Warning: This post containers spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part IV
While Disney Plus’ Star Wars prequel sequel Obi-Wan Kenobi has come under fire for playing loose with the continuity for the franchise, one eagle-eyed redditor has deduced that a plot twist at the end of the most recent episode actually helps set up the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, the original film that kickstarted the film/television/videogame/Lego/holiday special juggernaut.
At the end of “Part IV,” Reva, a Jedi hunter with aspirations to the title of Grand Inquisitor, has allowed Darth Vader’s old teacher-turned-enemy Obi-Wan, played by Ewan McGregor, to escape with young Princess Leia. As he’s force-choking Reva, she manages to explain that she’s actually placed a tracker on the Obi-Wan’s ship, allowing the nascent Empire to track the budding Rebellion to their base.
Since we never hear of Reva or the title of “Grand Inquisitor” in any other Star Wars media outside of a video game, one can assume it doesn’t go terribly well for her. But redditor “sloppylaw” on the Star Wars Speculation subreddit pointed out that Vader would one day use this trick on Luke Skywalker and Han Solo:
Redditors really responded to this theory, which led to a full discussion of other problems fans had with the show. Craiglet13 responded wondering why the series didn’t have Obi-Wan originate another trick that could have really helped him as he navigated the fortress where Leia was being held hostage:
And Stevenstorm505 shared a wisecrack his wife shot off in response to this point:
And further down the thread, AnEldritchReverie found security in the episode lax even by Empirical standards:
And ChiefJointsofStaff chimed in asking why Obi-Wan hiding Leia under his coat actually worked:
Meanwhile, addressing the main point of the original post, AndrewJS2804 took the time to make fun of a ridiculous thing George Lucas once said when bragging about how the story of the prequel series meshed perfectly with the original:
A discussion about how placing a tracker in Leia’s droid would be pointless led to this excellent point that Obi-Wan would just drop her off at home and continue back to Tattooine:
And we’ll give the final word to ItsAmerico, who is bemused at Star Wars’ need to explain where everything in the series comes from:
