I thought the show got progressively worse. Part I blew me away, most of it looked pretty okay, and there was such care given to the characters, it really felt like we were going places. Part II was a slight drop in quality but still a fun time, with a lot of exciting stuff to come it seemed. Part III started off very strong also, with Ben and Leia wandering through that now-desolate planet, Ben losing his composure with Leia for the first time, etc. Then we had the bit with Freck, a great little character, and once again lovely character work in his truck, along some pretty intense stuff with the Stormtroopers and Freck himself.
But from then on, it’s like it went downhill. Second half of Part III was already a pretty major let down. The most uninspired location for a Ben/Vader fight possible, Chow seemed lost in the director’s chair when it came to the elegant action that is a lightsaber duel between these two, on top of it becoming clear the entire show would be around Leia and Ben, when we started repeating plot points and Reva found Leia at the end of the tunnel, even if we reached a natural conclusion for that story.
Part IV was a mess. All sort of character work present in Parts I - III, the show’s greatest strength, was lost. Ben, after one of the most traumatic nights of his life, doesn’t even blink or consider what happened the night before. Never loses hope, nothing. It’s time for a retread of Part II, where Ben once again is to rescue Leia and once again “uses the Force for the first time” and once again finds new allies. Somehow, though, Roken and crew here are even LESS developed than Haja in Part II, which is outright baffling.
Part IV is also where I think the show lost its tone, with a stuffed youngling showing up a couple minutes before we see Leia escaping under Ben’s coat, smiling for the camera. The stupidity of the Empire in IV was also unmatched, and it’s once again where Vader’s dialogue went from bad (III) to worse. He started speaking like if we were in one of the animated shows, but on there the writing being on the nose is more excusable than in something presenting itself as “the most serious SW thing we’ve had yet”.
Part V is finally when something happened. But that something wasn’t good. Roken, Haja and Tala’s underdevelopment pays off terribly, with none of them meaning anything to the audience, or what they stand for. We also don’t understand what Ben is thinking anymore, it’s like we’re no longer looking at everything through his eyes, but rather just watching. I don’t know how he’s feeling about things anymore since neither in this or in IV we’re given a single moment to see him reflecting on what is going on, what to do, or any of that. We end with an incredibly anticlimatic moment with Reva (whose’s story I really dig, but think the execution was completely botched) and Vader, where Vader goes full on videogame mode.
And that’s on top of the show, to me, not being really suited to handle the youngling massacre. To me that’s a very sensible topic in SW and easily the darkest thing we’ve seen happen yet, and it should be treated as such. I think Lucas went to far in ROTS with that, but he had the sense not to show anything, because it’s just too heavy. This show went all out and put us in the POV of a youngling, and… it really should’ve been treated with more care. This isn’t just some thing we can talk about for two or three minutes per episode whenever we decide to talk about Reva. This is way more important especially in the context of the real world. The way the show handled the massacre in Part V left such a horrible taste in my mouth I considered quitting watching then and there.
And then finally Part VI, where all logic must be damned, and where editing is thrown through the window. No sense of when we should cut back to the other stories, all character work is a far cry away at this point, nothing. We get Reva vs. Owen and Beru in extremely tacked on fashion, like they didn’t know what to do (à la Fennec dealing with the Pykes at the end of BOBF) and it makes no sense for Luke to be aware at all of Inquisitors, the Force, red lightsabers, or any of that. Straight up bizarre.
As for Vader vs Ben for real, well, we got a videogame fight. Straight up videogame fight. Ben won because he could throw more rocks at Vader, because his stamina bar charged, and Vader used his entirely. This is like in TROS where Rey beats Palpatine not by surrendering and believing in love and good, like Luke did, but rather by turning on a second lightsaber. Insane stuff. And don’t get me started on the dialogue. I will say, I really liked the five or six endings we got after the atrocious initial half hour.
TLDR: Overall this started off very strong but ends up doubtlessly disappointing. The scripts were all obvious first drafts, not only obvious in terms of characters (Roken is like this and will be here, here and here on these episodes, saying stuff like this. Just gotta rewrite it… ooops, nevermind) but also in terms of the plot and the story, and this is really unfortunate, because everything, on paper, is sound. But on screen, it’s trash. I like Ben starting off wanting to survive and just tunnel vision into Luke, and ending hopeful for the future and believing in rebellion. But, for instance, he’s never even guilty over what he did to Nari. He never apologizes at the end, or anything of the sorts. I like Reva being someone betrayed by Anakin and seeking revenge after all this time. But the storyline is completely bothced.
I will say I loved little Leia throughout. Oh well. Maybe a fan edit can fix this crazy mess, but we’ll see.