00:07 “There are certain scenes in this fictional series that some viewers may find upsetting.” Oh, now they warn me?

02:41 I feel like this is supposed to be showing how precious a commodity water is on Tatooine, because Dune was a thing. But this setup is kind of fail if that’s true. Why is such a precious commodity being traded on a table in the middle of the street, where people like this guy can just mug you and take it? Why is water being poured out of a thermos in the desert sunshine, causing evaporation?

Speaking of which, the “mugger” looks like the overseer at the meat-processing job Obi-Wan had in the first episode.

02:49 And why would this guy not be more cautious about the same thing happening to him?

03:07 Aaaand, we cut away so the show doesn’t have to address the problems here. How is the clearly still-wounded Reva able to get to Tatooine without help? Why does everyone just knuckle under to a not-large woman showing visible signs of physical impairment? Why didn’t the water-mugger follow up his bluster? Why is the salesman going to cooperate?

03:13 And if the Path ship is still being pursued and attacked by a Star Destroyer, how could Reva have possibly left Jabiim after they took off, and made it to Tatooine when they have not even been able to leave the system. This is not a case of “well, the Imperials are distracted by chasing the Path ship so she is able to slip away” this is a matter of time frames. Either this little ship has miraculous shields and has simply been enduring a pummeling by the Star Destroyer in the time Reva has managed to recover from her wound and find transport off Jabiim despite Imperial control of the area, and make it to Tatooine to question some random street vendor. Also, how does it make sense that the Imperials are concentrating on this one ship to the exclusion of anyone else taking off from Jabiim, since the Path has already demonstrated a willingness to send off decoy ships while the real quarry is on another?

03:21 Full credit to the unseen Imperial minions who managed to fly Vader back to the Star Destroyer, enter the hanger and land, while it was actively pursuing the Path vessel. Or maybe the Path crew are utterly incompetent that they have not managed to effect a jump out of the system while Vader was boarding his shuttle to return to the Star Destroyer. Or in the same amount of time Reva managed to leave Jabiim and get to Tatooine.

03:26 “Increase firepower.” Why? Seriously. This is probably just something put in there to have dialogue. What even is firepower? You know, in the real world, “increase firepower” means “acquire more or bigger guns”. That’s a major refit for a warship. Possibly he means increase power to the guns.

03:32 Actually, it appears that “increase firepower” means “fire more guns”. Which is still a bad word choice.

04:20 Someone in this conversation is being obtuse. When the Space Wizard asks “how much time do you need?” chances are, he might have a way to get you that time, even if you can’t imagine that, because Space Wizard. Bearing in mind that Space Wizardry is exactly the reason Ice Cube is in this fix, there is no reason he should not believe that Obi-Wan has something in mind to try to delay their doom. Or maybe Obi-Wan is just asking “how much time do you need?” to hear his head rattle, and is stupidly bothering Ice Cube when he has no plan to prolong their survival.

04:59 Maybe you should have left Lola on the damn planet, since it has been of absolutely no use and has already been compromised once. Sure, Leia took off the restraining bolt, but if I had an attachment on a droid like that, the first thing I would do is have it transmit its own inherent code or energy signature or whatever so I can continue to track it if anything happens to the bolt.

05:35 See, Reva is absolutely incompetent! Fighting against guerillas or resistance movements requires winning the hearts and mind of the general population. She was going over the top even by the standards of someone with a job title like “Grand Inquisitor” and the result is, that while people are willing to obey out of fear, they also turn against people who terrorize them and look for ways to get their own back, by things like passive-aggressive noncompliance, or by turning around and warning those they are forced to betray.

05:56 I keep forgetting that Ice Cube’s name is Roken.

06:06 Discount Rose Tico is just as wrong as the real thing in objecting to others’ sacrifices. Anyway, since when do these people get a vote in what Obi-Wan wants to do on his own?

06:12 Leia is canonically not the future, aside from incubator of the future greatest menace to the galaxy, and a pretty face that will inspire the actual heroes to get involved. And why does she get any say, considering she A. has a horrible track record of decision-making just in the last four episodes and B. is a kid?

06:23 This is not remotely responsible passing the buck. Haja is a scam artist, however in the right place his heart is. He has no ability, agency or capacity to “get her home.”

06:30 I’ll give Haja this, he’s at least aware of his shortcomings as “a liar and a fake Jedi”.

06:36 Why is that good enough for Obi-Wan? Because the show is not sincere about Haja’s confession of his faults, that was just a line that is technically true that they threw in to either undercut the seriousness of the moment for levity or else to lampshade the plot corner they have written themselves into.

