Obi-Wan Kenobi returns after his Prequel exile and is the bridge to the Original Trilogy! Spoiler alert!, if you have not seen the last Prequel and Star Wars: Rebels, but necessary. The last time we saw Obi-Wan was in Revenge of the Sith (2005). He was going to begin his study with Qui-Gon Jinn, gave the baby Luke to Owen Lars. “Twin Suns” (2017), the Star Wars: Rebels episode of the third season had the appearance of Obi-Wan Kenobi. This occurs two years before the events of the first Star Wars (1977). Ezra Bridger finds from a Sith holocron that Maul is hunting Kenobi. He sneaks away in an A-Wing heading to Tatooine. He travels following the voice of Maul, but Ezra collapses. He is found by Obi-Wan who has the white hair and beard in the fashion of Alec Guinness. Ezra asks him to join the Rebellion, but Kenobi rejects the offer. The Obi-Wan Kenobi series is set 9 years before Star Wars. It began streaming the first two episodes on May 27th.
The beginning has the “Long Time Ago” title and then shifts to a Naboo Royal Starship flying towards Coruscant. Then we see the Jedi Temple and recap of the Prequels with the Chosen One Prophecy said by Mace Windu. There is the introduction of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi by Qui-Gon Jinn. Obi-Wan mentions to Qui-Gon that Anakin is considered dangerous by the Jedi Council. The duel of Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. Then, Obi-Wan’s promise to the dying Qui-Gon that he will train Anakin. Next, master and apprentice’s adventures on Coruscant in Attack of the Clones (2002). His meeting with Palpatine and marriage to Padme. The temptation of Anakin by Palpatine to save Padme in RoTS. Anakin and Obi-Wan’s duel on Mustafar. Anakin is found by Palpatine and taken to Coruscant to be painfully transformed into the final form of Darth Vader! Then, there is the birth of the Jedi twins and the funeral of Padme.
Bail and Breha Organa adopt Leia. Yoda has Obi-Wan take Luke to his family on Tatooine. Finally, we have Yoda’s words of how to commune with Qui-Gon. All of this is the Prequels and dramatic, but still people seem not to like them. At the Lucasfilm logo, the Star Wars Celebration audience cheered. We have Coruscant at night, pulling back to the Jedi Temple training room. Six younglings are praticing training with Jedi Master Minas Velti (Ming Quiu). Suddenly, two clone troopers enter blasting at the Jedi. This is of course the beginning of Order 66 and we now see the perspective inside the Jedi Temple. Master Velti holds them off with her green lightsaber and cuts them down. The children in jeopardy must be noted to parents watching with their younglings. She takes them out into the hallway where a Jedi Knight battles clone troopers with his blue lightsaber and falls.
Master Velti cuts down more clone troopers and has the Padawans continue to run. She takes a few blaster bolts, but manages to sweep her lightsaber protecting her young charges and taking on the clone troopers. Then, she collapses and the Padawans huddle around her body. They continue to run on the platform above several Jedi engaged with clone troopers. We hear Palpatine saying, “Execute Order 66” before it fades to black. The fate of the younglings unknown. This shifts to “10 Years Later” at Mos Eisley. We see the citizens wander about, gambling, making deals with Jawas. The shadow of an Imperial shuttle, the Scythe, falls on them. Chow’s directing style seems to have overhead shots. Descending from the landing ramp is the pale, The Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), a Pau’an, and The Fifth Brother (Sung Kang), from an unknown species, introduced in the Star Wars: Rebels episode, “Relics of the Old Republic” (2015). Friend had the lead role in the video game action film, Hitman: Agent 47 (2015).
Kang had returned as Han in F9: The Fast Saga (2021). Lastly is the Inquisitor Reva (Moses Ingram), she is known as Third Sister. Some of the citizens are cowered by her gaze. The Grand Inquisitor walks over to an open saloon. The Saloon Owner (Derek Basco) knows of the Inquisitors. The Grand Inquisitor says that a Jedi is hiding in the saloon. He says that the fugitive has to follow the Jedi Code. Reva is tired of the talking and throws a knife at the Saloon Owner. It is stopped in mid-air. A young, dark-haired man (Benny Safdie) has his palm up using the Force and he is seen by Reva! I’m suspecting that he was one of the Jedi younglings. He runs, slips past Fifth Brother, Reva ignites her red lightsaber and it is held as the blade cuts the Jedi’s shoulder. This is the Grand Inquisitor who also throws Reva to the side. Reva wants “bigger prey” and Grand Inquisitor says her obession with Kenobi is over or she will be relieved of duties! She quietly agrees.
Under the twin suns, there are curved, black pieces like a giant skeleton over a large work station of tents. This must be the remains of a Neebray manta whose flesh the workers are cutting into pieces to be wrapped up on an assembly line. A horn sounds and the workers line up to get their pay. One of the workers wraps up a piece to be placed in his overall. This is Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor returning to reprise the part). A brutal foreman pushes around a worker. Obi-Wan backs down from a confrontation. He quietly sits with other workers in an open air hover train like a minecar. It chugs black smoke reaching Anchorhead with a tower structure. Obi-Wan walks to his eopie pen, a long tent. The white, camel-like creature has a long snout. He rode one in RoTS and then a Dewback in Star Wars: Rebels, what's its name? Obi-Wan feeds it the Neebray piece and then rides it out to the desert Jundland Wastes. He walks towards his cave, of course, he is like an old monk. A R2 sensor pops out and glows blue. Alone, Obi-Wan sits with his soup, then he is visited by a Jawa trader, Teeka (Leilani Shiu).
