"rip to the helicopter lightsaber"

but my faith in disney's ability to keep a secret has been restored.

WOW.

This morning I made plans to go to bed early, set an alarm for 3 a.m. (I’m already done with ET) and get up to watch the first two installments of KENOBI. Lucky for me, the Disney+ and Lucasfilm gods felt generous and released the show three hours early, right before I was about to try and fall asleep. I then thought that after watching I’d head straight to bed, but after the absolutely thrilling jump cut to close episode two, I am wide awake and writing to all of you.

We all know I had high expectations for this show going in. So high, that I spent a good portion of today worrying that I was going to be let down by the first two episodes. Instead, I am having to curb my urge to just spit random words and phrases at you all because of my absolute excitement about how this show has started out.

Pure reactions first.

I was absolutely GIDDY with joy when Alderaan’s capital city and then our young princess Leia came on screen. While it felt like there would probably be at least some sort of mention of her — she is just as important as Luke, after all — we all know Obi-Wan’s job coming out of Revenge of the Sith was to protect Luke. Getting to spend more time with Leia is an unimaginable blessing; I couldn’t help but think how excited Carrie Fisher would have been to see this young actress playing an already amazingly strong and sassy Leia at 10 years old. “You don’t sound like you’re 10.” “Thank you!” might have been the best dialogue exchange of the entire first two episodes.

After a year of what’s felt like Disney giving up every major plot point it has in store (save for the John Krasinski as Reed Richards reveal in Dr. Strange: MOM, which also got me), Leia’s MAJOR involvement in this series being kept completely under wraps is such a beautiful thing to me. I cannot wait to hear about all of yours and the Internet’s reactions to her.

I wouldn’t be me if I did not spend an exorbitant amount of time on the literal seconds of Anakin/Vader content we got at the end of episode two. Reader, I SCREAMED at the jump cut from Obi-Wan’s face as he realized Anakin was alize to ANAKIN HIMSELF ALL HOOKED UP IN HIS LITTLE BACTA TANK. We had a bit of a discussion about how Obi-Wan didn’t know he was live in one of my groupchats, so here’s a little refresher:

In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin is dubbed Lord Vader by Palpatine before being sent to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and then Mustafar. Obi-Wan and Yoda later watch a recording of this happening, so Obi-Wan becomes aware of his padawan’s new title. When Obi-Wan leaves Anakin on Mustafar after chopping off 3/4 of his limbs, Obi-Wan believes Anakin/Vader to be dead. He does not expect him to survive that. He probably wouldn’t have if Palpatine hadn’t have interfered and used Padme’s life force, but that’s a different conversation.

Since then, we know Obi-Wan has given up the Jedi way and is therefore less connected to the Force, which is likely the reason he hasn’t sensed Anakin being alive in the past 10 years. Plus, he’s traumatized. Give the dude a break.

You can find screenshots of my raw, unedited thoughts from while I was watching both episodes at the bottom of this email.

Now onto theories & predictions.

My main one that I had literally from the second we finished the poorly-timed return to Order 66 focused on a group of younglings is that Reva (The Third Sister) is the Jedi youngling we see guide her peers out of the Temple in the intro. There is so much evidence to support this theory scattered throughout the episode. I will be incredibly disappointed, and also confused, if I end up being wrong.

To me, it’s the most obvious reason she would be so set on getting vengeance against Obi-Wan. That is one motivated woman, and what would be more motivating than her believing that it’s Obi-Wan’s fault Anakin turned to the darkside and killed all her mentors and peers? Also, sure Obi-Wan was famous during the Clone Wars era, but was he really that famous that some random little girl (because she definitely seems to be on the younger side) would have known of him?

Additionally, how the heck does she know Anakin is Vader? I don’t think that was info Darth Vader or the Emperor were just sharing willy nilly. That felt like another hint that she has previous ties specifically to the Jedi Order, not just the Force — because we know all Inquisitors are Force users.

I have a few questions…

• Did the Grand Inquisitor really get yoked like that? Surely not considering he was first introduced in Star Wars: Rebels a show that takes place AFTER KENOBI. But Reva kind of yoked him, sooooo… anyways, as my friend and “You Leik That” podcast guest Jake said, “Rip to the helicopter lightsaber *salute emoji*”

• It probably won’t be safe to take Leia back to Alderaan immediately, so where will she go? Will she be part of a run-in with Vader, setting up some of the odd familiarity I’ve always felt was present between the two in A New Hope?

• WHY ISN’T FORCE GHOST QUI GON PICKING UP OBI-WAN’S CALLS?! Very rude of him if you ask me, and I was quite literally on the edge of my seat every time Obi-Wan said his name waiting for Liam Neeson to appear on my screen.

Whew. I am so excited you guys. I know there’s a lot that could go wrong in four episodes, and I’m gonna need more Anakin/Vader (& a Satine reference, Ahsoka cameo, and heck, why not mention the Bad Batch or something), but after seeing these two episodes I am very confident in the product that’s being delivered to us.

I’m going to try and answer more questions on Twitter, so be sure to head over there and either reply to my tweet with this newsletter or hit my DMs! Cannot wait to chat KENOBI with you all.