Dear LucasFilm: Don't make Star Wars "small"

I agree with you on several levels. One of the first things I said when I saw Starkiller was "WHAAAAAAT WHY ISNT IT JUST A BIG SHIP?!?!". I couldn't believe they went this route again. It doesn't really bother me now but I still think i massive star destroyer would have went over better with fans. I guess they wanted those outdoor snow scenes so they went the "deathstar in a planet" route.

I think we definitely need to see more in space moments. Star Wars takes place in a well traveled galaxy unlike the real world. USE IT! I want to see more battles like ROTJ and even stuff like in ESB when they fly into the asteroid. Use the area between the planets as much as the planets.

It has been said by cast members that Rian has introduced some new things not done in SW before. I'm hoping that they involve more than just the characters and include the scenery as well. One good sign for more space is it didn't seem like there was a ton of location shooting. A lot was done in Ireland which seemed to be used all for Ahch-to and then some in Croatia. While they could do a lot of different things inside Pinewood, I'm hoping this means there is just a lot of scenes on ships in space.

 

I think to keep SW "BIG" we have to fall in love with Rey Skywalker to see in the end she loses everyone and everything and then becomes the Darth Vader replacement out of pain, ruling the galaxy to take us into 10, 11, 12.

SHe should literally end up in a Darth Vader costume with Piffers.

 

Eh. Either way, I didn't care about this whole "different worlds", since in the PT most alien races were laughable to look at (and racist stereotypes). I like seeing different planets, though.

Politics work in a fantasy film only if it's either barebones (the majority of the fantasy stories) or the backbone of the story (GoT). I don't see politics becoming the core narrative to SW after the abysmal portrayal in the PT any time soon, though.

That being said, in order to have a cohesive narrative, you have to set limits in your world. If you make an epic place like Middle Earth and Westeros, you tend to lose your core narrative; The Hobbit was an adventure and LOTR started as such, but then it focused more, introducing other locations by splitting the characters who were already connected with each other and not by simply throwing new things in the story. As for ASOIAF, for all the worldbuilding, the focused story and the fact that family plays into politics and people are related to each other is a good way to keep things both tight and give the world a chance to breathe.

As for TFA, people whined from here to Dagobah about how the PT was so damn different that it felt like it wasn't Star Wars. LF simply reacted to these comments, giving a safe film so they could attract old whiners and newcomers.

All in all, since I've always found the main attraction to be the human drama and not the world, I don't care if Star Wars ever becomes "small". Which, again, I didn't think that TFA did such a job.

 

You forgot to show them your doodle of me after I told you that.