The original fairy tales are also a lot darker than the sanitized versions most people are familiar with today.
Most myths too of course, complete happy endings in those were a little elusive.
Not to mention, of course, Star Wars has never been just a fairy tale. That’s just one aspect of it. And it was never supposed to be just another myth. It was supposed to be the creation of a new modern myth. Deconstruction has been built into the franchise since the beginning.
Yes, but it still strictly adheres to the hero’s journey, since Lucas was a great admirer of Joseph Campbell. Lucas created a modern myth, but that has now been broken to extend the story. The decisive victory was turned into a short lived one, and the hero of the story fell from his pedestal, foregoing all his beliefs.
Couldn’t agree more, and that has been one of my main criticisms with the direction they have taken with the ST. Star Wars at its very core is modern mythology told with classic archetypal narratives and characters. Luke already overcame his inner struggles in Empire and Jedi, and the OT made the final, definitive statement on Luke’s character when he said “I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” Nothing more needs to be said on the matter after that, and any continuing stories should have just left his character alone and focus more attention on Rey.
Of course, I don’t solely blame RJ since he was just having to continue where TFA left off. Abrams and company kind of wrote themselves into a corner after they couldn’t figure out how to portray Luke as the mentor, so just decided to stick him on an Island and let the next director figure it out.