Obi-Wan Kenobi Redux Ideas Thread — Page 2

NFBisms said:

snooker said:

leftshoe18 said:

RogueLeader said:

Hal 9000 said:

poppasketti said:

hey thanks guys ^^

Idk, I might just do a whole edit with this approach now actually. I don’t know how far I could take it given what the show becomes, but if I can make some progress that works for me past the first episode this week, you might see a thread pop up here. 👀

It’s really great work. Sounds amazing, though I’m not sure how much material you have to work with. The choppy style might even work better because you can cut out so much dialogue and exposition that doesn’t make sense.

NFBisms said:

snooker said:

leftshoe18 said:

RogueLeader said:

Hal 9000 said:

poppasketti said:

hey thanks guys ^^

Idk, I might just do a whole edit with this approach now actually. I don’t know how far I could take it given what the show becomes, but if I can make some progress that works for me past the first episode this week, you might see a thread pop up here. 👀

I’d watch it. I’d watch any attempt to salvage this show tbf because there’s so much potential wasted.

I had another idea spring to mind while showering (I have heard this is an amazing spot for inspirations, such as it is)

The Episode II flashback:

When Obi-Wan is on the ship, and he whispers Anakin’s name, and it cuts to him in the bacta tank, and the camera holds and slowly pulls away from him, HARD CUT to that flashback. And let the flashback run uninterrupted there (would need extensive sound effects re-working, obviously, as well as the deepfaking) but the major change here would be a scoring one: Set it to Anakin’s Theme. Maybe the concert arrangement, maybe a different performance of the concert arrangement, I don’t think it got used much in Episode I but I think the sort of wistful/forlorn mood of it would fit here decently - back-time it so that the big swell at the end of the piece that resolves into the last few notes of Imperial March comes JUST as Anakin knocks the saber out of Obi-Wan’s hand, so that the descending notes of the march are playing as Anakin smiles, and when that shot is at its end (hopefully, so that the final note of Anakin’s Theme is ringing out, hard cut to Vader getting his suit put on as the actual Imperial March plays. (maybe the intro/ostinato part over the suit up bits and the melody hits on the first real shot of him in the suit).

For a little extra zazz, maybe have the last 20 or so frames morph his eyes to sith/yellow, just long enough so you’re like “What the hell was that” before the cut to the next shot.

By cutting out the ending of the fight where Obi-Wan demoralizes him with another “humiliating” lesson, the flashback becomes Anakin’s completely, and more like a misremembered daydream version of that flashback. He’s lying to himself about how good he really was, and it also helps as motivation to make him feel like he could do that to Obi-Wan again if they ever meet up.

Also I feel like we never got an actual moment of Anakin’s Theme legitimately transforming into Vader’s, and this would be a pretty unique opportunity to do that.

I have been thinking about how you could truncate the plot ever since NFB posted his opening test, and here’s my take on it. If I were to do an edit, I would prefer to keep scenes with the strongest and most interesting character interactions and moments. And I would rather cut or remove stuff that raises questions regarding continuity in relation to the Saga films. My exception to this would be Obi/Leia relationship. Sure, it could bring up questions about how much Leia really knew about Obi-Wan in A New Hope, but I think the strengths of their character interactions in this series outweigh those potential issues, so it is worth keeping.

After a NFB-type opening, you could keep Owen confronting Ben, but cut everything with the Inquisitors and the runaway Jedi on Tatooine. You could keep some of the Leia stuff and her getting kidnapped, or just show Bail calling Ben for his help.

It seems some people suggest cutting episodes 2 and 3, and having her being immediately taken to Fortress Inquisitorius and have them rescue her. Personally, I would rather keep 2 and 3, and completely cut the Fortress Rescue. Because 1) It is too reminiscent to the Death Star rescue, and 2) Some of the stronger Ben and Leia moments are their interactions in 2 and 3. I would like to keep the scene at the end of episode 4, when Leia and Ben hold hands, and move it to when they escape Jabiim in episode 5.

This also gives you a lot of wiggle room with how much you want to keep of both Vader duels. You could keep their first duel, or have Obi just run away and/or get burned, or have him go through the tunnel and escape with Tala and Leia to Jabiim. Kenobi getting burned has no effect on the story beyond him being in a bacta tank very briefly, which could be removed if you didn’t want to keep that. I personally feel like the logic doesn’t work for the set up of their second duel (why couldn’t the Star Destroyer continue to follow the transport?), so imo, that whole duel could be removed without it really changing anything. I think it would be cool to rework that duel into a short nightmare Ben has while he is in the bacta tank, then you wouldn’t have to worry about why Obi-Wan leaves Vader alive, or try and rework the duel where Vader leaves Obi-Wan buried under rubble. A lot of the force stuff in that duel just felt over-the-top to me.

