Obi Wan Kenobi (Disney+ series)...

[MinionZombie]

Yup, and plenty of 'meh' filling in-between. I think they were trying to go with Vader 'having learned' something since the flashback scenes and after trashing that ship, which was taking off ... not being as petulant or ... something??? I wasn't really sure. Honestly, it kinda smacked of "We're keeping Reva alive so she can have her own spin-off show that'll also be crap". It doesn't really 'fit', to me at least, for Vader to leave her alive. She knows that he knows she was planning to betray him, and she knows that Vader was using her to help get him closer to Obi-Wan, so there's literally no reason to keep her alive. Speaking of that 'decoy ship' ... that seemed a bit silly, too. Wouldn't Vader have noticed the other ship in the background? Couldn't he have just done a quick draw bit of force hand stuff like he'd just done to stop that second ship getting away? Just seemed clunky and stupid, almost like a cartoon. I still can't believe that Reva and the Grand Inquisitor were halted in their tracks by the flimsiest piece of awning you've ever seen. I mean, the escaping Jedi should have collapsed a sort of stone overhang that spanned the entire frontage of that building instead - enough of a blockage to really let him get away ... not some sticks and a couple of sheets flapping in the breeze ... I mean come the fuck on. It's like when Leia was getting chased and one of the pursuers hit a branch chest high and just kinda 404'd looking at it. They should have had Leia down a bunch of rabbit hole type tunnels and undergrowth that she perhaps likes to play in (could have set that up before hand, hiding in holes, jumping out to scare people and trick them etc), and so the full adult sized goons would have had a harder time getting her ... instead we had Carry On Toddler-Running.

[shootemindehead]

Honestly, it kinda smacked of "We're keeping Reva alive so she can have her own spin-off show that'll also be crap". It doesn't really 'fit', to me at least, for Vader to leave her alive. She knows that he knows she was planning to betray him, and she knows that Vader was using her to help get him closer to Obi-Wan, so there's literally no reason to keep her alive. Further to that Vader knew all along who she was but kept her around. Why? What reason did he have to do that? If it was to help him get closer to Kenobi, what special talents did she possess that Vader needed? None of that is clear.

[MinionZombie]

Further to that Vader knew all along who she was but kept her around. Why? What reason did he have to do that? If it was to help him get closer to Kenobi, what special talents did she possess that Vader needed? None of that is clear. I think it was that reason, but the writers aren't much cop on this show, so they think that's a good enough reason on its own ... because reasons? ... when in reality, yeah, Reva has added very little to the show, like an awful lot of characters, for that matter. An awful lot of "remember them, huh, huh?" going on, while giving them very little to really do.

[ProfessorChaos]

former big-time star wars fan here, before the dark times....before the house of mouse came along and fucked up almost everything they've done with the franchise....and this show is a total snooze. highly forgettable, with shit writing and all kinds of dumb plot-lines and bits that make me scratch my head and wonder why they gotta mess with the cannon of the original films. too many to list here, as i'm tired and have too many things to do before bed than ponder what the greedy ass-hats were smoking when they came up with this show. there's been a couple of cool darth vader scenes, but that's really about it for me. reva sucks and is a poorly-written character played by a young lady who doesn't seem to be that good of an actor ( and according to disney, i'm now a racist or something for not loving her character, which to me is just disney hiding behind a woman of color and the racism card to shield them from criticism for their half-assed wonky characters and story). the whole thing feels unnecessary and a sneaky way to suck in disney+ subscribers. mz has made some rather eloquent arguments against this show's value, and i agree with almost everything he's said wholeheartedly. i could watch another few seasons of the adventures of the mandalorian and grogu as long as they don't keep dragging out the old cgi characters as fan-service, but this show has been a major let-down so far. i barely give enough of a shit to tune in for the finale. 2/10

[MinionZombie]

