I didn’t much enjoy Disney’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, alas. I thought there was some good stuff in it…I liked pretty much all the actors and their performances. I especially thought the interplay between Ewan MacGregor and Hayden Christiansen worked well and both actors really added to the show, and actually really liked Vivien Lyra Blair’s performance as Leia (though the writing for her character was super uneven), and thought that the concept of her and Obi-Wan having shared a prequel adventure together actually held up well.
I didn’t think it was terribly distinctive or striking visually, though. The score was, I thought, the weakest I’ve ever heard in a Star Wars property (I really, really hated the soundtrack and score, tbh…the orchestration was incredibly weak). And the plotting and movement was super uneven…characters always seemed to be wherever the plot needed them to be (most egregiously in the final episode, where Obi-Wan is chased by Vader, draws him away, has a big fight, and then dashes over to Tatooine to intercept Reva), and the number of times the bad guys just watched the good guys get away (or vice versa once or twice) got a bit silly after a while.
Oh, and speaking of Reva, she’s the focal point for us today. The good, first. I actually really liked the performance of Moses Ingram (actually, the Inquisitors were another highlight for me…I genuinely liked how petty and “middle management” they all were, and how clearly the show demonstrated that they’re very much a grade or two below a true Jedi or Sith…and made a compelling demonstration for why that’s the case). I also thought there was an interesting story to be told about a character like Reva, and that Ingram captured some of that pathos and rage…well, as much as she was allowed to, anyway.
Because dear Lord was her character badly written…and I’m not gonna get into all of it today, this isn’t a review! But let’s at least break down Reva’s plan:
- Figures out her boss murdered all her friends ten years ago.
- Does not try and do anything to her boss yet.
- Instead, kidnaps the mysterious adopted daughter of a senator (who’s also her boss’ daughter but she doesn’t actually know that).
- Hope the senator rings up his old Jedi friend who hasn’t been sighted in a decade.
- Hope the old Jedi friend actually responds to the call and comes to rescue Leia.
- Start chasing the Jedi, and let her boss know that he’s out there.
- Maybe kill the Jedi? Capture him? Lol dunno.
- Wait until her boss is super duper pleased that she killed or captured or moderately inconvenienced the Jedi, and then kill her boss in revenge, even though he’s been there for ages at this point and she could’ve tried to kill him, like, days ago.
What’s really irritating, though, is that I think there’s the draft of a good plan/story outline in there – it’s just horribly convoluted at the moment. Kenobi is, ultimately, superfluous to Reva’s actual plan – she wants to get to Vader. So rather than forcing Kenobi into the plan, let him enter into it organically.
Further, Reva choosing Leia as her target honestly strains credulity for me, partly because (as mentioned above) it’s not as if Bail and Obi-Wan have been pen pals all this time…it seems very lucky for her that Obi-Wan was indeed the first person that Bail turned to, and that Obi-Wan reacts to it. But, more pertinently, it is silly and unbelievable (at least to me) because Leia is also connected to Reva’s actual target…Anakin Skywalker. She doesn’t know it, to be sure, but that just turns it into a weird coincidence.
So, here’s my pitch: Reva wants revenge against Anakin…fair enough. She figures out that Darth Vader is Anakin…also fair enough. So she goes digging, does some research…because she knows she barely stands a chance against a Sith Lord, she needs to have something extra over him…some knowledge, or a tool, or even some blackmail.
And Reva finds out that Padmé, Anakin’s friend, secretly gave birth just before she died…Padmé, who seemed to share a very close bond with Anakin, and who worked closely with Senator Bail Organa. Reva’s able to put two and two together – she realises that Leia is Anakin’s daughter.
But what Reva doesn’t know is that Anakin himself is unaware of this…she assumes that Anakin had it covered up, and he knows that Leia is his child.
And at this point, the series can honestly play out very similarly. Reva kidnaps Leia, because she wants to draw Darth Vader out, to make him vulnerable. No such thing happens, of course, because Vader does not know or care about Princess Leia Organa, so Reva starts pushing, hinting, prodding, trying to expose him somehow.
Meanwhile, Bail has no idea what’s going on, and elects to turn to the only person who he can trust and who will understand the gravity of the situation – Obi-Wan. So Obi-Wan enters the plot not as a pawn, but as a genuine wildcard – and, sooner or later, he finds out that Darth Vader is Anakin, and that Reva is trying to bait him with Leia. So Kenobi’s got to rescue Leia, neutralise Reva, and prevent Darth Vader from learning the truth about his children…all while trying to keep himself alive.
Oh…and, for good measure, Darth Vader is thus drawn from safety, as Reva planned, but because he’s hunting his old master. So then, you’ve got a goal for each of the primary players (protect Leia/kill Kenobi/destroy Vader) which puts each of them at odds with each other, and you’ve also got the nervous tightrope of Obi-Wan needing to hide Leia’s identity from Darth Vader, while Reva tries to draw it from him (again, because she thinks he already knows who the Princess is).
I think there’s a lot of merit to this relatively simple change – it gives Obi-Wan more agency. It actually adds to the stakes, as we know how bad it would be for Anakin to discover he has a daughter (and though obviously he couldn’t find it out, there might be some hint that still draws his attention to Leia and marks her as being important, adding to his relationship with her at the beginning of ANH). And it makes Reva’s plan much simpler and less silly. Indeed, not only is it less convoluted, she could even draw attention to the fact that she knows she cannot kill Darth Vader…but she can ruin him, by exposing his identity and his family secrets.
Mind, she’ll also still probably try to kill him, but at least this way the Leia coincidence is a feature, not a bug, and her plan is far more political and sophisticated.
As it is though, of course, Reva’s plan is genuinely nuts, the plot of a room of screenwriters trying to get from scene to scene rather than an actual coherent scheme. And so, Reva leaves me asking…
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