Obi-Wan Kenobi Series (SPOILERS possible)

[Dave]

One other thing.  NED-B.

He's a fine droid concept, but I didn't like the portrayal of the role.  It seemed too fluid - like a human in a big 1950s robot suit.

C-3PO, K-2SO, and L3-37 all were great portrayals with mechanical movements.

I'm not sure if NED-B should have been all CGI, or if they just needed someone who could do "the robot" in a robot suit.

[Jedi Idej]

Something is up with NED-B. They emphasized twice that he's just a loader droid and doesn't communicate. Yet clutching a hammer behind his back, presumably ready to bash the stormtrooper that confronted him, suggests he has a heightened sense of self preservation, an unlikely feature of a loader droid.

Curious about the name. Until I hear different, I want to believe it's in honor of Ned Beatty.

Someone mentioned the name drops. Saw a YouTube  vid surmising about the mother and son heading to Corellia (part2). Both characters are named in imdb. The boy is Corran and mom is Nyche. Corellia + Corran + Nyche = Corran Horn spotting?

[Dave]

He's a fine droid concept, but I didn't like the portrayal of the role.  It seemed too fluid - like a human in a big 1950s robot suit.

Unless Quinlan Vos is hiding in a NED-B suit and its supposed to look like a humanoid in disguise.

[Diddly]

Ugh, I guess I am the only one who REALLY did not like last night’s episode. I feel like there are two things at odds with each other going on in this show. One, the internal plots and characters and events, but more importantly how all of this activity dovetails with the rest of the movies.

They are doing an ok job with #1 but #2 is really starting to bother me. I won’t go more into it than that for now, but man, so much revisionist stuff happening.

You are not the only one. I'll delve into more spoilery thoughts later, but while I thought the episode was better than 2, it still left me wondering what the writing staff was thinking. It really felt like a first draft script at times.

And are the tax breaks really that much that Disney will forego creativity in favor of shooting in what is obviously California?

[McMetal]

So here’s some of what I meant about how the revisionism negatively impacts the established canon:

1) Leia having this not at all forgettable adventure with Obi-Wan, and it never comes up in ANH? Are they going to wipe her memory or something? Because it makes her holo message seem weird now. You served my father in the Clone Wars is a far cry from remember when you saved me from those Inquisitors 8 years ago, or whatever.

2) Grand Inquisitor still dead. At least show him floating in a bacta tank or getting cloned or something!

3) this is the one that just kills me, that duel, IMHO, horribly undercuts and essentially renders meaningless one of my favorite Vader lines from ANH about how last time they met, Obi-Wan was the Master, but now he is. Now it’s more like, the last time we met, I totally wiped the floor with you and made you look like a sad broken old man. 

That duel should also have been the penultimate climax of Episode 6, not a stopping point halfway through. And then Vader just gives up at the end of the episode when OBW is right in front of him practically defeated? Like he couldn’t have snuffed out those flames using the Force? I think that ending could have been scripted a little more effectively.

I did love the Quinlan Vos reference! And seeing the Fortress finally was cool.

[GrandMoffNick]

That's a pretty big assumption that they won't battle again with Ben a bit more on top of his game

[Dave]

3) this is the one that just kills me, that duel, IMHO, horribly undercuts and essentially renders meaningless one of my favorite Vader lines from ANH about how last time they met, Obi-Wan was the Master, but now he is. Now it’s more like, the last time we met, I totally wiped the floor with you and made you look like a sad broken old man. 

This is maybe my biggest concern.  Its a totally awesome line in ANH and I sure hope there is another meeting where Obi-Wan has re-found his mojo and lops off a few mechanical limbs before Vader escapes again.

There are different plot points they could have used to have Obi-Wan evade/escape without a formal duel.

I'm more okay with the Leia thing for now as Leia perceives Obi-Wan's loyalty to her father as the reason he is there.  But again, I think there are other ways they could do this plot without having Leia be so enmeshed in it.  Leia could have been the bait that drew out Obi-Wan and now its just the Inquisitors and Vader hunting him without Leia still being involved.

[Jeff]

Re: Leia's hologram:  In the holo-message, she starts out all cool and formal with "General Kenobi" but ends with help ME, Obi-Wan, you're MY only hope.  Not help us or help my father.  Help ME.  Seems like she had some kind of reason to think he'd be willing to do it for her.

Re: Obi-Wan vs. Vader, I'm willing to let the rest of the show play out before I judge that.  Like, there could be another duel coming where Obi-Wan draws on Qui-Gon for help and does some crazy stuff to escape Vader and Vader realizes he still has things to learn or whatever.

