Warning: This article contains important spoilers for the first two episodes of OBi-Wan Kenobi! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out IGN’s review of the two-part premiere.
After years of waiting as a hermit in the desert, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi has finally debuted at Disney +. The new series has already managed to surprise fans and subvert expectations in its first two episodes, including the appearance of several well-known faces from Star Wars movies.
But as the show progresses in unexpected directions, we also have a lot of questions about Obi-Wan’s latest adventure. We break down the six most pressing and unanswered questions after the end of Chapter 2, from Reva’s inexplicable hatred of Obi-Wan to whether or not the Grand Inquisitor is dead.
Why didn’t Obi-Wan know that Anakin was still alive?
Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader only appears in a brief scene from these first two episodes, but the shadow of Anakin Skywalker rises above the series. We learn two important details about the Anakin / Obi-Wan dynamic from the door. First, Vader has been obsessively chasing Obi-Wan since his fateful duel with Mustafar ten years earlier. Second, Obi-Wan had no idea that Anakin was still alive.
It’s a pretty amazing investment, considering that movies always suggest otherwise. We always imagined Obi-Wan silently watching the crimes of his fallen student from afar and waiting for the day when he could train Luke to face Vader. Meanwhile, in episode IV, Vader behaves as if he is surprised to see Obi-Wan alive. Although, as we have discussed in the past, this series promises to add some significant new wrinkles to the Vader / Obi-Wan relationship.
Why did Obi-Wan never connect the dots between Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker before Reva arrived? Is he really so isolated from the Force that he can’t feel Anakin’s life force? And what about Yoda? Is it news to him too, or have Yoda and Qui-Gon’s spirit kept that knowledge to themselves? Neither option paints Yoda with a particularly flattering light.
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Is the Grand Inquisitor really dead?
The first two episodes make it clear that Moses Ingram’s character, Reva, is an outcast among Darth Vader’s assassins, the Sith Inquisitorius. She has skills, of course, but her fellow inquisitors see her as a rookie who is not worthy of being in her ranks. It doesn’t help exactly in his case when he betrays the character of Rupert Friend, the Great Inquisitor, and impales him with his sword.
This betrayal raises some pretty significant questions about continuity. How can the Great Inquisitor die in Obi-Wan Kenobi when he is alive and well a few years later during the events of Star Wars Rebels: Season 1?
Here are several possible explanations. One option is that this Grand Inquisitor is not the same character as the Rebels (which would also explain why Disney did not have Jason Isaacs play his voice-over role in the live action). But why are two great inquisitors who look and sound almost exactly alike? Are they brothers?
Are they the same character or not?
This theory also clashes with Marvel’s Darth Vader comics. Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith of 2017 reveals that the Great Inquisitor of the Rebels has been with Vader since shortly after the end of the Clone Wars. Will the series completely ignore this book?
Another possibility is that the Grand Inquisitor is not as dead as he seems. Perhaps the Inquisitor has access to some of the same Sith technology that keeps Vader alive and eventually allows Emperor Palpatine to clone himself. Inquisitors could even be guinea pigs for Palpatine cloning experiments. Perhaps Vader has a Supreme Leader Snoke-style tank full of Inquisitor bodies that he can activate while his minions die.
This theory can be fused with what we learned from the Great Inquisitor in the Marvel comics. The current Star Wars series shows Luke traveling to a forgotten Jedi temple and claiming a yellow lightsaber to replace what he lost to Bespin. There he confronts the spirit of the Great Inquisitor, who has been forever bound to the temple as punishment for his failures. If Vader succeeds, perhaps returning his minions to the brink of death is child’s play.
Why does Reva hate Obi-Wan so much?
The first two episodes show us that Reva is unusually fanatical. She is consumed by her determined quest to hunt down Obi-Wan Kenobi, and is not afraid to deceive, lie, and stab her inquisitive comrades in the back.
Naturally, this raises the question of why Reva hates Obi-Wan so much in the first place. What did this kind Jedi Master ever do to him? She may not have been so big when she hid.
