Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Failure is Complete #RIPStarWars

this will not be our final video on this series obi-wan kenobi episode 6 may well be bringing the show to an ignominious end but there is much left to be said about where how and why it all went so disastrously wrong things i've not had time to cover in previous videos and that i cannot include in this one without detracting from its principle goal aim and purpose which is a review of the plot and all associated nonsense of this episode specifically consequently anyone tuning in for a video that wraps up the entire sorry mess that is obi-wan kenobi with a series of high-level takeaways meta-analyses deep dives into the motives of the writers in the studio behind this order 66-level travesty has arrived precisely one week too early we'll be presenting our overarching conclusions next friday and i fully expect that to be the last video we make on this subject after all there's only so long you can justify milking the feted tit jizz from a show like obi-wan kenobi without contracting a sickness of the soul this video like all that preceded will restrict itself as much as it's possible to breaking down the plot of episode 6 and will forego the meta analysis except where said analysis is absolutely essential to understanding a particular aspect of said plot or the decision-making behind it or to highlight some particular absurdity and more than a little shameless theft on the part of the writers and since there is plenty to cover we will get right on with it we left episode 5 with vader's attack on the planet jim beam obi-wan gave himself up to the empire solely in order to persuade space moses to enact her apparently long-standing plan to shiv vader in the back because all her youngling murdering has in fact been an aid of getting back at darth vader for the crime of murdering younglings which makes about as much sense as a character motivation as raping children to get back at geoffrey epstein space moses allowed kenobi to escape again attempted to shift vader but was prevented from doing so because it transpired he had been aware of her plot to begin with which posed a number of questions such as why if you know a person in your employee is a former jedi youngling who wants to murder you would you put said person in charge of the search for obi-wan kenobi if finding obi-wan kenobi is your sole animating purpose is that not needlessly convoluted and riddled with potential fuck-ups that would completely undermine your single-minded pursuit of your old master might this not have been evidenced by the fact space moses has so far needlessly let kenobi escape on two occasions three if you count his escape at the end of episode 5. why lord vader are you so very very [ __ ] stupid in this show anyway kenobi does indeed escape again and vader foils space moses's plan pissing about in another of this show's lovable excuses for fight scenes before stabbing her only then to let her live which he must surely have known she would because episode 5 also sees the reappearance of the grand inquisitor who survived being stabbed through the gut in just the same way not to mention through the spine because well hey i guess no one's ever truly gone unless that person's name is qui-gon jinn of whom more in due course obi-wan and baby leia are on their way to tatooine but the hyperdrive on their ship is broken and vader's star destroyer isn't far behind why is everyone going to tatooine well because bail organa goes around leaving voicemails revealing all the deepest darkest secrets in the galaxy without a care for who might find them and this particular bit of pure wankery ensures that space moses will also find her way to tatooine because con artist from episode 2 dropped bail organa's message because stupid and she found it proving that bail organa was a diuretic omni [ __ ] to send that message to a man he feared may have been captured or killed by the very people he does not want to receive that message honestly because stupid is the all-purpose plot tool without which practically no disney star wars story can operate so now we are all off to the planet where the greatest potential for plot [ __ ] is to be found because the closer we get to baby luke the greater the likelihood of damage to a new hope something we already know the writers do not give a solitary [ __ ] about because they have already done its significant damage by having baby leia intimately involved not in that way with the man she forgets all about come the original film and i open with the conditions i've now laid out twice in the course of these videos none of which can be broken if the setup for a new hope is to emerge unscathed from this catastrophic of a show 1. darth vader cannot spend any time in proximity to baby luke or baby leia two obi-wan can have no meaningful engagement with baby luke and three baby luke cannot see a lightsaber i wonder how hard and with what paucity of lube episode six will bugger everything up episode six opens you guessed it back on tatooine with a man slug being a dick to some locals but proving no man has a bigger dick than a woman who wants to have one or at least to be one he is immediately slapped down by the much bigger dick of space moses she's already she's already here how how is she here already she got stabbed through the stomach and the [ __ ] spine had a quick lie down got up found a ship hop to tatooine and is here in mos eisley already you might remember dear viewer that the entire plot of the previous episode came about because there weren't enough ships on planet jim beam to get the people off world before the empire showed up it is explained to obi-wan that he can't leave immediately because there are hundreds of people who've been waiting for months for transport off world so he'll have to get in line but space moses who has just been skewered by a giant [ __ ] bin bag was able to find one after the empire's attack after everyone else has run away apparently in a matter of seconds in order to arrive here before everyone else how does this work anyway she's looking for a farmer which we assume means she's looking for uncle owen you might recall that she tried to threaten information out of him in episode one because she just kind of forgot that she has the force mind reading ability that she deploys in episode two so she didn't even try it at all on anyone not once why is she looking for uncle owen well because she heard bail organa's message or a fragment of same which contained the words children owen tatooine and boy which isn't exactly very much to go on unless you are the audience and you know the significance of these words it's not impossible that the random farmer she met in episode 1 whose name happened to be owen was so memorable to her that she instantly made the connection here despite him being when she first met him just some random but i think it does count as lucky that he happened to leave such a vast impression on her that from such scant information she immediately knows exactly where to go exactly which part of what planet to find whom to find whom what we do not get from this message is anything actually tying vader to luke or to leia besides a vague want to find them which is worth remembering because