Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is the latest US short series centred on the canon universe of Star Wars, directed by Deborah Chow, produced by Lucasfilm, made of six episodes and distributed on the streaming platform Disney+.
Just like the name suggests, it follows the Jedi master ten years after the fight and the fall into the dark side of his padawan: Anakin Skywalker. This series takes up the rise of the Empire and the Inquisitors and sees the beginning of everything shown in the original trilogy, including the Rebellion.
Obi-Wan Kenobi – Plot
Obi-Wan Kenobi Key Art © Disney Media
Ten years after the dramatic events seen in Star Wars: Episode III – The Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi watches over Like Skywalker on the desert planet of Tatooine. Tired and discouraged after his greatest defeat, i.e. the downfall of his best friend and apprentice Anakin Skywalker, who became the cruel and corrupted Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, Kenobi is called on a mission to rescue the little Leia, who has been kidnapped by the Galactic Empire in a conspiracy to get the Jedi out of his hiding. All of this will lead to a confrontation with his old apprentice, who is now head of the Inquisitors, and whose goal is to destroy the remnants of the Jedi Order.
Review
A not-to-be-missed series for those who loved the first two trilogies. I loved the story, the special effects and the soundtrack. I find very comforting the fact that despite the little narration errors, there’s still a thread holding the universe together and the two trilogies, just like it happens so well with Rogue One.
Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) in Lucasfilm’s OBI-WAN KENOBI, exclusively on Disney+. © 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved. © Disney Media
With this live-action, we returned home, in our beloved galaxy far, far away. In our beloved universe, we rediscovered the characters that have left their mark in our memory. Apart from our talented protagonist, Ewan McGregor (Obi Wan), I cheered at the return of Hayden Christensen in the role of Darth Vader-Anakin.
Pleasant without a doubt seeing the little Force twins, Luke (Grant Feely) e Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair). In particular, the latter had an important role in this season, and I found that other than being coherent with the story, it’s a valuable homage to Carrie Fisher‘s character.
Bail Organa and Owen Lars are respectively the guardians and adoptive fathers of the children, struggling and frightened in their roles of protectors of the secret children of Anakin and Padmé.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Key Art © Disney Media
I found justified their inner conflict tampered by the love of their adoptive children. Truly heavy their responsibility, more that anyone can imagine. In having to hide them at all costs from the Empire and their father, they tried to do their task as best as they could though, without the help from Kenobi, they would have probably failed.
Even the character of the third sister (Moses Ingram) in my opinion, gave an excellent interpretation. I can’t comprehend the hate of the fans, who continue to criticize every single detail of this series.
In the end, the final result left me satisfied and to me, the journey of this character was coherent and significant.
In conclusion
In conclusion, even the open ending, which could easily lead to a second season, or not, is correct and justified. I’n not here to spoil, but in my opinion, it couldn’t go in any other way. Even the confrontation between Anakin and Ben is significant.
I liked a lot the sequence when you can see on one end the man and on the other the machine, in a reference obviously to Anakin-Vader. A moment that gave me goosebumps was the moment when you can see Christensen and hear his double voice. In Italian the dub was made by Luca Ward and Francesco Pezzulli (for the double voices), while in the original the actors are Christensen and James Earl Jones. The use of this particular device, was made to emphasize the double nature of the character, the man-machine and the sith-jedi.
In the end I declare myself pretty happy, even though I admit that the best live-action series of the franchise remains The Mandalorian. We just have to see if the record will remain unbeaten.
