I Have Anger, I Have Hate... I Will Use Them (Obi-Wan Finale Rant)

 Hello there! SPOILERS AHEAD. 

I didn't want to write this rant but there is so much anger circulating my brain that the only healthy way to dispose of that emotion is to channel it into something productive. 

Let me start of by saying that I wanted to like this series. When the rumors of an Obi-Wan Kenobi show / movie started doing the rounds, I was kinda hyped for it. I was curious to see what they could do with this beloved character. Apparently all they could do was make a show filled with logical fallacies and complete disregard for character motivation just to show off some cool images and set pieces. 

Before I get too far into the rant, I wanna apologize if any of this seems a tad disjointed or unorganized. I'm literally writing this just after watching the final episode and I'm allowing the words just to flow forth from me. 

Another thing I want to mention before I tear this finale apart worse than Darth Vader tore that ship apart, I do not blame any of the actors for their portrayal of these characters. I saw when the show first launched that many people did not like Reva's actress, Moses Ingram - to the point that a lot of horrible, racist and inexcusable garbage was said. If you are this type of person, you are utter trash and should be thrown in the fire. I enjoyed every actor's portrayal and acting ability in this show. 

I suppose I'll begin with pointing out the logical fallacies. We'll start small with the scene where the mercenaries were having trouble catching ten year old Leia. The choreography for this scene was... weird but not horrible. These grown, battle harden space killers are having trouble catching a child? This can be easily explained as they were toying with her / not going full force since she is just a child. No need to break a sweat when your target has no hope of running away. Sure. Fine. I can live with it. 

The next logical fallacy that irks me a bit more is how easily Obi-Wan was able to sneak Leia off the Empire base with the help of Tala. Man was literally able to hide her underneath a trench coat while an alarm is blaring - all hands are moving to security / defensive positions and not a single person bothers to stop them until a named character (Reva) arrives to challenge them. This is the beginning of the writers showing complete disregard for setting and character motivation. Obi-Wan, a bearded gentleman, is able to put on a hat and trench coat and blend right in with the rest of the staff. 

Watch the entirety of Star Wars post Empire upraising and tell me if you see a SINGLE person with a beard. Tell me if you can spot a SINGLE person with their uniform disheveled and just wrapped around them. This is a strict, highly trained military. Regardless of them even being akin to a dictatorship - you can look at standard military personal in the United States or United Kingdom or where ever else. In basic training you learn, very quickly, to make yourself presentable at all times. But instead of someone stopping our heroes, they are allowed to walk a fair distance away until Reva shows up. 

This can also be somewhat explained away for me, even though Obi-Wan looked absolutely ridiculous in that getup. The base is on high alert. Everyone is too focus on getting to their posts. We never hear a PA system or loud speaker announced that there are intruders on the base, so it is possible that the majority don't know what kind of attack it is. In the chaos I can buy that they were able to sneak by, but my suspension of disbelief is wavering. 

The following scene, as was pointed out by Angry Joe and his crew, doesn't help the situation. Two speeders from a rebel group Obi-Wan was working with show up to provide cover fire and allow them to board for an escape. Cool, no problems - although one would think radar technology should have alerted the empire to two rapidly approaching vessels. I can buy that the speeders were too tiny to be picked up - maybe the radar is tuned in a way that only picks up long space travel vessels. However, our heroes are able to board these speeders and escape, mostly (RIP... whatever the dude's name was that got blown up by Reva) without issue. In an establishing shot WE CLEARLY SEE THAT THEY HAVE TIE FIGHTERS. THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF ATTACK THIS IS AND THEY AREN'T SCRAMBLING THEIR SHIPS!?!?! 

Even if the speeders were fast enough to get away before a ship launches - they didn't track them with radar or anything like that to THEN scramble the tie fighters to go after them? Dumb but again, did not ruin the show for me cause, like I said, if it wasn't pointed out to me I probably wouldn't have noticed. 

Let's move onto the finale, where everything falls apart and my anger comes out. 

