Which was the better prequel? Kenobi TV show or Prequel Trilogy?

Hello everyone. This is my first post. I have read these OT forums for about 15 years and appreciate everyone’s contributions to OT appreciation and preservation. I had a question that I am dying to ask people here. I was watching the Kenobi show, and even though it is Definitely flawed, I felt that it was at least better made than the prequels trilogy. I wanted to know what this community feels about this comparison. Which one do you feel is the better prequel? Since I have major issues with the prequel trilogy (movies suck, books II and III were way better) I felt that the Kenobi show was at least better made, and didn’t make Vader look A fool like he did in revenge of the Sith nor did he look like an overly obsessive weirdo like he did in attack of the clones. I feel if we watched the Kenobi show and ignore the prequels, it gives just a little bit of hints as to what happened to Anakin while still leaving it a mystery And not ruining the Darth Vader character, which is the biggest issue of the prequels in my opinion. There are a little bit of flashbacks, but all we really see is Anakin burning and small connections to the PT like seeing Qui Gong but if you never seen the prequel, it really doesn’t hurt your understanding of what’s going on. Does anyone here think Kenobi is a better prequel than the actual prequel trilogy? I definitely can see where people don’t like either because they definitely both have errors in their writing but if you had to choose, which one would it would be?

G&G-Fan said:

Connor MacLeod said:

didn’t make Vader look A fool like he did in revenge of the Sith

Vader…

• Doesn’t put out the fire separating him and Obi-Wan with the Force, like he just did 30 seconds ago, Force grab Obi-Wan and pull him over, or just walk through the fire. Yes, his suit is that durable, especially in the Canon comics
• Doesn’t arrest the Organa’s for being obvious Jedi sympathizers. There’s no other way Obi-Wan could’ve known about Leia’s capture as it wasn’t public
• Doesn’t order the Star Destroyer pursuing the rebels to use TIE fighters, and redirects the entire Destroyer to follow Obi-Wan’s ship, only to then leave in his own shuttle to face him. All he had to do was order the Destroyer to continue following the rebels and use his shuttle to face Obi-Wan

All of which he would’ve done if he was written in-character with the OT and Canon Vader comics (which are a far better depiction of a younger Vader).

Other out-of-character things, though not necessarily relating to his intelligence:

• The Emperor says Vader lost his duel with Obi-Wan because “Perhaps your feelings for your former master have left you weakened.” But Vader shouldn’t be conflicted when fighting Obi-Wan. Part of his characterization is that he is too utterly consumed by his hatred of his past self and (almost) everything and everyone from that life. His heart should be like a Sun fighting Obi-Wan. Luke was an exception because he represented the future.
• Darth Vader, in Canon material like the comics, is an unrelenting combatant. You can cut off a limb, destroy his respirator, he’ll still fight and win, fueled by the power of the dark side.
  When the first Jedi he faces in the suit takes advantage of his cybernetic leg breaking (having thrown a bunch of obstacles his way before the fight) and throws him off a cliff, what happens? Vader painfully bends his body back into shape and uses a droid’s parts to help reconstruct the parts of his suit he needs, and comes back to finish the job. This is not only just one example, but also takes place days after his immolation and surgery.
  At this point in his life, nothing but a literal force of nature (flood, earthquake, etc.) would’ve been able to stop Vader killing Obi-Wan, which is why, perhaps, they shouldn’t have fought in the show.
• He didn’t kill Reva the second she showed up as a potential inquisitor due to her knowing his identity. That’s kinda one of Vader’s things. He can’t stand anybody knowing his former identity. Nobody can know that he’s human, in any way vulnerable. They must know him as this seemingly invincible monster. It’s an ego thing.
• I loathe how they had Vader “earn” his classic theme. Once he’s in the suit, he’s fully Vader, that’s it. Not “50% Vader” as Chow says.
  His hatred of Obi-Wan is not Anakin, it’s Vader. Vader is the pure manifestation of the dark side of Anakin, that’s the whole point. Everything about him is a twisted, evil version of his former self.
  Vader was never just this one-dimensional robot that doesn’t give a shit about anything other than following his master’s order. Even in the OT, while he’s mostly incredibly cold, you see that rage, pride, and possessiveness. It’s part of what makes Vader such a compelling, terrifying, and intimidating villain. He has drive, personal stake. His desire for revenge against Kenobi is in ANH. Palpatine should be encouraging his hatred of his former master unless it actually gets in the way of the needs of the Galactic Empire.
  Also, what a way to spit on Soule’s 2017 Vader comic run. I am also so beyond sick of the “long game origin/earning the mantle” trope for classic characters in modern media. It’s hack, soulless, uncreative writing.

