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Star Wars: Kenobi | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit [WIP]

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 (Edited)

The Republic has fallen. Sith Lords rule the Galaxy. Obi-Wan Kenobi has lost everything. Everything but hope.” - Kenobi (novel), 2013

K-SW:R

I am officially announcing that I am working on a Star Wars Legends inspired edit of “Obi-Wan Kenobi”. I promise this one will be unique!

In light of my work on the Sequel Trilogy transforming it into a relatively Legends-safe storyline, I will also be attempting to do that with the Disney+ show here. While there were some parts I did enjoy with this show, I had major issues with some extremely baffling lore contradictions that took place, in addition to feeling frustrated with some other general directing decisions.

I’d love to have your feedback and suggestions as I create this, so please be open and offer feedback where you feel it is useful.

Major changes in my Kenobi edit:

  1. A main problem with this show for me is the depiction of Obi-Wan being another “Sad Luke” type of character. Obi-Wan cutting himself off from the force, succumbing to depression, and his inconsistent motivations towards Vader really ripped me out of the story in a similar way I felt watching the Sequel Trilogy the first time. This… wasn’t the Obi-Wan I grew up with. He was SO different from the Obi-Wan of the dozens of Legends novels, the comics, & games that I had read and played for 15+ years. Obi-Wan was smuggling Jedi, helping the townspeople, staying active to protect Luke. This Disney show was someone else’s vision of Obi-Wan. If you enjoy this new Obi-Wan, no worries! I am happy it brought you joy, but it is a vastly different retelling of a character I looked up to so it was very strange for me to experience this story. Like it was with the Canon Luke vs Legends Luke, it is hard to relate when a character is behaving unlike their previous depiction across hundreds of hours of content. And even with this new version of Kenobi, I didn’t feel like they did a good job of explaining WHY he was so depressed. A few prequel flashbacks don’t convey to me the reason he lost the force and essentially gave up on protecting Luke to the best of his abilities. I didn’t understand why he was so defeated and frankly… a loser. So I want to retell this show with the Kenobi I grew up with, a Jedi hermit consistent with the Legends stories.

  2. While the point above is more of a preferential choice, this here is one that I’m going to stand on objectively… Obi-Wan CAN’T first learn that Vader survived at this point in the timeline. There is just no possible way to explain how he has gone 10 years without hearing the name Vader one single time. Unless they wanted to portray Obi-Wan as literally not having left his rock cave one single time in a decade, I cannot fathom how they wrote it in for Reva to inform him for the first time on Daiyu. Vader was a LEGEND in the galaxy post-Order 66. In the old novels, Obi-Wan hears of Vader on the news during a trip to town ~2 months after RotS, which is nearly as soon as Vader had begun his public campaigns for the Empire. 2 months… NOT 10 years. The Disney show made it clear that Obi-Wan was involved in the city to a degree, working jobs, hearing chatter etc. It is just a blatant lore error to write that he hadn’t heard or read one news report, hadn’t talked to Bail about it, hadn’t heard one trader make even the slightest mention of the name “Vader” for 10 years. Now, if you’ve read the behind the scenes on the production of Kenobi, you’ll see the directors realized their mistake… They admitted that they didn’t realize that Obi-Wan knew Anakin was named Vader. They literally just didn’t connect the dots from the plot points in RotS sadly, so in their world they had an excuse that even if Obi-Wan had heard of Vader, he just never realized it was Anakin. I still think that is a foolish explanation, as Obi-Wan definitely would have been able to connect the dots even in their own storytelling version, but objectively this is just a massive flaw that needs to be corrected from the top down.

  3. The last major point I’ll mention here is one that many other editors have attempted to fix, but one that I feel I have a unique solution for. The directing for this show as a whole is just subpar. From the general sporadic pacing of the overall storyline, to the poorly written character of Reva (who was setup to have an incredible storyline, they just executed it so poorly), to some of the laughable action sequences (Chase scene, Wade death, Tala stormtrooper god-slap etc) and bizarre character motivations (Vader letting Obi-Wan leave, Roken 180 within 30 seconds, Reva “I let Obi-Wan escape” to “Obi-Wan is the ONLY thing that matters!” etc). There are so many things that kept me from getting absorbed into this story as I should have. I’ll write more in my changelog, but a major unique fix to the pacing is having Obi-Wan and Leia get separated on Daiyu, leading to Obi-Wan being on Mapuzo alone. This helps get rid of the whole “we have to rescue Leia from scratch” all over again plot, because now it seems like Act 2 of the film is a direct continuation of the Act 1 rescue plot. We don’t have the awkward pause of pacing where they are together for the middle portion of the story, and then ripped apart for 20 more minutes etc. I’ll explain more later on, but it is a change that I am very excited about. Many of the major story changes done by other editors will be replicated as well, but I will have some very unique plot deviations too!

