For better context on the following post, please see Part 3.
For those who are new here (Hello!), I spent the last few days writing thousands of words explaining why I feel that Star Wars got on the wrong track starting with The Empire Strikes Back (and not Return of the Jedi, or any movie after). You don’t have to read all of it, though I recommend at least just reading my last post (Part 3) as that’s where the real “meat” of this whole discussion is.
And as promised in my last post, I’m going to try to wrap up all of my thoughts here in this piece. I have a lot to say still, so I’m going to try to go through everything rather quickly. So let’s not waste any more time and just get right into it:
George Lucas Rewrites History
It’s true. You don’t need to look any further than this write-up to see just how much this guy changes his mind, but then acts like he doesn’t. That’s why it annoys me when prequel-era fans say that the sequel trilogy betrays “the six-part George Lucas saga.” What saga? The one he came up with after the original movie was already out there? Besides, he was the one who decided in the early 2010’s that he suddenly wanted a sequel trilogy to exist now, even going as far as to write outlines for Disney to use as a starting point. And despite what he says, newly-released evidence shows that they still used a good portion of his ideas, including the ones that Lucas’s so-called “fans” seem to hate the most. You hate what they did with Luke? Thank Lucas. You hate that Han & Leia’s son turned evil and then Han died? Once again, thank Lucas. You hate that the Sith were brought back and Anakin’s title of “the chosen one” was switched over to someone else? One more time; thank Lucas.
Then there’s the issue of “who’s this really about?” When ’77 came out, all of the expanded material was given the tagline The Adventures of Luke Skywalker. As a matter of fact, some items even had just this subtitle and didn’t even say Star Wars anywhere! This lasted at least until 1980, where even a random Han prequel book had that tagline (Again, all of this can be seen in the link above). What that tells me is that Luke was definitely seen initially as the “Flash Gordon” of this franchise. Then the prequels come along, and suddenly Lucas expects us to believe that it’s actually always been about Vader all along. Now he’s recently been saying that Leia has actually always been the main character. Why? I don’t know…
As a matter of fact, Lucas is so obsessed with rewriting his own history and backpedaling on shit he says that he even went as far as to making sure a book from 2000 that compiled old quotes of his changed one such quote from 1977 to include the word “midichlorians,” to make it look like he had that shit planned out all along. Seriously, go click on the link above and then scroll down. It’s there!
And look, I don’t mean to be too hard on the guy. A lot of the things he says, he probably can’t even help himself from saying them, sadly. Also, I know he’s been through a lot, and he did have to fight against all odds to get Star Wars out there. He does have genuine creativity in his DNA, and I thank him for his contributions to the advancement in filmmaking tech, among other things. Also, I’m not saying Disney is any better. They have problems of their own too. At the end of the day, none of these people are perfect. They’re just people, and we shouldn’t be treating them like dirt, or putting them on a pedestal either.
I will say one more thing regarding Lucas’s tendency to retcon things, though: When you watch Star Wars ’77 on it’s own, and forget everything that has come from it since, doesn’t it feel like Luke’s infatuation for Leia’s hologram is, like, one of the main driving forces of that movie? Now factor in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Doesn’t it feel weird now for the movies to suddenly deem them siblings? Just saying…
Fan Entitlement (Oh God, Make It Stop!)
People blindly love and/or hate everything now, and that applies to everyone. People who grew up with the originals think those three movies are utter perfection. People who grew up in between the originals and the prequels think the Thrawn books are the best pieces of literature ever written and that all those 90’s Star Wars games should be held to higher esteem. People who grew up with the prequels think Revenge of the Sith is “Shakespearean.” People who grew up in between the prequels and the sequels think Ahsoka from the Clone Wars show is the best character ever created. And believe it or not, I’m even starting to see high schoolers on places like reddit and discord now who are saying that The Last Jedi is a misunderstood masterpiece, and that Rian Johnson is basically “cinema Jesus.”
And you know what? None of them are right. To put it simply, you like what you grew up with, and that’s that! Don’t believe me? When The Phantom Menace was coming out, news reporters showed how theater lines were filled with a bunch of people in their twenties (meaning they were all little kids when the original trilogy was made) and those same reporters also went to go interview older people who weren’t on line, and they were all making fun of Star Wars, particularly classic characters like R2 and Yoda (oh, the horror!). When Empire first came out, it got mixed (at best) reviews from prestigious places like The New York Times and even Empire Magazine (oh, the irony!). When Return came out, one critic went as far as to calling it “a silly Walt Disney cartoon” (oh, the irony again!). Perhaps my favorite example: My dad saw ’77 when he was a kid, back when it was new, and loved it (still does to this day). For some reason, he never got a chance to see Empire or Return until he was an adult, and by the time he did finally see them, he basically said “fuck these.” Funny, eh?
