They really should have got rid of all the useless fluff from the other episodes and developed this finale more into 2 eps. It felt rushed. Sadly they strengthened the bond between Ben & Leia which makes her reaction to his death in ANH even more cold. But this ep did seem to be a bit of a box ticker, which was a shame.
I agree, 100% with the Ben & Leia story.
I also can’t help wonder how much the series we be improved by Stanton writing all of it - not just the last two episodes, which were an uplift on the previous chapters.
It did show the flaws in the ability of those in charge to plot out chance sequences though. the Stardestroyer chase was flat. compare this sequence to those in the OT, especially ESB with the stardestroyer chasing the falcon, and you will see what i mean. The stardestoyer itself looked more 90’s CG than the quality we have come to expect from ILM today. The movement of the ships in some shots just looked unreal/ unnatural.
The big problem was that, what should have been tense moments, just couldn’t be because we know they survive. There was no peril, even though it was written to portray just that. We know vader survives, we know ben survives, we know Leia survives, we know owen and beru survive. yet they were the ones that were supposed to be in danger. The only one we didn’t know their fate was Reva, but she was just a throw away character in the end.
Yes. Yet again, Kenobi was in a situation where he had Vader at his mercy, and just… lets him walk away. Knowing what already happened, knowing what Vader has done to innocent people (not just the men, but the women and children too)… that Vader would go on to murder, destroy, oppress, over and over again, and that no-one else would be able to stop him. And years later, in ROTJ, he will instead ask Luke to go and kill Vader, something he did not do himself on two prior occasions now.
I’m not sure having the fight end like that in this series was a good idea, other than maybe not to damage the “When I left you I was but the learner” line from the OT, after Vader’s previous toying with Obi-Wan in this series.
Vader saying it was he himself who “killed” Anakin: to me it renders Kenobi in ROTJ telling Luke his “from a certain point of view” story of Vader murdering his father was true… as meaningless, this now comes from Vader’s own mouth, so was NOT a deception, or stretch, on Kenobi’s part.
Also the dialogue in Empire: Obi-Wan “That boy is our last hope”. Yoda: “No, there is another” does seem different now, now that Obi-Wan previously knows of Luke’s strong willed and force-sensitive sister, but the idea of this doesn’t occur to him.
Kenobi also seemed sympathetic to Vader at the end of the fight. But some 8-9 years later, he will refer to him as a “master of evil”. it is most odd that he didn’t end this master of evil when he had a second chance, after 10 years of Imperial oppression, the purges, and killing of innocents that Vader was involved in, and also strengthening the Empire’s grip on the galaxy.
“Obi-Wan once thought as you do”; we didn’t a scene with Kenobi trying to save Anakin in this, or bring him back to the lights, which I thought was a missed opportunity.
The " Vader half damaged mask revealing Anakins face" has already been done, but the original had more of an impact.
Rebels really nailed that aspect of it, with this feeling more like a bad homage or rip off of it.
There will be things in this that some fans will be cheering over, but they felt more shoehorned in.
It did appear like some box ticking was happening towards the end. The scene with the Emperor telling Vader to forget about Kenobi felt like that. Despite the revelation that Bail has known where Kenobi, one of the most wanted men in the galaxy, was all this time and there is a mystery link there with Leia. Or that the Inquisitors don’t follow up on this established link. Or the Empire keep Bail under very close observation, like him going to Tatooine in person for example.
I did think Obi-Wan telling Leia their connection must be kept a secret, to protect both of them, was a good bypass of the hologram message from Leia in the OT. But as you said above, it just makes makes her reaction to his death in SW even more cold, and also just before that with them not acknowledging each other as Luke, Leia, Han and Chewy made it to the Falcon.
Qui-Gon didn’t land for me, just that few seconds? That was it? It was a bit meh. A lazy decision to have that occur in the end scenes to me. I was hoping if we did see that we’d have something more memorable or with more weight.
Strangely, I did still enjoy the episode, and series, overall.
As others have said in here, it will be cool to see what some of the talented fan editors on here come up with. Especially in a film format.
“The rematch of the century”, this was not. For a show with a big tv budget, “event tv”, anticipation of the story by the fans for many years, the actors featured, this series overall was a bit of a letdown. Some great moments, but not enough of them. Some plot issues and clashing with the OT, and plot stretches within the series, but I expected those. But also some surprisingly underwhelming moments from a technical POV, I wasn’t expecting that from a series of this stature and importance to the Star Wars universe.
5/10 for the series.
With big credit to the little Leia actress. And Moses Ingram who did well when she was finally given something to work with in the last two episodes, as contrived and messy as Reva’s whole story in this was. Legitimate criticism is fine, and we know she is a quality actor from her other work, but fuck those racists who sent her all that vile idiotic hate.