I do feel worried for the future of Star Wars Disney+ series if the Obi-wan Kenobi series - a project people have anticipated for years and clearly a flagship series for Disney+ - can’t even look decent half the time. Either they need to sort out why it doesn’t look good, or they need to up their budgets asap.
Easily the best episode imo. Biggest complaints are still how it looks, special effects are really letting this show down, but there was a lot to love. Great twist with Reva, some real stakes and tension, and flashbacks that served the story in a very character-specific way. Loved seeing Hayden back as Anakin too.
It feels like this series could have done even more with the potential it had, but I’m happy with what they did with this episode. With only one episode left, I think I can say that this is at least a good show.
It would have been awesome if they’d done that themselves and have Nur look as visually striking as it did in Jedi: Fallen Order, instead of making it look like it’s somewhere in the English channel, but alas.
I partly made this thread because I was about to share this review of Shadow of the Sith - which releases in two weeks - before realising I didn’t know where to post it. Anyway, here it is.
Review: Hope Pierces Through in Adam Christopher’s ‘Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith’
“Holding absolutely nothing back in his Star Wars novel debut, Adam Christopher brings a bold new adventure to the galaxy … a power-punching novel filled with bold storytelling.”
A thread for reviews of new or old Star Wars books and comics, whether they be interesting ones you’ve found online or your own thoughts. There are always plenty of stories in Star Wars publishing to keep track of so I thought it would be good to have a place where it’s easy enough to find what you might be interested in and what people are saying about them!
Found all three GOUT editions of the original trilogy in a second hand store today, and only costing a fiver in total! Despite the quality of the laserdisc scans I’m sure that’s a huge bargain so naturally, I grabbed them. Even the conductor on my train home was admiring the shitty early 2000s digital cover art. There’s a certain charm to it I think.
By the way, I have a VHS edition of ROTJ that I can’t find any information on. It says packaging copyright 1994 and it has this art as the cover:
Anyone know anything about it?
I was also wrong in my last post: the VHS boxset sadly wasn’t the Faces boxset, it was the 1997 fullscreen boxset - the golden one with Vader on the cover. Grateful for them anyway.
All in all, I have:
My friend called me a hoarder when she saw me buying the OT for the 3rd time. I’m beginning to think she might be right.
while I was in the chair I kept thinking about how I would do this show lol
I do this a lot and it inevitably means I feel disappointed in probably more things than I should be.
Vader’s confrontation with Reva, at least in the closeups, was definitely Hayden in the suit. Something about the body language was very PT-Ani.
I love Deborah Chow but I don’t think she should have chosen to direct every single episode. That’s an insane amount of work. It’s understandable they want a consistent vision rather than having multiple directors and multiple directing styles, but multiple directors mean each can focus on making one or two episodes the best they can be, rather than six.
I still like a lot of scenes from the show but I feel like there’s been a drop in quality from her Mando episodes for sure.
Personally I thought it was a weak way to have them connect, but I’m mostly talking about the new gang we meet. Severely underdeveloped characters, that one guy at first hesitates to help only to have an inexplicable change of heart… then there’s Wade who dies at the end and… we’re supposed to feel for him, I guess? Like, the issue isn’t that they’re there, it’s that we’re supposed to care. They’re obviously representing the fight against oppression and the cost of the mission to the point that it shouldn’t matter who they are, but not even the symbolic nature of the role helps that brief storyline to succeed, like it does for me in Rogue One, and it really drags the whole thing. Doesn’t help that the rest of the episode was mostly boring…
I agree about the characters for sure. I think there needed to be more build up to the beginning of the mission to Nur as it felt like they jumped into it pretty quickly. I get why it makes sense to set off as fast as possible, but we needed to actually care about Wade, we needed to really feel how huge a challenge this is for Obi-wan and see how under-confident he is that he can actually pull it off.
I actually liked this episode but that stuck out to me as the biggest thing being missing. Build-up.
I like how he struggles to use the Force on his own but it comes to him more naturally when he’s saving Leia from something. The scene where he cracks the window glass and floods a corridor was awesome, and a big step up from pulling a random object towards himself earlier.
