Happy May the Fourth!

Hello friends, and Happy May the Fourth! I’m planning on watching Tales of the Empire tonight, as well as catching The Phantom Menace in the local theater some time this weekend to celebrate.

I also have a special post today: a collaboration post with Jessica Bingham of Storytime Truth. We wrote about the nature of the Force; Jessica described the Light Side and the Jedi, while I explored the Dark Side and the Sith. Enjoy!

The Light Side of the Force, by Jessica Bingham

The Jedi Council

I have always thought of the Jedi Council as the representation of wisdom. The Jedi temple is a place where stillness, peace, and inner consultation resides. Even the structure of the council is one of invitation, that no one Jedi is above another. They sit in circle fashion, conversing. Contrast this to a speaker at a podium, or even Emperor Palpatine addressing the congress during the special session in Episode III. Palpatine speaks at people, the Jedi speak with each other. They each bring their inner stillness and knowledge of the force to bear on a situation. As Yoda says in Episode V, “a Jedi uses the force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.” In the times of the Republic, these sessions were primarily knowledge seeking, with some focus on defense against the dark side.

Common Jedi Force Practices

Meditation

Something you will see Jedi Master Yoda do often is meditate. This is a great way to become inwardly still. Sometimes his meditations are seconds long, other times we are led to believe they are dedicated sessions as part of his routine to remain in a state of enlightenment. He also becomes still before engaging in an action of importance such as lifting Luke’s ship out of the water in Episode V.

Qui-Gon Jinn also does this in Episode I during his fight with Darth Maul. Ultimately he loses the battle, but he gave himself a chance to reconnect with the force through purposeful stillness.

Feeling Before Action

When I say feeling I do not mean giving into impulsive emotions. This is more Sith-like and a sign of the dark side emerging. I mean prioritizing feeling over thinking by letting the heart guide the mind. The heart being the word for wisdom and stillness and the mind being the word for action. Qui-Gon Jinn tells this to young Anakin before his pod race in Episode I and Obi-Wan Kenobi tells this to Luke at the beginning of his training in Episode IV and again at the end of the same episode when Luke successfully destroys the Death Star. Kenobi cautions Luke about the dangers of impulsive feelings in Episode VI. He warns Luke that his fear for his loved ones could be used against him as it was for his father. This does not mean that the Jedi are hostile towards emotions, they just make it a point to distinguish between feeling states that serve them versus those that serve the Emperor (or ego).

Defense and Never Attack

The Jedi do the least amount of response necessary to combat a threat. This is a crucial guideline because it prevents enjoyment when faced with the temptation of ego. We see Anakin succumb to this multiple times in Episode II and Episode III before fully becoming Darth Vader. He takes pleasure in slaughtering the entire community where he mother was held, for example. He attempts to exact revenge on Dooku after the death of his mother and gets electrocuted. He gives into the desire to behead Count Dooku the next time they meet.

We also see Obi-Wan Kenobi flirt with crossing the line in Episode I when he watches his master fall to Darth Maul at the end.

Luke Skywalker has a brief moment in Episode VI where he enters into the domain of attack. He viciously strikes his father’s saber and severs his hand before pulling himself back, sheathing his sword and casting it away. A Jedi must remain in a state of peace, passivity, and calm in order to refrain from the dark side.

Learning About Oneself Through the Force

We see a great deal of Jedi using the force for knowledge in Episode V. Much of this episode is dedicated to Luke’s training with Yoda. In this episode Luke learns that the greatest challenge is to overcome his own mind. He discovers this in the cave when he confronts himself as Darth Vader, reminding all of us that absent knowledge and the accompaniment of wisdom, we are all susceptible to our dark side selves.

Later on in Episode V, Luke loses his connection to the force, to his centeredness and fails to balance the stones in his practice session. He is ambivalent about his ship sinking further into the water and makes the mistake of believing that moving stones is radically different from moving a large-scale object like a ship. This is a crucial lesson of the force for Jedi to learn: its application is the same in all situations. Yoda proves this in the series by being the most enlightened and most powerful Jedi. One of the smallest but the most fierce and powerful. He has the highest midichlorian count of all Jedi, aside from Anakin Skywalker. This is why Anakin’s departure from Jedi to Sith was so catastrophic to the galaxy. He had the deepest, most promising connection to the living force and he fell into darkness. It is also why his one action through knowledge of himself as one with the force and defense of his son at the end of Episode VI was enough to tip the force back into balance.

The Dark Side, by Tina Williams

The dark side of the Force deals in raw, powerful emotions: anger, fear, passion, hatred, jealousy, greed, bitterness, selfishness. You get the idea. These are emotions that are seductive and easy to access, as Yoda warns Luke in Episode V. Powerful, yes, but also a trap: fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. One can tap into great power through the dark side, but it’s never enough, and it will never be enough. In the end, it consumes you.

Consider the fate of these prominent dark-side users in the Star Wars universe:

Darth Vader: Ultimate Suffering

“Anakin is gone. I am what remains.” Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

Darth Vader is the most iconic dark side figure in Star Wars, and perhaps the most tragic. Once Anakin Skywalker, he was one of the most powerful force-wielders in the Jedi Order. Through the light, he could have done amazing things for the galaxy. Instead, that power became focused through the lens of the dark side.

Anakin falls to the dark through his intense fear of loss: he loses his mother in Episode 2, and in Episode 3 fears he will lose his wife, Padme. Sidious makes sure Anakin believes the only way to save her is through him and the dark side. Because of his emotional attachments, Anakin doesn’t trust in the Force—and literally burns in “hell” on Mustafar as a result of his duel with Obi-Wan.

The suit that encompasses him for the next few decades keeps him alive but in constant pain. His injuries, both physical and emotional, will never fully heal. Vader draws strength in the Force through this pain—anger, grief, hate, as well as self-hatred—but that power will never ease his suffering.

It is only through love for his son, Luke Skywalker, that his pain ends. When Sidious tries to kill Luke with Force-lightning (after Luke had shown Vader compassion, after everything he’d done), it’s Anakin who picks him up and throws him down that shaft. It ends his life, but not before saving his son, and his soul as well.

