#sw negativity

[gffa]

There were moments about the Ahsoka finale that I very much liked (Huyang talking to Ezra about Kanan!! He saved a matching piece to Kanan's lightsaber and said, "Ahhh, it all makes sense now." when he realized Ezra was building based on his Master's teachings!! And so gave the piece to Ezra as he's done a thousand times before!!!) but it also reconfirmed that I don't think Felony can structure a story for shit. Was it somewhat emotional to have Huyang tell Ezra about what happened to the Wrens? Sure. But you know what would have been a good, interesting story that delivered on everything Rebels built before? SEEING THE STORY UNFOLD. This isn't a story, it's an infodump. It's the same thing with the show's central relationship--Ahsoka and Sabine--that how they came to be where they are with each other, how they vastly changed their dynamic, how they created this dynamic? Told to us in a split second infodump instead of actually delivering us a story. It's the same with everything that happened after Rebels' finale, we only saw a brief CGI bit of Mandalore being carpet bombed by the Empire, but that storyline is fundamentally important to both Bo-Katan's story and Sabine's story, yet we never even see it as a story. It's a split-second flashback or infodump. And don't even get me started on not seeing Hera and Ezra hug or Ahsoka's speech about how Anakin always stood by her, how her entire arc this season has been about coming to terms with his legacy and accepting the good in him, so when his Force Ghost shows up, she should smile and actually see him there, right? It would bring the thematic conclusion to a nice closure, right??? But, no, instead she doesn't even sense him there, Sabine half-senses him, and then Ahsoka is like, "It's time to move on." like are we supposed to tie that to her relationship with Anakin?? Or is that just Felony not knowing how to structure a written scene?? It's not even that his work is bad so much as it's just aggressively so much less than it could be. It's always infodumps to explain why we're suddenly three miles to the left of where we were before, instead of telling that story instead. We could have had a true Rebels sequel by showing us what happened with Mandalore, but instead we get whatever this was. And it wasn't even really about Ahsoka more than like 10% of the time. ;__;

[not-the-tie-youre-looking-for]

“i can’t wait to see eli vanto in TotE” “i hope the crew of the chimera gets a cameo” “faro would be so cool to see”

no please i beg you please filoni do not TOUCH THESE GUYS bro will retcon every last one of them the first chance he gets. watch this absolute lunatic retcon the entire thrawn trilogy

[david-talks-sw]

When 'Star Wars' dilutes the impact of a "Kurosawa samurai standoff"...

It's no secret that one of the major inspirations for Star Wars was Akira Kurosawa movies. The Hidden Fortress influenced the basic structure of the first film, was a basis for Lucas' character archetypes and his use of narrative POVs.

But, really, all of Kurosawa's films were an influence on the making of Star Wars. Including the duels seen in his and other samurai films from the 60s.

Dunno if you've seen a kendo fight, but they're pretty similar.

The duelists size each other up, and there's a lot of mind games going on before the strike actually happens.

If you hold your sword this way, the other guy adjusts his stance.

You move your foot that way, the adversary responds accordingly.

Cinematically, this process allows you to play with a whole treasure trove of elements to build up the drama and suspense. We see this slow-yet-tense approach to dueling reflected all over the Original Trilogy. And we've seen it again in recent Disney-released content.

The perfect and first real example of this in Star Wars is the fight between Ben Kenobi and Maul, in Rebels.

The tension increases more...

... and more until the two fighters move, the music swells...

... and then it reaches its climax.

Beautifully executed.

Dave Filoni's done his homework, it shows, and while it's an awesome homage, narratively it also holds weight. There's a reason why this fight is so quick:

This time, Obi-Wan isn't fighting to avenge the death of his master, he's not fighting to save his own life... he's fighting to protect Luke's. And that means there's no time to fuck about. He'll end the conflict swiftly and decisively, he won't let it come to a prolonged acrobatic fight. So he lures Maul in by making him think he's taking Qui-Gon's form, and strikes true when Maul, increasingly consumed by his own rage to the point of blindness, falls for it.

Again: a wonderful fight and an excellent homage.

Then we get to Luke's stand-off with Kylo on Crait, in The Last Jedi.

An interesting take on the trope, also with meaningful narrative impact. As Rian Johnson writes in the TLJ screenplay:

"This is not like a saber fight. This like an old-fashioned samurai duel."

Here too, the tension gets built up...

... and every time we're close to getting that climax, Luke dodges.

It leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction, which is exactly what Kylo is feeling as he boils with rage.

Suddenly, we do get the climax...