it becomes very relevant later meanwhile the star destroyer has caught up with the fleeing transport and we are once again compelled to ask how it is that a show with a budget of around 25 million dollars per episode can't make a star destroyer look even half as convincing and alive as the model used in the original film in the 70s the hyperdrive on the transport is apparently almost fixed and the plan is to go to another random planet and to escape the empire from there but this is a disney star wars show and so there has to be some variant of the ticking clock contrivance in episode 5 they had to work against the clock to unlock the hangar doors in this episode they have to work against the clock to get the hyperdrive working before the shields and the power couplings give out in episode 5 obi-wan asks how much time they need and he is told they need more time than they have in episode 6 obi-wan asks how much time they need and and he's told they need more time than they have really stretching the writer's creative faculties here aren't we it's almost as if they've stolen so much from the plots of better films and games in previous episodes because when they're left to their own devices well they only have a couple of devices to play with and both of them are [ __ ] on the subject of stealing this entire sequence plays at least a little on the interminable chase sequence from the last jedi at the very least it records it to our minds which it's well it's not welcome is it you know the one where a ship without a hyperdrive moves at exactly the same speed as the first order fleet which recalls its fighter screen for no good reason and doesn't think to hyperspace ahead of the fleeing ship preferring instead to wait until it runs out of fuel despite it being in space and having no need of fuel to maintain its momentum well similar mechanics are in play here which is to say that the mechanics are broken in exactly the same way the star destroyer has caught up with the fleeing transport after which it has remained obligingly out of effective attack range and has not closed on the ship with a view to boarding it despite it being eminently capable of doing this given the premises that it has already caught up with said fleeing ship this show does a marginally better job of building an atmosphere in the fleeing transport than the last jedi did but only because kenobi and baby leia have managed to build some kind of chemistry from this show's distinctly unpromising elements baby lair of course shouldn't be in this situation she shouldn't be in the show at all it was a mistake on the writer's part to include her but she does have an undeniable charm to her whenever the writers aren't making her unbelievably perfect in all the most plot convenient ways her toned down exchanges with kenobi have been this show's highlights and this scene though short or perhaps because it is short is no exception back on tatooine uncle owen and baby luke enter a shop looking for a new belt for a speeder until the random bloke space moses bumped into earlier turns up and tells uncle owen there's something you need to know because he's told space moses where to find luke and owen but has managed to find them first despite starting in the exact same position as space moses why exactly is he unmurdered space moses as we will see later is here on a murder mission she has previously against no moral qualms with murdering and killing innocent civilians this one has just given her useful information but has also gleaned useful information about her that being that space moses is after luke and uncle owen i was about to say that it would have made sense and been in character for space moses to have killed this man which she absolutely should have done in order that he not find some way of tipping off her quarry but then the only truly consistent thing about space moses's character is that she never stays in any one character for more than two consecutive scenes so i guess it's perfectly consistent that she is massively inconsistent here and lets him escape so he can warn uncle owen of her imminent and murderous arrival thereby making her job much more difficult than it otherwise needs to be we cut back to the fleeing transport and actually it might be more accurate to say that we've just cut back to episode five this is just a joke in the previous episode they need more time than they have so kenobi offers to give himself up to buy them time to escape in this scene kenobi offers to give himself up to buy them time to escape stop this now show this is unforgivable you cannot go around touting the possibility of sequels and spin-off shows when you're demonstrating you don't have enough material to fill two episodes of this one without rehashing plot points kenobi argues with leia and the other passengers who don't want him to go telling them that they are the future and they are the ones who need to survive he makes con artists promise to get babylayer home again just like he did in the previous episode for [ __ ] sake back on tatooine uncle owen tells aunt brew that space moses is coming for them so he decides that they need to leave the homestead but aunt beru says she will not leave her home and she will not put other people in danger by going to hide with them which which makes no sense you have a whole planet you could disappear to you know this planet space moses doesn't obi-wan was able to hide in a random cave like a bum for a decade without being found by the empire just take a speeder into the desert there is no way space moses could find you or rather there shouldn't be it is now established however that space moses is able to extract useful information from the [ __ ] air it turns out that aunt beru has been planning for this moment she's a proper survivalist don't you know and she's buried guns in the walls of the homestead which she extracts so she can lead the defense explaining that they need to get into position because space moses will come when the suns go down and they mostly come at night mostly why why would she wait until the suns go down she's never demonstrated that kind of patience before she went about maiming villages in broad daylight just a few episodes ago without knowing who the hell she was after how could beru know that's what she'd do anyway how does beru know when she will arrive does she have a transport or is she doing a cad bane and walking very slowly across the desert because it looks cool and look i do get very very bored very very quickly of the whole strong woman line of criticism too often it's lazy it is advanced in lieu of a critique rather than as a critique itself it too easily leads to a blanket rejection of the mere prospect of strong female characters as though the presence of strong female characters necessarily means an absence of strong male ones and i assume that that's not the intent behind this criticism because in my charitable moments i assume good faith on other people's part and also because i know some people who do go in for this line of criticism and who i'm sure do not intend such a blanket rejection of the concept of strong female characters i've never gone in for that line of criticism on this channel however and i'm going to continue resisting it for as long as i possibly can