For a man who spends his operating lifestyles sneaking into heavily-guarded enemy strongholds, Obi-Wan Kenobi is really, really horrible at disguises.
Disney Plus miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi, streaming each and every Wednesday till June 22, opens with the crushed and damaged former Jedi Knight in hiding. He is failed his protege, misplaced his closest pals, and used to be not able to avoid wasting the society to which he devoted himself. Now the evil Empire has taken over, and all he can do is eke out a craven life of menial hard work for scraps amid the dunes of a barren planet.
Frankly, on the other hand, it is superb he survived in any respect. That is how unhealthy he’s at concealing his identification. This incompetence for pretence starts together with his safe haven on Tatooine: Of all of the myriad planets of the galaxy, he pitches up on one he is been to ahead of. And does he get a haircut? Dye his beard? Get started rocking a hat? No. He does none of the ones issues. He says his title is “Ben” after which calls it an afternoon.
When younger Princess Leia is captured, he emerges from hiding to stand all the army equipment of the galaxy (plus participating civilians), all of whom are at the look-out for Jedi. So how does he steer clear of being marked as a member of a bunch whose signature appearance, well-known during the galaxy, used to be a brown gown and brown hood?
He places on a brown gown and hood.
Now I do know it is a TV display and clearly just a little of suspension of disbelief is needed. I am the closing one that’d counsel masking up Ewan McGregor’s swoonsome visage for even a 2d (sigh). However they may a minimum of display “Ben” making some strive at a hide. Disguises can also be a large number of amusing (hi, Tom Cruise in Venture: Inconceivable). Simply take a look at that vintage scene in Raiders of the Misplaced Ark the place Indiana Jones struggles to discover a guise in his personal measurement. And from A New Hope to Rogue One to Tala within the new sequence, Big name Wars is filled with thrilling scenes of other folks dressing for the venture.
Tala will get it.
Lucasfilm
On the top of his powers, the more youthful Obi-Wan may saunter into enemy bases with the boldness of a person who used to be taught the way to kill other folks by way of Liam Neeson. Within the Clone Wars cool animated film he as soon as had surgical treatment to undertake the identification of a ruthless bounty hunter. However normally he appears to be accountable of complacency, some of the key failings of the Jedi. If you have that ol’ Jedi thoughts trick to fall again on, perhaps you are content material to only keep for your brown hooded comfies as a substitute of getting to fight out and in of enemy uniforms each and every 5 mins. Within the authentic 1977 A New Hope, the older Alec Guinness model of Obi-Wan Kenobi handwaved his approach thru a checkpoint of stormtroopers like he used to be bold them to step to him. And when his comrades donned stormtrooper armor to infiltrate the Dying Big name, Obi-Wan used to be like, nah, Imma simply tip-toe in the course of the tulips, say one thing.
However Ben, this middle-aged Obi-Wan on Disney Plus, has been out of fee for ten years. He is reluctant to make use of his lightsaber and struggles to even connect to the Drive. It is a man who wishes to begin any journey with a shuttle to Supercuts and a brand new sweater in actually any colour with the exception of brown, or he may not closing 5 mins.
And but… In a fortunate destroy of really galactic proportions, there is just one entity within the Big name Wars galaxy that is worse at disguises than Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Handiest Imperial stormtroopers are so actual
As unhealthy as Obi-Wan Kenobi is at concealing himself, the Empire is really terrible at seeing thru even the most-half-assed masquerade. Amid the loads of Imperial safety guards within the Inquisitor castle in episode 4, how did no-one spot a dude limping for the go out in a weirdly lumpy coat with 4 ft protruding the ground? And the way within the title of Tatooine’s dual suns did the ones stormtroopers in episode 3 now not clock him in an instant? Soldiers who, I may upload, had been taking a look for him in particular, however did not acknowledge the man actually driving at the back of a truck with them.
Even if alerted to one thing fishy by way of the treacherous trucker Freck (booooo!) the Imperials needed to summon a droid to scan his face. Do not they have got pictures in Big name Wars? Put out a rattling APB!
Now not simplest that, however stormtroopers supply any enemies of the Empire with deadass the most efficient hide ever. Each Imperial base is rammed with dudes dressed in equivalent outfits with their faces totally lined! Get your fingers on a type of crisp white ensembles and you’ll strut round such as you personal where — it is the evil identical of a high-visibility vest and a clipboard.
Which makes it totally inexplicable that after sneaking into the Inquisitor castle, Obi-Wan knocks out a stormtrooper after which simply… leaves the frame at the back of. Hello Ben, have you ever forgotten your cool trooper armor from the Clone Wars? That used to be a glance! Put the rattling helmet on and pass unencumber Leia!
Talking of Leia, the Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries has been criticised as a result of its placement within the hole between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope additional lines the already-tortured continuity between motion pictures. Particularly, mustn’t Leia be extra suffering from Obi-Wan’s loss of life in A New Hope if she is aware of him from her adolescence? However I would argue the sequence establishes one large piece of continuity: after seeing Obi-Wan’s laughable camouflage, Leia in point of fact understands the worth of a cast hide. When it comes time to rescue her popsicle poppa Han Solo, she does not stroll into Jabba’s Palace dressed in her personal garments like Luke or throw on a hat and feature achieved with it like Lando. Oh no: Leia now not simplest places on a helmet, she comes up with a complete rattling backstory.
There is obviously no disguising how a lot that is bugging me. Do not get me fallacious, I feel Obi-Wan Kenobi is a brilliant display. However it is obviously an excessive amount of to invite that McGregor’s Obi-Wan will ever don a good hide, as a result of if you have got a large film celebrity for your TV display you need to get your cash’s value. No-one at Lucasfilm would make a TV display the place you’ll’t see the lead personality’s face as a result of he is dressed in a helmet the entire time.
That will be loopy!
