Warning: this article contains major spoilers for the first two episodes of OBi-Wan Kenobi! If you haven't already, be sure to check out IGN's review of the two-part premiere.
After years of waiting around like a desert hermit, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi has finally debuted on Disney+. The new series has already managed to surprise fans and subvert expectations in its first two episodes, including the appearance of several familiar faces from the Star Wars movies.
But because the show is moving in unexpected directions, we also have a lot of questions about Obi-Wan's latest adventure. Let's break down the six most pressing, unanswered questions after the end of Chapter 2, from Reva's inexplicable hatred of Obi-Wan to whether or not the Grand Inquisitor is actually dead.
Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader only appears in one brief scene in these first two episodes, but the shadow of Anakin Skywalker looms large over the series. We learn two important details about the Anakin/Obi-Wan dynamic right out of the gate. One, Vader has been obsessively hunting Obi-Wan ever since their fateful duel on Mustafar ten years earlier. Two, Obi-Wan had no idea Anakin was still alive.
That's a pretty surprising reversal, considering that the movies always suggested the opposite. We always pictured Obi-Wan quietly observing his fallen pupil's crimes from afar and waiting for the day he could train Luke to confront Vader. Meanwhile, in Episode IV Vader behaves as if he's surprised to see Obi-Wan alive. Though as we've covered in the past, this series promises to add some significant new wrinkles to the Vader/Obi-Wan relationship.
Why did Obi-Wan never connect the dots between Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker before Reva came along? Is he really that isolated from the Force that he can't sense Anakin's lifeforce? And what about Yoda? Is this news to him, too, or have Yoda and the spirit of Qui-Gon been keeping this knowledge to themselves? Neither option paints Yoda in a particularly flattering light.
The first two episodes make it clear Moses Ingram's character Reva is an outcast among Darth Vader's assassins, the Sith Inquisitorius. She has skills, to be sure, but her fellow Inquisitors view her as a low-born upstart who isn't worthy to be among their ranks. She doesn't exactly help her case when she betrays Rupert Friend's character, the Grand Inquisitor, and impales him with her saber.
This betrayal raises some pretty significant questions about continuity. How can the Grand Inquisitor die in Obi-Wan Kenobi when he's alive and well several years later during the events of Star Wars Rebels: Season 1?
There are several possible explanations here. One option is that this Grand Inquisitor isn't the same character as the one in Rebels (which would also explain why Disney didn't have Jason Isaacs reprise his voiceover role in live-action). But why have two Grand Inquisitors who look and sound almost exactly alike? Are they brothers?
That theory also clashes with Marvel's Darth Vader comics. 2017's Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith reveals that the Grand Inquisitor of Rebels has been with Vader since shortly after the end of the Clone Wars. Is the series just going to ignore that book entirely?
Another possibility is that the Grand Inquisitor isn't as dead as he seems. Perhaps the Inquisitorius have access to some of the same Sith technology that keeps Vader alive and eventually allows Emperor Palpatine to clone himself. The Inquisitors could even be guinea pigs for Palpatine's cloning experiments. Maybe Vader has a Supreme Leader Snoke-style tank full of Inquisitor bodies he can activate as his minions die.
This theory may actually gel with what we've learned of the Grand Inquisitor in Marvel's comics. The current Star Wars series shows Luke traveling to a forgotten Jedi temple and claiming a yellow lightsaber to replace the one he lost on Bespin. There he's confronted by the spirit of the Grand Inquisitor, who's been forever bound to the temple as punishment for his failures. If Vader can manage that, then maybe bringing his minions back from the brink of death is child's play.
The first two episodes show us that Reva is unusually fanatical. She's consumed by her single-minded quest to hunt down Obi-Wan Kenobi, and she's not afraid of cheating, lying and backstabbing her fellow Inquisitors along the way.
Naturally, that raises the question of why Reva hates Obi-Wan so much in the first place. What did this kindly Jedi Master ever do to her? She can't have been that old when he went into hiding.
