After a brief jump into the post-rotj old Expanded Universe and then being lured back to the ST via the Rise of Kylo Ren comic, I have reconsidered what the franchise and the ST means to me. I watched some Rian Johnson movies which were great and I also read the (presumably real) Trevorrow Episode IX script which still did not make me change my mind about… this:
I now think The Last Jedi is a fitting conclusion to the story. With the endless cycle of the power struggle there is just no good (or better) way to end the story that doesn’t feel like a rotj rehash. You could have Kylo and Rey work together in some way and build true balance, but that has its own problems…
I think TLJ satisfyingly picks up on the - meta and otherwise - bits of TFA and expands them and also inadvertently dead-ends the franchise. So I like this movie, although I didn’t when it came out, but anything that comes after it, not really (unless it explores Ren’s backstory like TROKR)
So in bold I have some but not all of the material that I really quite like and that gets me excited about star wars at a time when… who really cares about it anymore?
Anyway, two timelines:
Original Unaltered Trilogy (I prefer grindhouse versions of this but who cares)
The Mandalorian (could be reconciled with old eu but depends on the day)
And then either:
-Thrawn trilogy (that’s as far as I am, but I also started reading Young Jedi Knights because whatever)
-other 90s EU stuff I have yet to read
-also SW radio drama goes here
Or:
-(the (unaltered) prequels (with DVD version for TPM) belong in this continuity)
-along with supplementary material like Bloodline, perhaps a different OT version depending on my mood, perhaps we shall see what else new eu brings, whatever, whatnot)
-The Rise of Kylo Ren (although the 4th one shoehorns in some stuff from TROS, I like this short series overall)
-The Force Awakens (idk which version since on my last rewatch TROS was annoyingly in the back of my mind, recontextualizing what I was watching, so I could not finish it)
-The Last Jedi (ebumms’ extended edition)
-the V O I D (ok, TROS, Trevorrow script, someone’s fantheory on reddit, all quite similar to me, some I like better but none are needed)