because i don't think it contains within it the necessary checks and balances required to stop its users over extending themselves into unpleasant positions see also rejecting the mere presence of gay people on screen because you've made all gay people synonymous with the message i think that's a pretty rotten position to end up with and i know some good people who have ended up in it and it's what makes it necessary to critique apparent instances of the trope being lampooned as though it were not a trope to begin with in other words to critique these things on exactly the same grounds and with exactly the same rigor as we critique any individual aspect of any individual plot but then my [ __ ] god modern media does not make this position easy to hold because hyper-competent woman showing up her short-sighted ignorant husband and leading the defense of their home because he's too incompetent to do it is just so perfectly in tune with the way scenes like this always seem to pan out this isn't how you write strong female characters anyway this isn't how you empower women making women implausibly perfect and strong does not endear them to people it just makes you roll your eyes because look here's another fanfiction self-insert character another generic off-the-shelf thought-free invocation of fashionable gesture politic in this case behaving in ways that are at odds with her other depictions uncle owen is the brash gruff tough one aunt peru's defining and endearing features in the original trilogy are her empathy and her wisdom objectively admirable traits that are so often dispensed with today in a bid to make female characters strong in precisely the ways that male characters are or used to be anyway reducing the range of desirable traits makes for a sparse desiccated array of characters with much less emotional range between them than there could otherwise have been it's the character equivalent of landing on an alien planet and finding all its inhabitants a human something else disney star wars is increasingly guilty of now to be clear i am not advancing this as a strong criticism of the depiction of aunt peru here there are good ways you can write strong female characters stepping up in defense of their homes the idea is not rubbish to begin with the problem is just that it conforms here to a lazy type and a zero-sum game where she can't be elevated without the loser being the male counterpart and that could easily have been avoided just don't play up this particular dynamic find a different way of doing it make her strong but don't knock him down is that really so hard to achieve back on the ship kenobi and leia have another conversation and kenobi hands her ellaria sans empty gun holster because she's gonna grow up to be a fighter remember and he promises to come back for her he tries again to commune with qui-gon explaining that he has to face vader there is yet another argument with smuggler-in-chief suggesting that kenobi doesn't have to go he just wants to go because it's really about him and vader don't you know leaving us to wonder why the hell does random smuggler guy know all this he met obi-wan about five minutes ago he's never met vader he knows nothing he shouldn't know anything about their relationship we've literally just had a scene with a character baby leia who knows much more about all of this than he does she's established annoyingly but established nonetheless as being capable of precisely these kinds of psychological observations this is the last episode of the season there is no excuse for taking two scenes to accomplish what you could have done in one kenobi board's an escape shuttle and you might remember how in the last episode they had no ships not even a small craft that could have taken kenobi and lair away to safety but now it turns out kenobi and lair could have just hopped on this thing at any point before the hangar doors closed hell they could have hopped aboard it on their way to planet jim beam but our [ __ ] it the grand inquisitor needs a scene he's back and he tells vader we must continue our pursuit of the insurgents this is our chance to wipe the network in its entirety we cannot prioritize one learn shad i you know the only reason vader let space moses live after she let kenobi escape from fortress inquisitorius even though he actually doesn't give a [ __ ] about the network and only ones obi-wan yeah yeah we're going back over that again because the show likes pointing out its own past flaws and inconsistencies you know there is a really happy and easy compromise the imperials could have struck here because they are on a [ __ ] star destroyer star destroyers have fighters and bombers and transports and vader is a pilot he could have hopped aboard a ship and followed kenobi on his own leaving the star destroyer to destroy the escaping transport and so the entire smuggling operation or he could have sent fighters after the transport and followed kenobi in the star destroyer this is not an either or proposition my dude you can easily accomplish both and be home in time for dinner pickled younglings maybe but no no that would have made too much sense and vader is canonically an intellectual blobfish at this point in his story because um well because he is and so they break off their pursuit entirely of the transport to go after kenobi instead chasing one little ship with a whole star destroyer and not deploying a single fighter you [ __ ] morons also can we just take a moment to appreciate what a drip pasty white guy has been throughout this show he's done nothing all the flak disney copped for their questionable redesign of the grand inquisitor and well for what he's had a few lines of dialogue delivered in comically overnight villainous fashion his one notable achievement is being stabbed by an uppity space moses and surviving and even that's not especially notable because well everyone's at it these days beyond that pasty white guy has just been thoroughly wasted we don't even get to see him turn into an inquisicopter and for people who think i criticized disney star wars for things i let all the star wars off the hook for no no no no that was trans dimensionally [ __ ] stupid as well and then disney went and put the guy responsible for it in charge of the whole franchise thanks dave filoni back on tatooine the suns have indeed gone down back in space the star destroyer continues to shoot ineffectually at obi-wan's escape shuttle luckily as well because you'd think one hit from a turbo laser would have been enough to destroy the entire thing it just so happens that there is a nearby planet within sublight range and i have to turn here to the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy to explain space to the writers of this show the introduction starts like this space it says is big really big you just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is do you have any idea how cosmically unlikely it is that the transport hyperdrive failed within sublight range of a planet how exceedingly incredibly implausibly mind-bendingly convenient that is vader tells his [ __ ] to prepare his ship because he will face kenobi alone so let me rewind [Music] because they are on a [ __ ] star destroyer star destroyers have fighters and bombers and transports and