Disclaimer the First: This post contains spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi (Parts I-III). If you do not wish to be spoiled, please feel free to leave the page. This post will still be here after you've caught up, awaiting your return with bells on.
Disclaimer the Second: I have seen neither The Clone Wars nor Rebels, and I have no plans to correct that anytime soon. I did try with Clone Wars once before, but, unfortunately, I cannot stand the caricature style the Star Wars animated series are done in... I may try again at some point, but until then, I'm relegated to Wookipedia whenever I need to understand a reference. As such, if I say something not in line with canon, I apologise.
Okay... I wanted to try and write this post outside of the scope of the negativity that has been surrounding Obi-Wan Kenobi as a series, but, in all honesty, I don't think that's actually possible. I don't consider myself a part of the fandom, of any fandom actually, but I like memes and I happen to be on social media and oh my fucking gods, you can't fucking get away from the people pissing about shit. And I know it's going to sound like an apologist's answer, but I seriously think that some of people's issues with this series stem from the fact that they just don't get it from an empathetic, or even a sympathetic, standpoint.
I had an entirely different opening to this post initially...
Anywho.
Revenge of the Sith was intense. Anakin Skywalker, disillusioned and angry at the Jedi Council and terrified of losing Padmé to childbirth, gives in to the temptations (manipulations, really) fed to him by Senator Palpatine and allows himself to walk the path of Darkness in an attempt to gain the power to overcome death itself. Becoming Darth Vader, he led the assault on the Jedi Temple as part of Order 66, which all but obliterated the Jedi Order. Obi-Wan attempted to intervene, to bring him back to the Light, but Palpatine had played a very careful game that left his claws deep in Anakin's soul, and so all he saw was betrayal. The pair of them battled it out on Mustafar, and though Obi-Wan claimed victory, it was a bitter thing. He cut down, with his own lightsaber, a man he considered a brother, whom he had trained in the ways of the Jedi since he was just a child, and witnessed him burn to death in the lava.
Ten years later, we find Obi-Wan Kenobi, now just Ben, going through the paces of his life on Tatooine. He has abandoned the ways of the Jedi, isolated himself from the Force, and just... survives. He has a day job at what is basically a meat processing facility, and in his off time he keeps an eye on young Luke Skywalker, which is probably the only thing keeping him going despite the fact that he's been barred from actually interacting with him by Owen. He is broken and worn, a shadow of the Jedi Master he once was. Hell, he seems a husk of the man he was, Jedi or not. He suffers nightmares, reliving his trauma over and over again in the night (which could be a sign of PTSD).
I've seen quite a few people bitching about Obi-Wan being 'weak' in his own series, but the fact that we can see the effects of what happened to him and all that he lost, both generally and personally, adds a great deal of depth to his character. No hero is always a hero, which is an important fact to keep in mind.
Meanwhile, 50,855 light-years away, while her twin pretends to pilot a fighter while dodging Uncle Owen, young Leia Organa is being, well, a young Leia Organa.
She's ten years old and completely unconcerned with matters of state, so she has a habit of running off to have fun when she's supposed to not be doing so. We're introduced to this little princess having done just that, having slipped off to climb a tree and watch the outgoing port traffic rather than show face when her aunt comes for an official visit. Her mother, Queen Breha, takes a bit of a dim view, but we get to see that Bail Organa is definitely a doting father who encourages her shenanigans (which is adorable, even if Breha doesn't quite approve).
Before we get too far in, I'd like to address a thing or two about young Leia. I've seen two main complaints against her: that she is annoyingly sassy and that the chase scenes involving her are too unrealistic.
First and foremost, anyone who calls her annoying for her sass apparently know absolutely nothing about Leia Organa or children in general. We are talking about a character who we initially met in A New Hope when her ship, on a 'diplomatic mission to Alderaan', was attacked and boarded by the Empire. This young woman, who was all of nineteen at the time, stared down Darth Vader and lied to his face, which was ballsy in the first place but made all the more epic when Rogue One came out and we got more context for the circumstances of her ship being captured. Do you think that attitude suddenly materialised out of nowhere? And her being ten means that she has the sass but less of a filter, so of course it would come out more pronounced.
To address a related complaint, she's written like Leia because she is Leia. Geez...