This rivalry may tie back to the opening flashback in Chapter 1, where we see a group of Younglings fleeing the carnage at the Jedi Temple. We've already seen one of those characters - Benny Safdie's Nari - resurface in the present-day storyline. It stands to reason we'll meet the rest over the course of the series. And we may just learn that Reva was one of those Younglings. She could be second character from the left in this image:
If so, Reva may hate Obi-Wan for failing to stop Order 66 and dooming her to a life as an orphan. Though why she'd single out Obi-Wan for the collective failure of the Jedi is unclear.
It's also worth pointing out that Reva may not be motivated by hatred, necessarily. She's clearly fanatical, even by the standards of the Inquisitorius. She may not hate Obi-Wan so much as she idolizes Darth Vader. Because Vader craves vengeance against his former Master, so does she. That would also explain why she's reckless enough to openly defy and possibly kill the Grand Inquisitor. She knows she has the Big Guy's support.
Disney managed to keep some major characters under wraps until the first two episodes debuted. Not only do we see Jimmy Smits' Bail Organa and Temuera Morrison as a homeless clone veteran, the series introduces Vivien Lyra Blair as a 10-year-old Princess Leia. We quickly learn that Leia and Obi-Wan's relationship goes back a long way, as she was the one person capable of making him leave the relative safety of Tatooine.
Knowing Obi-Wan risked his life to save Leia years before the events of Episode IV, it's strange to think that Leia never mentioned her first encounter with the Jedi Master. Why does she address him so formally in her holographic message - "Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars" - rather than say something more direct like, "Hey, I need you to bail me out again!"?
This reveal also makes Luke seem like even more of a jerk during the scene where Leia consoles him aboard the Millennium Falcon after Obi-Wan's death. Not only is she mourning the death of her home planet, she knew Obi-Wan a heck of a lot longer than Luke.
We have little doubt future Star Wars stories will retroactively work this detail into the Luke/Leia relationship. Perhaps Marvel will publish a comic showing Leia reminiscing about her adventures with Obi-Wan. It also adds new context to Leia and Han's decision to name their son after him.
Based on the original trilogy, we know Leia doesn't really become aware of her Jedi abilities until Luke reveals the truth about their family history on Endor. That said, the sequels make it clear she's every bit as strong in the Force as her brother, and we see hints of that strength in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
Leia seems to have a natural gift for Force empathy. She can instinctively sense what others around her are thinking and feeling, which comes in handy when she needs to put a snobbish cousin in his place.
We can't help but wonder if this budding power will allow the series to address one of the bigger, lingering mysteries about Luke and Leia. Episode III shows that they were both taken away from Padme shortly after their birth, so why does Leia remember her where Luke doesn't? Maybe her empathic gift was active even then, but could her encounter with Obi-Wan as a child have something to do with it?
In Return of the Jedi, Leia describes their mother as "Very beautiful. Kind, but sad." That sounds exactly like the way Obi-Wan might describe Padme, a woman he cared for but never had a particularly close relationship with. Does Leia subconsciously absorb Obi-Wan's memories and develop a hazy mental image of her mother that way? That's certainly one explanation.
The Grand Inquisitor isn't the only Star Wars Rebels villain to make his live-action debut in this series. The Fast and the Furious' Sung Kang takes over the role of Fifth Brother, meaning Kang has gone from playing Han Seoul-Oh to rubbing elbows with Han Solo.
The first two episodes do leave us a little confused as to Fifth Brother's motivations, however. He's surprisingly mellow for a guy whose job description is hunting down and slaughtering Jedi. Compared to Reva, he's downright merciful. He'd rather reward civilians for providing information rather than resort to torture. He's very much the good cop of this bunch.
Is there a reason Fifth Brother is so much less bloodthirsty? Given what we know about the Inquisitors from Rebels and Marvel's comics, they're constantly scheming against one another and currying favor with Vader. They're aspiring Sith Lords, and they act accordingly. Reva's characterization is arguably more in line with those other stories. Hopefully the series will find time to explore Fifth Brother's backstory and why he prefers to do things by the book.
For more breaking Star Wars news, find out what was shown in The Mandalorian: Season 3 sizzle reel and what six words Hayden Christensen used to drive the audience wild at Star Wars Celebration. You can also check out IGN's full breakdown of everything announced at Star Wars Celebration so far.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Continue reading...
