The best thing about Obi-Wan Kenobi is a frustratingly enormous spoiler
In Star Wars:The Empire Strikes Back, Jedi Master Yoda tells Luke Skywalker not to judge others based on appearances, which is a little rich coming from a guy who spent his first hour with the kid pretending to be a senile bog hobbit. After the premiere of Obi-Wan Kenobi, viewers might be feeling a similar mix of emotions.
The show was marketed as yet another desert-set Disney Plus offering, a solo adventure for Ewan McGregor’s defeated Jedi master, who would struggle to watch over a young Luke Skywalker while he evaded the operatives of the Dark Side, culminating in a confrontation with Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader himself. In the first episode of its two episode premiere, Obi-Wan Kenobi reveals that it is something significantly different.
It’s a great reveal, well crafted, smartly executed, and full of promise! Like Luke, viewers will probably be very excited to realize they have already found the Jedi they were sent to look for, metaphorically. But it does raise the question of why the show’s marketing feinted in the first place.
[Ed. note: The rest of this piece contains a significant spoiler for the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi.]
In its premiere, Obi-Wan Kenobi introduces Vivien Lyra Blair as a 10-year-old Princess Leia Organa, and Old Ben Kenobi is her only hope. One could joke that this is the future of Star Wars television, handed down by The Mandalorian: jaded outcast meets adorable child, and adventure ensues. Except that the careful specificity of Obi-Wan’s exploration of Leia, and Blair’s exceptional performance of it, immediately speak for themselves.
This is a cinematic exploration of young Leia that parts of the Star Wars fandom have desired for years, an establishment of her dreams, her
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