Weekend Fun: Obi-Wan Has PTSD

It’s yet another weekend! Time for some entertainment! Today I want to feature an older YouTube video titled “Obi-Wan Has PTSD”. It’s one of the more popular fanmade Star Wars videos on YouTube with about 15 million views. So chances are some of you may have already seen it. It’s also not particularly new, it was released six years ago.
But if you don’t know it and think it may be yet another funny meme video you will be surprised, it’s anything but a funny meme video.

The reason why I feature it today is that I think it’s a perfect companion piece to the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+, where Obi-Wan’s PTSD was also a focus early on. However, I feel the fanmade edit does a better  – more subtle – job at explaining why Obi-Wan would suffer from PTSD and how deeply it affects him. And it’s all achieved by editing and splicing existing footage from the movies, combined with some new music. So if you have five minutes to spare check out the video after the jump!

Obi-Wan has PTSD

And here is the video:

I find it fascinating how much Alec Guinness’ performance is transformed by recontextualizing it. Even though Alec certainly didn’t know any actual details about his character’s past, his performance in this edit is still spot on, his subtle body language and even his delivery of the lines fit the edit perfectly. You can feel his pain. But of course Alec Guinness was one of the best actors of his generation and if anyone can pull off a subtle but powerful performance it’s him.

This fan edit is also a perfect showcase for the power of editing and music. An otherwise good movie with good performances can be ruined in the editing room, and a mediocre movie can be elevated to a better level with great editing and some good music. Even Hayden’s performance is transformed in this edit and his performance was often criticized (somewhat unfairly, in my opinion) back when the prequels were first released.

I wonder if the Kenobi writers and showrunner Deborah Chow ever watched that video.

You can find the video on the Samurai Sosa YouTube channel, he doesn’t have much content though.

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