The More I Try The Less I Like Disney's Star Wars

Ah yes, *air quotes* Disney Star Wars *air quotes*. We have dismissed that claim.

I've been a Star Wars fan for well over 20 years. There was a time when my headcanon included all Star Wars material I ever came into contact with, movies, games, tv shows, books. Even if I hated them, they were still canon to me, one way or another. Unfortunately, this is no longer true.

I just rewatched Rogue One for the first time since seeing it in the theater. I watched with an open mind, not trying to like it or dislike it, just following the story as shown. It was a decent Star Wars story. But no matter how objective I try to be, there is always that little nagging thought in the back of my mind, reminding me of Toprawa, Bria Tharen, the Maw Installation, and Bevel Lemelisk. Things I knew and accepted as canon for many years in regards to the Death Star's construction and the manner in which the Rebels got a hold of the plans.

Before Disney, I never experienced an instance of contradiction that I couldn't manage to reconcile in some way. After Disney...well, for me, the Sequel Trilogy, standalone films, new books, and (to a lesser degree) Rebels, all take place in an alternate universe from the Original Trilogy, Prequels, and EU. For now, I kind of feel like Rebels could still potentially fit into the old Expanded Universe, and until/unless the events of Rogue One are specifically mentioned on the show, that could remain true.

So Disney Star Wars is a little like the jello on your plate at a family dinner, you like it, but you don't want it to touch your mashed potatoes and gravy.

 

But I did that over a decade ago, I gave all three of my prequel VHS tapes to charity. Never missed them since.

I love TFA and Rogue One. The latter in particular might be my favorite in the franchise, think I've watched it around twenty times since it was released. I haven't done that with a movie since I was a kid watching my OT tapes until they were warped.

To each their own.

 

For real. Phantom and Clones are insta choices for this for me.

 

i only ever owned TPM, but i don't believe i do anymore. TFA and R1 are the only DVD/BluRays i've purchased in the last five years.

 

As big of a fan as I am, I actually never owned a Star Wars film until April 2016, when I picked up TFA.

Then, in January 2017 I got a boxed set for the OT.

In April 2017, I got Rogue One.

In May 2017 I got the PT boxed set.

And this Auguest, I got the boxed sets for Rebels.

I'm kinda a completionist with this sort of thing, but yeah, otherwise I wouldn't even want the PT. But to each their own- I used to love it, so I wouldn't begrudge any fans of it.

 

My problem with Disney's handling of the franchise is that it is being safe . . . too safe. Even with "ROGUE ONE", which I like a lot. I get the feeling that with the exception of new characters, Disney is afraid to do something really new or challenging. Hopefully, Rian Johnson will change that.

 

I still haven't watched my 3D Blu-ray since theater...I think the problem you are describing, put simply, is that no work that builds upon another should be made at the expense of the one it's based upon.
People and fans will notice, and rightfully get vocal when they see such a thing happening. As so often in life it's about respect. And how can we seriously respect something that lacks respect for the previous work it's been built upon?

All the dialogue in ANH suggests that the Death Star did not become operational until ANH, the Tantive IV received a transmission of the Death Star plans (not a data carrier), and Ackbar said "May the Force be with us" to illustrate that the Alliance had been spiritually exhausted (and was therefore loosing) until the Mon Calamari joined the Alliance some time prior to ROJ.

Unless I'm mistaken, are there really rumors seriously suggesting that Anakin was not the Chosen One but a character in The Last Jedi?

If some people at Lucasfilm seriously think they need to re-invent the wheel, all I could say is that I have a set of wheels that does it job more than adequately.

 

The major difference between Lucas Star Wars and Disney Star Wars ?

We got 20 years older and the magic of a movie is not the same as a teen and as an adult.

Let your inner kid free and you'll enjoy it.

 

Put simply, that's about the size of it. The Expanded Universe carried the franchise for a lot of years. In many ways, Star Wars built its identity through the dozens of Authors and story writers of the EU. Now, that identity no longer has any bearing on the continuing story, meaning that writers have to construct a new identity from scratch. Meaning, it is not the same Star Wars that we had before the Disney Acquisition. It kind of breaks my heart to know that something I appreciated so much and was so influential to me in my youth may not be appreciated by the next generation.

 

- same as present authors of GFFA.

I actually like the way they make it and I believe they will keep doing it that way. Just to let you know - I'm a crazy fan of SW for the last 3 years apparently, and back in that days and ever earlier I have never thought about who`s owning franchise, I got very confused when the following Clone Wars episode did not come, but just left it like that, then accidentally found Rebels, then opened Wookipedia and started with canon books and comics. I believe there are much older fans who can`t take it when Disney is in charge, well, just don`t watch Forces of Destiny .