vader is a pilot he could have hopped aboard a ship and followed kenobi on his own leaving the star destroyer to destroy the escaping transport and so the entire smuggling operation kenobi ship which a few seconds ago was mere feet in front of the star destroyer then teleports thousands of miles in between shots and lands on the planet while in orbit the destroyer launches a lambda-class shuttle which follows it down it turns out baby layer's pet volkswagen droid has gone with kenobi because well we gotta get this sweet sweet merchandise shifted and kenobi leaves it on the ship and goes for a stroll meanwhile on tatooine space moses has apparently walked all the way to the last homestead from mos eisley and triggered the perimeter alarm it has now what a very useful little device that is give some advanced warning of approaching people would be a really good way to avoid getting jumped by enemies and killed oh elsewhere vader lands and faces off with kenobi and i assume that this one is the big bells and whistles wrestlemania style rematch of the century we were sold way back when would be a shame if they just pinched a scene from another show and swapped one of the characters wouldn't it would be a shame if they were so creatively bankrupt that they've just pilfered from another series that was reasonably well received and claimed it as their own yeah that would really be a shame i'm sure they wouldn't do something like that though absolutely no way i mean sure they've done it in every episode until this point but nah nah they surely they wouldn't do that for the rematch of the century right and this is an action sequence so of course they've given the camera back to the guy with parkinson's again this fight at least looks a bit better than the last one but then it couldn't not look better than the last one at least this time it looks like both combatants have actually held a lightsaber at some point in their recent history but once again we're forced to question a the peculiar camerawork utilized with shaky effects and random zooms that make it look like the most made for tv event of all the made for tv events ever and then b the soundtrack which doesn't even rise to the level of lackluster remember jewel of the fates remember battle of the heroes remember how anakin and obi-wan's fight was done justice by the score that accompanied it well well we've gone from that to well just take a take a listen to this [Music] this is laughably bad this this is distractingly bad this is empty it's just it's generic there's no excuse for it there are genuinely good composers out there composers who've been working with the relatively restricted musical budgets and resources of video games and tv shows and become quite good at it there mccreery harry gregson williams to name just two gordy harb who did a lot of work on fallen order the soundtrack of which is not brilliant but it's far better than this tv shows and video games typically do not have the budget of big movies composing for tv is as an art form distinct from composing for blockbuster films because the budget not only buys composing talents it buys musical talents it buys instruments it buys the musicians it buys the producers it buys all the rest it buys time for a composition to come together operating with a restricted budget changes the type of music you are able to compose and yet we cannot help but note three things number one disney has access to john williams's entire back catalog number two the budget for this show really isn't so far short of a hollywood production and number three disney has access to people with a proven track record of stretching the dollar effectively to create soundtracks that credit the production they are composed for but for this climactic battle this rematch of a century this thing that's supposed to give the entire series purpose we get something you could have composed using midi in a music tech class in school this is i mean i would have been embarrassed to produce this in gcse on tatooine meanwhile space moses prowls around the lars homestead with her lightsaber lit we are getting closer and closer and closer to one of these all-important conditions being violated lars and beru then opened fire and we cut back to the jewel of the well what do we call this one jewel of the jewel of the mates jewel of the blokes jewel of the well whatever we cut back to the jewel and jesus christ even the distant sharks have shaky cam why kenobi uses the force and tries to crush fader with a rock but beta resists it and observes that kenobi's strength has returned and here we must return briefly to the lasting damage done by previous battles in this show because vader has beaten two force users already kenobi and space moses by dominating them with the force in ways that just don't accord with anything hitherto seen or that we will then forth see mean line star wars and we don't see it for a very good reason because breaking the fundamental mechanics of fight scenes in ways that call into question any fight these techniques are not then used in just isn't a good idea from a dramatic narrative point of view for example in this scene vader does not appreciate that kenobi's strength is returned until kenobi tries to drop a rock on him but if he doesn't know that until this point why has he not tried to replicate the success he had with the force powers he used in episode three where he was able to throw kenobi around like a [ __ ] ragdoll wouldn't that be your first play now you could just about have salvaged this all it would have taken would be for vader to try it off the bat and to be resisted that would have accounted for the tactical shift of the rest of the fight while also providing a subtler way of showing kenobi's reacquaintance with the force while also providing some kind of payoff based on previously established mechanics have vader try and lift kenobi again show can we be resisting the attempt or breaking free of it with the force again as we said out in our last video these are mechanics video games have utilized for decades then once established this fight can proceed with all the rules in place and understood again it would even explain why vader doesn't try to use the same powers when they meet later in a new hope because he knows by that point the kenobi is attuned with the force again but in this fight kart is very much put before horse and it takes unnecessary time to re-establish rules it broke in the first place in a less believable less efficient and less sensible way than it otherwise might have done and then because the show isn't actually mindful of rules of engagement it goes and undoes what work it's just done to re-establish those rules by giving vader an arsenal of new abilities that he will never ever use again leaving us to wonder well why the [ __ ] not he essentially uses earthquake from pokemon in this scene and uses the force to create a [ __ ] sinkhole into which kenobi falls and then he buries kenobi under many tons of rock that really should have killed him this is just so very very [ __ ] silly back on tatooine space moses throws things at uncle owen who successfully manages to twatter with what seems to be a bit of a moisture evaporator she is still feeling that minor flesh wound she suffered in the