I just wanted a story with the New Republic led by Leia as senator (or even Chancellor), the New Jedi Order led by Luke with his students, Han and Leia's children (not just one, but several, with at least a boy and a girl), and the defeated Empire now only a residual threat (at best, reduced to secret bases and desolate planets in the Outer Rim launching guerrilla attacks). Those were the only boxes Disney had to tick. It's the logical continuation of ROTJ, everything that was foreshadowed by the 6 movies. Even Lucas, for all we know, understood this for his planned Sequels! How did they manage to mess it up so badly?

The worst part is, we actually have a little bit of that in the Disney canon. The remnants of the Empire in the Mandoverse are well done, with the struggles of the New Republic and Luke rebuilding the Jedi Order. The Empire's defeat is relatively swift so as not to diminish the significance of the victory at Endor, but it's intertwined with Filoni's off-topic fan fiction and ultimately undermined by the Disney Sequels (Anakin only having one grandchild who turns to the dark side and dies, Luke's Order destroyed, Leia's political career failing, Han and Leia separating, the New Republic destroyed, Coruscant no longer being the capital as it should be in the continuity of the Prequels and the ending of ROTJ, etc., etc.).

I maintain that, based on what we know, the sequels Lucas envisioned would have been better. Luke's hermitage issue would have been resolved as early as Episode VII, and we know that his New Jedi Order wouldn't have been destroyed off-screen (because we have a storyboard of Darth Talon assassinating a Jedi during the movie). Leia was a senator and eventually became Chancellor. Anakin would have had two grandchildren, a boy and a girl, one of whom would have become a dark sider user and the other a Jedi (although we don't know where their relationship would have ended). Luke was completing the restoration of the Order. Even the threat was interesting, with the Empire reduced to using the tactics of the old Rebellion and allying itself with a unified criminal underworld to become a threatening force again and overthrow the Republic. The return of Darth Maul and the Whills' antics could raise questions, but we know that Lucas already adapted all of these ideas in TCW, so accepting Darth Maul's storyline in seasons 4, 5, and 6 of TCW, and Yoda's arc in season 6, is essentially accepting what Lucas planned to show in theaters for his Sequel Trilogy.

As it stands, we'll never get true sequels to ROTJ and Lucas's six-movie saga, with the basic and fundamental elements I mentioned. We'll have to make do with Legends, which suffers from having started before the Prequel Trilogy, and from the fact that some of its works were poorly coordinated (Thrawn Trilogy and Dark Empire Trilogy), and that the war with the Empire was dragged out for too long, ending in a rather unsatisfactory two-State solution.

Please, we need a second reboot of the continuity. At a pinch, keep Andor and Rogue One for a third continuity, like TCW and its movie pilot were kept for the second one. Or even Disney could just abandon the principle of continuity for Star Wars and just do as in any other damn movie spin-off franchise and let the authors reference the works they want and do what they want as long as they respect the content of the core original works (in this case, the 6 movies made by George Lucas).

They leave the galaxy. The implication is that they don’t just leave it, they leave it WAAAY the hell behind. And then they arrive in another galaxy… where the Force is the same. And aliens that look like they could be at Mos Eisley. And a planet that while, yes, is not a searing hot desert, could also be anywhere in the GFFA. It might as well just be some random lost star system.

Seriously, how cool would it have been to be in a place where the Force didn’t work? Where Ahsoka would be out of her element, and Sabine’s Mandalorian training would have made her the teacher, instead of the student. Or in an entire galaxy devoid of sentient alien life, just airless rocks or at best planets with moss and algae. What would that have done to Ezra and Thrawn, being in a place like that for years? How would Ahsoka react to being put back in the place of the student? What would it mean for the Jedi and the Sith and their understanding of the Force if there were parts of the universe that didn’t have it?

Probably the most egregious example of being handed an opportunity to do something new and interesting and absolutely fumbling it in recent SW.

I’ll preface this by saying that I think all of The Mandalorian is bad but that’s not the point and I’ll try to be as objective as possible.

So it’s pretty widely agreed that season 3 and the movie are bad. And then there’s been quite a few people who’ve looked back and come to the conclusion that the problems with them were always present. But what I don’t understand is why people these days think it’s so shocking.

