Obi-Wan KenobiImage: Lucasfilm
There is a moment at the beginning of the first episode of the two-part premiere of Obi-Wan Kenobi that, while a sly remark about how the Jedi work as characters, seems explicitly designed to be an explanation for why everything happens as it happens: Reva, the Sith Inquisitor known as the Third Sister (Moses Ingram), points out that “the Jedi code is like an itch.” Jedi can’t resist helping someone in trouble, so if you want to eliminate a hidden Jedi, just start hurting people, and you’ll end up with a blue or green lightsaber in your face.
Reva’s trick works great on Nari, a terrible Jedi who somehow survived a decade of being persecuted by the Empire, though his version of “hiding” is more like “being a Jedi and hope no one notices. ” Look, Obi-Wan Kenobi, if the summary of the Disney + prequels and its prologue scene, which we’ll talk about later, didn’t warn you, it’s taking place in the increasingly crowded window between Episode III: The revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars, with the Order of the Emperor 66 turning the Jedi into criminals and their Sith Inquisitors (introduced in Star Wars: Rebels) persecuting the few that remain.
Obi-Wan himself does not appear for a while in the first episode, and when he does, it seems to serve as a counterpoint to Reva’s argument about Jedi. He spends his days working with a crew on Tatooine who is picking up a large dead monster, cutting its pieces into meat and then collecting the daily salary of a paying robot. When one of Obi-Wan’s co-workers complains about not receiving as much as he should, another calls him. Obi-Wan observes how it happens, instead of opposing tyranny (by the way, small).
At night he goes home to his cave and occasionally escapes to the desert to spy on little Luke Skywalker (sent to live with his aunt and uncle on his moisture farm at the end from episode III), and that’s all for Obi-Wan … until he appears in Nari and asks for him, wielding his lightsaber to prove he’s a Jedi and ignoring Obi-Wan’s pleas for shut up and accept that the Empire won. “The Jedi era is over,” he says. But, as Reva said, this itch will eventually have to be scratched.
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Which brings us to the surprising main plot of these first two episodes: the young Leia Organa, played by Vivien Lyra Blair, is hooked on her adopted planet Alderaan. She escapes a luxury party hosted by her parents (including a welcome return from Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa) and is captured by a criminal named Vect, played by Flea in a distracted manner. Bail Organa asks Obi-Wan for help, because she is the only one who knows that Leia has more to do with being the adopted daughter of a famous politician. Obi-Wan initially refuses, but after seeing Nari dead and hanging in the middle of the city, he gives in and agrees to break his oath to keep an eye on Luke so he can go save Leia.
This is where the show encounters a lot of Star Wars canon issues that are only created with the desire to give Obi-Wan something to do beyond sitting in a desert until the events of the original movie . Leia’s “help me Obi-Wan Kenobi” message to R2-D2 in the movie seems to imply that she and Obi-Wan don’t know each other, but she eventually meets Obi-Wan in the second part. of the premiere and feels that he is known as Obi-Wan, despite his insistence that he be called “Ben”.
It’s too early to tell if this is a problem, because this is just the premiere and there are many more episodes left, but as a Star Wars nerd questioning the need for some of these big, important spin-off stories, I can’t stop to notice.
The good news is that the second episode is much more interesting and exciting than the first, with Obi-Wan using the Game Boy Advance he kept in his Jedi secret box to track Leia to Los Angeles from Blade Runner, or at least his version of Star Wars. Dressing like a Jedi and carrying his lightsaber on his hip, Obi-Wan has adopted Nari’s extremely unsuccessful version of “hiding”, and a boy quickly invites him to meet a suspiciously useful Jedi named Haja Estree (Kumail Nanjiani, clearly has a great time). ).
Haja is helping force-sensitive children get out of the city, and while she lies about being a Jedi, her heart is still clearly in the right place. He leads Obi-Wan to Flea’s lair, and after sabotaging a kind of drug lab, Obi-Wan fights with thugs who cleverly makes it clear that he can no longer stand without effort in a fight: there has been. a cave for a decade, after all, sowing some continuity because it will become Alec Guinness in a few years.
Speaking of Obi-Wan’s age, little Leia repeatedly refers to her being old, which is definitely not the case, but it seems like a small nod to the audience to avoid the inconsistency of the appearance of ‘Ewan McGregor vs. Guinness. Also: Little Leia is a lot of fun. Extremely early and friendly, like a Star Wars version of Anya from the Spy X family, and I like that her precocity becomes a problem for Obi-Wan when she immediately realizes that she is a Jedi and that the the wicked pursue her. get to him.
That said, I would also note that the complexity of this evil plot, with Reva kidnapping Bail Organa’s daughter simply because she knows that Obi-Wan met Bail during the Clone Wars and wants to eliminate Obi-Wan, is absurd. He has no way of knowing that Bail will not send his army, as Leia assumes she will. It is very convenient for Reva that Bail should keep the kidnapping silent and therefore cannot ask anyone but Obi-Wan for help, although she would have had no reason to assume that she would want to keep him in custody. silence … regardless. Whose Leia’s father is the adopted daughter of a famous senator! It can be a big problem if she is abducted and no one thinks “Wait, why does this boy care so much about his daughter being abducted?”
Obi-Wan finally gains Leia’s trust by using her powers to save her from falling, and with Haja’s help (he’s a nice guy!) They find a way to escape. Earlier, however, Obi-Wan tells Leia that he reminds her of someone she knew, a “brave and stubborn” woman, making it the first time Star Wars has acknowledged Padme Amidala’s existence since her death. . It’s nice to see that not all members of the Skywalker family need to be defined by their relationship (or lack thereof) with Darth Vader.
Well, the episode ends with Obi-Wan learning from Reva that Vader is still alive, and we have a hard cut on a wrinkled, roasted Anakin floating in a tub with a respirator. Sure … it will really break the canon if Obi-Wan and Vader meet anytime before A New Hope, but we’ll see how Obi-Wan Kenobi manages it.
Wrong remarks
- Obviously Reva is one of those padawans from the beginning, right? Why show it any other way? And if it’s so obvious, why not make it explicit?
- On the subject of “why show this” … it probably wouldn’t have hurt Disney to release a disclaimer or something in the face of this episode to let everyone know that the first thing you’ll see is what is essentially cops. shooting at children. It’s certainly not Disney’s fault, but it’s still hitting hard after this week.
- The nonsensical babbling of science fiction in every Alderaan scene seemed very different to me in Star Wars. Yeah Al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like BT aint for me either. What if Han Solo says “See you in hell” and all that?
- It is worth noting that the basic plot here: a Jedi hiding after Order 66, who was doing a bad job, forced to expose himself under the threat of the imperial inquisitors, is very similar to Jedi: Fallen Order. That game also spent time humanizing (so to speak) a Sith inquisitor, specifically the second sister, with Reva here being the third sister.
- Hello! I will not be your usual Obi-Wan Kenobi recapitulator. I just came in for this week. If you want to know my Star Wars criteria for determining whether my opinions are valid or not, my rating is: 1. The Last Jedi, 2. All others, including other programs, 3. The Rise Of Skywalker. Alas, look at the time! Gotta go!