Darth Sidious: The Emptiness of Hate

Darth Sidious, aka Chancellor, and then Emperor, Palpatine, is the paradigm of the dark side in Star Wars. A Sith Lord who rose to power during the prequel era, he is a master manipulator who orchestrates the Clone Wars to destroy the Jedi Order and becomes Emperor.

Sidious is pure evil, defined by hate and anger. There is no in-between with him, no struggling with who or what he is. He cackles with glee at the suffering of others, taking pleasure in their pain. Clearly, he draws great strength in the Force from all this hatred, Force lightning being one of his favorite weapons. But there’s one thing he does fear: death.

The Sith have a great fear of death, believing it to be the annihilation of the soul; they do not want to give up their physical attachments. Unlike the Jedi, they are denied the opportunity to become force ghosts after death, since its requirements are to face the darkness in themselves and defeat it, give up preconceived notions, and let go of what they fear to lose.

“The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” Sidious in The Rise of Skywalker.

Sidious’ obsession with prolonging his own life is evident in the lengths he goes for supposed immortality. We see it in his Project Necromancer in the Bad Batch, as he tries to use cloning technology (and, presumably, Sith magic) to attain that goal. He only partially succeeds in this, as, thirty years later in the Sequel trilogy, he returns, but in a rapidly degrading clone body. Only in his granddaughter Rey does he truly have the opportunity to successfully live on and continue to spread his evil.

Luckily, the galaxy didn’t have to endure that, as, once again, Light defeats the Dark.

Count Dooku: Righteous Anger

Count Dooku (Darth Tyrannus), the Separatist leader during the Clone Wars, and secret apprentice to Darth Sidious, came to the dark side through disillusionment and righteous anger. As a Jedi, he became disappointed with how the Order had become beholden to the Senate and the Republic, moving away from their role as guardians of peace and justice. He eventually leaves the Order, believing they’d become puppets to a corrupt system. Darth Sidious uses this to his advantage, turning him to the dark side and making him the leader of the Separatist forces.

As a young Jedi, Dooku lets his anger get the better of him in Tales of the Jedi.

Dooku, like Sidious, can use Force lightning, and uses it against both Anakin and Yoda in Episode 2. His arrogance causes him to believe that he is indispensable to Sidious, when in fact Sidious orders Anakin to kill him, thus replacing him with a new apprentice. The Sith are governed by the Rule of Two: there is ever only two Sith, a Master and an Apprentice. By the very nature of the dark side, the apprentice will always seek to usurp their master, coveting all the power for themselves. Dooku replaced Maul as Sidious’ apprentice and was then replaced himself by Anakin.

Darth Maul: The Futility of Revenge

Darth Maul, former Sith apprentice to Darth Sidious, is fueled mostly by rage and the need for revenge against Obi-Wan Kenobi. Since Obi-Wan “killed” him in The Phantom Menace, he has relentlessly pursued the Jedi throughout the animated series Clone Wars. His burning need for vengeance consumes him for years, coming to a head in the animated series Rebels, when Ezra Bridger unwittingly leads him to Obi-Wan on Tatooine as he watches over Luke Skywalker.

While Obi-Wan’s trials and his solitude on Tatooine leads to his character’s growth, Darth Maul’s consuming focus on revenge leads him to stagnate; he experiences no growth at all, as he’s been stuck in an endless loop of rage and bitterness. Even as he dies in Obi-Wan’s arms, his mind is still on vengeance, though not against Obi-Wan anymore, but ostensibly against Darth Sidious.

Obi Wan holds a dying Maul in “Twin Suns” from Rebels.

“Is he the Chosen One?” he asks Obi-Wan, referring to who he was protecting on Tatooine.

“He is,” Obi-Wan answers, at this point convinced the Chosen One was not Anakin.

“He will avenge us,” Maul says, referring to the suffering they’d both endured at the hands of Darth Sidious (Order 66 for Obi-Wan, and the death of his brother Savage Opress for Maul).

Even with his dying breath, Maul cannot let go of the idea of vengeance.

Kylo Ren: The Dichotomy of Dark and Light

Born Ben Solo, Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa. From birth he is strong in the Force, but Sidious, evil being that he is, influences and manipulates the young boy. He turns Ben to the dark side in retribution for the role his parents played in the fall of the Empire. He does this through a voice in his dreams, as well as through Snoke, who takes young Ben under his wing while his parents are busy rebuilding the Republic. Snoke plants distrust and turns him against his parents and his uncle, Luke Skywalker. After Luke seriously breaks Ben’s trust in him, he leaves Luke’s Jedi training academy and eventually joins the First Order.

After changing his name to Kylo Ren, he becomes obsessed with his grandfather, Darth Vader and wishes to emulate him and his power. But as Rey accuses him in Episode VII, he’s afraid he’ll “never be as powerful as Darth Vader.” This fear goads him to ever more heinous acts, culminating in killing his own father, Han Solo. But afterword, instead of feeling more powerful, he only feels more conflicted.

The interesting thing about Kylo Ren is that he is constantly tempted by the Light, rather than the other way around. It’s as if his natural state is the Light side of the Force and he actively has to work against it to ground himself in the dark side.

After he kills his father, he’s so emotionally compromised (and also injured by Chewbacca’s bowcaster) that he’s defeated by Rey in the lightsaber battle in the forest on Starkiller Base. To make himself stronger, he punches the wound in his side to feel its pain even more. He wants to feel the pain and rage of the wound in order to draw upon the dark side for strength, similar to how Darth Vader is in constant pain from his suit and draws power from his rage.

Kylo draws upon the dark side in The Force Awakens.

It’s also interesting how, when Kylo turns back to the Light and fights beside Rey against Sidious as Ben Solo in Episode IX, he looks like a completely different person, and holds himself differently, using the Force through the Light side rather than the Dark. He looks and acts lighter, as if a great burden has been lifted from him. As Kylo he seems weighed down, stomping around and slashing his lightsaber with heavy, massive strokes. But as Ben he’s like a dancer, jumping and flipping around with ease. It’s amazing to see.

