Reviews

The show finally justifies Obi-Wan telling Luke that he once believed there was still good in Vader, and also calling him "Darth" in Episode 4. It was a good, bittersweet episode. However, I couldn't help but think that Obi-Wan should have had a more active role in persuading Reva throughout the series.

The parallels between Reva and Vader have been very well built up. (I suspect that the name "Reva" may have started out as an anagram of "Vader," dropping the "d" to make it less on-the-nose.) Wouldn't it have been more satisfying if the show ended with Obi-Wan saving Reva, while coming to terms with the fact that Anakin is truly gone? I mean, that is what the episode is going for, but it's less effective since Obi-Wan is mostly just a witness to her redemption.

Other than that, this episode was fun to watch. There were lots of cool moments and references, some of which I laughed out loud at. From "hello there" and "then my friend is truly dead" to the visual reference to Vader and Ahsoka's duel in Rebels, there were plenty of things for fans to enjoy.

Tl;dr review first: Best episode so far. I liked Reva's parallels with Vader and their duel. I also enjoyed the flashbacks and how they tie into the main events. However, I still wish Obi-Wan himself got more focus, and I'm finding it hard to care about most of the other characters.

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Look, I haven't been the biggest fan of this series myself, but I feel like people are either misunderstanding Reva's arc or decided they hated her early on and now can't see anything positive about her.

I've seen some people complain that Reva shouldn't be this evil/violent due to her traumatic past. But that's exactly the point. She's been so consumed by her hatred, vengeance, and need for victory that she can't see her own hypocrisy. Or perhaps she can see it and just doesn't care.

Vader is the same way. He has no problem tearing families apart when that serves his goal, despite the trauma of losing his mother, wife, and (he believes at this point) children. Reva is becoming like Vader--becoming the very thing that she swore to destroy, just like he already has.

However, I understand people's complaints that Reva seems to be more of a main character than Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan does have kind of an arc, but it's not that interesting; it's just him going from a cynical, defeated old man to a slightly less cynical, defeated old man. Hopefully the finale can turn things around in that regard. I know this is a problem inherent to midquels--there is very little wiggle room for established characters--but surely there are ways around it.

I've been disappointed that Hayden Christensen was being wasted, so the flashback was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. The way the flashbacks were framed as though Vader was still learning from Obi-Wan after all these years (especially the fake spaceship scene, although the logistics of that were very wonky) was brilliant. It kind of reminded me of Vader telling Ahsoka that "revenge is not the Jedi way" when they met in Rebels, as though she was still his Padawan. Of course, Vader's "duel" with Reva was a highlight as well.

My main problem with this whole series is that I just can't bring myself to care about the side characters. Tala seemed kinda cool, but her death did very little for me. Not as bad as that Wade guy's death from the previous episode, but yeah.

That was incredible. It's got an amazing cinematic feel. It looks great, the characters are well written, the action is phenomenal, and it's LONG, which makes me even more excited for the rest of the finale. I can't wait to see what the next three episodes have in store.



Somewhat of a spoiler (I put up a warning just in case): Ahsoka says in Rebels that the last time she saw Anakin was when he was rushing off to save the chancellor, which happens in this episode. It makes me sad to think that they're never going to see each other again after that very brief reunion, especially because they were both acting like they were expecting to reunite after the end of the war. (I mean, that does technically happen, just not exactly the way they expected...)