Revisiting My "Empire Strikes Back" Hot Takes

  So just a little over two years ago now I wrote this four-part post about how I think The Empire Strikes Back is a little overrated, and how some of its story choices might have led to more bad than good for the Star Wars franchise longterm…

A lot has changed for me since then, with perhaps the biggest thing being that I’ve now self-published two space opera books of my own; Next Star Over and Sunrise Order. As a matter of fact, I recently tried writing a sequel to Next Star Over in particular, setting out to do exactly what I said Empire should’ve done. My sequel was going to be self-contained, light on its feet, and not “rock the boat,” or change the status quo of things too much… And you know what happened? I got bored. I got really, really bored… Now, before I go any further, let me make one thing clear; the Next Star Over sequel might still happen. I just still need time to try to get the story right, is all.

But anyways, around the same time my sequel ideas collapsed, I also came down with the flu (been going around here, lately). While I was sick over the weekend, I decided to turn on the television and saw that the TNT channel was marathoning all the Star Wars movies in chronological order. At that very moment, I told myself “Screw it, I haven’t seen any of these films in awhile, and I’m not gonna do anything else this weekend while I’m sick. Might as well watch this whole marathon!”

…And I ended up enjoying The Empire Strikes Back way more than I expected to. Mind you, there are still some small aspects of it I felt could’ve been better (3PO is more annoying than he needs to be, for instance). Additionally, I still feel that a small part of what Star Wars truly is was lost forever starting with this movie. That said, the combination of my regained appreciation for Empire and my own sequel collapsing around the same time got me thinking. Furthermore, I was reading through some Star Wars forums recently, and came across this comment that peaked my interest (I’m paraphrasing here):

“Yes, it’s true that Star Wars started as simply The Adventures of Luke Skywalker and then ballooned into the Skywalker family soap opera. But it’s also true that Middle-Earth started as a simple children’s fairytale with The Hobbit and then ballooned into a more serious war drama with The Lord of the Rings. Stories balloon all the time. That’s not the problem. The problem is that George Lucas denies it and then gaslights people when they try to call him out on it.”

This person is right about everything (including that last part, by the way, but that’s neither here nor there). So, with that all in mind, I decided to go back and read my big four-part post from 2020. Upon this re-read, I noticed how my main argument was that Empire “locked” Star Wars into too narrow of a direction by bringing in fixed episode numbers and retroactively making this all about just one family. And that this was the starting point as to why Star Wars is now “dead” post-Rise of Skywalker… Here’s the thing, though; Star Wars has “died” before, and it always comes back.

Starlog magazine had a whole article about Star Wars being “dead” way back in 1986 (shortly after the comics ended and there was nothing going on apart from the Saturday morning cartoons, which themselves didn’t last long). Then in 1987, someone from West End Games asked their boss if they could court Lucasfilm into letting them turn Star Wars into a table-top RPG, and their boss supposedly replied with “Why? That’s a dead license!” Mind you, they ended up agreeing to it, but that’s besides the point. The late 2000’s/ early 2010’s saw a similar “dead” period in between the prequels and the sequels. The Clone Wars was considered a joke by many at that time. It wasn’t until the third season of that show when fans started taking it seriously…

For about a decade or so, IV-VI were simply known as “the Star Wars trilogy,” and then got rebranded as “The Original Trilogy” and were grouped with the prequels as “The Complete Saga,” and then all six of those movies eventually were grouped with the sequels as “The Skywalker Saga.” The franchise is always rebranding itself. We’ve already heard rumblings about some kinda “Episode 10” being written by Damon Lindelof. When that project eventually gets officially announced, I wouldn’t be surprised if they include some kinda tagline like “the Skywalker saga may be over, but the Star Wars cycle continues.” And then all Star Wars films with episode numbers in their title (including I-IX) will be known as “the Star Wars cycle,” or something to that effect.*

So little-by-little, I’m starting to become glad again that Star Wars evolved into “something grander” beginning with The Empire Strikes Back. Yes, some bad came with it. The fanbase is way too generational now, and everyone takes the franchise way too seriously. That said, it’s equally true that the alternative would’ve been more boring. In hindsight, I was probably too harsh when criticizing certain aspects of Empire (the Han and Leia romance, the love triangle in general, etc.).

In addition, as I read back through those old connected posts of mine, I found myself regretting a few other things here and there that I had said. As a matter of fact, I look back at all those old posts of mine from late 2020/ early 2021, and they kinda make me cringe. My rhetoric was pretty over-the-top back then, and I complained too much (still do). In my own defense, however, it was simply a different time, and I can only rewrite my own history so much. I was in between jobs, new to blogging, and hadn’t started self-publishing my own stories yet. I’ve learned a lot since then, and hopefully, I keep learning more…

Peace!