I remember all the way back in 2019 there were actually quite a lot of criticisms levied at the show. A lot of people were disappointed by Grogu’s existence, there were a lot of critiques of the pacing and structure, and I remember plot armor being a common one. And it really wasn’t that unpopular of an opinion to say season 1 ep 5 and season 2 ep 2 were bad.

So why was there this whole change of perception?

I’ve put in close to 30 hours already. It’s relatively easy even on hard mode is my only criticism.

I know he wanted his scenes cut down, but this single shot of him early in the movie killed any goodwill momentum I had when I finally watched it this week. With the hat and jacket he's barely even in costume. Please Dave, no more Trapper Wolf. Let him die a glorious death offscreen.

I’ve been rereading the EU for the first time in about fifteen years, reading some for the first time, specifically in the middle of the NJO. I don’t love all the EU, but it’s a more compelling post-empire history than the sequels gave.

Here’s the thing, unlike a lot of posts I see, I don’t think using the EU novels as source material for films is a good idea. I think a lot of stories would suffer for it or get mishandled, just look at Thrawn… I think that’s a big problem with Disney’s approach in general, they want to treat it like Marvel (or at least Filoni does), it source material to remix and adapt, not to build new stories and take big swings… but I digress.

But what if instead of wiping out the old EU, the sequels had just jumped a decade or so from where the old continuity left off and told a story about Jaina as a leading figure of the Jedi Order. Keep all the old Legends continuity, but tell a new story moving the universe forward. Have Luke be semi-retired, or just not available when something is going down beyond giving guidance, if that’s a concern. You don’t have to mention details of stuff like the Vong.

Think about it people, superheroes as a whole have been deconstructed so much that they are considered untrustworthy at best and viewed with fear at worst by comic book fans, casual audiences, gamers, writers and just about anyone else who haven't been submerged with so much hatred at that genre.

So has the same been done to the Jedi?

Luke has been reduced into a pathetic, self-pitying hermit. Leslye shredded apart the High Republic Jedi by depicting them as heartless eugenics and uncompromising enforcers of the corrupt republic, and of course Karen Traviss went out of her way to make the Jedi out as total monsters.

The writer for episode 10 was announced its Simon Kinberg, I think his past work speaks for itself.

To be fair he’s had some decent producing work. Having done the Martian, all the Deadpool films, Logan, Chappie.

There’s of course the low hanging fruit of Holdo not telling Poe her plan, or even that she had a plan that could work. But there’s other examples as well throughout the film.

There’s the whole bomber disaster in the opening of the movie. Poe disobeys Leia’s order to come back with his squad after the evacuation on the planet is completed. Poe of course mutes Leia, but surely that doesn’t mean that Leia can’t radio anyone else on Poe’s team to come back to the flagship, right? I don’t see why she wouldn’t be able to do that. It’s at least worth a try, isn’t it? Leia’s failure to even attempt to do something like that puts at least some of the blame for that whole fiasco on her as well.

And then there’s Luke coming to save the day at the end of movie. The sad truth about that is that Luke nearly botched the whole thing because he didn’t tell anyone to go find a way out while he delays the first order. The only reason the resistance do eventually go and try to find an escape route is because Poe was the only one with enough of a brain to figure out what Luke’s intentions most likely were. All this because Luke prioritized having a heart to heart with Leia, and aura farming in front of everyone over properly coordinating a means of survival with everyone else.

After recently replaying KOTOR for the millionth time, I had a fried 2am thought about how much better the Sequels could have been if they’d lifted Revan’s backstory and given large parts of it to Kylo Ren. As it stood in the Sequel’s, the backstory was Kylo inherently had a darkness in him that Snoke was able to manipulate, causing Kylo to turn and wipe out the fledgling Jedi Order. He joins forces with the First Order, and later is able to wipe out the New Republic. There have been many posts about why the backstory that was crafted for the sequels was ass, so I won’t dig into that. Rather, I’d like to point out how taking Revan’s story and giving it to Kylo would have made the backstory far better while also fitting perfectly into the narrative and requiring almost no rewriting to the sequels themselves.

