You’re missing the point I think, taking things a bit too literally. The goal of the original Star Wars film was for you to feel the unique thrill of being dropped into a serial halfway through, but obviously it’s not exactly the same.
My point is mostly that in old serials, be it Flash Gordon, Gene Autry, Batman, Zorro, whoever, there was always the presumption, even at the end of the serial, that there would be some other threat, some other adventure on the horizon that they’d be there to stop. Lucas has compared Star Wars to James Bond a lot and it’s the same idea. Again, obviously rendered very differently.
My point is, that just because it’s inspired by Flash Gordon doesn’t mean you have to have it be just like Flash Gordon, or Batman. I think it should aspire to be better than those serials. And again, I feel like Star Wars was an amalgamation of many different inspirations, to the point that it became its own thing.
I’m fine with him coming back, but just having it explained that he survived ROTJ? That’s it? Luke and Yoda didn’t feel a disturbance in the Force during this time?
If the bar is serials from 80 years ago okay fine. But that’s a low bar to me.
I suppose that Star Wars, as a whole was never great cinema. Only one of them attempts to be a bit better than the rest, feels like it was going for a slightly more serious direction. So yeah, these new films are in-line with what came before.
I personally didn’t need to see this new trilogy. I didn’t really care about these new characters, the “mysteries” weren’t even good, the story felt disjointed.
The OT had a good story, although ROTJ was a severe regression in quality.
Making a PT of Anakin Skywalker was definitely worth telling, but the result was very bad.
The new ST just feels like a cynical cash grab, and less about someone having this important story to tell.