I also wonder about the morals of Reva's character. Disney keep banging on about her being so awesome and how they're so looking forward to telling her story etc, but she's a fucking turncoat traitor to the Jedi ... and you could argue quite a selfish one at that. Just so she herself as a loner can maybe, hopefully get close enough to Vader to do something???, she has basically sold out everything Jedi in the process and has become an Inquisitor, who hunt down and torture Jedi or anyone who might know something about Jedi whereabouts. Reva's an arsehole. There's nothing in that character for little girls to feel empowered by. The lesson appears to be 'betray the good guys and your own kind so you can selfishly pursue your own solitary and poorly thought-out agenda' (said agenda basically being, 'hang around doing terrible things until I get half a sniff at being alone with Vader and then I'll just sneak up on him like a cartoon and then fail completely because, oh yeah, he's a far superior Jedi). However, these wonky morals have been seeping into a lot of mainstream media under the guise of trying to complicate characters, but the writers are entirely incapable of thinking more than one step ahead, or really examining what these actions really mean. They should be taking the likes of Walter White as a guidebook, but they're landing so far away from that that we're ending up with hugely flawed characters who aren't flawed because that's how they are for deep and complex reasons, no, they're flawed because they were written that way by people who aren't much good at writing. I'm not sure if I missed something along the way regarding Reva, but just thinking about it while I read your post, Prof, I suddenly thought 'hang on a minute'...

[shootemindehead]

Reva's character doesn't make a damn bit of sense. Not for a second was I able to buy into her or her deeds. Plus, she's entirely unnecessary. There isn't a single aspect to her character that warranted it being included in the story. You could take Reva out of the picture entirely and bugger all changes. In fact I'd argue that not having her in the story would improve it quite a bit.

[MinionZombie]

Reva's character doesn't make a damn bit of sense. Speaking of - in Episode #6:   After getting her arse handed to her by Vader, once her grand master plan of 'hunt and kill my own kind so I can, maybe on the off-chance, get close enough to the big bad so I can sneak up behind him and telegraph my striking blow from a mile away' had failed miserably, her next logical step was to ... ... ... go and try and kill Luke Skywalker ... ... ... ??? Why? How does that help her whatsoever? Vader always knew she was dodgy, and definitely knows now, so she'll never be able to get back into the good books of the bad guys, and killing Luke would do nothing for her personally either ... so what on Earth, or Tatooine more appropriately, was she thinking? It seriously made fuck all sense to me. I was scratching my head throughout all of that part of the episode. The best stuff is what the show should have spent the majority of its running time focusing on - Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader. Even though it's ultimately a stalemate plot as we know what eventually happens with all these characters, this show should have focused on Kenobi's own guilt in failing Anakin, Anakin seeking vegeance on Kenobi, and all the other shit going on between them. But no, it was mostly cobblers, silly chase sequences, pretty pointless side characters who added little-to-nothing, and that incessant wibble-wobble cinematography during every single action scene (it was particularly egregious in the big action of episode #6). I mean ... this show ... woof ... or, more appropriately, *pained Wookie growl*.

[shootemindehead]

There are parts to it that were decent, but over all it was an extremely mediocre effort with an absolutely lousy character who's motivations were questionable at best when they weren't being downright absurd. But probably the worst offence, writing wise, was Vader leaving Reva alive after she tried to kill him. I just cannot fathom how any writer worth their salt could think that that was a good bit of story telling. Even the youngest in the audience must be thinking why didn't he not just kill her? But then in Episode 6 we get the same shit. Vader walks away from Kenobi thinking job done and then later on Kenobi walks away from Vader. What the actual fuck? Once again, we're left with a Star Wars yarn that I want to like more than I can because the writing was so, so, haphazard. It's not as terrible as the sequels or 'Solo' and it was a good bit more entertaining than 'The Book of Boba Fett'. But my god, is really that hard for Disney to hire writers that can knock out a story that makes sense? Or write characters that make sense?

[Neil]

Episode 6 sounds brilliant... MZ's "wibble-wobble cinematography" gets a mention I think I'll not bother with the rest of the series (I was up to ep2).

