Spoiler Warning: This summary is for people who have watched episodes one and two of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Hello
Welcome to the first of our episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi episodes. Disney + has dropped the first two episodes this morning, to debut during the Star Wars celebration, which takes place in Anaheim, California, this week. The next four episodes will be one a week, released on Wednesday.
Okay, in the words of one Lord Vader, let’s do without goodness and let’s do it.
We opened, a little unexpectedly, with a nearly four-minute summary of the prequel trilogy: of Obi-Wan as a padawan, warning his master of the dangers of training Anakin on the paths of strength, until the fears that have been realized on the flaming banks of the lava rivers of Mustafar. I can’t imagine anyone being aware of these events, so my best guess is that the highlight was there to show us how much better the performance in Obi-Wan Kenobi is than in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. . And really, Ewan McGregor was great throughout those two episodes. Maybe he’s a better actor than he was 20 years ago? But it definitely has better material to work with here, and it certainly looks more comfortable on paper. Not to condemn everything with the slightest of praise, but this is his best Star Wars performance to date.
In the episode itself, and we returned to the Jedi Temple during the events of Order 66. When the Jedis fell everywhere, five young men, aided by their brave master, managed to escape. A quick leap 10 years into the future, and two cold exposure photos of the bartender later (Yes, people looking who haven’t seen Star Wars Rebels, those people with weird hats are inquisitive, and they hunt Jedi), we were gone reunite with Nari, one of the five fugitives. True to his form, he could not resist trying to help someone and his powers of the Force betrayed him.
Changing sands … First episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Photography: Disney
Then we saw Obi-Wan for the first time, sorry, Ben, working as a kind of sushi butcher / cook, cutting the inside of what I will call a sand shark. He’s a long way from being a general in clone wars, but hey, it’s a life. And he takes home a piece of meat every day for his eopie (more on that later).
We saw Uncle Owen (I’m glad Joel Edgerton came back to play Luke’s nasty uncle of moisture farming, playing his first role in the prequel), and we saw Obi-Wan say that not to help Nari before Nari, killed. by Inquisitors, he ended up hanging on the street. So far, so good, but all pretty predictable. I couldn’t put my finger on which western reminded me more of the plot, centered on a cunning old gunslinger forced to hide his skills for the good of his family before taking up arms for the last time. The fastest gun, perhaps? I’m nailing it, though.
Approximately below Alderaan
Poor old Alderaan. All those people who greeted the Organas, if they only knew that in about 20 years their voices would suddenly cry out in terror and be suddenly silenced.
But let’s focus on the here and now, and Leia, a rebellious, tree-climbing young princess who lives a very different life from her brother Luke. As he enjoys the sands of the Tatooine Desert and dreams of escaping, she lives a life of greeting, processions, formal buffets, and negotiating barbed wire lines with her snot cousin.
It turned out that the bald head we had spotted seeing her in the woods belonged to none other than Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, playing a not-so-brilliant kidnapper. However, the Third Sister’s plan, after learning of a link between Bail Organa and Obi-Wan, to kidnap Leia and use her as bait was brilliantly tortuous. Of course, if he had known who Leia really was, he would have gotten a much bigger prize than a stinking old Jedi hiding on the outer edge.
No one is waiting for the Daiyu Inquisition
I especially loved the look of the fish out of the water of Obi-Wan’s mission to Daiyu, with his obnoxious glances at Blade Runner and the continuation of the western theme. Since the old Jedi, who was not in fighting form, had no choice but to get stuck in a much younger opposition, while caring for a slightly annoyed young man, I remembered a cowboy movie, this one time maybe True Grit.
They are often the ones who need to know who discovers the latest … Obi-Wan Kenobi episode two. Photography: Disney
As a big fan of Star Wars Rebels and the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order video game, I couldn’t wait to see the Inquisitors in a live action show, and I think Disney and the actors have made it. The Third Sister is a new character for Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Moses Ingram shuddered as the ambitious newcomer, coldly eliminating the Grand Inquisitor in the second episode. In that sense, and be careful if you don’t want to go into too much prediction here, I don’t think he’s dead. The Great Inquisitor (voiced in the Jason Isaacs animated series) dies in Star Wars Rebels, set about four years after the events of this series. So one of three things is true: He’s not dead, he’s a different Grand Inquisitor, or Rebels is no longer in the official canon of Star Wars.
Anakin is alive!
They are often the ones who need to know who is the last to find out. And finally, the news reached Obi-Wan that Anakin survived his fight and is alive. There’s a lot to process here, of course, but was it really a secret? Who thought he was running things alongside Emperor Palpatine if not Anakin? Was Obi-Wan really so isolated in that cave that he didn’t bother to find out if the emperor had a new apprentice or not? Maybe he’s also feeling a sense of relief, discovering that he didn’t actually kill his “brother”. It may not have been easy to live with this for a decade, in addition to everything else.
Notes and observations
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We’ve seen Nari, but who are the other four young men in the Jedi temple, and we’ll meet them?
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Will Obi-Wan ever bring this toy to Luke? Is it the same thing you play with while giving the C-3PO oil bath?
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I predict Obi-Wan’s nightmares will become clearer as we move forward, and will eventually lead him to connect with the ghost of the Qui-Gon Jinn Force.
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Obi-Wan’s eopie was played by a camel named Silas, with whom Ewan McGregor had such a strong relationship that he almost ended up adopting it.
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It was a good cameo to Temuera Morrison’s Daiyu as the bearded veteran ordering a hot meal.
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Obi-Wan had Anakin’s lightsaber buried in the desert along with his own. Did you just leave him in his cave while going to Daiyu?
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Did we see Kumail Nanjiani’s latest Haja Estrie? I loved the character, I must say, and his noble twist was unexpected, but perfect. And who are the people who sent Obi-Wan to meet?
What did you think? Has the series reached its peak? Have your say below …