Obi-Wan Kenobi

(24-06-2022 15:50 )Goodfella3041 Wrote:  ...I think film schools of the future will use this as a case study for the "show don't tell" lesson.

Disney gives its audience no credit whatsoever. As if we all hadn't predicted what Reva would do at the end, when the moment actually came they didn't trust us to make the connection between the present and the past. They had to intercut those scenes just to drive the point home.

Do you get what's happening? Do you? Do you!? Hmmm, we better spoonfeed it to you, just in case.

And they put hackneyed dialogue in Darth Vader's mouth, just to reaffirm Obi Wan's slightly dickish "point of view" line in Return of the Jedi. Then they put more hackneyed dialogue in Obi Wan's mouth, just to fix the plot hole they created themselves by making him best mates with Leia in the first place. ...

This show is a great example of a problem we see a lot of in modern screenwriting...

There's a guy who used to work in Hollywood that now does youtube vids critiquing genre stuff from the perspective of a curious insider. He's not so concerned with what's bad or good in the drama or whathaveyou but in how things come to be put out as they do. You guys should watch his short vid entitled "Why Hollywood hates Captain Kirk". The end of it makes a brilliant point about how current scribes just don't trust their audience to work out the EMOTION of a scene - the sense of what each character is feeling at any given moment. So they ladle on OTT explanations of it all the time - overwriting to the extent that viewers are bludgeoned by characters having their 'feels' up there BIG all over the screen. All. The. Goddamn. Time... Or worse, their characters constantly emote about why they came to be so expressive ("emotional baggage" exposition). Subtley, nuance, ambiguity, and most importantly audience interpretation is thus cast aside because they think their viewers are too dumb to work this shit out for themselves!

Then too - possibly as a result of the burden of this obsession with emotion - we often seem to be left with no room for explanations as regards the practicalities behind the basic narrative a scene (lapses in internal logic iow).

I think this is why Kenobi feels both under and overwritten at the same time. Modern producer/writer priorities are just weird - they think their focuses (cf. social justice agendas) are all that should be important to the plebs. And we see the result in the final product. Every time.

I enjoyed the show, i didn't think it was great but a solid 7.5 out of 10 rising with the finale.

As i have said before i have only really watched Star Wars as an adult so i don't have the same childish wonder when viewing it. I enjoyed that the character driven theme of Obi's PTSD & guilt, ending when Vader tells him that it was he that killed Anakin as well as the more gritty fight scenes in which one critic referred it to John Wick made this show perhaps the most mature outing Star Wars as has had

Star Wars has always been a franchise that has been kind of goofy/camp as it looks to appeal to kids, this was the first time when watching the franchise I felt i was watching something for adults

I think the series retcon did more to improve the overall story than hurt it, as Kal-El noted originally Vader & Anakin were to be two different people that then changes and the last point we see their story is in ROTS when Obi thinks he's killed Anakin. So when NH comes around and they meet on the Death Star Obi Wan should be utterly shocked that the "brother" he loved and was forced to kill is standing right in front of him

In also improves on Obi & Leia's relationship in a NH. Why does she think this man who at no point does it really explain how she knows him is her only hope ? Why when Han breaks into the detention cell and she initially refuses to co-operate does she then leap up when he mentions Obi Wan ? And why did they name their only child after a man they knew for like a day ? On top of that Blair did a great job in portraying the young Princess and i liked how her not listening to Obi Wan and doing her own thing mirrored her father's relationship with him.

I also like how they grounded Vader's character towards the end of the show. A lot of Vader recently seems to be very fan fictiony. The hallway scene in Rogue One (which I loved), Fallen Order, the third episode in this series have made him out to be this sort of invincible god and that was never what Vader was. Anakin was an impulsive padwan who charged down Dooku and got a jolt force lightning for his lack of patience. Seeing Vader falling for Obi Wan's bluff in Ep 5, putting his own personnel vendetta over the larger issue in going after Kenobi instead of the rebels, getting his ass handed to him and a verbal bitch slap from the Emperor was a much needed taking down a peg or two

The end fight scene was one of the best the franchise has produced a break from the ninja warrior/cirque du soleil lightsaber duels and giving us what was more a brawl. And even though it ended in a bit of rip off of Rebels, Ewan and Hayden did a good job with it.

