Anchorhead said:
Everything comes across as a bit too much.
The only thing that I can think of is the space slug but aside from that the story telling, character portrayals, themes etc. were elevated as any continuation should.
Han is even cooler (but lacking the edge that made him interesting in Star Wars77), the princess was even tougher, Luke was nothing like the farm boy we’d met before
Luke and Han go through character arcs in the OT and both still retained a great deal of their personality traits from STAR WARS. Han’s wit, selflessness and his hatred for droids all made a return as did Luke’s whining, self doubt and overall disposition. Had their characters stayed stagnant my level of investment with them would have decreased exponentially by ROTJ.
and Vader went from military henchman answering to several others to now answering to no one and all but running the Empire single-handed.
It should have been that way from the jump which is why I appreciate that Kylo Ren doesn’t give a single fuck about Hux or his Troopers because his agenda supersedes the trivial aspirations of some Military man who isn’t even attuned to the Force. Also since Tarkin died aboard the Death Star it was a good time for Vader to swoop on in; his eagerness to assume a more commanding presence in the Empire would have no doubt been exacerbated when he found out his offspring still lived.
For me, Rogue One is the installment that best fits with Star Wars77.
Eh, Rogue One has so many flaws that it doesn’t matter to me that it fits more with the spirit of STAR WARS. I just care about the quality of the writing and Empire blows Rogue One out of the water in every aspect say for moral ambiguity but that’s not saying much as Rogue One more or less skimmed over it.