veryfuller said:
Its clear that this was Osha POV and that we will flash back to this night several more times and see others POVs. My point is we are 3 episodes in and the plot has essentially screeched to a halt, we still don't really know or care about any characters, and the flashback-to-event-as-seen-from-multiple-perspectives structure that we all now think is happening has been set up poorly.
I'm not trashing the story, because I don't know what it is. I just think, as we have seen, the telling of it has been bad so far. I will keep watching and reserve my final judgement for when it wraps up, but I guess I am on a hard to win over path, based on what we have seen so far + how the other Star Wars shows have failed to stick any sort of landing (save for Mando season 1 and Andor).
Can I ask, are there characters that you like? Care about? Do you know what conflict needs to be overcome and more importantly, who you want to overcome in that conflict? I really want to know if others are connecting to the characters/story and this just isn't working for me.
Well I have the unfair advantage of watching it with twin sisters who are the same age as Osha/Mae so that's a built-in advantage for connecting and really talking through the episode of what we think is happening. We stop the episode probably 6-8 times to talk about what we think is happening, what characters are thinking, etc.
Moreover, I find the concept of different groups of Force users really fascinating. I won't go into the specific examples of previous usage because it will bore everyone to death, but there have been a few in novels over the past 30 years that are pretty interesting. That and the Jedi's hubris that they get to decide who uses the Force, as referenced by Luke in TLJ, is also really fascinating to me. I'd love to know when they stopped serving the Force and starting serving the Republic; it reminds me of the sub-plot of A Song of Ice and Fire where the Night's Watch forgot who the real enemy was - the White Walkers - and started believing they were there to protect the 7 Kingdoms against the Wildlings.
I care about Osha because I'm pretty convinced her whole life is a lie, and if that's the case, she's going to get to a breaking point where she makes a decision to be good, or to be good to herself and not care about everyone else. I really want to know why she left the order, especially, and even have some thoughts that perhaps something happened where she started to figure out / remember things about Brendok and the JEdi gave her the old "Men in Black" flashy light thing and convinced her she really wanted to be a meknek.
I care about Qimir because I'm convinced he's the Sith Lord and I really like the idea of a Sith who is a lot more of a manipulator/sorcerer/poisoner than a hack and slash warrior like Maul.
I care about Sol because he's very Qui-Gon like, except I think he's probably the biggest liar on the whole show. Of all the memories Osha has of the Brendok event in Episode 3, 95% of them are Sol being this compassionate, kind guy who is looking out for her. But if their whole relationship is built on a lie, what happens when she finds out?
Although he's dead, i care about Torbin, because it looks like he got the worst of it on Brendok, and carries those scars with him to the point where killing himself seemed better than admitting what had happened. That means that 4 Jedi are lying their asses off to the Council and keeping something a secret for more than a decade. what the hell did they do?
I care about Vernestra, because she's one of my favorite characters from the High Republic book series - she's knighted even younger than Anakin was, and during a time of relative peace. She's involved in some pretty daring stuff early on, then loses faith in the Jedi Council and decides to go her own route and follow the will of the Force, even though there's a war going on, she focuses on taking time to grieve and heal. Now it's 100 years later, and she's either on the Jedi Coucil or is a mid-level authority figure there, but is nothing like the Rwoh I knew int he last book I read. What happened to her? What drove her wholesome view of the Force away and left her as a friggin bureaucrat?
I care about Yord because he's the gold standard of what a Jedi seems to be in that era, but that means the Jedi are exceptionally brittle. I do think if Yord found out the truth about what happened on Brendok, he would be duty bound to arrest Sol and Kelbacca, which is lack of malleability speaks volumes to the rigid conditions that the Jedi led themselves into, to where Papatne manipulated them into getting killed in a war serving a role that made no sense (generals).
Based on my own theories, the conflict has shifted from keeping Mae from killing Sol/Kelbacca to unraveling the mystery of what happened on Brendok, and what Osha will do with her life when she finds out the truth. I think in the grand scheme of things, this is an origin story to her becoming a Sith apprentice inside the walls of the Jedi Temple, which could have some really fascinating plots in later seasons.
