Does the Star Wars Disney Era Have a Continuity Lock-Out Problem?
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2022 5:27 am
Oh Boy, does it ever, or at least the films do and so does the shows and games.
The MCU is MASSIVE, easily the biggest Superhero movie franchise of all time BUT,as I talked about in the other post, the stories are easy to follow so long as you're just following one series or one character... Not So with Star Wars right now.
Part of the problem here is Disney and Lucas Film giving into Star Wars' own popularity and how popular the original Extended Universe was, that Star Wars products were often at the #1 selling list of any media or merchandise and while that's still true, that is mostly a hobby for fans who buy this stuff because it enriches the experience. And it's not like this is anything new to Disney which is VERY well known for its merchandising with a lot of Supplementary Material that also serves mainly to enrich the story these tie-ins or merchandise are being made for.
But for whatever reason, it was decided that EVERY entry in the Disney Era would be not only tied to the films but would also be, as Bert Gummer would say, Critical, NEED TO KNOW, INFORMATION!!!
Going back to my MCU post, if you are just watching the series for Steve Rogers you DON'T need to see ANYTHING outside his movies to get what's happening in each film as everything is explained in the films themselves. What are the Infinity Stones, we get a scene explaining that in the first minutes of Infinity War. Who are the Avengers, other Superheroes that Steve is friends with. Why is Bucky okay again, the people at Wakanda helped him over come his brainwashing.
Contrast this with JUST The Force Awakens. Who's the First Order, read these tying in novels. Why isn't Leia working as a Senator again, read her tie-in novel. Who are the Knights or Ren, read these tie-in novels and comics. Was Coruscant Destroyed, no that's a different planet. Why isn't Coruscant the capital of the Republic anymore, read these tie-in novels, comics and play Star Wars: Battlefront. Who's Snoke, read this tie-in novel. Why did Luke hide, watch Episode 8. Why did he leave a map that leads to him, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ?
This is ONE film and there are already a ton of questions that we want answered but instead of taking 2 seconds to explain itself. And before anyone jumps in to go "Well in A New Hope very little was explained" save your breath, you're wrong.
What is the Empire and what are the Rebels, explained in the opening Crawl and Visually shown with their respective space ships in the first scene in the movie. What is the Force, explained by Obi-Wan in his first scene. Why are there plans that could reveal a weakness in a Planet Buster, design flaws happen and the Rebels are looking for one. Why did the Empire make a Super Weapon that could blow up a planet, they want to make a weapon to keep the everyone afraid of them and this is the best weapon for that job. Why can Luke use the Force, Obi-Wan gives him training.
Every question in the film has an answer it's just not beaten over viewers head, you get what you need in the movie itself and we get on with the story.
Even Return of the Jedi does this which I can attest to because it was my first step into Star Wars and I had no problem following the plot as a few bits of dialogue and visual storytelling help explain what is going on here. Even the Prequel Trilogy, which was accused of CLO it honestly took the time to explain itself through the same means as the Original Trilogy.
The Disney Sequel Trilogy assumes you know everything about the series as a whole going in AND that you've read every story leading up to this and every story released AFTER the film. This is perhaps best shown in the Hyperspace tracking trick.
If you are ONLY watching TDST then there is no foreshadowing of tracking someone through Hyperspace and how it works is never explained in the film. It was however foreshadowed in Rogue One... In one scene... in a blink and you miss it bit of dialogue... on a base that was blown up... during one of the most intense battles in Star Wars History... And how this information never came up for 35 years and how Finn knew about it is never explained in ANY story as far as I know.
The Last Jedi was even worse as things like Phasma's survival, why Luke left a map that lead to him, who Snoke was and what the Hell was the third lesson Luke was going to teach Rey are things that are given a lot of buildup and no explanation and some times no payoff.
You want to know what the third lesson was, go watch the deleted scenes... until it was revealed by Rian Johnson that ISN'T the third lesson and I don't think he's ever explained WHAT said lesson was. And this only gets worse once you realize that this scene helps explain how things play out the way they do like why Rey was willing to side with Kylo, why she was angry at Luke and why she disobeyed the ONE order he gave her.
In video games sometimes patches and DLC are released to fix minor or major issues or to give us a mission that was to be included but needed more time to be finished. But for the most part, games are sold as a complete package, you don't need the DLC but it can add to the story.
TDST is like someone sold use a incomplete game and all the DLC is required to understand anything that's happening and you can't even play it with the rest of the game. You wanna play Lair of the Shadow Broker, you have to stop playing Mass Effect 2 and go out and buy the DLC on another system and play it there. That's what TDST feels like. We have a story with several unanswered questions and it's just assumed you know everything going in.
(sigh) It has gotten better recently post TDST. The Mandalorian's first two seasons help explain what's happening in it's own story and while there is some tie-ins to other SW stories you can enjoy the first season as it's own thing. Sure, Din and Grogu are reunited in The Book of Baba Fett but odds are good that most fans of TM watched BF and came in when they heard that Din and Grogu were going to appear in BF.
This avoids CLO because if you're only watching the Disney+ shows for TM then you have everything you need to make this story make sense. And while I may not have liked BF or Obi-Wan they fallowed suit. You don't need to seek out any tie-ins or any supplementary material to understand what's happening in the shows you're watching. But films and TDST more so, fell into CLO so when Rise of Skywalker came out and was built on the idea that everyone had watched, played and read everything before and after the film was released... is it really a surprised it was the most obvious victim of CLO when the other films had already fallen into the same trap?
To close this out, I LOVE the Tomb Raider tie-in comics to the Survivor Timeline and think they're even better then the two sequel games. But if you are just focusing on the games you don't need to read the comics other then to find out what happened to Lara's girlfriend Sam. Other then that, you get a full story that explains itself.
