Opining on OBI-WAN: PART V RECAP! Prequel Catharsis & The Star Wars Critical Industrial Complex (Patreon)

So… I need you to be aware of a systemic thing that happens.

Because last week there was a comment that kind of broke me a little. Not because someone was being mean! In fact, it intended to do the opposite and it encouraged me to write about what I want, but it just highlighted an ongoing problem of social media algorithms and having to use websites like this one that aren’t designed for reading navigation. Basically, it was a comment bemoaning the fact I was getting trapped in Star Wars recap land and specifically that they’d rather I be writing about a film like, say, The French Dispatch and help explain why it was such an emotional experience for them. But it was the specificity of that one film being referenced that did me in. Because it didn’t *just* write about the movie. I specifically wrote a 22,000 word mini-book breaking down everything about it in exacting detail. It took months. It took me away from so many other things that could have been more popular, alluring, lucrative, etc. And it especially took away from other real-life work. But I did it because I was passionate about it. Because I thought it had value. And mostly because I wanted to, dammit.

… And yeah, barely anyone read it.

Which is okay! This is a reality of things. And it’s definitely not the fault of anyone here. The people who did read it were enormously kind and supportive. But when you have the keys to the metrics stuff and know what gets seen in larger circles / what gets clicked on / what gets supported with subs you realize how much this doesn’t have to do with what is interesting to people, but how much it is a slave to the whims of social media algorithms. Especially when googling things and getting specific results on Patreon for articles is a NIGHTMARE (seriously, you can’t find anything). And since so many film websites have died, which often acted as central hubs for people finding good stuff, it all requires you doing a dreadfully inconvenient amount of work to find the things you want. Which is hard in an age where people literally expect the thing they want to pop up right in front of them.

As such, I can’t tell you how many times people say “I wish you wrote about X” when I already did. Just as I can’t even tell you how many times people assume whenever I link to an article on Patreon that people think it is NOT free to read on principle. Point being, it is so so so much harder to reach people with full available essays that are not about something crazy popular. I mean, people have been asking me to write about Fincher for a decade and so when Mank comes out I write a massive breakdown of his career and the new film and… 4 comments… Again, this is okay! I understand this completely. But I want other people to understand that if I even utter the phrase “Star Wars,” I cannot tell you how much the visibility of all of this dramatically shoots up in the world. It doesn’t just get more attention. It gets RADICALLY more attention / interest / conversation / monetary support.

Welcome to Star Wars critical industrial complex.

I cannot overstate how much more people - along with many of you - and including myself and my own interests! - are here and supporting because of these exact conversations about this famous property. It even dwarfs Marvel by far more than you think, even though that might be more popular with general audiences. This is a simple and incontrovertible fact of how the internet works right now. And please understand, this is not a complaint in any way shape or form. Honestly, I am deeply thankful for it (you have no idea how much all this is helping me pay my rent at the moment). I am only saying this because I don’t think many of you realize how extreme it really is. It’s not just a bump. It’s feast and famine. And again, these are the effects of social media algorithms and understanding the metrics of what gets shared. The machine *only* supports these popular things. As a result, entire cottage industries have popped up around it. It breeds the willingness to dive into every conceivable angle and milk it for all you can. Believe me, people like C*mpe* stink, but when he complains about “Bustin’ his ass for 5 years being a star wars fan!” it’s both hilarious, but the most biting irony is he’s not wrong to phrase it that way. But when it comes to my own participation in this complex? Please understand that even though I get these parameters, I am not doing this out of obligation. While there are many practical reasons that I do this…

It’s not the reason *why* I do this.

I want this to be the part that’s most clear. Because even within the Star Wars Critical Industrial Complex at full go, there is not a single, solitary part of me that engages in the process cynically. Do I sometimes feel drained by the decisions of the Star Wars enterprise itself? Specifically the way this one show has so seemingly come up short? Yes, absolutely. But those are not the same things as cynically going through the motions of critical dialogue. And being able to voice concerns, to vent, to share in the things that aren’t delivering, especially when it’s the same problems again and again? This too is an incredibly important part of catharsis. It’s even a huge part of “healthy anger” and expressions of despair, which are all a big part of how you learn to let go and normalize a process of relating to art that we really, really care about. And in the end? I ask you not to worry about the state of balance in what I write about.

