Spoilers 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' series [Spoiler Discussion]

[Kor]

Vader's rampage against the townsfolk was quite chilling. He actually struck me as being a little too kill-happy with innocent bystanders in the last episode, even for Vader, as he tried to draw Kenobi out of his hiding place. I guess he's on such a big rampage because of his monumental hatred of Kenobi. But somehow this felt especially cold-blooded even compared to the times when he killed noncombatants in the prequels, as horrific as those were. AOTC: he blamed all the Tuskens for his mother's death and saw them as inhuman beasts. ROTS: the younglings were potential future Jedi Knights. This episode: everyday Imperial subjects in an Imperial town who had nothing to do with the object of his hatred.

No doubt comparisons would also be made to ESB. But even then when he was hell-bent on getting Skywalker, Vader wasn't indiscriminately killing left and right. He killed two leading Imperial officers because they blundered and failed him big-time at what should have been simple tasks. Somehow it might seem like more, but yes, it was 'only' two. Marvel comics after that started having him kill officers over practically every little thing, but letters to the editor complained that this wasn't in character because Vader wasn't being bloodthirsty in ESB but being very discriminating in who got the death sentence. So Marvel backed off on that kind of depiction.

And then on Cloud City to draw Skywalker there, Vader doesn't kill anybody. He 'only' subjects Luke's friends to torture; Han with that bizarre sparky contraption, Chewie with the noise in his cell, and Leia... I'm not quite sure, exactly. Vader had no compunctions over subjecting her to direct torture in ANH, but nothing here? But anyway, Vader doesn't seem to have much regard for whether Han survives the freezing process, but he isn't trying to kill him on purpose. Then he decides to take Leia and Chewie as prisoners.

I guess he'll mellow out with age when it comes to the indiscriminate killing.

Kor

 

[Turtletrekker]

Admiral Ozell and Captain Needa may disagree with your assessment of Vader's level of kill happiness in the original trilogy.

 

[100Pic]

1. New thing comes out that people like: clickbait machine cranks out disingenuously negative articles to drive outrage traffic, minority that share that view get a signal boost making seem like an even split, which generates more traffic.
2. New thing becomes slightly old thing: clickbait machine cranks out disingenuously reconciliatory articles about previous new thing, positing that "that old new thing wasn't as bad as people say" driving more outrage traffic, this time from the already riled up and emboldened negative camp, and all just in time for the next new thing that people like to come out.
3. Rinse and repeat.

You hit the nail on the head. Everything with an existing fandom just gets smashed with hate. A few years later, there are suddenly all these "This show/movie is an underrated gem" videos. Ugh. I have literally stopped reading online reviews of things because of this. I call this phenomenon The Internet Hate Machine.

It's much harder to sound intelligent and witty when you like something, but easier when you hate something.

I've been loving Obi-Wan so far — my only issue, as many have pointed out, is it was dumb when Darth Vader just let Obi-Wan go because... fire. But whatever, all shows and movies have a plot hole or two.

 

[Campe]

Was fucking amazing.

Yes, I like Palpatine returning. I found it quite enjoyable.

To each his own, I suppose. It could have been fucking amazing, in my opinion. It would have been nice if they laid the groundwork, even just some minor hints in TFA and TLJ. (And I liked both of those movies.) But that would have required some sort of a plan. Instead it was an obviously tacked on storyline not only to the movie itself but to the whole trilogy.

 

[fireproof78]

To each his own, I suppose. It could have been fucking amazing, in my opinion. It would have been nice if they laid the groundwork, even just some minor hints in TFA and TLJ. (And I liked both of those movies.) But that would have required some sort of a plan. Instead it was an obviously tacked on storyline not only to the movie itself but to the whole trilogy.

I think it works fine as a wrap up to the saga. I agree with the trilogy lacking a plan, but much like the Clone Wars did for the PT, the Mandalorian has for Palpatine's set up, as well as the First Order. So, while as a wrap up to the trilogy it was a little lacking, as a wrap up to the Saga-fuck yeah!

