The Disappointment of Obi-Wan Kenobi

[Music] hello there I'm that of George and out of all of Star Wars one of my favorite characters is Yun McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi look at him he's beautiful so when I heard this iconic character was getting his own TV show I was very interested after years of Disney trying to ignore the prequel trilogy they have now fully embracer the prequels may not have been perfect but this TV show will be about one of the best characters from the movies it's not like that much can go wrong oh dear that was certainly a disappointment well I guess we may as well break down this series so we're actually going to begin on a positive note because this first episode is by far the best of the six it is consistent as a follow up to Revenge of the Sith as it presents us with some beautiful shots of Obi-Wan simply working keeping a low profile and sometimes seeing how Luke is doing from a distance I completely believe that this is where Kobi would be 10 years after Order 66 and there are some great character moments in here as well like when a fellow colleague of his being mistreated Obi-Wan really wants to step in and help him out but he knows he can't because it could result in him losing his job or even worse expose who he really is this is also foreshadowed in the previous scene with inquisitors which is a cool detail do you know the key to hunting Jedi friend it is patience Jedi cannot help what they are their compassion leaves a trail so the episode is pretty good so far but unfortunately this hopeful beginning is quickly let down as a young princess leer is about to be kidnapped in order to lure Obi-Wan out from hiding and following that b gner contacts Obi-Wan for help she needs you Obi-Wan what about the Senate we cannot let this become public it would draw too much attention were your guard then or or a bounty hunter only you know how important she really is obiwan this reasoning is very confusing to me B essentially has unlimited amounts of money that should be a pretty good motivator for your average Bounty Hunter they do not need to know about her importance and I doubt most bounty hunters would even want to know but a much more serious writing issue here is that this decision is about to completely contradict A New Hope now let's see if we can't figure out what you are my little friend and where you come from as saw part of the message he I seem to have found it General Kenobi years ago you served my father in The Clone Wars now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the empire I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to in person help me Obi-Wan Kenobi you're my only [Music] hope does this message make it sound like Leia knows Obi-Wan because apparently he rescued her 9 years before this point and they spoke and bonded a lot afterwards well to me her Message In A New Hope sounds quite formal oh but she had to be vague in case the message got intercepted yeah okay Al butt she named her son Ben after Ben Kenobi yeah okay I feel that references from the original trilogy are more trustworthy than references from the sequel Trilogy a lot of modern Star Wars does not seem to understand the importance of continuity Leia clearly didn't have any personal connection to Obi-Wan when Obi-Wan meets his Fate In A New Hope Leia feels very sorry for Luke but the death clearly did not directly affect her in the same way if we were to believe the events in this show took place then she would be even more upset than Luke Leia and Obi-Wan are extremely important characters in this universe Star Wars media a lot like Marvel media can be viewed in isolation however surely part of the appeal is that all the content interlinks within the shared universe so when an appropriate crossover team up event or payoff happens it can feel satisfying however in Reverse if something significantly Alters our understanding of the World building and breaches continuity this can have a ripple effect on how we view the previous properties as they are now ruined obviously you can still use your own head Cannon I for one do not consider this show in the same realm as something like Andor speaking of there are a few interesting concept steps in this series like when Kenobi is trying to get Leia back home and they rely on a stranger to transport them to a certain location turns out this stranger is pro Empire ooh that's interesting we might get a deep character exploration for why he believes what he does and it will end up being important to the greater narrative nah Kenobi just uses him as a meat Shi whilst fighting off Stormtroopers I guess frck is automatically seen as a bad individual because of his views towards the EMP Empire and it couldn't be that he's just incredibly misguided or anything yeah any Nuance in the show has been completely chucked out the window the show presents the Empire as very cartoonishly evil even before meeting frck Obi-Wan said this to Leia wasn't always like this here there were fields and families and then the Empire came in and ravaged it all why exactly would the Empire not want people and their businesses to thrive the Star Wars universe doesn't have to delve into taxes but surely all this money to fund the Empire is coming from somewhere and if this has been transformed into a mining planet is that not something worth exploring with a little more depth and if the writer's answers to that is no then why have this conversation present in the first place this is not a huge issue or anything but it definitely makes me appreciate Andor for all the effort that show goes to the Empire would absolutely want an industrial Planet like f to continue and because the empire in that show is smart and want to allocate resources appropriately they leave F alone they only step in once the priox Milana caused so much chaos when trying to arrest cassan but anyway enough of that interesting series let's get back on track after Kenobi's confrontation with some Stormtroopers backup arrives and he is forced to surrender surrender although continues to hold a blaster but is then saved by