You didn't read that article at all.

There have been delays & problems with the Obi-Wan story for years. First a movie, then a TV show, then a script that was rewritten. One thing that always remained the same was McGregor's commitment to get back into the role again.

That article was very telling. Kennedy first hired an Iranian writer (can't make this stuff up), who wrote an uplifting story that takes place after the fall of the Jedi Order, while a broken Obi-Wan is riddled with guilt & the pain of losing his "brother" & "the chosen one" to the Dark Side. Everyone brought in to read that happy script must have choked on their blue milk. The Ep3 - Ep4 period is a dark time. The rise of Vader & the Empire. The hunting of the Jedi. The small beginnings of the Rebellion. Obi-Wan is definitely not happy or "uplifted" during this period.

Chow comes in as series director, as well as hiring a new writer. How does Obi-Wan go from a painful broken man at the end of Episode 3 to the Zen Jedi Master during Episode 4? What did he go through during this period to face & overcome his failures. How did he move on emotionally? Hopefully this story will address that.

I'm guessing another showdown with Vader after the Inquistors track him down. And after one last attempt to redeem his old friend (which should be the shows climax), when he realizes he's truly lost, pure evil, and with no hope of redemption. Which explains why Owi-Wan constantly lies to Luke about the truth of his father, in order to protect him from the dark side at all costs. And why he refers to him as Darth, not Anakin as he always did, when they last meet on the Death Star. Anakin is long dead in Obi-Wan's eyes. This showdown should lead him to that belief.

It should be quite the emotional scene. The writers & producers endlessly debated if they should cover this sacred ground again. I'm sure they know the pressure they are under. Can't fuck this up. Can they deliver on that story? I'm optimistic

With 6 episodes, they don't have much room for fluff & filler story either. That's probably a good thing. It should play out like a 3.5-4 hour movie. No bullshit. Just get to the story.

I love the new one sheet, and Vader on the cliff. Might have to pick this one up.

I have a good feeling this show is going to surpass Rogue One as my favorite SW side project.

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Sorry I totally disagree. It doesn't destroy continuity at all. It's a little ret-conning for sure, but this show works within the timelines already established.

The last meeting between Vader & Obiwan will always take place on the Death Star in Ep IV. In that final meeting Vader says "I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner, now I am the master".

In 1977 nobody had a clue what he was referring to. Then Lucas decided to make the prequels & show the Obiwan/Anakin duel that led to the birth of Darth Vader. Everyone assumed that this duel from Ep III was the moment Vader was referring to in Ep IV. And that assumption has fit pretty well since 2005.

But there have been other shows that have expanded on this period since then, all coming from the mind of Dave Filoni. The fleshing out of the relationship between Anakin & Obiwan during the Clone Wars, the backstory of Anakin's apprentice Ashoka & their confrontation, Vader's use of his Inquistors to hunt down remaining Jedi, Obiwan's limited involvement with the rise of the Rebellion, etc. Filoni has done a fine job carrying the torch from Lucas & expanding on all this lore for the last 15+ years. It only makes sense that they'd like to revisit these characters & develop a live-action story that ties it together.

Obiwan is a broken man running from his failures, and this show is going to force him to stop running & final face them (aka Vader). This will be the last fight that Vader was referring to in Ep IV. And it won't involve ridiculous jumping like ping pong balls & swinging over lava rivers. It will be a good old-fashioned emotional drama-filled duel like in The Empire Strikes Back.

I read that they REALLY debated long & hard if they should tell this story. If they felt they could live up to the challenge. We'll find out soon enough. But it certainly has me excited

This fan re-imagining of the final Ep IV duel really got a lot of people excited when it was released a few years ago. Instead of two guys standing still & slapping sticks, he added way more action & tension.

One can only imagine how they will present a duel in the Obiwan show, with Obiwan seeing Anakin in the Vader suit for the first time.

Fun Fact: Christopher Lee was originally asked to play Grand Moff Tarkin in Episode 4, but he turned the role down. So Lucas did the next best thing, and got his Hammer co-star & best friend Peter Cushing It's also why so many people were pleased to see him accept the role of Count Dooku in the prequels.