Because I want the same exact things as you. I want to dip in and cover these pop culture watercooler shows because I love being a part of that. I especially love seeing commenter names pop up that now feel familiar and getting the little hot takes or bits of insight that I missed! And more to the point I’m always working on the bigger stuff that makes me happy to write. I couldn’t *not* write that stuff if I tried. I practically have to vomit it out or my brain or it won’t leave me alone. Even now, I had time to talk about the weird gonzo function of Con Air. I even finished my full giant breakdown of Fullmetal Alchemist. And I’m gonna finally get to see heavy meal semiotic stuff like Men and Crimes of the Future this week. I promise that Obi Wan was not getting in the way of that, other work stuff was. So as much as bang my head against the wall over some story choices in this show, or as much as I will acknowledge the need to write about popular things in a modern social media landscape, please know I will never, ever write something I don’t want to be writing. Like, I physically can’t do it. It’s brain torture. The thoughts don’t come. And what’s kind of hilarious is that after all this build-up of dealing with bad story products in the Star Wars Critical Industrial Complex…

It just so happens we got an episode that is much, much better.

And as always the big question is “why?”

* * *

The Writing - Sooooooo first off, anytime you watch writing credits on a TV show please know that you have no idea who actually wrote what. Often you have a showrunner, maybe a head writer, maybe those are the same or a different person, sometimes the credited writer wrote every word, sometimes they wrote a first draft and it was tossed off and re-written by a boss and they’re being nice and letting you have sole credit. Or sometimes another writer hopped on barely did anything but still FOUGHT TOOTH AND NAIL for credit. Sometimes there’s a writer who does a dialogue pass. Sometimes there’s a brilliant correction by the director on set. The point is you don’t know. But as critics? We kind of have to just take the official credits at their word and then do our best to surmise influences based on end results. That’s the deal. And (most) screenwriters understand that in turn.

I say this because seeing “Andrew Stanton” as a credited writer on this episode (along with the upcoming finale apparently) feels like a damn balm. What’s weird is for some reason people think I don’t like Stanton because of the John Carter article I wrote once upon a time? But the whole article is just one of those things that highlights how even great storytellers can get tripped up by the nature of certain critical choices and the timing of information. The motherfucker still wrote and directed two of the best animated films of all time. He’s an enormously thoughtful and sensitive storyteller. And even with that collaborative stuff, with Finding Nemo he took the dang note! I’ll even mention that I happened to be in a script reading with him a few years ago and my immediate impression of his casual interactions was that the “dude’s a good listener.” Which is all to say that I’ve been wondering what the hell it would mean to see him pop up as a writer on this series. And the fact he seems to have finally given the a baseline functional approach to the story?

Makes it feel like a breath of fresh air.

You also get the sense he’s kind of throwing out a lot of the show’s prior modus operandi and suddenly trying to make what works here from scratch. And while I’m still not crazy about the show’s direction (we’ll come back to this), you can see the sudden advantage of having certain things written out on the page. Like the dialogue calling out objectives / direct imagery of Vader staring into the void / the little parable of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s practice duel having psychological impact on the actual ding dang story. These things are all on the page. And it means we’re getting fundamental elements that lend purpose to what we’re actually seeing (which tends to help in storytelling!). Now, I’ll get into what I think are the more / less successful story decisions when I cover them subject by subject, but really I’m just thankful there’s finally something that seems to understand what a script level approach even is.

On WadeGate - So last week there was a moment that sort of symbolizes a lot of the stuff I talk about when it comes to the importance of set-ups and pay-offs. Because there were two new characters that came in out of nowhere to deus ex machina and save the day (including Maya Erskine!) and one of them dies and she screams, “Wade!” And most everyone got upset by this, because “who the fuck is Wade?” There’s all these shots of sadness after and it’s, again, everything I talk about. A show trying to suddenly get your sympathy cheaply while doing none of the work in actually getting you there naturally. But, as always, there were people saying that I was being too hard and like Lucy and the Football, trusted that “next week will explain it.” Of course it didn’t. But that’s not even really the point of the criticism. It’s to recognize that story sequencing shouldn’t be built on this constant expectation that things will get explained later (again, I worry LOST ruined a generation of storytelling brains, including how we watch things). And quite frankly, I’m glad Stanton and company didn’t get tripped up on this beat because this story has other, way more important things to do than retroactively fixing something that doesn’t work. But there were also weird details that made me think…