 

[ichab]

Vader's rampage against the townsfolk was quite chilling. He actually struck me as being a little too kill-happy with innocent bystanders in the last episode, even for Vader, as he tried to draw Kenobi out of his hiding place. I guess he's on such a big rampage because of his monumental hatred of Kenobi. But somehow this felt especially cold-blooded even compared to the times when he killed noncombatants in the prequels, as horrific as those were. AOTC: he blamed all the Tuskens for his mother's death and saw them as inhuman beasts. ROTS: the younglings were potential future Jedi Knights. This episode: everyday Imperial subjects in an Imperial town who had nothing to do with the object of his hatred.

No doubt comparisons would also be made to ESB. But even then when he was hell-bent on getting Skywalker, Vader wasn't indiscriminately killing left and right. He killed two leading Imperial officers because they blundered and failed him big-time at what should have been simple tasks. Somehow it might seem like more, but yes, it was 'only' two. Marvel comics after that started having him kill officers over practically every little thing, but letters to the editor complained that this wasn't in character because Vader wasn't being bloodthirsty in ESB but being very discriminating in who got the death sentence. So Marvel backed off on that kind of depiction.

And then on Cloud City to draw Skywalker there, Vader doesn't kill anybody. He 'only' subjects Luke's friends to torture; Han with that bizarre sparky contraption, Chewie with the noise in his cell, and Leia... I'm not quite sure, exactly. Vader had no compunctions over subjecting her to direct torture in ANH, but nothing here? But anyway, Vader doesn't seem to have much regard for whether Han survives the freezing process, but he isn't trying to kill him on purpose. Then he decides to take Leia and Chewie as prisoners.

I guess he'll mellow out with age when it comes to the indiscriminate killing.

Kor

I found it to be completely in character for Vader. Yes, younglings were future Jedi. But they were still innocent CHILDREN. Once a character is able to cross that threshold I believe him to be capable of committing any crime. And the reason you didn't see him personally killing people in the OT was because he had Stormtroopers doing that deed for him. This episode was a rare case where he felt he had to get personally involved because it's Kenobi and Stormtroopers and Inquisitors aren't going to be enough.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Only because (for whatever reason) the Imperials were scanning yet not destroying any Escape Pods that registered "no life forms aboard" (need because if they did what they SHOULD have done - and that's blast EVEY Escape Pod they saw launch); we'd have a VERY SHORT film.

[and others]

They didn't shoot the pod for the same reason they didn't shoot any random debris that fell off the ship. It's just junk, so why bother? Also some basic military disciple; you don't just shoot at anything that moves. You always check your targets. Plus, what gunner wants to explain to Lord Vader that they failed to shoot a pod that actually had escaping rebels in it, because they were too busy using the ventral batteries taking pot shots at random debris and short circuiting pods?

C-3PO said to R2, "Hey, you're not permitted in there. It's restricted." According to regulations, if there were no life forms scanned, there certainly should not have been any droids in the pod either. Besides an empty pod, the only other option would be that something had been stowed in there (admittedly such as the plans). But if a pod just carrying the plans were destroyed, how would they know for sure they'd stopped the leak of the plans?

I don't think the gunner officer thought all that through, but I think he believed that the possibility of droids being in the pod was excluded. It would seem that none of the Imperials considered that possibility until the trooper found a piece of one of the droids that had fallen off.

This points to the Imperials thinking that everything was locked down according to their procedures when in fact it really wasn't. It required R2 going into a restricted area to get the plans out.

 

[Moist_Cake]

I

They didn't shoot the pod for the same reason they didn't shoot any random debris that fell off the ship. It's just junk, so why bother? Also some basic military disciple; you don't just shoot at anything that moves. You always check your targets. Plus, what gunner wants to explain to Lord Vader that they failed to shoot a pod that actually had escaping rebels in it, because they were too busy using the ventral batteries taking pot shots at random debris and short circuiting pods?

If this were actually real life, I think they would have destroyed any pod the jettisoned. Take no chances. It's what I would have done. But of course, it's not real and just a film and if they did that, The End.