I agree. The excessive action doesn't work for old man Guinness, but put a younger Ewan McGregor in that type of scene at it can work.

Speaking of additional seasons, I read some comments from McGregor today. This Owiban show is a self contained story with a beginning, middle & an end. Basically a long movie. Never intended to be an extended TV show with multiple seasons.

But apparently McGregor is giving interviews saying he's down to play the character again. I interpret that to mean he really enjoyed stepping back into the role again, and hopefully the director & producers had the same experience as well. If it turns out to be really good with alot of fan support, I hope they make a movie with a new story like they originally intended. Everyone loves McGregor as Owiban.

I also read this today, which I found to be very encouraging. The first draft of the show by another writer (who was fired) took place only on Tatooine, and involved Obiwan defending young Luke from various local threats. Apparently Dave Filoni was the one who reviewed the scripts & told Chow to toss them in the trash & go bigger, with the addition of Vader & the Inquisitors. All good things in Star Wars for the last 15 years can be attributed to Filoni.

"According to Chow, the story went through "significant changes" after new writer Joby Harold's hiring. Harold wanted to explore what happened between McGregor's portrayal of Obi-Wan and that of Alec Guinness in the original trilogy, and noted that the series takes place when the Empire is "in the ascendancy" and the Jedi have been wiped out, with any remaining survivors being on the run and in hiding. He stated that Kenobi's past, particularly his relationship with Anakin, makes him a "man who's very much defined by that history, whether he wants to be or not". He added that a crucial part of Kenobi's journey will involve "reconciling that past and coming to understand it and coming to understand his place in it", and also the "places he has to go emotionally as well as physically, and some of those battles he has to fight", which ultimately have "to do with facing that past and understanding who he was, his part in his own history, in the history of others".

Kennedy and Chow cautioned the writers against making any overt connections to The Mandalorian and its spin-off series, with Chow stating that the strongest connections between Obi-Wan Kenobi and the rest of the Star Wars franchise were to the prequel films. Chow wanted to be faithful to George Lucas's original vision for the franchise, and worked to connect elements from the original trilogy and prequel trilogy. She worked to make the series a character-driven story, comparing this to films such as Logan (2017) and Joker (2019), saying that it was "where you take one character out of a big franchise and then you really have the time and you go a lot deeper with the character". She was also inspired by "gritty, poetic westerns" such as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) and The Proposition (2005), as well as the works of Akira Kurosawa. She felt that there was a "strong correlation" between the Jedi and the Ronin with their "ethical code that goes along with it, in a world that's vastly changed". A new planet introduced for the series is Daiyu, which Harold compared to Hong Kong with a "graffiti-ridden nightlife"; it serves as a contrast to the desert planet Tatooine, where much of the series takes place.

Long discussions were held before it was decided to include Darth Vader in the series, and Chow said this decision was "not made lightly... Anakin and Vader are a huge and very profound part of Kenobi's life. We ended up feeling that he made sense in telling this story." Chow had championed the idea of including Vader in the series when executives at Lucasfilm were unsure whether they should. Similar to Kenobi's character in the show, Chow stated that Vader's character "isn't quite as fully formed as A New Hope", and she added that Vader's appearance in the series re-contextualizes the character's scene with Kenobi in A New Hope. The series also features the live-action introduction of Vader's Inquisitors, who are tasked with hunting down the remaining Jedi, after appearing in other Star Wars media. The way that Vader appears in the series and the idea to introduce the Inquisitors were both suggested by Filoni. The original scripts featured different villains, including Darth Maul, but Chow decided not to use him as she felt it would be "a little bit much" to have both Maul and Vader due to the large impact that the latter has on the story. She also acknowledged that Filoni had already told the story of Kenobi and Maul in this time period in the animated series Star Wars Rebels."

This is exactly what I wanted to hear. An emotional character driven story to flesh out moments in his overall character arc. It's got me excited for Friday

This turns into a huge success, then spend the money on a big budget movie & tell the Owiban/Maul conclusion the right way.

