Obi-Wan Kenobi series: speculation

"And, of course, I gotta thank George Lucas." - Hayden.


Goooood, Anakin goooood!

That boy knows where his bread is buttered. xD

I'm not a big fan of fan edits, even though I have made a few myself. Obi-Wan the series didn't do it for me anymore on a recent rewatch, but there are still a few scenes I like, especially the one with Qui-Gon. Yes, it's fanservice, but Neeson's performance is great. I think that last episode is pretty solid and the end is perfect. It always gets me emotional.

The thing is, if he's also re-editing and nipping-and-tucking the show, he's also like a surgeon, and the outcome may not be radically dissimilar to "The Phantom Edit", driven by the same underlying presumption: that they can do a better job and improve something made by professionals by extirpating and casting material aside. Basically, even if Obi-Wan were fixable, a Frankenstein's monster would still be the end result here. Nevertheless, at some point, curiosity may get the better of me and I may check it out.

HAHA. It's funny you posted that and mentioned me today. I was literally watching a chunk of that in the early hours of the morning today, before turning into bed. I sat there thinking, "I wonder what Arch Duke would make of this? Has he seen it? Oh, he must have posted it in the Obi-Wan thread already. I'll check later." And here ya are! 

So what do you think of it? Ewan certainly looks a bit odd, doesn't he? Commenters point out it's for a new role he's presently filming (A Gentleman in Moscow). I saw someone also suggesting that Hayden should give up smoking. 

I kinda wish I'd gone to Celebration, although nice of you to remember my rant! Well, indeed. It still reeks of commercialism to me. But it would have been fun to see some of the stars in attendance, like Ian McDiarmid and Daisy Ridley. Hell, even the likes of Dave Filoni and Kathleen Kennedy, I guess. It's also been a while since Celebration was last hosted in the UK. (Thanks -- and apologies -- also to dedicated Disney/SW/TCW fan Alessio for doing his best to sway me into attending the event with him).

Oh, well. I couldn't get the time off work, not least because I'd already booked a few days off right before Celebration to see Priscilla Presley in Birmingham, and this was in the Easter period, which is the busier time of the year for my employer. Why is it that when interesting or bad things happen, it's usually in twos or threes?

I don't know where I stand with the Obi-Wan series right now. Let me call it a mixed bag. I just hope I didn't deter anyone from attending this event. Negativity shouldn't be taken too seriously online. Although I still think I had a point. The thing about Celebration is that the American-style cheerleading is a little at odds with how we do things in the British Isles. Looking past the misdeeds of Brexit and rule by chumocracy, and the pageantry of the Royal Family, we lean towards the phlegmatic and the understated, seasoned with plenty of British wit and ironic detachment. The capitalistic, jingoistic excesses of Celebration, along with an underlying tedium that all that flash and sizzle is desperate to disguise, not to mention all that self-congratulatory, rah-rah praise the cast and crew always heap on each other at these panels, is all crying out for a ruddy good lashing of Oscar Wilde-tier humour and George Orwell-tier thrashing. It's not that we can't have good things, but neither should we be the Senate, mindlessly cheering on Palpatine/Disney and acting like everything is fine. What I'm saying is, Celebration is something of an interloper on these shores, and an unfortunate indicator of the stain of American hegemony.

(He says after crushing on Elvis and Star Wars his entire adult life and seeing Priscilla Presley, very nearly American royalty, in his home city for his 40th birthday, no less).

tl;dr: Celebration, like Obi-Wan, is perfectly okay and a decent way to pass the time. It's also, maybe, a bit shit.

It really bothers me that an experience as emotional and profound as creating the Obi-Wan series didn't really result in a great end product.