While not technically a Sith Lord (in fact, he advocates that the Jedi AND the Sith end), he’s an interesting dark side user that I didn’t want to ignore. There are many dark side cults in canon Star Wars, but Kylo Ren is kind of his own thing.

Darkness is a part of life; there must always be balance. But from what I can see, embracing the Light frees you; embracing the Dark enslaves you.

I hope you enjoyed this collaborative post on the Force! How are you celebrating May the Fourth? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Star Wars Chat Pack: Is Anakin the Chosen One?

Welcome to Day 15 of my NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) Challenge, during which I randomly pick a card from the Star Wars Chat Pack.

Today’s question is: Do you think Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One who brought balance to the Force? Why or why not?

Oh, boy. If ever there was a contentious subject in Star Wars, this is one of them.

“You were the Chosen One!” I think we can all hear this conversation.

So the Jedi prophecy states, basically, that there will be one (“The Chosen One”) who brings “balance” to the Force. Qui Gon Jinn, who had studied the Jedi prophecies, believed that young Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One, and that’s why he brought him back to Coruscant and to the Jedi Council.

The Council, especially Yoda, does not agree that Anakin should be trained, never mind that he’s the Chosen One. And later, Yoda expresses doubt about Anakin, believing that they could have “misread” the prophecy.

Once Anakin turns to the dark side and becomes Darth Vader, Obi-Wan gives up the notion that Anakin is the Chosen One. When Maul asks if the one he’s protecting on Tatooine is the Chosen One (Luke), Obi-Wan replies yes. He’s simply making the assumption here, believing Anakin’s turn disqualifies him from that honor.

But later, in Return of the Jedi, we see that when Vader/Anakin kills the Emperor, he’s destroyed the Dark and brought Light back to the Force, and therefore, in a roundabout way, he is indeed the Chosen One. If that’s how you want to look at it, and I do.

The problem is the word “balance.” There are those who believe that “bringing balance to the Force” means the dark and the light have equal influence. And while that’s true in a Cosmic Force kind of way (as in there is always dark as well as light), I think people interpret it to mean that there is evil in the galaxy in proportion to the good, and therefore there should be as many Sith as there are Jedi.

But some, like myself, don’t see it that way; and I don’t believe George Lucas himself saw it that way, either, at least when it comes to this prophecy. I think what Lucas intended was that “balance” means Anakin destroyed evil, and now the Force is back in balance. As if the darkness unbalanced it, tainted it. That makes sense to me. So in this sense, yes, Anakin is the Chosen One.

Now, there are those who feel that the sequel trilogy, in particular the fact that Palpatine somehow “returned,” negates Anakin’s sacrifice. I don’t believe this is true. For one thing, Anakin didn’t kill the Emperor to specifically “bring balance to the Force.” I don’t think that’s what was going through his mind. He killed him to save his son. Period. It was personal, not cosmic, although the results were cosmic in nature–he did, indeed, bring balance with his actions. Prophecies are funny that way. But he sacrificed himself for his son; obviously Luke would have died if Vader/Anakin hadn’t intervened. How can that be negated?

This is why the Emperor ended up going down that shaft.

“But Palpatine (evil) came back!” the critics will argue. “How can that be if Anakin brought balance?”

Yes, of course he did. For a time. For that specific time in history. But if you look at our own history (and the history of the SW galaxy, for that matter), evil always returns. Always. You fight it and defeat it, and enjoy your victory for a time, and then it rises again. And again, and again, and again. It is the way of the world, of the galaxy, of the universe. The fight never ends. Even if it wasn’t Palpatine, it would have been some damn evil entity. Snoke himself said, “Darkness rises, and the Light to meet it,” to Rey and Kylo in the throne room. Anakin did his part; now it’s their turn.

Finally, Palps is gone! But just wait. Someone else will come along to ruin the galaxy.

Anyway, all of this to say, yes, I believe Anakin was the Chosen One, and he brought (temporary) balance to the Force.

What do you think? The Chosen One prophecy is kind of a clunky concept in Star Wars, rife for misinterpretation, and personally, I think the saga could have done without it. But it’s there, and this is what I make of it, anyway. Let me know what you think in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Star Wars Chat Pack: What Imperial boss would you work for?

Welcome to Day 14 of my NaBloPoMo Challenge, where I randomly pick a card from the Star Wars Chat Pack and write an answer.

Today’s question is: Bad news: You work for the Empire. Good news: You get to choose your boss. Who is it?

For me, I think it would be Thrawn. Most of the Imperial bosses I’m familiar with are terrifyingly evil (the Emperor, Darth Vader), arrogant and cold (Tarkin), too ambitious for their own good (Krennic), and just plain inept (fill in the blank). There’s not many I’d want to work for, lol.

Would sell his own mother for a promotion.

But Thrawn…he’s different. Still a bad guy doing bad things, but he’s actually smart, doesn’t waste his resources (ie, you or me), and though he’s well aware of his talents, he doesn’t throw it in your face. He’s intimidating and formidable, but he seems to inspire loyalty in his minions, probably because of the above reasons. He doesn’t seem to rule by fear (though I’d fear him if I angered him), but by competence and results. And he’s unfailingly polite, for the most part.

So if I had to work for the Empire, I’d pick Thrawn, but he’s still an Imperial, so I’d want to defect to the Rebel Alliance. But because he’s Thrawn, he’d figure it out way ahead of time and do away with me. For strategic reasons, of course; nothing personal. In which case I’m better off picking someone more inept, lol. Oh well.

Whichever Thrawn you prefer, he’s always imposing and calculating.

Between all the movies, shows, books, and comics, there are plenty of other Imperial bosses out there, but these are the ones that came to my mind. Who would you pick? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Star Wars Chat Pack: What is your favorite Darth Vader moment?

Welcome to Day 11 of my NaBloPoMo Challenge, in which I pick a random card from the Star Wars Chat Pack and answer the question.

Today’s question is: What is your favorite Darth Vader moment?

Huh, this is the perfect complement to yesterday’s question (what is your favorite Luke Skywalker moment).

So there are plenty of awesome (evil) Darth Vader moments, like:

Rogue One hallway scene. I think we had all forgotten just how terrifying Darth Vader was supposed to be. This scene in Rogue One cured that, lol. Vader inexorably chasing down the Rebels with the Death Star plans, slaughtering as he goes, is chilling and horrifying.

