Embarrassing Admission

I seriously overestimated the main writer of Obi-Wan Kenobi.  

One of the main features of this show has been Reee-va’s grudge against Obi-Wan.  You were supposed to guess at her motivation for wanting to kill him.  And it now turns out that this show would have been much better off with any of your guesses then the writer’s answer.

The first scene in this entire show is a bunch of Younglings practicing their lightsaber drills.  Then order 66 kicks off.  Their teacher is killed, and the Younglings make a run for it.  Fade to black.  

Not a bad start.

It’s obvious that Third Sister Inquisitor Reee-va was the black Youngling.  And she is absolutely obsessed with finding Obi-Wan.  They don’t explain why, and you are meant to be drawn in by the mystery.

My own guess was this:

It was an attempt to address the long-standing ethical problems created by the Younglings.  In The Empire Strike Back, there is an offhand comment by Yoda, “he’s too old to begin the training.”

The implication being that back when the Jedi existed, they would offer training to potential Jedi-Squires (the word Padawan didn’t exist back then) to teenagers in an age bracket that was probably in the 14 to 15 range. Maybe a bit young, but certainly old enough to have decided what you wanted to do with your life.  Sure, it’s usually a mistake but presumably, Jedi precognition (which was a thing in that one movie, if no other) could weed out the candidates who literally had no future as a Jedi Knight.

This wasn’t explained in the movie, you just made some assumptions based on other things in pop culture.

But Lucas was determined to make the Second Trilogy very kid-friendly.  So, Lucas had Younglings toddling around with what I hope were harmless practice lightsabers.

The Jedi entrance age appeared to be about six years old.

This presents a huge morale problem for the Jedi.

Did the Jedi just show up and snatch the kids that showed promise?  Did the parents have no say at all? And let’s say, the kids were volunteers but six-years-old is way too young for a kid to make a life choice.  Promise a kid that age, join the Jedi and you’ll get magic powers and a laser sword and he’s gonna say, YES!!!

And that is ignoring the fact that the Jedi are celibates, and you are committing to that life before you know what you are giving up.

I’m hardly the first one to point this stuff out. It’s a long standing issue.

My assumption was that Obi-Wan had been her recruiter when she was a child and that she was furious about having been taken from her real family and then thrown into a universe of horror when Order 66 was executed.  My guess had been that Reee-va was furious with Obi-Wan for bringing her into the Jedi.

Nope.

She was mad as hell at Kenobi for not protecting her and her little Youngling friends.

I don’t know why I thought it would be something interesting.  Nothing else on this show is.