The First Two Episodes of Kenobi
It would seem that I have indeed been an idiot and Let the first four Episodes of this Amazing Series slide by before I even Had the Idea to maybe Just make all my reviews a Blog Post, Yeah well what can be done?
So, Here is my best attempt at Reviewing the first Episodes in the space of one, as they were released together, as comprehensively as I can to the best of my abilities.
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EPISODE 1: Chapter 1
I Was almost zoning out for the first half, but as the episode went on, I realized that, that was the point, The Episode was trying to convey how life for obi-wan has become, monotonous, tedious and boring, he too has zoned out.
However the episode doesn’t begin with Obi-wan, it begins with two things.
First a flashback to the prequels, to every important event on how we got here, ending obviously with the climactic duel between Anakin and Obi-wan from revenge of the Sith.
Now, some might call this nostalgia baiting, but that’s not what I felt, for me, this did two things, one it got me up to speed, as to what has happened and secondly it gave me a direct indication of what this show will address, Anakin/Vader and Obi-Wan’s relationship.
Following that we get yet another retelling of order sixty six, now while this scene reminded us of what the horrors were of the order, this put together with the retelling from clone wars season seven, jedi fallen order, the bad batch, and the book of boba fett, I would say, its getting officially close to too many territory, we have seen it, we get it. Obviously, it was inevitable that, this be addressed seeing the main theme of the show, but still, I believe this should have been a brief flash back, and not an entire scene.
We then immediately cut to Tatooine where an inquisitor ship lands, now this is the only place where I can justify the previous scene, cause this immediate cut from Jedi killing to this, signals to us who these people are which for those who keep up with only live action(Which is a disturbingly high number) might be difficult, these are jedi killers/ hunters.
The inquisitors.
They enter a saloon in search of a Jedi, and this awesome line from the trailers is uttered.
0:37 :The Key, to hunting Jedi, is Patience. Jedi cannot help what they are. Their compassion leaves a trail. The Jedi code is like an itch. He cannot help it!
And sure enough torturing the innocent people of the saloon gets the Jedi to reveal himself to them.
They chase the Jedi, and the third sister, Reva is introduced as the main antagonist, and her intention to catch Kenobi is revealed.
This section does one more thing apart from establish the villains, the themes and the stakes, it gets us hyped up, so when we go to the dreary monotonous part next, we are thinking, when will we get to what we just saw? So when it comes, its that much more exciting, this is all very intentional.
There’s not much to talk about in the next part where we are introduced to Obi- wan’s everyday life, except, he works at a sort of meat work shop, where everyday he steals a bit to feed to his Eopie, and has a working relationship with a Jawa named Teeka, who sells him his own stuff making it clear he is struggling to make ends meet.
The scene with the Jawa plays another role, which is conveyed later in this conversation between Owen Lars and Kenobi, this was a toy he intended to give to Luke, a republic star-ship model toy. And he keeps a constant watch on Luke from a distance, and it is also revealed in this conversation as to why he isn’t more involved.
After this we see the inquisitors arrive for the Jedi from the beginning of the episode, and Reva threatens Both Owen and his family if information isn’t revealed, thankfully he is saved by another inquisitor as he believes Reva goes too far, this is an idea that is reinforced multiple times, that Reva goes too far, and in doing so, it is made clear that even amongst these inquisitors, who we have seen do multiple horrible things in Rebels and Jedi Fallen order, she is ruthless and will go the extra mile.
We meet Leia, who is introduced very well in this scene to be a mischievous girl as she tries to avoid going to this event as all kids do, and also to have a droid companion which has become a staple for star wars at this point and she already speaks much like the adult version of herself, and is quite mature for her age, as she easily outwits her older cousin, in rhetoric, the relationship between bail and Leia is fleshed out and really wholesome, and so… the inciting incident happens, she is kidnapped by this cheeky wanker, and it is revealed that Reva planned this out as she knew bail and Kenobi were close, and this would pull him out of hiding.
The episode ends with Bail calling out to Obi wan, him taking out his buried lightsabers, him and anakins, and him leaving the world.
Episode 2: Chapter 2
When this episode began and we landed on Daiyu, the planet where the entirety of the episode takes place, my first thought was, BLADE RUNNER!
I mean seriously, look at the image above, and then at this image from Blade runner 2049 marketting, and tell me they have different settings.
Aesthetics Aside, this episode revealed a lot about the Star Wars underworld, which to me, is the most interesting part of the star wars universe.
We get a reference to the infamous, do you want death sticks scene from attack of the clones as a seller approaches Kenobi with spice.
This is not where the scene stops though, it is used to set up the stakes, of this episode as it is revealed that the seller herself was once a kidnapped little girl, now this could have been a powerful moment, had it not been for the fact that the original trilogy exists, and we know that Leia cannot die.
It is revealed that Reva was the one who planned the kidnapping of Leia, to force Obi-Wan out of hiding, and it worked!
In order to rescue Leia, Kenobi finds his way to a 'jedi' played by Kumail Nanjiani, who is revealed to be a charlatan, who poses as a Jedi, and offers to do odd jobs in exchange for money, later in the episode however, it is revealed that even though he is lying about the Jedi part, he does indeed deliver on all his jobs, especially a mother and her force sensitive child who wanted off the planet.
Through him Obi-Wan finds his way to Leia, who, understandably doesn't trust him, until she see's his lightsaber, revealing his Jedi past.
I should also mention that this entire section till the end goes a long way to show, that Obi-Wan is quite adept at handling himself without his Jedi powers, even the spice from before comes into play, as he uses it as a form of grenade to incapacitate his assailants and escape.
He does this in a moment where he was very close to death and defeat, and completely surrounded, the fact that he lets it get to this while we have the events of The prequel trilogy to show how easy this situation would have been for him to deal with, goes to show his intelligence in problem solving and the extent to which he is willing to go to not use his Jedi powers, both for fear of discovery, and for having cut himself off from the force for so long that he has forgotten his old power.
Reva sets the entire city's bounty hunters after him, while being aware that they cannot defeat him, their purpose is to squeeze him until he is forced to reveal himself.
And that he does, right after Leia finds out that he is a fugitive and stops believing him to be a Jedi and Obi-Wan is forced to chase her through the entire place and finally forced to use the force to save her.
with the trust reestablished, the pair soon run into the fake Jedi 'Kaja' again, who, while we are first led to believe would want to collect the bounty om Obi-Wan, actually reveals that he has a full escape plan for them, and says he would have done it sooner had he known his identity, showing that the galaxy still has a lot of respect for Kenobi.
Also, side thought, I would really like to have a star wars property cover Kaja's backstory, I know a lot of people had issues with him, but I loved him.
Also I forgot to mention in an earlier scene a clone trooper is seen begging, presumably having been discharged post clone wars and replaced with a storm trooper. Just showing first-hand what impact the clone wars and then the empire has had on the individual scale.
Kenobi and Leia head to a cargo ship port to depart on one of the transports, Leia seems happy, but Kenobi is understandably skeptical. In the mean time, Kaja goes to distract the third sister, but she manages to squeeze the truth out of him, and intercepts Kenobi at the docks.
The grand inquisitor, comes once again to be a thorn in her path, so Reva kills him, I found that disrespectful, such an important character from rebels killed unceremoniously for no other purpose than to prop a character up.
In the midst Kenobi and Leia manage to escape.