UPDATE: I also think I’m starting to grow out of the mindset that Star Wars always has to be for kids first and foremost. Different age groups/ generations can get into it through different entry points.

*2024 UPDATE: Called it! Fucking called it!!

Regarding Retcons (And When They Can Be Good)

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… 

Just like last time, I was originally gonna write about a different topic today, but once again, something has happened that has encouraged me to write this instead. And once again, I’m not working from any outline. This might become the norm for me from now on…

Now, as I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog already, I really dig WandaVision! That being said, it’s not perfect. Like most Marvel properties these days, it has a bit of a “trojan horse” problem, in that it often concerns itself with setting up future stories, rather than focusing on the story at hand. That being said, this is one of the few times where I actually don’t mind. Why? The answer is simple: I really like all the characters in this show. Whether they’re playing dress-up and pretending to be living in another decade, or actually being themselves in present-day, this show does enough to make me enjoy seeing these people, even if they aren’t really doing much of anything. There’s plenty of other aspects about the show that I enjoy too, particularly the “meta” factor of it being a love-letter to TV history, which is especially fitting since this is Marvel Studios’ first ongoing show and the beginning of a new post-Thanos era for them and whatnot.

So why am I writing this then? Because something occurred in last week’s episode that got me thinking…

NOTE: Spoilers from here on out! Read on at your own risk…

As most of you reading this probably recall, last week’s episode (the penultimate of the series, as a matter of fact) was structured as a “trauma tour” of sorts, in which we got to go through flashbacks of Wanda’s entire life, leading up to this point. Through these “recaps,” we got to see an aspect of Wanda that was never shown to us in any of the films before, which is that she loves to watch TV, and always has. In fact, we learn that not only does she associate TV (specifically sitcoms) with the happiest moments she ever had with her loving family, but that ever since their death, she has used TV (again, specifically sitcoms) as a means of combating her own trauma. 

This works on multiple levels. For one, it explains the rather unique (and enjoyable) premise of this whole show. Furthermore, it allows us to sympathize with Wanda more as a person. Watching shows (funny shows, at that) is a very common practice for getting oneself through stressful times. It especially makes sense that a foreign kid would do this, as I happen to know for a fact that plenty of foreigners learn english by watching American and British television. This whole ordeal also plays into the show’s theme of nostalgia, and how it can be both a good and bad thing. Nostalgia makes us feel good in the moment, but often distracts us from the hard challenges in life we all really have to face. Another thing we learn about Wanda through these sequences is that she has actually always had her powers (just like in the comics). All the infinity stone did was “amplify” those powers. Regardless, it’s implied that the more trauma she endures, the more powerful she becomes. Still not clear if it’s the same case for Pietro, though I would assume so.

Before I go any further, let me make something clear: I actually like both of these revelations. They made me like Wanda’s character much more than I ever did during any of the movies beforehand. Here’s the thing, though… Both of these things are retcons.

For those who don’t know: “Retcon” is shorthand for “retroactive continuity.” In other words, it’s when a storyteller decides to revisit something from an older story and basically say “Never mind! This is actually what happened!” If you’ve already read older posts of mine, you would know that I usually hate rectons. As a matter of fact, I’m one of the few people who often wishes that the famous “I am your father” moment from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was never a thing… And yet, I like both of these retcons here in WandaVision. Also, just to be clear: The Empire retcon is not a real “twist,” in my opinion, as it clearly wasn’t intended from the very beginning (despite whatever Lucas says).

So for the last few days, since the latest episode aired, I’ve been asking myself “Why am I not okay with the beloved Empire retcon, but I am okay with this stuff?” As a matter of fact, as I’m writing this sentence right now, I still don’t know the answer! But we’re gonna explore this question together here in real time and see if we can come to an epiphany. Cool?

Now, before comparing the two aforementioned examples, I think we need to analyze them individually first. Let’s start with the WandaVision stuff. Before this show, we didn’t really know much about Wanda in any of the films. Part of that is because those movies are usually so overstuffed that there isn’t really enough room to explore most of the characters in-depth. But I think an even bigger factor, in the case of Wanda and Pietro at least, is that Marvel themselves weren’t allowed to even touch any of the “good stuff” that existed in the source material for both of these characters.