 

[KennyB]

Part IV: Obi Gets his Groove Back

it’s up

 

[thribs]

Watching episode 4 and I kept expecting Leia to say that they were on Dantooine.
It was okay but I want to some more Hayden. Seems like a waste to have him in the Vader suit. That’s boring.
Are we supposed to know who those people were in the basement? I didn’t recognise any of them

 

[cooleddie74]

One looked a little like the intact body of Plo Koon but he was killed when his Jedi Starfighter was shot down and exploded in a fireball over Cato Neimoidia. So my guess is it's another Dorin Jedi hunted down by the Inquisitors.

 

[CorporalClegg]

This one was kind of a bore. Leia's plot armor killed it, really.

*Also, does anyone besides me think the lightsaber bloom is a little over-saturated?

 

[thribs]

This one was kind of a bore. Leia's plot armor killed it, really.

*Also, does anyone besides me think the lightsaber bloom is a little over-saturated?

Yeah, they are being a bit too stylised with the saber stuff here.

 

[cooleddie74]

I don't mind them putting the lightsaber glows and reflections on nearby objects because it's so much easier to do that nowadays but yeah, they don't need to make everything so oversaturated and rich. The digital blades in the Prequels were plenty good enough the way they looked.

 

[Crewman6]

This one was kind of a bore. Leia's plot armor killed it, really.

*Also, does anyone besides me think the lightsaber bloom is a little over-saturated?

Agree. This is the first at least slightly disappointing episode.

A lot of the plotting was just dumb or convenient. I'm sick of people talking their way past guards with the flimsiest of excuses or, worse, the ol' tired canard, "Wait'll I tell your boss about this!" At least she wasn't able to get away with it twice.

And no one bothers to notice Obi Wan or Leia because they're wearing a big trench coat? Oy....

And why was Vader not in the base? Because...reasons.

Some of the editing and directing was off, too. A lot of the Obi Wan vs. stormtrooper business wasn't very well-staged and the final big fight in the hangar was pretty bad, with a few awful CGI shots thrown into the mix. The editing in the corridor just before the flood also took way too long to get to the inevitable.

This was also the first time when Reva felt actually pretty lame and unintimidating.

Basically this was mostly just wheel-spinning, existing only to get Leia and Obi Wan back again. Throw in some dodgy dialogue among all the other issues and you have one unimpressive outing on your hand. Hopefully things will pick up as we're entering the final act.

 

[thribs]

The way they escaped at the end reminded me of Austin Powers. Not the same thing but it was the first thing that came to mind.

 

[cooleddie74]

I call it the Three Stooges Ploy. Have Shemp sit on top of Moe and Larry under a trenchcoat to sneak out of a building.

 

[crookeddy]

Looks like the people who watch the show early are giving it high ratings on IMDB, and then the score just keeps going down. I think that means that Star Wars fans like it, but the general public does not. The IMDB scores are now in the same territory as Boba Fett, which the internet has branded a complete disaster. Remember, this was the BIG Star Wars show that D+ had up its sleeve. No other show will generate this kind of buzz, so to have it be a flop threatens the entire Star Wars franchise.

 

[Moist_Cake]

Another awesome episode! "I am a Princess of Alderaan!" Loved it.
Kenobi gradually getting his groove back was excellent. Nice build up there.

 

[Reverend]

Of all the cameos this show could have had, I really didn't expect Tera Sinube to be one of them . . . well, what's left of him anyway. Kind of odd that the padawan had the training helmet still on though. Even creepier; it looks like they shoved him in that thing alive. One assumes this is "Project Harvester"?

Am I misremembering, but didn't the Fortress Inquisitorious look a little different in Fallen Order? I remember it having a pair of spires, not just one featureless obelisk type shape. Presumably they remodelled after Cal's little visit five years ago?

Kind of disappointed the Purge Troopers didn't get more to do. I mean they went to the trouble of actually making the costumes, why not show them off more?

Seeing the T-47s again was fun! Though I can't shake the feeling I'm supposed to know who those two pilots were . . .