... and a twist. Luke was never actually there. Boom. Those inserts during the build-up phase? If you look at them again they're clues (Luke doesn't leave a mark on the ground, salt doesn't land on his clothes, etc). Luke wasn't engaging because he wasn't actually there, he was buying time for the Resistance to escape.

Okay. Cool.

Next time we see a "Kurosawa" duel... it's here, in The Mandalorian.

Again, a lot of posing, slow movements and patience, as is expected from the trope.

But we know nothing about the opponent Ahsoka is fighting other than her name is Morgan... so no emotional impact, there.

At some point, Ahsoka loses a lightsaber. The apprentice to the Chosen One is struggling against some rando.

We find out later on that Morgan is a Nightsister from Dathomir, and that's cool... but we already know how Jedi-trained folks fare against the Dathomiri.

If you ask me, it feels like manufactured stakes. But that's beside the point. In fact, y'know what? It's fine.

Though the impact of this duel isn't as great as its predecessors, the whole episode is filled with visual homages to Kurosawa's work.

It makes sense that the duel would be too. Also it's the first time we're seeing Ahsoka in live action, in a lightsaber duel, the hype is real. Let's cut 'em some slack.

So we come to the series Ahsoka... where almost every duel in the the show has the Kurosawa posturing and tip-toeing and... I dunno. I was bored?

Like, the primary purpose of this approach to duels is that it's meant to be suspenseful and intense... and now it's not.

Because we know Ahsoka is gonna beat the crap outta these droids...

... so why even bother faking some semblance of "what's her next move gonna be?" suspense? There's a hole right behind her, gee, I truly wonder.

Oh, you think putting her against an Inquisitor's gonna make us fear for her life, wonder if she's gonna get outta this situation unscathed?

She was wiping the floor with two of them at the same time, a decade prior. At 17, she was killing Inquisitors while disarmed.

Do you really expect your audience to fear for her life in a fight against Marrok?

So we get to the fight with Baylan, and the posturing and studying opponent's next move would be welcome here (two Order 66 survivors, knew Anakin, both well-trained former Jedi)...

... if we hadn't literally seen that same dynamic with Marrok who, again, we knew was gonna die.

No tension was built in either moment, the only thing it achieved was me pressing >> on my keyboard.

It's not captivating anymore, it's just slow and un-dynamic.

Bottom line:

Tributes to Kurosawa are nice. They're part of what makes Star Wars what it is. But c'mon, we get it already.

Lightsaber duelists don't need to tiptoe around each other and change poses at every fight. Because when the actually meaningful duels come up (like the one with Baylan), the impact will be lessened.

The "Kurosawa samurai duel" is artistic and interesting, but it should be used sparingly in order to maintain its charm and not get old and trope-y. AKA too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing.

[writerbuddha]

This is gonna get a bit negative, but I don't understand how some say that they love the George Lucas movies but yet the Jedi were wrong and forbid love and family. Like how???

It's quite complex, Anon...

This has its origins in the way how fans reacted to Episodes I, II and III. When they did not get the young Darth Vader they imagined for themselves, they started to insist, the reason why Anakin Skywalker is nothing what they imagined, is because George Lucas cannot write and/or direct and Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen are terrible actors and they can't portray the character in the correct way. This resulted in that the idea, the story that you can derive from the actual movies is not the real story, embedded itself into popular culture, and it mutated into the idea that you have to "find out" the "real" story behind the fall of Anakin Skywalker.

This idea, "the Jedi were wrong and forbid love and family" is just the latest mutation of this phenomenon, and it fits neatly into the "good idea, bad execution" narrative fans perpetuate, but most importantly: some fans are more comfortable with declaring compassion being unconditional love and attachment as selfish grasping as nonsense and even unhealthy and malicious, than to accept, Star Wars is, in fact, challenging them to think about how they relate to their loved ones. So it makes perfect sense that they insist on this narrative. In addition, there is this cultural notion that you have this list of "must have" things that you need to be content and happy. Just look at Legends stories: they couldn't rest until Luke Skywalker got laid and ended up in a marriage with kids, because, "duh, that's how normal people are" and anything that deviates from that must be in need of a reformer, someone who enlightens/fixes/liberates them. When you add the even more central notion, that children "belong" to their parents because they "made them" and a "truly loving parent would never bear to be without their children" and the idea that when parents are making decisions for their children is somehow letting the children to decide for themselves, you end up with "the Jedi were wrong and forbid love and family" very quickly. And the biggest issue in the Star Wars fandom is that fans are so caught up in fanon that they're no longer able to tell the difference between what is actually in the movies and what they more or less agreed to be in the movies.