From what I can tell, the prequel generation of fans seem to be more “hostile,” while the original generation of fans seem to be more “entitled.” One fan from the original generation that I know hated The Last Jedi so much that when we were talking about it his face turned red and he practically started crying. Every time I tried to bring up a point, he’d cut me off and say “No! I grew up with the original Star Wars! I know Star Wars!” So I guess he knows more than me and his opinion is more valid than mine just cause he’s older? Sure, okay… Another fan from the original generation that I know was listening to me point out flaws from the original trilogy and his response was “the original trilogy works because it works.”… Uh… What?! Sorry, but just saying something “works because it works” is an empty argument. Come on, man! Give me more than that!!
Now, I’ll say this much for the original trilogy: Someone else I know once pointed out that those first three films “have better characters,” and to a certain extent, I actually agree, but I also think that has to do with the fact that there weren’t multiple generations of characters to keep track of at the time, so the characters that were there had more room to breathe. Also, the actors had better chemistry back then, and sometimes chemistry like that is really just a “lightning in a bottle” sorta thing that just happened to work out for that trilogy. Furthermore, I no longer believe in the idea of characters being “the most important thing” for a story. If that were the case, shouldn’t we hate Kubrick movies like 2001 or The Shining? Those have very little character development, and yet they’re classics…
Trilogies Are Overrated Anyways (And So Is Joseph Campbell)
The other day I was watching a clip of Joe Rogan’s podcast episode that had Kanye West featured as his guest for the day. For some reason, Rogan brought up Star Wars and said something to the effect of “the original trilogy works because it’s a hero’s journey, whereas the Disney trilogy is just a formula.”
…I’m sorry, but what?! First of all, just because something closely resemble’s the “hero’s journey” findings from Joseph Campbell doesn’t automatically make it good. That Transformers movie from 2007 follows the hero’s journey just as closely, and that shit sucks! Second of all, the “hero’s journey” is a very loose concept that can be bent and shaped and molded to fit pretty much anything. Rey had just as much of a hero’s journey as Luke did, and the Mary Sue thing has nothing to do with it. If the sequel trilogy was an anime and it’s own IP, none of you would be complaining about that…
Also, Joe, if the Disney trilogy is so “formulaic,” as you say, then how does that explain all the criticisms The Last Jedi got for being too “experimental,” and too different from what everyone was expecting? Wasn’t the bad thing supposed to be that the new trilogy didn’t follow a plan?! At this point, people don’t even know why they’re complaining. They just wanna complain (side note: I haven’t seen enough of Rogan to have an opinion on him, just going off this one clip).
A lot of people also associate Campbell’s findings with the idea that stories work best in three acts (setup, conflict, resolution)… Sorry, but we really need to get out of that mindset now. It’s outdated, and it does more harm than good for storytelling expansion, at this point. No, the second installment in a series doesn’t need to be “the dark one, maaaan!” As a matter of fact, most sequels that try that fall flat on their ass anyways (Dead Man’s Chest, Into Darkness, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, etc.).
What Could Have Been…
So I bet you’re asking yourself right now, “So if you didn’t want anything from Empire onwards to have ever happened, then what did you want to happen, man?!”
The answer is kinda hard to describe, so I’ll try to use an example: You know Lost in Space? That show that ran a few seasons in the late 1960’s and then was rebooted as a movie in 1998 and then rebooted again as another show in 2018? Yeah, that’s more or less what I would’ve liked to have seen happen to Star Wars…
Had we gotten Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (hopefully with revisions) as the movie sequel to Star Wars ’77 instead (see Part 2 for context on that), then I imagine we would’ve gotten a few more movies like that with Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher still around, and then everyone would’ve gotten bored and the franchise would’ve dissolved. Then in the late 1990’s there would’ve been a reboot (and I mean a hard reboot!) that would’ve introduced new, younger actors playing Luke and Leia. That would’ve lasted for a bit and then the franchise would’ve dissolved yet again. Then in the late 2010’s yet another reboot would’ve come around, probably with Sebastian Stan playing Luke this time…
Why would I have preferred people getting bored and hard reboots for each new generation cycle? So that everyone would’ve stopped caring so damn much, that’s why! A hard reboot for each new generation of fans would’ve helped each prior generation to realize “Oh, this isn’t made for me anymore. This is made for new kids now.” Sure, the fandom wouldn’t have been as “big and strong” this way, but considering that this fandom has gone as far as to pressure the film actors towards near suicide, would a decrease in all-around passion and care really have been a bad thing, in hindsight?
