Star Wars: Why Reva Hates Obi-Wan And Knows Darth Vader is Anakin

The Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi series has introduced a much bigger story than most fans expected – right from the opening scene. Instead of opening the show with the focus on Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor), the series instead chose to start with the dark (and woefully-timed) look at the massacre at the Jedi Temple, during Order 66. It’s now a popular theory that Obi-Wan chose that scene with specific purpose: to help establish one of the series’ main antagonists. 

(WARNING: Obi-Wan SPOILERS Follow!) 

The very first scene of Obi-Wan is, as stated, another look back at the dark night of Order 66, when Anakin Skywalker and a Clone Trooper brigade slaughtered the Jedi inside the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Well, the Obi-Wan series makes a point to show that event from the perspective of young Padawans who try to flee the temple. 

The scene starts off with a Jedi Master doing Tai-Chi exercises with her students before they are ambushed by troopers. After their master falls, the children gather over her body for a moment, and we can clearly see one of them is a black girl with braided hair. It seems like too much coincidence for this child to be included in an opening scene that seemingly holds little other importance to the rest of the show (so far). So why include it? 

Because it’s an origin scene for the one major new character whose backstory we don’t know: Reva (Moses Ingram) 

Reva’s Origin Explained

The themes of Obi-Wan (Episodes 1-3, at the time of writing this) are pretty clear in what they are setting up for Reva in terms of a character arc: In Part III, Obi-Wan conveys to Young Leia how Jedi are taken from their family and that traumatic loss is replaced by inclusion in a different family: The Jedi Order. Part I also made it clear that Obi-Wan’s dedication to Luke Skywalker and the prophecy has made him forsake all familial codes of the Jedi Order – even when Jedi like Nari (Benny Safdie) come seeking Obi-Wan with arms outstretched wide. It’s not hard to imagine Reva having been a true believer in the idea of her Jedi “family,” and therefore one of the most shattered hearts when that family didn’t pull together and instead got crushed under the Empire’s boot. 

It gets deeper than that: the Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order video game had a pretty powerful subplot about the game’s main antagonist, the Inquisitor named Second Sister. That story – of how Jedi Trilla Suduri was captured, tortured, and bent into a servant of the dark side – was a tragic one, ending with her former master Cere Junda trying to redeem Trilla – only for the girl to be struck down by Vader for her failure. 

The key in Jedi: Fallen Order is the depth of conflict and emotional turmoil that can clearly exist in an inquisitor. To Reva, the idea of being abandoned by those who pledged to lead and protect her Jedi family (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda) could be exactly the twisted thought that was used to finally bend Reva to the dark side. 

Why Reva Knows Anakin Skywalker Is Vader

If she was a youngling in the temple during Order 66, Reva would obviously be one of the only people still living to have seen Anakin Skywalker storm the temple and slaughter his fellow Jedi, and the younglings. 

Now, Reva’s character seems to hold no allegiances anymore other than to her own ambition, with her sights set at standing at Vader’s side. It also allows for the possibility that Reva can be redeemed in the end, if Obi-Wan can actually get to the heart she’s so clearly sealed off. 

Obi-Wan Kenobi streams new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.