Series / Obi-Wan Kenobi

Between darkness and defeat, hope survives.

"The light will fade but is never forgotten."

— Inscription by The Path

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Disney+ Space Opera Mini Series set in the Star Wars universe. It is written by Joby Harold and directed by Deborah Chow. Star Wars veteran composer John Williams wrote the main theme for the series, while Natalie Holt composed the rest of the score.

Ten years after the events concluding Revenge of the Sith, which saw the Empire taking over the Galaxy and the Jedi Order being wiped out, exiled Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi quietly watches over a young Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, against the wishes of his Uncle Owen. However, his watch of Luke is interrupted when a desperate Bail Organa enlists his help to rescue Luke's sister, Leia Organa, who has been kidnapped thanks to a plot orchestrated by the Inquisitors, agents of the Empire that hunt down the survivors of Order 66. As he enacts a rescue mission to return the young princess to Alderaan, he and Darth Vader learn of each other's survival after the Clone Wars, and both learn of the existence of an underground network transporting Force-sensitive people out of sight from the Empire — setting the stage for a fateful confrontation.

Ewan McGregor reprises his role as Obi-Wan, as does Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (with James Earl Jones' voice provided by Respeecher A.I. Voice Cloning ^note This same technology was used to replicate young Luke Skywalker's voice in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett), Joel Edgerton as Owen Lars, Bonnie Piesse as Beru Whitesun Lars, and Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa. The cast also includes Vivien Lyra Blair as Leia Organa, Grant Feely as Luke Skywalker, Rupert Friend as the Grand Inquisitor, Moses Ingram as the Third Sister aka Reva Savander, Sung Kang as the Fifth Brother, and Simone Kessell as Queen Breha Organa, as well as Kumail Nanjiani, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Indira Varma, Michael "Flea" Balzary, and Rya Kihlstedt.

The series was due to come out on May 27, 2022, but released on May 26th, a day after the 45th anniversary of the US release of A New Hope (as simply Star Wars) in 1977, which was the first appearance of Obi-Wan (and Luke, Leia, Vader etc) and to which this series serves as a prequel. The series had its two-episode premiere at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim shortly before the episodes released on Disney Plus.

Followed in production order by Andor.

Previews: Teaser Trailer, Official Trailer.

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Obi-Wan Kenobi provides examples of:

• Achievements in Ignorance: Reva conspires to lure Obi-Wan into the open by kidnapping Leia based on discovering the history between him and Bail Organa. What she didn't know was that the only reason this works is because Bail is afraid of people in the Empire looking too closely at Leia and her adoption if it was made public, and sought out Obi-Wan because he already knew how important she was.
• Adoption Diss: Leia's cousin insults her by saying that she isn't a real Organa.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Leia is a lot more perceptive and strong-willed than one would expect for a child only ten years old. Obi-Wan himself seems rather taken aback at just how easily she sees through him, noting that she really doesn't seem like a ten-year-old. Though, what else could you expect from someone who will spend the majority of her teens secretly aiding and abetting the growing rebel alliance and become a major leader at just eighteen?
• Advertised Extra: Kumail Nanjiani's role as Haja earned him his own character poster, but the bulk of his screentime was just to be a minor character for "Part II", with a handful of additional scenes in "Part V" and "Part VI". He does a lot with what little he has, but is less prominent of a character than Tala, and much could be explained due to Kumail's own popularity.
• Always Someone Better: This was hinted at previously between Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader in the films and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but this show reveals that Vader has a monstrous complex about Obi-Wan, dwelling just as much as his old Master on the memory of a training session where Obi-Wan exploited then-Padawan Anakin's rashness and need to prove himself to beat him, and warned him that until he got over those things, he would always be the Apprentice. This burning need to prove himself better than Obi-Wan means he takes over as Big Bad as soon as he hears Obi-Wan has emerged, proceeds to toy with Obi-Wan rather than go for the kill in their first fight - when a terrified and rusty Obi-Wan, suffering traumatic flashbacks, spends most of his time trying to run away. In "Part VI", Obi-Wan exploits this complex to lure him, and his entire Star Destroyer, away from the Path refugees and Leia, leading to a one-on-one rematch, with Obi-Wan back to his best and Vader still obsessed. Guess what happens next.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's hard to say why, in "Part VI", Reva goes after Luke. Did she interpret from Bail's message that Luke was Anakin's son and thus would be a proxy for revenge against him? Or did she just see him as a Youngling under Obi-Wan's protection and thus a proxy for revenge against him?
• And Starring: The cast roll here ends "with Jimmy Smits and Hayden Christensen."
• Armor-Piercing Question: Owen and Obi-Wan are shown arguing over training Luke as a Jedi, with Owen shooting back at Obi-Wan's insistence with a cold, "Like you trained his father?" Obi-Wan goes quiet as he reflects on everything that went wrong with Anakin.
• Art Evolution: The Grand Inquisitor is Pau'an, a species introduced in Revenge of the Sith as having a gangly body with grey, ribbed textured skin and a slightly conical head. In his role in Star Wars Rebels, the Pau'an design was modified to fit the art style of the animated format, largely with slightly different facial markings and his skin being more of a saturated white. This show leans more into how he looked in Rebels with the white skin, but minimizes the rib texture and ignores the elongated head. This makes for a clear stylistic evolution between the different works, but the original and the current design barely resemble the same species.
• Ascended Fridge Horror: Revenge of the Sith cut away from younglings being killed, and didn't show Anakin's face while doing so. In this show, it's seen from Reva's point of view, and she details how they thought The Chosen One was going to save them. Instead, he's leading the massacre.
• Ascended Meme: In Part VI, Obi-Wan says his memetic line "Hello There!" when greeting a young Luke Skywalker.
• Ascended to Carnivorism: Much like the Bantha in The Book of Boba Fett, while the Eopie is herbivorous by nature, the scarcity of plant-life on the harsh arid landscapes of Tatooine means beggars cannot be choosers, and therefore the Eopie has also evolved to being a situational carnivore, as shown with Obi-Wan Kenobi's personal Eopie happily munching on the scraps of meat that he feeds her daily.
• As You Know: "Part I" opens, after the prologue showing Order 66, with a conversation between the Grand Inquisitor and a saloon owner to let everyone in the audience know who the Inquisitors are and what they do, for people who haven't watched Star Wars Rebels, read Marvel's Darth Vader comic series, or played Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, where they play prominent roles.
• Back for the Dead: In the Inquisitorius Fortress, Obi-Wan discovers a ghastly hallway full of the frozen and displayed corpses of Jedi they've captured, interrogated, and killed over the years… and the very first Jedi he sees there is Tera Sinube, who evidently did not survive the Purge.
• Back in the Saddle: After ten years of inaction, Obi-Wan is noticeably rusty both in fighting and using the Force. It's implied a lot of his reluctance to go after Leia is because he's not sure of his abilities anymore.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Briefly in "Part III", Obi-Wan and Leia must pretend to be father and daughter to convince some Stormtroopers that they're not running around in Mapuzo's wilderness for anything suspicious. Leia handles it rather well, but Obi-Wan's acting is noticeably stiff and unconvincing, which only further increases the stormtroopers' suspicions.
• Bag of Kidnapping: Vect Nakru and his thugs kidnap Leia with this method to draw out Obi-Wan from hiding.
• Bait-and-Switch Plotline: Obi-Wan's existence on Tatooine and trying to approach Luke in "Part I" seem to be the main story of the series' first arc/season. Immediately, the storyline switches onto Leia as the focus, and numerous other worlds instead of Tatooine become the main setting of the series.
• Batman Gambit: Reva kidnaps Leia in order to draw Obi-Wan out of hiding, which would only work if Bail Organa is still in contact with Obi-Wan and turns to him for help rather than drawing on the considerable resources he has access to as an Imperial Senator and husband to the Queen of Alderaan. He is and he does.
• Beard of Sorrow:
  • Obi-Wan's beard is well-kept but slightly fuller than when last seen in Revenge of the Sith, a visual cue as to his forlorn disposition.
  • A clone from the Clone Wars is seen as a beggar, still in armor and using his helmet to hold the credits. He notably has a very large and shaggy beard and appears to be intoxicated.
