CHARACTER AND STRUCTURE:
I felt it was a shaky and weaker start than I was preferring. The characters and their dynamics felt more clunky and mismatched, to me, mostly. I thought the structure of things was off.
I think the character of Reva isn't intimidating, or interesting, so far, to me, and, to me, has clunky forced scenes, moreso. I'm not sure if it's the writing, directing or acting or some combination of those, but I don't think it has a lot of weight, to me, so far.
The Obi-Wan outright rejecting helping rescue Leia, a child, I thought was dumb. I think there's no reason to make it like that, in that way. I'd like to give the show the benefit of the doubt, that they were writing that as, 'Obi-Wan knows Inquisitors are nearby and that doing something could draw attention and get Luke killed/captured, maybe even draw them to Leia and her potential, though he is tormented by the past, but pushes himself to try and accomplish the final goal of securing Luke's destiny, thinking that's all he has left to do, that fighting can't help from his end, but ensuring Luke's survival will help', but I don't put my faith in normal humans, so I think it's more to justify and/or refer to TLJ's punk whiny pathetic coward loser Luke Skywalker.
Not opening the Obi-Wan show on Obi-Wan, in it's present, I thought was dumb.
I felt the previously on was forced. I felt it'd have worked more, to me, if it's used more as a nightmare Obi-Wan is having and the nightmare reaches the part where Anakin is burning alive, intercut with Padme dying and Obi-Wan agreeing to watch over Luke, Bail saying he'll take Leia, Obi-Wan giving Luke to Beru and Owen, then showing Anakin burning alive, more and more, with the music rising and getting more intense, with Obi-Wan saying he loves Anakin, and Anakin screaming that he hates Obi-Wan, SMASH CUT to Obi-Wan waking up from his nightmare, as the words "I have failed you, Anakin" echoing in his head, and then show him going on about his day. The deal with the other stuff.
CANON:
Continuity wise (and maybe they'll do this, but in a different way, but I'm not sure if it's pointed in that direction), I think it could've worked more if Leia doesn't know he's a jedi and he tells her his name is Ben and she never learn a lot much else about him. They can still bond, she can begin to trust him (she doesn't fully know how, but she can feel his emotions, his pain, the fear he has of being caught, how closed off he is because of these things and his desire to protect someone close to him and that he helps her in spite of it), he likes her (maybe her sassyness reminds him of Anakin). Leia, someone who had no real idea of the outside galaxy's suffering and those who take heroic action in spite of it, is inspired by this man's heroic actions. Obi-Wan is reminded of the drive to fight (having thought that all his destiny was left was to teach Luke) in this little girl's drive and resilience. The story concludes...
Then in ANH time, her dad tells her to get Obi-Wan Kenobi's help. Leia doesn't know who this is, though she agrees and gets the death star plans, goes to tatooine to give them to him, but gets captured. Then later, when Luke comes in, he tells her, "I'm here with Ben Kenobi." Leia's moment of surprise with the line, "Ben Kenobi?!" is now re-contextualized as a realization that the man who rescued her as a child, who went by Ben, IS Obi-Wan.
CASTING CANON:
LEIA: The Leia actress I feel like, was probably 8 or something when they filmed this, if she's 9 now, like I've read. I'm put off by that. Cast a 10 year old to play a 10 year old. Why not do that? Or, at least, set this 7 or 8 years after ROTS, instead of 10.
BREHA ORGANA: In theory, I can understand not necessarily casting the actress who played Breha Organa in Revenge Of The Sith (Rebecca Jackson Mendoza), as she's not an active actress, as far as I've read (even though she's done a few other things or so and, as far as I've read, is still capable of performing), but they race changed the character: The Breha Organa actress is filipino, not maori. This is a thing I could understand if there was some shortage of filipino actresses, or it being harder to find as far as more active actresses go, but as far as I think I've seen in the past, there's not. If you can't get her, at least cast her sister, who is a more active actress (Natalie Mendoza)or, at the very least, cast another filipino actress.
I may not care that much about racial issues, like this, but I prefer consistency. The bare minimum I push for is that the characters be the races their characters are supposed to be.
I think either...
Natalie Mendoza
Nia Peeples
or...
Lea Salonga
Are all more race accurate castings, for example, than who they cast for Breha Organa.