This reaches a new level when people are trying to impose this kind of narrative because they want one of the most popular stories of the globe to affirm their values and ideas and way of life, I wrote this about in detail here:

[gizkalord]

“It’s only season 1 it’s setup” yeah but setup doesn’t mean that the central relationship of the show is still as inexplicable and vague as it was in episode 1

[gil-estel]

reasons why "ahsoka" would be better as an animated show

- better acting

- better writing

- seriously. I think the stilted dialogue would work a lot better in the context of a 25 minute episode performed by experienced voice actors who could actually make spoken exposition sound INTERESTING and ENGAGING

- more humor

- more chopper

- sabine could have her jetpack and her helmet back

- you'd actually be able to see what happens

- forreal just think about what it would be like if this show had the production quality and amazing lighting of the bad batch

- I'm sorry the volume just looks so obvious and artificial in this show

- WE'D ACTUALLY GET TO SEE ZEB

[space-blue]

Ezra, a guy who exiled himself to ANOTHER GALAXY with no hope of return to take out a critical enemy, and has been isolated for years, potentially without any human contact... Sees his friend who just found him and eagerly asks : How did you find me? How did you get here??

Sabine, supposedly a good person, who got here by betraying her master's will and last orders and siding with the villains without any backup plan or even a wish to betray or manipulate them : (deep sigh) Let's not talk about that. Not right now.

Ezra, very much entitled to having his most basic concerns answered : Sabine...

Sabine, a manipulative bitch now too, apparently, cutting him off : Hey! I just wanna be happy that I found you. After all this time, can I have that?

Ezra, cucked by the script writers because they can't have the dialogue conflict happen until next episode : Of course.

And you, Ezra, you get nothing. You just get to catter to the selfish desire of the person who didn't come here with a rescue plan for you.

[sonic-fairyspell]

I'm just not all that excited for Inquisitor Barriss. Like i just do not like it. Its doesn't Vibe, if you will. I hope instead of making her a full Inquisitor, they have a Barriss redemption arc, and return to the Light and be a Jedi again. That would be great! Instead of icky "Empire is so good" nonsense. Bleh. I also hope they don't want us to feel so bad for Morgan Elsbeth because of "tragic backstory" when she is evil and bad. Sucks the Nightsisters all died, but eh, I feel nothing of Elsbeth.

Not all that excited for Tales of the Empire. I'm extremely wary and hesitant, but we'll see i guess.

[chissjedi]

Ahsoka taking in Sabine as an apprentice is not an inherently bad decision. Ahsoka taking the role as a mentor is fine. They both could learn a lot from each other.

It is the use of the term Padawan that is wrong.

Ordinary people use apprenticeships to train and teach before becoming a master of an art. Even the Sith use that method and terminology.

However, Padawan is a very specific term used exclusively within the Jedi Order. Using this term liberally, incorrectly, could be considered cultural appropriation.

And Sabine's relationship to her Mandalorian heritage was a key part of her story in Rebels. She was strongly invested in preserving their art and history.

Pushing Sabine into a Jedi lifestyle is not only unnecessary, but disrespectful to both cultures and her character development.

I am not saying a Mandalorian cannot also be a Jedi; that is exactly what Grogu's story is about! But, for these characters with this background, it is inappropriate and pointless.

Maybe if we get more insight into Sabine and Ahsoka's history together and her rumored sensitivity it will be okay, but right now it makes me very uncomfortable.

[poelya]

actually, speaking of lore consistency, i've been thinking about a lot of the tie-in material for the sequels here lately and i have to say there's a lot less consistency I feel like than there could have been. and i'm not just talking charles soule 'oh fuck what tfa said about the fall of luke's temple actually', but like...generally speaking i feel like so much emphasis being put on, at the time, that everything expanded 'verse worked consistently with the films, actually harmed the perception of the films themselves.

because when you divorce the films from their book/comic tie-ins, they flow very well. better than typical criticism will have you think (and before anyone brings up Rey's parentage, first off I lived through tasm2. that shit WAS nonsensical. second off, traumatized brains genuinely work like that. doylist explanation of the writers waffling - something very common in star wars, unless you've forgotten luke and leia's romance fizzling out because hanleia was more popular and george last second retconning them to be sibs - could be criticized, but the watsonian explanation that Rey's memories are that badly fucked up from trauma fits. source: my memories are that badly fucked up from trauma). the only thing is that the movies don't remain consistent with the tie-in material.