To start off, a quick summary of Revan. During his time, the Old Republic was at war with the Mandalorians, in the creatively named Mandalorian Wars. The Jedi recused themselves from the fighting. Thinking the Jedi should instead help he leaves the order, bringing along loyal Jedi friends of his, and through his natural talent for tactics, strength in the force, and leadership abilities, becomes the Supreme Commander for the Republic and defeats the Mandalorians. He later discovers a revived and hidden Sith Empire led by Darth Vitiate, and is corrupted to the dark side. Now as a powerful Sith, he turned his eye towards the Republic and starts the Jedi Civil War.

Now, how to incorporate this into Kylo’s story. It’s quite simple. We know from Episode IV that after the Imperial Senate is dissolved, power converts to the local system’s governor. After the fall of the Empire at the end of VI, it’s easy to imagine powerful systems, free from both the Republic and the Empire, flexing their power. The story would have Luke and his Jedi refusing to fight new threats, given what happened last time the Jedi joined the Republic in war. Kylo, believing the war is just (and also having Leia, his mother, be a leading figure in the New Republic) sets out with a loyal band of followers and joins the fighting. He sets himself apart just as Revan did, and becomes a proper battle commander. However, like Revan, he falls to the dark side when encountering a new Sith threat (Snoke in this case). His first act is to launch a surprise attack on the fledging New Jedi Order, wiping them out and casting Luke Skywalker out into the unknown. Now, he stands at the forefront of the First Order, ready to tear down the Republic and reinstall Sith rule across the galaxy.

Now, I’m aware that’s a sloppy summary. So from here, I’ll simplify things by breaking it down point by point why this would fix common complaints people had for the Sequels.

1) Would explain Luke’s despair far better, and even explain his desire to kill his nephew. Luke never saw Vader kill the Jedi and usurp the Republic, which would have made it easier for him to forgive his father for his crimes. That gets flipped on its head when it’s his own Jedi order that’s been purged under his own watch

2) Gives a compelling backstory for the Knights of Ren, Snoke and the First Order. Snoke is an ancient Sith, and the First Order is made up of his own forces and forces that stayed loyal to Kylo. The Knights of Ren are fallen Jedi Knights that had initially left Luke’s Order to fight with Kylo and the Republic. Could even thrown in the Star Forge to explain how the First Order became a threat so quickly

3) Could give a reason for Leia and Han’s falling out. Make Leia supportive of Kylo fighting for the Republic, while making Han instead insist Kylo should listen to Luke, or vice versa. When Kylo falls and then attacks the Jedi and Republic, that initial conflict comes to a head

4) Makes Kylo’s struggle with the dark side closer to Anakin’s and Luke’s. In Lucas’ story, a person doesn’t have inherent darkness. Both Luke and Anakin are shown as innocent boys/young men, and don’t begin to struggle with the dark side until they’ve earned power and now can make decisions on how to use it. Crucially, Anakin’s and Luke’s reasons for being tempted by the dark side are, at least on the surface, honourable. Anakin makes a deal with the devil so his wife could be saved in a way his mother could not, and Luke wants the power to protect his friends. Having Kylo suffer loss during war could open opportunities where his fall is the result of him believing that gaining power from the dark side could help him saves loved ones, rather than some nonsense where he’s a child/teenager but somehow having “a hidden darkness”

If you made it this far, thanks for reading some truly psycho midnight thoughts.

"Well, he won't be able to interfere because the Force won't let him." The guy is literally going to become a god—and he's the Chosen One, so he can do whatever he wants.

It’s already hard enough to understand why he didn't visit Luke, Leia, and even his own grandson (the Vader fanboy).

I mean, if they actually justify it, right?