• Beyond Redemption: "Part VI" shows us where Obi-Wan got his conviction that this is where Vader is, as Vader tells him, "You didn't kill Anakin, I did.", but also shows us that Luke is right instead, because the Emperor has to subtly threaten Vader to get him to stop hunting Obi-Wan, because his connection to Obi-Wan, his conflict, is due to his love for his former teacher.
• Big Bad: Darth Vader takes helm as the main villain of this mini-series, being the one that all Inquisitors answer to and driving much of the plot with his obsession of Obi-Wan. Much of Obi-Wan's and Reva's internal conflict revolves around their relationship with him and Vader's superior, Emperor Palpatine, doesn't appear in the series until near the end of the "Part VI", where he tells Vader to call off the hunt for Obi-Wan - and subtly threatens him.
• Bookends:
  • Reva's story begins and ends on Tatooine, hunting someone.
  • Compare Parts III and VI, where Vader throws Obi-Wan around with the Force and threatens to leave him alive in the former, then Obi-Wan throws the other around and leaves him alive without a word in the latter.
  • In "Part I", a despairing Obi-Wan, weighed down by guilt over failing Anakin, tries to reach out to Qui-Gon Jinn's spirit to no avail. In "Part VI", Obi-Wan, having freed himself from his burdens after defeating Vader, sees Qui-Gon's ghost for the first time since Mortis and happily reunites with his old master.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: At the conclusion of their battle in "Part VI", Obi-Wan's tearful Heartfelt Apology for his suffering broke what was left of Anakin's blackened heart; to save a man he still loved from living in unending pain for his own mistake, Anakin took full responsibility for his own destruction, forcing a pained monstrous smile to emphasize that only "Darth Vader" is left, absolving Obi-Wan of the guilt for his downfall, accepting his teacher's apology the only way his pride allowed him to, thereby finally allowing him to be free.
• Broad Strokes: Quinlan Vos' survival past Order 66 is now confirmed to have happened in both Disney's canon and Star Wars Legends.
• The Bus Came Back: The Grand Inquisitor returns very much alive, and Haja Estree returns, having escaped Daiyu as a fugitive from the Empire, in "Part V".
• Call-Back:
  • In "Part II", Obi-Wan is quick to note that Leia reminds him of her mother, Padmé.
  • Like her mother before her, the young Leia makes use of body doubles.
• Call-Forward:
  • Obi-Wan buys a T-16 Skyhopper model/toy from a Jawa that he leaves outside the Lars' farm for Luke. It's the same that Luke was briefly playing with in A New Hope (he would eventually own a real one growing up).
  • Bail tells Leia, his adopted daughter, that he loves her just as much as he'd love a biological daughter. This kind of bonding clearly resonates with Leia, as, come the Sequel Trilogy, she thinks of Rey as an adopted daughter.
  • Bail's plea for Obi-Wan to rescue Leia is a twofer. The more obvious example is to Leia's famous "help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope" message from A New Hope, while Bail saying he trusts no one more than Obi-Wan to rescue Leia is one to Rogue One, where he says that he'd trust Leia with his life when sending her to bring Obi-Wan out of retirement on Tatooine.
  • Obi-Wan introduces himself to Leia by his alias "Ben", explaining how she recognizes the name Ben Kenobi when Luke comes to rescue her in A New Hope, and subsequently how her son came to bear the same name.
  • Obi-Wan is introduced doing what he can to earn credits, working for an unpleasant employer, living alone in the desert, and subsisting on food that can be made in an instant. The sequence is remarkably similar to Rey's introduction.
  • At the end of "Part I", Obi-Wan goes into the desert and digs up his and Anakin’s lightsabers, which he buried together in the desert. This mirrors the fate of Anakin’s lightsaber at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, where Rey buries it on the Lars Homestead grounds along with Leia’s, which is similar in design to Kenobi’s.
  • During Obi-Wan and Darth Vader's brief duel in "Part III", Vader says to Obi-Wan: "The years have made you weak." Vader famously says "Your powers are weak, old man!" to Obi-Wan years later in A New Hope.
  • Tala seemingly preparing to shoot Obi-Wan and Leia, but instead gunning down her troopers, revealing herself as The Mole and helping them escape, is similar to what General Hux does in The Rise of Skywalker.
  • Tala and Kenobi make their way through an Imperial base, dressed in enemy uniforms, while accompanied by a Mouse droid, in much the same way that Han and Luke do in A New Hope. A similar scene occurs in The Last Jedi, only with a disguised BB-8 making the familiar Mouse droid noises.
  • The Third Sister, Reva, is greeting Darth Vader onboard the Star Destroyer at the beginning of "Part V". The Dark Lord naturally dismisses the pleasantries, just like he does with Moff Jerjerrod in Return of the Jedi.
    Vader: I am not interested in civilities.
  • When Vader catches up with the freighter, he uses the Force to bring it down — similar to the tug-of-war between Rey and Kylo Ren.
  • The escape from Jabiim has clear parallels with the battle of Crait. In both battles, the antagonists corner the heroes in a remote outpost and use a cannon to breach the bunker door. A Jedi then creates a diversion and uses trickery to allow the heroes to escape into space at the very last moment.
  • During the flashbacks showing Anakin and Obi-Wan in a training duel, some of the techniques used - while much-slowed down - will be brought to bear against each other during their fateful duel on Mustafar.
  • Obi-Wan manages to damage Vader's life-support system and partially unmask him during the climactic rematch of "Part VI". The same feat would be accomplished later by Ahsoka Tano herself.
  • During the confrontation between Vader and Obi-Wan, after Vader angrily taunts his former master, Obi-Wan eventually comments: "Then my friend is truly dead." mirroring Luke’s response to Vader’s comments that him serving the Emperor is inevitable in Return of the Jedi (obviously replacing "father" with "friend" in the new context).
  • At the end of their battle, Vader tells Obi-Wan "You didn't kill Anakin Skywalker. I did." This echoes the fact that Obi-Wan would tell Luke years later that his father was "betrayed and killed" by Darth Vader.
  • Before turning his back on Vader and walking away, Obi-Wan says "Then my friend is truly dead. Goodbye...Darth." When they would meet for their final confrontation in A New Hope, he would once more only refer to Vader by his title, Darth, instead of a name.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: The inciting incident of the series, Leia's kidnapping, was orchestrated by Reva to draw Kenobi out of hiding. In a literal sense, after Obi-Wan turns down Bail Organa’s holocall where he asks him to save Leia, Bail actually shows up in his home later on to ask him in person.
• The Cameo:
  • In "Part I", C-3PO makes a brief appearance during the diplomatic party on Alderaan, having been taken in by Bail Organa at the end of Revenge of the Sith. R2-D2 appears in the background later on when Bail and Breha realize Leia has run off instead of returning to the party.
  • In "Part II", Temuera Morrison portrays a homeless veteran who just so happens to be a former clone trooper. In fact, he's a member of the 501st, Anakin's command.
  • Two major ones happen in the latter half of "Part VI". Emperor Palpatine himself forces Vader to abandon his search for Kenobi, while Obi-Wan's own master, Qui-Gon Jinn, finally makes an appearance as the Force ghost.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • In some blink-and-you'll-miss-it Aurebesh graffiti, "Part III" canonizes Roganda Ismaren, the antagonist of Legends novel Children of the Jedi, as well as her backstory as a Jedi youngling who survived the Great Purge. The same scene recanonizes Valin Halcyon, the father of Corran Horn, in the same way, and Corran Horn is thus recanonized as well.
  • The planet Jabiim makes its onscreen debut in the new canon after being briefly mentioned in Star Wars Adventures. The planet had originated in Legends as the site of a major Clone Wars battle in Star Wars: Republic, where Obi-Wan was temporarily believed to have been killed in action.
• Central Theme: Facing and overcoming the past; Obi-Wan himself, Reva, and even Vader are all weighed down by their past regrets, choices, and traumas, and all of them confront, hope to confront, or fear to confront a living symbol of that past (Vader for Obi-Wan and Reva, and Obi-Wan for Vader). By the story's end, they've all faced their past to various results: Obi-Wan, having defeated Vader and heard from the man himself that Anakin is gone, overcomes his years of guilt and looks to the future (Luke and Leia) with optimism; Reva, having failed to avenge herself on Vader, finds herself unable to take her anger out on the innocent Luke and chooses not to harm him, symbolically freeing herself from the trauma Vader inflicted on her and being free to make her own destiny thereafter; Vader, contrasting his old master and former victim, may have forgiven Obi-Wan to a degree, but failed to move past his mistakes, regrets, and anger yet, and is all but forced by the Emperor to at least pretend to no longer care about the past, and, unlike Obi-Wan, faces a hopeless future as the Emperor's slave.