which, duh. they're the source material, not these one-shots. the opening scrawl of tfa says that leia has support of the senate behind her with the resistance, which is why poe introduces himself as commander of the new republic fleet. it's why the resistance is in dire straits in tfa/tlj, they just lost their support system. but tie-in material built off a deleted scene, where the senate largely doesn't take the resistance seriously. so we wind up in this bizarre land of "the senate didn't support the resistance but actually they did". if it had been better fleshed out, it would've worked (my partner came up with a great explanation for how both would work and it's simply not there in the 'canon' text). then you have the poe comics, which decides that despite tfa making it extremely clear that looking for tekka was ren's responsibility (with battlefront ii backing this by having him torture del), we get....random first order intelligence officer being in charge of the hunt, because soule was more interested in doing mission impossible-esque stories than the kinds of stories that would better fit the tekka search. this isn't even counting the back and forth of poe's character development in the comics (listen i love those comics, but there's a LOT of two steps forward, three steps back, especially in regards to Poe handing Tekka over. That arc perfectly set up Poe from BTA growing into the Poe we see in the films, annnnnnnnnnnnnd then Soule like. retracted it in the very next issue. This does not upset me in the slightest, why do you ask [chewing through drywall] and like. poe and leia have no familial dynamic to them in those comics either, to the point that watching tlj for the first time was a tRIP for me because i had a !!! oh!!! they're family!!! moment bc that's not present in the comics, with the exception of maybe l'ulo's funeral)

and of course my favorite example of the source material going "ew wtf" is tros just. point blank. saying "who the fuck is resistance reborn?" specifically through poe. iconic, showstopping, i love it to pieces because that novel deserves a slow death rotting at the bottom of the ocean.

the best tie-in material is often either ones built AFTER the films all released (looking at u free fall) or the rare time you can tell the author genuinely loves the characters/era and writing it isn't just a gig. my point is i think by having authors largely ignoring the canon text, and making this very inconsistent lore built around a deleted scene, etc, very seriously harmed the sequels.

[ct-hardcase]

.

[gffa]

No shade to Mary Elizabeth Winstead, she’s doing what she can, but they should have just slapped Vanessa Marshall with the green body paint instead, because if you’re only going to rise to the level of Good Cosplay At A Convention and give her pretty mid-level lines to work with, you really need someone who knows how to do top-notch voice acting work and has a really rich, full sound.  Just imagine that, “No I did not go through your stuff.” with Vanessa Marshall instead, someone who is used to acting with just her voice and so layers it with a ton of emotion and undercurrent, instead of someone more used to acting with their face trying to act through a layer of green paint.

[piepeloe]

Don't know how to feel about the latest SW news, so I'm processing here.

Maybe it's because I'm really into a Loki hyperfixation right now, or maybe I'm just tired, or maybe I'm losing hope for another Kenobi season, but... I'm not that excited?

Ahsoka S1 wasn't amazing but it was alright and obviously ended in a way where it needed a follow-up one way or another. Plus, Filoni's (sort of) in charge now and it ties into all the other stuff, so it's not unexpected.

The new movie is news, except it also isn't? We knew there was a Mando movie coming except now there's an earlier extra one. We know there was another season of Mando coming, except now that's a movie.

I did like watching an episode of Mando with an entire room full of nerds at Celebration, so that will be fun. But it was the only SW show I was genuinely looking forward to. Don't know enough yet about Skeleton Crew or Acolyte.

I hope they reconsider the title of the movie though. I mean 'Mandalorian & Grogu'?

Dunno. It feels like it should be big news, but it feels like non-news. And I don't know if it's because it really is all stuff we kind of knew, or because I'm simply not excited. For some reason it's bumming me out, even.

Though I suppose it is nice to know they're not holding out on announcements until next Celebration. Apparently random Tuesdays are also an option.

[david-talks-sw]

An allergy to the Prequels

While I'm putting together a post about the evolution Lucasfilm's transmedia strategies, this part kinda turned into its own thing!

So I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but, uh... there hasn't been that much Prequel content since the Disney sale, right?

'Couple novels and comics, some episodes... but nothing meaningful.

The more I look into it, the more it feels like a deliberate avoidance to touch on anything Prequel-related - beyond the required quota, that is - to a point where they'd rather tell stories set during periods that are Prequel-adjacent (Dark Times, High Republic) than something set around Episodes I, II and III.

On-screen policy: "pretend they never happened"

I mean, this one's no secret. When The Force Awakens had been announced, with J.J. Abrams at the helm, everyone sighed in relief. "Finally, George Lucas won't keep ruining the franchise."

