Stanko's Stance

I am going to say this right off the bat.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is not a good TV show. It is bad. It does not garner the good-will needed to carry over the numerous plot holes, pacing issues, terrible acting and cringier writing.

Now with that being said, I guess let’s get after ranking the six episodes.

6. Part IV

I think it is safe to say that Part IV was the least well received episodes of the bunch. This is the episode where I officially lost all of my patience with the show’s pacing and screenplay. In case you need a reminder of what disaster happened in Part IV, here is a brief rundown of the events.

• The Empire’s security is terrible and Obi-Wan and Tala are just able to walk aboard their base essentially with zero problem.
• The interrogation scene where Leia foils an inquisitor, because you know, she can. And the terrible writing.
• Roken just changing his mind every in 30 seconds to help Obi-Wan.

That is just a taste. This episode was terrible.

5. Part II

Is this the most forgettable part of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series? I think so. Even if it is not the worst one, Part II had nothing memorable happen except for the Grand Inquisitor dying, but anyone who knows Rebels knew that he was coming back. Let’s stick to me being a stickler here; how is is that the Grand Inquisitor is always flanked by his cronies, but when he goes to confront the unstable Reva…he is all alone.

THAT IS AWFULLY CONVIENENT!

I slightly remember some really stupid Reva parkour scenes. It says something thought that Part II is less memorable than Part IV, just because of how bad Part IV was.

4. Part V

Part V tried its best to thread a theme throughout the episode, and for the most part it did okay. Princess Leia somehow becoming an engineer of the highest degree when she couldn’t even fix her droid earlier in the show is a surprise. Also Reva just being an idiot and blasting doors when her lightsaber could have done it. Or the poorly edited shootout sequence when Tala dies…that was really bad too.

We do get Vader being a bad-ass and looming over things again. BUT, again the writing, THERE WAS A BETTER WAY TO DO IT.

• First step is still having Reva and Vader fight. Let Vader toy with her like he is a proud lion and Reva is a maimed mouse. That was good fun. We like that a lot.
• Have Vader still take her lightsaber and break it in two. Reva is on her knees, her head between the two blades…just like Count Dooku was in Episode III.
• Then we get Vader stooping down her level, facing her eye-to-eye. An odd thing for him to do. Maybe it is just an intimidation tactic. With a profile shot of them looking at one another, we see a red hue appear on the screen in Vader’s metallic mask.
• Cut to a shot of Reva’s eyes being all panicked and confused, and the camera pans down to a red lightsaber protruding from her chest.
• Then we have the reveal. We have the Grand Inquisitor appearing over her shoulder and reciting an actually cool bit of menacing dialogue: “Hello, Third Sister. Revenge does wonders for the will to live, don’t you think?”
• The Grand Inquisitor sheaths his lightsaber and walks behind Vader, who is still kneeling next to an even more slumped Reva.
• Vader stands up as the Grand Inquisitor finishes his nice line: “Your rage was useful. Now it is tiresome.”
• Vader pretends to lower the two Reva lightsabers for a bit, again toying with his food, but then raises them and chops off Reva’s head with ruthless aggression. Call back to Dooku…and also Vader learning not to leave what he thought was a dead body BECAUSE HE DOES IT ALL THE TIME.
• This kills Reva, eliminates that bad rushed Luke problem, and reinforced that Vader and the Grand Inquisitor don’t fuck around.

3. Part VI

The best lightsaber duel of the entire show is in this episode. Obi-Wan has his strength back and we are getting mono-et-mono battle on a random planet…that I don’t know if we ever actually get the name of? The force flinging of rocks is fun. Obi-Wan back to full power is fun. The callbacks to the high ground and the duel between Ahsoka and Vader in Rebels are noted.

I don’t love how the bad guy got beat in the end. Would have rather seen evil get the upper hand but Obi-Wan be clever enough to evade true harm…but alas it is Obi-Wan and the good guy has to win.

I do need to point out the utter LUNACY of the timeline that Reva gets to Tatooine while the rebels are still being chased by the imperial star destroyer. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT. Also, she knows to ask for Owen? That was never in the hologram. She knows that he has a kid? Also, are we supposed to care that she had a reversal of cockiness and is now a humble person learning from mistakes. That whole character development was massively rushed.

Going to be honest here too. I didn’t need the Qui-Gon Jinn ghost showing up. I would have ended it with “Hello, There”

2. Part I

Obi-Wan Kenobi set the table well with its opening episode. Am I being fickle and really trying to ignore the princess Leia bounty hunter chase? Yes, I may have just blacked that out of my brain forever. With that being said, the events that take place on Tatooine are entertaining. It introduces us to the inquisitors, and Reva is not horrendously boring and annoying yet.

It says something though that the second best episode still has major flaws. Again Princess Leia is a bad Disney TV Rated Y7 character and she drags the show down. But we get a sense of the darkness that this show could have embraced and succeeded with more.

1. Part III

This is the shit that I wanted! Part III showed what this show could be! We have Darth Vader killing people, being a badass and TORTURING OBI-WAN! This is a moment where we see that our hero can’t win. He isn’t strong. He is human. He is not the indestructible angel of our eyes. THIS was a chance and a change of pace!

I argue that the best sequence from this whole entire series is when Obi-Wan is being dragged into the fire and the five minutes that leads up to it.

Now I will say that this episode also starts the trend of bad guys walking away before the good guys are really dead. They really should just learn to finish the job.

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