• Chekhov's Gun: The spice jar given to Obi-Wan in the beginning of "Part II" is later used by him as a means to distract and escape from the people who kidnapped Leia.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: The Grand Inquisitor states that this is the key weakness of the Jedi that allows the Inquisitors to hunt them — the Jedi Code and their own compassion will lead them to help others, allowing the Inquisitors to find them.
• Cold-Blooded Torture:
  • During their duel, Darth Vader lights a spilled cache of flammable crystals on fire, then uses the Force to rake Obi-Wan through the flames, horribly burning him in a manner similar to how Vader himself was burned to near-death on Mustafar. He stops before doing any permanent damage, but only because he wants to keep torturing him for as long as possible. The only caveat as to whether this is an example of this trope is that it is definitely not in cold blood.
  • Reva prepares to inflict this on Leia with a nasty-looking torture machine, but is interrupted by Obi-Wan's rescue attempt.
• Compact Infiltrator: Young Leia volunteers to crawl through the vents to find the source of the spaceport control malfunction, since she's the only one small enough to fit and willing enough to try. Obi-Wan, who has seen how resilient she is in their travels, agrees that she deserves a shot to try. Leia finds her robot toy Lola, corrupted by an Imperial restraining bolt, at the source, and removes the bolt and fixes the issue.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Fortress Inquisitorius appears in the series, after making its debut in Jedi: Fallen Order.
  • Darth Vader's cameo in "Part II" shows him resting in a bacta tank in his Mustafar castle, much like he's introduced in Rogue One. His eyes are also the same rage-filled orange that we see in Rebels.
  • Jabiim is mentioned as the final destination for Jedi and other fugitives who are fleeing the Empire. It previously appeared in Star Wars Adventures as a mining planet under the control of the First Order.^note In Legends canon, Jabiim had a more personal connection to Obi-Wan and Anakin. During the Clone Wars, the two Jedi led an assault force to Jabiim to prevent it falling to the Separatists, since it was a key resource planet for the Republic. The battle deteriorated into a literal and metaphorical quagmire that saw Obi-Wan missing and presumed dead and Anakin ultimately deciding to abandon the planet to the Separatists. During the Galactic Civil War, Darth Vader ordered the planet to be orbitally bombarded into rubble, as his failures there still haunted him.
  • In "Part V", Tala takes a blaster to the stomach while protecting fleeing children, like the Jedi from the prologue of "Part I".
• Cruel Mercy: Yet again, Obi-Wan leaves Vader behind after the battle instead of putting him out of his misery.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • When they meet again in "Part III", Obi-Wan is completely outclassed by Darth Vader, who throws him around like a ragdoll.
  • The fight between Vader and Reva in "Part V" is not a fight so much as Vader simply enjoying a light workout. He absolutely toys with his opponent during the fight, showing no sense of strain, and demonstrates he doesn't even require a lightsaber to win the duel. Normally the Mighty Glacier, Vader dodges attacks and casually blocks a kick with his foot. His opponent is so outclassed that Vader's hundreds of pounds of armor and cybernetics don't even factor into it!
  • The final confrontation between Vader and Obi-Wan in "Part VI" consists of back-to-back curbstomp battles. First, Vader shows that he clearly has the upper hand, with Obi-Wan barely able to hold him at bay before the Sith Lord buries him under rubble. However, after getting a second wind, Obi-Wan completely dominates the fight and leaves Vader defeated and humiliated before simply walking off.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • Though Vader eventually does stomp him, Obi-Wan manages to hold him off for quite some time in "Part III".
  • In "Part VI", Reva goes to the Lars' moisture farm in order to kill Luke. Owen and Beru attempt to fight her off in order for Luke to escape and despite ultimately losing, they manage to get a few good hits in. It helps that Reva still hasn't fully recovered from her impalement in "Part V".
• Dead Guy on Display:
  • Owen witnesses the hanging body of Nari, a Jedi executed to try and draw out Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan also sees it, and it's the last straw for his lonely exile, finally pushing him out of his cave to go help Leia.
  • The Fortress Inquisitorius has a whole wing devoted to displaying the preserved corpses of Jedi the Inquisitors have hunted and killed. Obi-Wan realizes what it is after finding the bodies of Tera Sinube and a youngling.
• Deadpan Snarker: Even as a kid, Leia has a smart mouth on her, snarking at everyone who annoys her... and everyone who doesn't for good measure.
• Dead Person Conversation: Obi-Wan certainly wants to do this with Qui-Gon, but hasn't worked out the specifics of communing with the dead yet, and keeps getting nothing but silence each time he tries, which only adds to his feelings of despair and loneliness.
• Death Seeker: Vader does all but state this outright when he says to Obi-Wan, "You should've killed me when you had the chance."
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The show highlights a bit of this in the Star Wars universe:
  • The slavery, indentured servitude, and mistreatment of workers committed in the Outer Rim is treated as just a fact of life by many people. Obi-Wan witnesses a man's wages be unfairly garnished and the man himself being beaten for complaining, with nobody else reacting to it. A noble at Bail Organa's dinner party is dismissive of Bail's outspoken anti-slavery politics, seeing the issue as bad but not really something worth kicking up a fuss about.
  • The Organas (especially Leia) are viewed as odd by some Alderaanian nobles for treating aliens and droids as equals instead of "lower lifeforms".
• Digital De-Aging: "Part V" includes flashback scenes to a training duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker. Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen are made to look as they did in Attack of the Clones.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When an old woman in Anchorhead mouths off to the Inquisitors as they're asking around about potential Jedi in hiding, the ever-short-fused Reva immediately responds by slashing the poor lady's hand off with her lightsaber, much to the Fifth Brother's disgust and annoyance.
• Doomed by Canon: Vader briefly grants Reva the position of Grand Inquisitor for successfully tracking down Kenobi's location. Given that the original Grand Inquisitor is still in that position in Star Wars Rebels, five years after the show... Sure enough, Vader leaves Reva to die from a lightsaber wound after it's revealed that she was trying to kill him in revenge for slaughtering the Jedi younglings... while casually revealing that the actual Grand Inquisitor survived the stabbing inflicted on him. However, while Reva's role as Grand Inquisitor is short-lived, we later see that she survived her injuries.
• Downer Beginning: The series starts with Order 66 on Coruscant. While it's initially downplayed in the sense that only the Jedi instructor Mimas Velti dies^note in the foreground, at least, as other Jedi can be seen dying one by one in the background, while her students successfully escape, "Part V" reveals that they immediately ran into Darth Vader... and while one of them survived him by playing dead, she then grew up to be Reva.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Third Sister Reva is obsessed with tracking down Obi-Wan... while at the same time being extremely frustrated with having to follow up on rumors of a Jedi on Tatooine, as she feels that chasing rumors in the Outer Rim is beneath her.
  • Thanks to being kidnapped by Reva and rescued by Obi-Wan, Leia is far more knowledgeable about who he is and what he can do than is Luke, who lived practically next door to him and was watched over by him his entire life.
  • Reva has Leia kidnapped to draw out Kenobi, certain that Bail will contact Obi-Wan for help due to their friendship during the Clone Wars... not knowing that Leia, as Darth Vader's daughter, is incalculably more important to both Obi-Wan and to the Empire than she could have imagined.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Reva is right time after time in her actions to lure out and find Obi-Wan, but the others keep on belittling and undermining her every step of the way. Whether the other Inquisitors were in on it, it is at least made clear that Darth Vader and the Grand Inquisitor know who she really is, and have been mostly exploiting her skills until they can dispose of her.
• Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: The Inquisitors use the phrase "Jedi hunt themselves" as Arc Words, saying that the innate desire of a Jedi to help and protect people will always make them break their hiding to use their abilities for good, even if it makes them a target in an anti-Jedi galaxy.