The show is suffering from what I like to call "the small scale effect", which can jar the viewer out of the story.

Awnings stopping a chase. 10 year old outrunning adults. Characters in one place, then jumping to another place on the very next shot edit. That type of editing is just inexcusable. And then there's the poor overall action sequences. If I'm going to complain about one thing so far, this is the type of stuff that makes me groan. I place the blame squarely on Chow. I really thought she would be doing a better job than this.

I was going to complain about the lame choreographed Vader/Obiwan duel, but I'll take it with a grain of salt so far. That was first time Obiwan turned on his saber in years. He's clearly not at the top of his game & very rusty. He hardly spoke to Vader, he was pretty traumatized just being in his presence. Quite a lame head-scratching escape as well, but the show must go on. They will meet again by the end of the series, and I hope Chow handles it better. They are treading on some pretty fan holy ground here.

But overall I've enjoyed many small moments so far.....

Seeing Obiwan as a mentally defeated & broken man. Continually calling out to Quia-Gon for help & getting no response. Not even being upset with the Jawa who was ripping him off. Actually seeing his poor relationship with Owen Lars. Seeing him dig up the iconic lightsabers in the desert. Helping the down-and-out clone trooper. Straining to use the force. The shock of realizing Anakin is still alive. Hallucinating. The calm moments with Leia, discussing the force & his cloudy youth. He's going to connect with Quia-Gon & get his shit together at some point.

Loved seeing Vader being assembled, with the helmet coming down on Christensen's head. Loved seeing him sit on his throne in the castle. Even more impressed that ALL of James Earl Jones' speech for Episode 3 was created using deepfake audio. It was spot on, had the appropriate inflections & was really remarkable to pull off. Loved the "fail me....and you will not live to regret it" line. And I still like the constant tension between the Inquistors, no matter how weak the 3rd sister's acting is.

I loved seeing Vader dragging Obiwan into the fire & his desire to inflict long lasting pain upon him. Vader has no intention of killing him right now. He wants Obiwan to suffer as he has. So I'll let the poor narrative choice of an easy escape slide, as long as they meet again by the end of the show.

So Chow has done some things right when it comes to the drama. She's just failing at the action scenes, some really poor acting direction, and lousy editing. Hopeful the best of the show is yet to come. I'm sure more surprises are on the way.

They didn't though. They used Respeacher tech to create new dialog for the Obiwan show. Pretty remarkable.

That's why Vader sounds exactly like his original trilogy voice in the Obiwan show, and not like JEJ's 80+ year old voice when he recorded new dialog for Rogue One. Really makes all the difference.

https://insidethemagic.net/2022/06/star-wars-changes-darth-vader-respeech-al1/

Well I really tried to stay positive. I really did. But this last episode was just terrible.

The comment above is correct. It should be called “Kiddie Leia & Female Badassery Show, featuring Obiwan Kenobi”. This episode absolutely had Kennedy’s fingerprints all over it. The writing was weak, filled with more head-scratching escapes & convenient plot moments. Yet another rescue? A snowspeeder that stops mid-air? Outrunning a wall of water? Easy escape surrounded by an entire legion of troops? Sure why not. If you complain, you’re just a toxic fan.

And my main gripe: What is this bait & switch shit? They hyped the shit out of Hayden Christensen’s return, then have him in less than 10 seconds of footage. It’s like Obiwan has become a guest star in his own show. Focus all on other characters. Not what I expected. They had FOUR writers & this is the best they could come up with? The main story focus should have been on the deep character development dynamic between Obiwan & Anakin. Not rescuing kiddie Leia in EVERY episode! 2 episodes left. The ship has sailed now IMO. The story is a bust.

Thank you for the laugh. I had not considered this. I was too distracted by the other nonsensical things in that scene, like floating snowspeeders, hiding a child under an oversized trench coat, effortlessly escaping an entire legion of troops, etc. The Obiwan show is full of this crap.