When Abrams had been announced as the director of Episode VII, I remember this cringey animated video started circulating online, titled "4 Rules To Make Star Wars Great Again" or "Dear JJ Abrams":

“Star Wars isn’t shiny and clean... Star Wars is a western.”

If you ask me, those two things are not mutually exclusive.

'Cause Star Wars has always been both, for many Prequel kids. Both clean and dusty, Coruscant and Tatooine. There was never a disconnect between the Original Trilogy (OT) and the Prequel Trilogy.

Even the documentary The People vs George Lucas shows Prequel-hating fans begrudgingly admit their kids felt all six episodes tied seamlessly.

Abrams, on the other hand, said: "I think [the "Dear JJ" video] was right on." Later on, he also said:

he considered "putting Jar Jar Binks's bones in the desert" on Jakku, somewhere, and

he intentionally made the lightsaber fights "rougher", "primitive" and "more powerful" unlike the fast-paced ones in the Prequels.

Later, we found out he wanted to blow up Coruscant.

It's clear he wasn't a big fan of the Prequels.

But y'know what? Not many fans over 20 were, at the time. And when The Force Awakens came out, most them celebrated it as a wonderful love letter to the OT.

Star Wars is cool again. Mission accomplished 🙌 !

However movies keep coming out, and references to the Prequels - if there are any - are literally just that... references.

Sometimes in the shape of a cameo ("hey look, Genevieve O'Reilly from the Ep. III deleted scenes is playing Mon Mothma again!")

Sometimes in a name (Luke name-dropped "Darth Sidious"!)

But nothing set during the Prequel era, and nothing treating the events that happened in that period as relevant or impactful, beyond subtextual nods.

In fact, the trend of avoiding anything Prequel-related continues as the final film in the Skywalker Saga comes out:

The Rise of Skywalker has a secret Sith society that chants the name "Palpatine" instead of his Sith name "Darth Sidious",

the film pretends the Kaminoans never existed,

and neither TROS nor Trevorrow's Duel of the Fates script even try to bring Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker back on screen. Let that sink in, we're talking about the Chosen One, Skywalker Senior, whose sins caused this whole mess... and his name isn't even uttered once in the final chapter of what Disney dubbed the *Skywalker* Saga (or the entire Sequel trilogy, for that matter).

But hey, The Clone Wars got renewed for one last Season! That's cool right? So many stories had gone unfinished and somehow the animation looks even better than befo--

-- oh. It's not 22 episodes? Only 12?

Four of which had already been shown to us, but hey! We need to set-up the Bad Batch series, so let's shoehorn those episodes in there, and forget Son of Dathomir, Dark Disciple or Crystal Crisis.

*sigh* Better than nothing, I guess.

In other mediums: "just not a priority"

Now this is something that I'll explore more in the transmedia post (and purely my interpretation), but the noticeable change between Lucasfilm's transmedia strategy *post-ROTS* and the one post-Disney sale is that:

Before, the games, comics and novels were the main content. After all, Revenge of the Sith had been released, so that was it, for the movies. Thus, a variety of other content was being cranked out to keep the Star Wars franchise relevant. There were comics set 100 years after Episode 6, comics set 25,000 years prior, games set in the Old Republic era, other stories in the New Republic era, novels galore, a couple of parody films and an animated show, The Clone Wars, which sometimes received its own tie-in comics, novels and games.

After the sale and ever since, most of the transmedia products have had only one goal: promoting the films & streaming shows.

So while in 2015 you won't see an abundance of Prequel content... you'll see an avalanche of OT books and comics come out.

Why? Because the heroes of that era will be in the Sequel Trilogy movies. It provided context to the kids who hadn't seen the OT yet, and reintroduced those films to a new generation of fans, while priming them for the Sequels.

A multimedia marketing strategy that ultimately proved successful.

However, it continued even after The Force Awakens came out.

Don't believe me? Compare how many comics there have been set during the Prequel era vs the OT era.

If they make comics about the Prequels, they're limited runs.

Case in point: before the current Yoda series, the best any Disney Prequel-set comic series ever got was 6 issues.

Note: it's worth pointing out that the frequency of mini-series aren't just a Star Wars-specific thing, it's a comic book industry thing. The readership for comics is dwindling, many people are reading scans online, and so no publisher wants to commit to a story that lasts more than 4-6 issues. My problem is: there absolutely would be readership for a Prequel comic series to warrant an extended run instead of a mini-series.