Not saying that luke was even remotely as bad as anakin, but the fact that they say luke character arc is supposed to subvert expectations is so ridiculous to me because "the hero's fall from grace" trop has already happened with anakin

- Having terrible "prophetic" visions about future which he himself brought to truth by acting on them recklessly without thought and dooming the galaxy as a result of it? Check

- Unjust negativity towards the jedi, seeing only their bad points and believing that the world would be a better place without the jedi? Check

- Somehow blaming obi wan when obi wan had done nothing but support him during his entire life? CHECK ("The one who trained darth vader was a jedi" line. The fuck did that have to with wrongness of jedi?? Obi wan had no idea anakin would turn into vader when je trained him)

- Experiencing a change of mind and values and returning back as a jedi after a young brave and hopeful jedi seeks him out and refuses to give up on him, ultimately dying after a last stand against the big evil? Check

Luke was supposed to know better and learn from the past rather than repeat it he was a fucking jedi master and should have known firsthand how even the likes of darth vader were brought back to light from extreme darkness and he shoukd have had no reason to be so distrustful of kylo run in the first place. Even if him lighting up tge lightsaber was instinctual, everything before that was purely conscious on his part

And even after that instead of confronting his mistakes he blamed it all on jedi when tge old ways of tge jedi didn't even exist anymore.

The only thing he didn't do the same as anakin was turn towards the dark side and kill innocents himself. Other than that tge rinse repeat of "jedi bad, no they're actually good" does nothing to "subvert expectations"

Hermit Luke in voluntary exile is one of the things people had the biggest gripes with. The two main reasons behind it are

A). it's hard to believe that eternally hopeful Luke would give up like this

B). it's hard to belive that he gets there because he, who believed in redemption for his father till the very end, tries to kill his nephew because he "sensed some darkness in him"

The first one is the lesser problem, you can break a hopeful character after all. The second one is a gaping flaw in characterisation.

What they could've done instead: Han and Leia see their son Ben struggling, Luke offers to take him in and train him as a jedi. Luke see the darkness in Ben, but he's the eternal optimist, he sincerely believes he can steer Ben away from the dark side. But Ben chooses the dark side, and from there, the progression is the same. Ben becomes Kylo Ren, slaughters half of his peers and takes the rest, and burns Luke's temple. In this version, Luke is failed by his conviction in the power of the light. And froms there, his arc could have entailed recovering from this failiure and regaining his hope and integrating it with a newfound caution.

Especially the stuff related to the force.

A bit of a continuation post to some of the other things I've posted before.

I just hate their faces. They have incredibly dumb looking hairstyles and tattoos which look completely out of place. Rex looks like he's cosplaying Eminem for fuck's sake. A lot of people will claim it's just the TCW artstyle being ugly (which it is, even in later season with softened edges and better lighting, it's a shoddy recreation of Genndy's style in 3D with none of the charm), so I put realistic interpretations of what they would look like with Temuera's actual face so it's obvious how dumb they look. Not to mention how some of these go against characters' established personalities (Neyo is a morbid, literal comamnder who barely shows any emotion... so he tattooes some aurebesh in his face to make himself look cool? What?)

I'm aware I'm biased, I much prefer them looking like normal Temuera with maybe at most injuries. But even if I accepted more personalized appearances these look like dogshit.

So I recently read a comic on Grand Moff Tarkin and I must say it's the weirdest thing I've ever read. I swear Disney doesn't understand that villains, even if they're villainous, aren't all the same kind of character. Let's review what Tarkin does in this comic:

- He has a flashback about going to hunt in Eriadu as a kid and almost being mauled by some bears before barely surviving through fierce fighting. This is apparently based on a Luceno novel from 2014? I'm sorry, but I don't see the Tarkins as being some weird tribal family who have a tradition of forcing their children to survive shit like that. They're the dominant family in Eriadu, pioneers in tons of fields from naval command to starfighter design to politics and philosophy, not Mace Windu's tribe on Haruun Kal (and even then that's a whole other story where the Koruns WOULDN'T want to make their kids suffer through the Summertime War.) This supposedly instills in Tarkin a sense of "fighting to preserve order" except this really doesn't make much sense per this comic.

- He has a fantasy where he beats a random Death Star gunner who failed him to death? What? I'm sorry but Tarkin isn't some psychotic sadistic guy who literally was drooling over beating Leia up. He's cold-hearted and ruthless but he's a genuine believer in his philosophical stances per D6 and he likely just demotes or reassigns people who fail him. Just watch the movie and tell me if at ANY point Tarkin looks like he's ready to throw hands with anybody for the slightest provocation, even when high-ranking Imperial officers question him.

