May The 4th: "Well, of course I know him. He's me."

May 27th will see the release of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+ - "long awaited" is far overused in these situations, so let's go with "eagerly anticipated" instead, just for the sake of variety.

You have to wonder a bit why Disney wouldn't release the show today, it seems like such a logical move, but I recognize that there may be imperatives other than May the 4th tie-ins in their broadcasting strategy.

The series takes place ten years after The Revenge of the Sith, so presumably Obi-Wan has been either on the run or in hiding for all that time.  He looks a bit lost in the trailers:  tired, worn, and presumably suffering from guilt, depression and anger regarding the fall of the Empire and the destruction of the Jedi.

He may be seeking redemption by watching over and training Anakin's son, but it looks like Luke's Uncle Owen is not eager to give Obi-Wan access to his adopted nephew - after all, his last padawan's track record is hardly the best testimonial for acquiring another apprentice.  This is a smart move, because it explains why Luke only knows Obi-Wan casually as a crazy old hermit who lives on the other side of the Dune Sea.  

It also looks like Obi-Wan will have other things to worry about.  The trailers feature the Jedi-hunting Inquisitors from the Rebels animated series, with their distinctive armour and double-bladed rotated lightsabers. (Come to think of it, Obi-Wan's presence on Tatooine as Luke's guardian has already been used as a plot point in Rebels.)  

And that reveals the greatest challenge that the series faces.  As we've already learned with the prequel trilogy, it can be confusing when there's a lot of future history* already in place.    According to the official Star Wars timeline that's included with the announcement (see below), Obi-Wan Kenobi comes before Rebels, so anything that happens in the new series has to avoid contradicting seven movies and four streamed series worth of plot development.

Similarly, Obi-Wan Kenobi witnesses the return of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, which is an interesting decision - really, anyone could wear the armour, but I appreciate that it offers some opportunities for further exploration of the conflicted relationship between Vader and Kenobi as portrayed by the original actors.  However, any encounter between the two is unlikely to provide closure, given that we all know what's going to happen in A New Hope. 

Issues of future continuity aside, I sincerely hope that the show will address the one great mystery from Episode IV - why was everyone calling him Ben?

- Sid

* "Future history" is one of those terms that you get used to in these situations.

And now, without further ado:

THE OFFICIAL STAR WARS TIMELINE NOT INCLUDING A TON OF BELOVED LEGACY MATERIAL THAT IS NO LONGER CANON AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT.

Me?

 As part of my company's employee engagement process, we took part in a Gallup™ poll which uses our answers to create a Strengths profile.

Apparently my top five strengths include the fact that I like to collect things and that the future fascinates me.  Imagine my surprise.

Hopefully we're not paying too much for the unearthing of these deeply, deeply buried personal mysteries.

- Sid

What if Julie Nolke caused the pandemic?

Does everyone know who Julie Nolke is?  Her YouTube™ channel went viral, as they say on the interwebs, when she posted her Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self video in April of 2020.  She's done six sequels in which Future Julie once again delivers the latest bad news to Present Julie (or Present Julie to Past Julie, time travel can make that sort of designation hard to manage). 

But what if this is a tragic (and catastrophic) example of the Butterfly Effect?  Here's the scenario:

At some point in the present, Julie6 contracts COVID-19, but visits her past self before testing positive.  In a domino chain of time jumps, Julie infects Julie again and again, until eventually one of the Julies infects pre-pandemic Julie Prime with the virus.  In the video, Julie2 doesn't actually tell Julie Prime what's going on behind her odd lifestyle advice (ironically, to avoid the Butterfly Effect), so she's unaware that her symptoms could be anything other than a standard Canadian cold, albeit a worse case than usual.  

Julie Prime innocently goes out to Toronto's Chinatown for dinner, regardless of her odd loss of sense of taste, where she infects a waiter, who infects his brother, who then flies to China to visit relatives...and the rest is history, at least in 2022.

Funny how this sort of thing never comes up on Doctor Who - surely there's a possibility that one of the companions may have had a touch of alien flu during one of the Doctor's visits to Earth's past, perhaps circa 1347 or thereabouts?

- Sid