I think it’s fair to ask the question, why the ST is following this trajectory? Is it really trying to tell it’s own story, or is it just trying to redo the OT in some form, but pretending that it isn’t by avoiding the same twists. A lot of the twists and turns, while different from the OT, seem to derive from taking an OT story thread, and doing the opposite. It follows the what if scenario:
What if Vader couldn’t be redeemed?
What if Vader overthrew the Emperor?
What if Yoda refused to train Luke?
Many of the beats of the story of TLJ are very similar to TESB with the ROTJ throne room sequence thrown into the mix. Bad guys attack good guy base. Bad guys chase good guys (albeit a lot slower). Young hero goes to backwater planet to be trained by Jedi Master. Young hero defies her teacher, by going after the bad guy. Rogue betrays good guys. Bad guy fails to turn the hero to the dark side. Heroes end up in a tight spot.
Of course by taking the what if scenario, the ST is abandoning several of the underlying themes of the OT that drive the OT’s twists. Which begs the question, is Star Wars more defined by it’s themes, or by it’s story beats? My view is, that it is the former, and a new Star Wars trilogy that is based on the same themes, but has different story beats is better than a Star Wars trilogy, that is based on different themes, but largely follows the same story beats.
Thank you! I’m just so relieved I am not the only one who is bothered by all this. I don’t care about a Yoda puppet, space battles, space horses, Maz Kanaata, captain Phasma, a person floating through space, flashbacks, wipes being too fast, R2 being too blue, lightsabers being too short, and Luke’s hair being too long. I care about the story. This is what people who tell stories for living came up with. All I want is some fresh ideas. Instead I got fresh visuals to go with the old ideas.