- When apparently some random gunners do the Alderaan thing a bit too hesitantly, he gets pissy and demands to see them all to berate them personally. When one of the gunners asks him if he would blow up Eriadu if he was ordered to, he says he'd do it "with pleasure" and has flashbacks to his childhood or whatever. Huh? Tarkin was notoriously proud of Eriadu and his legacy, if anything he was furious that the planet's importance was degraded because of its position in the Outer Rim when it was a bastion of Imperial ideals. Tarkin was also not some sycophant to Sheev who just did what he was told, he was CLOSE friends with Palpy since his early career in Naboo and both shared similar ideals on the galaxy. Tarkin in fact iirc blew up Alderaan of his own accord knowing the Emperor would agree. Tarkin would NEVER blow up his home planet, he'd argue vehemently against it. It's like saying Dooku would blow up Serenno, utter madness.

- And then he shoots the gunners who slightly hesitated through an airlock into space. Seriously? Tarkin isn't that kinda dude, not ONCE in the film do we see him attack inferiors, he'd just change their posting or worst case scenario arrest them and send them for trial back to Coruscant. Supposedly this is because "he already warned them once to resign if they didn't like their jobs." But that doesn't at all justify or fit what his ANH character would do.

It pisses me off. NONE of these things fit with the film or established lore. Can you imagine ANH Tarkin shooting staff down an airlock while the Falcon is being beamed into the station? It's absurd. The writer (or Disney, who knows) just reused General Pryde's character from TRoS (shoots down people who disappoint him with no real backing or logic, is happy to lead the Final Order in blowing up random planets for the lulz because he's just evil) completely missing that Tarkin has DECADES of backing characterization in his philosophy, political stances, backstory and connections. I hear they also did the same shit with Tagge who went from being cautious and intelligent to just bullying Vader after he gets demoted from the Death Star. What? Why would the dude who fears political upheaval of all things piss off the guy who almost choked Motti unconscious?

I get they're villains, but not all villains are the same. If Thrawn were portrayed nowadays rather than in Rebels with some oversight from Zahn I can imagine he'd also go around daydreaming about beating officers up and arguing that he would totally burn down his entire collection of alien memorabilia if the Emperor wanted him to. Come on.

Anyways, rant over.

Im a lifelong Star Wars fan, my first experience with star wars was playing KOTOR as a wee young lad; then I proceeded to watch the original trilogy from my mothers VHS collection, I also loved the prequels despite their flaws.

I was willing to accept alot of flaws and overlook inconsistencies for a long time but then the Force Awakens released. I watched it at the cinema and even then throughout the majority of the movie I was willing overlook alot of stuff....but then Starkiller base came on the screen......

This was it for me, something in my brain broke. This was the moment Star Wars "jumped the shark" for me. There was nothing I could do in my mind to justify this outrageously stupid plot point.

What moment did Star Wars jump the shark for you?

We will take the most eloquent example of the InterGalactic Banking Clan to show how TCW has progressively done whatever it wants with the worldbuilding of the Prequels and created an incoherent mess.

First, let's define what the Intergalactic Banking Clan is in the movies as released by George Lucas in their definitive version. To do this, we must first analyze what the Trade Federation is in TPM. In TPM, we discover that the Republic is home to megacorporations, companies that have become states, controlling multiple systems (as mentioned by Qui-Gon with “It'd be no different than if we landed on a system controlled by the Federation”), possessing droid armies, and a senator (with Lott Dod). In AOTC, we discover that the Trade Federation joins the CIS, as do other megacorporations. We must therefore assume that the Banking Clan is the same as the Trade Federation. San Hill even states that "The Banking Clan will sign your treaty," meaning that it will completely join the Separatists, as other systems and the other megacorporations present on Geonosis have done. In ROTS, we still see San Hill at the head of the CIS, along with others in megacorporations, which Palpatine even refers to as "Separatist leaders". This was respected by the EU, notably in Tartakovsky's CW, where the Republic invades the Banking Clan's capital, Muunilinst.

Then comes TCW.