And then you could have Reva “die” on Jabiim and remove all of the stuff with Luke, Owen, Reva etc. in episode 6.

Would it work if the kidnappers weren’t hired by Reva, but once they realize he is a Jedi, they contact the Empire for a reward and then the Inquisitors show up? Reva could still post the planet-wide bounty after they arrive if need be. One benefit to this is that you could make trims throughout so the Empire/Inquisitors never know there is a connection between Obi-Wan and Leia/the Organas, or that Leia is specifically the girl he is traveling with.

Anyway, just food for thought. I feel like this general outline would give someone quite a bit of flexibility.

RogueLeader said:

I have been thinking about how you could truncate the plot ever since NFB posted his opening test, and here’s my take on it. If I were to do an edit, I would prefer to keep scenes with the strongest and most interesting character interactions and moments. And I would rather cut or remove stuff that raises questions regarding continuity in relation to the Saga films. My exception to this would be Obi/Leia relationship. Sure, it could bring up questions about how much Leia really knew about Obi-Wan in A New Hope, but I think the strengths of their character interactions in this series outweigh those potential issues, so it is worth keeping.

After a NFB-type opening, you could keep Owen confronting Ben, but cut everything with the Inquisitors and the runaway Jedi on Tatooine. You could keep some of the Leia stuff and her getting kidnapped, or just show Bail calling Ben for his help.

It seems some people suggest cutting episodes 2 and 3, and having her being immediately taken to Fortress Inquisitorius and have them rescue her. Personally, I would rather keep 2 and 3, and completely cut the Fortress Rescue. Because 1) It is too reminiscent to the Death Star rescue, and 2) Some of the stronger Ben and Leia moments are their interactions in 2 and 3. I would like to keep the scene at the end of episode 4, when Leia and Ben hold hands, and move it to when they escape Jabiim in episode 5.

This also gives you a lot of wiggle room with how much you want to keep of both Vader duels. You could keep their first duel, or have Obi just run away and/or get burned, or have him go through the tunnel and escape with Tala and Leia to Jabiim. Kenobi getting burned has no effect on the story beyond him being in a bacta tank very briefly, which could be removed if you didn’t want to keep that. I personally feel like the logic doesn’t work for the set up of their second duel (why couldn’t the Star Destroyer continue to follow the transport?), so imo, that whole duel could be removed without it really changing anything. I think it would be cool to rework that duel into a short nightmare Ben has while he is in the bacta tank, then you wouldn’t have to worry about why Obi-Wan leaves Vader alive, or try and rework the duel where Vader leaves Obi-Wan buried under rubble. A lot of the force stuff in that duel just felt over-the-top to me.

And then you could have Reva “die” on Jabiim and remove all of the stuff with Luke, Owen, Reva etc. in episode 6.

Would it work if the kidnappers weren’t hired by Reva, but once they realize he is a Jedi, they contact the Empire for a reward and then the Inquisitors show up? Reva could still post the planet-wide bounty after they arrive if need be. One benefit to this is that you could make trims throughout so the Empire/Inquisitors never know there is a connection between Obi-Wan and Leia/the Organas, or that Leia is specifically the girl he is traveling with.

Anyway, just food for thought. I feel like this general outline would give someone quite a bit of flexibility.

This is close to my view as well, except I would keep the inquisitors on Tatooine just to show the state of things, introduce Reva, and keep the scene where Owen says “like you trained his father” which is great.

