My Critique of ObiWan

A series of nostalgic moments and mostly missed opportunities.

With the Andor Series coming out today, I am re-posting my critique of Obi Wan.

#ObiWan #StarWars #thefandommenace #Lucasfilm #Disney #DisneyStarWars

The biggest problem is that Disney Star Wars writers do not know Star Wars, the universe or ultimately how to tell a story or how to do character development. Writing a Star Wars series based on a legacy character should be a home-run every time, but they don’t understand how the formula works for a winning story line with believable characters.

My biggest issue, like with Book of Boba Fett, is Obi Wan became a secondary character in his own series just like Boba Fett. It was a series of missed opportunities though it wasn’t as BAD as the Fett series.

It had the making a great series. All the ingredients were there. All the casting was there. In the end it was not a great as it could have been had the story and the characters been more developed. They needed MORE episodes to do it a proper treatment and what we got was mediocre at best.

Warning: Spoiler Alerts from here forward.

Let’s start with the elephant in room: Reva, third sister. I liked the idea behind this character, but the execution of her character was terrible. The idea that a Youngling survived Order 66 in the Temple was a fabulous idea. The fact that she becomes an Inquisitor and Darth Vader does not recognize her as Youngling is just not believable. He literally looks her in the eyes to kill her per the flashback. Where they failed is not showing HOW she became an Inquisitor. Or you have Darth Vader reveal he knew she was all along and just have been toying with her. They didn’t do ANY of that. We just had to accept that Darth Vader is clueless (or not) until the end. At best it’s hinted. Let’s be honest – Darth Vader can suck the thoughts from your head. You don’t think he did that once in her Inquisitor training? If he knew the entire time, then his reasons for leaving her alive were quite confusing.

Her anger with Obi Wan made no sense really. Where were you? She asked. “Well, I was on Utapau trying to put an end to the Clone Wars you moron” should have been his response. She knew too much to be this stupid. She knew too much about who Anakin Skywalker was to be left alive by Vader.

Missed Opportunities: We could have seen how she survived after the purge. We could have seen how she became to be an Inquisitor. We could have seen how the anger with Obi Wan came to be justified. We could have had a great three-way duel between Reva, Obi Wan and Darth Vader. I really thought that was where they were going in Episode 5 when he surrendered. Imagine how awesome it would have been to see them trying to take Vader down and in his full Sith Mastery just wipe the floor with them.

Here is the real problem with Reva character. She really doesn’t fit in the story in its present form. She could have but they didn’t spend the time it needed for it to make sense. This is “woke” Disney trying to shove another strong female character down our throats. They failed to make the fan base love Rey so they tried to do it with Reva, a black female character. When the fans revolted over the poor character development and poor storytelling, again they attacked the fan base by calling them “racists.”

We could have seen so much more about Reva’s story that could have been GREAT but instead she was shoehorned into a story line so we could have a black female lead character in a story about an old white guy Jedi. This is not the fans’ fault or Moses Igram’s fault. Its Disney’s fault for not being able to tell a story.

You can make a great black Star Wars character: Lando Calrissian, Mace Windu, etc. but Disney Star Wars doesn’t know how. Moses Ingram is probably a great actress (I don’t know any of her other work) but she got handed a great potential character with a poorly developed story line.

Young Princess Leia: This is where I disagree with the Fandom Menace. I think the young actress really nailed it. She was everything I expected from a young Leia and more. Clever, strong willed and fearless. She had the attitude of Episode 4 A New Hope Princess Leia in about every scene. I think she was really the best part of the story in many places.

The only part where I thought she was not believable was in Episode 5. I don’t pretend to know the Alderaan educational system, but I find it hard to believe that she would know how to fix docking bay doors. They must have edited out a scene where someone explains to her what to look for to get the doors to open. Again, you just must ACCEPT it with no explanation.

Obi Wan: Ewan McGregor’s character was about what I expected: a beaten, broken down and hopeless Obi Wan Kenobi but I think they went too far to emasculate him. I saw less PTSD and more of just a loser. They did the same thing with Luke Skywalker in the Sequel Trilogies. I was not surprised they did it here too. The dumbest scene with Obi Wan is Episode 4 where he is trying to walk out with Leia under his coat. Of ALL the things they could have hid her in to get the shuttle – under a coat? Are you serious? It is bad enough this Episode has to rip off the Star Wars video game “Fallen Order” on how Obi Wan sneaks into the Inquisitor fortress to insult us with trying to sneak Leia out under a coat in a fortress full of Imperial Officers and Troops.

