Earlier than Obi-Wan Kenobi introduced on Disney Plus again in Might, I wrote concerning the display’s drawing close unencumber.
I thought that, for one explanation why or any other, Obi-Wan Kenobi felt like a final hope for Superstar Wars beneath Disney. After an incohesive sequel trilogy, some hit or miss spin-offs and a handful of mediocre TV presentations, I used to be tired of all enthusiasm for Superstar Wars.
Obi-Wan Kenobi felt like a final stand for my very own Superstar Wars fandom.
Regardless of disliking nearly all of Disney’s Superstar Wars output, I had a sense Obi-Wan Kenobi had a tight shot at being “just right”. The stakes of a display enthusiastic about this sort of key persona – mixed with the prospective the display needed to bridge the space between the prequels and the originals – set the scene for a brand new form of Superstar Wars nostalgia. Youngsters that grew up at the prequels are adults now – do not they deserve the type of fan provider Disney has been handing over for the decade?
Moses Ingram created one of the crucial memorable new characters in contemporary Superstar Wars historical past.
Disney
I believed so. However I additionally believed the display had the prospective to occupy a brand new heart flooring. Person who appealed no longer simply to more recent fanatics of Superstar Wars, however all fanatics. And you recognize what? For probably the most section, that is precisely the way it performed out.
Obi-Wan Kenobi was once… superior?
Certain, the actress taking part in Leia regarded means too younger to be taking part in a ten yr previous lady. Certain, she was once a part of one of the crucial accidentally hilarious chase scenes in TV historical past.
And positive (that is my remaining positive, I promise) stakes had been reduced with the data Leia, Luke and Obi-Wan would all continue to exist the display’s encounters.
However in spite of all the ones sures, towards the entire odds, Obi-Wan Kenobi nonetheless controlled to be the most efficient TV display Disney has produced since obtaining Superstar Wars.
Most likely extra impressively, it completed the inconceivable: It made (nearly) all Superstar Wars fanatics satisfied.
Hi there!
Maximum fandom has a tendency to have poisonous parts, however Superstar Wars fanatics are some of the maximum tricky to delight.
I think this is because Superstar Wars is so vast, so ubiquitously intertwined with folks’s non-public histories, that it is inconceivable to reconcile. Everybody has their Superstar Wars imprint, their very own concept of what it must constitute. I cherished The Closing Jedi as it confirmed me Superstar Wars may reinvent itself, that Superstar Wars may make fascinating possible choices, perform in sun shades of grey. Others hated The Closing Jedi as it felt like a betrayal of characters they grew up with.
Anakin Skywalker makes a couple of appearances within the display.
Lucasfilm
Most likely the most efficient praise I may give Obi-Wan Kenobi is that the majority Superstar Wars fanatics – out of doors of the racists who got here after Moses Ingram – loved it. Virtually around the board.
Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan has an enormous section to play on this. His efficiency, broadly considered a prime level within the prequels, is pitch absolute best within the display. McGregor has a air of mystery and vulnerability that elevates Superstar Wars, even at its worst. You consider Obi-Wan when he has a disaster of self assurance. You are feeling attached to his struggles and lifted when he overcomes his personal doubts and rises to the instance.
However I feel Obi-Wan is a success most commonly as it connects two distinct Superstar Wars fan bases seamlessly. It takes the most efficient of the prequels – its aesthetic, McGregor – and combines it with probably the most undying a part of the unique trilogy – Vader as an irredeemable, overpowering villain who must be feared in any respect prices.
With the ones two parts in position, Obi-Wan Kenobi, in spite of its flaws, simply works. The inventively choreographed lightsaber duels between the 2 had been pitch absolute best.
Would possibly wish to get that mounted Ani.
Lucasfilm
However Darth Vader’s portrayal is in all probability the display’s biggest energy. Within the heart portions of the display he rampages like an ultraviolent slasher villain – and it is extremely exciting. I do not believe Vader has ever felt reasonably as terrifying. Nonetheless, his insecurities really feel uncooked and, after all – his masks broken, his frame damaged – you get an actual sense of what he is wrestling with and the way a ways long gone he’s.
Disney’s wish to forever plug the gaps in Superstar Wars’ more and more inflexible meta-narrative has all the time felt atypical. A universe that when felt awe-inspiring and gigantic was once rendered as tiny as a snowglobe. However Obi-Wan Kenobi felt like a tale value telling, a tale that created connective tissue all Superstar Wars fanatics may resonate with. A tale that everybody – with their very own distinctive concepts about what Superstar Wars must be – may get in the back of.
That, in and of itself, appears like an enormous success.
