All Disney has to do is hire actual good writers for these shows.

The absolutely terrible writing that throws logic or internal consistency out is what completely puts me off.

Just because its TV does not mean that it can't have competent writing.
there are hundreds of really well written shows out there.

 

Of course he will. He wants that bag.

I don't think he's gotten any decent work in a long time.

What was the last decent thing he was on? Birds of prey? as a side character

 

It doesn't hurt that it would involve reprising his most popular role ever. I honestly can't blame the guy if he does want to do more, I just wish we lived in a universe where Disney understood the concepts of restraint and class.

 

So, having just finished the series finale, I have a lot of mixed feelings about the show.

First and foremost, it blatantly contradicts A New Hope, in that Kenobi and Vader definitely didn't meet in-between ROTS and ANH and the Kenobi and Leia never met. Those things may not be explicitly stated but they're heavily implied and it feels like a betrayal to the source material to ignore those implications.

We also have plotholes that you could fly a Star Destroyer through, you know, a Star Destroyer like the one that should have been waiting for Vader in orbit over that planet and should have immediately blasted Kenobi's ship out of the air when he left Vader ALIVE for the second time after a duel to the death.

Accepting that Disney doesn't give a fuck about previously established canon or logic, let's move on to what I liked.

The lightsaber duels were all excellent, especially the Reva vs Vader one in episode 5. The acting was top notch for the most part, even Leia's actor felt very believable. And the CGI and special effects were all great.

All in all, it felt like an unnecessary fan service project, and I swear that I've read the actual plot (e.g someone kidnaps Leia, and the Organas contact Obi Wan to rescue her) in more than one fanfic.

 

It does close some plot holes, too. Minor ones, mostly. Leia's excited shouting of "Ben Kenobi?!" In A New Hope when Luke said he was there with him to rescue her, for one. Plus the whole 'Darth Vader betrayed and murdered your father,' 'certain point of view,' thing makes more sense if Kenobi heard directly from Vader that Anakin Skywalker is dead.

 

If that's the case, then I'm not sure which fans this was supposed to service.

 

On the off chance that Disney desires to have one SW show that's not gonna fuck with canon, be wildly successful and draw every eyeball, that show is Vader: the Imperial Years, where Vader can go full Vader, Disney can cannibalize all the novels and comics they excised from official lore and have seasons upon seasons worth of stories. They won't have to worry about the lead actor suffering from role fatigue because they can stick any stuntman into the suit, then have an intern record some lines and use audio trickery to make them sound like James Earl Jones.

But this show would not be about a good, virtuous hero and it would have to be not so kid-friendly, so right there are two strikes against Disney policy. I don't think Disney is capable of doing a SW show with a villain in the main role. Just look at Book of Boba. They took a dude who had to get scolded by Vader about disintegrations in the OT and turned him into a "crime lord" who won't kill, torture, take protection money, sell drugs or generally do anything that crime lords do and therefore make him not family-friendly.

 

Generally speaking in a sequel or follow up, you're looking for something novel or that it adds something meaningful in some way. Ultimately though, the Kenobi show I think fails to justify its own existence. In a way, it reminds me of the Solo movie as a venture that covers a period of time and character that doesn't really deliver additional insight that wasn't already present before. If anything, a followup like Solo or Kenobi actively detracts from the material it is a continuation or extension of e.g. the examples you give with the tension between the events and various elements of the Kenobi series and A New Hope.

It's telling that Obi Wan lands at the end of Kenobi more or less in the same place where Revenge of the Sith had: he's just come off from a duel with his former student and friend, he's gone into hiding to watch over Luke, and he's prepared to deepen his connection to the Force by training with the spirit of his former master Qui-Gon. In this sense, Kenobi fails to provide a raison d'etre for itself, as the broad story and character arc it portrays had already been done and those story beats played out.

There were possibilities of telling an interesting story with the Kenobi series that would drive Obi-Wan Kenobi's character arc and story forward, but this series wasn't it. Ironically, given the elements at play in the story, I think there might have been a more compelling story if this was a series focused on Reva, not on Kenobi.

 

There was apparently a great deal of demand for this show.

 

All of those criticisms above have merit

I still posit that the scene post helmet slashy with the shadow of Anakin and Vader carrying on different conversations at the same time with Obi-Wan with the blue and red lighting is up there on the list of best Star Wars media ever.

Masterful work from Hayden Christensen.

 

Well, I had fun watching it.

 

Yeah. Fans wanted a Kenobi show. Not whatever the hell this was.

 

Episode 1, 2 and 6 were great. 3, 4 and 5 were poor.

Over all I liked it and enjoyed watching.

Can’t see a series two though.

 

What would be your pitch for a Kenobi show? All the major stuff that isn't between ROTS and ANH has been covered. His youth, the Jedi years, Clone Wars, his death... Those 20 hermit years seem like the only fertile ground for a new story. What story would you tell about a hermit in a desert?

 

Some interesting news that recently came out:

Kenobi was originally pitched as a full-on movie trilogy. The first movie basically being what happened in the show, with Obi-Wan coming to terms with his grief and Anakin. The second movie was supposed to be about mortality - basically Obi-Wan coming to terms with one day having to give his life for Luke, no longer being there to protect him.

This probably would've been a better fit than a show format, but if Disney decided to adapt that second movie idea into a show... it could work. A lot of room to go wrong, but also a lot of potential to tell a very compelling story.

 

Probably one where Kenobi is the protagonist, for one.

 

The obvious answer is an introspective character drama where he learns how to cope with losing literally everything to the closest thing he's ever had to a brother, with a secondary focus on small-scale adventures as he deals with Tuskans or Jawa nonsense or whatever else.

 

The pre-Disney continuity had a decent story covering precisely this.

 

Does nobody care that they ripped off the Vader mask scene directly from Rebels? The Vader vs Ahsoka duel was way better in my opinion. The lightsaber duels were the best part of the show, everything else was either stupid or boring or both.

Seems that Rogue One is still the only piece of Disney Star Wars that I liked. A Star Wars Vader story or KOTOR show would probably suck as well knowing Disney. Better to let a dying horse die, and tell a different story, the universe is massive.

 

I mean is it a "rip-off" if it was was clearly intentional? They used the same "Then you will die," line earlier in the shot. Feloni and Lucas have both talked a lot about how much they love repetition of themes and mirrored scenes across all the different SW eras.

Basically just Feloni giving himself Lucas-style autofellation.