• Early Personality Signs: In "Part V"'s flashbacks addressing the times before the Clone Wars, we see a Padawan Anakin as he was before falling to The Dark Side — heroic, kindhearted, adventurous, and with a great sense of humor. But we also see lots of hints at a nastier personality bubbling beneath the surface, like him getting a little too aggressive in a simple sparring match, engaging in arrogant showboating, and visibly getting weirdly angry when he loses.
• Exact Words: Vader tells Reva "I have been watching you, Third Sister. I know what it is you seek." He then offers her the position of Grand Inquisitor that she covets, but "Part V" will later clarify he's aware of her plot to take revenge on him for Order 66 and was actually referring to that.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness:
  • Fortress Inquisitorius, located on Mustafar's oceanic moon of Nur, is a jagged black spire rising out of the sea.
  • Vader's personal fortress on Mustafar itself also qualifies.
• Eye Awaken: "Part II" ends with Darth Vader awakening in a bacta tank after Obi-Wan learns that he's still alive.
• Fantastic Racism: At a formal party, Leia is mocked by her older cousin for treating droids and aliens like people, being told that she doesn't have to be polite to "lower lifeforms".
• First-Episode Spoiler: Parts I and II reveal that Leia being kidnapped is what drives Obi-Wan to leave Tatooine, and that Obi-Wan was not aware that Anakin survived the duel on Mustafar until Reva tells him otherwise. Both of these elements were important to the plot, but were not revealed in any of the pre-release materials.
• The Final Temptation: Palpatine's final words to Vader are a question: are his thoughts clouded by his feelings for his former master? Is his dedication to the Dark Side falling victim to his love for his father, his brother, his teacher? Will Palpatine have to kill him? Vader assures Palpatine that, no, his feelings are clear. He abandons his last dedication to Kenobi and devotes himself to the Empire. Like his grandson, Kylo Ren, Vader is no longer tormented by the call of the Light. Or is he?
• Foil: Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader; both men remain haunted by their duel on Mustafar, but while Obi-Wan dreads to face Vader again, Vader hunts him obsessively for revenge. They also both languish in miserable circumstances, with Obi-Wan struggling with PTSD as he ekes out a living in the desert while Vader lives as a quadruple amputee burn victim, dependent on life support. Obi-Wan starts the series rusty and disconnected from the Force, while Vader is at the peak of his power, yet as the story goes on, Obi-Wan rediscovers his old skill and power while Vader is increasingly blinded with rage, impeding his efforts. Vader, having cruelly traumatized Reva years ago, leaves her for dead in the present, crushing her spirit, while Obi-Wan helps her find some goodness in her heart and to have some hope for the future. Their final confrontation sees Vader's overwhelming power fail against Obi-Wan's superior skill; their duel ends with a victorious Obi-Wan sorrowful, but freed from his guilt over Vader's descent, while a defeated Vader screams in helpless rage, still mired in darkness. Obi-Wan looks to a bright future, represented by Luke and Leia, while Vader remains trapped in a bleak existence, represented by the Emperor.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Challenged on what she hopes to gain from pursuing Obi-Wan, Reva tells the Grand Inquisitor that she wants "what [she's] owed". She never actually says she wants to usurp his position, and "Part V" reveals that what Reva really thinks she's owed is revenge on Vader.
  • When Reva contacts him in "Part III", Vader tells the Third Sister that he has been watching her, hinting at his awareness that Reva is the youngling he'd left for dead ten years prior, and his awareness of her plot against him.
  • Reva vows to avenge the Grand Inquisitor's supposed death at Obi-Wan's hands, only for Vader to say that "the Grand Inquisitor means nothing". Vader refers to the Grand Inquisitor in the present tense, hinting at his survival and the fact that he's seen through Reva's plans.
  • Reva is uncharacteristically unsettled during Vader's initial rampage in "Part III". "Part V" makes it clear that this isn't the first time she's seen him murdering innocents and children, the first time being the raid on the Jedi Temple during Order 66, where she and her fellow younglings were on the receiving end of his wrath.
  • Reva's total helplessness in the face of Vader's towering rage in "Part IV" makes it apparent that her powers are nothing compared to his; their "duel" in "Part V" is, fittingly, totally one-sided in Vader's favor.
  • The flashback to Anakin and Obi-Wan's sparring session in "Part V" foreshadows Obi-Wan and Vader's conflicts in Parts V and VI; in the sparring session, Anakin disarmed Obi-Wan and foolishly assumed that he'd won, only for Obi-Wan to turn the tables. In the present, Vader shows that he hasn't learned from that mistake; he assumes that the siege in "Part V" has broken Obi-Wan's spirit, only to be deceived, allowing Obi-Wan and the Path to flee, and in "Part VI", Vader arrogantly assumes that he's won their duel after burying Obi-Wan alive, only to again be proven wrong and defeated.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Though it would always be stretching a point to call the Inquisitors "friends", they take their constant rivalry a step further in their hatred of Reva/Third Sister. The Grand Inquisitor spells it out in the second episode: he calls her the least of them, saying that she comes "from the gutter" and thus will never be permitted to advance in the ranks of the Inquisitorius. "Part V" reveals that it's actually because she's a youngling that survived Vader's attack on the Jedi Temple and is out for revenge, and Vader knows this.
• Friend to All Living Things: Taking after her parents (adopted and biological), the young Leia is friendly towards everybody regardless of species, a fact which is looked on as odd by the predominantly human members of Alderaan's upper class.
• Fugitive Arc: Obi-Wan has to stay hidden from the Empire, lest they find out about Luke or Leia.
• Genre Roulette: As expected of a work in the Star Wars universe, Obi-Wan Kenobi show is a pastiche of genres with a Space Opera core; though unlike The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, which were consistently tributes to the Spaghetti Western genre, the primary genre in Kenobi varies from episode to episode.
  • "Part I" is a slow and melancholic New Old West deconstructive character study like Unforgiven.
  • "Part II" is a gritty Film Noir set in a neon-lit slum resembling Kowloon like Blade Runner and Infernal Affairs.
  • "Part III" is the New Old West road trip in its first half, which shifts into suspenseful Slasher Film horror in its second.
  • "Part IV" is a high-tech Stealth-Based Mission Spy Fiction episode — much like many Mission: Impossible episodes, as well as Metal Gear Solid series of video games.
  • "Part V" serves as another New Old West character study episode that caps off with an Alamo-like siege and a brief — but intense — Wuxia-style duel.
  • "Part VI" returns fully to classic Star Wars formula, as Jidaigeki meets Wuxia film played out on a Spaghetti Western stage in space, with both Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi performing powerful feats that would not be out of place in a Shounen Anime Fighting Series like My Hero Academia.
• Godzilla Threshold: Obi-Wan has been faithfully watching Luke for ten years, refusing to stick out or compromise his post in any way lest he endanger him. The only thing that can convince him to leave? Leia, the other candidate for the last hope of the galaxy, being in danger.
• Greater-Scope Villain: As usual, Emperor Palpatine is the one responsible for all the misery and terror in the galaxy, but he doesn't appear in this series until "Part VI", where he tells Vader that his obsession with Obi-Wan has weakened him and not-so subtly threatens his apprentice to stop his search after his second defeat.
• Gunship Rescue: Just when all looks lost for our heroes during "Part IV", in swoop two T47 airspeeders to save the day.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Happens to a Stormtrooper in "Part III" who gets shot and falls on a laser fence.
• Hammer Hilt: When Obi-Wan gets his Heroic Second Wind in his duel against Vader, he destroys Vader's life-support by first hitting him in the face with the hilt of his lightsaber, and then using the pommel to smash the life-support box on his chest. Although it's debatable whether he was using lethal force, the level of damage Obi-Wan causes speaks for itself.
• Happy Flashback: "Part V" contrasts Darth Vader's desperate, vengeful hunt for Obi-Wan in the present day with a flashback to the times before the Clone Wars, in which Obi-Wan and Anakin have a fun sparring session.
• Hate Sink: The meatpacking boss that Obi-Wan works under on Tatooine is a loathsome, greedy bully who underpays his employees and physically beats them up if they protest. He even dares Obi-Wan to challenge him in a fight, as if he knows that Obi-Wan can't fight him without blowing his cover. It becomes cathartic when ex-Inquisitor Reva beats him up after he pushes his luck with her too far, and without even needing to draw her lightsaber or use the Force no less.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • While being led through an escape route used by a number of Jedi survivors, Obi-Wan learns that Quinlan Vos was one such survivor who used it.