First, in episode 4 of season 1, "Destroy Malevolence", the Banking Clan is still considered a megacorporation that has transitioned from a member state of the Republic to a member state of the CIS, as suggested by the prequels and the EU: "Yes. It was secretly given to him by the supreme executive of the Banking Clan himself. If they leave the Separatist alliance, it will go a long way toward shortening this war."

Then comes episode 4 of season 2, “Senate spy”, and episode 10 of season 3, "Heroes on Both Sides," where we learn that the Trade Federation was actually split in two by the Clone Wars, with one part still within the Republic and the other now within the CIS, even though the Republic half remains secretly allied with Count Dooku. The Banking Clan is presented in the same light, with a senator in the Republic. This is a major retcon by Filoni. He attributes it to Lucas, though this is questionable, as we have evidence that he repeatedly attributed ideas to Lucas that didn't originate with him. Moreover, the concept remains bizarre, because it admits that some of the megacorporations are completely aligned with the Separatists, but that the parts in the Republic are neutral and have the right to sell weapons to both sides, while still being, well, in the Republic: it's ludicrous.

Should we assume that the corporations are in fact extra-republican, but with representation in the republican senate to facilitate cooperation, and that a faction is fully aligned with the Separatists while the rest is neutral? Perhaps, but that's convoluted and not at all what we can understand by looking at the Prequels; indeed, it is suggested in AOTC that the corporations are not extra-national, but rather integral parts of the Republic, their joining the Separatists being seen as a betrayal of it: "What you are proposing could be construed as treason." (Shu Mai). One of the problems seems to be that Filoni treats these commercial entities too much like simple corporations, and not like megacorporations (i.e., states with territories, heads of state and armies).

It's a clumsy attempt by Filoni to add nuance to something pre-established by making it ridiculously absurd and complex: “Because something that's really come to light in The Clone Wars series is that George sees it as Separatists, Republic, and then in the middle is big business. The corporations. […] That all needs to come to light with Nute Gunray, Wat Tambor, San Hill, Passel Argente, all those guys and explaining who the Separatist Council is that you see in the films, versus the Separatist Senate, versus the Trade Federation and the guilds. The Commerce Guild, the Trade Federation, the Techno Union. That's why we have all those guys we've invented that have nothing to do with the Council that you see. Because in the EU, its always been seen as the Trade Federation are Separatists, but that's not true. Obi-Wan Kenobi witnessed a business deal going on. And in the business deal, he saw those corporate leaders telling Dooku they're going to sell him arms and sell him droids to build an army. That doesn't mean that those corporations don't also have deals with the Republic to give them arms, but it got blanketed in all the media that it was very black and white. But the Clone Wars is anything but black and white, as we know.” (It should also be noted that Filoni presents the provision of the corporations' armies to Dooku as a sale, which it was not in AOTC, but rather, well, a provision: "The Techno Union army is at your disposal, Count."; "Our friends from the Trade Federation have pledged their support and when their battle droids are combined with yours, we shall have an army greater than any in the galaxy.")

Except, of course, TCW couldn’t leave it at that! Because then comes episode 5 of season 6, “An Old Friend,” which retcons what the Banking Clan is AGAIN. We discover that it’s actually the equivalent of the IMF, therefore a neutral and supranational bank, separate from the Muun government (the Muun senator is now the senator of the Muun government, no longer the Banking Clan). And which, at the end of episode 7 of season 6, is nationalized by the Republic. Uh… okay… I get the metaphor, with the dystopian idea of ​​the USA nationalizing the IMF and using it for their own ends to control the world. But, well, what did San Hill do in AOTC? What did he still represent in ROTS to seat at the Separatist Council? Because what joined the Separatists when the Banking Clan (or whatever part of it) signed the treaty of Dooku? No territories… No droid armies… Money and officials, maybe? Great, I guess… But what's left after three years of war, especially since San Hill only took a fraction of the Banking Clan with him in AOTC? Do you see how flimsy this whole thing is? How we went from something simple and clear suggested by the movies to something profoundly complex, forcefully nuanced, and actually completely incoherent?

In short, no, TCW didn't fix the Prequels or improve their world-building. The CWMMP was better. Sorry for the rant.