Obi Wan Kenobi General News & Discussion Thread (TAG SPOILERS)

[Bim]

I am actually caring about Owen and Beru for the first time ever, lol.

Agreed. I liked seeing more of them, their story and challenges. Joel did a great job with Owen in my opinion, and i enjoyed seeing Beru take action to protect Luke.

 

[Iceman]

Finally got around to watching this. There’s some stuff that’s really well done in this episode and in the whole series and some stuff that just feels cobbled together. I can enjoy the good things (some of which I’ve always wanted) in isolation but it’s a little frustrating that they can’t nail the rest of the stuff to make the whole thing magical. As a whole Disney + has that feel to it across Marvel and Star Wars outside the Mandalorian himself. Very little is getting done as well as it could be despite being enjoyable regardless.

 

[The Caped Knight]

This review gets it. I 100% agree with his view on this miniseries

 

[Marvolo]

I am actually caring about Owen and Beru for the first time ever, lol.

It's nice to know they put up a fight against the storm troopers in ANH. I always just assumed they were dragged outside, shot, and burned. Now I can imagine them ****ing up some storm troopers.

 

[BatLobster]

This review gets it. I 100% agree with his view on this miniseries

I like Sean, but I think he actually completely misses it. Pointing how something silly like the Leia escape and asking how it gets into Star Wars....

Have you seen Star Wars? Do you know how much silliness exists in this universe? Have you seen how incompetent and bumbling the Empire is often shown to be? Did you forget that they were defeated by a bunch of teddy bears in the forest? How about Jar Jar? I mean there's a wide tonal range within Star Wars and I think goofy moments like that have their place.

It's fine not to like that show, I totally get that it was messy and silly at times, but I always think it's telling when people go after things like that and let it get in the way of their enjoyment that they are taking it a little too seriously and forgetting that the silly/kiddie factor is often baked-in.

 

[J.Drangal]

I know I can be nitpicky about writing in movies, series, etc, and I know Star Wars has always had some wonky details or happy coincidences. But here, I'm sorry to say, the overall writing or that show was objectively "poor" in the sense that there were so many things that needed, not to be explained by yourself, but to be patched up by some useless intellectual gymnastics.

Without wanting to sound overly dramatic, I find it very sad that an entity as powerful as Disney, who can literally have anyone work for them, would settle for something so average. Especially on a franchise that is so much scrutinized and love. Isn't there any quality control? Not only to fix those scripts, but also to make sure not to create retrospective inconsistencies in the rest of the saga.
And I don't mean that in a nerdy way, like if Vader's helmet wasn't the right shade of black or whatever bulls**t. But, for example, how can you create such a strong bond between Obi-Wan and Leia when we all know that when the guy eventually dies, the princess will barely notice? That one is particularly a shame because I thought Blair was very good and shares a true chemistry with McGregor, but in a way, it feels a bit like a waste... Anyway, there're plenty of things like that, lists are pretty much everywhere.
Simply, it's just crazy to me how Disney chooses to create things in a dead-end corner of that universe, only to completely screw up on the constraints that this imposes.

As a final view on that mini-series, I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed seeing McGregor in the role again. Like said, I enjoy their interaction with Blair. I'm also glad Christensen got another shot at playing that legendary role again and yes, I geeked out a bit seeing Vader in his throne room like a true 80s villain. But all of this isn't really the show...
And it's not that Star Wars wouldn't "go in the direction I want". It's that what is done is done with so little care. From the writing to the directing, everything is obviously way too rushed. And all the fan service in the world can't cover that. Especially when this one oftenly seems to you as gratuitous as it is clumsy.
Ironically, while we're all tired of the sands of Tatooine or its erzatz, that final image of the Jedi on his space camel struck me as what this show could have been. A smaller scale story that could have surprised us by exploring places we thought we knew so well.
Instead, I feel like I've seen a stuttering saga that is slowly forgetting what it wanted to tell.