  • Roken, the man running the Jabiim escape route for surviving Jedi and Force-sensitive refugees fleeing the Empire. It's hinted he's had quite a few adventures of his own, including formerly being married to a Jedi.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Wade, one of the people involved in the Jabiim escape route, personally fires on Reva to cover the escape of Obi-Wan and his allies. It costs him his life when he finally breaks off and she immediately lobs a power-cell at his speeder, with explosive results.
  • Tala suicide-bombs a squad of stormtroopers with a thermal detonator to buy Obi-Wan and the rest of the Path time to escape.
• He's Back!: Obi-Wan begins the series as a shadow of his former self. He ends it having found peace and recovered his connection to the Force. From a Broken Ace, to the Jedi Grand Master he was at the end of the war.
• Hidden Badass: Who would have thought a pair of farmers who would one day be slaughtered by Stormtroopers could hold off a Force-wielder seeking to murder their son? Owen and Beru, being farmers on the edge of Tusken territory (and therefore prepared for their raids) do a damn fine job in "Part VI".
• Hidden Supplies: Obi-Wan keeps his Jedi gear in a locked box hidden away in the cave he calls home; hearing a communicator beeping from it forces him to open it up. He also buried his and Anakin's lightsaber in a box in the middle of the desert, but that was an attempt to put everything behind him.
• Horse of a Different Color: Obi-Wan is still riding the same Eopie, a kind of quadrupedal Tatooine mount with a tapir-like nose seen in the prequel trilogy, that he rode in Revenge of the Sith.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Before he uses the Force to save Leia, Obi-Wan is forced to fight using a blaster, something he was disgusted with doing even when he needed to kill Grievous with one. Given that we see he's a pretty good shot with one, he's gotten fairly used to using "uncivilized" weapons in the past ten years.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: A twist on the trope in "Part VI". Reva finds herself standing over an unconscious Luke with her lightsaber drawn. She then begins to see echoes of her youngling self in him, and realizes if she kills Luke, she'll become just like Vader, the man she wants vengeance against.
• Implied Death Threat: The Emperor personally issues one to Vader at the end of "Part VI". He senses the rage in his apprentice who still wants Obi-Wan Kenobi dead. Palpatine states in certain terms that Vader must let go of his Jedi past; and he doesn't need to finish the sentence because Vader understands the implications and calms down, reaffirming his loyalty to the Sith master.
• Internal Reveal: In "Part I", Obi-Wan and Owen (and presumably Beru and Bail as well) believe that Anakin died when Kenobi left him to burn on Mustafar, a fact which haunts him. At the end of "Part II", Reva informs Obi-Wan that Anakin/Darth Vader is still alive.
• Interquel: Set 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, this series begins in 9 BBY, thus placing it right after Solo and a few years before Star Wars Rebels.
• Irony:
  • Obi-Wan stays on Tatooine to watch over and protect Luke because, unlike the Organas, the Lars family doesn't have the resources of a royal family and Imperial Senator to draw on... and naturally Leia is the one kidnapped, forcing Obi-Wan out of retirement.
  • While contacting Darth Vader, Reva pins the blame for Grand Inquisitor's "demise" on Kenobi, prompting the following response: "The Grand Inquisitor means nothing. Kenobi is all that matters now." And yet, Vader's own fixation on Kenobi doesn't go unnoticed by the end of the show. Darth Sidious personally forces his apprentice to abandon the chase for Obi-Wan - and he is satisfied when he hears the words: "Kenobi means nothing. I serve only you, my Master."
  • Reva gets the same injury she delivered to the Grand Inquisitor in "Part II" — a lightsaber to the gut — courtesy of Darth Vader.
• It's Personal:
  • Like Darth Maul before him, Vader has no interest in simply killing Obi-Wan — he wants his old master to suffer for leaving him to die on Mustafar.
  • "Part V" reveals that it's personal for Reva, too, as she was one of the younglings from "Part I", who barely managed to be the only survivor after they escaped one group of clone troopers and promptly ran into Lord Vader. She wants revenge, and is using Obi-Wan as leverage to rise in the ranks and get close to Vader, while also having a personal grudge against Kenobi himself, as she assigns some of the blame for the slaughter to Anakin's old master.
• Jedi Mind Trick: In "Part II", Haja Estree uses this on over his comlink and "convinces" them to give individuals safe passage through the port. (Obi-Wan, the original demonstrator of it, doesn't make use of it during the series.)
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Owen pointing out to Kenobi that he failed in training Anakin may have been a low blow, but for someone who doesn't have the benefit of knowing the entire situation, it's not unreasonable for him to be skeptical of Kenobi being a good master for Luke.
  • Obi-Wan's tone with Nari is rather callous, but he's absolutely right in stating that the Jedi have lost the battle against evil in every possible manner and that all they can do is keep their heads down and bide their time until a new hope arises. The point is hammered in when Obi-Wan discovers Nari's corpse strung up from some rafters to be used as an example.
  • Roken wants nothing to do with Obi-Wan at first, insisting he leave immediately and refusing to offer any help. However, he's right; Obi-Wan isn't just being hunted by Inquisitors, but by Vader himself.
• Jitter Cam: The camera has a tendency to become really shaky, particularly during lightsaber duels.
• Jump Scare:
  • Normally, a villain missing a fleeing refugee transport taking off by seconds is a moment of relief... only for it to warp into a moment of horrific power as Darth Vader suddenly grabs the speeding spaceship in mid-flight and rips it open like cardboard. Singlehandedly. Obi-Wan in turn was counting on this, knowing that Vader would be so focused on terrifying the refugees that he wouldn't notice that he merely grabbed a decoy ship.
  • The rasping, snarling breath of Darth Vader that shattered the silence of the night in "Part III" was practically deafening, sending Obi-Wan crumbling into a panicked heap, barely able to contain his guilt and horror as his old friend stalked closer and closer through the shadows to exact his fiery vengeance.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Reva gleefully slashes a hapless civilian's hand off for mouthing off to the Inquisitors, much to the annoyance of the Fifth Brother.
  • As he searches a village for Obi-Wan in "Part III", Vader goes the extra mile of pummeling and brutalizing the townsfolk with the Force, seemingly out of pure rage.
• Leitmotif: In A New Hope, the Force theme performed double duty as a Leitmotif for Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan's new theme that John Williams composed for this series is a variation on the Force theme, as well as resembling a slowed-down version of Qui-Gon's theme from The Phantom Menace.
• Logo Joke:
  • The blue arch of the Disney+ logo is carved with a lightsaber instead of forming itself with the usual "Swoosh-click" sound in the teaser trailer.
  • As seen in the poster above, Obi-Wan's lightsaber forms the "I" in "Kenobi".
• Make an Example of Them: A few days after rebuking Nari, a fellow Jedi who tried to recruit him to fight against the Empire, Obi-Wan walks into Anchorhead to find the young man's corpse hanging from a bridge in the town square, having been lynched by the Inquisitors and left to rot as an example to any Jedi or their sympathizers in the area.
• Manly Tears: When the Organas call Obi-Wan to beg for his help recovering Leia, Bail is crying and having trouble speaking. He's more calm when he arrives on Tatooine in person, though.
• Master Swordsman:
  • Vader effortlessly demonstrates how he outclasses almost everyone else, toying with Obi-Wan in "Part III" (and mostly just seeming disappointed about How the Mighty Have Fallen), and not even bothering to draw his own saber when Reva tries to backstab him, casually stopping her blade with the Force and mocking her before effortlessly evading her every attack or blocking it with the Force, then disarming her, breaking her sabre-staff in half and letting her have half of it to try again. He promptly skewers her. The latter is particularly demonstrative, as he doesn't even bother making sure the wound is mortal, as he views his opponent as absolutely no threat to him.
  • Obi-Wan was this, but now looks very clumsy thanks to being a decade out of practice and out of tune with the Force. As a result, Vader is actually audibly disappointed with his performance in "Part III", and genuinely pleased when Obi-Wan gets his groove back by the time of their rematch in "Part VI". Since Obi-Wan winds up utterly destroying him, hammering at his respirator, crippling him, and slicing through his helmet, before leaving him to either live as the ruin that is Darth Vader or die of his injuries, you get the sense he might have regretted that — and provides a reason why he was initially very cautious on the Death Star in A New Hope.
