I did think about doing the shorter spiritual walkabout, and I think it would work, but it would skip over the character elements I liked. His conversations with Leia, truly stepping out from his exile to be a hero, really being confronted with what Anakin’s become…

Obi-Wan having an internal mind-adventure is cool for sure, but his actualization through more external factors has always been more compelling and feels more valuable to me in seeing Obi-Wan as human. Watching him struggle, his heartbreak, but also his determination and commitment to the children - I like what The Plot pulls out of him, and how it develops him - despite not really loving what it is or how it was initiated.

That’s the biggest difference for me between Obi-Wan’s material and Mortis’s. The latter feels far more philosophical and based in abstract ideas. It lends itself to Eddie’s spiritual presentation IMO because it mostly confronts the characters with those concepts. Some looking back at where they’ve been and where they’re going, but mostly through a new perspective on The Force that guid[ed/es] them. The nature of power, light and dark, universally.

Obi-Wan in OWK is dealing with a bit more tangible trauma and pain, rooted in his personal relationship(s) and often exacerbated by the emotionally heavy external incidence. Having it all be a vision quest feels like a cop out to me, personally. We could handwave with That’s [Probably Just] How The Force Works, sure, but it’s not what I saw in the show to start the edit in the first place.

There’s a cool framing device for a 3-in-1 prequel edit there though

Here’s a recent, perhaps controversial/contrived idea…

When trying the walkabout idea, I had Obi-Wan go to Daiyu from Tatooine without being prompted by a rescue request or vision or whatever. I figured this could work even with the Rescue Plot.

It fixes a few problems I was having with earlier iterations of the edit, namely being that:

Obi-Wan just happens to get a vision of Leia as soon as he’s off planet?
Even if he’s next seen on the Ring World or wherever to imply passage of time, Obi-Wan getting the vision as the next narrative beat is incredibly contrived, especially when he immediately goes straight to rescue her. Not five minutes ago he was leaving Luke because Owen says “Keep your distance” + Inquisitors On The Hunt = Luke Better Off Without Me. Going to save Leia, without convincing, caveats what could have been a simple mindset. Obi-Wan’s implied state of mind as too complex if not contradictory, especially for an edit that can’t verbally exposit any of those specific motivation changes.
And as far as being an Inciting Incident/Call To Action, the vision and immediate rush to Daiyu is barely, if even, a moment. The pacing was just weird.

Soo, Obi-Wan in this new context going to Daiyu is just Obi-Wan finding a new place to lay low, away from Luke, more within a crowd. (And can also symbolize a bit of Obi-Wan’s spiritual decay, that he finds himself in such a place of his own accord.) First and foremost, it does wonders for the pacing. We can now stew on Obi-Wan’s decision to leave Tatooine for much longer. The entry and first walk through Daiyu feels like a sequence about what comes of Obi-Wan’s choice to leave Luke behind. It’s bleak and purgatorial but now it’s a tone exercise with thematic purpose.

That works great - until this more shaky element that I’d need feedback on: Then, in some warehouse on Daiyu, he gets the vision of Leia being kidnapped. Instead of Obi-Wan dropping everything to go to Daiyu, the kidnappers are coming to him. (The planet he’s on already, technically.)

Now bare with me. While that might not sound any less contrived, for Obi-Wan’s character, it flows so much better. For the aforementioned pacing reasons, but also now Obi-Wan isn’t sensing across the galaxy and crossing said galaxy just for Leia. The vision in this context is symptomatic of coming to Daiyu rather than The Call To Action Moment itself. As far as the character arc, Obi-Wan stays established in the more reluctant, disillusioned stage of his journey, while still being pushed towards Leia. I also find that Ewan’s cautious performance and the next sequence of events (extorting help from Haja, gritty hand to hand brawl in a spice den, skulking around the seedy underworld, etc.) actually fit better here than after the very Jedi-like decision to go after Leia

Basically, Obi-Wan making such a big step to leave for Leia doesn’t track as well for an Obi-Wan that thought Luke needed to be left alone. This way, it’s not even a full step he takes willingly. It flows better from the Tatooine opening.

Is it a huge coincidence? Probably? But it always would have been without Reva’s orchestration anyway. At least this way, Obi-Wan’s arc stays clear in its initial acts. Besides, Daiyu as a criminal hub can handwave some of the coincidence maybe?

I’ll post a clip later, but that’s where I’m at with it currently. No Reva Orchestration yet.