Will The Disney Star War Sequel Trilogy Stand the Test of Time

[Actarus]

Well, only time will tell if the new trilogy will stand the test of... time. However, I remember the uproar that the prequel trilogy caused. It killed Star Wars, they said. "George Lucas destroyed my childhood," they said. "Where are my Dreadnaughts and Victory Stardestroyers!" they said. "Too much politics! This is not my Star Wars!" And here we are, 20 years later, with two tv series directly linked to them (the two Clone Wars series) and one indirectly linked (Rebels), books, comics, and some video games. One of them, Knights of the Old Republic and its follow-ups, drew heavily from the aesthetic and the background of the Prequel Trilogy.

So, what will happen with the Sequel Trilogy? Hard to tell when we are sitting at the middle of the story. It will also depend on the derivative material that will come out of the movies. The Clone Wars did wonders for the Prequel Trilogy. We already have Resistance and, so far, I like where they are going.

One thing is sure though, whatever they do, fans will be bitching. I firmly believe that who ever had directed those movies, the fans would have been bitching. If Steven Spielberg had directed the movies, or Guillermo Del Toro, or Peter Jackson, or Ridley Scott, or George Lucas (the Great Childhood Destroyer) it would have made no difference. Because there is no way that each of these directors' vision on Star Wars would have been exactly the same as "the fans." Oh, some that hate the present trilogy may have been satisfied, but others would be bitching with the same rabbid rage we can see, hear and read on the Internet these days.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I actually think that Rey's parents being nobodies was the best way to resolve that plot thread by far.

At the moment it feels weird to see her going into a mystical cave for the force to oh so enchantingly say in particular, nothing. As an alley oop from Abrams to Johnson, I just don't get it.

That, yeah. We should've at least had a vision, something less rooted in obscure metaphor maybe. As-is the mirror thing lacks the impact of Luke seeing his own face in Vader's helmet.

The core problem is that, while saying "You don't need some mystical bloodline to be strong in the Force" is a good message and in keeping with the Buddhism-as-preached-to-Americans spiritualism of the Force in its original concept, TLJ is a movie with such an ass-backwards structure that the plotline doesn't have the time to fully develop and so it comes off as generic and boring and fails Rey and any fans she might have.

Also 3 protagonist plot lines is a bit much.

[Worffan101]

Also 3 protagonist plot lines is a bit much.

Ayup.

[name_here]

I actually think that Rey's parents being nobodies was the best way to resolve that plot thread by far.

At the moment it feels weird to see her going into a mystical cave for the force to oh so enchantingly say in particular, nothing. As an alley oop from Abrams to Johnson, I just don't get it.

That, yeah. We should've at least had a vision, something less rooted in obscure metaphor maybe. As-is the mirror thing lacks the impact of Luke seeing his own face in Vader's helmet.

The core problem is that, while saying "You don't need some mystical bloodline to be strong in the Force" is a good message and in keeping with the Buddhism-as-preached-to-Americans spiritualism of the Force in its original concept, TLJ is a movie with such an ass-backwards structure that the plotline doesn't have the time to fully develop and so it comes off as generic and boring and fails Rey and any fans she might have.

Honestly when they did the mirror thing I originally took it as the cave showing Rey her family history. That there wasn't any, she had no parents. There was just Rey, and the vat she was grown in. That would both explain why she's so powerful and be somewhat unexpected yet thoroughly rooted in the setting.

[Yukaphile]

Look, the President at Lucasfilm calls Legends non-canon, insists it was never canon, and that's a startling kind of ignorance to the product you're in charge of. It had layers of canon, and that was a horrible business move, to wipe Legends clean without being as respectful as possible to all the writers who'd worked on it over the years. Yes, I'm still furious they terminated Legends in so brazenly insulting a manner and haven't gotten the hint from scores of fans trying to bring it back. They should have handled this more diplomatically, saying perhaps Legends was never canon, but it's now part of a separate but still valid continuity with layers of canon, but oh no, that would totally go against their attempts to reboot Star Wars as "something new, respected, and official." Which is the impression I get from them, that just... doesn't hold up to what we see on the screen, and what they're doing. They're control freaks through and through, and they're killing Star Wars doing so in a way worse than the prequels. At least the prequels didn't make Legends non-canon and shoved it off into a meaningless limbo state that has fans aching for its absence. The sequels have. And that's why I've boycotted every movie since 2015, and I won't lie, a tiny part of me is thrilled the films are doing so poorly. I hope they crash and burn, because if the writers are just going to be this lazy with their stories these days, then I hope the movie industry does implode like Spielberg and Lucas predict, so they can stop trashing our beloved childhood series like Star Wars, Star Trek, ReBoot, etc, etc...