And thanks Alex from Star Wars Explained for all those reviews and explanations, it's much easier to make references between all existing SW media or to know everything about everything in the GFFA!

 

What is GFFA ?

 

Galaxy Far Far Away

You can find a lot of those abbreviations here...

 

Oh Ok I had Global Forum for Food and Alimentation on Google

 

Nicely put.

And another big difference - when the original trilogy came out they were some of the biggest movies ever seen. Epic space battles, ground-breaking special effects, awesome costumes, incredible character design. For us from the 70s and 80s who grew up with them as children, the films were mind-blowing because nothing else was at their scale. Nowadays, enormous movies with 200+ million dollar budgets, enormous battles, spaceships, super powers, fantastical characters fully-realised on screen; it's all commonplace. Star Wars is now just part of the blockbuster landscape, whereas it was once the pinnacle of it. As such I expect some people are expecting to be blown away in the way the originals did for audiences when they had little competition and that's just unrealistic.

We live in a movie era that's post-Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Avatar, with dozens of interconnected comic book movies that have just as much hype and fanhood behind them now as any Star Wars film.

Star Wars now competes with the likes of billions-earning Avengers movies. In 1977 its live action pop-culture competition from Marvel existed solely in the form of the low-budget Spiderman and Incredible Hulk TV shows from CBS. With so many movies offering alternatives to what Star Wars used to almost single-handedly offer, it's obviously going to result in a less unique experience in seeing a new Star Wars movie.

I'm not saying that applies to everyone, we've all got different tastes and if someone doesn't like them then that's their right too. But for those expecting a Star Wars movie to blow them away it did in 1983 when they were 7, it's not as likely to happen given the fact that you're now, say, over 40 with taxes and stress and relationship problems, and the other simple fact that you can now see a number of movies every year just as epic as a Star Wars movie.

Me? I'm as happy as Larry to be living in an era of regular new movies, I love 'em and my inner child and I can't wait for The Last Jedi

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 11, 2017, Original Post Date: Oct 11, 2017 ---

Well I'd argue that for those sad about the canon wipe, bear in mind Lucas himself never held any allegiance to it himself. Yes he plucked a few things, but if he wanted to change something on a whim, he would. Liked Korriban in Knights of the Old Republic? Tough, it's called Moribund now on the Clone Wars, forcing other writers to make it make sense. I firmly believe that had he made his own sequel trilogy he would have happily changed numerous other book and videogame events to suit his own vision. Just look at this long commentary written years before the Disney buy-out and canon-wipe demonstrating changes the prequels made from prior established EU history http://deckplans.00sf.com/Research/Prequel.html

Plus that whole G-canon, C-canon, S-canon hierarchy rubbish was beyond ridiculous and impossible to follow.

So of course Disney will have wanted a clean slate otherwise they're just going to be film adaptions of stories that many people know the outcome to (not to mention some of which are crap) - which also means some stuff would need to left out and avoided given there were SO many novels and some ideas were stupid; you just can't make movies and expect every single element to be able to be featured. So at what point do they draw the line of saying Shadows of the Empire is in, Crystal Star is out, Ewoks: Battle for Endor is in, The Holiday Special is out, X Wing Alliance is in, Super Bombad Racing is out? Even the bad stories are beloved to someone out there and we're still keeping that G-canon, brown-canon, dog-canon, hamburger-canon rubbish going. Regardless of the outcome, I'd still far rather have no idea what's going to happen as I prepare to see a new film rather than having pre-established expectations having to be met with thoughts of "I wonder what song will be the first dance at Luke and Mara's wedding!" or "The cloned Jedi had better pronounce their U's with enough excessive enunciation!" or "I hope they do dramatic justice to Chewbacca getting squashed by a moon."

Give me a fresh story every time. With the new canon resurrecting fan favorites like Thrawn, hammerhead corvettes, dark trooper homages, Nar Shadaa, Admiral Screed, Ackmena (well I liked her), Interdictors, TIE Defenders etc. and putting them into new stories I'm personally getting the best of both worlds and loving it.

 

You've mentioned Marvel CU, also consider DCEU and the TV show alternatives like Game of Thrones.

Agree. Some stuff from Legends is CRINGE-WORTHY. But hey, it is still there. The books and the characters are still there, living on an alternate universe, but not applicable so far to what we now know as canon.

 

When it comes to the canon wipe, let's also not forget that it logistically makes sense so as to be able to sell Star Wars to wide mainstream audience. The books and some games picked up from where ROTJ left off because they began only a few years after the original films ended and evolved their stories along the way; building upon other stories and new mythologies as they went.

