The show quite possibly has the potential to “BREAK” Star Wars worse than the sequel trilogy.
My main gripes are how poor the writing is for this show. How they had so much potential with an original, iconic character but are making choices that would seem like they are actually trying to make this a bad show.
First off, why is Obi Wan so weak and out of tune with the force/lightsaber? He was a very dedicated, wise Jedi Knight and his sole purpose to be on Tatooine was to protect Luke. He essentially let Luke down in a way by not being trained…how would he protect him if someone found out about Luke and who he was. Again I could buy the losing his dedication with a decent justification, but I think most fans wanted to see Obi Wan roughing it but still able to fight and have some ability with the force/lightsaber.
I personally just don’t like the over arching plot overall. What I thought we would see was something in the vain of a potential threat to Luke where Obi Wan had to step in to not let Luke be revealed or something to that nature. And maybe he went off world to cut off the connection of this threat…but overall I thought it should have surrounded a plot with Luke and not Leia. And I don’t think Obi Wan should have met either of them, becuase it never felt like Leia knew Obi Wan in ANH. The way the plot is now it breaks a lot of canon.
The whole Leia-Obi Wan thing I don’t like (again breaking canon) but if it was handled well I could be more on board…and of course it wasn’t handled well so far. I get it, Leia is a future leader but she’s just running around calling shots and Obi wan has little to no control or gets little to no respect from Leia. I think it harms Leia if anything becuase I always found she was stubborn at times, but also would listen to other leaders and elders. Overall, obiwan feels inept and shows non of his former leadership or wise ways.
The Inquistors…I get why they put them in the show. They are searching for Jedi, yadda yadda. It would have been cool to see them fight one of the exposed Jedi. But I think the biggest gripe (and for a lot of ppl) is REVA. Now the racist stuff against the actress is completely awful. Nonetheless, the reality is the character is so forced, poorly acted/written, and all of her scenes really pull me out of the Star Wars universe. I am sure there was a way to make this character better, but again they make bad choice after bad choice. And as bad of a character as she is, she seems to take up so much of the emphasis each episode it feels more like her show than Obi Wans. And I think any character written the way she is (doesn’t matter race/gender) would get a lot of hate because, simply put, it is distractingly bad. I like inclusion and to have a woman of colour in a big role is amazing. But I would have preferred she was just written with a bit more care. And her killing the Grand Inquisitor was one of those bad decisions.
I will say I am a massive Darth Vader fan and they have mostly handled him well. In ObiWan…for one thing I wish they had a big 6”6 plus guy playing him. Why does Hayden have to be in the suit? But he’s handled well…I do not mind him killing citizens. He’s ruthless and enraged when dealing with Obi Wan…but some of the Mustafar setting scenes, and the Obi Wan-Vader chase as well as the one minute Vader easily extinguishes fire with the force the next he forget how…and he couldn’t have either crushed the droid or dragged Obi wan with the force. This isn’t my favourite look for Vader so far. AND he has to deal with Reva, where he character again is so bad she taints other characters connected with her…AND I personally NEVER felt like Obi Wan and Vader had a duel or met up in between ROTS and ANH. But again, ok…just do it well. But that hasn’t happened.
I do think Obi Wan should have known about Vader possibly. And I do like the idea of Vader in the show but I almost wish it was something where they never met but we had scenes of Vader killing jedi, pondering on Mustafar about Padme etc and Obi Wan fearing Vader coming to Tatooine or Alderaan. Really there should have been a plot where the whole point is for Obi wan to stop that knowledge getting to Vader without actually engaging him.
Overall I feel like this show is a massive let down. I thought this would be the most OT feeling series, like Rogue One. The aesthetic and design I would have loved very 70-80s look even for the Inquisitors. The dialogue, plot, writing are weak and overall the show seems to be hurting the OT rather than adding to it. Rogue One will forever set the bar for doing that well…and I thought with auch a big character that they would pull out all the stops to make a quality, well made show. Instead it is just a thrown away chance…I feel like some will wonder if they should had even made this to begin with.
Or maybe Disney figured there has to be sidekick