[Diddly]

Like he couldn’t have snuffed out those flames using the Force? I think that ending could have been scripted a little more effectively.

This was so stupid to me. Like, Vader puts the flames out with the Force... then 30 seconds later he can't do it a second time? Just stands there when he could have done a Lightsaber throw or something?

The only thing stupider was that shot of Obi-Wan running away from Vader, to the side behind the hill. Then they cut to Obi-Wan running back to the same spot like he forgot his cell phone, but they pretend it's a different area. I'm pretty sure they didn't even bother moving the camera or changing the background

[GrandMoffNick]

I was not as impressed with this episode as much as I was expecting based off of other's reactions before I watched. But man there's a lot of nit picking going on. Especially with three episodes left to answer some questions/fit things in more to what follows in the OT. I don't get it.

[Diddly]

I'm seeing rumors that they're now planning for a second season, so who knows where things go now

[Mister Skeezler]

Honestly if you could have reached into my mind from 1979 onward, that's the Darth Vader I imagined hunting down the Jedi before ANH. I was disappointed that ROTS didn't feature a full cybernetic Vader doing what he does in this latest episode. That's the Vader I had nightmares about.

We'll see what happens in the next episode, but I got the impression Vader isn't all that concerned that Kenobi got away for now. He seemed to know where he was through the whole pursuit, and there's supposed to be no way off planet. He's already gravely injured Kenobi, and plans to hunt him all over the imperial-controlled planet he's stuck on.

My thought is now that Vader knows Kenobi had help from the town, will he use their suffering to draw him out. And he also now has Leia, so Obi Wan will have no choice but to put on his big Jedi pants and confront Vader. I want to see why Vader uses the line "Obi Wan once thought as you do..." The dueling is always appreciated, but I want to see some of the emotional drama between the two that didn't come across in ROTS. And I didn't see that exchange as a fight, I just saw it as Vader beating the crap out of Obi Wan for his own enjoyment. Obi Wan didn't have the upper hand or even an actual defense other than "run for my ******* life" during that. It was not a duel...it was Vader being sadistic, and enjoying it.

[Rob]

Finally got to watch it.  Loved it. 

Six episodes is definitely going to leave me wanting more.

[Matt_Fury]

I agree with what you guys are saying - I think Ben has pretty much cut himself off from the Force to help hide. (or maybe out of guilt).  Like Nick said, maybe he's worried that using the force makes him more open to detection by other force-sensitives?  I think Obi-Wan straining to catch Leia when she was falling was trying to show us that he's just not "fluent" in the force anymore, for lack of a better term.

I thought that point was really driven home in Episode 3 - Vader points out how weak Obi-Wan has become over the years.  When they finally engage in a lightsaber duel, Vader is basically fending off Obi-Wan using only ONE hand on his saber.  Like, Vader kicked Obi-Wan's ass and he wasn't even really trying.

I think you are on the right track Jeff.  There is definitely a Luke in the Last Jedi vibe to all of this.  In TLJ, Luke cut himself off from the force in order to not be tempted to get involved.  Like Flynn in Tron: Legacy, he was removing himself from the board.  The scene when Luke does reconnect to the force and he helps wake up Leia, he goes looking for Rey because he's ready to join the fight....when he sees Rey with Ben Solo, he freaks out again and goes back to his fear of acting because he doesn't want to make things worse.

I think Obi-Wan is on a similar journey in this series, but he will end up finding some sort of inner peace and resolve in order to make a better future by training Luke and Leia.

Curious about the name. Until I hear different, I want to believe it's in honor of Ned Beatty.

It will be confirmed if the droid squeals like a pig.   

[Muftak]

I think Obi-Wan is on a similar journey in this series, but he will end up finding some sort of inner peace and resolve in order to make a better future by training Luke and Leia.

I think everything will get tied up in a bow when he gets his "training" from Qui-Gon (which they made sure to put in the prequel supercut before the first part) and he switches from using the Force like the Republic Jedi did, to following the Will of the Living Force as Qui-Gon did. If that happens in the next couple episodes, he could be super-charged for his next battle with Vader, and leave his apprentice feeling like he needs to "learn" something new.

Or if they don't, it goes to explaining why once we catch back up with Ben 10 years later, he is as chill as he is--living with 2 lightsabers right under the roof of his publicly-known home, and ready to charter a ship and get back into the fight at the drop of a hat. It will be quite the change in attitude once he starts using the Living Force as his guide.

I have a ton to say about Vader and his actions from part 3 as well, but I want to see what he does next to clarify if he was supposed to have been stymied when Ben got away or if that was all intentional.

For some of the production clunky I am really enjoying the character beats in this so far!