After years of waiting around like a desert hermit, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi has finally debuted on Disney+. The new series has already managed to surprise fans and subvert expectations in its first two episodes, including the appearance of several familiar faces from the Star Wars movies.
But because the show is moving in unexpected directions, we also have a lot of questions about Obi-Wan's latest adventure. Let's break down the six most pressing, unanswered questions after the end of Chapter 2, from Reva's inexplicable hatred of Obi-Wan to whether or not the Grand Inquisitor is actually dead.
Why Didn't Obi-Wan Know Anakin Was Still Alive?
Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader only appears in one brief scene in these first two episodes, but the shadow of Anakin Skywalker looms large over the series. We learn two important details about the Anakin/Obi-Wan dynamic right out of the gate. One, Vader has been obsessively hunting Obi-Wan ever since their fateful duel on Mustafar ten years earlier. Two, Obi-Wan had no idea Anakin was still alive.
That's a pretty surprising reversal, considering that the movies always suggested the opposite. We always pictured Obi-Wan quietly observing his fallen pupil's crimes from afar and waiting for the day he could train Luke to confront Vader. Meanwhile, in Episode IV Vader behaves as if he's surprised to see Obi-Wan alive. Though as we've covered in the past, this series promises to add some significant new wrinkles to the Vader/Obi-Wan relationship.
Why did Obi-Wan never connect the dots between Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker before Reva came along? Is he really that isolated from the Force that he can't sense Anakin's lifeforce? And what about Yoda? Is this news to him, too, or have Yoda and the spirit of Qui-Gon been keeping this knowledge to themselves? Neither option paints Yoda in a particularly flattering light.
Is the Grand Inquisitor Actually Dead?
The first two episodes make it clear Moses Ingram's character Reva is an outcast among Darth Vader's assassins, the Sith Inquisitorius. She has skills, to be sure, but her fellow Inquisitors view her as a low-born upstart who isn't worthy to be among their ranks. She doesn't exactly help her case when she betrays Rupert Friend's character, the Grand Inquisitor, and impales him with her saber.
This betrayal raises some pretty significant questions about continuity. How can the Grand Inquisitor die in Obi-Wan Kenobi when he's alive and well several years later during the events of Star Wars Rebels: Season 1?
There are several possible explanations here. One option is that this Grand Inquisitor isn't the same character as the one in Rebels (which would also explain why Disney didn't have Jason Isaacs reprise his voiceover role in live-action). But why have two Grand Inquisitors who look and sound almost exactly alike? Are they brothers?
That theory also clashes with Marvel's Darth Vader comics. 2017's Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith reveals that the Grand Inquisitor of Rebels has been with Vader since shortly after the end of the Clone Wars. Is the series just going to ignore that book entirely?
Another possibility is that the Grand Inquisitor isn't as dead as he seems. Perhaps the Inquisitorius have access to some of the same Sith technology that keeps Vader alive and eventually allows Emperor Palpatine to clone himself. The Inquisitors could even be guinea pigs for Palpatine's cloning experiments. Maybe Vader has a Supreme Leader Snoke-style tank full of Inquisitor bodies he can activate as his minions die.
This theory may actually gel with what we've learned of the Grand Inquisitor in Marvel's comics. The current Star Wars series shows Luke traveling to a forgotten Jedi temple and claiming a yellow lightsaber to replace the one he lost on Bespin. There he's confronted by the spirit of the Grand Inquisitor, who's been forever bound to the temple as punishment for his failures. If Vader can manage that, then maybe bringing his minions back from the brink of death is child's play.
Why Does Reva Hate Obi-Wan So Much?
The first two episodes show us that Reva is unusually fanatical. She's consumed by her single-minded quest to hunt down Obi-Wan Kenobi, and she's not afraid of cheating, lying and backstabbing her fellow Inquisitors along the way.
Naturally, that raises the question of why Reva hates Obi-Wan so much in the first place. What did this kindly Jedi Master ever do to her? She can't have been that old when he went into hiding.
This rivalry may tie back to the opening flashback in Chapter 1, where we see a group of Younglings fleeing the carnage at the Jedi Temple. We've already seen one of those characters - Benny Safdie's Nari - resurface in the present-day storyline. It stands to reason we'll meet the rest over the course of the series. And we may just learn that Reva was one of those Younglings. She could be second character from the left in this image:
If so, Reva may hate Obi-Wan for failing to stop Order 66 and dooming her to a life as an orphan. Though why she'd single out Obi-Wan for the collective failure of the Jedi is unclear.