Summary of what I would do if I had the time and expertise:
*Cut opening youngling sequence, too obvious and doesn’t focus enough on the main character
*Linger on Obi Wan in the desert, the NFB thing is obviously good
*Have the inquisitors on Tatooine with some minor cuts, mainly to set up Reva, the Grand Inquisitor, and the inquisitors/Jedi hunt in general, and to keep Obi Wan saying “we lost” and Owen saying “like you trained his father,” which are both great
*Cut a lot of stuff with Leia’s too “cute” lines and her doing Dr. Phil on people, then cut most of her chase in the forest because it’s silly and it should be over with in 2 seconds
*Keep episodes 2 and 3 mostly intact with the main cuts being to most times Reva is on screen, try to emphasize that she’s doing all of this on her own to downplay the stupidity of the Empire knowing for dead certain that Bail Organa knows Obi Wan personally
*Either make the first duel a nightmare sequence or somehow tweak it to where it makes more sense that Vader wouldn’t just follow them. Maybe just have Vader do the tracking device himself, but I don’t really like that idea either because it’s too repetitive with the original movie.
*Another idea I had, which I don’t know if it would work, would be to just mash the first duel and second duel together.
*Cut episode 4 except for the bacta tank part. I don’t want the handholding thing either because Obi Wan and Leia shouldn’t be so close. Sorry but continuity does matter!
*If possible no one should ever call him Obi Wan either, make it Ben so that when he tells Luke that he hasn’t gone by the name Obi Wan since before Luke was born, it’s accurate.
*Cut Vader choking Reva. I know people like this scene because it’s Vader being so hardcore or whatever but she shouldn’t place the tracking device, and if he’s going to discipline her like that he should have just killed her.
*Put any residual youngling flashbacks at the beginning with the other ones with Reva in episode 5, then take out the ones that happen when she gets stabbed (too mean!) She gets stabbed and killed. Her flaw was her hubris, her need for revenge, and her lack of willingness to receive Obi Wan’s help. End of story.
*Figure out a way for it to make sense for the evacuation ship to get away from the star destroyer in orbit.
*Likewise have the star destroyer or tie fighters actually pursue the other ship while Vader goes to Obi Wan. It can still get away, just have the Empire make some effort not to be stupid.
*Episode 6 has no Reva in it and hence no ridiculous attempt to kill Luke or anything included in that. Also cut Obi Wan visiting Alderaan. Just end on the scene of Obi Wan meeting Luke and then going into the desert to see Qui Gon.

I think you could keep the convo with Obi-Wan and Owen without having to keep his interaction with Reva. Did you like that as well? I just felt like it was a little convenient, and they were trying hard to make Reva look bad by cutting the woman’s hand off, but I could see why someone would want to keep all of that stuff as well.

RL, really love the write-up, and I think I’m going to attempt a Kenobi edit soon. I was almost getting to the same place you got to first, so that really helped! What would you think a good introduction to Reva could be? I was thinking her talking to Flea and the other mercenaries. Also considering whether or not I should keep some stuff establishing Leia… even if I love the business with her cousin, I don’t think it has a place in a ~2h30 movie focusing solely on Obi-Wan… Lots to consider.

RogueLeader said:

I think you could keep the convo with Obi-Wan and Owen without having to keep his interaction with Reva. Did you like that as well? I just felt like it was a little convenient, and they were trying hard to make Reva look bad by cutting the woman’s hand off, but I could see why someone would want to keep all of that stuff as well.

I thought it was a nice little character moment for Owen, having to be brave in the face of being threatened. It also shows that the common people are supposed to hate Jedi and buy into the whole ideology to get by, which makes sense and drives home Palpatine’s rhetoric in ROTS. And I really like Obi Wan saying thank you and Owen saying “I didn’t do it for you.”

The specifics of Reva drawing her lightsaber on people and the inquisitors arguing with her about it, I could take or leave that stuff, but it’s a nice setup for the character interactions afterward.

The inquisitor’s speech about compassion being the Jedi’s weakness is great but it’s really insane that he’s telling the common people that, lol
“Our mutual sworn enemy is simply too good and we have to violently prey upon his kindness to you” is a very weird way to do your propaganda. But if it were just a voiceover on a scene showing the inquisitors on the move it could be neat.

How’s this idea?

In the beginning of the film when Obi-Wan decides to give Luke the toy, we cut in the last part of the series where Obi-Wan approaches Luke and says “Hello there!”. We then hear Owen’s voice “I thought I told you to leave us” etc and cut to a suitable shot of Owen at the homestead. “Walk with me”, then wipe to the “He must be trained/Like you trained his father” scene (perhaps change background to suggest they are still somewhere else on the farm). We don’t see the toy being returned, so it’s implied Luke still has it. Then obi-Wan continues his adventure, and we don’t see the Lars family again…

Until, at the very end after saying bye to the Organas at Alderaan, we cut back to Obi-Wan packing up his cave. He rides his animal… and we then see him check on the farm with binoculars (scene taken from first episode). He sees Luke playing pilot, implied to be because of the toy he got at the beginning. Obi-Wan then rides away and meets QGJ.