[Winter]

Also 3 protagonist plot lines is a bit much.

That's not actually much of a issue as the series does like to jump around from character to character. Empire had three plots, TTT had no less then 5 I think, and the Prequels also jumped around. The issue here, for me, is that the stories aren't really connected and most don't really contribute to one another and are also disconnected in themes don't really add up to anything.

In Empire, Han and Leia were running from the Empire while dealing with their complex relationship, Vader was hunting the Falcon to get at Luke and Luke was training to be a Jedi. In the end the three slowly merge and they all build up to the film's climax which ends with a series of emotional gut punches that likewise was built on the foundation on the bond viewers built with them in the first film.

It also helps that Empire didn't introduce to many new characters and all of them helped to further develop our leads. Luke's plot introduced Yoda, Vader's gave us Boba Fett & Han and Leia's gave us Lando and while all had their own thing going on they were all there to further the plot of the lead characters in someway.

Last introduced Holdo, DJ and Rose which doesn't seem like a problem until you realize that the film is juggling these new characters along with the main four, Rey, Finn, Poe and Ren while also working with OT characters like Luke and Leia. Not to mention trying to fit Hux and Snoke into the mix AND trying to work in a number of no name minor characters that the film is trying to built up to as being a big deal for future series.

And E9 will be introducing no less then Five new characters, all of whom will have to be properly fleshed out as they are new to this series which could lead to the, supposed, main four still getting little time to develop as they will be the ones who mainly interact with these new characters. Not to mention trying to FINALLY answer questions that the first two films brought up while also attempting to tie Disney Sequel Trilogy with the Original Trilogy AND the Prequel Trilogy. Which is NOT helped by the fact that Awakens and Last have been largely avoiding the Prequels outside of one or two references which are really there to insult the Prequels and everything connected with them.

Again, TTT avoided doing this and instead focused on telling it's own story, with a beginning, middle and end that you could enjoy as it's own story and not the Be All, End All Climaxes of Climaxes. Now it did work as a overall great conclusion to the OT and also, unintentionally, worked as a spiritual sequel to Prequels but it was still mostly doing it's own thing.

It also helped that TTT kept the focus on as few characters as possible while making good use of all the characters both new and old. There's Mara turning from the Dark Side and Joining the heroes with Luke severing as her mentor, of sorts. Karrde joining the New Republic with Han trying to convince him to join, Leia convincing a Race of Assassins to also Join the Republic, Thrawn trying to take over the galaxy and C'baoth trying to reshape the Jedi in his own twisted image.

All these plots tie directly into one another and the focus always stays on our leads and doesn't go off on any other characters and the story never diverges from them. But during all of this the main focus of the story is Mara's redemption and her turning her back on Palpatine much like how the Prequels were about Anakin's fall to the Dark Side and the Original Trilogy was about Luke becoming a Jedi.

As stated before, one of my issues with Rey in Last is she is treated as a secondary character to Luke and Ren even though she is the one getting most screen time she is NEVER the focus of her scenes. And once she leaves the Luke and Ren show she has almost no screen time and almost no dialogue and what little she does have is almost always about Luke or Ren.

While the main focus of DST Rey it feels like the filmmakers aren't really interested in exploring Rey's character which is only further compounded by E9 introducing 5 new characters instead of focusing on the characters they Already Have.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Also 3 protagonist plot lines is a bit much.

That's not actually much of a issue as the series does like to jump around from character to character. Empire had three plots, TTT had no less then 5 I think, and the Prequels also jumped around. The issue here, for me, is that the stories aren't really connected and most don't really contribute to one another and are also disconnected in themes don't really add up to anything.

Empire had 2 protagonist plots. And it's that they don't have too much connection that makes 3 too much.

In Empire Luke just kinda ditches out, so it's not like the plots were linked really. But the reason he went to Dagobah was important and understood. It actually kinda feels like a side-plot almost. Kinda like Poe's, but that's just a battle plot of its own and he's just trying to be a captain or something. Leia's enchantment plot was good, but not really the main focus or anything. I feel like the entire plot was just about Poe needing to follow orders.

Meanwhile though, the casino planet does actually link to Rey and Luke's plot. I just think that it wasn't put together very well. It's weird, it's like sum of its parts with how it's set up and the whole thing with the weapons dealer, but then it does come together with the Rey and Luke's plot pretty well for me.