For the uninitiated: In the 1990’s, Marvel was a failing company, so it started selling off the movie rights to many of it’s characters to other studios. Sony got Spider-Man, the Punisher and Ghost Rider. Fox got the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and Daredevil & Elektra. Universal got the Hulk and Namor the Submariner (poor guy). Then in the mid 2000’s, Marvel said “Fuck it! We’re gonna make our own movies now! We’re not gonna sell characters to other people anymore!!” And so, with financial support from Paramount (until the Disney buyout in 2009), Marvel Studios was born. And using the characters they had left, they decided to make some Avengers movies. Sure enough, things turned out way better than expected for them, while all of the other studios started to struggle with keeping their own franchises afloat. 

Little by little, Marvel slowly started to collect all of their lost characters back. All, that is, except for the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, as Fox was still able to keep a tight grip on those two properties in particular. Here’s the problem, though. Due to a contractual technicality, the characters of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (aka Wanda and Pietro/Peter) counted as both X-Men and Avengers, meaning they could be used by both studios. The only caveat was that Disney/Marvel weren’t allowed to use their superhero names, nor were they allowed to refer to them as “mutants” and/or imply that they were born with their powers.

And so, when both characters were introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron, their backstory was left mostly vague, and it was implied that they got their powers from an infinity stone. Then came 2019, the year when Disney bought Fox for $71 billion (jesus), thus finally giving Marvel the rights back to the Fantastic Four and, perhaps more importantly, the X-Men. And that brings us to WandaVision, where we get the retcon of the MCU versions of Wanda and Pietro actually being mutants all along. And just to add a little something extra there, we learn that “the Scarlet Witch” is a long-standing myth amongst secret witches (who I assume are either mutants themselves and/or people who trained in magic like Doctor Strange).

Now, I think there are two reasons why I am forgiving of this retcon (and I figured both of those things out literally as I typed this sentence, go figure!). For one, it allows Marvel Studios to finally present these characters in a way that’s likely much closer to what they had always intended, but just couldn’t do before now due to all of the contract bullshit. But more importantly than that, however, it opens up the ability for Marvel to expand their movie universe in ways that they were never able to before. Having natural-born mutants exist in the same universe as heroes who get their powers through other means creates some interesting possibilities that we haven’t seen in any of these movies before. Furthermore, a character like Scarlet Witch in particular opens up a whole new layer of lore with witchcraft and “witch myths” and what have you. Just hearing how the name “Scarlet Witch” actually came from some in-universe mythology of some kind really fascinated me.

I suppose there isn’t really much to say regarding that other retcon, which showed Wanda having a close sentimental attachment to sitcoms her whole life (in more ways than one). All of those scenes of her watching TV with loved ones were pretty warm and sweet. Also, now that I think about it (damn, I should type these posts as I think of them more often!) while there’s nothing to suggest in any of the prior movies that she loved TV, there’s also nothing in any of them to suggest that she didn’t! Her origin was left as an almost-blank-slate on purpose, after all. So there’s nothing in any of the old films to contradict this revelation of Wanda being obsessed with TV, and using it as a coping mechanism.

I think that’s the biggest difference between the WandaVision retcons and the famous “I am your father” retcon in Empire. The WandaVision stuff either expands it’s own universe and/or shows us something new about a character that doesn’t contradict what we already knew about them, whereas the Empire stuff does the exact opposite, really. Turning Vader into Luke’s dad (after we were clearly told in the original film that he wasn’t, “a certain point of view” be damned) tells us that only one family matters now, and establishing the Emperor as also being the dark force-wielder who corrupted Vader in the first place tells us that all of the galaxy-wide conflicts could be resolved by simply killing one person. 

For those who haven’t read my older posts; the official novelization of Star Wars that came out in 1976 described the Emperor as a doofus with no force powers. All of that shit came later. In the case of Star Wars, this is especially sad, as now people think that these things are the foundation, when they really aren’t. Subconsciously, this is why the fandom has been so divided since the prequels (and arguably even since Return of the Jedi). Just today, as a matter of fact, I stumbled upon a Reddit post saying “Star Wars is supposed to be about the Skywalker bloodline. That was always Lucas’s plan! And then Disney ruined it!!” That was always his plan? Yeah, sure buddy! Believe what that delusional old man says, instead of all the evidence that’s in all of the rough drafts and other documents that have leaked over the years…

The “I am your father” moment in particular though really seems burned into everyone’s brains as being the generally-accepted “core” of Star Wars. You don’t need to look any further than this video to see that. The problem is that it isn’t the core! Star Wars was already a global pop culture phenomenon before Lucas decided to retroactively make the whole thing about just one family and just one “final boss,” among other things (like the force suddenly being a physical superpower now and whatnot).