 

[InCali]

Liked the show, but the confrontations between Obi-Wan and "you know who" were a stretch and didn't really make sense. It went from one extreme to another. I don't want to get more explicit because some people may not have watched it.

 

[BatLobster]

I don't think the writing was any worse than much of the prequels to be honest if you're just looking to pick apart logic gaps, which is the internet's favorite way to assess writing. It's funny that this feels like a hot take given how viscerally hated the prequels we're not too long ago .

To be completely honest, I think the entire premise of the show is rather "unnatural". It was built around trying to give us a rematch of Vader/Obi-Wan, when perhaps it could've just focused elsewhere and told a smaller scale story with Obi-Wan. There were things that felt forced in the show because of this. At the same time, those moments with the two of them provided some great and memorable Star Wars for me. So I'm not upset about it at the end of the day. It absolutely could've worked better as a movie, but it is what it is. This is what we get as an audience for consuming all this content. Collectively we've been sending the message that we're cool with quantity over quality. And corporations are happy to oblige right now. I have little doubt that this was stretched to a series from a movie not because of the narrative demands but due to pressure to feed the Disney+ machine.

So in that sense I'm not bothered that people are criticizing the show, but I just wonder how sustainable this all is. From the moment Disney bought Star Wars 10 years ago, I remember having a conversation with my friend and saying, "Well...there's going to be a lot more Star Wars content now. And chances are, it's all going to be very hit and miss." It was clear they were going to try to Marvel-ize it, which IMO was never the best thing as I have very mixed feelings about the MCU, but I care much more deeply about Star Wars so perhaps I'm able to be more lenient with it. I just approach it as taking the good with the bad, and being on the ride for those 'moments'. If I ever get totally burned out, I'll just stop watching. For now, I'm still having fun.

 

[misjuevos]

This is what happens when you buy a franchise and need to fill your streaming service. You have to pump out vast quantities of content. They are spreading themselves thin trying to keep up with the need to keep you subscribed. Seeing as this had been in development for so long it is a shame what they ended up with. You would think after so many years they would've whittled this thing down to something special. If you read about the development process you will see why this turned out how it did. If what is out there is actually true that is.

I am curious what the making of will show, and you know it is on its way because they found a way to pump out more content. But I do like watching the making of, so the disney galleries are a welcome addition.

 

[henzINNIT]

I was so optimistic when Disney bought Star Wars. I was concerned about a film every year, but there seemed to be enough room in the galaxy to keep things fairly interesting. I miss the optimism. I feel like with Disney+ I have witnessed the magnitude of their fully armed and operational battle station. It really is Disney's factory film-making in full effect, more aggressive than I could have possibly imagined.

Not only have they cracked the code of releasing more and more product, they've found a way to make it more cheaply, less impressively, and chopped into consumable chunks. Saturation is one thing, but unlike Marvel - which provides a roster of varied characters to stamp into a familiar formula - the Star Wars universe is cannibalizing itself at a staggering rate. Obi-Wan seems so familiar; not just to classic Star Wars, but to Disney era stuff too. I played Fallen Order. The most popular moment of this show is lifted from Rebels. The one time there was good reason to wander the deserts of Tatooine, and they couldn't do it because that planet has been (blue) milked dry by so many things already.

I genuinely wonder if this is all sustainable too. Just keeping up with Marvel became exhausting to me. Star Wars is such a cultural land-mark, I'm sure it has legs for a while yet, but I have become less certain it will endure long-term.

 

[BatLobster]

I was so optimistic when Disney bought Star Wars. I was concerned about a film every year, but there seemed to be enough room in the galaxy to keep things fairly interesting. I miss the optimism. I feel like with Disney+ I have witnessed the magnitude of their fully armed and operational battle station. It really is Disney's factory film-making in full effect, more aggressive than I could have possibly imagined.

