the sacharine pap of the prequels and the special editions.
The bit that means I wont be watching ep3 onwards is the introduction of Vader. This just undermines the whole of New Hope in my eyes where Vader and OWK meet for the first time since the collapse of the republic.
No thanks I’ll pass on this cashing-in on the brand. I enjoyed the Mandalorian, and even Boba Fett had its moments but this is cringeworthy imho. Thank goodness there’s a new season of Stranger Things!
Love Ewan McGregor but hate the series. I think I’ll stop watching. They presented Leia as an obnoxious child. There’s a fine line between being precocious and being obnoxious. The writers crossed the line. Instead of a lovable child who is intelligent and wise beyond her years, Leia came out as a spoiled brat. Who wants that?