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Kenobi - A Star Wars IC Fanedit

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 (Edited)

After 55+ hours of editing the Kenobi series, my movie cut is finally done! I started working on this as soon as the first episode got released. This gave me the time to really polish this edit and still be able to put it out not long after the show finished.

If you’ve seen any of my other STAR WARS edits you know what to expect here. By cutting the ‘out of character’ Kenobi scenes, out of place humor, bad over the top acting (Reva) and the annoying Lea stuff, I turned the series into a 1 hour and 45 minutes fast paced fun STAR WARS movie.

I did all that was possible to keep Obi Wan’s character in line with what we know about him from the original and prequel trilogy. The end result is a highly enjoyable Kenobi movie that I encourage any STAR WARS fan to watch.

To give you an idea of what was used and what was not here is a list of how many minutes per episode were used making this fanedit:

Episode 1 - used 17 minutes

Episode 2 - used 19 minutes

Episode 3 - used 25 minutes

Episode 4 - used 15 minutes

Episode 5 - used 12 minutes

Episode 6 - used 12 minutes

I will make a list with all the changes within a week or two but for now just go in fresh and enjoy the movie!

Besides the usual editing I also did some very much needed color grading on the Tatooine and Mapuzo scenes. Reframed some shots, did some shaky-cam stabilizing here and there and added some of John Williams score to give it that original STAR WARS feel.

Reply with a a link request and I’ll send you one, or find a link on the fanedit sub reddit

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I’m searching for my personal best Edit for the Kenobi Series. I’m interested. Can you send me a link please?

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May I have a link pls

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I watched the IC edit of Kenobi as it looks great with the character lines that have been cut and been replaced and soundtracks bring more of Vader’s perspective into this aswell so it’s the one we would look for.

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Hey IC.

I watched your fanedit yesterday and I really like it. You cut a lot of unnecessary or bad stuff and it’s a fast paced cool movie. I love the added music at the beginning (Ben look at Luke) and this make that little moment so much better. The chase scene in the wood is now perfect. Same for episode 4 in the fortress. You cut all the junk and now it’s awesome. Same for cutting the evil Lola plot. Cut the great Inquisitor at the end and Revas hunt for Luke works so much better. But there are a few scenes I missed. Ben and Leia talks about Padme, the final fight between Ben and Vader, the end scene on Alderaan and Qui Gon. But in the end its a really good fanedit. Thank you for your effort IC.

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Thanks for your review Mario, much appreciated!

When I edited this cut of the Kenobi series I did so with the original trilogy in mind.

From watching the OT I never got the idea that Lea knew she was adopted when growing up, probably because George came up with the idea of Luke and Lea being twins when he did ROTJ 😊. When Bail takes Lea to look after at the end of ROTS I always figured he and his wife would raise her as their own child, and only they would know that she wasn’t. That would serve as a much better cover. To me the way the writers went with it in the Obi Wan series didn’t make much sense. This is of course just my opinion but that’s why I cut all the talk about Lea’s real parents.

I cut the Vader Kenobi fight short because it feels so overpowered when compared to ANH. The best part of the fight to me is when we see Anakin’s face and they have their little talk. So I looked for a way to get there a little quicker.

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InsertCointent said:

When I edited this cut of the Kenobi series I did so with the original trilogy in mind.

From watching the OT I never got the idea that Lea knew she was adopted when growing up, probably because George came up with the idea of Luke and Lea being twins when he did ROTJ 😊. When Bail takes Lea to look after at the end of ROTS I always figured he and his wife would raise her as their own child, and only they would know that she wasn’t. That would serve as a much better cover. To me the way the writers went with it in the Obi Wan series didn’t make much sense. This is of course just my opinion but that’s why I cut all the talk about Lea’s real parents.

I think expounding on Leia’s feelings about being adopted help the OT. Originally when Luke asks Leia about her real mother in ROTJ it comes completely out of left field. But establishing that she knows early on helps to smooth that out. And Leia looks nothing like Bail or Breha so hiding that she was adopted would never have worked.