In the previous episode, Reva, after being talked into it by Obi-Wan, decides to attempt to strike down Vader as revenge for killing her fellow younglings. Spoiler - Reva was a youngling, hence why we got that cold open of Order 66 at the start of the show. Not a huge twist if you were to look critically at the show, which the writers clearly didn't do. Reva, of course, loses horribly to Vader - in a pretty awesome fight scene I should add. She gets stabbed through the gut, in a similar fashion to how she was stabbed as a child, and Vader JUST LEAVES HER THERE. 

Throughout the show it is made a big deal that Reva knows Vader is Anakin and that anyone who would know this information would be killed immediately. Vader is also not one for mercy, at all. Yet, we see that this trained force user / lightsaber combatant NOT ONLY KNOWS VADER'S SECRET BUT ALSO TRIED TO KILL HIM. We even had a scene where Vader was holding two lightsabers and looked like he was going to decapitate her JUST LIKE COUNT DOOKU. But instead, Vader decides to let her live - showing some of the first instances of complete disregard for character motivation or intelligence. 

Reva then, somehow not dying from having her intestines stabbed, finds a communicator Obi-Wan had. The device is damaged, but she is able to hear a message from Bail Organa - stating that "If he's found you, if he's learned of the children... I'll head to Tatooine, Owen will need help with the boy". 

This transmission, somehow, clues Reva in to the fact that Luke exists and that he is Vader's child. NO WHERE in that communication is it stated who Luke is. It's never mention WHO the children are OR WHO is after them. Sure, Reva can use the context that it's Vader, since he's been hunting Obi-Wan for so long. But she has no way of possibly knowing that these are his children. She has no idea why Luke would be significant or why Vader would be after him. For all she knows, Luke is just a force sensitive boy that Obi-Wan is training. She has no reason to suspect that hunting down and murdering Luke would somehow get back at Vader but SHE SURE ACTS LIKE THAT'S THE REASON. Side note while I started writing this: SHE CAN'T EVEN BE SURE THAT'S THE SAME OWEN. IS THERE ONLY ONE DUDE NAMED OWEN ON TATOOINE!?!?!? 

Reva then learns how to teleport because she is able to go from whatever planet the rebels were hiding on to Tatooine ALL WHILE THE STAR DESTROYER IS STILL PURSING THE FLEEING REBELS. Injured Reva, who should arguably  be dying, is able to somehow patch her wounds (since she is not seen to be suffering from them at all this episode), find a ship and make it Tatooine ALL BEFORE the Star Destroyer WHICH WAS ACTIVELY PURSING THE FLEEING REBELS ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AFTER THEY LEFT, IS ABLE TO CATCH THEM.  This isn't the first time the show has shown complete disregard for the fabrics of space and time, since in Episode 3 Reva is able to cut off Leia at the end of this secret Rebel tunnel - which is a one way straight shot - by entering THE EXACT SAME ENTRANCE AS LEIA. HOW DO YOU PHSYICS?

Reva arrives at Tatooine, starts asking questions and finds out where Owen lives. Owen is warned, tries to run away with Beru, but is forced to stay as she refuses to leave her home. I can accept this - Beru being a fighter and wanting to protect her farm is fine. 

MEANWHILE - Obi-Wan is stuck on this transporter - which has a blown hyper drive and damaged power couplings or some other kind of techno babble that prevents them from jumping to warp speed. We get a small rehash of The Last Jedi until Obi-Wan, for like the third time in this show, demands that Vader is after him and will leave the rest of them alone if he can act as bait. 

Reluctantly, Obi-Wan mediates / prepares and says his final goodbyes to Leia - once again trusting the charlatan Haja with her life. A small gripe, but one that irks me BECAUSE THE REBEL ENGINEER THAT ALREADY GAVE UP TWO LIVES TO SAVE LEIA FOR HIM IS STANDING RIGHT THERE. Haja is great. I love Haja. But I wouldn't trust him to save my daughter from the Empire. 

Obi-Wan hops into an escape pod and takes off. Vader, in his infinite brilliance, decides to send THE ENTIRE Star Destroyer after him. The Grand Inquisitor questions his decision, but is told to shut up and they veer off course - instead of ending the Rebel ring they've been hunting. The Rebels are able to escape and that's the last we see of them until Obi-Wan is reunited with Leia at the end of the episode. 