This rivalry may be related to the initial flashback to Chapter 1, where we see a group of young people fleeing the carnage to the Jedi Temple. We’ve already seen one of these characters, Benny Safdie’s Nari, resurface in current history. It is logical that we will know the rest throughout the series. And maybe we just found out that Reva was one of those young people. She could be the second character on the left in this picture:
If so, the Reva may hate Obi-Wan for not being able to stop Order 66 and condemn her to a life as an orphan. Although it is unclear why he highlighted Obi-Wan for the collective failure of the Jedi.
It’s also worth noting that Reva may not necessarily be motivated by hatred. She is clearly a fanatic, even by Inquisitorial standards. Maybe he doesn’t hate Obi-Wan as much as he idolizes Darth Vader. Because Vader longs for revenge against his former Master, so does she. This would also explain why she is reckless enough to openly challenge and possibly kill the Grand Inquisitor. She knows she has the support of the Big Guy.
Why didn’t Leia mention her first meeting with Obi-Wan?
Disney managed to keep some important characters secret until the first two episodes debuted. Not only do we see Jimmy Smits ’Bail Organa and Temuera Morrison as a veteran homeless clone, the series features Vivien Lyra Blair as a 10-year-old Princess Leia. We quickly learn that Leia and Obi-Wan’s relationship goes back a long way, as she was the only person who was able to make him leave Tatooine’s relative safety.
Knowing that Obi-Wan risked his life to save Leia years before the events of episode IV, it is strange to think that Leia never mentioned her first encounter with the Jedi Master. Why does he address him so formally in his holographic message, “Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars” – instead of saying something more direct like, “Hey, I need you back to rescue! “?
Luke just had to do it all about himself.
This revelation also makes Luke look even more like an idiot during the scene where Leia consoles him aboard the Millennium Falcon after Obi-Wan’s death. Not only is he mourning the death of his home planet, but he has known Obi-Wan much longer than Luke.
We have no doubt that future Star Wars stories will work retroactively on this detail in the Luke / Leia relationship. Maybe Marvel will publish a comic that shows Leia remembering her adventures with Obi-Wan. It also adds a new context to Leia’s decision and Han must put her son to her son.
Obi-Wan is the reason Leia remembers Padme?
Based on the original trilogy, we learn that Leia does not realize her Jedi abilities until Luke reveals the truth about his family history in Endor. That said, the sequels make it clear that she is as strong in the Force as her brother, and we see signs of that strength in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
Leia seems to have a natural gift for the empathy of the Force. She can instinctively feel what others around her think and feel, which is helpful when she needs to put a snobby cousin in her place.
We can’t help but wonder if this fledgling power will allow the series to tackle one of the biggest and most persistent mysteries about Luke and Leia. Episode III shows that they both took them out of Padme shortly after they were born, so why does Leia remember her where Luke didn’t? Maybe his empathic gift was active even then, but could it have something to do with his encounter with Obi-Wan as a child?
In Return of the Jedi, Leia describes her mother as “Very pretty. Kind, but sad.” This sounds exactly like Obi-Wan could describe Padme, a woman he loved but never had a particularly close relationship with. Does Leia subconsciously absorb Obi-Wan’s memories and develop a blurred mental image of her mother in this way? This is certainly an explanation.
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Why is the fifth brother so merciful?
The Great Inquisitor isn’t the only Star Wars Rebels villain to make his live action debut in this series. Sung Kang from The Fast and the Furious takes on the role of Fifth Brother, meaning Kang has gone from playing Han Seoul-Oh to rubbing his elbows with Han Solo.
However, the first two episodes leave us a little confused about the motivations of Fifth Brother. He is surprisingly kind to a boy whose job description is to hunt down and kill Jedi. Compared to Reva, he is frankly merciful. I would rather reward civilians for providing information than resorting to torture. He is a very good cop in this group.
Is there any reason why Fifth Brother is much less bloodthirsty? Given what we know about the Inquisitors of the Rebels and Marvel comics, they are constantly plotting against each other and gaining Vader’s favor. They are aspiring Sith Lords and act accordingly. Reva’s characterization is certainly more in line with these other stories. Hopefully the series finds time to explore the background story of Fifth Brother and why he prefers to do things according to the book.
For more state-of-the-art Star Wars news, find out what was shown in The Mandalorian: Season 3 of the Reel and what six words Hayden Christensen used to make the audience wild at Star Wars Celebration. You can also see the complete IGN breakdown of everything that has been announced …