That scene with Vader about to kill Reva was freakin’ awesome. Scared the shit out of me. And it screams classic Vader.
Have we ever seen him that pissed off onscreen before? Because I don’t think so. And I think that one short scene is Vader’s best in the series so far.
Tiny nit-pick; The tracking device has been done. Come up with another way.
Done to death, I agree, but I liked the twist of the tracking device being Leia’s droid. That’s actually pretty cruel. It seems like Lola has been her constant companion for years.
the first few minutes of this episode were the low point of the series IMO.
I’m surprised you say that as the opening bacta tank scene was my favourite scene in the episode.
But the biggest problem is the ever increasing bond between Obi & Leia. The more they progress with this, the more she is a heartless bitch in ANH. That guy risked everything for her and she had this close bond. But she doesn’t even react when he is trapped and about to die in ANH? Yet the boy who has known him for 5 minutes reacts the opposite way? Wow. that calls her character into question. This should never have been Leia in this story. There is no peril because we know who survives.
This feels like a nitpick of what I think is the best part of the series. The relationship between Obi-wan and Leia is the beating heart of this story and I always love their scenes together. We don’t even really focus on Leia’s reaction to his duelling Vader in ANH, and though I’ll give you that Luke seems more sad about it than she does afterwards, I don’t think it’s anywhere near a good enough reason to justify not doing this story.
Hell, maybe Leia doesn’t remember much from when she was 9. I know I don’t.
Ewan did great when he heard the name Vader. No need for Reva to name drop Anakin Skywalker.
No, but she’s rubbing it in deliberately I think. By her tone of voice she’s really enjoying savouring the moment and tormenting Obi-wan.
Of course, as always - the fans are to blame. Instead of pointing out a blatant result of incompetency, we should all rally around the writers and help them out with our fan theory gymnastics. Force forbid Disney actually do their own job well to begin with.
Two things.
One, I never said the fans are to blame. The person who made this specific video is to blame for straight up lying just to make a writer look bad. Don’t put words in my mouth.
Two, I literally just explained how the video’s wrong and this is not an example of “incompetency”. Joby Harold is well aware Obi-wan knows that Anakin is Vader. You can take issues with his writing style or creative decisions or whatever but let’s not just post misleading things just to further some narrative or whatever you’re trying to do here.
I’m very glad that the shortcomings of new Star Wars Disney+ series are helping fans realise how good Rebels is, lol.
(I say that but I do actually like the scene where he finds out Anakin is still alive. Ewan’s acting makes it great)
Exactly. This claim is just a bad attempt to slander the creatives behind this show. In episode 2 Obi-wan hears the name “Lord Vader” and visibly reacts to it. What he didn’t know was that Vader was still alive.
It makes little sense because we know the director and cinematographer are both extremely skilled professionals. If anything most people were concerned about the writing as Joby Harold doesn’t seem to have done much outstanding work, but honestly it’s my favourite element of the show so far.
Random point: I love how Vader looks in this scene. I’m not sure why but it reminds me of how he was lit in A New Hope. Does anyone else see it?
Oh yeah. Angle kind of makes me think of this shot.
That was the one I had in mind too. It’s such different lighting but still the same vibe. I’ve noticed Vader looks very different depending on whether the mouth grill is cast in shadow or not.
Random point: I love how Vader looks in this scene. I’m not sure why but it reminds me of how he was lit in A New Hope. Does anyone else see it?
I reckon he’s just not dead. There’s no way they’d have this guy be a different character yet just happen to sound and look similar to the Grand Inquisitor in Rebels.
I agree they will have saved a lot of budget for that climactic duel since it’s such a big selling point for the whole series.
I’m mixed, honestly. I appreciate the room for more character development in the series format and I love that part of the show. But I think the production value has definitely let the series down so far. In episode 1 and 2 it was just the occasional shot that I thought didn’t look great, but with episode 3 it became pretty serious.
I too miss the Star Wars movie experience and I hope either Taika Waititi’s movie or Rogue Squadron get to cinemas as quickly as they can!