[Actarus]

Look, the President at Lucasfilm calls Legends non-canon, insists it was never canon, and that's a startling kind of ignorance to the product you're in charge of. It had layers of canon, and that was a horrible business move, to wipe Legends clean without being as respectful as possible to all the writers who'd worked on it over the years. Yes, I'm still furious they terminated Legends in so brazenly insulting a manner and haven't gotten the hint from scores of fans trying to bring it back. They should have handled this more diplomatically, saying perhaps Legends was never canon, but it's now part of a separate but still valid continuity with layers of canon, but oh no, that would totally go against their attempts to reboot Star Wars as "something new, respected, and official." Which is the impression I get from them, that just... doesn't hold up to what we see on the screen, and what they're doing. They're control freaks through and through, and they're killing Star Wars doing so in a way worse than the prequels. At least the prequels didn't make Legends non-canon and shoved it off into a meaningless limbo state that has fans aching for its absence. The sequels have. And that's why I've boycotted every movie since 2015, and I won't lie, a tiny part of me is thrilled the films are doing so poorly. I hope they crash and burn, because if the writers are just going to be this lazy with their stories these days, then I hope the movie industry does implode like Spielberg and Lucas predict, so they can stop trashing our beloved childhood series like Star Wars, Star Trek, ReBoot, etc, etc...

There are no layers of canon. It is canon, or it is not. The term comes from religion. The Canon is the list of the books which are considered inspired and officially part of the Bible. The other books that were rejected are apocrypha. For George Lucas, the only important storyline was the one told in the movies. The EU was never "canon" to begin with. When he wrote the prequels, he did not follow what was told in the EU. No dreadnaughts or Victory-class SD, no Clone Masters that were the enemies during the Clone Wars, etc. He wrote his own story, and chose some elements he liked in the EU. Therefore, it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone if Abrams and Johnson gave the F-word to the EU. The difference with Disney is that they chose to include other media into the movie continuity: books, comics, tv shows. So they had to draw a line: these are part of the movie continuity and those are not, which they called Legends. Either way, they are all works of fiction, so you can still enjoy Legends stuff all you like.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

For me, the issue with Rey's parents being nobody is that the films had drawn that mystery out for far to long and it was built up, both in and out of universe, that her parents were important only for Last to come out and say that her parents were no one of any importance. If her parents were nobodies then that SHOULD have been addressed at the end of Awakens so the films could set the foundation for the rest of her character arc.

Basically this for me. Some of TLJ's defenders (including people involved with Star Wars) have been pretty disingenuous in pinning the disappointment regarding Rey's parentage on fans' being upset that their headcanons didn't play out on screen. If it were just Rey obsessing over her parents/family, I might agree, but the big mystery was obviously played up for all it was worth both on and off-screen. Among other things, Han, Leia, and others acted pretty strange around Rey from the very beginning, then you have all the little cute stuff like Obi-Wan calling to Rey in her vision and cutting away just before Han tells Maz who she is.

It's akin to an Agatha Christie mystery if Poirot were to gather all the suspects together for the dramatic denouement, only to reveal that the victim was actually murdered by some random vagrant that you never met. Of course that's going to disappoint people.

Maybe it is time for a "nobody" hero. Luke was that in a sense, and yet I'd be fine with someone unrelated to the Skywalker line... but maybe you should actually build a story that sets that up properly. Make Rey recognize her own value and then force others to take her seriously, rather than the weird route they went with where everyone already seemed to see her as the greatest person ever and the galaxy's last hope.

[Actarus]

/snip

While the main focus of DST Rey it feels like the filmmakers aren't really interested in exploring Rey's character which is only further compounded by E9 introducing 5 new characters instead of focusing on the characters they Already Have.

While I understand your point of view, I have to point out that they may have announced the introduction of five new characters, that does not tell us much about their importance. In The Return of the Jedi, we were introduced to many characters : Jabba the Hutt, Bib Fortuna, Mon Mothma, Crix Madine, Admiral Ackbar, Wicket, Moff Jerjerrod... the Emperor. Each of them didn't have the same importance. In TLJ, we also were introduce to many characters. But only one was important: Rose, which seems to be more or less the Lando of that movie. Well, if she returns in Episode IX, that is. The focus of TLJ was on Rey, Finn and Poe. It will be the same in Episode IX, plus maybe Rose.