Obi-Wan Series - Friday 27th May

[Thor]

1 hour ago, Darwock said:

I’m trying to work out how ‘FO’ could be an abbreviation for Bad Batch.

 

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That’s where the water corridor escape was used, right? On Camino…

 

Jedi: Fallen Order

[Ivanho]

Kenobi Ep 4 was brilliant.  Loved it.  From the lights out moment to Vader’s strop it was 

[Garibaldi]

I must confess, this entire series is probably worth it now just for Obi-Wan’s bulging trench coat ruse. 

[JohnC]

He should have been standing on her shoulders.

[BitterToad]

I'm not sure what I enjoyed more. Obi Wan episode four or Iceburn's fantastic "hold on guys maybe we should hear from another mad racist incel" self own on the last page. 

 

It's Obi Wan, of course. Only just (what an idiot) but I absolutely bloody love this show. Leia was definitely supposed to be an annoying precocious prick in eps 1 and 2. They're slowly softening her across the series and it's cool to watch! Lyra Blair has absolutely smashed it. I also think it says a lot about @sid needing absolutely everything that happens in every moment of a six part series to prop up his faltering male power fantasy:

 

Spoiler

It's so much more satisfying for me as a viewer to see a down and out Obi Wan struggle with his powers because of what happened to Anakin and then slowly become a badass again in order to save a little girl's life. There's just so much more to it. And he's not doing the awesome spinny thing with his lightsaber because he's Obi Wan super Jedi with a fourteen inch dick and... I don't know what do manly men have... and a big space SUV. He's doing it because of Leia and because he needs those powers to help her. 

 

It's a great show! Some of the action's still a little off (space ship flying inside a hangar, basically smashing into a wall, cutting away and all being fine) but it's the most Star Warsy feeling thing we've had since Star Wars came back. It's probably not as good as Mando but it definitely brings me closer to that feeling of watching A New Hope when I was 5 and... well yeah screw it and watching the prequels and loving every second of them as a child/teenager. 

 

I know I was wrong about the prequels, by the way. They suck. The suck so bad. Awful films. Nowhere near as bad as that fucking honking quasi far right bullshit Ice shared on the last page, of course, but bad. 

[Stoppy2000]

9 hours ago, MardiganX said:

Absolutey loved episode 4!!

 

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I started cheering the moment the lights went out in the Interrogation Room and the next 10 minutes or so was just fucking glorious. Obi-Wan being a Jedi again, like its no big thing, cool as you like, slicing and deflecting, not breaking sweat, badass! There were a few shots that just KNEW how important a moment that was for people and McGregor was as brilliant as ever.

 

However, I'm not one for picking at plot holes but why the fuck Leia wasnt immediately brought to Vader after the Third Sister grabbed her is a contrivance too big even for me. I get why they dont even try to explain it (because its completely inexplicable behaviour of course) but don't centre your plot around key characters if you dont have a plausible way of linking their actions to established events from the future, especially when what you DO get them to is absolutely ridiculous.

 

It made me concerned with just how close to the line things are treading now given the things we know are to come, but I still have faith they wont completely jump the shark with how they tie it all together.

 

Isn't it the case that the inquisitor wants to do it all herself. She seems to have motivation beyond just wanting to impress Vader? So Vader presumably wasn't even informed that they had a prisoner? 

[Stoppy2000]

22 hours ago, IcEBuRN said:

As if by inconvenient magic!

 

As a disclaimer, I do follow this chap on youtube, he might be considered a little "right wing" by rllmuk standards, but his points, and critique are always reasoned, and thought out with justifications. 

 

I have a bad feeling about this. 

[drmick]

I thought ep4 was poor. It was the same thing we've seen a million times before but done with the panache of the production crew of Coronation Street. Not a patch on the quality of dozens of similar episodes from the various animated series.

 

What I am not sure about is is who is mostly responsible for the amateur type quality- the director or the writers?

[Jamie John]

I enjoyed the latest episode as well. As ever, you have to suspend your disbelief, but then that's Star Wars. The bit where the 

Spoiler

lights went out in the interrogation room and then Obi started slicing fools was awesome.

 

Leia under the cloak was a bit ridiculous, though, and I thought 

Spoiler

Darth let the Third Sister off a bit too easily - I expected him to have at least demander to see evidence of the tracker.