a spy known as tala However unfortunately for him Lord Vader has now been informed of his location on the planet now it's okay to have a show about Obi-Wan being hunted down by the inquisitors and Darth Vader but you can't actually have them meet face to face that would mess with everything in the same way that Walter White and L Salam Mona are both in betical Soul but in never in the same room together because it would simply make no sense given the timeline L would have been a drug lord whilst Walter was still teaching high school chemistry the idea of these two characters sharing a scene may sound really interesting but it's an impossibility unless the writers are okay with contradicting things from Breaking Bad unfortunately as we've already established the writers behind this this show do not seem to care for continuity just take a listen to how explicit this line from Vader is in a New Hope I've been waiting for you obiwan we meet again at last the circle is now complete when I left you I was but the learner now I am the master yeah I'm not sure this line really implies they had two lightsaber Jewels 9 years before this point with Vader in his current form so oh well continuity has been breached yet again but at least we'll get a couple cool action scenes right oh no can we really not even get that the first lightsaber jewel is honestly kind of embarrassing it begins with Kenobi running away which just looks hilarious the choreography in the fight is a major downgrade from the prequels and the location is just so dull for what is intended to be such an epic scene on the other hand the sequence on Musta is pretty good the intense music the energetic fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin and the Raging lava in the background makes the scene an unforgettable one and then we have the lightsaber Jewel between Kenobi and Vader in A New Hope which is much more simple however it achieves many things from a character perspective limited words are spoken here but everything is made clear you can't win Darth if you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine Obi-Wan's sacrifice goes on to motivate Luke at the end of the film use the force Luke this also gives him that determination to take on dartha himself before finding out that he's his father no I am your father what exactly does this scene achieve the fight is bad and it does nothing to develop these characters because these characters have already been developed and there is only so much the writers can wreck on anyway Vader tries to inflict that same level of pain to him through Flames which is quite possibly the cheapest way to reflect events then tala somehow ends up saving Kenobi and the Storm Troopers are completely oblivious to where the Blaster fire is coming from I much prefer when the Empire actually poses a threat but anyway unfortunately because Obi-Wan wasn't able to protect her Leia has now been taken by Reaver so we're now at the halfway point of this journey and interestingly episode four of this series the one where Obi-Wan re rescues Leia ended up being the least well-received I know a 6.4 out 10 doesn't look that bad but trust me for a random TV episode on IMDb that is pretty bad and although the consensus on these aggregate sites is always worth taking with a grain of salt I personally don't believe this episode is the worst episode 3 contains a lot of fan service so despite all its issues it has been approved by most well aside from the scene with the Laser Gate everyone found that stupid whereas episode 4 has little fan service but does contain an arguably worse Laser Gate moment as Kenobi tries to sneak layer out the base by hiding her under his trench coat so he's walking along with four legs and dozens of Storm Troopers don't even realize it it is a complete embarrassment of a scene and I would not be defending this but what damage does this do to the greatest Star Wars Universe the previous episode Recons many things and contains many more issues I don't believe everyone should be a media analyst or anything but this moment alongside the bikes and the Book of Boba Fett demonstrate these silly little moments are disliked far more than the actual significant issues and on the opposite side the episodes containing the member berries are seen as masterpieces I'm okay with people in enjoying this content my only concern is the message is sent to Disney if someone asked me for my opinion on the book of Boba Fett or Obi-Wan Kenobi I would begin with how both those shows have ruined the characters they are about these D moments just pale by comparison so Leia is of course saved in the end but Riva quite cleverly puts a Tracker inside her Droid and is therefore able to confront Kenobi at the hidden path's base and after killing a bunch of them including tler there is an incredibly strange moment where Obi-Wan decides to surrender I guess he has more confidence now because last time he tried speaking with rer it didn't go too well but what we learned from their previous conversation is that reiver has a certain Grudge the night of Order 66 you were a youngling that's how you knew you saw him stop Anakin killed the others that's enough he killed the other young I tried to help them but I couldn't I pled dead hid with the bodies they were the only family I knew and he slaughtered them you're not serving him are you you're hunting him so now it's clear that reval wants to kill Vader he's on his way you're going to die you're not bringing him to me I'm bringing him to you it does make sense given the order 66 flashbacks and everything although this really needed to be developed a lot more but the biggest question on my mind is why has she never attempted to kill Vader before why is now suddenly the golden opportunity the vagueness aside this scene is so badly executed two Storm Troopers proceed to pick Kobi back up and take him inside despite the fact that he was just a prisoner surrounded by all of these Troopers why would it be a good idea to take him closer to everyone who is inside the base these other Troopers must be pretty suspicious it would