• More Dakka: With the help of the Force, Obi-Wan levitates a large number of rocks and chucks them at Darth Vader in the classic rapid-fire fashion.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Obi-Wan rescuing Leia and killing the two stormtroopers in the torture chamber of Fortress Inquistorius is similarly lit to the E3 trailer for The Force Unleashed II. Sam Witwer, Starkiller's actor, himself even acknowledged the similarity to his character.
  • The Underground Railroad is called the Path, and an inscription on a wall of one station reads "Only when the eyes are closed can one see." See what? The Way. The Jedi are famously space Daoist/Buddhist magic samurai monks, and "way" and "path" are both viable translations of "dao/tao".
  • Obi-Wan's final outfit in the closing scenes of "Part VI", combining his original Jedi garb with the sleeveless robe he acquires on Jabiim, seems to be based on his Sideshow Mythos figure, which also depicted Obi-Wan between Episodes III and IV.
  • In a way, separate Parts of this show parallel the respective Skywalker Saga films. To elaborate:
    • "Part I" - The Phantom Menace: a bulk of action is happening on Tatooine, complete with introduction of Leia Organa as a kid. Also, the Third Sister serves as the proverbial "phantom menace", whose hunt for Obi-Wan Kenobi drives the plot for the rest of the series.
    • "Part II" - Attack of the Clones: the planet Daiyu takes cues from both Coruscant and Kamino. Not to mention the chase at nightfall.
    • "Part III" - Revenge of the Sith: the first confrontation between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader is happening after the fateful duel on Mustafar, except it's the former who gets to suffer in the flames.
    • "Part IV" - A New Hope: the rescue mission of Leia occurs inside the walls of the Imperial facility - Fortress Inquisitorius in this case.
    • "Part V" - The Empire Strikes Back: members of the Path hold the line against the Imperial forces while refugees and Force-sensitives are trying to evacuate Jabiim. And Darth Vader is victorious against his opponent.
    • "Part VI" - Return of the Jedi: Obi-Wan gets his Jedi mojo back and wins the rematch against Vader, putting himself at peace and seeing the Force Ghost of his master, Qui-Gon Jinn.
• Neck Snap: A young man makes the deadly mistake of trying to intervene when his father gets accosted by an angry Darth Vader, and Vader responds by snapping the poor boy's neck with a flick of his wrist.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Just when the Grand Inquisitor is about to flush Obi-Wan from his hiding spot, Reva skewers him through the gut with her lightsaber out of a refusal to let him take the credit for his capture. Not only does this give Obi-Wan the window he needs to escape, but it also puts a powerful Inquisitor out of commission. "Part V" gives additional context to this — with Reva gunning for Obi-Wan hard as part of a years-long plan to gain enough favour with Lord Vader to get a better chance at getting an opportunity to kill him, this was no simple matter of a credit steal; this would have quashed any chance of that goal ever happening. Him catching Obi-Wan would have been the same thing as a total loss for Reva.
• Nominal Importance: Reva is one of the only Inquisitors to get a name (the other being Trilla Suduri in Jedi: Fallen Order), highlighting her role as the deuteragonist or tritagonist of this series.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi, a man who has not previously shown any sort of fear in the face of danger, becomes utterly terrified upon learning that Anakin Skywalker is still alive.
  • As shown in previous media, Vader is usually not the kind of person who would actively prolong the suffering and torture of his opponents, especially compared with other Imperials (or for that matter, the Emperor). The fact that he personally draws out the suffering of the residents of Mapuzo's mining area, as well as actively toying with and prolonging his Curb-Stomp Battle against Obi-Wan, just helps emphasize how much hatred he harbors for his erstwhile Master, and thus takes glee in enacting his vengeance on him.
  • Even at his angriest in other media, Vader always keeps a calm indoor voice (save a couple of lines in Episode IV that can be chalked up to Early-Installment Weirdness) and always moves at a steady Unflinching Walk. When he enters Fortress Inquisitorius under the impression that Reva let Obi-Wan escape with the one thing keeping him from disappearing again (and the incoming political shitstorm when Leia returns home), he comes in walking fast enough that his stormtrooper escort is having trouble keeping up with him and is yelling as he Force-chokes her, fully intending to kill her for her perceived failure.
• Oh, Crap!: Obi-Wan does NOT take it well upon learning that Anakin, whom he thought died after leaving him for dead on Mustafar is still alive, and is looking for him.
• One Last Job: The plot involves Obi-Wan being called out of hiding to go rescue a kidnapped Leia, under the impression it will be "one last adventure". It quickly turns out to be much more, and it certainly won't be his last.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Reva's first name is only said out loud a couple of times during the show. She's mostly addressed to only by her Inquisitorius title of the Third Sister.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Ewan McGregor's natural Scottish accent slips out more often than it did in the prequels. Ewan admitted in pre-release interviews that he had trouble relearning Obi-Wan's English accent due to lack of practice.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: After successfully rescuing Leia from Reva's torture chamber in the Fortress Inquisitorius in "Part IV", Kenobi snags a hat and coat from a fallen officer, covering Leia with the long coat. No one notices the large bulge at his side or her tiny legs sticking out the bottom. Justified with the Stormtroopers and Purge Troopers, with their helmets, but the officers must have just been super distracted by the chaos Kenobi engendered.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: At the time the series is set, ten years after Revenge of the Sith but nine years before A New Hope, the "Imperial Senate" still exists — but it's been gutted of any power it had before the Clone Wars began, and is now just a rubber-stamp for Emperor Palpatine. This comes up a bit when we see Senator Bail Organa at a gathering of Alderaan's ruling elite, ineffectually trying to nudge his cousin that the Empire is allowing outright slavery to happen and raising extortionary taxes on the Outer Rim. His precocious young daughter Leia later complains that she doesn't want to be a senator, because now the Senate is just a bunch of politicians who yell at each other, but don't actually do anything — from the look on Bail's face, she does not yet realize just how right she is.
• Pet the Dog: One interpretation of Vader absolving Obi-Wan of any guilt can be seen as this. Enough of Anakin was left alive to accept Obi-Wan's apology for all that had befallen him, so in return, he states that Anakin Skywalker is dead, only Darth Vader was left, and Vader was the one who killed him as a way of making clear to Obi-Wan that he shouldn't be treated or mourned as the same person, giving Obi-Wan the best closure he could get short of finishing Vader off.
• Power Floats: Blink and you'll miss it, but as Vader's mechanical limbs are being attached and his armor assembled around him, there's nothing holding him up. Not a production error; Vader's holding himself aloft with the Force.
• Pragmatic Villainy: The Grand Inquisitor and the Fifth Brother are ruthless to be sure, and have no issues with killing and torture in and of itself if it is done within “reason”. But they are both infuriated and disgusted by the Third Sister's rabid violence and volcanic temper. Reva's downright psychotic behavior in the field (including maiming random citizens for mouthing off and trying to murder prisoners before they've even spoken) is over-the-top even for the Inquisitorius, and just creates unnecessary extra work and a lot of inconvenient bodies, especially when her plan for capturing Kenobi is to kidnap the daughter of a senator. The Grand Inquisitor's attempts to rein her in get him a lightsaber to the gut.
• Previously on…: Before "Part I" of the show begins, there is a quick summation of the events from the Prequel Trilogy — and accompanying tragedy. It can come across as this trope, but also sets the tone for the Thousand-Yard Stare Obi-Wan has.
• Psychic Strangle: Courtesy of Darth Vader himself, as usual.
  • In "Part III", two people are killed this way: a random passerby and his son (the latter gets his neck snapped with a flick of the wrist), all in order to draw Obi-Wan out of hiding. Later in the episode, Kenobi himself gets lifted into the air while Vader ignites spilled crystals below him with his lightsaber.
  • At the very end of "Part IV", a furious Vader marches straight towards Reva and starts Force-choking the bejesus out of her... that is, until she notifies the Dark Lord about the tracker she placed with Obi-Wan.