It should most emphatically NOT be good enough for Obi-Wan, he should say something like, "not anymore" or "You have to do better." Remember when someone tried to sell him drugs and he made the guy go home and rethink his life? That was not even pertinent to his motivations of the moment. Obi-Wan tries to help people and wants to be friendly with everyone, but he's not a chump.

06:56 I wonder how that actress playing young Beru feels about her career since AotC RotS, especially how it has diverged success-wise from that of the only person with whom she has consistently appeared on screen.

07:12 Yeah, whose fault is it that Ben has gone? Damn you Owen, manufacturing a crisis with the royal family of Alderaan to get him off the planet! I seriously cannot imagine that had he been more friendly or open with Ben, Ben would have refused to leave with Leia in danger, since we have established that that is a driving motivation, in defiance of plot coherence.

07:15 The desert is actually a very good hiding place. People have used it for that reason since time out of mind. This woman has (finally) had two lines while playing a role over 20 years and they are both dumb.

07:20 Not helped by Young Beru’s third ever line insisting that they have a chance staying in the home where the audience knows she will die when the Imperials do come around.

07:24 Fleeing to the desert is a good way to not put anyone else in danger.

07:44 I guess this is how they ended up as charred skeletons. By surviving Reva’s attack, Beru is going to be arrogantly convinced of their tactical prowess, and Owen won’t have the credibility to doubt her, and so they are going to be “ready” when the stormtroopers come looking for the droids and that ends that.

Also, doesn’t help Reva look any less inept, that her quarry just sat around waiting for her to show up.

08:07 When writing yourself into a corner, just have a random character make a convincing argument off-camera. How and why was Haja able to persuade Leia to accept Obi-Wan’s plan? Who cares, as long as they don’t have to write it.

08:42 Maybe in a rare acknowledgement that this is a child, and a not-particularly competent one at that, it’s sensible for Obi-Wan to not give Leia a blaster, but that renders a holster a fairly empty gift (literally and figuratively). And Leia was not present for Indira Varma’s explanation of her tally count marks, so it’s not even like the significance of the holster would any meaning.

11:48 Do Star Destroyers no longer carry TIE fighters, so they could at least TRY to wipe out the ship full of nascent Jedi & their helpers and a focal point of future resistance, while the capital ship itself pursues Kenobi?

12:04 It is now dark, and contrary to Beru’s last statement, they are not in position and do not appear ready for Reva. What have they been doing until now?

12:17 This is more dumbness. Telling Luke the threat is Tuskens, when it is actually a human woman could blow up in all sorts of ways. What immediately comes to mind is a scenario where Luke sees Reva limping up, and emerges from hiding to go to her aid, or opens the gate to a fellow victim of the Sand People!

I am going to charitably and judging by the show’s track record thus far, without basis, assume that a direction for Luke to run to has already been discussed as part of their prior disaster plans. Of course, that torpedos Beru’s insistence that they not endanger others, because presumably Luke is going to run to the nearest neighbor, or to Anchorhead or Tashi Station for help. Because he’s ten and way too young to take up a self-sufficient survivalist life in hiding. But the point is, if Owen and Beru fail to stop Reva, she is simply going to pursue Luke to somewhere with innocent bystanders.

That said, I do feel better about their chances of stopping her without waiting for Obi-Wan to get home, because Owen has a woman with him, and it would be bad form for a show under the supervision of Kathleen Kennedy to have a white man rescue other white people from a black villainess.

13:22 See, Vader has his own ship, which strongly resembles a model we know to be capable to interstellar flight. I find it hard to believe the personal shuttle of the number two man in the Empire is inferior in flight capability to the lifeboat of a crappy underground railroad vessel. Why could he not have pursued Obi-Wan with a TIE fighter escort, just in case things turned hairy, while the Star Destroyer hunted down the Path?

13:37 I would love it if he would just smash this stupid thing. I suppose it’s intended as a sweet gesture from Leia, but it’s rather pointless and unnecessary. It does not add anything to either characterization, and I can’t see “I would have beaten you if not for the critical distraction of that toy droid” being the real underlying meaning of “When you left, I was but a learner…”

15:27 I hope the sun’s coming up. I know film school losers nerds love things like contrast and the light of lightsabers standing out in the dusk, and it’s hard to choreograph a good sword fight when you probably don’t have the resources Lucas had in the movies, but seeing what is going on is the most important thing. If filming a lightsaber duel that functions as the satisfying climax to your six episode series is going to be too hard, then make the climax something else, especially when the established movie makes the occurrence of such an event highly suspect anyway!

15:31 “Have you come to destroy me, Obi-Wan?” He didn’t come anywhere! YOU chased HIM!