Moments after they started pursuing Obi-Wan, who is heading for some unmarked rock planet, VADER THEN ORDERS HIS SHIP BE PREPPED SO HE CAN FACE HIM ALONE. WHY DIDN'T YOU START WITH THIS?

Vader isn't dumb, or at least he shouldn't be written dumb like this show portrays him, and should know that Obi-Wan is baiting him. He knows Obi-Wan is making a sacrifice play to save the rebel ship. HE KNOWS OBI-WAN ISN'T GOING TO TRAVEL TOO FAR AWAY. Vader could have easily gotten into a tie fighter or his transport and follow after him WHILE the Star Destroyer pursued the Rebels. YOU DID NOT HAVE TO CHOOSE ONE OVER THE OTHER. IT MAKES NO SENSE. 

It was at this point that the episode really began to lose me, my suspension of disbelief being completely withered away. Obi-Wan has an, admittedly, cool duel with Vader - at first losing before turning the tide. Vader buries Obi-Wan under mounds of rock and stone, once again NOT confirming his kill of his MOST HATED TARGET. It's mind boggling that Vader is shown to be cruel in his first appearance, snapping necks of locals and killing people without hesitation, but he does NOTHING to confirm his kill on Reva or Obi-Wan. 

Obi-Wan, of course, survives the weight of crushing rocks and bests Vader in the duel, breaking off part of Vader's helmet but somehow not striking any kind of fatal blow. Obi-Wan gives an apology to Anakin, to which Vader replies that "The Anakin you knew is dead. I killed him." Obi-Wan then accepts the past. This is the worse way of showing this character growth. 

Obi-Wan struggled with war PTSD and the reality that his closest friend, his brother / son - who he thought was dead (which makes no sense. He knows that Vader is Anakin. He didn't hear anything about Vader while hiding on Tatooine?) only to find out he has become something far worse. Obi-Wan feels responsible not only for Anakin becoming lost to the world but also every single thing that Vader has done for the Empire. It was so interesting to see what kind of route they could have taken this BUUUUT they decided a few words from Vader is enough to make Obi-Wan accept the past and move on from it. 

HE THEN DOES THE INCREDIBLY DUMB THING OF LEAVING VADER ALIVE. Obi-Wan has Vader on his knees. He can easily end Vader's life and SAVE SO MANY PEOPLE. But he decides to simply walk away and allow him to live. ALL THE DEATHS FROM THIS POINT ON ARE ON OBI-WAN'S HANDS. He even accepts that this isn't his friend anymore and that Vader is just some monster. SLAY THE MONSTER. Alderaan being destroyed only happens because Obi-Wan does not strike Vader down. 

Meanwhile, back on the ranch (Hey, that's almost accurate this time) Reva has an easy fight with Owen and Beru. She deflects their lasers pretty easily, especially for someone WHO HAD BEEN STABBED NOT A FEW MOMENTS AGO. She doesn't kill Owen or Beru - even though it makes no sense why she wouldn't if she intends on murdering Luke. Luke escapes and runs off into the desert somewhere. Luke is walking along these mountain tops but accidently falls, knocking himself out. Obi-Wan, now in tune with the force, senses Luke is in danger and engages the hyperdrive on his escape pod. 

THE HYPERDRIVE. ON HIS. ESCAPE POD. WHY COULDN'T THIS HYPERDRIVE BE USED FOR THE REBEL SHIP? Sure, perhaps the parts aren't an exact match / maybe the hyper drive is too small for the larger rebel ship. IS THIS STATED ANYWHERE? NO. As someone who doesn't understand how these ships are put together, I have no reason to believe that the rebels COULDN'T SIMPLY just take whatever parts they needed from the escape pod. Why couldn't something have been rigged to, at the very least, get them a jump away from the Star Destroyer. Keep in mind, the tech to track something through hyper space DOES NOT EXIST YET. It is only discovered by The First Order - WHICH ALSO DOESN'T EXIST YET. Even if they are not compatible devices, from a story telling stand point, it looks really dumb to be told that this particular engine part is broken ONLY TO HAVE A CHARACTER USE A WORKING ONE NOT TWENTY MINUTES LATER. 