There are some scenes I actually really like. Terrorizing the villagers, some aspects of the first duel, portraying him as a horror villain, Force pulling the entire ship down, absolutely schooling Reva by beating her without even pulling out his own lightsaber. The scene where Vader admits that he is responsible for his own fall, not Obi-Wan, is almost good if not for the way it ends (with Obi-Wan just walking away and Vader not pursuing further). Vader does, and should, know and embrace that he’s a monster, his regret and self-loathing deeply repressed.
I love the look of the suit and some of his dialogue. Seeing Vader on the bridge of an Imperial Star Destroyer again gave me a nice nostalgic serotonin hit, and his fortress on Mustafar is always cool. I like the added throne, great character development through imagery there. There’s a lot of gorgeous shots of him useful for edits and are just pretty to look at.

In the end, though, it’s hard for me to articulate how frustrating watching what could be potentially amazing content, only for it to drop the ball through. It’d be like if, after the iconic scene in Empire Strikes Back where Vader says one of his coldest lines to Lando, “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further”, as he’s walking off, he then slips on a banana peel and a laugh track plays.
That’s how I feel watching a decent chunk of this show. Just the utter void of seeing all of the parts for a masterpiece only to see it fall apart right in front of my face.

Connor MacLeod said:

nor did he look like an overly obsessive weirdo like he did in attack of the clones.

…well yeah, there’s no romance subplot. I guess you can say he’s obsessed with Obi-Wan in a different way, but he’s not weird about it, and it’s in-character.

Connor MacLeod said:

does anyone here think Kenobi is a better prequel than the actual prequel trilogy?

Doesn’t matter Uncle Ben, the 2017 Canon Vader comics are better then both (meme template, if you don’t know look it up).

So you refuse to pick, correct? But it sounds like you like Kenobi less. And I agree with your observations but I was just wondering which series you thought was better…and you keep mentioning the comics but I don’t care about that in the slightest. I just want to focus on live action.

G&G-Fan said:

Connor MacLeod said:

So you refuse to pick, correct? But it sounds like you like Kenobi less. And I agree with your observations but I was just wondering which series you thought was better…and you keep mentioning the comics but I don’t care about that in the slightest. I just want to focus on live action.

It only sounds like that because I didn’t rant about the Prequels.

It’s a bit hard to choose, but honestly, the Kenobi show is probably better. No matter how much it fumbles, the Prequels fumble more as movies and in some of the ripple effects it’s had, even if the they did inspire some good material.

It’s cool if you don’t care about the comics. I love them because I feel they bring back Vader to how he feels in the OT (in the 2017 series he’s definitely younger, but still very much like him personality wise) whilst making good use of Prequel ideas.

Got it. Thanks. I actually just checked and I own Vader 2017 volumes but haven’t read them LOL. They been sitting on my coffee table for a year but I got them because people said it was the best run. I just care more about film. A lot more. But i’ll get around to reading them…

Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith blow out the Obi Wan show, easily. Attack of the Clones ties with it. Counted together the prequels win. They have the much bigger budget and setpieces, better sets, costumes, extras, effects, music, and action, and have Ewan McGregor AND Ian McDiarmid consistently instead of just one. Jar Jar is less irritating than Reva.

rocknroll41 said:

Kenobi is way worse

Can you please briefly explain why? I’m interested…

Wait a second… I just remembered I’ve only seen the edit where Reva just dies.

Mocata said:

Wait a second… I just remembered I’ve only seen the edit where Revan just dies.

What’s your opinion? Do you think the prequels are better than Kenobi?

They tell different stories. The story in Kenobi is good, Reva is too over the top though.

