Disney's "check the box" content warning on Kenobi failed Star Wars fans

(Content warning: the below article references violence against children both in fictional media and current events)

Today the Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi series finale broke my trust that my beloved galaxy far far away will always be a place where I can cry, laugh, and process the world without fear of true pain.

As a creative entrepreneur and storyteller, I see my mission as ensuring we remember and honor the effect of fiction media in the way we approach our daily lives. And as much as stories help us process and heal from whatever the world throws our way, stories can also rip open wounds we aren't ready (for a variety of reasons) to begin to heal. This is why content warnings matter.

And content warnings just done for the sake of claiming it's there can take away all the best parts of a story.

How I almost (and did) miss Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi’s content warning

In a mix of jet lag and passion to see where this interlude between the original trilogy and the prequels would end, I jumped out of bed and launched Disney+ on my TV just before 7 am. That sparkling star jumped in its arch above "Disney" in the font I can't remember not recognizing, and I looked away to reach for my tea.

So I almost missed the warning on a plain black screen reading: "There are certain scenes in this fictional series that some viewers may find upsetting."

I immediately thought what in the world is going to happen in this episode that it gets this warning when Part V didn't have it? Am I up for this at 7 am? After a confused vent on my Instagram story and going back to the other episodes, I did learn that three episodes of Kenobi contain the warning: Part I, Part V, and Part VI.

So how did I miss it until the third time in the series it appeared? It's slipped in between the Disney+ logo and the recaps that start each episode, and (at least in Part VI) only runs somewhere between 4 and 5 seconds. Now, I vehemently agree it needs to come before the recap, as what many viewers may find most "upsetting" about the show it's the theme of the fallout of Order 66 in the prequels. For those for whom Order 66 doesn't mean utter heartache just by the term, Kenobi makes sure you are reminded of where the Jedi Order's story ended in the prequel films... with the Jedi children being killed in an attack on their temple.

But barely 5 seconds? How many times has someone hit play as you are still getting cozy on the couch? And how many of us regular streaming platform viewers except a button to skip an intro sequence or recap, so may not pay attention for those few moments until that button appears and we can jump to the new content?

So, we're left to wonder... did Disney always have the warning planned, or did it get added last-minute before the show's premiere date: just three days after the horrific school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The lack of detail in the warning ruined the series finale for me.

My distrust and anger goes far deeper than just the low profile of the warning. My anger is with the fact that the warning barely tells the viewer anything. It actually gives zero power to the viewer to make the choice on if this content is going to serve them well in their present reality or not.

Since I first saw the warning on Part VI, and I've had Order 66 in front of my mind with every episode, when I took a breath, I figured that violence against children was the reason the warning existed.

But with a TV-14 rating, and especially in sci-fi and fantasy, there was a lot more it could be. Order 66 may not hurt my heart any less than some of the other content warnings I pay close attention to when deciding to watch or read something, but for me personally, it's a pain I'm willing to let in where other subjects aren't. And especially for a show that aired three days after Uvalde, there are many who may not have remembered that aspect of Obi-Wan and Anakin's story and if they had, or had a proper warning, would have made a different decision.

The lack of clarity around the warning also meant that I was on my guard for the entire episode, doubting if it was only Order 66 that earned the warning or if something else was coming. The part of my brain that knows how to go fully into a story at the conscious level, while marking it as fiction in the subconscious, never clicked in to allow me the full immersive experience of a well-produced show (like Kenobi) should offer.

Do better Disney.

I've been one of the first to have the company's back with my friends and full of belief that change takes time and incremental progress matters: that companies can learn from their mistakes and do better next time. Maybe it's because I'm naturally a person who gives complete trust until it's broken instead of needing trust to be earned, and while many actions have chipped away at that trust I had in Disney's love of the power of story, this is the moment the well has dried.

Was the concern that giving more specificity to the content warning would give the fans spoilers for the episodes? If so, there are a few things to consider:

1. Content warnings can be rather simple, and just the keywords. The screen just needed to say "violence against children" or something similar/ other warnings for the specific episodes. Disney did not need to write: "...viewers may find upsetting because our a recap of the prequel film trilogy is about to be on the screen where Anakin Skywalker enters the Jedi temple and kills the children there. This then follows with a new scene that goes more in-depth than the film did about what happened in the temple that day. (And for future reference, Anakain's grandson will also murder kids in a school setting in this galaxy's future, though that isn't in the story we are telling here but somehow we're turning this into a trope since we've taken control of the franchise. There's also a whole other show about a character we named "The Child" that is being hunted across the galaxy)."
2. For the content warning to be regarding Order 66, for anyone watching Kenobi, it wouldn't be a spoiler. Star Wars fans know this is where Obi-Wan and Anakin's stories left off, and marketing for the show made it clear where in the galaxy's timeline the show would take place.
3. If there was another concern that I haven't considered of adding more clarification to the warning, Disney still should have given viewers instructions on where to find more information or even offered a QR code that linked to a much more built-out version of the show's detail page. Content warnings are about allowing viewers to opt-in or opt-out, so give them the chance to opt-in to learn more.

The content warning on three out of six episodes of Kenobi was a checkbox and nothing more.

Without any breakdown of why the warning existed (the same sentence is just copied and pasted onto the details page for the show with no additional information) and the limited time the warning was readable on screen, it feels like Disney just wanted a way to say "look, we did the thing" instead of focusing on the intent of the action: to help viewers chose the content that meets the company's mission to "to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling...".

When what we are watching triggers trauma and true fear at our cores (not the fear we need from our media at times), we are not entertained. We are harmed.

When content warnings do not give more precise details, we are not informed.

And when we are afraid, viewing content with trepidation, or unclear, we can never be inspired by the best parts of the story.

My trust is broken today not just because of how poorly the content warning was handled, but also because my frustration and worry distracted me the entire episode. I may go back and watch it again one day because there were so many moments I believe had the power to go down in franchise history as true art.

And I wish that was the Kenobi finale I was going to remember most.