Editor's Note: The following contains Obi-Wan Kenobi spoilers.Obi-Wan Kenobi is proving to be a defining series in the Star Wars saga, and yet another win for Disney+. There has been much to take in, and at the half-way point there promises to be even more. We are reacquainted with Kenobi (Ewan MacGregor, masterfully echoing the late Sir Alec Guinness) at his lowest. He is broken, fearful, and reluctant to return to his Jedi ways, having cut himself off from the Force. We get our first glimpse at the peaceful world of Alderaan, with its sweeping beauty of lush green forest and snow-capped mountains, and its capital city Aldera, a regal display of gleaming white. Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton) is given a depth that we haven't seen in any iteration, harboring a resentment to Kenobi and a desire to raise Luke (Grant Feely) in a normal environment. The Inquisitors are formidable villains. A brief glimpse of Luke seems to show he does have his father in him, pretending to be a pilot or a pod racer. Speaking of his father - Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) makes a spectacular, deeply menacing return in the third episode.
The most delightful revelation so far, though, has to be Princess Leia, as played by Vivien Lyra Blair. It isn't easy to step into the shoes of an iconic character, especially in Star Wars, but Blair has embraced the character effortlessly, holding her own against the likes of Ewan MacGregor and Jimmy Smits. It’s almost as if they went back in time to cast a young Carrie Fisher herself.
An important feature that Blair brings to Leia is a foundation for the traits and skills we associate with the adult Leia. These are innate characteristics of Leia that aren't fully developed yet, what one would expect from a child still learning to marry them with patience, common-sense, and diplomacy. She is fearless, standing up to her captors in a manner not unlike how Leia talks to Vader in Star Wars: A New Hope, openly defiant in the face of danger. She is an impulsive, quick thinker, which has been both helpful (passing her and Kenobi off as 'father/daughter farmers from Tawl' to get transport and past a first group of stormtroopers) and dangerous (said transport's driver, Freck (Zach Braff), selling them out to a second set of stormtroopers, or running away from Kenobi at her earliest opportunity on Daiyu). We've seen the same from adult Leia, like impulsively seizing on the opportunity to kill Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi, although those decisions do come with life experiences.
Then there are the things that Blair does with her portrayal that are only hinted at, or assumed, in Fisher's Leia, which rounds out the legacy of the character. Her epic takedown of her older, snobby cousin is absolutely brilliant. We've never seen Leia do a full dress-down of another character to such a perceptive degree, but it does not seem out of place by any stretch of the imagination. Her attempts at escaping from royal functions (including the use of a body double, a humorous link to her mother's own use of one in The Phantom Menace) to be out in the woods paints her as a normal kid, with no interest in her entitlement, opting to be out in the open with the world outside her station. This would have been something that, presumably, would have led to her appointment as General Leia, wanting to fight with the people and not be protected by them. We are also privy to her inquisitive nature, asking Kenobi questions about the Force and how it feels (maybe sensing it in herself), her mother, and if he might be her father. Blair doesn't come across as annoying, or demanding of answers — her Leia simply wants to know, setting up her future as a fully confident heroine.
The one truly important asset that Blair brings to the character is optimism. It is the one common, strong thread that ties together the entire saga, right up to Leia's final moments in The Rise of Skywalker, and beyond. What Blair allows us to see are the roots of that optimism, and her deft touch in doing so is masterly. It's something that could very well go off the rails quite easily. If she's too optimistic, Leia becomes a naive, ditzy kid, and if she's not optimistic enough, she is no longer impactful. Blair sells the balance in the character. When she asserts that there are people who want to help, or that she will be saved, we don't dismiss it. She believes it wholeheartedly, and in doing so it impels the viewer to believe it as well. The significance of her optimism, and how Blair delivers it, has an immediate value. It has already started to affect Obi-Wan positively, his demeanor warming in her presence. It has forged a bond between the two, one that is proving to Kenobi that his obsession with overseeing and protecting Luke at all costs is limiting, and that Leia, too, is someone special. The optimism that Blair's Leia is given also pays off down the road, deepening our understanding of the character in the time that follows. It is what draws people to the Rebellion, a belief that the Empire could be stopped, that their menacing Death Stars were vulnerable. It's the optimism we see in Leia as she leads a diminished Resistance against the First Order in The Force Awakens, a belief that, for anyone else, should have been dashed when the First Order rose from the ashes of the Empire. And it's the optimism that Leia had at her end, the belief that others would come to their aid to destroy the First Order outright, a belief rewarded with the hundreds of ships that arrived from across the galaxy to battle in the space above Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker.
Much of what Obi-Wan Kenobi was expected to deliver has come to pass in its first three episodes, but it would be fair to say that most would not have expected that it is Leia's story and her growing relationship with the troubled Jedi master that has captured the imagination of the public, a testament to the talent of a young actress who has risen to the challenge.