Basically anytime he shows up in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Vader is determined and merciless in this series as he hunts down Obi-Wan. The street scene, in particular, in which he tries to lure Obi-Wan out of hiding by killing innocent bystanders, is a shocking reminder of what lengths he’ll go to. Burning Obi-Wan, nearly choking Reva, and burying Obi-Wan with boulders add to his relentlessness. Oh, and pulling down that transport he believes is filled with the refugees and ripping it apart with the Force is impressive. Most impressive. He’s just a monster in this series, driven by rage and his need to destroy Kenobi.

There are some more poignant scenes, however, such as:

“I am not your failure, Obi-Wan.” This exchange between Vader and Obi-Wan in the Kenobi series is just so heartbreaking. Obi-Wan is in tears, telling Anakin he’s sorry for everything, and Vader says this, adding, “You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker. I did.” At first, I thought maybe he was trying to make Obi-Wan feel better. Then I thought: nah. This is Vader we’re talking about. He’s boasting, confirmed by that evil little smile as he said it. Despite accusing earlier in the series, “I am what you made me,” he does a 180 here, taking responsibility. Basically, he’s a mess, a big wad of pain and suffering wrapped up in a dark cloak of evil. I found it unutterably sad.

But I think my favorite moment is this one, for obvious reasons:

Killing the Emperor. I suppose you could say this isn’t Vader anymore; it’s Anakin Skywalker saving his son. Still, Vader or Anakin, the man in the suit and mask decided he was done with Palpatine’s bullsh*t and wasn’t going to let him destroy his son. I can tell you that was the most electrifying (no pun intended) moment of the Original trilogy for me. I left the theater stunned and changed. I was 13 years old and I thought I’d seen the height of cinema, lol. Nothing’s come close since, except maybe The Lord of the Rings trilogy twenty years later. And I do think it’s held up over the years; I still get emotional watching it. I don’t think it needed the “Nooooo!” added onto it. Actions speak louder than words, George. But oh well. Still a good scene.

So that’s my favorite Darth Vader moment. What’s yours? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Star Wars Chat Pack: Who is your favorite Star Wars villain?

Welcome to Day 2 of my NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) challenge, in which I pick a card from the Star Wars Chat Pack.

This time the card I picked asks, “Who is your favorite Star Wars villain?” A pretty basic Star Wars question, but I do have to think about it a bit.

My first thought would be Kylo Ren. He’s a fascinating character to me, and of course, Adam Driver’s performance is flawless. But is he truly a villain? Well, yes, he does do some evil stuff. But throughout the whole sequel trilogy, he seems to be trying so hard to be a villain. He’s not necessarily embracing the darkness as much as fighting the light inside him. So to me, Kylo’s a bit too complex to be an easy answer to this one.

Recently, Royce Hemlock, the super-creepy doctor from The Bad Batch, has fit that bill. Everything from his weird whispery voice, the way he holds his black-gloved hand, and his sheer coldness and calculation, make him a perfect villain. Frankly, he scares me, and I worry about our boys from Clone Force 99 encountering him (and Crosshair, who’s already at Mt. Tantiss and has suffered at his hands). But he’s new to the villain scene, and I don’t know enough about him to say he’s my favorite one.

Palpatine? Seems the obvious answer; he’s the over-arching villain of the entire franchise. He is evil incarnate. There are no redeeming qualities to this being–the glee he experiences in his depraved acts makes that clear (cue evil cackling). But because of this, he’s not boring, exactly, but not particularly interesting.

So I think my answer has to be Darth Vader. Who else? Here is a man who has fallen from the light and has embraced the darkness, but he takes no real pleasure in that darkness. He is a man in pain who lashes out. His evil is undisputable–from choking the woman he went to the dark side for in the first place, to killing the babies, to murdering pretty much anyone who displeases him, to blindly following the orders of Palpatine–he’s terrifying. But what really punches you in the gut is that he was once a good person. Anakin Skywalker was a hero, an amazing Jedi, a loving husband, a friend and ally to Obi-Wan. He was also impatient, arrogant, and fearful. Terribly flawed. Just like we all are. And so his fall is our fall, and it terrifies us. He’s an extreme example, but he is what we all could be, given the right circumstances. Which makes his eventual redemption that much more satisfying.

And now he pays…and makes others pay, too.

There’s a lot of villains to choose from in Star Wars. From those above, to Thrawn, General Grievous, Darth Maul, Jabba the Hutt, Admiral Tarkin, Snoke and any number of Sith Lords and Imperial baddies, villains abound. Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Anakin/Vader Fan Art

I didn’t have a subject planned for my Wednesday post, so I had to throw together something quick but fun, which usually turns out to be fan art. I was going to focus on Obi-Wan considering the latest series, but found some really neat Anakin/Vader stuff instead, which still applies. Enjoy!

I like this portrait of Anakin because it’s fuzzy and vague, kind of muddled, like Anakin’s mindset just before he turns to the dark side. He’s a hot mess, lol.

I like to include fan art that’s different, something I’ve never seen before, but something that speaks to me in some way, too. This one of Anakin looking at a hologram of Padme is kind of strange, but unique. She’s looking at him with compassion and love, despite the wreck he seems to be here.

This one shows another link to Padme, as a helmetless Vader looks at the necklace he made for her when he was a boy. I’m not sure how he got hold of it, since it was buried with Padme on Naboo, but it’s still an emotional scene.

I just thought this one looked really cool. There’s also the fact that Vader is a shattered man, and this image projects that.

And you can’t have a Vader fan art collection without Vader having tea in a meadow. I love this artist’s images of Star Wars characters in whimsical situations. And how does he sip through that thing, anyway?

I hope you enjoyed this group of Anakin/Vader fan art. What do you think of them? What’s your favorite? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Obi-Wan Kenobi Part 6 Thoughts

Please be aware that there are SPOILERS ahead.

The finale of Obi-Wan Kenobi is a moving, emotional tribute to everything I love about Star Wars.