My care for the rest of the show was pretty much gone at this point. Reva doesn't kill Luke, because that would be a time paradox, and instead has flashes of when she was a child - deciding she doesn't want to become like Vader. Obi-Wan gets to Tatooine - where Bail Organa is nowhere to be seen. If you remember his transmission, he said he would go help Owen should he not hear anything from Obi-Wan. Do we see any guards or any kind of help at all from Bail? Nope. Instead, Reva has a crying scene where Obi-Wan tells her that she is not like Vader. She makes mention that she couldn't kill Luke - that she couldn't do it. 

HOWEVER - If you remember that episode on the base, Reva was LITERALLY IN THE PROCESS OF TORTURING LEIA. Sure you can argue it's character growth, that Reva doesn't want to become like Vader. BUT SHE DIDN'T EVEN HESISTATE TO TORTURE A TEN YEAR OLD. Clearly, she is not a good person. How many countless of innocent people did she murder without hesitation? If anything, learning the stipulation that Luke is Vader's son, and deciding not to kill because of that, MAKES HER INFINITELY WORSE. SHE IS FINE WITH CHILD MURDER, SO LONG AS IT'S NOT DONE IN REVENGE.

They bury her light saber and then we got some long winded goodbyes. Obi-Wan gives Leia a blaster and LOLA back (Why did he take her to that planet with him again? Was there a reason? How did he even get her? Watching the episode back I don't see anything saying he was taking her or why she was there.) and gives that flying model thing to Luke after saying his famous "Hello There". Obi-Wan is moving off into the desert for... reasons. As he is leaving, he sees the force ghost of Qui-Gon, played again by Liam Neeson and I couldn't care less at this point.

What should have been an amazing reunion is ruined by the nonsense that came before it. This scene, while I do enjoy Obi-Wan seeing his master again, should not have came at the end of the story. I could propose a rewrite, not in this blog post - goodness, that would have Qui-Gon showing up once Obi-Wan was at the precipice of overcoming his past. Sure, he needed to overcome them fully to once again be in tune with the force enough, but having Qui-Gon help him and teach him the way would've been so much better. 

I absolutely hated this ending, and it completely undid anything I like about the show prior. I wanted to like this show. I liked the concept of the Inquisitors and Reva. Through the games and extended universe, Vader had taken on apprentices before. The inquisitors could have been a starting point for that. I would have loved to see Reva turned full Sith. I wanted to enjoy an awesome Jedi hunter who was brutal and cunning. This show should have been mainly focus on Obi-Wan overcoming his trauma and choosing to step into the role of Jedi so that he can stop the Inquisitors from doing evil things. Vader did not even need to be a physical force in this show. Obi-Wan could have just dealt with the vision of Vader through nightmare or mental force sequences. 

Instead, we got a show full of logical inconsistencies, character motivations that don't make sense, and a piss poor way of showing how one overcomes trauma (a simple apology and admittance that it was all the abusers fault DOES NOT heal trauma). I despised how this show ended and it's poor ending completely ruined anything that it could have had possibly going for it. And it blows my mind how willing people are to say they love this show. 

Enjoy what you want to and I will never tell you not to like something (within reason) but I can't help but think people are just star struck by seeing their favorite actors play their favorite characters and call back to nostalgic scenes. I, however, would have preferred a show that was written with more consistent logic and character growth. But that might just be the writer in me.

Currently, in my state of anger, I think Obi-Wan is a 1/10 show. I know that's probably not the case, if I were to rewatch and grade it on an episode by episode basis. The last episode I also want to give a 1/10, though I'm sure I would bump it up after a rewatch to something closer to a 2 or 3. Something is to said about how great all the actors and design people were. The folks who acted in this are phenomenal and those who made the set designs or any of the technical parts of the show deserve all the love in the world. The writers themselves - I don't have much love for your work. You as people, I'm sure you're wonderful. But I did not enjoy the show you wrote. 

Show Dupid. Let me know in my socials or email if you agree or disagree. Thanks for reading - I'm outtie. 

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