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

Vader has a bacta tank too it seems. Everyone has one these days. I thought he lived in that giant black mechanical egg from the movies, but I guess not yet.

He was in this thing in Rogue One :
1g2bN.jpg
 
Really? In TESB, his invasion of Echo base in the hope of capturing Luke was of far greater urgency (to him--and the galaxy) than obtaining the Death Star plans, yet he still relied on troopers in the invasion, rather than taking matters into his own hands.

So, from Star Wars to TESB, there's consistency in how Vader operates when storming anything Rebel-related. The only outlier--and a glaring one at that--was the needless lightsaber porn in Rogue One.



This.

Again, they had the base surrounded by ships and had flattened the rebels' defenses on the planet. The "urgency" you claim was not there. The Empire was holding all the cards, as it was in the beginning of ANH.

In Rogue One, it was an evolving and chaotic situation and Vader's presence absolutely could have made the difference. It nearly did.

in both ANH and ESB, Vader's presence on the ground would have changed nothing.

The "lightsaber porn" sequence is literally the culmination of the movie's entire story arc. A shame so many people seem to willfully dismiss it or miss it. And it's not remotely inconsistent with who Vader is.
 
The "lightsaber porn" sequence is literally the culmination of the movie's entire story arc. A shame so many people seem to willfully dismiss it or miss it. And it's not remotely inconsistent with who Vader is.

This is missing the point. It's not that it is inconsistent with "Who Vader is." It's inconsistent with the tone from one film to the next film. At least for me. It's like listening to a nice classic music piece, having a pause, and then moving in to full on metal rock. It's a dissonance that stands out.

And if Vader's scene is the "culmination of the movie's entire story arc" then it failed massively as far as cinematic language goes. It feels very off. For me, it's not "willful." I recall sitting in the theater and being very surprised by my engagement with the film...until that scene. That scene was a dissonant chord through the last act of the film.
 
This is missing the point. It's not that it is inconsistent with "Who Vader is." It's inconsistent with the tone from one film to the next film. At least for me. It's like listening to a nice classic music piece, having a pause, and then moving in to full on metal rock. It's a dissonance that stands out.

And if Vader's scene is the "culmination of the movie's entire story arc" then it failed massively as far as cinematic language goes. It feels very off. For me, it's not "willful." I recall sitting in the theater and being very surprised by my engagement with the film...until that scene. That scene was a dissonant chord through the last act of the film.

You're more than welcome to not like it!

But it does serve a very important thematic function in the movie and is more than just the "porn" some people dismiss it as.

Whether or not it lands for you is subjective and up to the viewer.
 
You're more than welcome to not like it!

But it does serve a very important thematic function in the movie and is more than just the "porn" some people dismiss it as.

Whether or not it lands for you is subjective and up to the viewer.
If it serves a thematic function then it didn't work. So, yes, it comes across as porn in an otherwise very well edited film. Or, a better term, it comes across as superfluous.
 
"When I left you I was but the learner, now I am the Master."

That sounds like Mustafar to me. Given if they fight now Obi Wan's not only older, but he's been consciously supressing his powers, hasn't even fought with a lightsabre in years? Possibly not for ten years realistically. Meanwhile presumably Vader's been focusing on learning about the Dark side and hacking people down left right and centre on a weekly basis. It's hard to see Kenobi as a Master and Vader as a pupil in that scenario.
Depends. IF they have a face off/fight, and Vader is defeated and Obi-Wan gets away; that would still mean Obi-Wan is more of a Master than Vader.
 
The Vader corridor scene is in no way the culmination of 'Rogue One' as a story. That would be Jyn and Cassian dying together on the beach, not knowing if their sacrifice will ever amount to anything, or if it's already failed . . . but they have hope.

The Vader scene is just a bonus popcorn moment to pick the audience back up, rebuild some tension for the Rebels' skin-of-the-teeth escape, and the catharsis of seeing Leia and knowing it's all heading right into ANH. Star Wars is always meant to be uplifting; even when it ends on a general downer, there's always a hopeful quality to it (see also: tESB.)
Personally I found it a very effective and needed sequence, beyond simple spectacle, but I'm not going to try and pretend that it was what everything else was leading to. That's just silly.

Side note: as usual people aren't paying attention to/ignoring details to support fallacious arguments. He didn't go into that ship alone. He literally says in the previous scene "prepare a boarding party", and we see two TIE boarding craft and a shuttle (his, presumably) fly over. I think there's even a bit in the novelization where he's on his way to the bridge, but senses something that draws him away as his troops surge on ahead, which leads him to the docking area. Hell, we even see his troops catching up to him as the Blockade Runner flies off!

When he finally boarded the Tantavie IV, hell yes he sent his troops through the hatch first. They're cannon fodder. Getting gunned down en masse is mostly what they're for. Same thing in Echo Base; sends in the walkers first to take down the shield, then goes in with a landing party, and again; a couple troops are running ahead of him. He's not going to waste time on some nothing rebel troops unless they're directly in his way. They're not worth his attention.
 
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He was in this thing in Rogue One :
1g2bN.jpg
He was also in this in ESB:
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So...yeah, I didn't have an issue with him having some sort of medical support system as shown in the last few minutes of the second Obi-Wan episode.
 
If it serves a thematic function then it didn't work. So, yes, it comes across as porn in an otherwise very well edited film. Or, a better term, it comes across as superfluous.

"then it didn't work."

for you

It worked for countless others.
 
I think the Vader scene in Rogue One fits quite well thematically, though I agree that it kind of takes away from the real heart of the film, which is Jyn and Cassian.

In this moment, as these people sacrifice so much to tip the balance of the universe away from despair and back towards hope, Darth Vader, the single greatest personification of despair in the galaxy, marches forth to strike hope down in it's infancy. And yet, because of courage, selflessness and maybe a little luck (the will of the Force), he fails. The tide has turned, in this small measure. The door has opened to something new. A New Hope, even.

The real problem with the scene is that we've not followed any of these characters that are getting slaughtered. Their brief existence in the film mirrors that of the Rogue One crew, but we have no connection to them. So watching them get cut down, and yet persevere, doesn't carry the weight it probably should.

Would have worked better if one or two of our heroes were aboard the ship somehow, and among the first to die trying to keep the plans out of Vader's hands. Then you really feel the sacrifice, the courage. Take the scene out of the film as is and you don't really lose anything, save the cool visuals.
 
Take the scene out of the film as is and you don't really lose anything, save the cool visuals.
Exactly which is why it's not essential. It's not penultimate. It's just cool. And fans love rule of cool. Just own it as cool and not essential to Rogue One.
 
He was also in this in ESB:
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So...yeah, I didn't have an issue with him having some sort of medical support system as shown in the last few minutes of the second Obi-Wan episode.

That's the giant black mechanical egg I was talking about! :)
 
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The "lightsaber porn" sequence is literally the culmination of the movie's entire story arc.
You do realize the only reason that scene even exists is because a higher-up at Disney wanted to see some lightsaber action in the movie, and so the scene was done up with the reshoots in summer 2016, right?
 
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