16:28 That fight sequence was not bad. A bit too much swinging and missing compared to prior duels, but otherwise, not bad. Of course, it is utterly lacking in any sort of tension, especially considering we know they are both going to survive more or less intact, and Obi-Wan beat him decisively in their matchup way back when. The only way one might think there is some peril to this fight is because of the show randomly and artificially gutting his skills.

16:40 Though I suppose a farmer can’t be expected to think of everything, the ideal time to shoot is when they are in a narrow doorway, before they step out into a space where there is room to maneuver and objects of cover and your target has not yet drawn her lightsaber.

Of course, considering he lost his step-mother to raiders from this very farm, you’d think Owen would have given more thought to the tactical ramifications of defending the place.

17:01 Was there any doubt their first shot was going to miss?

17:15 Why did Beru just kick her cover away?

17:50 This ducking and rolling and hitting the rocks around them makes me think someone involved in the production saw that fan-made version of their Death Star duel.

18:09 “Your strength has returned, but the weakness still remains!” What is he talking about? What weakness remains if his strength has returned? In another context, I would take that to mean his morals or compassion, but since they appear to be the only ones on this planet, it’s not like Obi-Wan is in danger of a fatal distraction via threats to innocent bystanders.

19:12 Obi-Wan utterly beat Vader last time. “Did you truly think you could beat me?” leads to the answer “Based on past experience, yes!” Obi-Wan warned Vader, who ignored him, jumped, and Obi-Wan promptly sliced off all his remaining natural limbs with one swipe. If the weakness Vader previously referred to was his failure to finish off Vader and just leaving him there, it has no bearing on anything in this fight or Vader’s apparently victory here.

19:18 And he’s just going to walk away, and assume the rocks squished Obi-Wan when there was no evidence he was even seriously hurt in the fall or that the rocks did, in fact, squish him. You’d think the craving for revenge that saw him drag Obi-Wan into the fire a couple episodes ago would have him wanting to pull the body out to be sure, and maybe vent some more of his wrath, and if he’s not dead, haul him away for more torture.

It’s like there are two different Vaders, once of whom fought Obi-Wan on Not-Tatooine #5 and this one, and they only shared a cursory report of the prior fight.

19:50 Reva really sucks. She lets a guy with no Force abilities and little tactical acumen close to take advantage of her physical weakness, and meanwhile, she has let herself become boxed into a narrow area with an active shooter unaccounted for behind her, who could take advantage of this distraction to gun her down.

19:57 Note that when Reva first corners Owen on that walkway, rather than use her lightsaber, she throws an object at him to knock him down. After he hits her a couple of times, she uses the saber to cut through his club and then uses the Force to toss him aside, rather than strike with the lightsaber. This is transparent plot armor forcing her to make counter-intuitive moves in the fight.

21:18 Quelle surprise. The guy with telekinetic powers was not crushed by a pile of rocks.

21:34 Jedi are supposed to be best able to access the Force when they are peace. It’s the Sith who would draw on memories and emotional attachments for a power burst if anyone would. That’s how Obi-Wan beat Maul, he relaxed, calmed down and drew on the Force to call Qui-Gon’s lightsaber and do a jump-flip to get the better of Maul. When he attacked the Sith in a rage at Qui-Gon’s death, he was knocked down handily.

21:46 I was thinking that however stupid, Vader just leaving Obi-Wan under the rocks and going home would at least provide a satisfactorily compliant resolution to this encounter. But he’s not gone yet, and Obi-Wan is out and free.

22:04 You can say what you want about their final chronological duel being lame without the effects and stunts of other fights in the series, but at least on the Death Star, Obi-Wan and Vader were not pulling stupid bullshit like switching a lightsaber from one hand to the other behind his back, between blows, or rolling off one another’s backs.

22:27 The stupidity of one burying the other in rocks as a conclusion to this fight does not change if it’s Obi-Wan who does it.

22:52 Commence the scary taunting of Luke in his hiding spot that is not at all scary…

23:06 And why did Reva pull her hood up and how is it staying up and leaving so much of her face bare, despite her running as fast as she can?

23:46 This mismatch is exactly what one should have expected from the outcome of their duel on Mustafar and should not have needed a six-episode miniseries and ten years of story time to get us to. This whole show has simply been running in place.

24:07 And why, if he is aiming at Vader’s head, is he not finishing the fight here? I can see the rationale for not doing do on Mustafar, because of anger and grief and the path to the Dark Side, plus a reasonable expectation of Vader’s death. But here and now, I don’t see how they can avoid setting up a Pattern of Obi-Wan stupidly letting Vader live.