Invoking The Jedi Holocaust - Sometimes there’s a actually problem in seeing a thing more explicitly. Because the almost extinction of the Jedi is something we understand cerebrally. We know they were hunted down, but that felt more like a “rogue agents” kind of thing. Then we saw Order 66 as a turn in moments of warfare, then we even saw the glow of Ani’s lightsaber and the invocation of killing “younglings.” And the more we’ve gotten into the fallout with this show, I admit I’m half split. Because in one way it honors the humanity of actual people involved and is an opportunity to get emotional and tell stories about consequences… But there was something about a lot of the use of Holocaust / Underground Railroad imagery and dialogue throughout all this where I’m like… “Huh. This starting to feel weird.” The point being that some historical metaphors work better in broad strokes. Because the more specific you get, i.e. the closer you bring to real life horrifying parables, the more you start questioning the direct association being made. Like, genocidal government action and slavery are a VERY loaded topics that have to do with structural acts of racism, scapegoating, and other terrible horrors. Which means I’m suddenly being forced to wonder what the metaphor of being “force sensitive” is here? Do all these things actually track? I’ll leave it to better minds to decide, but *gulp*… I hope so.

This Week’s Direction Update - As I said, it’s amazing how having a more grounded, called-out action on the page can give a literal sense of “direction” to the events on screen, but there’s still little execution things I’m bumping against. We already talked about stilted blocking. But let’s talk more about “hiding” the fabric of CGI. Because so much of this job these days is about digital integration and there’s so much here that’s bumping against. The practicality of the sets just absolutely smacks against the volume backgrounds. And the formation of the on-set storm troopers doesn’t make them seem like an imposing group ready to pounce, but like they’re lining up for a school play dance number. And the big part of the episode that should be a mic drop? Oh god, that shot of Vader force grabbing the ship should be killing, but the CGI integration just kills it. The ship’s size feels all wrong to scale, worse it changes sizes it wrestles back and forth, and the lighting hits wrong the whole time. Even the transporter fake-out feels extra cheap for all these reasons that just come down to execution of mise-en-scene and digital integration. Again, I’m finally like “this is all good on paper!” But I really dislike how I’m getting let down on the one front of this show that should be working no matter what.

As a tangent, I hate that I’m making this comparison, but one of the reasons the MCU constantly uses those washed-out, pure cgi backgrounds with a crap ton of particle effects is that it allows everything to exist in the “same” universe and avoids all these nagging integration issues, and thus help believability issues… But it also looks like poop.

Non-Chronological Power Boosts - Just a short dorky aside. So, yeah, we see Vader force grab a transport and basically be the most awesome badass dude ever zOmG sO kEwL. But welcome to the power-boost industrial complex where, because we are further along in our own time-line with star wars, we have to constantly be upping the ante. So even though in Empire Strikes Back he, like, force moves a small piece of the set we’re like whoa and here’s grabbing an entire ship. Which means in seventeen years we will see Vader force crushing planets in Obi-Wan Kenobi Part III where they will re-enact the entirety of Star Wars before the Star Wars original trilogy, just so you get that the set up to Star Wars is Star Wars… I am sadly half joking.

The Vader Parable Story - So I think a lot of people will talk about this one and analyze to death? Because, hey, it’s the first thing really trying to get in Vader’s head in a while, and the first thing to expressly connect his character to the Anakin of the prequels. But I like it because it’s not trying to do everything and invoke too much of the history. It’s about the nature of one scene and a particular behavior of his. One which brings it to the now. Meaning it’s simple. It’s clean. It’s effective. So well done! But as for the handling of the series’ bigger plot-line?

Reva - Okay so this is the big one. And let's acknowledge that on one level it works so much better because it gets to play at actual emotions. And Moses Ingram finally gets to show off the range of what she can do. But the pertinent question remains: when looking at it holistically and considering the four episodes that came before it, was this the best way to tell this damn story? Like I’m seeing people calling this a “twist” and it makes me want to go for a walk in the crisp night air. Twists require, you know, misdirection, or a sense of radical change. When really it’s just a muddled thing getting slightly more clear. I mean even coming afterwards, does any of Vader letting her do this make any sense? Like what did HE want out of this? I’d honestly love if someone hatched some impossible theory because I keep trying to line up an actual through-line and it’s like boxing with fog. But really, I think what it shows is how much this was a missed opportunity.