Basically, it’s split into two pieces: the rematch between Obi-Wan and Vader, and Reva’s quest to find revenge by going after Luke. I’ll talk about the duel first.

At this point, Obi-Wan has found his center and his purpose again, and does what a Jedi does: what he has to in order to protect the people under his care. He decides to leave the transport and lure Vader away, because he knows it will work. But as Roken says, it’s also more than that: he must face Vader. They’ve got unfinished business, and it must be dealt with before Obi-Wan can move on.

In stark contrast to their last encounter, Obi-Wan is ready. I do believe that Vader was a bit disappointed that Obi-Wan was so weak that last time; I think he relished more of a challenge. Well, he gets it this time, even more than he bargained for. Kenobi is on fire, and Vader really has to work at it. “Your strength has returned,” he says at one point. “But the weakness remains. That is why you will always lose.” Anakin’s arrogance is so much on display here, and throughout the entire series. “Did you really think you could defeat me?” he asks, as he piles rocks on top of Obi-Wan. Then he walks away, thinking he’s killed him. Again, his arrogance causes him to make a huge mistake.

Obi-Wan thinks of Leia and Luke, and everything he’s fighting for, and blasts out of the pit to face Vader again. And this time, he’s not only on fire, he’s an inferno, not of anger, but of skill and determination. He succeeds in bringing Vader to his knees, and in the process, knocks part of his mask off. When he sees Anakin’s ruined face beneath the mask, he stops. He’s horrified, and grief-stricken, and just devastated. He breathes his name, and Vader replies, “Anakin is gone. I am what remains.” When Obi-Wan’s eyes fill with tears and he gasps out, “I’m sorry, Anakin,” I think my heart broke (again; it’s been broken so many times in Star War, lol).

“You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker. I did.”

And Anakin’s response is heartbreaking, as well, spoken in halting sentences in a chilling combination of Vader vocoder and Anakin’s voice: “I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. You did not kill Anakin Skywalker. I did.” He seems to smile a little bit at this; some people have claimed that Anakin is trying to make his old master feel better here, but I disagree. He’s Vader, and he’s proud. He’s boasting. Anakin, that weakling, is dead, and I killed him. “The same way I’ll destroy you,” he threatens. But he’s in no shape to do any such thing at the moment.

“Then my friend is truly gone,” Obi-Wan responds, and we can see something let go in him, the weight of the galaxy lifting off his shoulders. He’s just sad. Vader’s words are exactly what he needed to hear to move on. “Goodbye…Darth,” he says, and walks away. Again. History repeats itself as Obi-Wan once again walks away from a defeated Vader, unwilling to kill him–not because he can’t kill Anakin (Anakin is gone), but because a Jedi practices mercy. Remember that flashback? Anakin tells Obi-Wan, “Mercy doesn’t defeat an enemy, Master.”

Doesn’t it? As Obi-Wan walks away, Vader can only shout out his name in anguish (which is so haunting to me, it kind of freaks me out, lol). He’s lost this round, and will continue to lose, because the dark side does not allow growth. You stay stuck in your patterns, clinging to your rage. It’s only when the Emperor calls him out on it does Vader decide to step back a bit, and let Kenobi go.

This whole sequence was just absolute perfection, and ranks high on my “Best Star Wars Moments” list.

Okay, so Reva.

She’s managed to stay alive after Vader impaled her (again), and has found her way to Tatooine. She’s going after Luke because it’s the only revenge she can get on Vader at this point. She probably doesn’t know that Vader has no idea that Luke exists, or she doesn’t care. She makes her way to the homestead, but Owen has been warned and he and Beru are waiting for her.

I think this sequence here will give fans a new appreciation for Owen and Beru. They fiercely defend their home and their boy. At one point Reva says, “You really love him. Like he’s your own.” And Owen responds, “He is my own.” Of course he is. Even in A New Hope, though Owen is grumpy and kind of mean to Luke sometimes, I never doubted he was just trying to protect him. As he does here, bravely confronting an Inquisitor, though a seriously wounded one. Otherwise, I think she would have just swept in and killed them both to get to Luke.

Anyway, she gets past both Owen and Beru, and chases Luke out into a desert canyon. She causes him to fall and he gets knocked out. As she prepares to kill him, memories of herself as a youngling flash through her mind, of Vader killing her friends and impaling her. Ultimately, she can’t go through with it.

By this time Obi-Wan has arrived. She carries Luke back to them, unconscious but alive. Owen and Beru take Luke away, and Obi-Wan is left with a crying Reva. She asks him if she’s become “him,” meaning Vader. Obi-Wan tells her no, she’s chosen not to. What she becomes now is up to her. This is the first time we see a baddie in live action be redeemed and not die immediately afterward (that I can think of). If we see Reva again, it will be interesting to see how she atones for her crimes. Maybe she’ll help with The Path, as Tala did.

So then we get a few happy endings similar to The Return of the King (after Vader’s exchange with the Emperor):

First, Obi-Wan goes to Alderaan to see Leia (and return Lola to her). I just loved this scene so much. To see him laugh heartily again was such a gift. And I do think he’ll be sleeping much better now. Again, I love how he’s had the chance to have this relationship with Leia. It always seemed kind of sad to me that he never got to know her, but that’s been rectified in a wonderful way. Now I’m just sad that the next time Leia sees him is when he dies on the Death Star. 😦

Then he makes a trip to the Lars homestead. He’s packed up his gear and moved out of the cave, and I’m assuming he’s moving into the home we see in ANH, or will be looking for a house of some kind. Anyway, he tells Owen he’ll keep his distance, and that Owen was right: Luke just needs to be a boy right now. “The future will take care of itself,” he says. He’s trusting in the Force again. As he walks away, Owen sheepishly asks if he wants to meet Luke. So he brings the toy over to him and we get to hear the famous words: “Hello there.” I loved it. And the casting for young Luke (Grant Feely) is so perfect; that kid just captures Luke’s sweetness the same way Vivien Lyra Blair captures Leia’s sassiness. Perfection for both.

Lastly, as he rides his eopie toward the canyons, Qui Gon Jinn suddenly appears. I figured we’d see him at the very end of the series, and the exchange was short and sweet, but not quite what I had expected. I’m not sure what I expected. Maybe a little bit more, but at any rate, I was glad to see him. “I was always here, Obi-Wan. You just weren’t ready to see.”

