TGLS wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 12:39 pm
phantom000 wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 12:36 pmThey seem a lot more interested in expanding events around the Original Trilogy than doing anything with their sequels. I would not be a bit surprised if we never see Rey, Finn or Poe again.
Give it 20 years. That's how long it took for the opinion to reverse on the prequels.
Couple of things to keep in mind with the change of opinion with the Prequel Trilogy.
1: The Prequel Trilogy Ended on a High Note
While it still has it's detractors most agree that Revenge of the Sith is the best film in the Prequel Trilogy. It had a good story, great action scenes and wrapped up most major plot points while still leaving room for new stories to be told. Rise of Skywalker is, to be blunt, one of the worst endings ever made, leaving no real room for future stories to be told and ending things on the most downer note with little hope for anything new to come.
2: The Prequel Trilogy Has The Clone Wars
At the end of the day the Clone Wars tie-in comics, movie, games, the 2D Series and the 3D Series is one of the most popular series within Star Wars. The shows in particular really helped with that popularity with the 3D series becoming basically Star Wars' answer to Star Trek: The Next Generation by introducing new characters and stories that are almost as well known as the Original Trilogy. Even all these years later it's still considered the best Star Wars TV Series and with huge hits like The Mandalorian and Andor that's no small feat. The Disney Sequel Trilogy's most notable followup is two okay but ultimately forgettable Lego movies.
3: The Prequels had Better Ideas that other Writers Wanted to Explore
One of the most common things agreed upon in the fandom of Star Wars is the Prequel Trilogy had good ideas that were poorly executed. Take Midichlorians, this is still seen as an overall bad idea but later writers came into better help explain what Lucas was trying to say. There are two halves of the Force, the Living Force and the Cosmic Force the living Force is basically what the Midichlorians really are. Then there's the question of what happened to the other Jedi who survived Order 66 which many writes had a lot of fun with as it allowed them to have a way to save characters they grew to love even if it contradicted canon. The most common statement about TDST is that it had bad ideas which were well executed which is the most backhanded complement I've ever seen because it's outright admitting that the Sequel have bad ideas even though they actually don't.
4: Most of this Happen a Very Short Time After Revenge of the Sith
Most of what I've talked about, the Clone Wars 3D series or following-up what happened to the missing Jedi, all happened a little over a year after Revenge of the Sith was release which explored stories set during the Clone Wars or directly after Revenge. As mentioned before the most notable Sequel Trilogy tie-ins have been two okay Lego movies which is really bad because of how good Lego movies usually are and these are just kinda forgotten. Most don't even know there's a second Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Lego movie and just as many forget the first one is a thing that happened.
Most of the projects made after the Prequels have been tying into the Original Trilogy or the Prequel Trilogy with only one major project of TDST in the works which is a film set to be released in a few years. And that's assuming it ever gets off the ground because no one making the film seems to be that enthusiastic about it and most of the other films have been canned due to arguments with the higher ups over creative differences which seems to be the same thing happening with Episode X.
The reason so many Star Wars Projects were able to get off the ground during the Lucas Era was because Lucas himself was very supportive of other creators working on his series and he was mostly hands off in how stories were shaped. Most of the time he just used his powers as head of the series to make minor changes like changing a name or including or not including a character.
Most people who've worked with Lucas have nothing but nice things to say about him because he was basically an ideal Executive Producer, almost never causing any real problems for the writers and not making any real stupid demands.
As such he created an pretty positive atmosphere even if not every project was a hit and people WANTED to work on ideas he introduced because they like it so much.
To go back to the Clone Wars there were many writers who wanted to explore more of Anakin and his fall to the Dark Side and what happened during the Clone Wars. How many writers do you know want to really explore Rey or the fallout of Rise of Skywalker?
Either they have no interest or they're being ordered not to.
Since the end of Rise we have had more stories focusing on the fallout of Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith then we have had ones dealing with the fallout of Rise of Skywalker. We have had a Return to the Clone Wars with it's 7th season, Andor which told a story no one asked for but everyone loved. The Mandalorian is directly tied to both the Prequels with Baby Yoda and the Original Trilogy with it being set 5 years after Return.
Even Galaxy's Edge quickly shifted from a Sequel Era setting to more of a post Return of the Jedi and Prequel Era setting with only the rides maintaining the tie-ins to the Sequel Era with two, admittedly awesome, rides as soon as Rise ended.
5: The Disney Sequel Trilogy Helped in People Reevaluate the Prequel Trilogy
People started reevaluating the Prequel Trilogy before Disney had even bought Star Wars 5 years after Revenge and most opinions on said Trilogy had mostly turned around to being more positive 10 years after Revenge. Sure there were still some holdouts but most had already.
Opinion started to shift more in favor of the Prequels when Disney cancelled anything Prequel Related including the highly popular and still hugely successful Clone Wars 3D series. Opinion again shifted more in the Prequels Trilogy soon after The Force Awakens was released thanks to many noting how it was to similar to A New Hope in contrast to the Prequels doing things differently.