He offers up a T-16 Skyhopper model (like Luke was playing with in ANH), offered parts he realizes were taken from his vaporator (Jawas are kinda funny!), and notes a Jedi ship was salvaged. Teeka holds up a belt, the same one worn by Obi-Wan as a Jedi, but his reply is that the Jedi are extinct. At night, Obi-Wan is asleep and dreams of Anakin which wakes him up. He whispers for Master Qui-Gon, but there is no answer. Turning away from the Jedi, he is not ready, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” A rodent-like scurrier sniffs around some rocks when Obi-Wan rides up with his eopie. He goes to rocky vantage point to watch with macrobinoculars young Luke (Grant Feely) and Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton). Luke has jumped up to another side of the house to pretend to fly while his uncle and Aunt Beru (Bonnie Piesse) look for him. Edgerton and Piesse last played their characters in Revenge of the Sith (2005). Obi-Wan rides up to deliver the model and slowly rides away on his eopie.
From the rocks, he is met by the Jedi who introduces himself as Nari and takes out his lightsaber.
He wants to know what Obi-Wan is doing, but he is corrected that his name is Ben. Obi Wan tells Nari to bury his lightsaber out in the desert, hide, and that the “time of the Jedi is over.” Next, we see the lake side, capital city of Aldera, with white spires and behind it are snow-capped mountains. A white and red outfit with a hood is carefully dressed by servants on a young girl. Queen Breha (Simone Kessell), played by Rebecca Jackson Mendoza in RoTS, enters getting her daughter for a reception of Breha’s sister’s family. She takes her hand and then realizes that this girl is not her daughter! Breha removes the hood to reveal, Handmaiden Agira (Molly Miller), a Imoroosian girl! The queen looks frustratingly at the handmaidens and doesn’t like the joke. The runaway princess, Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) is running in the woods with her droid, a ladybug-like LO-LA59, Lola flying by her side. Blair played Girl in Bird Box (2018).
First, Blair is adorable and embodies the spirit of Princess Leia, an instant fan favorite. Second, Lola is an instant wanna-buy droid at the toy shelves. Leia fearlessly climbs a tree to get a good look at departing ships including a Tri-Wing which she identifies as an Aquillian Ranger. This is a deep dive cut at the second draft of Star Wars with Deak Starkiller part of the rangers. Then, she hears the disapproving voice of her mother. Breha wants Lola shut down and slips the droid in her robes. Leia apologizes and hugs her mother to get Lola back! A shadowy man watches from a tree. Obi-Wan again finishes the day at the Neebray meat facility, again rides the hovertrain, and again goes to feed his eopie. The pacing gets to be a bit slow for this episode. The T-16 model is thrown down. Owen wants Ben to stay away and Obi-Wan says that Luke must be trained. The Inquisitors walk in with Obi-Wan taking shelter in the pen. Reva threatens to take hands from citizens. A woman argues and loses her hand to Reva’s lightsaber. Reva turns to look at Owen and questions him.
She holds her lightsaber to his throat and is stopped by the Fifth Brother who slams down a projector of Kenobi’s holo-image. They leave and Fifth Brother slams her against a wall. He says they have tried to track Obi-Wan for ten years and that he is gone. Fifth Brother asks what she will get for capturing Obi-Wan and she says what she is owed. Could it be a position like the Emperor’s Hand or something like it? The Scythe leaves Mos Eisley. Obi-Wan tries to thank Owen. A ship lands on the Aldera landing pad, Leia’s father, Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) asks what ships she had seen. Smits last played the character in Rogue One (2016). He is a regent and accepting of his daughter’s wild nature. The royal party disembarks and Leia tries to greet her cousin, Niano (Ian Inigo). At the party, Bail talks to Duke Kayo Organa (Gabe Fonseca) who is happy to make money from the Empire. It is nice to see a contrast with Bail and his family that not all Organas are as charming. C-3PO translates for guests.
A silver protocol droid, Y-O, serves Leia and she thanks her. Niano has contempt for his cousin’s polite manners and gets a sick burn. His come back is that she is not an Organa. Later, Breha wants her to apologize, Bail tells her about his dreams. One of which was to chase purrgil, the same whale-like beasts that jumped to hyperspace carrying Ezra. Leia brings up Niano’s comment and Bail says she will rule Alderaan one day, but wants her to apologize. Instead, she runs off to the forest, and she runs into the man known as Vect Nokru (Flea)! She tries to run from them, more clever than the kidnappers slipping around the forest, but they catch her! Obi-Wan gets a distress call from his Jedi holoprojector. Breha and Bail tell him about the kidnapping. They need him to find Leia on his own. Bail was one of the leaders to plan for the steps after the fall of the Republic, but Obi-Wan refuses. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s first part has him refusing the call, but his destiny lies with protecting the Skywalkers and dealing with the Inquisitors!
Three Lightsabers out of Five!
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