I donβt know if I will ever get over how incredible the Obi-Wan Kenobi show was at threading the needle of using mostly established characters, adding new characters that played into the themes that were already established, while also making it feel like it opened up a whole new world of stories to be told. Would a story about Obi-Wan and Luke have been as meaningful, if well told? Itβs very possible that it could have been!Β But using this opportunity to focus on Leia instead, to take two characters who never really interacted beyond a few lines said aboutΒ each other, and developing an entire dynamic there, while also tying it directly to the heart of the Obi-Wan & Anakin dynamic, balancing that these two saw each other as themselves just as much as they had a connection because of the other people in their lives, I really canβt get over it. And I canβt get over the inclusion of Reva as a Jedi youngling, sheβs not just a fleshed out Inquisitor there to fill up the space, sheβs vitalΒ to the story being told, she is a face and a voice of the younglings that Anakin slaughtered, she is a character with a journey that is her own path to walk and she will make her own choices, but she is also a reflection of the central Star Wars character (as all characters connected to the heart of the story should be to a degree, in my opinion) in that her choice to notΒ become like Vader illustrates Anakinβs choices all the more. Just as the Obi-Wan & Leia dynamic is a story unto itself, so is Revaβs story, but they are also part of the bigger theme of Anakin Skywalkerβs legacy, they are both at the same time, just as Obi-Wan Kenobi is himself, his character is an extension of Anakinβs character on a narrative level, and later an extension of Lukeβs character, that is his function in the bigger narrative, but that doesnβt mean his own story within that structure canβt be important and meaningful. The show has Anakin Skywalkerβs presence looming over everythingΒ in this series, heβs not even actually in that many scenes, but I feel his ghost in almost every single frame of the story, and Iβm just neverΒ getting over how good that was. I cannot comprehend how well done the character work in this show is, how the characters are serving the themes that George Lucas established, but theyβre also telling a story that I was invested in.Β I wanted so desperately to see that hug when Obi-Wan and Leia reunited.Β I wanted so desperately to see Obi-Wan and Anakin meet one more time, to tear each other apart one more time.Β I wanted so desperately to know how Revaβs story would end, how this would affect Leia going forward, how it was a love letter to the prequels movies, how it was connective tissue, the story of how they got from Point A to Point B, but also was a journey worth taking on its own, because I got to see Revaβs face crumple when she asked if sheβd become him, I got to see Obi-Wan fix Leiaβs droid and teach her a little about the Force, I got to see Owen come to a gentler understanding of Obi-Wan and ask if he wanted to meet Luke, I got to see Anakin absolve Obi-Wan of guilt while still trying desperately to hold onto him. I just cannot get overΒ how it walked the fine line of established characters and something new, that I want approximately a hundred fics about Obi-Wan and Anakinβs conversations in this show, I want another hundred fics of Obi-Wan and Leia, I want a hundred fics about the life Reva could have had in a better world or where she goes from here or how she survived up to this point. I CANNOT GET OVER HOW DEFT THIS SERIES WAS AT GIVING ME THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS.