Demos:

Before I get into a full changelog, I’m going to leave you with a few ideas I’m developing. I currently have ~1hour of the film in a workprint cut, so I still have a lot to do, but here’s something to whet your appetite for now.

Like I said, I’ve got about a full hour of the workprint in a watchable state, but this will be a long production. I’ve got to catch up on watching a few other Kenobi edits to see what works and doesn’t for me personally, watch the original show again, and finish up work on some other projects. Also I’m drooling over the PixelJoker VFX work and am very thankful for his time, will definitely implement his additions when he releases his work to fan editors. But in the meantime I will be writing up my drafted changelog soon. Let me know if you have any questions for now.

Hope survives!


Changelog in progress:

(The Force Awakens) Heirs of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Last Jedi) Fate of the Jedi | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Rise of Skywalker) Legacy of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Bad Batch) Cinematic Version | A More Mature Edit

(The Mandalorian+Boba) The Way of Mandalore | A Compilation Edit

(Kenobi) | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

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Have any thoughts on the two kidnappings of Leia? I haven’t seen anyone solve in a reasonable manner yet.

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revel911 said:

Have any thoughts on the two kidnappings of Leia? I haven’t seen anyone solve in a reasonable manner yet.

I wrote about that in my OP. Trying out an idea I haven’t seen attempted yet.

What do you mean “reasonable manner”? Do you have an opinion on what you think does and doesn’t work regarding this topic?

(The Force Awakens) Heirs of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Last Jedi) Fate of the Jedi | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Rise of Skywalker) Legacy of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Bad Batch) Cinematic Version | A More Mature Edit

(The Mandalorian+Boba) The Way of Mandalore | A Compilation Edit

(Kenobi) | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

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Acbagel said:

revel911 said:

Have any thoughts on the two kidnappings of Leia? I haven’t seen anyone solve in a reasonable manner yet.

I wrote about that in my OP. Trying out an idea I haven’t seen attempted yet.

What do you mean “reasonable manner”? Do you have an opinion on what you think does and doesn’t work regarding this topic?

I have seen some amazing cuts of both kidnappings, but when both are included it just feels like “didn’t we just do that?” Or I have seen where individuals try and cut both as one and while a great idea, there isn’t enough footage to explain many of the elements (under water base vs street slums.)

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Hi, Acbagel. Do you plan to change the ending of the second Vader vs Kenobi fight? Some users here suggested to make the fight end with Vader burying Obi-Wan with the rocks, and after Vader leave the planet, Obi-wan would then free himself thinking about Luke and Leia.

You plan to make something along these lines, the original approach or something different from these two options?

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revel911 said:

Acbagel said:

revel911 said:

Have any thoughts on the two kidnappings of Leia? I haven’t seen anyone solve in a reasonable manner yet.

I wrote about that in my OP. Trying out an idea I haven’t seen attempted yet.

What do you mean “reasonable manner”? Do you have an opinion on what you think does and doesn’t work regarding this topic?

I have seen some amazing cuts of both kidnappings, but when both are included it just feels like “didn’t we just do that?” Or I have seen where individuals try and cut both as one and while a great idea, there isn’t enough footage to explain many of the elements (under water base vs street slums.)

Understood. Well as I wrote in the OP, my initial idea is to combine the Episode 3 capture with the actual end of Episode 2. This way it feels like one, long extended rescue (which is the majority of the Disney show in the first place, just paced poorly) instead of the jarring effect of having Obi-Wan and Leia safe on Mapuzo for so long before resetting back to stage 1 with her getting lost again. Now it’s as though Obi is right on the verge of saving her when Leia slips through his fingers, and he has to travel all through Mapuzo to get back to her, further endangering Luke as he is away.

Sirius said:

Hi, Acbagel. Do you plan to change the ending of the second Vader vs Kenobi fight? Some users here suggested to make the fight end with Vader burying Obi-Wan with the rocks, and after Vader leave the planet, Obi-wan would then free himself thinking about Luke and Leia.

You plan to make something along these lines, the original approach or something different from these two options?

Hey, Sirius! I’ve been toying with this as I do see some major lore flaws in why Kenobi let Vader live there. It is even very inconsistent with the show’s own dialogue. I think others have tried unsuccessfully for Vader to initiate the rock attack after his mask is cut and they have that exchange, so I’m looking into possibly going that route. But as my edit is only an hour in, everything past mid Mapuzo is all vague ideas and notes at the moment. I still find flaws in that idea as I highly doubt Vader would leave Obi-wan without being 100% sure that he was killed.