previous episode but she manages to [ __ ] owen right back and get passed him into the room where luke and aunt beru are hiding and um well that's it folks that's it it's all [ __ ] it's [ __ ] it again little luke skywalker who has never before seen a lightsaber when ben kenobi introduces him to them in a new hope has now been chased by a [ __ ] armored spastical with a massive throbbing red lightsaber which he's now going to have to forget about this is ah there is just no need for it there's no need for any of this this is such a simple thing okay sure with baby leia once you've introduced her you kind of have to run with it the mistake is made at the beginning there's no coming back from it your agency from that moment on is limited but this this is this is completely different this is just entirely [ __ ] unnecessary you could have written this show this scene a thousand different ways and avoided [ __ ] about with the setup from the original [ __ ] film literally a thousand different ways that they didn't that they have opted for this one that they have needlessly and flagrantly broken something so simple is just christ on a [ __ ] pogo stick just what the hell do they think they're doing just think of all the writers out there who would have torn off limbs for the chance to write this show people who really love this franchise love the stories it tells people who have even a modicum of respect for its history we've reckoned the old expanded universe for this we've done away with decades of work for this so some talentless carefree hack can write bad fanfiction and trample over the thing they are supposed to be honoring and continuing for a cheap buck and a sloppy [ __ ] from the mouse this is just [ __ ] insulting these people should be ashamed of themselves so luke runs away and space moses chases him at least it doesn't look as olympically dumb as all the other chase sequences with children we've been forced to endure from this show but still my god meanwhile obi-wan tries to use the force to escape from under several hundred tons of rock and he has flashbacks to things he cares about chiefly baby layer in fact almost entirely baby layer there's maybe one flashback to luke in this entire montage luke being his actual [ __ ] mission it's baby lair though who gives him the fortitude required to escape from the sinkhole which he does and catches up with vader and they start swinging lightsabers at each other again and to prove how in tune with the force he is now kenobi lifts a million boulders and pelts vader with them what on earth is going on with this scene [Music] they've turned the force into harry potter magic yoda one of the most powerful force users in the history of the galaxy strains to lift an x-wing out of a swamp he strains to lift a beam that's falling on anakin and obi-wan in attack of the clones he strains to lift the senate chamber chariot thing vader at the peak of his powers in empire can send individual objects at luke in almost every instance the forces actually doing most of the work are gravity and momentum dooku crushing the base of the pillar with the force and allowing gravity to topple it over palpatine using the force to lift the senate chamber chariot things but using gravity to fall on yoda vader tossing bits of scenery around in bespin using the force to break them off the wall then applying a bit of momentum the force operates in limited mechanical ways because it is not this childish magical device the force is fundamentally limited it is naturalistic it's something the jedi can tap into to augment their abilities and only them at great effort they are not wizards of the harry potter mould they can't wave magic ones and use spells that break reality but here obi-wan stands there like jesus moving [ __ ] mountains with faith that's not how the force works and what of these massive rocks vader is being pelted with well apparently they hit him with all the force of bubbles they are a minor irritation just one of those things should have broken him and sent him smashing into the wall behind him but instead they just kind of shatter apart on impact eventually though kenobi runs out of rocks and they start swinging lightsabers again meanwhile luke is still hiding from space moses and i have to turn the brightness up on my screen again because whole segments of this show are so dark as to be practically invisible back on wherever the [ __ ] obi-wan repeatedly punches vader's chest panel and clubs him with another rock causing his breathing machine to malfunction and produce the same wheezy noise we hear from return of the jedi which well i mean it might have been a nice touch if this entire fight hadn't been so completely [ __ ] ridiculous and then kenobi slices through vader's helmet and we see part of vader's face and his eye and obi-wan appeals to him he calls him anakin and well so many problems but first first praise because praise is important and it's been very hard to come by let's praise the show for a bit we have hayden christensen's voice mixed in with vader's vader explains that anakin is gone vader is what remains of him and this part of the scene is played well it's effective it's emotionally affecting it does manage to summon back some of the tragedy that is darth vader as mirrored in the face of obi-wan ewan mcgregor acts the scene superbly and the dialogue for once is kind of meaningful it teases redemption of course it's redemption we the audience know cannot come not yet anyway but it teases it which is acceptable in a prequel show part of the tragedy after all comes with our foreknowledge we know there is no hope at this point in the story so we see obi-wan's hopes dashed vader tells kenobi that he is not obi-wan's failure because obi-wan did not kill anakin skywalker again teasing a redemptive moment for them both the interchanging voice modulation as a means of demonstrating this apparent teetering on the edge of two personalities is a clever device vader says kenobi did not kill anakin he pauses he says he killed anakin as invader vader killed anakin and then what vulnerability is hinted at is then subsumed by vader again and obi-wan realizes that his friend is to use his own words truly dead he is of course beaten but obi-wan obi-wan walks off right so praise out of the way here is the mountain of [ __ ] problems in the first place practically none of the credit for this scene goes to the writers of this show because they have stolen it in almost every single one of his aspects it's been done it has been done twice in fact it's a replay of anakin and obi-wan's final exchange on mustafar but more pressingly it's an almost shot-for-shot reframing of the same scene in rebels a mimic even down to its tricks with dialogue the almost successful appeal the return of vader to subsume what hint of anakin that might have slipped through in fact why the [ __ ] am i even bothering to explain it just have a look for yourself here are the two scenes back to back without further comment at this time anakin [Music] [Music] then you will die you didn't kill anakin skywalker i did stop right there criminal scum nobody breaks the law on my watch i'm confiscating your stolen goods now pay your fine so this ostensibly pivotal moment this best attempt by the obi-wan