Not only have they cracked the code of releasing more and more product, they've found a way to make it more cheaply, less impressively, and chopped into consumable chunks. Saturation is one thing, but unlike Marvel - which provides a roster of varied characters to stamp into a familiar formula - the Star Wars universe is cannibalizing itself at a staggering rate. Obi-Wan seems so familiar; not just to classic Star Wars, but to Disney era stuff too. I played Fallen Order. The most popular moment of this show is lifted from Rebels. The one time there was good reason to wander the deserts of Tatooine, and they couldn't do it because that planet has been (blue) milked dry by so many things already.

I genuinely wonder if this is all sustainable too. Just keeping up with Marvel became exhausting to me. Star Wars is such a cultural land-mark, I'm sure it has legs for a while yet, but I have become less certain it will endure long-term.

Ironically, I still think Lucas' scrapped anthology TV series idea is one of the more interesting ideas to explore. If we're going to be doing consumable chunks of Star Wars content, I kind of like the idea of something that can tell a standalone story each week in a different corner of the galaxy, offering different perspectives, different genres. But obviously right now Disney would rather just create as many different series as possible rather than offering one series where everything is on the table.

I think as long as there's no true creative figurehead behind it anymore (I guess Filoni is the closest we've got right now), the best they can do is try different things, introduce seeds of ideas and see which ones grow over time and can potentially become bigger pieces of the lore. That said, I think there could be room for Filoni's corner of the universe to do an overarching Thrawn storyline, which could be fun. The Acolyte also seems like a really interesting idea with potential.

I think you basically have to treat it like an all you can eat buffet. Pace yourself, and don't force yourself to try everything if you don't want to. The weird thing is I have next to no excitement for the Andor series and probably would be okay skipping it, but at the same time it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be high quality. So I'm just going to have to wait and see.

 

[Gothamsknight]

I don't think the writing was any worse than much of the prequels to be honest if you're just looking to pick apart logic gaps, which is the internet's favorite way to assess writing. It's funny that this feels like a hot take given how viscerally hated the prequels we're not too long ago .

To be completely honest, I think the entire premise of the show is rather "unnatural". It was built around trying to give us a rematch of Vader/Obi-Wan, when perhaps it could've just focused elsewhere and told a smaller scale story with Obi-Wan. There were things that felt forced in the show because of this. At the same time, those moments with the two of them provided some great and memorable Star Wars for me. So I'm not upset about it at the end of the day. It absolutely could've worked better as a movie, but it is what it is. This is what we get as an audience for consuming all this content. Collectively we've been sending the message that we're cool with quantity over quality. And corporations are happy to oblige right now. I have little doubt that this was stretched to a series from a movie not because of the narrative demands but due to pressure to feed the Disney+ machine.

So in that sense I'm not bothered that people are criticizing the show, but I just wonder how sustainable this all is. From the moment Disney bought Star Wars 10 years ago, I remember having a conversation with my friend and saying, "Well...there's going to be a lot more Star Wars content now. And chances are, it's all going to be very hit and miss." It was clear they were going to try to Marvel-ize it, which IMO was never the best thing as I have very mixed feelings about the MCU, but I care much more deeply about Star Wars so perhaps I'm able to be more lenient with it. I just approach it as taking the good with the bad, and being on the ride for those 'moments'. If I ever get totally burned out, I'll just stop watching. For now, I'm still having fun.

Sprinkle on some nostalgia to the memories of those movies, and suddenly all criticism of them isn't valid. I say that as a fan of those movies too haha.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Ewan looking like a kid at his Star Wars themed birthday party:

 

[misjuevos]

just a gif I threw together

 

[InCali]

I don't think the writing was any worse than much of the prequels to be honest if you're just looking to pick apart logic gaps, which is the internet's favorite way to assess writing. It's funny that this feels like a hot take given how viscerally hated the prequels we're not too long ago .

