We as a society, among a lot of other things, have an “unmitigated access to the Internet” problem. It’s tough to deny that while we’re now able to connect with other people across the globe, and people are able to market themselves in any way they see fit, there’s also a serious issue with people obtaining notoriety for nothing but “takes” that do little more than offer controversy and talking points.
Star Wars, as has been “reinvented” by Disney, is a little bit of a mess. There’s not a lot one can say that can work around that, as a whole. JJ Abrams caught a ton of heat for writing what some considered to be a beat-for-beat remake of A New Hope. The Force Awakens wasn’t a revolutionary movie, and it certainly borrowed elements from the original trilogy, but as the kickoff to a legacy sequel series that hadn’t had a chronological installment in 32 years, it was up against a serious standard.
This is where some of these loud YouTube personalities emerged, and the subculture of the Star Wars fan who does nothing but shit on Star Wars properties was fully brought into the light. When I think about the purpose that Star Wars was serving as a fiction when it debuted in 1977, I think of two particular moments. Both of these are immensely grounding anytime I see one of these neckbeards in a Twitter thread whining about canonical deaths.
When that stormtrooper bumps his head on the doorway on Death Star I, it went down as one of the most unintentionally hilarious and iconic moments from the original trilogy. When the DVD special editions came out, that sound was actually raised for comedic effect, because the humor was impossible to ignore. And people are worried about extended lore canon making sense.
The second is one of my favorite exchanges, and I’m absolutely paraphrasing, but it references another classic moment from A New Hope. Because of events that took place in the Death Star’s trash compactor, in the next scene when they leave it, both Harrison Ford’s and Mark Hamill’s hair should be dripping wet. Mark allegedly asked Harrison why this wasn’t the case, and he just looked at him and said “it’s not that kind of movie, kid”, which is just the best thing I’ve ever heard.
All this to say that yeah, by and large, a lot of these guys are overgrown man-children who spend their days in what many 10 year olds would describe as a paradise, and many of them have taken what Jeremy Jahns and Chris Stuckmann pioneered and perverted it for the sake of views and clicks. They take a space opera whose main character’s last name is Skywalker and complain about “wokeness” and “bad writing”, but miss the part where it’s both commentary on the Nazis in Europe and the United States in Vietnam.
Remember that exchange where someone was like “don’t be political” (likely talking about something trivial) and the Star Wars account was like “war is literally in our name” and then someone commented on the Vietnam allegory and the OP neckbeard avatar was like “if that was the case, the USA would be the Empire”. Just peak self-awareness from these dudes.
All of this came to a head with the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, which brought frustrations from the Book of Boba Fett, the sequel trilogy, general racism/sexim/bigotry, and general energy of “people that need to touch grass taking Star Wars too seriously”.
Sensible people who are a bit more seasoned in their takes about films (with resumes to back them up) all seem to agree that while on average, Kenobi doesn’t hold up to the brilliance of the Mandalorian (especially season one), the high points are as high as we’ve seen in a Star Wars property in almost 20 years.
The first moment I knew people were going to be thinking way too much about this show was when I saw the amount of discourse about the timeline. “Well how did we get from Ep. 3 Ewan McGregor to Ep. 4 Alec Guiness in 19 years?” First of all, stop asking things like that, and second of all, if you want it spelled out, justify it by a harsh desert existence mixed with extreme feelings of stress and guilt.
Yes, the chase scene with Flea and Co. pursuing young Leia (portrayed very well by Vivien Lyla Blair, who’s actually 9) was bad, but it only really sticks out to people because it’s as close to a proper inciting incident for what the remainder of the show was going to be as we got. It’s also worth mentioning the Skywalker children, who may have been given a bit too much attention within the plot timewise, especially considering the Obi-Wan/Vader stuff being so good, but their inclusion after next to no mention in the marketing was pretty cool, regardless. Leia gave off a very similar energy to both Carrie Fisher in ‘77, with her sharp tongue and knack for taking initiative, also demonstrated by Natalie Portman in ‘02 and ‘05 especially.
And we didn’t spend a ton of time with young Luke, save a critical part six moment, which was welcome. We got an explanation for his model T-16, and the idea that one moment that lasted less than 90 seconds when someone’s nine years old could be easily forgotten over the next decade is very reasonable. So stop complaining about that moment and the fact that they’ve interacted.