This is what happens when you don't play by the established rules of your fantasy universe. Adding things like hyperspace skipping, lightspeed ship ramming, force healing, force object transportation, mental force projection, on & on. Pure hot garbage. Thanks Kennedy!

I get so tired of this defense.

Lucas even said the same thing when he was getting ripped for bad writing, child actors & Jar-Jar Biinks in Episode 1.... well these are just kids movies after all.

Well so are Pixar movies, but they knew the golden rule right from the start. The target audience is always the adults. Their kids are going to like the movie regardless. You hire great writers to create great stories & characters that entertain the adults, then keep the families coming back, and keep buying the merchandise. Movie after movie, as the awards pile up, Pixar has been repeating the formula & striking gold for decades.

If you want to watch kiddie stuff, go watch Nickelodeon.

You & I are on the exact same page. I’m sorry but this episode was weak AF overall.

All the Vader moments kicking serious ass? The flashback? Just outstanding. Been waiting 5 episodes for this stuff, which should have been featured the whole damn show. But it didn’t save the episode.

The writing is just unbelievably poor. Disney is just totally taking the audience for granted. All the characters are doing things that are improbable. The Indian scammer guy just appears in the bunker? How convenient! Mary Sue Little Leia is also the galaxy’s best engineer? Of course she is! Untrained citizens wipe out a legion of Stormtroopers in close quarter combat. Obiwan surrenders, put in cuffs, dragged away for some reason, and you guessed it…..yet another easy escape! The big 3rd sister twist? Everyone saw that coming, even Vader for some unexplained reason!

Speaking of the unexplained….so lightsaber stabs through the gut mean absolutely nothing now? You just need “revenge” to dark side force heal your wounds now? Well that’s a new one. Maul surviving Episode 1 was a pretty big one-time exception. But I guess Revenge healing worked for the Grand Inquisitor. Guess what? It’s going to work for the 3rd sister by Episode 6 too. Give me a break. Introducing force healing in TLJ was one of the dumbest ideas Disney ever introduced. Now it’s become a maguffin so no character ever has to die. And Vader “has no further use” for her, yet he doesn’t kill her after she turned on him? Yeah that’s not out of Vader’s character. Dumb dumb dumb.

Did you notice at the end Ice Cube’s kid told Obiwan their escape ship’s hyperdrive is down, and “they are behind us”. Well they should be easy for Vader’s flagship to blast into bits. Or maybe we’ll get another “out of gas” chase. Or who cares anymore. The writers sure don’t care.

IDK how the finale will go. But I’m willing to guess the last scene is Quai Gons ghost connecting with Obiwan with a warning….. you’re not out of danger yet Obiwan! Then cut to a shot of Darth Maul in his ship smiling. Obiwan will return in 2024 for season 2!!!

I don’t have to accept a damn thing! Haha

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Well there are different types of troopers now that aren't supposed to be so useless as a bumbling, can't-aim standard Stormtrooper. Such as the Imperial Officer protecting Death Trooper squads introduced in Rogue One. They had their own unique weapons, grenades & encrypted voice speech. Highly tactical & imposing. Pretty cool. Same for the Dark Trooper droids introduced in the Mandalorian. Extremely imposing & difficult to defeat, unless you are Luke Skywalker.

What did Obiwan offer us? The Inquistor Jedi Hunter Stormtroopers. Black suits with red shoulder pads, with lightsaber resistant armor, who lead entire squads & are highly specialized to hunt down Jedi. What did we see? Remember when Obiwan was just standing there holding back the water with all his might? They cracked the door open so the Jedi Hunter could get a shot at him, just 5 feet away, and he completely missed. These hunters were also getting mowed down by the untrained citizens in the last episode. Their armor can stop a lightsaber but not a blaster shot? Poorly written by the writers, no thought put into their execution.

And speaking of lightsabers, why did it take THREE lightsaber strikes from Obiwan in a dark room to take down a simple Stormtrooper? No one on this show is paying attention to these details and it clearly shows. I guess I'm just "toxic" pointing these sloppy errors out.

