The only way I could see the smoothening of that is to remove Haja going “You can trust me” and “Definitely”, and instead try to restructure it after Obi-Wan’s “Can I trust you?” to Haja looking at him, either concerned or thoughtful.
Yeah, I like that.
You could cut the whole swimming scene and go directly to the stormtrooper opening the door and Obi-Wan choking him out. You can assume he’s wet from being in the “sewers”.
Order the scenes as:
- Obi confronts Haja
- Obi in the streets
- Random creatures
- Elevator
- Imperials monitoring the computers
- Stormtrooper opening door and Obi’s: "I’m in’
This will also help to explain why he didn’t have to swim back with Leia.
Shorten Haja’s dialogue to Obi in the streets:
“Alright if it’s the sewers you want there’s only one place to go. I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”Let’s not have Haja spell out his “making amends” intentions to the audience like we’re too dumb to understand.
Edit: Haja is a Jedi fanboy. Of course he wants to help a real one.
I think that could also work, as we see the that they are underwater in the monitoring scene. Also Kenobi is on fully dry clothes, not soaking wet ones, as he should be. (I know, I know, “It aint that kind of movie, kid”, but still.)