Giving some more screen time for Owen and Beru was a welcome move and I am satisfied with the ending to Reva's arc and Moses did a good job acting her final scene. If the characyer comes back fine, i would prefer it is she was the member of an ensemble cast, she does not need her own show

There doesn't need to be a second season, with the weight lifted off his shoulder's by Vader's revelations, his arc is complete. Kenobi was the 14th live action Star Wars production, it was better than the first 2 prequels, the sequels, Solo & Boba Fett. So it finds itself in a comfortable bottom of the top half.

^ Kennedy wants to do stories about powerful women but can't resist using the male characters of the orginal trilogy to put bums on seats. Hence we get this show being more about Leia's formative years than Kenobi. And an attempt to make Reva big enough for her own show.

The naming of Leia's kid was a sequel trilogy thing. i.e. It's Disney making Disney more valid here.

The interrogation of Leia was pretty nonsensical. Why does Reva think this 10yo girl has intimate knowledge of anything to do with rebels escape routes/plans? Why is she even bothered when her motivation is supposed be revenge against Vadar? How does Leia block the powerful Reva probing her mind when she is supposed to know nothing of her own (marginal) force powers til much later in life?

Falling for Kenobi's bluff portrays Vadar as a bit of a dumb ass. Why doesn't he pursue Kenobi in his shuttle and have the star destroyer continue after the rebels?

This series was full of holes like this. Some big, some small. The final episode was just about good enough to look past most of them. But it was a close thing! If this is mature SW I'd rather have the Flash Gordon variety back thanks! I do agree though, no second series is needed.

^^^ I agree with all of this except maybe this bit:

(27-06-2022 19:11 )ShandyHand Wrote:  ^ Kennedy wants to do stories about powerful women but can't resist using the male characters of the orginal trilogy to put bums on seats. Hence we get this show being more about Leia's formative years than Kenobi. And an attempt to make Reva big enough for her own show.

I kinda feel that the only thing more ubiquitous than woke agendas in major film franchises, is the assumption of woke agendas in major film franchises.

Sometimes that agenda can be so overbearing that it interferes with the story and becomes a little annoying -- e.g. the Girl Power moment in Avengers Endgame (great), or "I'm Just a Girl" in Captain Marvel (okay). The gender-reversal of Ghostbusters (shit) and Ocean's 8 (not bad) were also a bit redundant.

Is it always "woke" though? If Star Wars wants to break out of the Skywalker Saga corner that they've boxed themselves into, then they have to start introducing new characters and plotlines. Accepting that ... why not a black woman?

I thought Reva was a badly written character in a weak plot. But there was nothing about that character that was defined by race or gender. You could have put an old white man in that role, and 'Revo' would still have been a badly written character in a weak plot.

It's becoming a bit of a kneejerk reaction. I was big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, back in the day. But I bet if it debuted today, it would be clobbered for its 'wokeness'.

Nothing wrong with making individual attempts to break new ground; indeed looking to establish new heroes and villians is pretty much essential to them at this point. They have to establish new avenues to work in as you say.

The agenda invoked as they do so only becomes annoying when a) its done so muuuuch, b) when it trashes established characters in seeking to elevate the new and c) when it's done badly in general. Political writing is not the issue, poor, often hackneyed, writing is. (Writing strong women as essentially men for instance.) Poor and political is just the current tiresome annoyance of quite a range of franchises and so it gets a lot of attention. Sometimes from people with agendas of their own. (Woke is a shit overused term I agree. It brings in a lot of extraneous baggage. Hence, I didn't use the term.)

“a Jedi’s Return” Documentary Official Trailer

https://youtu.be/4WaC8k3WVl8

Streaming on Disney+ 8th of September 2022