The prequel is a good story severely ruined in execution with childish and cartoon things. The downfall of Anakin and the Republic should be an epic. instead, it is fun to remember now for memes. Like Kenobi’s Hello there.

And Unlimited powerrrrr! and shooting Windu force lighting out a window.

Connor MacLeod said:

Mocata said:

Wait a second… I just remembered I’ve only seen the edit where Reva just dies.

What’s your opinion? Do you think the prequels are better than Kenobi?

Both were dumb in different ways and failed as prequels by adding nothing of value to the story. I guess edited down Kenobi is just one kinda boring movie rather than three mostly annoying ones.

It’s really hard to compare the two. They’re so radically different, created in different eras, different formats, different motivations (well except for money, that’s a timeless motivation). As an experience, the Prequels are better. The Kenobi show is just kind of depressing. Disney got really cheap on us with the production value, and seeing fan-fiction where sad Ewan McGregor fights Halloween-costume Darth Vader at a construction site off Interstate 95 or something is just, well, sad.

As a general rule, both the Prequels and Disney+ Star Wars suck pretty hard, but the Prequels usually suck in more bafflingly “fun” ways, whereas Disney Star Wars just sucks in boring, depressing ways. Like, an example of the Prequels sucking is like “George Lucas actually wrote an entire Star Wars movie that didn’t even feature adult Anakin!” or “Obi Wan Kenobi rides a cartoon lizard while using a glowstick to poke a cyborg on a unicycle”. Whereas, with Disney, you get “lightsabers behave like baseball bats, everything is poorly lit, the cinematography is vomit, the music is boring and unmemorable, there’s like 3 new main characters that nobody cares about, all character development is replaced with Dave Filoni Rebels cameos, etc.”

Channel72 said:

It’s really hard to compare the two. They’re so radically different, created in different eras, different formats, different motivations (well except for money, that’s a timeless motivation). As an experience, the Prequels are better. The Kenobi show is just kind of depressing. Disney got really cheap on us with the production value, and seeing fan-fiction where sad Ewan McGregor fights Halloween-costume Darth Vader at a construction site off Interstate 95 or something is just, well, sad.

As a general rule, both the Prequels and Disney+ Star Wars suck pretty hard, but the Prequels usually suck in more bafflingly “fun” ways, whereas Disney Star Wars just sucks in boring, depressing ways. Like, an example of the Prequels sucking is like “George Lucas actually wrote an entire Star Wars movie that didn’t even feature adult Anakin!” or “Obi Wan Kenobi rides a cartoon lizard while using a glowstick to poke a cyborg on a unicycle”. Whereas, with Disney, you get “lightsabers behave like baseball bats, everything is poorly lit, the cinematography is vomit, the music is boring and unmemorable, there’s like 3 new main characters that nobody cares about, all character development is replaced with Dave Filoni Rebels cameos, etc.”

You didn’t like Andor? Disney has made a lot of trash but I think it was worth passing it to them just to get Andor, Rogue One, and Mando Season 1 and 2, which are easily better than any movies or tv shows from the prequel era.

^ Yeah, Andor is uniquely awesome. Was it worth all the other crap that came out of Disney acquiring LucasFilm? I don’t know, maybe. I think the Sequel Trilogy was the most damaging byproduct of the Disney acquisition. The Disney+ garbage is ignored easily enough, but the Sequel Trilogy actually mattered because it was the last time the OT cast would be available. And in my opinion, the Sequels turned out to be a complete mess and a major wasted opportunity (not that George Lucas necessarily would have done any better).

Channel72 said:

^ Yeah, Andor is uniquely awesome. Was it worth all the other crap that came out of Disney acquiring LucasFilm? I don’t know, maybe. I think the Sequel Trilogy was the most damaging byproduct of the Disney acquisition. The Disney+ garbage is ignored easily enough, but the Sequel Trilogy actually mattered because it was the last time the OT cast would be available. And in my opinion, the Sequels turned out to be a complete mess and a major wasted opportunity (not that George Lucas necessarily would have done any better).

I agree. I think it’s best to ignore the PT and ST entirely. But I think I abhor ST more because of what you stated, the wasted opportunity to use the OT cast wisely. Also Disney had every opportunity to make something better than the prequels. They didn’t. They both suck.