I enjoyed this series immensely, and it just made me very, very happy, lol. It brought everything together beautifully, and yes, I kind of felt like it was ticking off some boxes at the end, but honestly, I don’t care. The emotional impact of a story is always more important to me than its execution (to a certain point, of course), and while this series stumbled a bit in its execution in a few places, it didn’t ruin the experience for me.

Will there be a Season 2? I think the better question is, do we need a Season 2? And the answer, in my opinion, is no. It’s perfect the way it is, and brings Obi-Wan’s story to where it needs to be for A New Hope. Would I like to see more Ewan and Hayden? Hell yes! But only if another story adds to what we already know in a meaningful way. Only time will tell, I guess.

Here’s an amazing piece by one of my favorite Star Wars artists, Uzuri Art:

What did you think of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series? What’s your opinion on a Season 2? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Entertainment Weekend Update (Obi-Wan Edition)

Hello my friends, and happy weekend!

So of course the Obi-Wan Kenobi series premiered this past Friday, and it’s so big and exciting that I decided to dedicate this whole post to the first two episodes that dropped. So beware: SPOILERS AHEAD if you haven’t seen them yet.

So this was pretty much me the whole week:

I prepared simply by rewatching Revenge of the Sith. And was surprised that at the beginning of Part 1, we got a quick recap of the prequel trilogy, mostly as it applied to the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan, which makes sense. This whole series is mostly about Obi-Wan dealing with feelings of guilt and regret about Anakin, and how he presumably will come to terms with it.

Ten years after the events of ROTS, Obi-Wan is about halfway between Obi-Wan the heroic Jedi Knight and Ben Kenobi, the Zen desert dweller that Luke comes across. Here, he’s a broken man: defeated, depressed, traumatized, clearly suffering from PTSD, with nightmares about Anakin. He’s not living in the home he’s in from A New Hope; here, he’s just living in a cave with very little else. Perhaps he feels he doesn’t deserve much else. He works at a job cutting meat, which I find interesting: he’s a butcher, and I wonder if he feels that way about himself concerning Anakin, with the limb-severing and all. I love that he cuts a little piece for his Eopie, and I kept waiting for him to get in trouble for that, but he never did.

He watches over Luke from afar, as Owen clearly wants him to stay away. I love the little bits with Owen, too, since we don’t see much of him in the prequels, and only as a grumpy old guy in ANH; we see that he just wants to protect Luke because, well, he loves the kid. Obi-Wan represents to him everything that destroyed Anakin, and he wants nary to do with it. I get it. But it hurts to see Obi-Wan so disrespected and rejected.

I found the Inquisitors to be kind of cartoonish, lol, but after all, they’re based on animated characters. I’m not sure how I feel about Reva yet. I’m theorizing that she was one of the younglings being trained during the Order 66 scene at the beginning; why else show yet another reiteration of Order 66, which has been burned into our brains many times over already? I’ll be interested to find out her backstory.

So then we get the other side of the coin: we see Leia as a little girl on Alderaan, being raised by Bail and Breha Organa, and I just love this little girl. She’s not only cute as a button, but precocious and sassy as only Leia can be. And we see how the Force manifests in her: she can see into people’s psyches quite easily and ferret out their innermost thoughts, as seen with that horrible cousin of hers.

So Leia gets kidnapped, and we’re not sure by who yet or why (by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, of all people, lol. But it works!). So Bail and Breha ask Obi-Wan to find her. And he says: no. We see just how far Obi-Wan has fallen, as he has absolutely no confidence in himself to help anyone. “I’m not the man you once knew,” he tells them, and it’s at least superficially true. We know the old Obi-Wan is in there somewhere, and it takes a personal visit by Bail to change his mind. Bail cuts to the chase: we failed, we made mistakes, but get over it and move on. He couldn’t save Anakin, but he can save his daughter, etc. So off he goes to Daiyu.

In Part 2, he finds himself on Daiyu with no leads. He sees an old clone down and out on the street, begging for money (he’s from the 501st, no less), and Obi-Wan is startled and appalled, and maybe a bit afraid (clones did massacre the Jedi, after all.) And it shows just how callous and cruel the Empire is, casting aside the clones they used for their own purposes. Anyway, a boy can tell he needs help and offers to lead him to a Jedi for a price. The “Jedi” turns out to be a fake, who uses the guise for credits, but to be fair, he does help people (he’s played by Kumail Nanjiani, seemingly fresh from his Kingo role in Eternals). From him, Obi-Wan is pointed to a spice refinery, and after a skirmish with some baddies (not using the Force, just fist-fighting and feeling every punch and hit), he finds Leia. And meets a tiny force to be reckoned with, lol.

I love that Obi-Wan gets to meet little Leia. It actually helps to make A New Hope make more sense, and why Leia would turn to him for help in her most desperate hour. Sure, Bail could have just told her, “If you ever need help in a big way, look for my Jedi friend Obi-Wan on Tatooine.” But this is better. I love that Obi-Wan gets to meet both of Anakin’s children. And as Bail told him, she’s just as important as the boy.

So anyway, off they go through the city with Obi-Wan trying to corral this little miss sassafras. It turns out that Reva had hired the bounty hunters to kidnap Leia to draw Obi-Wan out (doing a little research in the archives and finding that Obi-Wan and Bail were–friends? during the Clone Wars–seems like a reach to me, but whatever). Leia finds out that he’s the reason she was kidnapped, and suddenly doesn’t trust him and runs away. Obi-Wan chases after Leia as the bounty hunters and Reva chase after them. When Leia tries to jump across a chasm that’s too far for her, she plummets–and Obi-Wan has to reach for the Force to save her. And we suddenly realize Obi-Wan hasn’t touched the Force for a long, long time, as he struggles to find it and save her. And it seems to me that that’s why he’s never been able to reach his master Qui Gon Jinn–he’s cut himself off from the Force (remind you of someone? Luke from The Last Jedi instantly comes to mind). How does he expect to reach Qui Gon if he won’t touch the Force? I imagine he will by the end of the series, having come to terms with his demons and touching the Force again.