The MCU is MASSIVE, easily the biggest Superhero movie franchise of all time BUT,as I talked about in the other post, the stories are easy to follow so long as you're just following one series or one character... Not So with Star Wars right now.
Part of the problem here is Disney and Lucas Film giving into Star Wars' own popularity and how popular the original Extended Universe was, that Star Wars products were often at the #1 selling list of any media or merchandise and while that's still true, that is mostly a hobby for fans who buy this stuff because it enriches the experience. And it's not like this is anything new to Disney which is VERY well known for its merchandising with a lot of Supplementary Material that also serves mainly to enrich the story these tie-ins or merchandise are being made for.
But for whatever reason, it was decided that EVERY entry in the Disney Era would be not only tied to the films but would also be, as Bert Gummer would say, Critical, NEED TO KNOW, INFORMATION!!!
Going back to my MCU post, if you are just watching the series for Steve Rogers you DON'T need to see ANYTHING outside his movies to get what's happening in each film as everything is explained in the films themselves. What are the Infinity Stones, we get a scene explaining that in the first minutes of Infinity War. Who are the Avengers, other Superheroes that Steve is friends with. Why is Bucky okay again, the people at Wakanda helped him over come his brainwashing.
Contrast this with JUST The Force Awakens. Who's the First Order, read these tying in novels. Why isn't Leia working as a Senator again, read her tie-in novel. Who are the Knights or Ren, read these tie-in novels and comics. Was Coruscant Destroyed, no that's a different planet. Why isn't Coruscant the capital of the Republic anymore, read these tie-in novels, comics and play Star Wars: Battlefront. Who's Snoke, read this tie-in novel. Why did Luke hide, watch Episode 8. Why did he leave a map that leads to him, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ?
This is ONE film and there are already a ton of questions that we want answered but instead of taking 2 seconds to explain itself. And before anyone jumps in to go "Well in A New Hope very little was explained" save your breath, you're wrong.
What is the Empire and what are the Rebels, explained in the opening Crawl and Visually shown with their respective space ships in the first scene in the movie. What is the Force, explained by Obi-Wan in his first scene. Why are there plans that could reveal a weakness in a Planet Buster, design flaws happen and the Rebels are looking for one. Why did the Empire make a Super Weapon that could blow up a planet, they want to make a weapon to keep the everyone afraid of them and this is the best weapon for that job. Why can Luke use the Force, Obi-Wan gives him training.
Every question in the film has an answer it's just not beaten over viewers head, you get what you need in the movie itself and we get on with the story.
Even Return of the Jedi does this which I can attest to because it was my first step into Star Wars and I had no problem following the plot as a few bits of dialogue and visual storytelling help explain what is going on here. Even the Prequel Trilogy, which was accused of CLO it honestly took the time to explain itself through the same means as the Original Trilogy.
The Disney Sequel Trilogy assumes you know everything about the series as a whole going in AND that you've read every story leading up to this and every story released AFTER the film. This is perhaps best shown in the Hyperspace tracking trick.
If you are ONLY watching TDST then there is no foreshadowing of tracking someone through Hyperspace and how it works is never explained in the film. It was however foreshadowed in Rogue One... In one scene... in a blink and you miss it bit of dialogue... on a base that was blown up... during one of the most intense battles in Star Wars History... And how this information never came up for 35 years and how Finn knew about it is never explained in ANY story as far as I know.
The Last Jedi was even worse as things like Phasma's survival, why Luke left a map that lead to him, who Snoke was and what the Hell was the third lesson Luke was going to teach Rey are things that are given a lot of buildup and no explanation and some times no payoff.
You want to know what the third lesson was, go watch the deleted scenes... until it was revealed by Rian Johnson that ISN'T the third lesson and I don't think he's ever explained WHAT said lesson was. And this only gets worse once you realize that this scene helps explain how things play out the way they do like why Rey was willing to side with Kylo, why she was angry at Luke and why she disobeyed the ONE order he gave her.
In video games sometimes patches and DLC are released to fix minor or major issues or to give us a mission that was to be included but needed more time to be finished. But for the most part, games are sold as a complete package, you don't need the DLC but it can add to the story.
TDST is like someone sold use a incomplete game and all the DLC is required to understand anything that's happening and you can't even play it with the rest of the game. You wanna play Lair of the Shadow Broker, you have to stop playing Mass Effect 2 and go out and buy the DLC on another system and play it there. That's what TDST feels like. We have a story with several unanswered questions and it's just assumed you know everything going in.
(sigh) It has gotten better recently post TDST. The Mandalorian's first two seasons help explain what's happening in it's own story and while there is some tie-ins to other SW stories you can enjoy the first season as it's own thing. Sure, Din and Grogu are reunited in The Book of Baba Fett but odds are good that most fans of TM watched BF and came in when they heard that Din and Grogu were going to appear in BF.
This avoids CLO because if you're only watching the Disney+ shows for TM then you have everything you need to make this story make sense. And while I may not have liked BF or Obi-Wan they fallowed suit. You don't need to seek out any tie-ins or any supplementary material to understand what's happening in the shows you're watching. But films and TDST more so, fell into CLO so when Rise of Skywalker came out and was built on the idea that everyone had watched, played and read everything before and after the film was released... is it really a surprised it was the most obvious victim of CLO when the other films had already fallen into the same trap?
To close this out, I LOVE the Tomb Raider tie-in comics to the Survivor Timeline and think they're even better then the two sequel games. But if you are just focusing on the games you don't need to read the comics other then to find out what happened to Lara's girlfriend Sam. Other then that, you get a full story that explains itself.