 

Still, I'm looking forward to the final two episodes. I hope we see some interaction between Obi and young Luke at the end.

[Lorfarius]

 

[Jamie John]

10 minutes ago, Lorfarius said:

 

 

You see the door close and the water rebound immediately after Obi goes through it (6 seconds in that clip); the door was shut before any water could get through.

[NecroMorrius]

Still poor. More weirdly bad shots. The establishing shots are generally great but the handheld stuff really grates. Shots are frequently composed poorly either being too wide or too tight, with too much camera movement. It’s strange. Wondering if they’re struggling with the virtual sets more than the Mando team who pioneered them. It’s all very half-arsed and televisual.

[sid]

2 hours ago, BitterToad said:

I'm not sure what I enjoyed more. Obi Wan episode four or Iceburn's fantastic "hold on guys maybe we should hear from another mad racist incel" self own on the last page. 

 

It's Obi Wan, of course. Only just (what an idiot) but I absolutely bloody love this show. Leia was definitely supposed to be an annoying precocious prick in eps 1 and 2. They're slowly softening her across the series and it's cool to watch! Lyra Blair has absolutely smashed it. I also think it says a lot about @sid needing absolutely everything that happens in every moment of a six part series to prop up his faltering male power fantasy:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

It's so much more satisfying for me as a viewer to see a down and out Obi Wan struggle with his powers because of what happened to Anakin and then slowly become a badass again in order to save a little girl's life. There's just so much more to it. And he's not doing the awesome spinny thing with his lightsaber because he's Obi Wan super Jedi with a fourteen inch dick and... I don't know what do manly men have... and a big space SUV. He's doing it because of Leia and because he needs those powers to help her. 

 

It's a great show! Some of the action's still a little off (space ship flying inside a hangar, basically smashing into a wall, cutting away and all being fine) but it's the most Star Warsy feeling thing we've had since Star Wars came back. It's probably not as good as Mando but it definitely brings me closer to that feeling of watching A New Hope when I was 5 and... well yeah screw it and watching the prequels and loving every second of them as a child/teenager. 

 

I know I was wrong about the prequels, by the way. They suck. The suck so bad. Awful films. Nowhere near as bad as that fucking honking quasi far right bullshit Ice shared on the last page, of course, but bad. 

certainly that’s one view. I don’t look for male power fantasies, I just don’t like reverting to this standard storyline of breaking the main character into a jaded shadow of their former selves. It’s just so obvious.

 

I will save judgement until the end of the series but 3 episodes in it leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion….

 

sounds like episode 4 is decent, look forward to that. But expect disappointment 🫤

[Delargey]

I can't decided what was the best bit- Indra Varma besting a storm trooper by gently tapping his helmet or Obi-Wan awkwardly hiding a child under his rain mac.

 

He should just buy a fake mustache and Vader will never find him.

[Darren]

That was the best episode yet but once again I’m disappointed at the open goals they missed. I really thought Leia was going to dob in Dantooine again (for the first time), and that they were going to get caught by a stormtrooper looking down and counting the legs.

 

But that was really, properly good. I said during one of the Mando episodes that I’ll always be happy if I can watch stormtroopers running up and down gunmetal grey corridors shooting blasters at people, and so I was again tonight.

[SpagMasterSwift]

Far too many call backs (call forwards) in that one for me, but did have a couple of nice Obi action moments at least. 

[The Bag]

11 hours ago, Stoppy2000 said:

Isn't it the case that the inquisitor wants to do it all herself. She seems to have motivation beyond just wanting to impress Vader? So Vader presumably wasn't even informed that they had a prisoner? 

 

Spoiler

They did say earlier in the episode Vader wasn't there and was still on his ship, so he's probably just arrived as shit goes down.

 

9 hours ago, sid said:

certainly that’s one view. I don’t look for male power fantasies, I just don’t like reverting to this standard storyline of breaking the main character into a jaded shadow of their former selves. It’s just so obvious.

 

how are you meaning jaded, I understand what you're saying but to me jaded is not the term for it.

 

And as for breaking the main character take it up with George Lucas, he's not exactly left in a good place to go out having jedi adventures at the end of episode 3.  If you want jedi shit in this time period check out Rebels.