And then came The Last Jedi which did a number of things that REALLY made people reevaluate the Prequels. Most notable the horrible treatment of the actors of that film. Many who hated on the Prequels either weren't aware or played a part in the abuse and mistreatment of the actors and creators of the Prequels because the same thing was happening to the people working on the Sequels.
This was something of a wake up call for people who realized how badly Ahamn Best, Jake Lloyd and George Lucas were treated by the fans as they were willing to either partake in or did nothing to discourage the abuse and harassment these people were treated to. Now that it was happening to actors they liked in a film they enjoyed many started to realize what jerks were and started to take another look at the Prequels and realize it wasn't as bad as they made it out.
Further helping matters was how the Prequels had aged a lot better then people gave it credit for with it's messages and themes feeling more relevant then it did before thanks in part to real world politics that were terrifyingly similar to what happened in the Prequels and Anakin's fall being a bit more well recieved leading to the whole "Good idea, questionable execution" thing.
6: The Sequels Retread the Original Trilogy to Much
"I've already seen this before and seen it done better so why would I re-watch something doing the same thing when I can just go watch the originals?"
This pretty much perfectly sums up the Sequel Trilogy. It's mostly just a lazy retread of the Original Trilogy offering up very little new things of it's own and more obsessed with just doing what was already done just not as well thought out.
Luke's arc in The Last Jedi is a perfect example of this. At first it seems like it's doing something new with him. It's a risky move to take a character we love and turn him into a coward who undid all the good he did. Much like how it's a risky move to jump off Niagara Falls and hope the water just breaks your fall. Not quite that stupid but still kinda stupid.
It's only when you stop and take a step back and really look at what Luke's story is that you realize TLJ didn't actually do anything new as all they did was retread Luke's arc from Return of the Jedi. Both are about Luke confronting his own flaws while struggling with the failings of the Jedi code which Luke chooses to embody by rejecting a lightsaber duel.
I've already seen this before and seen it done better so why would I re-watch something doing the same thing when I can just go watch the original?
And this keeps happening, a Rebel Hero saved by some dressed as a Storm Trooper, a young hero from a desert planet who discovers she's tied to the Force, a planet buster that destroys a peaceful planet and is then set to destroy the Rebel Base and so on. This Trilogy is just the Original Trilogy beat for beat while adding very little of it's own. It's like Eragon, it's just doing A New Hope and I've already seen A New Hope and the Original A New Hope was better, so why would I waste my time watching or reading Eragon when I can just to watch A New Hope?
7: They Wasted Their Own Good Ideas
I've said this before and I'll say it again, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is what the Disney Sequel Trilogy could have and SHOULD have been. It share a lot of the same ideas, a new hero taking on the legacy of an old on, the original hero's disappeared under mysterious circumstances and seemingly betrayed those they were sworn to protect. A mentor who isn't everything the hero thought they would be who is also hiding a dark secret, a Minion of Evil turned Rebel Hero who becomes someone gifted with great magical powers that they don't quite understand. A struggle between the hero and the ally turned enemy which results in the destruction of a iconic sword and a enemies to lovers arc.
It's all here, it's all surprisingly similar if not outright identical to TDST. It even has another evil come in to replace the hijack the plot from the other villains and a rebellion lead by a woman with Pink hair who makes questionable choices that the heroes butt heads with.
But She-Ra is unquestionably a success and still talked about 5 years later with many He-Man projects getting made thanks to the success of this reboot with another She-Ra series being made as a direct response to the success of this show.
Why is that, because She-Ra made good use of the ideas that TDST was afraid to use. It had tributes to the Original Trilogy of Star Wars (which is no surprised given Stevenson is a huge fan of said Trilogy) but while there are similar elements She-Ra is it's own series while TDST is not. TDST is a generic sequel in every sense of the word. It's a lazy retread that does little new because it wants to play it safe and will do so no matter the potential of it's own ideas because there's a chance it won't be successful.
There are so many other things I could go into, like how there was clearly no unified vision and how writers would undo the work that came before for seemingly no reason. How Rian Johnson screwed the whole Trilogy over because of his apparent dislike of the new characters minus Kylo and Luke and wrapping up the Trilogy in the second chapter for no apparent reason. Or how little was done with Finn, or how Rey was sidelined for Kylo, or how Poe was turned into a bad joke. The terrible costumes, ignoring old lore and continuity for "Drama". The overuse of comedy which often lead to bad use of Bathos. The killing off the old guard and undoing all they did to, again, just redo what was done before.
There will be some kind of reevaluation but I don't think it will be anywhere near what the Prequel got. Especially if the rumors and theories of a in-continuity reboot are true. The only way I see TDST getting a similar reevaluation is if we get some show or movie that does for TDST what Clone Wars did for the Prequels. And 5 years later I still have yet to see such a project.