Because based on the dramatic construct here? A youngling left for dead who is trying to get close to Vader to kill him? One who is making ugly choices in that pursuit? One who is potentially losing themselves and can’t trust anyone? Boy howdy could that be one of the most complex and interesting characters in the ole’ star wars. Especially because you can do all the things that those great “in too deep” cover stories do! But instead of exploring it and mining it for drama, they teased and hid it for a “surprise,” even though there really wasn’t much of one at all. Which is a shame because what she’s dealing with is PRECISELY the kind of thing that makes for a good arc and the realization that, hey, maybe she’s the ACTUAL lead of the story you seem to be telling here, but lol no can’t have that! Point is, the whole thing either needs better misdirection of her villainy and seeming wants - or it just get into it from minute one. Instead it futzes to the middle.

So what, am I saying this is all part of Stanton’s famous instinct to hide? Again, we can only go off what we know, but it doesn’t actually feel that way. I mean, if I were in this shoes and got those scripts and was just helping on the last two, I also would be like “ah fuck… um… Okay we just gotta cut losses and actually get to the story now otherwise it’s a page 1 rewrite so…..” Again, I am thankful they just finally got into it and let her do the work. It makes no sense. But this is still way better. Though it’s still not exactly catharsis. As for that? There was a weird thing that hit me this week - and I suspect many others as well - and it’s deeply rooted in a more complex history with the property…

Hayden - We get to see his face! Which is good because I finally want to talk about this dude. No, I’m not interested in covering the career arc, nor projecting thoughts and feelings of what it must have been like to go through all this publicly and to have a career not go in the way you’d likely hope. I just think it’s important to remember what all this was like when Hayden first got involved with this property. Because people were not kind. Even after the Phantom Menace kerfluffle, the word “ruined” showed up again and again and again. And look, maybe he wasn’t the best choice. Maybe it wasn’t smart to go with an actor who happened to have a kind of nasally whine that could often invoke Luke’s Toshi station line reading (even if that would make logical sense). But it also invokes speculation! Maybe Hayden gave much better takes that weren’t used! I mean, we KNOW he could give much better performances in stuff like Jumper, etc. Or maybe Lucas couldn’t get it out of him for this where others could. Or maybe Lucas got caught up in his desire for a “classical” style, but the end result was just what I would call “flat.” But still, I want to ask a deeper question…

What is it about Hayden that gets him that role?

I’ve been looking for this particular clip and I can’t find it, but I remember it on ET or whatever show back in the day. But it shows some of his audition and him flubbing a line and doing this really charming, self-effacing reset in the room. And I remember thinking “ope, that’s the moment!” Because it’s the time you see the sparkle come out. That indefinable thing that makes someone a charismatic presence. Even if you watch this clip of audition / set footage, you’ll see exactly what I”m talking about in the behind the scenes footage. But you will also see the thing that blinds directors / casting agents time and time again. Because all the natural charm he has when he’s off the cuff? Yeah, that’s not really showing up the same way in the line readings on camera. They’re more stilted. More unnatural. You can see the physical choices being made and not the psychology of the character. And the problem is that THIS is what the final audience will end up seeing on screen. But even the best casting folks can get charmed by the effects of people who are “good in the room.” To think it will just naturally translate somehow or that a director will “get it out of them.” But that’s why it’s so damn important to remember that it doesn’t translate. Being able to separate them is the single most valuable skill in casting. And this is why you really just have to see what ends up on the monitor (and why you need a decent cameraman to do proper auditions and get a close enough medium shot or better). But even then, this is also not to say there weren’t the moments where the “movie star” version of Hayden showed up from time to time in the prequels.