kenobi show to imbue itself with a sense of tragedy with emotion with purpose is ostensibly deepest and most meaningful of exchanges they've nicked the whole thing they couldn't even come up with this pivotal moment themselves these people have created nothing they have pilfered everything they have pilfered time and time and time again and it gets worse kenobi just walks away kenobi sees that anakin is dead he sees what anakin has become he knows what vader is he knows the threat that vader poses to luke to leia and so to his mission to the survival of the jedi to the fate of the galaxy obi-wan has vader at his mercy he has finished him he could finish him completely right here he could finish it right now because what's at stake isn't just revenge what's at stake is the future of the entire [ __ ] galaxy his hand cannot be stayed as it was in revenge of the sith just because he can't bring himself to strike down his brother because he has he had just acknowledged in dialogue in his own words that his brother is dead and that this thing before him is not anakin it is darth vader and yet he walks away needlessly ensuring the galaxy will continue to suffer under vader ensuring that luke and leia will again be in danger and in this moment ensuring his own eventual death and why for for what reason what motivates him what possessed him to leave darth vader darth vader alive there isn't one there is no reason he hasn't got a reason there is no motive he is possessed by nothing it's just that the writers know they can't completely preclude the events of the original trilogy so once again they have recourse to the one narrative device they can claim as their own unique creation because stupid [ __ ] off show [ __ ] all the way off and then carry on [ __ ] this is risible what else do we get as a payoff the reduction of darth vader himself his breaking down his defeat is being leveled for the first time on screen since return of the jedi which is supposed to be the culmination of everything the final victory over an unstoppable force in the galaxy something that matters something that is visually striking precisely because it has never ever happened before except now of course it has because now this embodiment of evil this ruthless unstoppable force the epitome of menace this demon is broken to pieces and left standing in a clearing like a [ __ ] lemon even rebels didn't reduce vader to this extent rebels played this scene better in a way that did not do lasting damage to anyone's appreciation of vader in the suit a fundamentally different character to vader and anakin before the suit thus proving that this show which has already shown time and time again that it has no appreciation for narrative for story for plot or for character does not understand the power of iconography either and no it doesn't get credit for fixing the apparent break with continuity identified in previous videos when i left you i was but the learner now i am the master for two reasons first because vader did not leave obi-wan in this scene the other way round in fact so the line still makes no [ __ ] sense but second and more importantly because you do not get credit for botching the fix of something you broke in the first place absolutely none of this was necessary none of it needed to happen the damage could have been left undone you could have left well enough alone you [ __ ] shameless hacks so kenobi hops back on his shuttle and leaves the planet and vader's star destroyer is just gone again it's gone it's nowhere it's not there this perpetually disappearing star destroyer it's like the anti-blockade it is guaranteed to pop out of existence at just the moment its existence is most required to prevent ingress and egress from any given planet and what exactly is kenobi meant to do now does this shuttle have a hyperdrive it's surely the only way he can catch up with the ship or indeed to make it to tatooine but then if it has a hyperdrive absolutely none of this should have happened because ian lair could have hopped on it at the beginning of the last episode and jumped back to alderaan i mean jesus [ __ ] show this is simple stuff speaking of tatooine space moses is still hunting baby luke though i really don't know why because her motives as regards him have not been established anyway luke falls off a cliff and kenobi senses it and oh oh well of course the shuttle does have a hyperdrive so he's hyperspacing back to tatooine now every [ __ ] scene guys every [ __ ] scene but back to space moses who bears down on unconscious baby luke but then has flashbacks to order 66 and anakin slicing through younglings so wait so she has come here to kill baby luke why when was this established when did this become a thing i thought the reason she was going to tatooine was so she could meet up with vader and kenobi again and have another shot at killing one or both of them why is she trying to kill baby luke as in what's what's the point here what does she hope to achieve by it as we asked in our last video why does she go around killing random younglings in order to get back at vader for killing younglings anyway why in this case is she trying to kill a random kid who she has no reason as far as i can see to suspect is even force sensitive if vader isn't here and it won't further her attempts to get at him i've gone back to the previous episode to check the partial hologram she saw to see if it establishes any link between vader and luke beyond that luke is a child vader has an implied interest in finding for reasons and yeah it's possible i've missed it on the re-watch even i still have partial covet brain but i've not been able to find a single scene that explains for instance that space moses learns lucas vader's son which is the only reason i can think of for her coming all the way here to kill luke specifically as opposed to using him as a bait for kenobi or pervader or for both her character makes zero sense there is a difference between explicable inconsistency and an absence of through line when writing characters character inconsistency can be explicable can in fact accord with what we know of them can in fact be consistent in a meta sense but none of this is true of space moses who just has no character no established motive no reasons against which we can judge her actions consistent or otherwise anyway her order 66 flashback immediately flips a coin in her head and she's good now and now she takes unconscious baby luke back to the homestead at which kenobi has already arrived because it takes no time to hyperspace from wherever the [ __ ] to here to enter the atmosphere to travel to the homestead to disembark no time at all for any of this but hey at least space moses is redeemed now never saw that one coming totally totally deserved real payoff for everything we know about this competently fleshed out character she saves luke she's the hero she saves luke from well from herself actually so she's a hero in the way wonder maximov is a hero for releasing that town she enslaved because she got sad that her sex toy broke she has a cry damn it i can't see a thing and explains that she couldn't do it that she failed them by them meaning the murdered younglings how did she fail them because because she failed to kill a youngling she failed to