Another issue that frequent hard-rebooting solves is the damn continuity thing! It was annoying how the old expanded universe material pre-Disney tried to throw bandaids everywhere to maintain continuity across all the different storytelling mediums (books, comics, etc.). And just to make matters worse, all of the expanded material since the Disney sale has been making the same damn mistake yet again! Star Wars probably should’ve never tried to keep the same continuity across all the different story platforms, but if it absolutely has to, then a good hard reboot every twenty years or so definitely helps there…
But more importantly than that, had Star Wars evolved this way instead, the themes and tones would’ve always remained much more consistent. No family drama. No elitism. No “darkness just for the sake of being dark.” None of that crap! But alas, the opportunity to do this passed long ago. We can't keep rebooting Luke. Now we need to move on from him. So in our reality, and ideal Star Wars film would be one that shows us that not everyone has to be related, anyone can be a hero, killing a demon on a throne isn’t always gonna be the answer, and that we must move on from Luke, while still honoring the fact that this all started with him…
Funny enough, there was a recent Star Wars movie that did exactly that, and it’s the one that everybody hates; The Last Jedi.
A “What-If” Glimpse: The Last Jedi (Not Perfect, Not Terrible)
Now, before I go any further, let me make something clear; No, I’m not saying that I love The Last Jedi and hate The Empire Strikes Back, nor am I saying that that’s how you should feel either. Just like everyone else, I have my problems with The Last Jedi too. As I said last time, the tonal fluctuations are almost just as bad as they were in the prequels. Furthermore, the dialogue, while memorable, often sounds outright pretentious and, quite frankly, very un-Star Warsy. Finn & Rose’s subplot feels very half baked. Poe went from being “noble” (and being seen that way by those around him) in The Force Awakens to being “reckless” (and again, being seen that way by those around him) in this film. Hux feels like a completely different character now… I can go on. And all of this is made even more annoying by the fact that this film is supposed to be taking place just seconds after the ending of Awakens!
So what does this movie do right, then? Let me put it this way: Someone I know once criticized this movie for “not moving the plot forward at all.” And while I somewhat agree, I’d like to counter that point with this one: What the story lacks in “forward momentum,” it makes up for with “expansion,” which is something most of the other Star Wars films lack. What do I mean by expansion, exactly? Well, I mentioned earlier how it’s this very movie that makes the points that “not everyone has to be related, anyone can be a hero, and killing a demon on a throne isn’t always gonna be the answer.” Whether or not any of this was intentional, I don’t know. Also, pretty much all of these points ended up being ruined when The Rise of Skywalker came along and said “actually, everybody is related to everybody, not just anyone can be a hero, and killing a demon on a throne is gonna solve all of our problems (again).” For the record, I don’t fully hate Skywalker either. I just like/dislike it for different reasons…
Whether or not Jedi actually meant to make any of those points doesn’t matter. All that’s important is that it created that conversation. It also “expanded” things in other ways. As pointless as the Canto Bight sequence may seem on the surface (and as I said earlier, it has it’s problems) it did at least make an attempt at deepening and enriching the world, which is something that Awakens definitely dropped the ball on, as far as I’m concerned. More importantly, though, Jedi showed how it’s important to “move on” from Luke, while still acknowledging that he was the “Flash Gordon” at the start of this all. No scene does this better than the infamous “Broom Boy” bit at the end. Not since the legendary “Binary Sunset” sequence in ’77 was I left with the feeling of Star Wars being something timeless, and something that could go literally anywhere. When young Luke looks off towards those twin suns, you’re being told that he’s a small, yet important part in a universe of endless possibilities. When Broom Boy looks up at the stars, you’re being told that again…
So if Jedi technically did all the right things, in a meta-narrative sense, then why did everyone still get so pissed off when they saw it? To put it simply: It was too late (and also maybe too long). By this point, for better or worse, the “Skywalker trilogy of trilogies” train was already going a thousand miles an hour. It’s kinda too late to suddenly turn the locomotive at a ninety-degree-angle now…
On the other hand, had they just done what was “expected” of the middle film of this new trilogy, then that would’ve just left the trilogy as a whole feeling even more like the original three films, and would’ve also made everything after the Skywalker saga feel even more like an afterthought. It was important for this trilogy to “experiment” at some point or another, and since the first film has to set things up and the last film has to wind things down, the middle film just makes the most sense for experimentation… Besides, what were they supposed to do after Awakens and all of it’s bullshit “mysteries” anyways? I’ll talk more about that, as well as the politics of this new trilogy (which really started with Awakens anyways) another day…
Should Any Of This Have Ever Happened?
