Canon-Strike III: Star Wars

[Neon Ignition]

I don't think it would have worked with Kylo for me, despite his power he'd spent two films reacting much like a tempermental teenager so even though that concept has legs (and would be well explored in series format) I imagine had it been central to the last film he'd have felt too whiny and lacking in franchise culminating scale menace. It's more that the event the trilogy was building too wasn't the place to do it so I can see why IX steered away (also given his turn to good always felt like where he was going as well).

With Rey, I didn't mind her not having powerful parents (as it seemed at the time) as it felt like an odd focus coming out of Force Awakens. The film didn't make a massive deal about her parents just as New Hope didn't about Luke's, it was weird it was such a focus come Last Jedi but I guess the fanbase can take credit for that. It felt like Last Jedi, presumably in another effort to subvert Force Awakens, went out of its way to say Rey was a nobody, not special at all to emphasise that anyone with Force powers could be the hero - not just a Skywalker or someone connected to them. It kind of sucked the wind out of her character as much of the time the film spends on her is being dismissed by Luke and told she's not special by the film. It felt daft too as its undermined by her being effectively a Padiwan with more skills that any trained Jedi in the other films and a strong force connection to key objects and Kylo, and we know you're average Jedi can't take the Emperor too so EpIX had to reverse that. Though I feel the Palpatin Granddaughter twist was just a desperate effort to avoid making her directly a Skywalker.

[Dogg Thang]

I think that was a really bad move. As you say, much of that seems to have been a reaction to fans. Fans went on about the mystery of her parents in The Force Awakens. To me, it was never even presented as a mystery. Maz literally tells her that what's relevant doesn't live in the past - it's about moving forward. To people like Luke. It feels like that was the message in that movie and yet still fans went on about it and had stupid fantheories. So it feels like Johnson had to address that with "your stupid fantheories are stupid". Johnson's take on that feels much more in keeping with The Force Awakens than what Abrams ultimately did which was say "Johnson was wrong, stupid fantheories are awesome."

I didn't see Rey as being in any way undermined in The Last Jedi. I think it's a much more powerful take than "you can be successful if your parents are rich", or the Star Wars equivalent of that.

[wakka]

Yeah. 9 is such a lightweight piece of fluff from a dramatic perspective because it's such a walk back. The Emperor coming back had no setup. Rey being his daughter had no setup. It was all just thrust in there right at the end.

I don't love 8, but the idea of Ren as an unstable nuclear-armed dictator and Rey as the plucky street rat who finds the courage/capability/belief inside herself to do something about him - that's a setup, right there, love it or hate it but that is a setup for some dramatic ****.

The Emperor for me had zero weight as the trilogy ending big bad because he just turned up completely out of nowhere. And Rey being his daughter...pff...did anyone care? It was a replay of Luke and Vader with absolutely none of the drama of that revelation.

[Neon Ignition]

It does reframe the entire saga though at least. The original trilogy is and always was about Luke but looking beyond that at the nine film saga as a complete arc Luke becomes just a bit part amongst many, the Star Wars saga is the tale of Palpatine from beginning to end so in a way is unique as it's all about a villain.

[wakka]

Yeah, I'd argue that's a neutral thing though. I don't personally get anything out of it. It reminds me of how much time and energy Lucas expended in the prequels on explaining stuff that didn't need to be explained (midichlorians) and linking up stuff that didn't need to be linked up (Anakin making Threepio).

When the overarching stuff seems to be the focus rather than the conflict and drama within that particular film, that's when it loses me. I think it would have been more than fine to have IX be the culmination of Rey and Ren's stories, rather than worry about how it fits in with Attack of the Clones. That's just my personal perspective though, as I've mentioned before I'm really not a 'canon' person.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, I'm with Wakka. I think that makes it less interesting, not more. Like rallying the entire galaxy at the end, it means that a good chunk of the important story in the first two movies of this trilogy was happening off screen. We saw the less relevant stuff, not the more relevant stuff. It makes what we saw the wrong story. It weakened all the characters. It wasn't Rey - it was all the Jedi, even the cartoon ones. It wasn't Ren or Snoke, it was the Emperor all along. It maybe was the First Order but let's forget about their massive army that already exists because here's the real villain - the Final Order. In an attempt to undermine The Last Jedi, it undermined everything.

[Asura]

I can't forgive the movie for, of all things, having a key plot element happen offscreen (and summarised in opening text) - the return of the emperor...

... because the story was contained in a temporary event in ****ing FORTNITE.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep. Even Fortnite aside, that was a general issue with the movie - stuff that just didn't actually happen in the movie. Like why even bother with lines about what Finn has to tell Rey if those lines aren't paid off except for in articles following the movie? Why wasn't every one of those scenes cut rather than leaving something dangling like that? Same with that kind of creepy exchange at the end with Lando which seemingly tied into other cut stuff. What was there was a mess in part because it relied so much on stuff that wasn't there.

[Neon Ignition]

The Future
Lucasfilm has been expanding their new canon with efforts such as the various animated series and The Mandalorian, they will also be continuing to build on the saga's canon with other series such as the upcoming Rogue One prequel series as well. For the films though they have announced plans to cast things back to a distant past with the High Republic

Is the world of Star Wars going to be interesting enough to sustain a continuation of cross media stories or does it need stay within the confines of the era of Emperor and the Empire?

[Dogg Thang]

I feel like Star Wars’ biggest problem is its over reliance on those first three movies. Every single movie except perhaps the two Ewoks ones but maybe those too (I can’t remember) has been a direct sequel or prequel to those first movies. There is so much potential but they’re just too unwilling to move away from that one story. The Mandalorian is probably the best received Star Wars product since the originals and that’s one of the first things to stand quite alone - and even with that, I felt it was at its best when it wasn’t bringing in elements from other Star Wars.

I’ve said it before but, for me, any decent Star Wars is a bonus. It shouldn’t be something expected. And I think we’ll get good Star Wars again but I wish they’d take even more risks and move further and further away from the stories and characters we know. With Boba Fett and Kenobi shows on the way, I don’t think that will happen any time soon.