Kenobi: A Star Wars Story (by krausfadr) RELEASED

Kenobi: A Star Wars Story

To inquire about this edit, email krausfadr at gmail dot com and include the word fanedit in the subject line.

This edit is a series to film fanfix

Other edits have left in too much of the low budget scenes for me. I would love to have a high budget edit that runs at 2 hours. But this is not possible… but it is possible to tell a full story at 1 hour 45 minutes.

This series was a puzzling assortment of unevenness with much low budget filler material. It also went from a Jawa making “stinky” jokes suited for third graders— to an innocent woman getting her hand brutally sliced off with a lightsaber. With such dark material it made little sense for Disney, after the fact, to try and turn it into a light hearted show for small children. They put minimal time and budget into their retrofitted material and it shows.

The first fight/encounter between Vader and Ben (dragged into fire) was a cool concept but looked like a youtube fanfilm.

Luckily the scenes for the main storylines (probably from the original script) were filmed/produced with a moderate to high budget.

This edit maintains a higher budget look and trims out so many cringey scenes of Reva, Leia, and Luke. It completely removes the ridiculous Grand Inquisitor (until Reva fills the open position). The focus is more on Ben and Vader while making both Reva and Leia more believable and likable.

Major Changes (UH, SPOILERS…)

• No prequel recap
• Anakin de-aged in flashbacks (excellent work by darth porg)
• Ben being dragged into the fire by Vader is now all a dream/vision that haunts Ben
• Lighting, atmospheric VFX, and color grading to make some scenes feel more polished
• Much less Leia and Luke throughout
• Haja fake Jedi storyline eliminated
• Added a thumpin’ tune being played on Tatooine that you might recognize if you have the death sentence in twelve systems
• First time we see Leia is after she’s already been kidnapped so no Power Rangers chasing her around the woods
• Much less Reva, you’ll care about her now that she’s not so annoying (maybe)
• Stabilized several very unnecessary and nauseating shaky cam shots during the planning of infiltrating the Imperial base
• Some Anakin flashbacks moved around and also moved the long Younglings flashback
• New intro text informing us the Grand Inquisitor is presumed killed by a Tusken Raider
• The Inquistors are never shown on Tatooine
• Better Jawa dialogue in the conversation with Ben
• We see Vader much sooner, and the first we see of Reva, she’s a hologram
• The man hung in Tatooine is not a Jedi, the Empire is punishing the town for what the Sandpeople did to the Grand Inquisitor
• After being abducted Leia does not go to Daiyu and is instead soon transferred to the Imperial base on the water moon, Nur
• Reva never interrogates Leia, she’s just bait
• Ben meets Tala (the spy) on Daiyu, no low budget adventures of Ben and Leia hitchhiking on planet Mapuzo
• Reva is not on Daiyu
• Battle sequences tightened and greatly improved
• Fighter craft don’t hover completely still while shooting enemies
• Reva’s lightsaber is not a spinning steering wheel
• Ben does not give a lackluster speech while on the refugee transport being attacked by the Star Destroyer
• Leia doesn’t have a meltdown on the refugee transport, now she somberly senses Ben is leaving because she is emotionally intelligent
• Slightly trimmed the final lightsaber battles to remove a few low budget looking shots
• A badly injured Vader does not vow to destroy Kenobi
• Reva dies at Vader’s hand (or at least seems to), no attack on the Lars homestead
• New music for end credits

The Grand Inquisitor’s portrayal is very different to how he looks and behaves in Star Wars Rebels, so if you’re a fan of the Jason Isaacs version of the character, the Rupert Friend version is a huge disappointment. (Apparently, he’s more similar to how he’s portrayed in the comics, but I haven’t read those.) Plus, he doesn’t impact the plot whatsoever, so cutting him just streamlines things slightly.

GLogus said:

The Grand Inquisitor is an established part of Star Wars canon. Why are you so eager to remove him? Despite going a bit too far in a few places, I actually liked the infighting among the Inquisitors. It was entertaining.

Also, I thought Haja’s story was pretty well received, so I’m surprised you want to eliminate it.

This Grand Inquisitor unfortunately was a weakling with terrible lines.

The Inquisitor with the fancy hat was a bad caricature of a bad guy with just about every line he spoke. He’s still in this edit though and is angsty toward Reva.

Haja’s arc storyline was a bad rough draft seemingly written by the alternate writing team to add filler material.

Glogus, also thanks for your thoughts. I have decided to update my opening text so it does not override any canon. Here it is:

Under orders from Lord Vader,
the GRAND INQUISITOR must find
and execute outsiders who use the Force.

While leading a team of Jedi Hunters
on Tatooine, the Grand Inquisitor
was shot by a Tusken Raider sniper.

Declaring the Grand Inquisitor dead,
Vader orders weekly executions
on Tatooine in retaliation.

Ice said:

Using Vader dragging OWK in the fire as a dream sequence is an inspired change!

I like it

Thanks Ice. I really liked the concept but not the implementation. This lets me keep keep some of that initial confrontation without it feeling like a fanfilm anymore.

Here is the concept for Ben’s extended Dream sequence incorporating the fire:

https://vimeo.com/727425230/ac330b1307

Hi Mario it will be ready soon. Within just a few days.

I’m exporting the video now.

STF78 thanks for taking a look. I’ve polished that dream sequence audio up a bit more and it now has a proper LFE treatment for those on a home theater system. Hope to have the edit released in 1080p and 720p tomorrow.

Awesome, very unique idea. Will definitely check out your film tomorrow.

The edit has now been released now. Enjoy!

Comments, criticisms welcome, but first understand that the primary goal of this edit is to produce a higher budget looking film.

I do not want cheap looking footage especially of Leia before being kidnapped, Leia running around on the mining planet Mapuzo, and Inquisitors doing all their bad acting on Tatooine. If this is a dealbreaker for you, please be warned and find another edit that suits you better.

Haha yes to cut it down involved some serious plot streamlining and a little sleight of hand.

SPOILERS
That was a big pill to swallow for me as well until I thought about it some more. Why did Ben not kill Vader!!?? The reason in Ben’s Jedi mind is from guilt and to show mercy. To make this a little easier to take I did two things. First I added in a flashback to him and Anakin training right before Ben escapes being buried under rocks. So we see Anakin again. Second after Vader is beaten and wheezing, I removed his line about destroying Ben. This makes him seem even weaker and maybe having second thoughts. A slightly easier (but not easy) pill to swallow now when Ben shows mercy.

What scene am I using for the crawl? Not sure what that means. My opening text was short and not worthy of a crawl. So it just matches up with the a long time ago text.