So now it’s all over…again.
After 40 years, the Star Wars saga has come to a definitive, final end…sort of. When ‘The Force Awakens’ first came out I was left gobsmacked at how, with that movie, decades of literature that was thought to be canon in the Star Wars universe was suddenly erased. From Thrawn to the Yuuzhan Vong, to everything else that had happened between the pages of hundreds of books…all considered ‘Legends’ now instead of canon. Fan fiction authors (like myself) all had their stories somewhat detached from the universe now. That had to hurt.
The so-called die hard fans, or the ‘Fandom Menace’ was especially put off by this whole thing, screaming and ranting to anyone who’d listen about how the culture had been destroyed, and how the movie companies were all about the money, and how they were going to sabotage this new trilogy. I’ll agree on some points that the story wasn’t that strong, and a lot of the back story about the First Order is still not that concrete. To be fair though, Star Wars was Episode 4, so beginning in the middle is kind of a thing with this franchise, isn’t it?
Look, I’m not going to stand here and defend the movies. I saw them, and they were entertaining. Personally I think the story would have been better served as a series on Netflix or Disney+ so then we could have gotten all the plot holes relatively filled. It seems these days that epic storytellers have trouble condensing plots into a cohesive, comprehensive 2 hour time frame. That’s not really a bad thing when you think about it, because it also shows a lot of passion on the part of the writer. I’m all for story immersion myself.
I’ve decided from now on to not watch movie reviews or rants on YouTube anymore. Personally I shouldn’t be listening to people who get paid to basically complain about…well…everything. I mean sure, some of their criticism is valid, but if you have the ability to milk over a dozen videos out of one movie, then I have to wonder at your mental state. Do I really want to rely on someone who basically goes Joy Sparkle BS on topics? I’ll admit it used to be fun to watch, but nowadays all I hear is a level of REEEEEEE that reminds me of the far leftist reactionaries. I don’t think I’ve heard one positive movie review on YouTube, well, ever.
Again, I’m not going to defend any movie except to say whether or not I enjoyed it. Captain Marvel was meh, Endgame was more meh, and the Star Wars new trilogy had potential, but as I said, I think it needed another movie or the whole thing should have been a mini-series on some streaming service. Overall I liked the trilogy and I can understand why they went they way they did.
Let’s face it: the original cast is old. Carrie Fisher died before the trilogy was finished, Harrison Ford apparently didn’t much care for the Han Solo character, and Mark…well…I’m pretty sure that lightsaber battle in ‘The Last Jedi’ wasn’t exactly live action. If someone had decided to do a movie, say, 20 years ago then there would have been a chance they could have done the Thrawn trilogy or some other novel-based story. However in this case, age was the determining factor. Physically speaking the original cast is old. Not that it’s a bad thing, but they’re not exactly high-caliber action stars anymore. Hell, even Samuel Jackson has to have his fight scenes edited. Age is a bitch.
But it’s all over for now. The First Order has been utterly defeated, the legacy of the Sith has been wiped out, and Rey is staring into the face of her destiny with lightsaber in hand.
I’m wondering though if there will be a new EU based on this new canon. Will we see more books published with the continuing adventures of the new Star Wars cast, or has all the bad blood that has surfaced from this latest trilogy finally killed the franchise off? Only time will tell I suppose.
For now, I’m just going to wait for the DVD to come out and add it to my collection. I hope someday people will be able to watch these movies with fresh minds and not have them tainted by professional whiners on YouTube who generate revenue by doing nothing but complaining about things over which they have no control.