“Anakin knew he wasn’t ready to be trained with a lightsaber yet, but this one held a special interest for him. Obi-Wan Kenobi had been Darth Vader’s Jedi teacher, and his Uncle Luke’s first teacher, too. Anakin ran a finger up the ridged handle and over the power stud, but did not press it.
Thunder boomed from the speakers hidden in the walls, but Anakin did not stop until he stood directly before Orloc. Then, pressing the switch on the handle of Kenobi’s blade, Anakin ignited the lightsaber. The blade hummed in his hand, a bright pure blue sending its light through the darkness.”
- Junior Jedi Knights: Vader’s Fortress & Kenobi’s Blade, by Rebecca Moesta
As something of a follow-up to my most recent post, here we have what is perhaps the ultimate example of the “How it started vs. how it’s going,” meme.
Growing up in what is arguably the Golden Era of Star Wars media, aka the mid-90′s to 00′s, both of these sabers exist as touchstones of their respective eras. Between having an electronic toy of the former (circa the year of our Lourd 2002), and watching ANH religiously, these sabers are etched into my mind with astonishing clarity. They also go on to further illustrate the dichotomy between the Prequel Era and the Original Trilogy, offering insight into the mind of George Lucas:
In an era when few people had the imagination to dream of a far-off land of action, adventure and daring-do in the face of an evil empire, we see Lucas borrowing from the older traditions of storytelling, upon which to hang the framework of his Space Opera. The 1970′s was a time of incredible cultural upheaval; the United States had just lost the war in Vietnam, and the nation was facing an identity crisis. This was an era when dower, heavy films like Taxi Driver and first two Godfather films came out - a far cry from the fairy-tale-like imagination which infuses the Star Wars saga. In those early years, Lucas sought to create a lived-in world, turning over his vision to talented production designers like Roger Christian to bring his world to life. The design of the actual props & sets are owed to Christian & concept artists like Ralph McQuarrie as much as Lucas himself. That’s not even to mention his collaboration with incredible screenwriters like Leigh Brackett & Lawrence Kasdan.
In stark contrast, the Prequel Era was conceived in its entirety by Lucas and - some could argue - for Lucas. Unlike the collaborative art from adversity that characterizes the Original Trilogy, Lucas wrote, produced and directed each of the Prequel films. This much narrower, myopic view makes the Prequels feel so much cleaner & sterilized, when compared to the OT. It lost some of its humanity, as it were. Granted, this does serve as a pretty effective narrative thread; the Prequels present us with a Utopian vision (on the surface) of the Old Republic so often alluded to in the OT, where the Jedi are many and powerful, when all the while, it’s rotten to its very core. The OT gives us a world that’s almost dystopian; everything is old, rusted, greasy & oil-stained. This universe has seen better days, long long ago - but at its heart, the story and by extension the protagonists, are all morally good - and light triumphs in the end.
With the benefit of nearly twenty years of hindsight - and seeing what others can do with Star Wars - this really is a wonderful idea. It’s just really hard to enjoy the Prequels because of literally everything else going on in them. From the questionable casting choices, stilted dialogue, CGI effects that have not exactly aged gracefully & Lucas’ strange desire to attribute the Force to Midichlorians or whatever that was, they’re just bad movies.
But you know what? I’ll still take them over the Sequels. 100%.
At the very least, you can tell that there are ideas behind what Lucas was trying to do with the Prequels, despite the fact that he just forgot how to make movies. The sequels don’t have any trace of connecting tissue, aside from a handful of characters that all happen to share names across three tonally, completely different corporate vehicles.
Circling back around to the relevant topic at hand; here, in a single pair of images, we have the entire philosophy & production design of the Star Wars Saga distilled to their most basic elements. Likewise, they tell the story of a young Jedi who became a great Master, only to witness everything he sought to protect and build up, torn down and destroyed. And while I have little faith in Kathleen Kennedy’s producer-ship (and the fact that she said early drafts of the Kenobi scripts were too bleak), I can’t help but be just a little excited to see Ewan McGregor play Obi-Wan Kenobi again.
