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Before it was a TV series, Obi-Wan Kenobi was a single movie. And while obviously some things were changed between the two, a constant presence was the Third Sister.
There she is, you know her name, it's Reva from the block;
you know she talks the talk but tonight she walks the walk! She's comin' out hot, and going for the throat, she's got the lethal spins but can she take out the GOAT?
So thanks, Auralnauts for helping us fill up room next to the photo of the toy; I promised I'd use these lyrics and I now I have. From a story standpoint, introducing a new member of the Inquisatorius makes sense: we know the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan can't really change from where it was at the end of Episode III and where it is at the start of Episode IV, so Obi-Wan needs somebody to either get in a fight with or save. Or both. In the original film draft, Reva's backstory was basically the same, but she would have ended the story killed by Darth Vader: she'd report that she had killed Kenobi, which would piss Anakin off enough to kill her in turn; and that's why he'd be so caught off guard when he senses Ob-Wan in the Death Star in the first film.
Reva was played by Moses Ingram, who followed in the footsteps of John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran by becoming the target of weird racists who
incorrectly consider themselves Star Wars fans; difference was that this time, Lucasfilm (and even Ewan McGregor) directly addressed it, so now the losers aren't able to lie about it after the fact, pretending it never happened. There's something about the toy's likeness that makes her end up looking quite a bit like Cere Junda's Debra Wilson, like they grabbed the wrong photo file when it came time to print the paint on or something. Maybe it's because the eyes are set so deep in the face?
Reva wears black armor, just like all
her brothers and sisters. On the actual costume, the bodysuit appears to be soft cloth of some sort, with ribbed panels on the insides of the legs and arms done in grey. The boots, bracers, and the armor on her chest look like leather. The armor is a tight jacket with flared shoulders sticking out over pauldrons, a bit of a raised collar, and just a bit of material sticking down below the belt. She has a softgoods cape that's split into two tails falling from her shoulders, and though her braided hair is pulled up to the top of her head, a ponytail still reaches down to her shoulders.
Articulation is usual for the Star Wars Black Series:
a barbell head, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel/hinge elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, a balljointed chest, balljoint hips, swivel thighs, swivel/hinge knees, and swivel/hinge ankles. The elbows are designed to get a pretty deep bend despite only having one joint, and the shoulder bells are soft PVC so they don't block the arms. Why would you not just sculpt them as part of the arm? That's how they appear to be on the actual costume.
The Third Sister carries an Inquisitor lightsaber, one of those goofy double-bladed ones that have a circle and can spin around, except hers can't because it's only a half-circle. Reva's has the additional feature of being able to split in half, with the outer ring retracting
so it doesn't look awkward. The toy can't do that, but she does come with two separate sabers to at least simulate it. Did they really need to include four red lightsaber blades for them? Like, are you going to have both the connected and disconnected versions fired up at once? Couldn't Hasbro have just given us two blades so we could switch them as desired? The full hilt can plug into the right side of her belt, but the way it interacts with her hip means you'll either have to tip it forward or back, rather than hanging straight down.
Without spoiling anything from the series, Reva turned out to be a really interesting character with a unique motivation. Naturally, the people who were mad at her for... being black? Being a woman? Both? Whatever it was, they tried desperately to sell the idea that she was poorly written and unpopular. Like the dude who said to me "why did you buy a riva figure? even among collectors its worthless." [sic] Really, "Squire Muldoon"? Toy's been on shelves for like a week, tell me more about how slowly it's selling. This Black Series Action figure lives up to her portrayal, and will be great hunting Obi-Wan.
-- 01/28/23
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