To be completely honest, I think the entire premise of the show is rather "unnatural". It was built around trying to give us a rematch of Vader/Obi-Wan, when perhaps it could've just focused elsewhere and told a smaller scale story with Obi-Wan. There were things that felt forced in the show because of this. At the same time, those moments with the two of them provided some great and memorable Star Wars for me. So I'm not upset about it at the end of the day. It absolutely could've worked better as a movie, but it is what it is. This is what we get as an audience for consuming all this content. Collectively we've been sending the message that we're cool with quantity over quality. And corporations are happy to oblige right now. I have little doubt that this was stretched to a series from a movie not because of the narrative demands but due to pressure to feed the Disney+ machine.

So in that sense I'm not bothered that people are criticizing the show, but I just wonder how sustainable this all is. From the moment Disney bought Star Wars 10 years ago, I remember having a conversation with my friend and saying, "Well...there's going to be a lot more Star Wars content now. And chances are, it's all going to be very hit and miss." It was clear they were going to try to Marvel-ize it, which IMO was never the best thing as I have very mixed feelings about the MCU, but I care much more deeply about Star Wars so perhaps I'm able to be more lenient with it. I just approach it as taking the good with the bad, and being on the ride for those 'moments'. If I ever get totally burned out, I'll just stop watching. For now, I'm still having fun.

I would’ve been more than happy with some appearances by Luke and Leia and his efforts to help them and keep them safe. The Darth Vader stuff, to me, didn’t need to happen. I would’ve been happier with a threat that we hadn’t heard of before that Obi-Wan quashed.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[DarkKnight88]

I’ve said it before but I just hope one day we get some giant coffee table book about all these unmade Star Wars projects and details.

Full details on George Lucas’s sequel trilogy, James Mangold’s Boba Fett movie, Stephen Daldry’s Obi-Wan movie, Lord and Miller’s filmed version of Solo, Colin Treverrow’s Episode 9, Rian Johson’s spin-off trilogy etc…

I love what ifs lol

 

[antsman41]

Duel Of The Fates was a way more interesting film... script has some dialogue issues, but it had better ideas for the characters and fun planets/etc.

 

[Pennywise]

I’ve said it before but I just hope one day we get some giant coffee table book about all these unmade Star Wars projects and details.

Full details on George Lucas’s sequel trilogy, James Mangold’s Boba Fett movie, Stephen Daldry’s Obi-Wan movie, Lord and Miller’s filmed version of Solo, Colin Treverrow’s Episode 9, Rian Johson’s spin-off trilogy etc…

I love what ifs lol

I’m also sad we didn’t see any of those movies as well!

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Iceman]

Would love to have seen how these would have turned out.

 

[Marvolo]

It's so damn stupid that Disney killed all spinoff movies after one box office disappointment. A disappointment that was mostly reshot partway through production. While ignoring the success of Rogue One.

 

[Bim]

 

[misjuevos]

Well looks like we know what is in store for season 2.
I don't like what the article show to be the take on Kenobi or what he thinks is the motivation for the character. It figures this is what they chose to represent Obi-Wan. This guy wants Kenobi to abandon what he volunteered to do in the first place. Which was look after Luke. All Yoda said was take the boy to his family. It was Kenobi who chooses to watch over Luke. Maybe he felt he needed to do better than he did with Anakin. Either way it was Kenobi's choice. I remember when the hero characters were actually heroic, forthright, and unwavering in their convictions. Now everybody wants to make an emotional, unsure, fallen from grace type "hero".
Hey Disney how about you go back to the basics and get that right first. Then you might understand how to write the fancier versions.

 

[Mani-Man]

It's so damn stupid that Disney killed all spinoff movies after one box office disappointment. A disappointment that was mostly reshot partway through production. While ignoring the success of Rogue One.

I mean i dont know if i would have needed a Obi-Wan movie...or 3, but yeah, they seem to be so against spin off movies, ignoring Rogue One and the fact that on twitter peoples hashtag for another Han Solo movie is trending often.

But i guess with the way the fandom is, making it Disney+ stuff instead of full blown movies, is safer.