kill luke which wouldn't have made any sense anyway but if it were to make a modicum of sense she would have to have learned that luke is vader's kit so killing vader's kid is a means of getting revenge on vader and i do not think that that information was contained in the fraction of bail organa surviving hologram that she found in the last episode as mentioned so again why why is any of this happening why did she ever think that going around killing children would give dead children peace obi-wan tells her that showing mercy gave the younglings peace and she is better than vader because she has chosen not to become him even though it's implied she has already hunted down killed and pickled younglings in the past he tells her that who she becomes now is up to her so she dumps her evil lightsaber in the desert and kenobi tells her she's free he says they both are which is abso [ __ ] lutely not true because he has just left darth vader alive because he is a wally meanwhile back on mustafa vader is having a skype call with old creamy sheave himself remember palpy i remember and my god but the dialogue in this scene so um well let's just put these things in the order in which they occur vader is pissed off he's having a rant he tells palps that he will destroy everything in his path to find kenobi alps suggests that maybe his feelings for kenobi have weakened him and he hints that if vader's past cannot be overcome bad things will happen to which vader responds and i quote kenobi means nothing um no no mate that's that's that's not do you remember what you just finished saying three seconds ago did one of those rocks hit you very hard in the head have you got a concussion anyway creamy sheave ends the skype call and for the first time for the first time in this [ __ ] scene near the end of the last episode where nothing is happening we hear the imperial march all those other times they could have used it when it would have added so much to any given scene when it might have been relevant why now why not then it's not as though you replaced it with anything except lukewarm earpiece anyway baby lair is back on alderaan now and foster mum asks why she's wearing a holster that's that's what we need to address are we going to address anything else any of the i don't know incredibly important character defining events she's just been through like any of it at what point does she get her mind wiped i've been repeatedly assured that's what will happen because otherwise a new hope makes no sense for the billionth [ __ ] time and then obi-wan turns up and brings the volkswagen droid back he has a conversation with bale organa and says if you ever need my help again you know where to find me and jesus christ issues so many issues in the first place it is established in this show that they have a direct line of communication with each other so why come the time of a new hope doesn't bail organa just message obi-wan directly as we have seen him do multiple times in this show why does it take leia to get a physical copy of the message to obi-wan via r2 yes the communicator they've been using throughout this show was destroyed but i don't know maybe replace it buy a new one it seemed pretty [ __ ] useful in the second place and as we've mentioned in previous videos why the hell is organa not in prison he's been discovered communicating with jedi with traitors to the empire the grand inquisitor is alive and he knows about all of this because space moses told him all about it they know he's collaborating with traitors they know baby lair has a close relationship with a jedi what's to stop them using the same ploy space moses used against obi-wan a second time are the empire just gonna forget about all of this now just as leia has to forget any of it ever happens and then obi-wan tells leia that he knew her real parents and this is really just an excuse for the writers to pick her up shamelessly because you are wise discerning kind-hearted passionate and fearless forthright an entirely unnecessary scene because the ot managed to make her a brilliant character with her actions and through her behavior rather than listing bestest ever on her cv as though the audience are complete [ __ ] bum drones who can't know anything unless it is unsubtly spelled out for them well i mean yeah i guess to be fair that probably is true of your average disney star wars shill but it is vaguely insulting to anyone with more smarts than a sea cucumber does this also pose a slight problem perhaps with future films well yeah i think it kind of does we can forgive leia referring to bail organa as her father in a new hope because well she's accepted him as her adopted father that's that's fine that makes sense but when in return of the jedi luke asks leia about her parents and whether she remembers anything about them she just kind of well forgets that obi-wan kenobi who was a pivotal person in both their lives told her all about them having saved her life and gone on an intergalactic adventure with her across the galaxy that she also forgot about and instead she speaks a vague memory she may or may not have of her mother which given luke and leia's shared history with obi-wan seems just why is there not maybe some more pertinent information you would then have shared with luke in this scene leia leia asked if she'll ever see kenobi again and kenobi says she can always ask for help if she needs it but that they must be careful because no one must know he says or it could endanger them both would be hella inconvenient if the [ __ ] grand inquisitor knew all about it already wouldn't it anyway kenobi flies off and winds up back in his cave on tatooine where he finds the toy t16 skyhopper he meant to give luke all the way back in episode 1. now dressed fully as a jedi with no cloak lightsaber swinging openly from his hilt he says goodbye to his cave and rocks up at the lars homestead on a sand cow where he tells uncle owen he'll keep his distance and leave luke to be a boy because the only protection luke needs now is owen and beru even though a few minutes ago he was assaulted by a force using lightsaber wielding inquisitor who absolutely would have won had she not defeated herself with her own baffling contradictions but he gets to meet luke before he leaves and so luke gets to see another lightsaber and we get the shows first and only hello there yes finally a meme at long [ __ ] last makes all the show worthwhile it really [ __ ] doesn't he leaves and wanders across the desert for a bit where well now hello there indeed look who it is it's qui-gon force ghost qui-gon he's here he's actually showed up liam neeson has apparently got out of the force ghost purgatory he was in when he accidentally said that this obliging thing about punching black people he's here he's made it at the final scene of this show and well you think he might have some questions no for example my brother what the hell even was that or i thought i told you to train the boy not cut him up and cook him or maybe explain again how the cute kid i left in your care the chosen one became a giant black murder robot but in the end he tells obi-wan to hurry up because they've got a long way to go and that's it that is the end it's probably the only payoff this show has earned or managed