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Mario said:

I’m searching for my personal best Edit for the Kenobi Series. I’m interested. Can you send me a link please?

SAME! Please and Thank You!

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 (Edited)

I watched the edit overnight and thoroughly enjoyed it. I know you put a lot of hours into the edit which I’m extremely thankful for. The tone and structure of the movie felt like a fast paced Star Wars adventure which could have been released in the theatres. The subtle touches of John Williams was awesome and I think this is what really made if feel so Star Wars-y. As much as I enjoyed the run time of 1hr 45mins and the trimming down of certain long-winded scenes, I also feel it may have cut too much. Here is a personal list of the scenes to be re-added if you were ever to release a V2. Other people on this thread may have also mentioned some of the scenes I’m referring to

  • Leia’s introduction should be in the tree with Lola watching the ships so there is some context when Bail asks her “Anything good today” and she lists of the ships.
  • In the conversation hologram with Bail, It seemed like Obi Wan was too easily convinced to go after Leia. Instead of finishing the scene with Obi Wan saying “What about the Senate”, I think it would work better to finish the scene with Bail saying “Only you know how important she really is.”
  • When Obi-Wan arrives on Daiyu he says “If ever I need guidance Master, it’s now”, however as you do not plan to have the force ghost of Qui-Gon in this edit it feel like this is a setup with no payoff for the audience. That line suggests we may see Qui-Gon’s force ghost in the future. I think either remove that line or add Qui-Gon force ghost at the end.
  • I’ve read you comment about removing \ hiding the Leia’s adoption storyline from this edit. I think this is a mistake. There are two emotional moments between Leia and Obi Wan discussing Leia’s real parents. One on the truck transport on the planet Mapuzo, where they talk about Padme. The other is towards the end where Obi Wan speak about the quality’s of both Padme and Anakin. If you only consider re-adding one of these scenes I would choose the second on.
  • The scene of Reva not being promoted to Grand Inquisitor by Vader was cut so could be confusing to the audience when she is referred to as Grand Inquisitor. Also, the original Grand Inquisitor is cut from making an appearance after Reva is stabbed by Vader which breaks Canon for Rebels that he is still alive.
  • It would have been good to see the flashback of Obi-Wan and Kenobi training using the de-aged version of the footage. But I can take it or leave it I don’t think it adds that much.
  • With all subtle hints of John Williams music in the edit, I was surprised that we didn’t get Duel of the Fates theme for final fight between Obi-Wan and Vader. I also feel like the fight was trimmed a bit too much but I understand why you did that.

These extra scenes may only add an extra 10-15mins bringing the running time to 2hrs which I think it still acceptable for feature length Star Wars movie. Everything else on the edit was spot on and worked for me personally. I hope you take some of these changes into consideration, but either way this will still be my go to Obi-Want movie. Thanks again for your work on this.

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InsertCointent said:

Thanks for your review Mario, much appreciated!

When I edited this cut of the Kenobi series I did so with the original trilogy in mind.

From watching the OT I never got the idea that Lea knew she was adopted when growing up, probably because George came up with the idea of Luke and Lea being twins when he did ROTJ 😊. When Bail takes Lea to look after at the end of ROTS I always figured he and his wife would raise her as their own child, and only they would know that she wasn’t. That would serve as a much better cover. To me the way the writers went with it in the Obi Wan series didn’t make much sense. This is of course just my opinion but that’s why I cut all the talk about Lea’s real parents.

I cut the Vader Kenobi fight short because it feels so overpowered when compared to ANH. The best part of the fight to me is when we see Anakin’s face and they have their little talk. So I looked for a way to get there a little quicker.

Thanks for your reply IC. I understand what you mean. But I think kids eventually find out they’re adopted. I also like the scenes between Ben and Leia.

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@ stevepaynter Thanks for your extensive feedback, I will take your suggestions into consideration, as I do plan on tweaking this edit some over the coming weeks.