Thoughts?

This would of course means losing the “battle” of the Lars homestead entirely, but if Reva dies by Vader’s hand (as some suggest doing) it’s ok anyway

Ice said:
This would of course means losing the “battle” of the Lars homestead entirely, but if Reva dies by Vader’s hand (as some suggest doing) it’s ok anyway

That is honestly how this show should have gone anyway. I don’t care how interesting you think Reva’s character is, everything that happened with her on Tatooine should never have been written.

Vlad, I see your point. I do like Owen’s line, “Jedi are vermin. I kill Vermin on my farm.” Going back, you could easily cut Reva cutting that woman’s hand. Not saying people should do that, there’s just a lot of ways you could trim the scene.

Omni, if you keep Reva as the person who hired the kidnappers, but cut her scenes on Tatooine, then I think a good introduction would be when she speaks to the kidnappers over hologram, like you suggested. We get enough scenes in Episode 2 that establishes the animosity between her and the other Inquisitors, as well as her motivation to find Kenobi.

I think how much Leia stuff to keep from episode 1 is another thing that depends on runtime. Maybe enough to establish her character and how she was kidnapped.

Ice said:

How’s this idea?

In the beginning of the film when Obi-Wan decides to give Luke the toy, we cut in the last part of the series where Obi-Wan approaches Luke and says “Hello there!”. We then hear Owen’s voice “I thought I told you to leave us” etc and cut to a suitable shot of Owen at the homestead. “Walk with me”, then wipe to the “He must be trained/Like you trained his father” scene (perhaps change background to suggest they are still somewhere else on the farm). We don’t see the toy being returned, so it’s implied Luke still has it. Then obi-Wan continues his adventure, and we don’t see the Lars family again…

Until, at the very end after saying bye to the Organas at Alderaan, we cut back to Obi-Wan packing up his cave. He rides his animal… and we then see him check on the farm with binoculars (scene taken from first episode). He sees Luke playing pilot, implied to be because of the toy he got at the beginning. Obi-Wan then rides away and meets QGJ.

Thoughts?

This would of course means losing the “battle” of the Lars homestead entirely, but if Reva dies by Vader’s hand (as some suggest doing) it’s ok anyway

That would be cool.

I think an issue with any heavy rearranging is gonna be Kenobi’s costume changes. I feel like trying to change his costumes to match with VFX will be too much trouble than it’s worth.

I have an idea about the problem involving Vader letting Obi-Wan escape in their first duel.

When the robot rescues Obi-Wan, it could show Vader having a flashback of when he rescued Obi-Wan in the Invisible Hand. After the flashback, it shows Vader turning around, leaving Ben. The scene following this would be the one where Vader talks to the Emperor.

This would imply that Vader letting Kenobi go was because he still felt something about his master, even 10 years after the events of ROTS.

I’ve seen several versions of the pre-AOTC flashback but has anyone tried deep-faking Anakin in Reva’s flashback?

Sirius said:

I have an idea about the problem involving Vader letting Obi-Wan escape in their first duel.

When the robot rescues Obi-Wan, it could show Vader having a flashback of when he rescued Obi-Wan in the Invisible Hand. After the flashback, it shows Vader turning around, leaving Ben. The scene following this would be the one where Vader talks to the Emperor.

This would imply that Vader letting Kenobi go was because he still felt something about his master, even 10 years after the events of ROTS.

That’s an interesting idea. I think the most important thing would be to clarify if Vader let him go or if he just got away, because it seems like the audience wasn’t totally on the same page.

You could simply have Vader say, “Let him go”, “Stop”, or something like that. What I personally like about the scene is how it just sits on Vader quietly looking through the flames, so we’re left to wonder what he is thinking.

But if you cut out Episode 4, you could imply Vader let him go so they could follow/track him ship to straight to Jabiim.

And I’m not sure if anyone has done a deepfake of Order 66 Anakin yet.

Double post

Could someone that has the Kenobi series downloaded confirm the audio situation? Is the dialogue on an isolated track? Just curious how difficult rescoring might be.

The only bit I could see maaaybe improving the last Obi/Vader fight is a hint of Padme saying “there’s good in him still,” before Obi-Wan lets him live again. It’s still incredibly flimsy and still doesn’t really line up with Vader saying Obi-Wan thought there was good in him in RotJ because how the hell could he know what Obi-Wan is thinking, but it’s something.