Also, I am really having a hard time believing he let Vader live AGAIN after defeating him a second time. If Anakin were TRULY dead, I don’t think he would have a problem putting him out of his misery. They should have had some intervention that prevented Obi Wan from finishing the job. You know, like having to choose to finish off Vader or go to save Luke. See?!? Making that part of the story isn’t that hard!

Missed Opportunities: Imagine Obi Wan being tempted by the dark side with PTSD. Was he angry? Sure, he was. Was he afraid? Yes, he was, especially for the children. Did he hate the Empire? Considering the Empire was hunting down all the Jedi and killing all his friends, I think that is a no-brainer. Was he suffering? Yeap. Why not play up that angle? In all the Star Wars universe, we NEVER get to see Obi Wan tempted by the dark side. The closest we come is in the Clone Wars series is his love for the Duchess of Mandalore and we’re never really told more than that. If Obi Wan is the Jesus Christ of all Jedi then they nailed it to perfection.

Darth Vader: I must confess I was a little disappointed. I like Hayden Christensen as an actor. I think he did a great Anakin Skywalker but he just doesn’t have the swagger to pull off Darth Vader. When Darth Vader walks into a room, there is a presence. Kudos David Prowse. I think putting him in the suit was a mistake. They needed someone else to wear the suit. All the scenes without the helmet were great. There were times in Episode 4 where the scenes with Darth Vader just looked, for lack of better words, cheap. Particularly the scenes with the fire. I understood what they were going for, but it just does not look EPIC. It looked like cheap television. There were some AWESOME moments followed by immediate disappointment which I will expound upon below. I really think they tried to emasculate Darth Vader the most of all the legacy characters.

I know it’s a Star Wars trope that to advance a story line that we “track the ship” to get to our next destination both literally and physically in the story. But, I felt like with Reva’s tracking of Obi Wan with the droid that they tried to retcon Darth Vader’s cleverness of tracking the Millennium Falcon in Episode 4 A New Hope. Like Darth Vader stole that idea from Reva to track down the rebel base by letting them go. Honestly, do you think the Death Star only had one functional tractor beam? It is subtle but as a fan it felt like they were trying to take a away from Vader's cunning.

Let’s look at his real first appearance on the planet - he enters snapping necks, choking people out and being the real powerful monster, we know him to be. Then we get this scene where he drops Obi Wan in the fire, then allows him to escape. Like Darth Vader can’t move dirt covered with fire using a wave of his hand or a thought?!? He causes the ground to collapse in the last episode. In the previous episode he pulls down a spaceship with a gesture and rips the hull open. It doesn’t make sense. Then after pulling that spaceship down and he sees the other one getting away, was he tapped out and couldn’t do it a second time? That didn’t make sense either. Again, we just must accept that.

Here is another trope Star Wars needs to repent of: they are hurting the franchise’s credibility by allowing characters to survive from lightsaber wounds. Its getting to the point of ridiculous. If I were Qui Gon Jinn I would be pissed right about now. When you get ran through by a lightsaber, it is supposed to be fatal. Your internal organs boil, and it cauterizes the wound, so you don’t bleed out and you die a painful death. I guess no one in Star Wars really dies anymore.

Missed Opportunity: We know from the comics and the video games that Darth Vader learns to bring people back from the dead like he vows in Episode 2 Attack of the Clones. Why not have a scene where he brings the Grand Inquisitor back to life in the fortress? We know from the comics he allows the Grand Inquisitor to live but in great torment after he dies at the end of Star Wars Rebels Season One. Again, these people DO NOT KNOW Star Wars or the stories. It wouldn’t have taken much to make this happen. Imagine the horror of that moment! It makes what the Grand Inquisitor says at the end of Rebels even MORE powerful.

I could keep going picking it apart but everything else from here is just minor details. It was mediocre at best in my opinion. It could have been great. They did a little fan service but, it was a halfhearted effort to bring back the other half of the fan base they alienated with the Sequel Trilogies.

But here is what Disney Star Wars really doesn’t seem to understand. Why is The Mandalorian a big success and everything else they make typically sucks? Because with the Mandalorian they aren’t trying to force feed a super strong female character down our throat with little to no character flaws. Most of the fans who watch Star Wars are male. You know, a man, non-birthing people with male genitals and testosterone. As much as we love strong female characters, we love to be inspired by strong male characters, so we have someone to emulate. The fans loved Cara Dune, Bo-Katana and Fennec Shand and they are great developed female characters! But most men like to see a powerful male hero that they can for lack of better words idolize. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni know Star Wars. They know how the formula works and who their audience is. It’s not hard. It just takes a little effort.

Therefore “woke” Star Wars will never work. But I could be wrong. This is just my perspective from the bottom end.