[SpagMasterSwift]

It's a videogame trope for sure, so I can see why some of us may find it a bit old hat to remove powers and then slowly gain them back again.

[Uncle Mike]

My only real problem with the episode (suspicious overcoat notwithstanding) is the rapid speed of Kenobi's recovery, given he was still struggling to move the communicator an inch or two when they're flying into the base.

 

I realise from the reactions here that the producers have correctly worked out that there was only so long they could go without giving the fans a 'badass' moment to get excited about, but to go from 99% crippled to 90% in form seemed a little convenient.

[Lorfarius]

They will come back with "its the force"

[Paulando]

Since when did ‘suspending disbelief’ become a synonym for ‘excuse shit writing/directing’?

 

I suspend disbelief to an extent every time I watch a TV show or film, because it’s not real. Like, I’m already suspending disbelief because I’m watching a wizard fight aliens in space.

[Vulgar Monkey]

26 minutes ago, Lorfarius said:

They will come back with "its the force"

 

Nah, just flushed a load of coke into his bacta tank.

[dino_jr]

I struggle to care how the inquisitors are doing in the Leia search, and which one of them finds favour with Vader ...

Why isn't Vader just directly searching himself? He's barely in it - Hayden C must have filmed all in his scenes in an afternoon 

[JohnC]

Vader's a busy man. He needs to delegate.

[Lorfarius]

3 minutes ago, dino_jr said:

I struggle to care how the inquisitors are doing in the Leia search, and which one of them finds favour with Vader ...

Why isn't Vader just directly searching himself? He's barely in it - Hayden C must have filmed all in his scenes in an afternoon 

 

Spoiler

They really don't know how to do a good bad guy. When he found out she'd planted a tracker his response was laughable. Doesn't come across as scary at all.

 

[Jamie John]

1 hour ago, Paulando said:

Since when did ‘suspending disbelief’ become a synonym for ‘excuse shit writing/directing’?

 

I suspend disbelief to an extent every time I watch a TV show or film, because it’s not real. Like, I’m already suspending disbelief because I’m watching a wizard fight aliens in space.

 

I think 'Suspending your disbelief' means consciously choosing to ignore something incredulous within the context of the fiction.

 

You don't need to suspend your disbelief to accept that an imagined imperial force is able to erect a huge, semi-submerged army base on an ocean planet, for example, because that's consistent with the fiction of Star Wars. You do have to suspend your disbelief, however, to accept that no-one would notice what is clearly a man with a child hidden under his cloak walking across one of the hangars in that army base.

 

As to whether it's synonymous with ignoring shit writing, I think it's a balance: having to consciously turn a blind eye to something ridiculous or contradictory is ok if you only have to do it a couple of times (like in this latest episode), but any more than a couple of times and it does become poorly written.

 

Personally, I rolled my eyes at the Leia cloak disguise, but it wasn't enough to make me turn the TV off in disgust, and I still enjoyed the episode overall.

[Vulgar Monkey]

I rolled my eyes but also accepted that its consistent with SW, tonally if not logically.

[Darwock]

They must have noticed when they were filming it. Is this the moment that we realize Obi Wan Kenobi has secretly been a comedy all along?

 

(comparable moment in Book of Boba Fett it was when his Gamorreans fell off the cliff together)

[BitterToad]

13 minutes ago, Vulgar Monkey said:

I rolled my eyes but also accepted that its consistent with SW, tonally if not logically.

Yeah for me I think it's just a case of if the tone of the thing is consistent, if it's moving in a direction which feels thematically interesting and if the characters are developing in interesting ways then I'm happy to ignore some foibles. The foibles can even be funny! Like the cloak thing!

 

For me Obi Wan is getting the basics right and moving in a direction that gives me an increasing number of awesome Star Wars moments per episode. It also gives me a few "well that's a bit fucking stupid" moments too but I care about those less because of all the other good shit the show is giving me. 

[Dirty Harry Potter]

This series is very amateurly made, given the enormous budget and level of talent involved.

 

Reva's performance for example is absolutely awful - she is just shouting at people. I'm sure Moses is a fine actress in other things - but whoever is responsible for feeding back on her performance (and the general level of terrible writing and directing in this series) shouldn't get another gig this size again. 

 

I mean its watchable, but thats not really good enough is it? This should have been a crown jewel in Disney's TV output.