Lucas started the rediculousness over 20 years ago tho

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Disney just took it way way way too far.

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Just look how she's holding up & flinging 100's of heavy rocks all at once, without any strain on her face whatsoever.

By the opening of the next movie, she's literally levitating, with rocks orbiting all around her. Why does a Jedi need a ship at all now? Just fly like Superman then. Meanwhile superpilot Poe is "lightspeed skipping" the Falcon into completely impossible situations. It's all total garbage.

I'm ready for Andor. Grounded. Underworld. Espionage. Spies. Enough with the spectacle.

I rewatched Episode 5 yesterday while I was working & I caught something I didn't the first viewing...

Based on how the 3rd Sister/Vader fight was edited, you can see that not only was she stabbed in the gut by Vader, but she was ALSO stabbed in the gut by Anakin when she was a youngling at the Jedi Temple. That's just completely ridiculous that anyone could survive a lightsaber to the gut, especially a barely trained child, and the fact that she did it TWICE.

The writers on this show need their heads examined.

The writing logic gets even more twisted after she uses vengeance to survive the first wound. She decides to avenge her slain Jedi friends by joining the Inquisitors to get closer to Vader. In the process, she ends up killing countless Jedi & innocent civilians over the years. Yeah that makes sense. End justifies the means right?

What a stupid story & poorly written character. The people involved with this show should never get a crack at a second season.

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That's all the show should have been. Practically writes itself.

Obiwan still broken man but called off Tatooine for some macguffin, like a Jedi holocron containing a big secret, which gets captured by Inquisitors. The macguffin directly ties into Owiban & Anakins story connection during their time together during the Clone Wars (between Ep II & III), and Obiwan must recover it to keep discovery of the twins secret. He must get to it before it is delivered to Vader & he figures out how to open it.

Lots of flash backs (de-aged with deepfake) of battles & personal connection between them, or even live action backstory for younger Ashoka. Once off planet he's discovered after acquiring the maguffin, then Vader & the Inquisitors start chasing him down. Finale of show is Vader & Obiwan, real emotional meeting & confrontation. He learns Anakin is truly lost, beats him by outsmarting him, being the master. Full character growth for Obiwan. Escapes & overcomes his failures, becomes Zen Obiwan in the process, twins secret is kept safe.

Great show. Shit that should have even been a big budget movie.

Instead we get little kiddies, 3rd sister, female spies, lightsaber gut stab recovery and huge pile of steaming shit. Disney blows. They have no interest in making content like this for the adult older fans.

Oh fuck me. My literal LOL moment of the series.

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Some final thoughts….

The final duel was done well IMO. There was emotion & drama overall between the characters. And better choreography since Obiwan got his mojo back. The cracked Vader helmet & seeing eye to eye was great. I loved Vader’s “No…I killed Anakin line”, since now it makes Obiwan’s explanation to Luke in Ep IV the truth, instead of a white lie. The scene with Emperor questioning Vader’s loyalty was great too. But the force powers, lifting & projectile hurling 100s of rocks? It’s jarring to older fans. They just want cool looking CGI effects, screw the classic laws of the force.

The appearance of Quigon was very satisfying. One of the only smiles of the entire series. I was here all along my friend, you just weren’t ready to see me. Everyone who’s lost a loved one can relate to that.

But rest of it was hot garbage. More of the same dumb shit…

1. 3rd sister survives a 3rd lightsaber to gut with no explanation. She gets to Tatooine injured & without a ship while Obiwan STILL on the transport ship. Can she teleport now too? Just horrible editing.

2. 3rd sister entire character arc & burning up all that valuable screen time was completely pointless. Take her out of the show, it changes absolutely nothing. Another example of Disney checking boxes & pushing a character just for agenda sake. The criticism was completely warranted. A pointless character played by a lousy actor. If they do a 3rd sister spin-off they have lost their minds.