• Put on a Bus: Reva gut-stabs the Grand Inquisitor at the end of "Part II", presumably to remove the greater threat he represents and permit the 10-years-rusty Obi-Wan to deal with the less powerful, more impulsive Third Sister. However, The Bus Came Back — see above.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When LOLA is taken over by the tracking/hacking chip, her normally blue lights turn red.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated:
  • Invoked in a discussion between the Inquisitors about Kenobi.
    Fifth Brother: You still want Kenobi? He's gone. We spent the last ten years looking for him.
    Third Sister: Maybe you've been looking in the wrong places.
  • Initially, Obi-Wan believes that Anakin died after their duel on Mustafar. Reva informs him otherwise.
  • The Grand Inquisitor pulls this on Reva later.
• Retcon:
  • This series serves in part to retroactively establish how Leia knew to call on Obi-Wan for help in A New Hope, as well as why she didn’t question him being called "Ben" by Luke, and how she came to know and like Obi-Wan well enough to name her son Ben.
  • A New Hope hinted that Vader and Obi-Wan had not met since their duel on Mustafar (though, oddly enough, Vader implies the opposite in Return of the Jedi). "Part III" establishes that they did, and Vader wipes the floor with Obi-Wan, adding extra weight to his boast that "now I am the master". They face off again in "Part VI", and Obi-Wan defeats Vader once more, establishing that this is when Obi-Wan accepted that Anakin is gone.
• Robot Buddy: Leia has a companion droid named Lola/L0-LA59 that she carries with her constantly. Unfortunately, when she's briefly captured by the Inquisitors, Reva has the foresight to turn the droid into a tracker.
• Saved by Canon: Whatever happens in the series, Obi-Wan, Owen, Beru, Bail Organa, Darth Vader, Luke, and Leia will survive to "debut" in A New Hope, where the first four will perish. Similarly, both the Grand Inquisitor and the Fifth Brother will survive, since they appear in Star Wars Rebels, which takes place 4 years after this series, and is where both will meet their demises. This is especially evident when the Grand Inquisitor is stabbed and left for dead at the end of "Part II", as he returns very much alive in "Part V".
• Schrödinger's Canon: Obi-Wan is offered some spice, among the varieties are "Kessel pure" and "glitterstim." Jedi Academy Trilogy established glitterstim as the spice obtained from the "spice mines of Kessel" mentioned by Threepio in A New Hope, though in new canon they would appear to be two different varieties. In Legends, spice came in a wide array of natural, refined, and synthetic kinds, with vastly different effects, some even being perfectly legal to use recretionally or having legitimate medical applications, others being hideously illegal and/or extremely damaging to one's health.
• Shared Family Quirks: Both Luke and Leia as children are prone to neglecting their duties (Luke helping his uncle and aunt on the farm, Leia's public appearances as part of Alderaan's royal family) and dreaming of seeing the galaxy for themselves. Even lightyears away, it's clear that the two of them are definitely siblings.
• Shown Their Work: The lightsaber combat featured in the show featured a return to the more refined styles shown in the Prequel Trilogy, helped immensely by having Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen return as their combat training functionally defined the prequel lightsaber combat. There is also an evolution shown from those forms into the more fundamental styles seen in the Original Trilogy. Humorously, apparently the choreographers would comment on how certain moves are rooted in the styles their characters had trained in while back during the prequels McGregor and Christensen were merely experimenting in what looked and felt cool and the lore writers put it into canon.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Obi-Wan begins the series mired in conflict and doubt, wearing dark greens and greys - as well as placing his Jedi attire hidden away in a box, even avoiding wearing a hooded cloak early on. He ends the series having found peace and rebuilt his connection to the Force, returning to his Jedi robes and dressing as the man he will be known as during the events of A New Hope.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: The trailers concealed the involvement of Leia, Bail and Breha Organa, presumably to cover up their involvement in the story. Beru Lars is also not shown in any trailers even though Owen is (and unlike the Organas, her involvement in the story was widely known prior to release). This was likely to avoid spoiling the ending of "Part VI".
• Skewed Priorities:
  • As was decided during the end of Revenge of the Sith, Bail Organa adopts Leia as his daughter while Yoda recommends Obi-Wan to hide Luke on Tatooine. Kenobi does so by giving him to the Lars family. 10 years later, Leia is kidnapped — and the Organas can't do anything about it despite their royal status. Bail asks Kenobi who initially refuses to help due to commitment of watching over Luke. Then Organa resorts to personally visit his old friend in order to convince him that Leia is also important enough to be saved.
  • In "Part VI", the Grand Inquisitor is not pleased when Darth Vader decides to pursue his personal vendetta against Kenobi instead of taking down a ship with insurgents, refugees and Force-sensitives aboard.
    Grand Inquisitor: We cannot prioritize one lone Jedi.
    Darth Vader: He is not just any Jedi.
• Space Fighter: Anakin's old starfighter and an N-1 made an apperance in a flashback scene, and the Tri-Wing is introduced in Part I.
• Standard Snippet: The trailer features two of the most well-remembered and lauded music pieces from the Prequel Trilogy by John Williams — "Duel of the Fates" from The Phantom Menace and "Battle of the Heroes" from Revenge of the Sith (a choral reprise for the latter).
• Stock Footage: Obi-Wan's nightmare during "Part I" is made up of footage from the Prequel Trilogy.
• Stock Scream: There's a classic Wilhelm Scream in "Part III", when a Stormtrooper falls off a guard tower.
• Strong, but Unskilled: A Flashback to a sparring match between Obi-Wan and Anakin set shortly before Attack of the Clones showed that Anakin's aggression and raw power made him a ferocious warrior that could keep his own master on the defensive, though Obi-Wan's experience and ability to improvise would still have him win at the end. In the time period of the show, this holds true in different ways: Darth Vader doesn't have the physical abilities of his younger, unmaimed self — but his raw power in the Force makes him a terrifying monster to confront.
• That Man Is Dead: Darth Vader, when considering his Anakin Skywalker persona.
  Vader: Anakin is gone. I am what remains.
  Obi-Wan: I am sorry. I'm so sorry, Anakin... for all of it.
  Vader: I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. You didn't kill Anakin Skywalker... I did. The same way... I will destroy you!
  Obi-Wan: Then my friend is truly dead. Goodbye... Darth.
• Time-Shifted Actor:
  • The series features a 10-year old Leia, played by Vivien Lyra Blair.
  • Grant Feely also shows up as a young Luke Skywalker, although he wouldn't get a prominent appearance until "Part VI".
• Time Skip: It's been 10 years since the end of Revenge of the Sith. Luke and Leia are both happy, well-adjusted 10-year-old children in loving families, and Obi-Wan is a bitter, grief-stricken shadow of his former self.
• Took a Level in Cynic: The years spent on Tatooine after the initial slaughter of the Jedi and the ongoing genocide have made Obi-Wan a very bitter and jaded man. He coldly rebukes a Jedi who asks him for help, and has to practically be arm-twisted by Bail Organa into rescuing Leia.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot:
  • While Obi-Wan is being chased by a Star Destroyer at the end of Part V, Reva is somehow capable to get back on her feet despite having been seriously wounded in her duel against Darth Vader, travel to Tatooine and get a lead on her hunt for Luke Skywalker.
  • Obi-Wan himself does it in Part VI: while Reva searches for Luke who is hiding among rocks, Obi-Wan manages to perceive the threat to the kid's life, travel to Tatooine (both the hyperspace interstellar travel and the approach to the planet) and get to Owen's farm.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Reva, the Third Sister, is consistently underestimated by her peers and superiors — which only fuels her own ambitious, zealous approach to hunting down Obi-Wan Kenobi. Even Darth Vader himself admits this after she bravely talks her way out of a Force Choke meant to kill her.
  • Vader underestimates Obi-Wan in "Part VI", even after realising his full powers have returned. This proves to be a very, very big mistake.
• Understatement: In "Part VI", Palpatine says this to a furious Vader, who is demanding the Imperial Fleet lay waste to everything in their path to get to Kenobi:
  Palpatine: You seem agitated, my friend.
• Unexplained Recovery: The Grand Inquisitor survives after being stabbed in one of his stomachs by Reva, with a hand wave indicating that his desire to get revenge against his attacker was the only thing that kept him alive, but no other details are provided explaining what happened. Reva herself goes through the same thing after being stabbed by Vader; although still injured from the attack.