25:40 “This is not your failure, Obi-Wan. You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker, I did.” Okay, first reaction, that’s not bad. Standing alone, and not as the climax justifying all the nonsense in this series to get here. Because it’s true and it justifies the version Obi-Wan will later give to Luke. What does not make sense is having Obi-Wan wallowing in grief and guilt to the point that he loses his connection to the Force, only for it to come back because he’s in the middle of an action story and really needs it after getting beat in their first encounter, to the extent that he is dominating Vader in this fight, and only now does he hear the words to resolve his inner conflict and accept his lack of fault in Anakin’s own shortcomings and moral failure. They have completely divorced the character arc from the action of the plot.

26:18 “Goodbye, Darth.” Works. Helps to make him addressing Vader that way in aNH a gesture of contempt or resignation to his nature. Saying that any reason to care about Anakin is gone, and by not even using his Sith name, saying that he’s just a Sith, and in no way special or distinct from the shadowy herd.

26:47 And what happened to the Star Destroyer? They just let Obi-Wan leave in his crappy dropship?

29:01 I grant that Owen and Beru are preoccupied with their missing nephew, but did they not notice the space ship landing nearby?

29:17 How is this earned? And what was the point of the gunfight in the Lars farm? You could have had the same thing by Reva just walking in, brushing the Larses off and standing over Luke and come to the same mental place. The fight accomplished nothing, it did not make Reva or the Larses seem more badass, it did not stall her until decisive aid could arrive. It took place entirely in the heart and mind of a character who has been given almost no interiority until the prior episode, as expressed by a random leap of intuition about her intentions by Obi-Wan.

You can come up with a rationale for her actions, but all too much of this studio’s output has relied heavily on the viewers doing the work of writing the story for them.

31:18 Yeah, okay, fine. One act of mercy utterly redeems and validates all this woman has done in years of sacrificing innocent Jedi and Force-sensitive people in pursuit of an opportunity to get revenge on Vader. Whatever, repentance at the last moment is all good, fine. Except, of course, from what we see, it was not mercy, it was conflating her target with herself and/or a failure of nerve.

31:38 I can get feeling this way about a stranger, being glad they chose mercy instead of continuing their evil ways, and even comforting them and trying to help them be better, with the understanding that in the current context, imposing worldly justice for her actions is not practicable. What I don’t get, is why the audience is supposed to be invested in this change of heart from a character only presented initially as a monster with evil motivations, and who has not been shown sufficiently to make us care about who she is or why she had those motivations. She is not, unlike Vader, someone personally connected to the heroes to give us stakes in their conflict and redemption. This is just a twist that the producers think is earned, because they imagined a character they think is cool, and care about her, without bothering to put their headcanon backstory and interior struggles on the screen.

31:53 That it’s Battle of Winterfell dark so it takes a minute to realize whose face is in each shot, and forget actually reading their expressions, does not help humanize Reva one iota.

32:36 “Now you’re free. We both are.” This sounds like they are desperately trying to make us believe Reva’s struggle was related to, or reflective of, Obi-Wan’s over the course of this series. The only connection there is that both are badly written, unearned and serve no purpose other than to reset the status quo, when the show should not have diverged from that status in this way in the first place.

33:06 Why is Vader communicating with the Emperor while sitting on a throne, instead of kneeling before his image, as in tESB? Should the relaxed formalities not come after a period of service and gained trust?

33:26 Wondering if Vader’s feelings on the matter are clear only calls back to their interaction in the Original Trilogy, a comparison that does not serve this show well at all.

33:56 “Kenobi means nothing. I serve only you, my master.” And another reset to status quo. Every character in this series has not so much an arc as a loop. And Vader’s journey was in the space of a single conversation! He began this talk all afire to hunt down Obi-Wan, and after a single line from the Emperor, shuts it down and is now content to go about Sith & Imperial business without any indication that Obi-Wan means anything to him until the guy shows up on his battle station. THAT is what his journey should have been over the series, from revenge-driven, to seeing how this weakens him and making a choice to bury Anakin for good and embrace the future, and eventually making a conscious choice to give up on avenging his injuries. This is not a character choice, it’s acquiescing to the Emperor’s implicit order to desist and remain in his good graces.

34:44 I know as little about women’s hairstyling as the Duke of Wellington knew about agriculture, but it seems to me that if your hair is braided as tightly as that, there is no point to touching it with a comb.

35:19 “Is that a holster? I love it.” Of course she loves it, because women with weapons or the implicit suggestion of weapons is an inherent good in modern media. Never mind that the holster and fingerless gloves convey the exact opposite image intended by royal garb, and she just looks like a brat whose parents can’t be bothered to have change entirely out of playclothes for formal occasions.