That all being said, I can admit two things. Firstly; I recognize that a lot of people only got into Star Wars because of the shit introduced in Empire like the darker tone, the family twist, Palpatine being the puppet-master, etc. I can’t take anything away from these people, and I acknowledge the fact that their reasons for falling in love with the franchise (and staying in love with it) are just as relevant as mine. Secondly; I hate to say it, but I have a hard time imagining in my head what a different sequel to the original Star Wars would even be like. I have issues with Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (the Star Wars sequel you didn't see), despite it being more tonally and thematically consistent with the original. I suppose you could just take Empire and tweak it a little bit. Maybe make it more like the original rough draft?

…No, you know what? Maybe Star Wars should’ve never had another movie as it’s sequel. Maybe the “sequel” should’ve been a TV show! Hell, maybe an animated show! I know many people see animation as a lesser artform, but I personally don’t. If anything, cartoons allow for more imagination to be realized. That’s probably why all of the Star Wars cartoons have grown to be my favorite aspect of the whole franchise, actually. Or maybe the best solution is all of the above. A movie sequel that is basically still Empire, just with some tweaks, and a cartoon show in between to fill in some blanks.

But anyway, to summarize the conclusions I’ve come to here: I used to entirely hate retcons, but now I realize that they can actually sometimes be a good thing, but only when they expand the universe of the story and/or show us something new about a character that doesn’t outright contradict what we were told before.

So yeah, one more reason for me to like WandaVision, I guess! I can go on and on about other things in the show that I like. The acting all around (talk about range, man!), the accuracy to all of the different eras, the way the show slowly pulls the curtain back to reveal what’s really going on… Hell, even the name of the show itself has multiple meanings! Vision as in the character himself, vision as in television, vision as in Wanda’s imagination, and vision as in her literal point-of-view (since we see a lot of the show through her eyes). Perhaps the biggest meaning, though, is the fact that the most recent episode showed on the property deed that Vision’s legal first name is The and his legal last name is Vision, which means that, had they gotten the chance to get married before his death, Wanda’s new legal name would actually be Wanda Vision.

The most beautiful moment in the whole show though is easily the scene in the most recent episode where we see the flashback of Wanda showing Malcolm in the Middle to Vision, specifically the moment when she explains that nobody in that show gets injured because “It’s not that kinda show.” That one line alone says it all. And then the fact that Vision follows it up with “What is grief, if not love persevering?” is pretty much perfect. That one scene alone makes me happy that Marvel retconned Wanda into a TV junkie. Also, I know the other two TV shows Wanda watched in these flashbacks related to her personality as well, though neither of those were quite as impactful as the Malcolm one, for me. Though both were still clever.

Needless to say, if there’s any new Marvel project to kick off this new era for them (post-Thanos and post-Fox buyout and whatnot), I’m certainly glad it was this one! As I’ve said before, I’m still a little nervous about a lot of the stuff that it seems to be leading to (multiverse stories, Vision’s actual resurrection, etc.). But regardless of what happens after the show is over, I’m still glad that it at least gave me enough to enjoy the show itself, with or without all of the standard MCU “setup” stuff.

Once again, I apologize for getting off track! Writing without an outline is becoming a lot funner for me, though the trade-off is that I tend to go on a lot more tangents than usual. Hopefully none of you mind!

Peace!

UPDATE 1: I just watched Age of Ultron again, and I noticed that Pietro says the family was eating dinner when they got bombed. But if you look closely at the penultimate episode of WandaVision, you’ll notice that there are trays with TV dinners beside the family when the bomb hits. Clever, Marvel… Clever…

UPDATE 2: I have now seen the WandaVision finale. My only complaint about it is that it felt a little too rushed. Apparently the pandemic had something to do with that. Oh, well… Oh yeah, and why wasn’t Wanda arrested anytime between Endgame and this show? Isn’t she still a fugitive? What about all of the other people who sided with Cap during Civil War? Are they all still on the run? Is Marvel gonna address that? Come to think of it, this whole show (and phase) hasn’t aged well, for the most part.

The Real Reason You Don't Like Star Wars Anymore - Part 4

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!).

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.”

2025 UPDATE: I just found out that apparently, in an early draft of the original Star Wars movie, it was gonna be revealed that Anakin killed Vader in the past and assumed his identity, so that he could be deep undercover in the Empire for a long period of time… That kinda changes things, I must admit! Maybe the name Vader really is a variation of “father.”

UPDATE: Revisiting this topic in 2022