3. Aunt Breu! STRONG WARRIOR WOMAN FIGHTER! Who knew!?!?! Pussy Uncle Owen ready to bitch out & turn tail! Of course he would! He should be in the kitchen, making dinner & pouring the blue milk right??? Glad Disney set the record straight on this couple!

4. So farmboy Luke told it’s a Tuskin raid & he has to hide. But then he clearly sees that it’s a Sith Lord chasing him down, trying to kill him for no fucking reason. Not the kind of thing you’d forget right??? Can’t wait for Pablo Hidalgo to explain he hit his head on that rock, got amnesia, and completely forgot this HUGE traumatic event of his childhood. This is EXACTLY what you call fucking with cannon.

5. My other literal LOL moment of the show was when Obiwan surprises little Leia on Alderan. She runs to him….and completely ignores him by grabbing the Lola droid! Not even a hug!!!! LOOOOOOLAAAAAHHH!!!! Haha. I guess this explains why she walked right past Chewie after Hans death in Ep 7. What a terrible character flaw Leia!

6. So Vader & the empire will not rest. Threat remains to the children. We must be careful! We must be alert! NAHHHH. Obi OUT bitches! C ya!!!!

Once they see the generally negative legitimate criticism of the show from average viewers, they better leave it alone. Certainly not with these directors & writers. Overall huge letdown. Biggest since sequel trilogy. Lots of fan support lost with this one. Another great opportunity squandered by a Kennedy project.

I think that as time passes, all people will really remember about this show are the Kenobi/Anakin moments, which really delivered what fans were wanting.

Don’t believe me? Wait for the edited YouTube video with added deepfake effects which pieces together just the good obi/Anakin moments of the show. It will be less than 10 minutes long, but it will be all you really need to see (or remember) about this show. The added kid fluff & reva subplots really weren’t needed at all.

Something like this video. It’s not perfect but boy does it nail Anakin/Vader’s character arc.

Christensen will get plenty of chances to reprise his role again too.

Anakin was a huge part of Ashoka’s backstory, so I’m sure there will be some flashbacks in that show. Plus a mature Vader is around for the Andor series. And who knows? Perhaps Vader might get his own show.

There’s still some character development to be played out in the 8 years between this show & Rogue One. Plenty of books covering the relationship between Vader & the Emperor. Just leave Kenobi out of it, Becuase they’ve tied that plot line to Episode IV pretty well now.

Yeah that guy is annoying but made all the same valid points made here.

Calling Ice Cube’s kid Crushed Ice was pretty funny tho. I’m using that. Haha

I heard a story on NPR about this recently. This is the main problem with the Writers Guild in general today. In the last decade there has been an explosion in worldwide film production, TV programming, multiple streaming services.....all completing for your dollars, with an endless thirst for new content. There simply aren't enough good writers to go around anymore, and the good ones get to pick & choose whatever projects they want. So it makes it even more frustrating when high profile franchises like Star Wars end up with bad scripts & poor writing.

In the past, problematic scripts from inexperienced screenwriters would have been tossed in the trash. Now they get greenlit instantly for streaming services. They'll last a season & never get renewed. Or the show will burn out fast after a couple seasons. Most the movies & shows produced today are generally consumed fast & then quickly forgotten. Turn & burn. Or they revive nostalgic properties & beat them into the ground. I saw they're making a new Goonies TV show on Apple+. For god's sake, give it a rest.

There are some silver linings though.

I saw Everything Everywhere All at Once last weekend. Good Lord. The most original creative film I've seen since Being John Malkovich. Really outside-the-box thinking. The creative writing, great acting, directing, insane editing, impressive visuals, colorful costumes, martial arts action, heartfelt drama, zen philosophy & the meaning of life..... it really was a wild thought provoking ride. Jump into the deep end on this one & just go with the flow. It should sweep every award this year. Plus Short Round/Data is in it! It was his first acting role in like 30 years, and he was phenomenal. High recommend it.

Ha. Well that didn't even last a day. Links already taken down. No way Disney was going to allow that to be distributed.

I didn't see it either. I'm sure a download link will pop up somewhere again, since there are copies floating around.