I know a couple of people that have gotten so sick of all the bullshit with Star Wars that they’re honestly at a point where they kinda just wish none of it ever existed at all. I don’t blame them, and if you also feel that same way, then I don’t blame you either. That being said: Do I feel the same way?… No, actually. At the end of the day, I still feel that ’77 made enough of a positive impact on the world that it’s existence is warranted. Did some bad come with it too? Sure. For every group of happy people at Star Wars Celebration, for instance, there’s the occasional twit who has sent hurtful messages to some of the actors at one point or another. But at the end of the day, I still feel the movie brought about more good than bad.
Furthermore, ’77 just has too much heart in it to not deserve it’s own existence. In addition to the importance of the binary sunset moment, which I discussed earlier, the movie has another gem in the form of the setup/payoff revolving around Han. One of my favorite moments is when Han asks Luke to come with him and Chewy, to become a fellow pirate alongside the two of them. Luke refuses, and calls out Han for not sticking with the alliance. Then later on, right as the film reaches the climax, Han comes back after realizing that Luke was right. It’s moments like these that show the importance of friendship which, as I’ve been saying throughout these four posts, is what I feel to be the true “beating heart” of the franchise.
In The End, They’re Just Movies (And Nobody’s Right Or Wrong)
Even though I kinda already said this in Part 1, I feel the need to repeat it again here at the end, just so that it’s clear that I’m really not trying to tell anyone how to think. These are all just my opinions on things. Nothing more or less…
Besides, Maybe Everything Happens For A Reason (Cliche, But True)
In a way, it is kinda eerily poetic that the final film of the Skywalker “trilogy of trilogies” happened to have it’s full theatrical run right before the pandemic came along and destroyed the movie theater industry as we know it. It’s things like that which make me think that, maybe, this was just the way it was always meant to be, for better or worse…
What The Future Still Holds
In about a decade from now, when all the current children of the world are adults and the world itself is back to normal (whatever “normal” will be by then), I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to hear rumblings about some kinda “Episode X” (it’ll probably be branded differently by then), where yet another reincarnation variant of Palpatine shows up to wreak havoc once again (the official novelization of The Rise of Skywalker already hinted at this, actually). Not saying I’ll be mad if this happens, just saying that it very likely could, and if it does, we’ll probably be back to the same bitching and moaning we’ve been seeing every time “mainline” Star Wars comes back.
…Or maybe this time things will actually be different. Maybe now, Disney will know never to touch the Skywalker Saga crap ever again, and will actually commit to the idea of Star Wars being a frequently ever-expansive thing. The animated shows, particularly The Clone Wars and Rebels, already gave us a taste of what this could be like, and The Mandalorian has taken it to a whole other level now, and I love that show just as much as everyone else does (EDIT: Not anymore). Some of the future streaming projects also seem interesting, though I’ll reserve judgement one way or the other until I can actually see them.
What Will I Do Now?
At some point, I’ll revisit the topic of Star Wars as part of my The Good & The Bad series on this blog. I want to make it more clear that I don’t love or hate any of the films. Like I said at the very start of this, there are things I like and dislike in each of them. I probably won’t be doing those posts any time soon, though, since (as you could probably guess) I kinda need a break from Star Wars right now…
Thank you for putting up with me and my crap for these last four posts!
Peace!
PS: The fact that Vader/Vater means “father” in Dutch/German is just a coincidence. Lucas came up with the name by simply just shortening “invader” to “vader,” much like how he would later shorten “insidious” to “sidious.”
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