Before we finish this up with what made this show awesome by Star Wars standards, we need to dedicate a short section to Reva and the Inquisitors. After the show opens with our most real-feeling view inside the Jedi Temple during Order 66, and given what we know about how some of the Inquisitors came to be (survivors of the order who decide it’s better to join them than try to beat them, basically), we were a bit tipped off about what Reva’s backstory could be. So the reveal that she was hunting Vader and not BLINDLY following his word shouldn’t have gotten people as mad as it did.
Moses Ingram, the actress who portrayed Reva, didn’t give a perfect performance (she should have at least been able to shake a nine year old a LITTLE bit in interrogation), but to say that she was in anyway deserving of some of the backlash and horrendous racism that she received on social media is absolutely insane. People with no concept of foresight were bitching and moaning when she “killed” the Grand Inquisitor in part one, without thinking “oh yeah his species has two stomachs, he could have survived that”. That and the fact that the whole Clone Wars Darth Maul Spider/Metal Legs arc exists.
People who choose to make this their primary way of making money were hurling thinly-veiled insults at the young actress, and paved the way for their “constituents” to light up her direct messages with some of the worst drivel you’ve read. As a perpetually conflicted woman who’s endured innumerable traumas, she deduced Anakin and Vader were the same person (which people had a weird issue with, which also makes no sense to me, that’s pretty reasonable to think, especially if you’re Force-sensitive), and bided her time until she was as close to him as one could’ve been.
The only problem with her plan was the fact that Vader is Vader, and the Grand Inquisitor survived.
In terms of the moment specifically where Vader impales her again, yeah it may have made more sense to actually kill her, but the quote “revenge does wonders for the will to live” from Mr. Inquisitor at least justifies her staggering around in part six. And it is in Disney’s best interest as a corporation to make as much content as possible, including a likely Reva show.
The highlight of this show for most people, if not everyone, was every moment Vader was on screen, specifically with his former master. His Force powers and lightsaber mastery were illustrated even further than we saw in Rogue One, and each of those scenes were phenomenal. Lots of people had a lot of things to say about the fight choreography, but I think the emotions they were trying to elicit with each encounter were captured.
The first time they duel with lightsabers, Kenobi is all but crippled entirely. His Force powers and lightsaber skills are being called upon in close to the same way they were at the end of episode three, and he’s woefully unprepared, and it shows. Vader is essentially toying with him for the entirety of the duel, and the only reason that he doesn’t chase him through the fire is because, oh I don’t know, Anakin wasn’t a huge fire guy himself.
The highlight of this show, in almost everyone’s eyes, was the final confrontation between Kenobi and his former apprentice at the end of part six.
People were still pissing and moaning about the lighting or the environment or whatever, as though battling in a shadowy place isn’t potentially advantageous for both people, and the fact that the obvious blue/red dichotomy was highlighted. Stupid fucking people.
The final battle of the series may not have been the culmination of Revenge of the Sith, but we saw small details like Vader utilizing Anakin’s behind the back deflection move, and the entire back-and-forth between McGregor and Christensen was comparable to the 2005 release, if not better. It tied together perfectly why Obi-Wan called Vader “Darth” in A New Hope, which was just a convenient loose end, as well as “last time I was but the learner, now I am the master” from Vader. Also I mean the head scar? They spoiled us. And on a practical level, the visual presentation of half-helmet Vader and the mix of both Hayden Christensen and James Earl Jones’ voices was pristine.
Last thing to mention? Loved both of the legacy characters at the end of part six, even if just for novelty. We were all hoping for the Qui-Gon appearance, especially since he was Obi-Wan’s little pen pal for a while, who we hadn’t heard back from in a bit. The Emperor, and Ian McDarmind was a welcome surprise, much more so than in The Rise of Skywalker (I’ll never talk about that film if I can help it). Only thing I would have geeked out over more was a Maul appearance, complete with his metal legs. Vader and Maul on screen together would have done unexplainable things to me.
So yeah, it wasn’t perfect and it had its issues, but the Obi-Wan show was a nice legacy series that both added pieces of extended universe content to the live-action universe, and enhanced stuff that already existed within what us the superfans know to be true. Oh, one more thing, the rhyme scheme in part five where the flashback duel would directly translate to what’s happening with both Vader and Kenobi was absolutely gorgeous storytelling.
Don’t forget that it’s okay to actually like something that you like, for no other reason than it makes you happy, or hits the right exact nostalgia button you needed pressed. But don’t think so hard about fiction, you’ll only make yourself and everyone around you miserable as fuck :)
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