[MinionZombie]

There were a couple of good points in that rant - particularly about how it affects other moments in Star Wars cannon. Leia supposedly now has this deep connection with Obi-Wan from her (ruddy brief!) time with him as a kid, but when he gets snuffed out by Vader in A New Hope she couldn't give a shit - because she wasn't supposed to have known him. She's not 'hiding' her (again, ruddy brief!) friendship with him (I mean ... why anyway???), it's just shoddy writing that ignores the knock-on effect. Prequels are riddled with potential problems - and OWK flags them up regularly. You're trapped by the story points to come in other films/shows, and anything you do has the potential to recontextualise the existing material for the worse. Good point about Vader walking away from Reva, then walking away from Kenobi, and then Kenobi walking away from Vader. Their justification is some vague 'Jedi morals' shit or whatever, but it basically means Kenobi had a golden opportunity to snuff out Vader and save countless lives (and entire planets, even!), but didn't take it. Then taking Reva away? Again, vague 'Jedi morals' shit, but we the viewer ain't Jedi and that shit don't fly morally speaking. Interesting point about how it was basically 'thinking of Leia' rather than 'thinking of Luke' that suddenly gave OWK his powers a much-needed boost just when he needed it. So it was this girl he's not seen for a decade and has only hung around with for a few days, versus the boy he's been sworn to protect and has been doing so for a decade (albeit from afar). Like ... eh??? Also - yes - the widdly-wobbly camerawork was so jarring, not helped by some choppy editing. It felt like one of two things: covering up an unconvincing fight, or not knowing how to convincingly shoot a fight sequence ... or, actually, a third thing as well: just coming up with a rubbish way to cover the fight. The wobble felt so unnatural, almost 'programmed' in a way, like the camera shake in Kane & Lynch 2 (which was a game for the Xbox 360). It made it hard to follow what was happening and felt so jarring compared to so much of what else we've seen in the SW visual rulebook. You have to wonder if a lot of the people involved in this really knew what they were doing (or cared)? I also kept thinking to myself, cool as it looked, but wouldn't it be really hard to see much beyond the SUPER BRIGHT GLOW of your own lightsabre while having a fight in the dark? Mind you, maybe the only other thing you would be able to see would be someone else's lightsabre!

[ProfessorChaos]

yeah, that rant is pretty spot-on. reva, one of the worst characters in the history of star wars, has the most all-over-the-map motivations and ignorant ways to achieve her silly goal of trying to take down the most powerful jedi in history. as shootem said, you could just throw her entire character/plot on the writing room floor and it would have actually made the show better. in addition, too many moments that were meant to be suspenseful have no teeth if you know the slightest thing about the original star wars and the characters involved. i must admit that i did enjoy some of the showdown between vader and kenobi in the finale, sans the shakey-cam shit. ewan mcgregor did a great job in the moments when he sees anakin's scarred face behind the shattered mask. and the way anakin/vader's voice was going in and out of the robotic sounds was a cool effect. vader's line about how he wasn't obi-wan's failure, and that he was the one who killed anakin skywalker was pretty impactful and the smile he threw in there was pretty haunting. those 30 seconds or so had me really sucked in and made me almost forget about a lot of the negative aspects of the series. ...however, aside from the darth vader stuff, this show was just too filled with woke crap, girl power moments, shitty plot points that are out of sync with the original films, and one of the worst, if not the absolute worst, characters in the star wars franchise. meh.

[Neil]

I won't bother with the rest of the series given all the above... Got over three seasons of Babylon 5 left to rewatch

[MinionZombie]

i must admit that i did enjoy some of the showdown between vader and kenobi in the finale, sans the shakey-cam shit. ewan mcgregor did a great job in the moments when he sees anakin's scarred face behind the shattered mask. and the way anakin/vader's voice was going in and out of the robotic sounds was a cool effect. vader's line about how he wasn't obi-wan's failure, and that he was the one who killed anakin skywalker was pretty impactful and the smile he threw in there was pretty haunting. those 30 seconds or so had me really sucked in and made me almost forget about a lot of the negative aspects of the series. This is where the real meat of the story was, but it was shafted aside for too much of the running time and the first two episodes barely even touched upon it at all. That section had some real grit to it, as well. If only the rest of the show had been up to that standard, but alas... Doesn't exactly leave me champing at the bit to see Andor, or whatever it's called - again, a prequel about a character whose fate we already know. Golly, that'll be tense, then!

[Neil]

[MinionZombie]

Yup, that's pretty much it in a nut shell. It's staggering that professional screenwriters were paid and all they could accomplish was this junk, which is riddled with one of the new big sins of screenwriting for the current era: "things happen because reasons?????????? *shrug* that'll do."