Anyway, Leia finally believes he’s a real Jedi (but doesn’t think Ben is a good name for a Jedi, further making me think of the sequels as she names her own son Ben–food for thought, eh?) They encounter the fake Jedi again, and he wants to help–he sends them to a cargo port with coordinates to a place where others will help them. There’s a poignant moment when the decisive Leia reminds him of Padme, but then Reva catches up to them and he sends her off to the ship ahead of him.

And this is where Reva drops her bomb–she tells him that Lord Vader will be pleased when she brings Obi-Wan to him. She intuits that Obi-Wan did not know this–that Anakin had survived. He nearly has a panic attack with the information–what an awful revelation. Anakin dead was bad enough–but Anakin surviving as the twisted Sith Lord Vader? Poor Obi-Wan. Reva nearly gets to him, but is interrupted by the Grand Inquisitor, who wants to bring Kenobi in himself. Reva stabs him in the gut, and I’m just assuming that he somehow survives to cause trouble for Kanan and Ezra in Rebels. But for now, it’s a chance for Obi-Wan to get away and take off with Leia.

On the ship, he’s still a wreck from the information and whispers Anakin’s name. We then cut to Vader in his bacta tank, opening his eyes as if he’s heard his old master. Daammnnn…..

So I’m just loving this series so far, as I predicted I would. One weird thing I noticed is that I’m hearing Ewan McGregor’s character of Halston in his Obi-Wan accent. I keep expecting him to light up a cigarette and hold it up between two fingers, lol. I think he’s trying to get closer to the Alec Guinness accent, but he definitely doesn’t sound like the Obi-Wan from the prequels. But his performance is still wonderful here, and I can’t wait for Part 3!

What did you think of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Star Wars Weekend Update

Hello there, and happy weekend to my Star Wars readers!

So last Wednesday was May 25th, which to fans is known as Star Wars Day because the original Star Wars film (now called A New Hope) was released on May 25, 1977. In honor of that, I re-watched ANH, since I hadn’t watched it anyway in quite a while.

I’m convinced it still holds up, 44 years later. Maybe I’m biased, but I enjoy it just as much now as I did as a kid watching it for the first time. More so now, I think. The funny thing is, I haven’t watched the new editions (when George Lucas tinkered with his original trilogy some time ago and made some additions and changes) that much, so they were still kind of a surprise to me. One thing stood out to me in particular: when Ben Kenobi made the sound of the krayt dragon to scare the Tusken Raiders off. The original sound he made is burned into my memory; but this new sound he makes–it’s just weird, in my opinion, lol. The old sound was like an elephant roaring or something, some beastly call. The new sound was like a person being strangled to death, I swear. It was so odd, and disconcerting.

Anyway, the other thing I wanted to mention was that in the last few scenes during the trench run, whenever Darth Vader was shown, I could see the actor’s eyes behind the lenses in the mask. Was that always the case? Because I swear I never noticed before, if so. But it was so clear, like that last scene in The Clone Wars when he’s holding Ahsoka’s lightsaber and looking up at the sky. Spooky. I’m wondering if that’s something Lucas threw in when he edited the film, or if I was just blind to it all these years, lol.

When I wrote my overview of Resistance the other day, I wondered if the Colossus had been at the Battle of Exegol. So I just did some quick googling, and there it was: on Wookieepedia, it stated that the Colossus received a distress call from Lando Calrissian, and showed up at Exegol, along with Yeager’s ship Blue Ace, and the Fireball, piloted by Kaz (I can’t believe that rickety thing made it through that rough ride to Exegol, lol). So there you have it. Now I just have to pick it out of the crowd the next time I watch The Rise of Skywalker.

I finished reading Clone Wars: Wild Space the other day, and will be working on a review. It was an interesting read: on the one hand, it was really fun; and on the other, the characters just didn’t seem to be in character, if you know what I mean. I’ll get into it more in the review.

The Bad Batch was another good episode, with some interesting events and revelations. I’ll be posting my thoughts on that on Monday.

I was hoping to get to another non-Star Wars entertainment this week, but I just didn’t get to it. I was hoping to watch Winchester, with Meryl Streep. After signing up for Netflix to watch Halston last week, I was scrolling around to see if there was anything else I wanted to watch and put on my list, and I saw Winchester. I remember seeing some documentary about this weird house a while ago, and when the movie came out I thought, I just have to see this. But of course I never got around to it. So I’m going to try for next week.

The big news in our house this weekend is that we got a new kitten! He’s a sweet little black kitten, and he’s just adorable. A couple of months ago, we had to put our 20 year-old ginger cat to sleep; she was just having problems and beginning to suffer. It was so hard saying goodbye to her, and I thought I wouldn’t be ready for another cat at least until fall or winter (I knew we’d eventually get another, as I must have cats in my life). And that was true up to a couple of days ago.

Then I saw a post on Facebook from one of our friends saying she has kittens she needs to find good homes for. There were two black kittens, and two tiger cats. I knew I wanted my next cat to be black, preferably a boy, as I’d only had females most of my life and wanted something different. Both the black kittens were boys, and I figured I shouldn’t let this opportunity slip by. So I contacted her, and all of a sudden, we have a kitten! He’s still figuring out who we are, and exploring the place, but he’s staring to settle down. Our daughter named him Cosmo, lol.

May be an image of cat and indoor — He tired himself out, lol.

So that’s about it this week. Hope you guys have a great day, and if you’re in the U.S., have a great Memorial Day tomorrow!

Five of Luke Skywalker’s Best Moments

I had fun writing about Obi-Wan’s five best moments, so I thought I’d continue on that theme and do the same with Luke Skywalker. He’s got plenty of great moments too, but these stand out as THE best to me:

Trench run on Death Star 1.