Let's talk books. There have been give or 64 canon novels published since the Disney sale.

Only 11 of them are set during the Prequel era. And even those stories only came out when the planets were aligned.

Almost half of them were released while being a part of some bigger multimedia push.

Example:

Before the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was being released on Disney Plus, we'd had one novel and like two comic stories about him during the Prequels... released between 2012 and end 2021. That's about three pieces of content in almost ten years.

Clearly a low frequency.

Then, when the series is around the corner, two books and a comic story comes out in the space of months, plus an anthology book with an alt cover with his face on it and a comic with a story of him and Anakin in the first issue, all in 2022.

My takeaway: short of there being a film or series that needs to be promoted, you'll rarely get any Prequel comics or books.

And this is OBI-WAN we're talking about. The character who even the Prequel haters love. Imagine how little attention the other ones get.

Gaming-wise, Battlefront had no Prequel content at all (again, 2015 was the year where OT content was shoved down the consumer's throats to prep them for Episode VII), and Battlefront 2 only released Prequel content a full year later.

All that being said, we did seen some Prequel elements here and there. After all, some actors got to reprise their roles, books and comics came out featuring Prequel characters... but there's a catch.

The stories they appear in are set in-between Episodes III and IV, a time-period known as "the Dark Times" or the "Imperial era".

"Dark Times" being used instead of the Prequel era

It's easy to see the appeal of this era. You keep the same threat from the Original Trilogy - the Empire - but redress it with Prequel elements... while also cherry-picking the best characters of both the OT and the Prequels and giving them a chance to shine again.

The situation is more clear cut, as opposed to the complex one in the Prequels. Bad guys are stormtroopers, good guys are anyone else. And the stories no longer take place in the shiny capital, you're back on the frontier.

But at this point... it feels like a cop-out.

When you consider how much content has been set during the Dark Times, it's nothing to sneeze at. Since the sale, we've had:

2 movies (Solo, Rogue One)

4 series set in that time-period (namely The Bad Batch, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and Star Wars: Rebels).

2 video-games (Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor).

17 novels (such as Ahsoka, Lords of the Sith, the new Thrawn books, etc)

And just a whole bunch of comic book series & mini-series (like Kanan, Princess Leia, various Vader-centric comics including Darth Vader: Lord of the Sith, many tie-in mini-series promoting Rogue One, Jedi: Fallen Order, Obi-Wan Kenobi, etc).

There's been so much content made for this time-period that it feels like an unwillingness to do the work and create something set something during the Prequel era, let alone something that follows its Jedi.

After all, why make a story set in the Prequels (disliked by vocal fans) when you can just take the characters in that story and put them in an OT setting (which will appease the Prequel-haters)?

Maybe these stories get relegated to the Dark Times because:

there seems to be a perception that anything set in the Prequel era won't sell?

or maybe the current SW writers weren't fond of Episodes I, II and III, and don't find those Jedi characters likable, thinking they're too righteous and dogmatic which makes it hard to craft a story around them.

Or maybe it's because they're under the impression that the Prequel Jedi are bad. Like, canonically, in the narrative. Not just in a "I don't like them" sense, but also in a "the story is all about them becoming corrupted" sense.

Let's expand on that last point.

Retconning the Prequels as the "Fall of the Jedi" era

Somehow the rare stories set during the Prequels that we do get seem to automatically be about how "the Jedi lost their way/failed".

The series Tales of the Jedi is explicit about it...

... and I already explained why it contradicts what George Lucas established here and here.

You also see it in Rebels and the new season of The Clone Wars...

... in comics...

... in games...

It gets to a point where the Prequels era has now been redubbed the "Fall of the Jedi" era by Lucasfilm.

You wanna know what that period was referred to before the Disney sale? The "Rise of the Empire" Era.

Because - and I'll never get tired of saying this cuz it's factual - the Prequels aren't about the fall of the Jedi, they're about the fall of the Republic and Anakin, and rise of the Empire and Vader.

So in addition to being overdone, the "Jedi lost their way" is not even the intended narrative of the Prequels (if one puts any stock in Lucas' words). It's a minor subplot at best, hardly the focus of the films, let alone a whole time period.

But dubbing it "Fall of the Jedi" implies that there's another era in which the Jedi were in their heyday.

Because Star Wars authors are in luck! Yet another alternative has presented itself in the shape of a new transmedia initiative, and it's even better than the "let's set it during the Dark Times" solution:

A new transmedia initiative: The High Republic

You wanna deal with the Jedi before the Empire, but for some reason you wanna avoid dealing with the ones seen in the Prequels?

