Image: Lucasfilm
If we take a step back from Obi-Wan Kenobi, the series seems like a narrative landmark. We know Kenobi’s past, do we know how it ends, so where is the movement of this series? How did obi-wan kenobi push the arc of the galaxy far, far away towards its default end?
The truth is, I don’t think there’s much movement, and I think it’s totally on purpose. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s goal is not to mark great battles or encounters that destroy the universe between the forces of good and evil, but to recognize the importance of individual perspectives and emotional arcs in a massive franchise that often seems decided. to begin with. interstellar dog fights every 20 minutes.
There is something quite unique about a TV series where many viewers have a relatively complete knowledge of a character’s story, motivations, and even emotional issues. It makes lines like “If he dies or me, this ends today” by Kenobi a little less urgent. Instead, this is a moment of tragedy. This conflict does not end today. This line, uttered by a serious and determined Kenobi, opens up a new kind of narrative because most viewers know this is not true. The tension of this close conflict exists, but not because we think these characters are at risk, but because there must be something more important at the end of the episode.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is a narrative rooted in how all the main characters change their view of themselves. The exact nature of the conflict doesn’t matter to the longer narrative, because everyone watching knows that the fight between Kenobi and Vader will be a tie with collateral damage … but we knew it! What’s great about Obi-Wan Kenobi is that the audience can see the show for the arcs and the development of the characters, focusing on making traumatized characters as they embark on a journey into meaning in a world that is it has become hostile to its very existence.
It is a very non-Western, non-traditional narrative that emphasizes personal change over triumph through physical confrontation. This is clearly stated in the final episode, where the flashbacks show Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker fighting in the Jedi Temple of Corsucant. When Skywalker attacks, Kenobi continually overtakes him, not necessarily because he is not skilled enough to win, but because he wants to win, because he has let his desire for triumph surpass any opportunity for growth, learning, or change. This is his failure as a Jedi, and as a person, he is unable to change. This is repeated during the final showdown on Tatooine. While Skywalker is presumably more powerful than Kenobi, he needs to earn more than he tries to understand himself. That’s why it finally fails.
G / O Media may receive a commission
Obi-Wan Kenobi struggles with the Jedi tradition in interesting ways. Much of what the Jedi believe has been drawn from Buddhist beliefs and practices, but is transmitted through sword-shaped space frogs and the ramblings of magician monks who seek justice and end up tied to contradictions and exceptions. In this show, instead of letting go of their feelings, the Jedi are asked to really feel them. To understand them, answer them and ultimately use them to your advantage. The Sith have always done so, but what about the feelings of hope, justice, love? As Vader sinks deeper into his own sense of injustice and selfishness, Kenobi accepts his wound, his fear, and finally his own desire to live. He doesn’t let go of those emotions or go beyond them, but he uses them to grow. The show is about changing through conflict, not winning them. Winning doesn’t matter. Survive and grow, understand yourself, that’s what matters.
Darth Vader is unable to change. He has become a fixed person, and until he develops at the end of Return of the Jedi, he will remain the same. He will always be afraid of losing, he will be afraid of being fired and desperate for validation. When he says, “Anakin is gone. I’m what’s left,” Vader says he made a decision a long time ago about who he is and what’s left of himself. He reinforces that reading when he tells Kenobi, ” You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker, I did. ”This moment does two things: he re-emphasizes that he is a fixed point and allows Kenobi to change his understanding of Vader and therefore his understanding of himself. this kind of emphasis on going beyond your initial knowledge is an important point to highlight.These often these revelations of “truth” are made to lead the hero to the right conflict, the just struggle, the real evil. case, each conflict is made for the express purpose of asking for the growth of the people at the center of the conflict.
Screenshot: Lucasfilm
When Reva yells “You can’t run away from him, Obi-Wan,” in episode two, she’s an omen. Kenobi is unable to escape his past and future. He cannot change these conflicts, but he can change himself. The show clearly sums it up in episode six, when Roken tells Kenobi “It’s about you and him” as they try to escape Vader. Within these moments of realization is the cycle of understanding and development of the character that this whole series is about, much more than about sword fights or kidnappings. The whole conflict leads to the movement of the character, not the plot.
In addition to Kenobi and Vader, the series further emphasizes this non-traditional narrative with its treatment of Reva. Throughout the series, Reva is an unreliable narrator of her own feelings and motivations, contradictory and furious. But in the end, he finally accepts that he cannot change the past or overcome his own trauma by continuing a cycle of conflict. Reva has chosen to change. Even Kenobi acknowledges that this is the important moment for her when she says, “Who you become now depends on you.”
The whole show is about this new beginning, this understanding that you are constantly going through moments in your life that will change you. That emotions and feelings and movement through these cycles will set you free and create you again. As for conflicts? Fights, sword parties, space battles? They are important, but in Obi-Wan Kenobi they are not the focus. They are only a means to an end, not the end itself. “The future,” as Kenobi says, “will take care of itself.”
Want to know more about io9? Check out what to expect from the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC universe in film and television, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.