And there is the fact that nine years later, she will be seen wearing no holster or gloves or any sort of action apparel. This will not stop her from actually wielding guns, mind you, or playing a part in her own extrication from captivity. So at the conclusion of the show, the character affects the image of a woman of action, with none of the substance, while it’s reversed in the film. That’s actually a rather delightful - and almost certainly unintentional - meta-commentary.

35:41 Okay, so now this empty holster represents Leia’s leadership chops. The only sensible way to interpret her parents’ reactions is that they are just humoring her, because she’s actually cooperating for once.

35:47 Leia, you disobeyed your parents, ran out to be alone in disregard of standing orders, got kidnapped and a guard killed, dragged a Jedi out of hiding and endangered the Underground Jedi Railroad in efforts to return you home. The standing situation “Leia stays indoors, under supervision” worked, and your refusal to cooperate led to all the problems! You are not in a position to demand changes!

36:00 Great, Obi-Wan is leaving Luke alone, again. I guess they figure that any bad guy who shows up is just going to repent at the sight of his face. Bear in mind, he has no idea about Vader’s change of heart policy. For all he knows, Imperial probes or spies or scouts have tracked him to Tatooine and are closing in on the kid named “Skywalker” as we speak.

36:05 Oh, yay. She got her toy back.

36:47 They don’t have UPS or something to send the damn droid back to Leia without leaving Tatooine, so Obi-Wan and Bail could have this conversation by hologram? I would also like to note, that it’s not like we needed that exchange about the Empire getting bolder and stronger and Obi-Wan saying they know where to find him if he is needed. They always did know. They did, in fact, call him, stupidly, when they perceived they needed help, even if it was not really an Obi-Wan problem.

“…you are wise, discerning, kindhearted...passionate, fearless and forthright…” We saw her in three movies (that count) by better writers. We don’t need a speech telling us her qualities that this show has not earned, and especially claiming that they are innate genetically-driven traits from two biological parents who have played no part in her life.

Also, Anakin was kindhearted, and Padme was passionate, fearless and forthright. So it’s not like you can definitively say that one parent in particular contributed to her having those things. I wonder why they attributed passionate & fearless to the male parent and kindhearted to the female parent? Could they be falling back on gender stereotypes?

38:41 Really, Obi-Wan, “be careful or you could endanger us both” is a talk you should have had with Bail & Breha ten years ago.

39:30 Obi-Wan has been on-screen for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Why was this visit AT ALL necessary?! You flew between the stars for an encounter of less than five minutes, and to hand over a toy! Most people would not drive 20 minutes for a visit that brief.

39:34 Also, the secret meeting is taking place in view of two guards. In the place where Leia expects formal welcomes to happen, so there is the possibility of others being able to see it or maybe cameras emplaced for publicity. In this show, they have established the enemies they least want to know about any connection with Jedi or Obi-Wan, are capable of pulling information from reluctant minds. These two guards might be the most trustworthy & loyal in the whole galaxy, but they can still be forced reveal that they saw Obi-Wan arrive and hug members of the royal family.

41:00 Obi-Wan is basically beige-colored Santa Claus. Rides around on animal-driven obsolete transport bringing toys to kids. And no other real function.

41:52 That inept gunfight at the Lars Corral does not support Obi-Wan’s statement that Owen is all the protection Luke needs. Since Luke got exactly zero development or characterization, and Owen hardly more, we can't say that Obi-Wan is talking about his personal growth and human connections. There is not really anything in his interactions or observations of Leia to support the idea that she made him see the value of a normal life experience.

42:56 Okay, we get the line. Hooray. It’s like poetry. It rhymes.

43:37 I don’t know how I feel about this presumable Qui-Gon appearance.

43:41 What are you looking at Qui-Gon? You are clearly facing away for dramatic effect.

44:00 I’m pretty sure everyone who has seen a sci-fi or fantasy production before this one knew that Qui-Gon was already there, and it was on Obi-Wan to figure out how to see him.

I think I'll look at this show as a whole in a separate post. Short version and immediate reaction is that this was a badly plotted mess that served no purpose other than to divert and restore characters to their status quo between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It did little or nothing to advance the characters from their end states of the 3rd movie to where they were in the 4th (not that much was really necessary, but that should have only made their writing easier, since they only had to hit one or two beats), and when they did, it was with a single line or moment that comes out of nowhere.

This is just garbage to satisfy the least imaginative fans, who want to see lightsabers and space magic or have projected Leia into a feminist heroine.