almost seem like river is letting him get away remember Rando when characters constantly question things to get down to the bottom of what was going on yeah I like that Kenobi then of course kills those two Stormtroopers and shortly after Vader shows up and grabs a ship as it is taking off I've already spoken a lot about continuity errors in this series so I'm just going to put this visual from The Empire Strikes Back on screen I'm sure you can fill in the rest so this is another bizarre thing about this episode the second ship the one with everyone on board I guess was just hiding behind the first one but the layout is so terribly presented that it just doesn't look right and I guess there was no attempt to force grab that that second one for some reason Vader and raver proceed to have a lightsaber Jewel which is on par with the others in this show fader then of course wins and the episode ends with rer finding Obi-Wan's hollow projector on the floor which contains some Vital Information he's found if he's learned of the children I'll head the [Music] T help the boy yeah baale it might not have been a good idea to give out such specific information it's strange that Princess Leia was so paranoid about her transmission being intercepted to the point where she had to pretend she has no clue who Obi-Wan is and yet B just carelessly gives out information about Luke this Series has ruined Obi-Wan Kenobi Darth Vader Princess Leia and now even Bor gner are you kidding me anyway R obviously knows who Owen and the boy are since she randomly picked on him in the first episode so we'll have to see how this all plays out in the finale Darth Vader is continuing the Chase and Kenobi leads him down to a random planet in order to keep the hidden path group safe now I'm pretty sure the show wants us to believe that Obi-Wan has gone on some kind of Arc where he wasn't able to use the force and now he's about to be unstoppable of using the force shame that Arc was never explored or explained with any depth and didn't have any greater theme within the series but all right I guess it's all built up to this point yeah the lightsaber Jew is just as embarrassing as episode phes and speaking of that episode it contained this line from Vader you should have killed me when you had the chance it is quite the statement but in this confrontation Kenobi is suddenly overpowered and comes out on top and we get these lines Anakin's gone I'm what remains I'm sorry Anakin for all of it you didn't kill Anakin Skywalker I did the same way I will destroy you and my friend is truly dead so the confirmation is there things would have turned out better if Anakin had died on Mustafa but now his friend is truly dead so unlike last time shouldn't be too much hesitation so what does he do goodbye Darth he walks away again you have now written this character to make the same mistake twice all you did here was copy and paste the ending of reveng of the Sith except in that movie his hesitancy made sense why would he hesitate here if he's already accepted that his friend is truly dead and look Oban keeping the information from Luke about Darth Veda being his father is very morally questionable you told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father your father was seduced by the dark side of the force he ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader when that happened the good man who was your father was destroyed so what I told you was true from a certain point of view but now we know Kenobi apparently had the perfect chance to rectify his mistake but decided to wait 9 years and just get Luke to do it for him this makes him look so much worse anyway in the other ridiculous fight Reaver is suddenly underpowered and isn't able to just kill Owen and brw but she proceeds to go after Luke I'm not sure how this timeline works but after his fight with Vader Obi-Wan can sense something wrong with Luke and manages to travel all the way over to Tatooine I mean even if it was the next planet along does he really have enough time to get there H whatever in the end rer doesn't go through with killing an innocent child because she is no Darth Vader Kenobi then forgives her and she is now free wow what a compelling story that was the series ends with Obi-Wan saying goodbye to Leia never happened he says hello there to Luke and he even meets Qui-Gon it is a bit confusing for why the show didn't dedicate more time to obiwan communicating with Qui-Gon especially as it was set up in Revenge of the cth there could have been some great character work between them but instead it's simply a hollow Cameo very much a missed opportunity in conclusion Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Bad sequel to Revenge of the Sith a bad prequel to A New Hope and just a bad Series in its own right despite a hopeful beginning the show contains so many retcons ruins so many established characters doesn't even do a good job of its new characters has some very poorly fought out and confusing scenes and even writing aside many production elements feel very cheap it's a shame because deor CH directed all the episodes and I really like her previous projects she directed a great episode of Mr Robot and a fantastic episode of better Co soul but that level of creativity in the direction is missing from most of these episodes the series could have continued from that opening putting Obi-Wan konobi in situations where he has to balance helping people but also keeping a low profile and trying to avoid the Empire but those Stakes just had to be raised even if that was at the detriment of the continuity and these beloved characters but oh well at least we got Andor I've been your host that of a George and thank you for watching watchingg

Channel: That0therGeorge

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Keywords: video essay, that0thergeorge, thatothergeorge, that other george, review, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mini Series, star wars, recap, breakdown, explained

Id: IHnYAnovXFs

Length: 21min 11sec (1271 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 19 2024