The Real Reason You Don't Like Star Wars Anymore - Part 1

2024 UPDATE: I regret most of what I said here now, but I linked this post to many others on this blog now, so I can’t really remove it… Oh well…

Welp… Guess it’s time for me to publicly talk about the one thing that nobody can ever seem to agree on… I’m gonna get crucified for this…

To be clear; I am a Star Wars fan… Sorta… I used to be a massive fan! These days, though? Not so much. But not necessarily for the same reasons as everyone else.

So, like most people around my age, I grew up when the prequels were coming out. The Phantom Menace was my introduction to the franchise, and then my parents showed me the original trilogy immediately after, and then I saw the remaining two prequel installments in theaters some years later. I liked them all pretty equally at the time. I knew deep in the back of mind that something was wrong with each of them, but I was too young to care (it’s true what they say; ignorance is bliss).

As I grew into my teenage years, however, the flaws of the prequels (as well as Return of the Jedi, to a lesser extent) became more and more evident. Like many others, I began following every word of “internet famous” prequel critics like RedLetterMedia. As a matter of fact, I even went as far as to accuse prequel fans of being “not true fans.” Believe me, I regret that behavior a lot now in hindsight…

Then came Halloween 2012, the day we all found out that George Lucas was selling the IP rights to Disney, and that the mythical sequel trilogy was finally going to become a reality, with classic trio actors Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher (RIP) all likely to return. Needless to say, 18-year-old me was beyond excited… Then came Christmas 2015. The Force Awakens arrived, and it was enjoyable, but… Something was missing. And suddenly, the prequels that I had grown to loathe so much over the years were starting to look better, in hindsight (still not good, necessarily, just somewhat better).

But like everyone else, I told myself  “Oh, this is just the introduction movie. It needed to play things safe. The next one will be different!” Then came the next one… I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know what to think when I first saw The Last Jedi. I just remember feeling very numb. Suddenly, “different” seemed just as irritating as “safe.” But, nevertheless, I continued to delude myself: “Oh, the next movie is the end of the saga! The end of the ‘trilogy of trilogies.’ Once we all see that movie, then everything will finally make sense!”

When I finally saw The Rise of Skywalker, my first impressions were that the first half was way too rushed, but that it was worth it to get to the second half, which pretty much played out almost exactly like how I had always imagined a hypothetical “Episode IX” playing out ever since I was a little kid… Which was exactly the problem. The movies were back to being “too predictable.” I liked Skywalker at first, for the most part, but soon enough, the euphoria faded away, and I was back to feeling confused and numb.

So for the last year, just about, I’ve been asking myself “Why didn’t this work? Why is it that anything this franchise does feels wrong somehow? What the fuck is going on?!”

Some people will tell you that it’s because the original trilogy should’ve just been left alone, but I don’t think that’s the full answer, because Return was already starting to “show some cracks.” Also, I’m sorry, but there was just no way in hell the original trilogy was ever going to be “left alone” (I’ll explain that in a little more detail later on).

Other people will tell you that it’s because the sequel trilogy “didn’t have a plan.” No matter what you all think, that’s not the answer either. It doesn’t explain the issues that Return and the prequel films all had, for starters. Furthermore, the original trilogy didn’t have a plan either, and those films (Return included) are all still put on a pedestal by everyone. 

Also, believe it or not, your precious Marvel Cinematic Universe didn’t have a plan either. They didn’t know they were doing anything with Thanos until the first Avengers film was already in reshoots. Loki’s staff and the tesseract had to be retconned into infinity stones. The cartoony-looking gauntlet that was just a silly easter egg in Thor had to be retconned into “a decoy.” Then there’s things like the “toning down” of adult humor after the franchise moved from Paramount to Disney, the “tonal shift” between the second and third Thor films, the timeline miscalculation in Homecoming, Scarlet Witch’s accent… The list goes on! I’m not saying the MCU is bad (even though it’s fanbase can be a bit pretentious at times). All I’m saying is that, like everything else, it has it’s flaws, but that’s another discussion for another day…

So no, the problem wasn’t that Star Wars “didn’t have a plan.” Plenty of people, myself included, have tried doing “fan rewrites” of the sequels to try to make them feel more consistent, and every single time, something still feels “wrong.” The problems run way deeper than any “fan rewrite” can fix.

If you ask different generations of fans, you’ll get different answers. People who grew up with the original trilogy say the problems started with the prequels (some say Return as well). People who grew up with the prequel trilogy say the problems started with the sequels. Then there are sequel fans, but almost none of them like all three films. Some only like Awakens, some only like Jedi, some like both Awakens and Jedi but not Skywalker, some like both Awakens and Skywalker but not Jedi… You get the idea. Should it have all been the same director? Maybe, but people still would’ve complained one way or the other (it probably just would’ve been more “consistent” types complaining, is all). Besides, the original trilogy films each had different directors, and nobody bitches about that.

So now that I’ve written my one-thousand-word intro (you still there?), I can finally tell you the conclusion I recently came to, and keep in mind, I’m not saying that any of this is factual. These are all just my opinions and my theories. I’m just offering this take as a possibility for why many people stopped liking Star Wars without even realizing it.

And with that all finally being said… The problems with the Star Wars franchise actually started with the movie that everybody likes (or thinks they like); The Empire Strikes Back.

Go ahead. Tell me I’m an idiot. Tell me that I’m just trying to make the original trilogy look bad so that the sequel trilogy looks better. I’ve heard it all before. I don’t care.

Empire, and particularly the iconic “I am your father” twist (cough-retcon!-cough) is this franchise’s greatest gift and greatest curse. But to understand why, exactly, we need to go back… Back to where it all started… But this post is starting to get a bit long in the tooth, so we’ll save that for next time.

Peace!

Click here for Part 2.