Over all the decades of Star Wars shows, who are the most iconic characters and relevant toys? Google Trends confirms it is Vader, Yoda, Jedi and for a while Mandalorian.
Five years ago I wrote how Disney was failing at the basics of Star Wars merchandising. They were making movies and shows with very little Jedi, lightsabers and cool distinctive new ships.
Vader is a villain who was dynamic and dangerous. Darth Vader is the ultimate villain for a variety of reasons. He’s powerful, intimidating, ruthless, enigmatic, and symbolic, and his tragic backstory makes him a sympathetic villain.
Yoda is widely considered to be the greatest Jedi of all time. He is a master of the Force, a skilled warrior, and has an unmatched wisdom that comes from centuries of experience. He is the embodiment of what it means to be a Jedi.
The Jedi are guardians of peace in a dangerous galaxy. Star Wars is supposed to be about heroism and adventure. The shows and movies that deviate from that for Star Wars do not succeed.
Not having new interesting Jedi and lightsabers is like a western without gunfighters and gunfights.
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The principle failing of Star Wars is a disregard for canon and not planning ahead. We actually got a director of a major movie who thought he was doing good by subverting expectations, rather than delivering on them.
The second problem is that the series is too mired in the past. Don’t get me wrong, the past is good. It gives depth. It allows sequels to leap into stories that where earlier tales would have had to spend huge amounts of time world building and character building, rather than being able to lean more heavily toward story telling. But, instead of this, they keep making prequels and shoehorning them in. It also lends itself to plot holes.
And there is the third problem, they are unwilling to move the series forward into the future. Historically, this has been a massive problem for Star Trek as well, giving us series like Enterprise when we wanted series where the Borg had, inevitably, been assimilated by the Federation, and everything was moving outwards and onwards. Boldly going where no one had gone before. It’s the same problem Star Wars has after rejecting the EU, although maybe they are getting better. Thrawn back is a step. Mara Jade can’t be too far behind. Perhaps they will rehabilitate Luke.
And fourth, despite needing to go forward, they need to do some cleanup, kind like the MCU did when they tossed the old Hulk, or when DC tossed the old Suicide Squad (Fantastic Four are obviously still a work in progress). Burying the Christmas specials was a good thing, but that last trilogy needs the same treatment. Maybe move it off to the same never never land that Alan Dean Foster’s sequel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, wound up in after it was entirely supplanted by The Empire Strikes Back. Of course, this might involve more digitizing of some aging and/or deceased actors but, frankly, the real ones were used so poorly that this would be an improvement.
And yeah, most stories should include plenty of light sabers. It’s like the best version of the Four Musketeers, the one with Michael York. You had sword fights. Sword fights in monasteries, in wagons, in laundries, in taverns, in palaces, in hovels, and even on ice. Okay, maybe not that many light sabers, but still lots, and they need to be good, no phoning it in when everyone can stop and watch a digital stream frame-by-frame.
Nothing really matters for Star Wars. Let’s just move on. Original trilogy is a warm memory of my childhood. I am going to leave it at that.
Watch Andor. It’s Star Wars for adults, with the best most concise dialogue and writing of ANY Star Wars.
It’s HEAVY on character development, so the first 2 episodes might be a bit slow for some people, specially teens expecting lots of light saber action (there is none here, as it happens 5 years prior to New Hope and at New Hope, if you remember, people don´t even remember Jedis very well anymore.
Han Solo: “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.”
Han Solo: “Kid, I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.”
Admiral Motti: “Don’t try to frighten us with your sorcerer’s ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebel’s hidden fort-…” (Vader then Force-chokes Motti until Tarkin intervenes.)
But by the time you are on episode 3 or 4, you are GRIPPED to the characters. Their fates MATTER to you. You are rooting even for Dedra Meero, an Imperial from the Empire Security Bureau, because she is so competent and facing incompetent people, just to hate yourself that you rooted for her, later. lol
There are plenty of reactions on Youtube where people cry in scenes from the show, something you don´t see in any of the other Star Wars shows.
Ahsoka sucked. Badly written. Awful show.
Disney has not done anything good with lightsabers. Mandalorian 3 sucked.
By far the BEST Disney Star Wars was the one without Jedi or lightsabers: Andor was a masterpiece.
Badly marketed and coming soon after the disappointment of Obi Wan, another show based on Jedi that sucked.
If the success of Star Wars will be based on TOY SALES, meaning all shows must be made towards children, I hope it fails
Disagree completely.
Andor was a well-crafted piece of character-driven, tightly-written, compelling cinema – puke. Not Star Wars – though i will continue to watch it when I crave a certain emotional engagement.
Star Wars is meant to be a sci-fi spaghetii western, mixed with WW2 anti-Nazi propaganda stylism – fun, simple, obscenely-facile good-evil dynamic with a nice twist of inexplicable magic set in a bizarre, post-civilization galactic-spanning space opera which somehow have existing cultures who can fly FOTL spacecraft yet cannot demonstrably develop, design, and improve on them with any degree of post-scarcity thinking – kind of a post-apocalyptic civilization functioning on the leavings of some eralier super-Civilization (maybe the true Jedi/Sith origin).
Please stop trying to make my Star Wars into some kind of 2001 – or any other kind of thought-provoking, literary-type epic magnum opus – leave us with our fun, scifi flavoured mush.
Both good valid points. Andor and Rogue One are maybe the best dramas, and any other merit that good culture is measured by. But thats not what Star Wars is about. Unfortunately thats not really been captured again since the original series. It might not be possible to capture it again. Disney have flogged the SW and Mavel horses too hard, and don’t know what else to do.
Agreed. Always wanted to get more out of the original series – especially versions that were not recrafted for DVD re-release in the last 20 years, but always choked on the old production values, the Ewoks, and various Han/Jabba interactions. I will persevere.
LOL, not Star Wars my ass.
It’s the most Star Wars thing since Empire Strikes Back. It made the Empire SCARY again.
Also, not having Jedi is perfectly fine for ANYONE who played Dark Forces and X-Wing / Tie Fighter games back in the 90s.
Remember, it’s Star WARS, not Star BATTLES.
Espionage, guerrilla, cold war, etc, ALL are part of war.
“mixed with WW2 anti-Nazi propaganda stylism”
Andor was the FIRST movie in the series that was able to show a REALISTIC fascist government working, like the Third Reich.
Previous Star Wars were as realistic about what the nazis looked like as the Nazis from Wolfenstein games.
ps: except for Palpatine taking power, which was really great imho. A mix of Hitler being elected and maybe some ancient Roman politics.
I actually really liked Ahsoka and I love The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett (the bits that didn’t have Kathleen Kennedy’s influence).
But, Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors matter to me and they need to return in their original forms. I consider nothing after the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney to be canon, only everything before it and the original expanded universe, and I think current events and social and geo politics have no place in Star Wars. No woke stuff in Star Wars.
That’s what Star Trek is for; it’s built off Earth’s historical context. I love Star Trek, I’m definitely left-leaning, and I’ll be all over that stuff in Star Trek.
But leave Star Wars alone.
Did you watch Andor?
Agreed. especially about the Woke saturation. Ahsoka was painful to watch with the obvious gender and cultural quota agenda/ over-emphasis. Strong female and non-white characters can work – witness Mad Max-Fury Road and Battlestar Galactica with Katee Sackhoff as Starbuck – brilliantly Cast – though, sorry Katee – you’re Mandalorian character seemed forced and unbelievable.
Jyn Erso from Rogue One sounds suspiciously similar to Jan Ors.
Great admiral Thrawn is really a cool vilain , so much charismatic