(The Force Awakens) Heirs of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Last Jedi) Fate of the Jedi | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Rise of Skywalker) Legacy of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Bad Batch) Cinematic Version | A More Mature Edit

(The Mandalorian+Boba) The Way of Mandalore | A Compilation Edit

(Kenobi) | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

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Hi, Acbagel, were you able to get a copy of Kai Patterson’s edit to watch? The edit is not for everyone (I really enjoyed it though) but there few good ideas in it that you may be interested in. For example, the edit did a really good job of trimming the Leia under the trenchcoat scene when escaping the water moon base. Also, when Kenobi uses the Force to save Leia from falling off the building there is a really good original Star Wars theme. If you would likle a copy let me know and I will PM you.

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stevepaynter said:

Hi, Acbagel, were you able to get a copy of Kai Patterson’s edit to watch? The edit is not for everyone (I really enjoyed it though) but there few good ideas in it that you may be interested in. For example, the edit did a really good job of trimming the Leia under the trenchcoat scene when escaping the water moon base. Also, when Kenobi uses the Force to save Leia from falling off the building there is a really good original Star Wars theme. If you would likle a copy let me know and I will PM you.

Hello! Yes, I did get an original copy of it. I’ve skimmed through and been inspired by a few cool ideas for sure. I need to sit down and watch the whole thing though. My major complaint in the first half was Bespin music on Alderaan?? What a mortal sin lol. But thanks for the tip! Anything else you’d like to see addressed in this edit that hasn’t been done yet in a way that is satisfactory for you?

(The Force Awakens) Heirs of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Last Jedi) Fate of the Jedi | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Rise of Skywalker) Legacy of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Bad Batch) Cinematic Version | A More Mature Edit

(The Mandalorian+Boba) The Way of Mandalore | A Compilation Edit

(Kenobi) | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

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Nice color grading! I feel the same about the issues you mentioned. I’m looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

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Hello! Yes, I did get an original copy of it. I’ve skimmed through and been inspired by a few cool ideas for sure. I need to sit down and watch the whole thing though. My major complaint in the first half was Bespin music on Alderaan?? What a mortal sin lol. But thanks for the tip! Anything else you’d like to see addressed in this edit that hasn’t been done yet in a way that is satisfactory for you?

I have watched a quite few different edits of Kenobi so when you a have Workprint available send it to me as PM and will happily give you some feedback. What run time are you aiming for? Patterson was 2hrs 29mins but I think anywhere between 2hr -2hr 15m mark would be better.

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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

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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jkimm said:

Nice color grading! I feel the same about the issues you mentioned. I’m looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

Thanks! I’d love to hear any other suggestions/ideas you have for your ideal edit.

stevepaynter said:

Hello! Yes, I did get an original copy of it. I’ve skimmed through and been inspired by a few cool ideas for sure. I need to sit down and watch the whole thing though. My major complaint in the first half was Bespin music on Alderaan?? What a mortal sin lol. But thanks for the tip! Anything else you’d like to see addressed in this edit that hasn’t been done yet in a way that is satisfactory for you?

I have watched a quite few different edits of Kenobi so when you a have Workprint available send it to me as PM and will happily give you some feedback. What run time are you aiming for? Patterson was 2hrs 29mins but I think anywhere between 2hr -2hr 15m mark would be better.

I am aiming to release my edit in January, so if I have a workprint done before then I’ll send it out to a few people to review. Personally, I feel so much more emotion with longer films compared to short ones. Maybe it’s because I prefer the TV show format in general as I grew up reading long form comic-style storytelling and Star Wars novels, but 2 hour movies rarely impact me enough as it flies through so fast. I’m all about compelling, sensible character development even at the cost of traditional action-movie pacing. So I’m probably looking at closer to the 3 hour range for my edit, but at the end of the day it’s 100% dependant on the quality of the scenes. I pretty much just go scene by scene and if it’s a good and worthwhile one then I keep it, if it’s pointless to the story I’m telling or impacts my character development negatively, then I scrap it. I don’t worry too much about run time as long as the content is good. Sometimes that means a 90 minute movie & sometimes it means a 200 minute movie.

darthrush said:

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

I 100% agree on a lot of the problems you mentioned here. Personally, I have a whole slew of issues with how that final duel takes place and I will definitely be addressing them in my edit. I will use a lot of your ideas here as inspiration and see if I can come up with any solutions to make this battle play out more in line with how I believe those characters would behave.

