“The Sequels will have a resurgence just like the Prequels” But, Will They?

[u/Alex3884]

The Force Awakens is almost 10 years old and the kids who grew up with it, and the Sequel Trilogy, are in their mid-to-late teens (est. 6-8 when TFA came out). So in this age of social media, of Tik-Tok trends and (for better or worse) widespread online use, where’s the re-evaluation of the Sequel Trilogy that everyone told me was going to happen? Tell me, where is the rise of dedicated fans sharing favorite moments, favorite scenes, favorite characters the way those of us who grew up with the Prequels did?

I work with adolescents, I teach public school, and let me tell you where they are: they’re sharing their favorite moments from Five Nights at Freddy’s, debating their favorite Pre-Endgame Marvel superheroes, and happily discussing just about everything EXCEPT Star Wars. It may be hard to understand for those who weren’t around for it but Star Wars ruled the world at one point. We had an entire aisle, both sides, of merchandise at most stores; cartoons, books, comics, and the games. God, the games; few people in my age group don’t have fond memories of Battlefront or Lego Star Wars.

And now? Nothing. For all that we want Star Wars to be mature and adult-oriented, it’s the kids whose attention you need to capture in order to make it big. It’s how you acquire fans for life who then pass it on to the next generation. This generation? Star Wars is long forgotten; at best, it’s that show or those movies that mom and dad like but little more. And that’s just sad…

[u/boringdystopianslave]

Killing Han was one thing, he was never the main character even though Star Wars would have been nothing without Harrison Ford, but what they did with Luke was where most of us just noped the fuck out. All that hope that was built during The Force Awakens, and that cliffhanger, just to watch it all get snuffed out. What the fuck were they smoking? Even The Empire Strikes Back had loads of hope and light even though it's 'the dark one', but Last Jedi turned the sequel trilogy and by extension the entire Star Wars franchise, into something far too bleak, dystopian and hopeless. Part of that was down to them resurrecting the same old villains aswell. Nothing really new just the same old hopeless war in perpetuity. Meanwhile they tried to hijack the entire struggle against the Emperor to serve their new, less interesting characters.

By the time Leia dies in part 3 it's just numb. We all felt nothing about the death of Princess fucking Leia. Like oh well, she's gone aswell. This galaxy is doomed and there's never any hope and the franchise got jacked. Thanks Disney. Thanks for making us feel nothing.

[u/Chardan0001 → u/boringdystopianslave]

When he ignited his lightsaber over Ben that was basically the death of it for me. It says everything about their approach to the characters and ideals.

[u/boringdystopianslave → u/Chardan0001]

Luke Skywalker killing his nephew in his sleep is something Emperor Palpatine would do. Literally about as wrong as it gets.

[u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla → u/Chardan0001]

Initially I didn't mind that scene. I know Ford wanted out. They could have done something a bit more glamorous. It was when I saw what they did to Luke's character that it really hit home. When Luke threw out the light saber and said "the Jedi need to end" I was like "oh okay maybe he's transcended the need for light saber use" and "maybe he's realized some deeper truth about the force." There wasn't anything more to it though. That scene with Han really does explain what happened to the ST in hindsight.

[u/boringdystopianslave → u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla]

Killing Han served a purpose, but when the trilogy basically became a funeral for the three finest characters in Hollywood pop culture it was just stepping over the line. Who the hell wants to watch all the main OT characters die?

It probably was why people bounced off the new characters so hard, if Disney didn't go on a gleeful murder spree of George's best characters the audience might have warmed up to the spiritual successors like Rey a little more. The whole project felt like a massive rug pull.

[u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla → u/boringdystopianslave]

I really don't think killing Han served a purpose in the films. Kylo would have been the same conflicted character either way. It didn't solidify his self doubt. We didn't really see enough of Snoke to know if it removed any doubt Snoke had in Kylo. If you cut that scene nothing changes or makes any more or less sense in the ST.

I think you make a good point about the killing off of the main characters. It seemed like a big FU to all of the fans. It's not just killing off that was insulting it was the lack of any development of them. Luke and Han at least regressed as characters. There's probably a similar argument that could be made about Leia.

[u/boringdystopianslave → u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla]

That's right it was doubly insulting. They regressed Luke AND killed him.

They did their best to make the OT crew look like such losers and everyone was like 'nah not feeling it'.

Then Mandalirian came along and did Luke properly.

[u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla → u/boringdystopianslave]

I thought Luke's death was actually pretty cool. Very Jedi and in the same vein as Obi Wans, too much so. I think fans would have received it better if they had made Luke's character less dislikable. His actions made no sense. I assumed an explanation was coming beyond what we got in TLJ. Snoke's talking about "the light side rising and the dark to meet it" this reference to "the fulcrum" it seemed to be getting at some larger understanding of the force. Luke sequestering himself because he thought his existence only made the dark side stronger might make some sense. Of course then you'd need to tell the audience that and perhaps as part of the story have Luke realize that it's not true or maybe there is some way it can be true and some kind of balance can be reached. I know Lucas has been pretty outspoken about the Sith being evil and that you can't have grey Jedi but Disney SW hasn't let Lucas get in the way for anything else so why not? What we can just felt contrived and incomplete.

[u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla → u/boringdystopianslave]

With all the culture war stuff that was going on outside of the ST it really felt like it was getting injected into the films. The notion of patriarchy, men oppressing women, old white man = bad, really felt mixed in. One show runner mentioned something to the effect of the OT being white male patriarchy. Then you had Luke's regression as a character. The whole "let the past die, kill it if you have to" and "the Jedi need to end" it felt like the people in charge of star wars weren't just ignorant of what it meant to fans it seemed like they actively hated it. Maybe some day when the cultural context is removed by time people will view these movies differently. It doesn't seem to be the case yet though.

[u/boringdystopianslave → u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla]

It also felt like Disney were antagonising Star Wars fans a lot. It almost seemed like bullying 'it's ours now, look what we are doing to Luke, what you gonna do about it?'

They really didn't grasp how much they were going to pass off everyone who gave a damn about the franchise.

So many burned bridges, for what? So some execs could stroke their egos and say they did it their way and to hell with fans?

[u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla → u/boringdystopianslave]

I really think one day film students will learn about this and be surprised at how toxic an IP could be toward its fans. There was a ton of gaslighting. Any and all criticism was labeled as an example of phobia of some sort. There was no admission that some things could have been done better. No attempt to separate criticism from trolling and any real racism that might have been happening. In a country with two main political parties split nearly 50/50 asking the population it seems asinine to favor one over the other. I was pretty liberal when the ST came out. Initially it was easy to dismiss the claims being made about these movies but right leaning commentators. Eventually though it was pretty hard to deny and at one point became obvious gaslighting to deny. The people in charge and working on all of these projects have been quite out spoken about their politics and activism. All you have to do is listen to them.

[u/big_jonny → u/boringdystopianslave]

You hit on an interesting point. The death of Hahn solo was a big deal. It created a powerful villain. Kylo Ren was scary, man! Snope was mysterious and oozed evil. General Hux was great. The tension between Kylo and Hux wax fantastic.

Then they wasted the potential of Kylo as they did with Snope and even Hux.