As to the chase scenes? Anyone who has ever had to chase a small child who really doesn't want to get caught should know they aren't as unrealistic as they seem. Yes, Leia is a little slow. Vivien Lyra Blair, the actor portraying her, only just turned ten herself this past 4 June. Child actors oftentimes have certain limitations that come with being, you know, children, and you have to sort of suspend certain ideas for a bit... But the thing is, her being slower wasn't actually an issue. She used her size (or rather, the lack thereof) against her pursuers both times, darting under things or between things that a full grown adult couldn't get through or would have issue navigating.
And, one specific issue in the case of it being Ben chasing her? While he was trying to catch her, he also was trying to do it in such a way as to attract as little extra attention as possible, seeing as his face was plastered all across the city for every bounty hunter and their mother to see. He never was too far behind her until he started getting shot at while they were going across the rooftops, and even then he managed to stay close enough that he was able to save her when she didn't make the leap to the next building.
But... I've gotten a bit ahead of myself, which I suppose is fine, as I sort of assume people reading this have seen the show already. If not, though, let's back up a bit. Leia, after telling her cousin off for being a prat, ends up wandering off to the forest again, only this time someone is waiting for her. Someone... nefarious. She led a good chase, but in the end they caught her. Her parents, not wanting to draw too much attention to the issue lest someone end up figuring out who she really is, contact Obi-Wan to seek his help.
To which he says no.
Bail Organa did not particularly like this answer, so he showed up, in person, to Obi-Wan's cave of residence to try and persuade him. Obi-Wan objected again, saying he isn't the same man that he was, that Leia would be better off rescued by someone else, using his duty to watch over Luke as an excuse.
On Daiyu (because of course he went), Obi-Wan manages to locate Leia and free her from her captors, but the one who orchestrated the kidnapping, Reva, the Third Sister of the Inquisitorius, wasn't particularly happy about her trap to capture Obi-Wan Kenobi failing.
After losing her quarry and the Grand Inquisitor threatening to steal her prey and take credit for his capture, Reva placed a bounty on Obi-Wan's head and flooded the city with it. Her plan was rather sound, as rather than assuming any of the hunters would be able to capture him, she kept a sharp eye out for any disturbances that would indicate that one of them had found him so she could go in for the kill, as it were, herself. It almost actually worked, too.
She does finally corner Obi-Wan as he and Leia are making an attempt to flee on an unmanned shipping vessel. He's hiding among the shipping containers, and in a move to draw him out which parallels nicely to Vader luring Luke into the open in a similar situation (in the future, dun dun DUN...), Reva tells him that he won't die today because he's to be delivered to Darth Vader. Realising Obi-Wan didn't know Anakin Skywalker was still alive, she tries to use that to her advantage, which might have succeeded, save the Grand Inquisitor shows up to interrupt her, again intent on stealing her thunder. Fed up, she sticks her lightsaber through his gut, and while they're distracted with that, Obi-Wan makes a dash for the ship and he and Leia escape.
How Reva knows that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker, I don't know. A lot of people are apparently very cross about it, but I figure there's a reason and it will reveal itself at some point. I feel there is a lot more to Reva's character than her rash anger has shown so far. (Vader said Reva is eyeing the Grand Inquisitor's position and has offered it to her if she can catch Obi-Wan, but what I really want to know is why she wants it so badly... I feel like there's an underlying reason behind it.)
Part III finds Obi-Wan and Leia on the mining planet of Mapuzo (which apparently was once rather nice until the Empire found a resource there they wanted). They were told they would rendezvous with someone who could transport them elsewhere, but when the pair of them arrived at the coordinates and no one else was there nor did anyone else arrive within about two and a half seconds, Obi-Wan, feeling exceedingly paranoid (which may also be a sign of PTSD), makes the assumption that the information was false and that no one was coming to help.
Leia decides they need a ride to the port, then, and she flags down a passing transport so they can hitchhike. The driver, Freck, seems friendly enough... Though he is perfectly content with the Empire and their 'order' (even though they'd toss him out of an airlock if it were convenient for them, seeing as he isn't human). Obi-Wan and Leia pretend to be father and daughter, Orden and Luma respectively, saying they got a bit lost and just need to get to the nearest port. Freck obliges.
A little way up the road he picks up a small group of Stormtroopers for a ride, as well. They are about as friendly as Stormtroopers generally get, and one of them decides to make small talk by demanding to know why Obi-Wan and Leia were out so far. Leia, being quick of wit, lies that her 'father' was showing her where he met her mother, and he then puts in that his pretend wife was gone. This was a good job, seeing as he accidentally calls Leia by her name instead of Luma, but manages to play it off by saying Leia was her mother's name and he gets confused. He goes on to say that 'Luma' looks just like her mother, and that they miss her very much.