• The Unfought:
  • Despite driving much of the plot and having good reason to hate Obi-Wan, Reva never ends up facing him in combat.
  • Despite being Force users and actively hunting Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan doesn't get to fight any of the other inquisitors either, including the Grand Inquisitor or Fifth Brother.
• The Un-Reveal: Obi-Wan never discovers the reason why the Inquisitors are preserving the bodies of all the Jedi and Force Sensitives within the Fortress.
• Vader Breath:
  • The Trope Namer is heard for the first time on the show at the end of "Part II".
  • The writers get a lot of mileage out of using Vader's iconic breathing for its intimidation factor; whenever he's about to make an on-screen appearance, you'll hear him even before you see him to help get you ready for the nose-dive the situation is about to take.
  • Vader's Return of the Jedi-style raspy wheezing returns when he sustains a major blow to his armor in "Part VI".
• Villain Ball:
  • Reva frequently grabs it. The standing order for Inquisitors is to capture Jedi so they can be questioned to see if they know the locations of other Jedi (and possibly turned into Inquisitors), and she tries to kill one in her opening scene. She also stabs the Grand Inquisitor with her lightsaber, allowing Kenobi to escape in "Part II". Yes, her scheme to draw Kenobi out works, but she gets in her own way more often than not. "Part V" reveals that, with her betrayal of the Grand Inquisitor at least, this is because she doesn't care about her order's goal — she just needed to curry enough personal favour with Lord Vader to hopefully gain a shot at killing him, with Obi-Wan representing the best chance she has for achieving something like that. As such, the Grand Inquisitor succeeding there would have ruined her plan, and was genuinely something she couldn't have let happen to achieve her actual goal.
  • Vader himself grabs it in "Part III" and "Part VI": it happens the first time when he lets Obi-Wan go (presumably to prolong his suffering), and second when he assumes that dropping multiple tons of rock on his head would be enough to ensure he ends up dead. Nope.
• Virtue Is Weakness: The Grand Inquisitor describes a Jedi's compassion as their biggest weakness, as it makes them easy to track for the likes of the Inquisitorius.
• Visual Pun: Darth Vader stumbling angrily through the dark tunnels of Jabiim, obsessively hunting for Obi-Wan but missing important details and failing to predict Obi-Wan's strategy to escape because of it, all juxtaposed with a flashback to before the Clone Wars where he lost a training match to Obi-Wan because of his arrogance, tendency to underestimate opponents, and presuming victory too soon. In other words, he has tunnel-vision that blinds him to the truth.

  • A Played for Horror example later in the same episode has the Sith Warrior drag an incapacitated Ben through a pile of burning ore in the quarry, literally "Raking him across the coals" for ruining his life.

• Vocal Evolution:
  • In "Part III", Vader's voice was a dead ringer for how the character sounded in Return of the Jedi. In subsequent episodes, he sounded more like how he did in The Empire Strikes Back. This is probably due to voice samples from different films being used to synthesize Vader's voice, as his voice always sounded slightly different in each film.
  • Qui-Gon Jinn sounds noticeably more hoarse than he did in The Phantom Menace, The Clone Wars and even The Rise of Skywalker. This is likely because Liam Neeson was nearly seventy years old during the filming of the series.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Obi-Wan kills two stormtroopers standing guard in "Part IV", yet he spares both Vader and Reva later in the series. Reva's redemption amounts to deciding not to kill Luke, and during the duel with Vader it gets rather egregious as the whole point of the fight is that Obi-Wan accepts that Anakin is gone and only Vader remains.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • Despite resenting Obi-Wan for what happened to Anakin and having no desire for Luke to become a Jedi, Owen refuses to sell out Obi-Wan when Reva threatens to kill Owen and his family unless the townspeople give the group information on hidden Jedi. When Obi-Wan thanks him, Owen says he didn't do it for him.
  • When encountering a homeless veteran clone trooper begging on the streets, Obi-Wan hesitates for only a moment or two before giving him a few credits. This, despite having no knowledge of the inhibitor chip that caused Order 66. For all Obi-Wan knew, they betrayed the Jedi out of their own volition.
  • Reva eventually has Luke at her mercy, after spending ten years seeking vengeance against his father. However, she realizes that she's now in the exact position that Vader was when he attacked the Jedi Temple, about to execute an innocent and helpless child, and she can't go through with it. Reva returns Luke to the Lars homestead shortly afterward.
• Wham Line: When Reva confronts Obi-Wan in the shipping depot on Daiyu, she tells him that Darth Vader is alive, which wouldn't count by itself, but she then follows it up with "Anakin Skywalker is alive." The fact that she knows Vader's Secret Identity, something that he has put quite a lot of effort into hiding, is a clue that there's much more to her than simply being a particularly ruthless and ambitious Inquisitor.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Well, not the whole plot, but the broad strokes of the story — an aging fugitive living under an assumed name saves and goes on the run with a little girl due to a promise made to her dying mother, while doggedly pursued by an obsessive cop who became as bad as they are today due to trying to rise out of the same class they resent the fugitive for being part of, against a background of social upheaval — should be familiar to anyone who's read Les Misérables (or more likely, seen the musical).
• We ARE Struggling Together: The Inquisitors almost fight each other more than the Jedi they're hunting, butting heads over credit for successes, promotions, and methods.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Reva accuses Leia of "making her" interrogate and potentially torture Leia for information after the young girl stonewalls her.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • The Third Sister/Reva has no compunctions about kidnapping a child and endangering her life to try and lure Obi-Wan out, and then also threatening to torture her afterwards. But she's outclassed by Darth Vader, who straight up snaps a young boy's neck when he tries to attack Vader in defense of his father.
  • As revealed by Obi-Wan's discovery in the Fortress Inquisitorius's secret wing, the Inquisitors will not only hunt down and kill a Jedi youngling, but also put his preserved corpse on display.
  • Flashbacks show Anakin's slaughter of the younglings during the start of Order 66 on-screen and in more disturbing detail than in Revenge of the Sith (warranting a Content Warning at the beginnings of those episodes), but the camera angles still do not show the whole thing.
  • Subverted when Reva goes to Tatooine to hunt down Luke; she fully intended on killing him, but actually preparing to murder a child in cold blood instead leads her to a Heel Realization.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Needless to say, Kenobi initially loses quite badly against Vader despite briefly defending himself, but it's justified in that Kenobi has spent 10 years rarely if ever using his Jedi skills, and he's also quite emotionally conflicted and devastated to see his friend like this. He eventually shakes off the proverbial Flu in full by "Part VI".
  • This is reversed in "Part VI", where Obi-Wan, through his desire to save the Skywalker children manages to arguably reach his greatest heights yet, while Vader ends up losing his temper and slipping back into the bad dueling habits he had as Anakin. This is not helped by him underestimating Obi-Wan and turning his back on him when he had gained the upper hand against him. Subsequently, Obi-Wan manages to pummel Vader.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: With the reveal of their backstory, Reva/Third Sister turns out to be this. In any other story, their background of Where I Was Born and Razed and losing everyone she knows is a standard origin package for The Hero's Journey. For that matter, their ploy of infiltrating the villainous organization who made her miserable to gain vengeance would make for a compelling Revenge is Sweet narrative. Her kind of eagerness and Cowboy Cop tendencies, for that matter, is the hallmark of a Stock Shōnen Hero. Unfortunately, apart from her other Fatal Flaws, she's in Star Wars, where The Chosen One just happened to be The Dragon she was trying to kill for vengeance — and the actual hero of the saga is still enjoying his normal childhood in Tatooine.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • Who else would do this but Darth Vader? Third Sister Reva's renegade behavior leads to her being threatened with a painful death if she fails Vader one time too many, and after the infiltration and escape from the Nur Fortress he very nearly keeps that promise, only sparing her upon learning she put a tracker in Leia's droid, Lola. Afterwards, he states in no uncertain terms that there will be no more second chances, and that if her gamble doesn't pay off, she can say goodbye to her trachea.
  • Implied in "Part VI" where Emperor Palpatine tells Vader that his obsession and attachment to Obi-Wan is becoming a liability to the Empire, one that might warrant immediate correction one way or another. Vader immediately declares that he is no longer obsessed with Obi-Wan and reaffirms his loyalty to the Emperor, not wanting to push his luck with his more powerful master.

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