Look no further. Meet the Jedi of the High Republic.

Noble, adventurous, inspired by the Knights of the Round Table, they're everything the OT kids dreamed about when they heard ol' Ben Kenobi talk about the Knights of the Old Republic.

That's more like it!

Note: the High Republic was created for other reasons and has many more upsides than the ones mentioned above. Namely, a fresh new spot in the timeline that allows for creative freedom and a beautifully-coordinated transmedia storytelling effort where retcons are non-existent. However it does seem evident that not having to deal with the 'unlikable' Prequel Jedi and their "fall" is one of those upsides.

Another perk that the High Republic era offers is more freedom in terms of storytelling compared to the Prequels.

In 2016, Pablo Hidalgo tweeted he still quotes to authors the following excerpt of West End Games' guide for aspiring Star Wars writers, from 1994.

You can't write "this was the best day in Luke Skywalker's life", for example, because another author may want to write a better day than the one you just wrote.

My guess is that a similar approach applies to how all characters from the movies are treated. They're massively iconic. So you can't write a book that drastically changes how Mace or Yoda or Obi-Wan are perceived overall.

The stories need to be self-contained, disregardable if necessary, because you'll have dozens of writers coming up with new stories for those same characters, and you need to leave them some room.

Examples:

Notice how in the book Dooku: Jedi Lost we never see how Dooku turns to the Dark Side and joins the Sith.

Same goes for crossover comic book arcs of the Star Wars issues, like Vader Down or Crimson Reign... the characters don't really change by much in those comics. You could stick to just watching the movies and you wouldn't really miss anything.

But with The High Republic, you indeed can develop these characters as much as you want.

All stories featuring Avar Kriss leave an impact on her, you can nail down who she is perfectly in one book or one comic arc, both being just as meaningful to her character.

The fact that she's not as iconic/famous a character as Mace Windu means that authors can go to town on crafting an interesting and nuanced character arc for her that'll have a beginning, middle and end... something Mace will never really get.

CONCLUSION:

Back in 2015... let's not kid ourselves. The Prequels were unpopular and Disney is a multi-billion dollar corporation. Opting to make as much money as possible is what they do.

It's the same reason they decided not to go with George Lucas' original plans for the Sequels, in 2012.

I mean, imagine you're Disney. You just dropped 4 billion dollars, with a B, on this franchise. Your next Star Wars movie needs to be worth the price tag. Now, you can pick between two options:

Option #1 is uncharted territory and it explores the midi-chlorians (the cursed word…!) and the guy who presented you with this option also openly admits that a big chunk of customers won’t like it, but he wants this to be done because it’s his vision.

Option #2 is very simple: a soft reboot, that plays on nostalgia that the same chunk of customers (aka the 'boomer and Gen-X fans who grew up with the Original Trilogy and now have kids, grandkids and MONEY) will like.

It's a no-brainer. They gave the customers what they wanted.

But time has passed, the fans who were children when the Prequels first came out have grown up, and grew up with characters like Yoda, Mace, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto and other Jedi as their heroes, aside from main characters like Anakin and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka.

Can we maybe expand on them, flesh them out more?

No, let's either ignoring the storytelling potential of these characters or reducing it to them being "righteous, arrogant and dogmatic".

God forbid we get a story showing the Prequel Jedi in a *gasp* more positive light? One where their POV is more understandable, instead of the same old "we brought this on ourselves" storyline.

There's a whole decade between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones... you're telling me there's no space to show us Anakin's training and how he formed bonds with the Jedi we later see in The Clone Wars? I tried my hand at it here:

Interesting or fun Prequel-set ideas from other pro-Jedi fans on Tumblr can be found here, here and here.

And y'know, part of the Star Wars intent is for fans to take the ideas in the movies and come up with their own stories. You're supposed to create headcanons.

What I'm saying is fans of the Prequels are being given less "imagination food" than the rest, and many of us who like the Jedi in particular are forced to rely on headcanons only. "Better than nothing" is no longer an acceptable standard.

There's a range of recognizable Jedi characters that have already been established in films and TCW, can we maybe expand on them, flesh them out more, instead of whole new ones?

[pacificwanderer]

Soooooo what are your thoughts on the Rey film?

Hey Nonnie,

I have a lot of feelings LOL. None of my ire is directed at you, and I'm trying not to get too worked up given that we know who the director will be and that Daisy will be in it (everything is meant in a general sense, and it's just my feelings on the matter so whatever). Also, given their track record with directors and writers.... we'll see how it all ends up going!