Now the new films are set 30+ years after ROTJ, because quite literally, it is 30+ years after ROTJ and we can't hide that when it comes to the ages of the OT cast. Therefore they can't jump in before Leia and Han had kids or Luke's a fresh new Jedi master because they're too old, so they'd have to approach the story from how much time has passed. To keep to the old EU and make films set 30 years later, think about how much ridiculous clutter to the backstory there would be? It'd be impenetrable for new or casual fans.

I've barely read any of the books but from what I gather we'd have Mara Jade come and gone, Thrawn come and gone, Emperor's clones come and gone, a new Jedi academy, the Solo twins (one of whom is evil), the Yuuzhan Vong war would be over, Chewbacca would be dead from a falling moon etc. It would be an absolute mess to make movies from all that as a foundation.

In fact, just for fun, could someone better in the know perhaps do a brief bullet-point list of huge events (and stupid ones) that would be required backstory to the new trilogy after 30 years if made from the old EU? I'd love to see just how convoluted it would all be.

So with the new trilogy we get a few simple elements - Luke was a master of new Jedi, his nephew went bad and killed them all so Luke ran off. Han and Leia split up. The Empire became the First Order. The Rebellion became the Resistance. Plus there's some new kids on the block.

It's broad strokes because it had to be. TFA was designed to be a pop-culture comeback for the franchise, to make it 'cool' again, and it wouldn't have made 2 billion dollars if it had been full of impenetrable convoluted clutter based on endless varying-quality novels and videogames. And if anyone argues that they could have moved some of those events to the time period of the 30+ after ROTJ (which will annoy some hardcore fans regardless, so you can't win there) then I'll simply say, that's exactly what they have done with Thrawn in Rebels (to which some complained, proving my point) so again, for me, that is the best of both worlds. Plus above-all, you'd know what would happen, so where's the fun in that?

 

You wanted brief. ABY means "After the Battle of Yavin", in case someone out there doesn't know.

4 ABY Ssi-ruuk Invasion occurs, New Republic is founded, Empire still largely in power
5 ABY Ysanne Isard leading the Empire.
6 ABY Wedge re-forms Rogue Squadron to fight the Empire
7 ABY New Republic captures Coruscant.
8 ABY Han wins the planet Dathomir in a game of sabacc and kidnaps Leia, after hanging out with the witches and killing Warlord Zsinj, Han and Leia are married
9 ABY Thrawn Crisis, Jacen and Jaina Solo (twins) are born to Han and Leia. Luke meets Mara Jade. Mara kills Luke's clone, Luuke.
10 ABY Empire recaptures Coruscant. Reborn Emperor (clone) leading the Empire. Anakin Solo born to Han and Leia.
11 ABY Palpatine's life force finally destroyed, Luke establishes Jedi Praxeum (academy) on Yavin 4, New Republic recaptures Coruscant. Leia becomes New Republic Chief of State
12 ABY Empire becomes "Imperial Remnant".
14 ABY Hethrir abducts Solo kids, but gets defeated.
16 ABY Yevethan Conflict occurrs.
18 ABY First Corellian Insurrection, planetary repulsors and Centerpoint Station prove Corellian system is artificial. Imperial Remnant finally defeated.
19 ABY Peace Treaty ends the Galactic Civil War.
20 ABY Luke marries Mara Jade.
22 ABY Solo kids join Luke's Academy.
23 ABY Leia resigns as Chief of State
25 ABY Yuuzhan Vong invasion begins, Chewbacca dies.
26 ABY Ben Skywalker (son of Luke and Mara) is born.
27 ABY Yuuzhan Vong take Coruscant, Anakin Solo dies, Jacen Solo imprisoned and begins learning from Vergere.
28 ABY New Republic becomes Galactic Federation of Free Alliances (GFFA or Galactic Alliance for short), Jacen Solo escapes imprisonment.
29 ABY Coruscant retaken by GFFA, Yuuzhan Vong War ends. Jacen Solo searches for other Force traditions to learn from.
30-34 ABY nothing really important happens

Sort of cherry-picked from this page: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_galactic_history/Legends If anyone can think of anything important that I missed, go ahead and chime in

 

Dear Disney and LFL,
Thank you for creating a new canon.

Warmest regards,
Everyone who doesn't want to decipher all this and make Star Wars have prerequisites for enjoyment lol

 

Yeah, it's a lot. At least a few dozen novels/comics are represented there. But this was what really drew me in to Star Wars, reading those books. They were my "TFA", as it were.