even half decently though you do have to forgive the fact that obi-wan has been trying to commune with him using the force after cutting himself off from or being cut off from the force which is all kinds of stupid that in any case brings us to the close of the episode and so to the close of the show and so the close of our penultimate video on this topic next week's video which will be our last will as mentioned treat with some of the meta questions the broader themes and criticisms relating to and arising from this show as for our conclusion on this episode well what's to make of it with qualifications it is the best of the bunch and by some distance but those qualifications are all important because this show cannot actually claim for itself any of the ingredients that animated its best moments what it's done is once again to go back through equally canonical material material from the very recent past moreover and just lifted entire scenes thomas thinks you are thieving [ __ ] [ __ ] bags you writing goons and because these rioters are thieving incompetent goons their attempts to graft these scenes onto this new production have been shoddy at best bookended by this show's trademark stupidity in the case of vader's fight with obi-wan that scene played much more effectively in rebels and wasn't preceded by the same lackluster fight the same flagrant abuse of the point and purpose of the force or the same astonishing dumb [ __ ] that saw obi-wan just walk away from a defeated darth vader for no reason thereby ensuring that the galaxy will continue to suffer under the yoke of this genocidal tyrant and luke and leia his mission his charge will be in mortal danger for the rest of their lives for all he knows that the first act was a rehash of episode 5 is again quite extraordinary revealing as it does that the writers ran out of their own material a very long time ago indeed but the middle act was stolen wholesale from better products reveals exactly the same thing and shows just how creatively bankrupt this team has been member berries are one thing outright plagiarism from better works well that's something else and it's not exactly as though the work being stolen from is the best star wars has ever produced it's remarkable only for being comfortably above the average which analysis isn't complete without mention of the fact that the average has been lowered to the floor the final act serves as no kind of payoff it wrecks yet more of the setup of a new hope baby luke now knowing what lightsabers are and indeed having seen kenobi looking a bit like a jedi so having at least some visual memory of the jedi themselves all of which he must forget in the intervening years baby leia who already had to forget a lot now has even more to forget because kenobi furnishes her with knowledge of her parents that she does not recall by the time of return of the jedi bail organa's continued existence is inexplicable the continued existence of the grand inquisitor and the knowledge he has of kenobi and kenobi's links with the organize puts kenobi and the organas in an impossible position because they could just as easily be exploited again in the way space moses accomplished in episode two and if they can't be exploited in that way again then there is no reason for the empire to leave the organizers in positions of power or indeed freedom or indeed alive because they are demonstrable traitors and threats to the empire space moses is redeemed from a character and traits nobody ever understood including herself and including the writers of this show she hunts down baby luke to kill him for absolutely no established reason whatsoever and is generally forgiven for her long and proud history of murdering and pickling younglings to get back at vader for murdering and pickling younglings somewhere deep down and a long time ago there is a semblance of a good character in space moses but it died at around the time of order 66 and what we're presented with instead is a hot mess of incomprehensible shallowness tempered with the occasional profound contradiction at least she keeps his guessing vader has been reduced to an incompetent buffoon the grand inquisitor was never anything other than a vaguely amusing voice inquisitor wok just disappeared in episode 4 and as for kenobi himself well he's probably the least remarkable aspect of a show that bears his name it was of course entirely predictable that he should be reduced in order that he has room for his hero's journey and can emerge at the end of this story as a reformed man i will defend that decision in principle but in practice and despite ewan mcgregor doing his very best with the material he's been given my overriding impression of obi-wan kenobi as depicted in this show is just boredom a profound sense of his redemption being achieved in such a catastrophically flawed way and at the cost of so much in terms of canon continuity other established characters makes the entire thing a nasty mix of the worthless and the harmful this show has managed to detract from the overall saga not add to it in this episode as has been the case in every episode of this show there have been the occasional hints the fate green shoots of what might once have been a decent living story but these writers these creators this director have mistaken compost for sewage and choked all life from their creation by smothering it in liquefied human [ __ ] now don't get me wrong this has been great for our channel even though i've done half our videos with verona disney star wars does sterling service for youtubers like me because we can tap into the deep well of dissatisfaction the house of mouse seems to delight in creating but honestly and with all respect to you lovely people and i really appreciate having you here i'd have traded all the views and all the subscribers we've gained in the last few weeks for a decent obi-wan kenobi show i said right back at the beginning of our first video i love these characters i love this franchise i love what this story used to be if it's a choice between a successful channel here and good star wars content there i would choose good star wars content every time if i were given sophie's choice today to junk my channel in exchange for another brilliant star wars show i would junk my channel right now yet here i am making these videos which might one day be bundled together and released as a mammoth days-long video essay entitled star wars an obituary and on that happy note see you next time i guess

Channel: The Little Platoon

Views: 422,023

Keywords: star wars, obi wan kenobi, Obi-wan Kenobi trailer, Obi-Wan Kenobi review, Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 6, Ewan McGregor Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan vs Anakin, Obi-Wan vs Vader, Darth Vader, Star Wars Grand Inquisitor, Star Wars explained, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Princess Leia, MauLer The Last Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi is bad, Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader, Ewan McGregor interview, Hayden Christensen, Obi-Wan Kenobi finale, Critical Drinker Star Wars, EFAP Star Wars, Critical Drinker Obi-Wan

Id: l53nUXxbx3I

Length: 59min 8sec (3548 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 25 2022