After the Stormtroopers disembark, Leia, whose Force sensitivity has been showing itself the whole time through how ridiculously intuitive she is, questions Obi-Wan about her mother, asking if he knew her. He tries to play it off, saying it was just for show, but she presses, asking if he is her biological father. He sadly tells her he wishes he could tell her he was, but that he is not.
There has been a vein of fans who absolutely and completely misinterpreted this line and the feelings behind it, going off about how the writer doesn't understand or respect canon because this line implies that Obi-Wan had a thing for Padmé and that Anakin was right to distrust him and so on and so forth and OH MY FUCKING GODS, that's just wrong! This broken and worn down man is sitting next to his once best friend's daughter, knowing what he has become, knowing how much that hurts him and how much it would hurt her if she knew, knowing what trials she may face simply because she is a Skywalker by blood. Looking at this little girl, what he says is that he wishes none of that baggage were on her, because it wouldn't be if she were his daughter.
... Honestly.
They end up at an Imperial checkpoint where it turns out that Freck wasn't being as helpful with his ride as he put on, but they luck out because the person they were supposed to meet shows up and saves their butts (though not before a probe droid is able to identify Obi-Wan and send that information back to the Inquisitors). Tala is an Imperial officer working as a double agent and using her position to help smuggle Jedi and Force sensitive refugees to safety.
She gets them to town and tells them that she has arranged transport off the planet, but that their pilot isn't set to leave for a little while. While they're speaking, however, a sudden disturbance in the Force basically punches Obi-Wan in the face. There is a familiar presence coming...
I have often said that Anakin Skywalker did not turn to the Dark Side, but rather away from the Jedi and the Light. I still hold to that assessment, however... Upon turning, he apparently decided to throw all fucks to the wind and embrace that shit wholeheartedly. As he's stalking through the town, he senses his old Master, and so decides to lure him out by straight up murdering some random people. He grabs one man with the Force, using his signature choking move, and when that man's son tries to help, Vader snaps the kid's neck. He then drags a woman, moaning in pain, for a distance behind him before he realises where Obi-Wan is.
Obi-Wan, for his part, had sent Tala ahead with Leia, making her promise to get the little princess home, then snuck out in an effort to draw Vader away.
Vader, of course, takes the bait, as Obi-Wan is the entire reason he's there.
This is the first time in the series that we see Obi-Wan draw and ignite his lightsaber. (The fact that he's been using a blaster and martial combat is another sore spot for some people... who apparently don't understand the concept of travelling incognito.) Despite having it at ready, he does quite a bit to try and avoid actually fighting with Vader. Part of this, I assume, is due to the fact that he's been isolated from the Force for so long that his skills are still super rusty, but I also feel like a good bit of his avoidance is rooted in the fact that he just really, really, really doesn't want to have to fight Anakin again...
Vader does not give him that option, though.
The difference in power between them is obvious, with Obi-Wan remaining on the defensive the whole duel. Anytime he saw an opening he would run, but Vader would track him down in very short order. Eventually Obi-Wan runs out of places to go, and Vader uses the Force to grab him and suspend him in the air. He then upsets a barrel of some sort of ore, it looks like, and uses his lightsaber to set it ablaze.
Vader could have ended his old Master pretty easily, as easily as that boy in town, in fact, but Anakin Skywalker is nothing if not dramatic. He does not want Obi-Wan dead, not yet. He wants him to suffer as he suffered, and so he drags the poor man through the flames so that he might feel what Anakin felt on Mustafar.
Leia, for her part, had insisted that she could make it the rest of the way to the port on her own and that Tala needed to go help Obi-Wan. Tala does just that, leaving Leia to run the rest of the way alone, and it is she who rescues Obi-Wan from Vader by causing a distraction and having her droid get him out of danger. (Though, to be fair, Vader let him go for whatever reason. He had to have done, as he could have killed Tala easily and gone back to torturing Obi-Wan at his leisure.)
While it might seem counterintuitive, it is probably good that she left Leia to get to safety on her own. The person Leia meets at the end of the Path wasn't the pilot who was to get her to safety, it was Reva, who had found the entrance to the tunnels and then, assumingly having figured out where they ended up at, went 'round to the port and disposed of the pilot. I have several reasons for why it was good that Leia was alone, but they involve Part IV, and that's not to be covered in this post... Maybe next time, if I remember.
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