• Leia’s introduction should be in the tree with Lola watching the ships so there is some context when Bail asks her “Anything good today” and she lists of the ships.

I will try this and see how it turns out

• In the conversation hologram with Bail, It seemed like Obi Wan was too easily convinced to go after Leia. Instead of finishing the scene with Obi Wan saying “What about the Senate”, I think it would work better to finish the scene with Bail saying “Only you know how important she really is.”

I will also give this a try

• When Obi-Wan arrives on Daiyu he says “If ever I need guidance Master, it’s now”, however as you do not plan to have the force ghost of Qui-Gon in this edit it feel like this is a setup with no payoff for the audience. That line suggests we may see Qui-Gon’s force ghost in the future. I think either remove that line or add Qui-Gon force ghost at the end.

Agreed this line will be cut

• I’ve read you comment about removing \ hiding the Leia’s adoption storyline from this edit. I think this is a mistake. There are two emotional moments between Leia and Obi Wan discussing Leia’s real parents. One on the truck transport on the planet Mapuzo, where they talk about Padme. The other is towards the end where Obi Wan speak about the quality’s of both Padme and Anakin. If you only consider re-adding one of these scenes I would choose the second on.

I will take a look at the truck scene and see what I can do with it. I will pass on the scene at the end where Kenobi is praising Lea, that scene felt very cringe to me.

• The scene of Reva not being promoted to Grand Inquisitor by Vader was cut so could be confusing to the audience when she is referred to as Grand Inquisitor.

This I will fix

• Also, the original Grand Inquisitor is cut from making an appearance after Reva is stabbed by Vader which breaks Canon for Rebels that he is still alive.

The way I cut it Reva dies after Vader pulls back his saber, I won’t change that, Rebels fans can assume he is recovering in an imperial hospital somewhere planning his return 😉

• With all subtle hints of John Williams music in the edit, I was surprised that we didn’t get Duel of the Fates theme for final fight between Obi-Wan and Vader. I also feel like the fight was trimmed a bit too much but I understand why you did that.

I agree with the fight being cut a little too short, I plan on fixing this. There will be no rock throwing scenes though. I don’t know about using the doing Duel of the Fates theme. I’ve seen it used in other edits but to me it feels a little of. In my opinion it will never match the impact of how it’s used in ROTS.

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Do you address the fact of Obi-Wan not killing Vader then & there. In the series, it came across as very irresponsible of Ben not to end him, regardless of canon or “not being the Jedi way.”

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Hello there! May I have a link as well? Thank you so much 🥰

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Hello there! May I have a link as well? Thank you so much 🥰

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Hello there! May I have a link as well? Thank you so much 🥰

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OT member Phase3 had a wonderful suggestion for altering the final duel in the Kenobi series so that we don’t end on Obi-Wan’s baffling choice to let Vader live. The basic idea is to move the burying obi-wan in rocks to the very end of the duel so that after Kenobi walks away from Vader with a sliced helmet, he screams out “Obi-Wan” then cracks the ground with the force, proceeding to bury Obi-Wan, walk away from the fight the victor. Then Obi-Wan climbs out and the fight is over.

If we can make this work, I think it would make the duel even more amazing than it already is (I quite enjoyed the fight outside of the nonsensical ending where Obi-Wan lets Vader live).

I created a mock-up of this idea. The changes so far:

-Reversing the flow of Kenobi retreating so it links smoothly to the later part of the duel.
-Flip shot of ground breaking for visual continuity.
-Removed Vader’s line “And that is why you will always lose” as he breaks the ground, rough sfx replaced (can be polished later)
-Cropped out vader of wide shot of ground breaking for visual continuity.
-Removed vader’s line “Did you really think you could defeat me?” after he buries him.
-Rearranged shots of Vader walking away for better flow

The one key change remaining to tie this whole idea together is somehow changing the final shots of the rock burying so that Vader’s helmet is still sliced in half. I don’t know who would have the special effects skills to do this but perhaps a community effort would achieve this.

Mock-up of the rearranged duel: https://streamable.com/myzuo3

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