As far as story, well...

So this is such a coincidence, given that I just saw Su//zume and was thinking that if anything that follows up TRoS ISN'T at least thematically similar to that movie, I don't want it. It still holds.

This is my interpretation, and if others don't agree. That's fine. I'm not really looking to argue with anyone or win anyone over lol. People are allowed to have different interpretations of media, but for me, TRoS didn't work. Both as a fan of the ST and as a lifelong fan of SW. And I don't know how they plan on moving forward with that fucking albatross weighing them down! I really don't!

My problem was and remains that TRoS IS NOT REY'S STORY or really any of the ST characters, it's all focused on the past and that's not a great way to build a point to go forward from. Hell, it's not really even a story so much as characters moving from one set piece to another in an effort to disguise how it's a movie that's basically serving one purpose: address and make up for prior criticism (mostly from re//ddit and prolific you//tubers).

I could go point by point about how that film was set up to make up for "disappointing" certain fans with how TLJ went, but I don't have the time rn for that (I have a lot of work to do in the next few days and not much time, but here i am on tumblr lol). I'm sure it's been done to death, anyway, but people far more eloquent than I.

That film is and was and ever will be is a reactionary film that was made to be an answer to very specific criticism from a very specific subset of the fandom, and it failed. Not only to address their criticisms but to stand on its own as a film. That story takes Rey, takes her character and her story, and reskins her to be Luke 2.0.

But they didn't want that. Those fans didn't want her to be a stand-in for Luke. They didn't want her to symbolically be a Sky//walker, they wanted her to BE one via BIRTH (Luke's daughter or whatever). What we got was insulting to those fans and to fans of TLJ. It's one of the more blatant examples of pandering that I can think of (even if it's badly done), and I really don't know if I'm ever gonna get over it entirely lol. Like I've mostly moved on because there are storytellers out there busting their ass telling stories that deserve to be told, so I have other things to focus on.

Rey's story needs to be her own, and I don't know how they're going to accomplish that given what's happened in TRoS. She's not her own character anymore. She's just... a vessel. Fuck I hate that. I hate saying that! I HATE IT! But that comes from the creators themselves! I love Rey! I wouldn't have written like three-quarters of a million words of fanfic about her world otherwise! AND THEY DID NOT. AND IT SHOWS.

And it's personally offensive to me that they took a character that I loved THE WAY SHE WAS and tried to make her fit for people who were committed to hating her from the start!!!! How dare they! And not just her, but what they did with the rest of the ST characters makes me so fucking angry i have a hard time being chill about it lol.

Anyway, I have some reservations about their ability to craft a tale that's going to honor her character and not just be some sort of way for Luke to jump in and take over the narrative again. As he's done before and will do again (hi there, man//do, nice luke you got there for no fucking reason).

Anyway, I very much try to keep to my own corner of the fandom because I just don't have the energy for much these days, so I'm sure other people have different feelings about it all. I hope it goes well! I doubt it will! Like Andor was great, but Tony is a great storyteller, and I don't think the person they've tacked on to finish the Rey script is capable of doing her justice (sorry bro, PB is good, but it's tragic, do I want that for Rey??? no).

Storytelling should be the first and foremost thing they're focusing on, and... I don't really trust them in that regard anymore. The SW ip is too all over the place, and there's a certain note of cynicism that just seems to infect everything these days. I'm fucking tired of the american monomyth, i'm tired of campbell redux (with no deeper thought or criticism of the aforementioned, just shallow retelling to tick of fucking plot points and NOTHING MORE).

It just... feels like they're trying to find their way without really thinking about what got them to this point. I hope it doesn't suck, but if it does, then there's always fanfic.

PERSONALLY idgaf about rebuilding the gd jedi temple, so i hope THAT changes because it's been done and they fucked up REPEATEDLY like how many movies do we really need of that!!!?? God, there's a whole wide sw universe out there, and they make it feel so small.

So fucking small. What a waste.

TLDR:

Anyway! Hope it works out for anyone who's interested. If anyone's really interested in how I'd like a post-tros narrative to go, please go see su//zume. i fucking adore it to bits and pieces.

Cheers, Nonne!

[gizkalord]

Ppl ragged on lucasfilm for recasting young han solo with alden ehrenreich back in the day but hindsight is 20/20 and I would take a recast of luke skywalker over a deepfake and lifeless vocal synthesizer if it meant we could get a real performance with actual life and dimension lmao…… also alden did a great job and ppl’s heads are just too far up their asses to realize that