It's also worth pointing out that Reva may not be motivated by hatred, necessarily. She's clearly fanatical, even by the standards of the Inquisitorius. She may not hate Obi-Wan so much as she idolizes Darth Vader. Because Vader craves vengeance against his former Master, so does she. That would also explain why she's reckless enough to openly defy and possibly kill the Grand Inquisitor. She knows she has the Big Guy's support.
Why Didn't Leia Mention Her First Meeting With Obi-Wan?
Disney managed to keep some major characters under wraps until the first two episodes debuted. Not only do we see Jimmy Smits' Bail Organa and Temuera Morrison as a homeless clone veteran, the series introduces Vivien Lyra Blair as a 10-year-old Princess Leia. We quickly learn that Leia and Obi-Wan's relationship goes back a long way, as she was the one person capable of making him leave the relative safety of Tatooine.
Knowing Obi-Wan risked his life to save Leia years before the events of Episode IV, it's strange to think that Leia never mentioned her first encounter with the Jedi Master. Why does she address him so formally in her holographic message - "Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars" - rather than say something more direct like, "Hey, I need you to bail me out again!"?
This reveal also makes Luke seem like even more of a jerk during the scene where Leia consoles him aboard the Millennium Falcon after Obi-Wan's death. Not only is she mourning the death of her home planet, she knew Obi-Wan a heck of a lot longer than Luke.
We have little doubt future Star Wars stories will retroactively work this detail into the Luke/Leia relationship. Perhaps Marvel will publish a comic showing Leia reminiscing about her adventures with Obi-Wan. It also adds new context to Leia and Han's decision to name their son after him.
Is Obi-Wan the Reason Leia Remembers Padme?
Based on the original trilogy, we know Leia doesn't really become aware of her Jedi abilities until Luke reveals the truth about their family history on Endor. That said, the sequels make it clear she's every bit as strong in the Force as her brother, and we see hints of that strength in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
Leia seems to have a natural gift for Force empathy. She can instinctively sense what others around her are thinking and feeling, which comes in handy when she needs to put a snobbish cousin in his place.
We can't help but wonder if this budding power will allow the series to address one of the bigger, lingering mysteries about Luke and Leia. Episode III shows that they were both taken away from Padme shortly after their birth, so why does Leia remember her where Luke doesn't? Maybe her empathic gift was active even then, but could her encounter with Obi-Wan as a child have something to do with it?
In Return of the Jedi, Leia describes their mother as "Very beautiful. Kind, but sad." That sounds exactly like the way Obi-Wan might describe Padme, a woman he cared for but never had a particularly close relationship with. Does Leia subconsciously absorb Obi-Wan's memories and develop a hazy mental image of her mother that way? That's certainly one explanation.
Why Is Fifth Brother So Merciful?
The Grand Inquisitor isn't the only Star Wars Rebels villain to make his live-action debut in this series. The Fast and the Furious' Sung Kang takes over the role of Fifth Brother, meaning Kang has gone from playing Han Seoul-Oh to rubbing elbows with Han Solo.
The first two episodes do leave us a little confused as to Fifth Brother's motivations, however. He's surprisingly mellow for a guy whose job description is hunting down and slaughtering Jedi. Compared to Reva, he's downright merciful. He'd rather reward civilians for providing information rather than resort to torture. He's very much the good cop of this bunch.
Is there a reason Fifth Brother is so much less bloodthirsty? Given what we know about the Inquisitors from Rebels and Marvel's comics, they're constantly scheming against one another and currying favor with Vader. They're aspiring Sith Lords, and they act accordingly. Reva's characterization is arguably more in line with those other stories. Hopefully the series will find time to explore Fifth Brother's backstory and why he prefers to do things by the book.
For more breaking Star Wars news, find out what was shown in The Mandalorian: Season 3 sizzle reel and what six words Hayden Christensen used to drive the audience wild at Star Wars Celebration. You can also check out IGN's full breakdown of everything announced at Star Wars Celebration so far.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Continue reading...