This is Luke’s shining moment in A New Hope. He’s young, idealistic, and ready to do his part to strike a blow against the Empire. His compatriots are shot down (and he loses his friend, Biggs Darklighter) and it’s up to him to drop the torpedo into the tiny little opening of the shaft that leads to the reactor (but that’s okay, he used to target womp rats back home and they’re not more than two meters). He’s supposed to use a targeting computer to make the shot, but then he hears Ben Kenobi’s voice: “Use the Force, Luke.” And so he turns the computer off, which is a HUGE leap of faith, because he basically just learned about the Force like, two days ago, and only got a glimmering of it against a remote on the Falcon. But Ben had faith in him, and so he has faith in Ben’s belief that he can do this. And he does. Han Solo gets the TIES off his back, Luke gets the torpedo into the shaft, the thing blows, and they have a big celebration. He’s not a Jedi yet, but he’s certainly now a hero of the Rebellion.

Battle of Hoth

Not only is Luke a good pilot, but he’s also quite clever. The looming AT-ATs seem indestructible, so Luke comes up with a plan only a farmboy rustling some animals ( can come up with: they use cables to trip up their long, ungainly legs. This is his best moment in The Empire Strikes Back; the rest of the movie, he makes a series of mistakes and bad decisions that almost get him killed. The Empire truly does strike back in this one–but they lose a few AT-ATs on the way!

Saving Han Solo on Tatooine.

“This is your last chance–free us or die.”

Black-clad Luke in Return of the Jedi is a thing to behold: after the debacles, revelations, and pain and loss in Empire, Luke has lost some of his naivete and innocence and has learned patience, planning, and determination. His rescue of Han at Jabba’s Palace on Tatooine (with a little help from his friends) is brilliant and thrilling. He’s calm, confident, and impressive. Even Han doesn’t believe Luke is capable of pulling off the rescue, but lucky for him he’s very wrong on this point. Leia strangles Jabba, Boba Fett is sent falling into the Sarlacc (but not, as we now know, killed), the barge is blown up, and they pick up the droids from the sand on the way out. Easy peasy. The hard stuff is yet to come.

Vader’s Redemption.

“I have to save you.” “You already have, Luke.”

This is obviously the zenith of Luke’s character arc, and his very best moment (apart from his role at Crait, in my opinion, see below). Yoda himself said before he died that Luke must face Vader. I’m pretty sure he meant that Luke had to defeat him in order to become a Jedi. Even Obi-Wan, in his ghostly visitation on Dagobah, expected Luke to kill Vader. Obi-Wan, one of the most compassionate Jedi ever! But Luke insisted he would not kill his own father. “Then the Emperor has already won,” Obi-Wan replies. So defeatist. And short-sighted, one of the very few things that is disappointing about Obi-Wan, at least in this trilogy. Both he and Yoda had given up on Anakin a long time ago, and I understand that, after what they went through. But Luke isn’t ready to give up on him. Like the mother he never knew, he believes there’s still good in him. I’m not sure where this belief comes from, whether it’s wishful thinking, or that he senses it in the Force, or maybe because Vader didn’t want to kill him in Empire but join with him (on the dark side, but even so).

Whatever the reason, Luke goes willingly to Vader and the Emperor on Endor with the intention of trying to turn him back to the light, as he explained to Leia. He keeps his poop together for a while, until the Emperor reveals the trap which endangers his friends; he gets scared and desperate for them. And then, when Vader threatens to turn Leia to the dark side, he loses said poop and gets really angry. He gets mighty close to falling to the dark as he nearly kills Vader, although he realizes it before it’s too late. That’s when his best moment in the trilogy comes: he throws his lightsaber away and declares he’ll never turn. He’s willing to lose his friends, his father and his life at this point; but he will not turn. We all know what happens next: the Emperor nearly kills Luke with his Force lightning, causing Vader to rethink his life choices. He decides to save his son and throws the Emperor down the shaft, sacrificing his own life. A great, possibly the greatest, Star Wars moment.

Battle of Crait.

“If you strike me down I’ll always be with you–like your father.”

So Luke Skywalker becomes a legend and a hero, and tries to live up to that over the decades that follow. Unfortunately, he’s a human being who makes mistakes. He loses Ben Solo to the dark side and blames himself (and probably deserves a little bit of blame, among a lot of blame that could be passed around). But instead of dealing with the mistake, he isolates himself. I do believe he thinks he’s helping his friends this way rather than hurting them–after all, look at the damage he did, is probably what he was thinking. He even cuts himself off from the Force, he’s so upset about it. He comes to believe that the Jedi must die, that their arrogance (his included) caused more problems than solved them. Rey doesn’t understand any of this when she comes to Ach-To; she’s still young and idealistic. She believes in the myth. Luke has become–let’s face it–cynical. It’s only after he opens up to the Force again to touch Leia’s consciousness that he decides to do something.

And what a something! He Force-projects himself to Crait to face Kylo and the First Order. Not to save Ben–he knows it’s too late for that, at least for him. But to distract the enemy long enough for the Resistance to get away. And he does it without harming a hair on anyone–except his own. It’s his atonement, as much as anything. And a very Jedi thing to do, in the truest sense. That wink to Threepio, the dusting off his shoulder after “surviving” the bombardment of the First Order, his “See ya around, kid,” to Kylo–I loved it all so much. It doesn’t quite reach the heroic and emotional heights of Anakin’s redemption, but it’s one of the best Luke Skywalker scenes, in my opinion.

Honorable Mention:

Coming to get Grogu.

I can’t have a list of best Luke Skywalker moments without this scene from The Mandalorian (Season 2, Episode 8). It was so unexpected, but so welcome and exciting, most of us were laughing/crying on our couches. When Grogu reached out with the Force at the Jedi Temple, we had guesses and hopes about who might answer. The fact that it was Luke freaking Skywalker himself was just so satisfying and made our Star Wars hearts so happy. As soon as we saw that single X-Wing swing around and saw the other clues, our hearts skipped a beat. CGI Luke was a bit weird, as most CGI characters are, but who cares? He cut through those dark troopers like a hot knife through butter, and we cheered. But that Force crush he used for the last dark trooper is a bit…concerning. I do believe it’s considered, along with the Force choke, a darkside power. He could have just cut it down with his lightsaber, as he did the others, easily. But he chose to do the crush. Why? Hmmm….care to chime in with your ideas, dear readers?

So those are my (again, probably obvious) best Luke Skywalker moments. What are your favorites?