Because you get the moment of this episode where it shows up to. It’s that one moment in the duel where you see that wry, infectious smile eke out. And here it is, all these years later. Sure, the film is pretending like he’s not the same skinny kid, like he doesn't have that hint of crow’s feet around the eyes that inevitably come with being forty. But it’s the same smile. And out of nowhere, even for me, this bruised and beaten cynical Star Wars watcher, I had that little moment of awwwwww. Because it's a two part reminder that we all know time is punishing, but in another way, it can ultimately be kind. Which brings us to the most important part…

Prequels and the Arc of Star Wars - I cannot tell you how much it boggles my mind to not see just acceptance of - but nostalgia FOR the prequels. The mean of twenty years ago would truly not be able to fathom this arc. Because I feel like some of you have no idea how rancid and ugly the conversation was. People act like the whole Last Jedi / Rise of Skywalker dynamic was some new thing (granted twitter makes things feel amplified), but for a lot of you it was just your first time experiencing it. It was always there. Worse, there was a sense of “betrayal” with the prequels. No one believed that a Star Wars product could be bad or even middling. And thus, the prequels, characters, and actors became popular punching bags of society itself. We’re talking Jay Leno late night fare, nerd culture shows, casual conversations, and message boards set aflame. It was all over the budding internet. People made endless memes and fantasies about killing Jar Jar and or George Lucas. It was merciless in the way that the big pop culture machine never thinks about while young, and now hopefully part of the same we re-examine the machine of celebrity gossip sites in the early 2000s. In a lot of ways I never thought about, too. But all the while we were there in the prequels there was this refrain about the movies that people kept noticing. This: “wow kids really like them!”

And this was always going to be the thing that mattered.

Because time is a funny thing, one that goes too quickly, but also stretches in ways that feel bizarre. To wit, there were 16 years between the original trilogy and the prequels. When I was young, this was eternity, literally. Because it was the exact span of my entire childhood consciousness. And now there was 17 years between Revenge of the Sith and Obi-Wan Kenobi coming out right now. And those 17 years feel like a blip. Why it was just yesterday that I was coming back to Boston, sitting down with my friend Matt from home to watch the final prequel and thus “put star wars to bed forever” (ha!). But for some of you now? It’s been the same exact eternity I had when I was young. And moreover, there is a kindness that you had when watching the prequels with that no one my age ever really had. But I also know that when I was young I couldn’t believe people thought the Ewoks were dumb. This cycle has been happening a long, long time. And hopefully, that kindness continues on in how we look back at that time now.

It’s not that I’m asking for the prequels to be seen as “good.” It’s that I look back at the vehemence of the prequels and I feel like garbage about the whole thing. Granted, I maintained both then and to this day that the story instincts behind the choices are completely sound. Lucas has a GREAT story sense. And the idea of every scene, the core conflicts, and how they’re sequenced is all excellent. It’s, like, a super good outline. But boy howdy did it need a stronger writer and a dialogue pass. And even if Lucas didn’t go for one, boy howdy I wish those movies weren’t literally first drafts written on yellow legal pads (watch the documentaries). But everyone was too in awe of Lucas and no one really understood his strengths and weaknesses. No one was even telling him “no” until the third one, which is a misunderstanding of the massive part of the collaboration that has fueled his entire career. And even getting past the writing aspect, boy howdy do I wish George went with the same naturalism the actors had in the original trilogy. The point is that it is okay to recognize the immense shortcomings of the execution.

And the point now is that it is also okay to look back on them with this sudden weird fondness. They weren’t well-executed, but they weren’t well-executed on HIS terms. And precisely because they weren’t well-executed in this unique and goofy way, they’ve spawned so many enduring memes that have honestly brought me a lot of joy. But the thing that really, truly deserves the kindness is the people who were most crapped on for it. Because human beings made this, while trying to do a good job. And people got trapped in the endless cycles of criticism that is a part of the very fabric of all of this. Ones that go on in ways both deserved and undeserved. Even now I think about it with this series. Am I genuinely at a loss as to how poorly made the first four episodes of this series are? You betcha. Is the baseline function of this episode a weird reminder of the inescapable human role in all of this and that it can always surprise you, even a little? Also you betcha. And sometimes it’s so impossibly tiny and big at the same exact time. Because when Hayden Christensen got to smile on camera this week, it is something that can’t help but dive into the endless waves of context that I have outlined above. It wrestles with the crushing history of all of it. And as innocuous as it may seem… It actually means something.

And god, it's a good smile.

<3HULK