(The Force Awakens) Heirs of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Last Jedi) Fate of the Jedi | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Rise of Skywalker) Legacy of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Bad Batch) Cinematic Version | A More Mature Edit

(The Mandalorian+Boba) The Way of Mandalore | A Compilation Edit

(Kenobi) | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

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One of the major issues that I had with the show (and one of the very first things I tackled in my personal edit) is that Leia is portrayed as being so sassy.

This is a major misunderstanding of what makes a strong child character. Even if the writers were trying to make this some sort of an arc for Leia, it just doesn’t sit well that she would be so disrespectful to legitimate authority and, at the same time, so wise beyond her years. I was fine with her telling off her cousin, but her rudeness to her mother and to Obi-Wan made her virtually unlikeable. And Obi-Wan was basically sealed as a loser by constantly getting dissed and one-upped by a spoiled child. Fortunately, with a number of small cuts here and there, Leia came much more in line with what we should expect from her — gutsy but classy, outspoken but just. She can still have a character arc without her starting out as a total brat.

Enough of my ranting!

Overall, I’m really liking your Legends approach. Can’t wait for more details!

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21C Peasant said:

One of the major issues that I had with the show (and one of the very first things I tackled in my personal edit) is that Leia is portrayed as being so sassy.

This is a major misunderstanding of what makes a strong child character. Even if the writers were trying to make this some sort of an arc for Leia, it just doesn’t sit well that she would be so disrespectful to legitimate authority and, at the same time, so wise beyond her years. I was fine with her telling off her cousin, but her rudeness to her mother and to Obi-Wan made her virtually unlikeable. And Obi-Wan was basically sealed as a loser by constantly getting dissed and one-upped by a spoiled child. Fortunately, with a number of small cuts here and there, Leia came much more in line with what we should expect from her — gutsy but classy, outspoken but just. She can still have a character arc without her starting out as a total brat.

Enough of my ranting!

Overall, I’m really liking your Legends approach. Can’t wait for more details!

Thanks for the suggestion, 21C! I 100% agree with you there. So much of how we feel about a character is influenced by how other characters treat them, especially by other characters that we generally are inclined to like (Leia). When the berating is so one-sided like in this show, it really makes the viewer go, “Oh, yeah, maybe Obi-Wan is kind of a loser…” and that is the last thing in the world I want for that character. I am definitely playing close attention to the dialogue in order to ensure that we don’t get the feeling that Obi-Wan is a bum. But it is certainly a fine balance in also ensuring that so much of child Leia isn’t stripped away that she becomes a ball of nothingness. I’ll get back to this edit in December I believe, and get to writing out the change log.

yoshif8tures said:

You should check out this upcoming edit that will redo some VFX

https://www.reddit.com/r/fanedits/comments/yigaka/fortress_inquisitorius_new_look/

Yes, certainly familiar with pixeljoker’s work! I’ve communicated with him on Discord too and in my OP mention how part of the reason I’m aiming to release in January is because he is providing editors with his VFX scenes after his own release around Christmas. I’m trying to prepare the majority of my own storyline decisions, and then just plug in the VFX he is generously providing.

(The Force Awakens) Heirs of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Last Jedi) Fate of the Jedi | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Rise of Skywalker) Legacy of the Force | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

(The Bad Batch) Cinematic Version | A More Mature Edit

(The Mandalorian+Boba) The Way of Mandalore | A Compilation Edit

(Kenobi) | A Star Wars Legends Re-edit

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Oh that’s awesome that he’ll let you use his new scenes. I look forward to what you achieve.

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As someone who truly enjoyed your Way of Mandalore edits, I am looking forward to this when it is eventually released.

There have already been numerous discussions and edits over how to resolve the issues with the show. What is the feasibility of the 2 meetings between Vader and Kenobi being done in the format of a dream and/or force vision? That could be a possible way to “explain” the problems with their interactions without twisting yourself into a pretzel and avoid the VFX work that creates new additional problems to resolve. I personally would not know how to fit that in without looking out of place.

In terms of your story having consistency with legends - yes please! I loved the notion of Kenobi as a hermit. That was my initial expectation for the show, but instead we saw him bouncing around the galaxy in a very sloppy manner. I would be very curious how to reconcile the semi-reclusive Obi-Wan with what we have in the show. This is something I wish was done from the very beginning. Is it possible to expand on this with the footage currently available?

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I’m looking forward to seeing what you do here. I’ve recently got very invested in a “It’s All Canon” approach to EU/NuCanon, and watched your ST edits with that in mind. Loved Fate of the Jedi, I hope you are able to accomplish something with this that feels true to the Kenobi storytelling we already had for the era.

My Edits:
Revenge of the Sith: Refocused Available

The Clone Wars Refocused: The Chosen One (Mortis Episode)