Stardust1138 said:
thebluefrog said:
TFA was a fine movie. Of all 3 films, it had the least flaws. That isn’t to say it was perfect (Rey winning the final fight was a huge mistake) but it still did its job well:set up the rest of the movies.
Then Rian decided to ignore almost everything it set up for his own interpretation of his own Star Wars universe, and, well, the balance was lost. ROS was just the crash that started with TLJ.
I actually think it started with The Force Awakens as it actively ignores the full contexts of the previous six films in favour of playing to what fans expect to see instead of exploring new ideas and letting characters we know grow in a meaningful way that respects them as people. It went for what was familiar on the surface with the Original Trilogy without doing the neccessary work of understanding the contexts of the trilogy and even the Prequels. The whole movie is retro and staying in the past. The Last Jedi equally has its share of problems but I don’t pin them all on Rian. There are some things but he was really put in a bad spot of either continuing the trend of nostalgia or trying something bolder than what was given in the previous film. The problem is it tries new things with actually understanding context even slightly in key ways but a lot of that is from the poor setup. It’s equally on him not understanding of context on things such as the important issue of Luke seeing Anakin as Anakin and not as Darth Vader or why Luke wouldn’t contemplate killing Ben even on instincts. It regresses his growth from Return of the Jedi from a very similar moment that was key to his character development. The Rise of Skywalker on the other just feels like everyone gave up and didn’t care anymore. They just needed an Episode IX to exist and that’s what they made.
It’s sad to see this is what Star Wars has come to. I can definitely see why some fans and newbies alike would love The Force Awakens though. Like George said it’s very much the film certain fans were looking for after the Prequels and equally from a newbies standpoint it has very likeable characters that mask the clear retread of A New Hope. They may never have seen it anyways. So they wouldn’t know until they went back and watched the previous six. In the long run though running away from your story causes more issues than solutions. That’s what ended up happening as they all had a different version of Star Wars than what it meant to George.
Now we’re stuck with a Palpatine being the last one standing and taking the Skywalker name to add to the thought as if it wasn’t enough that a Skywalker last says “Ow!” In the Skywalker Saga. This is very much the anti message of what Star Wars always meant in the first six films.
In the end, the sequel trilogy was pointless. I don’t hate them, as they all have interesting moments and good qualities, but for the purposes of the continuation of the Star Wars narrative? No one cares. There’s a reason why none of the announced tv shows or movies are continuing the sequel era characters.
Nothing that happened in each film mattered to the next film.
TFA started on unstable ground–undoing ROTJ’s happy ending. Ok, that’s rough, but still not a disaster. There was still potential in the sequel trilogy from that shaky start. Maybe this Snoke guy and the First Order will be an interesting new take on the whole war.
Then TLJ ignored everything in TFA that Rian didn’t like. Snoke? Gone, pointless. Hux? Made into a joke at the start. Finn’s FO defection? Pointless and he was made even more of a joke than he was in TFA. Phasma’s cowardice in TFA? No, just a pointless reappearance to just die. Even the new characters in TLJ were pointless. Holdo? No one really cared that she sacrificed herself, because her character importance wasn’t earned. Rose? Why was the character even in the film? To kiss Finn after stopping him from killing himself? And then the entire casino planet subplot was pointless when it was undone by a character who was so badly written he didn’t have a name. The fact that the big, important, galaxy-changing rebellion was undone by a parking ticket was just embarrassing.
ROS continued the pattern-JJ tried desperately to undo the changes TLJ made from TFA, and he failed at that. Nothing that happened in TLJ mattered to ROS since it may as well have continued from TFA: The First Order still is in power, the rebels are on the run, Rey is a Jedi and Kylo is evil. Does it even matter who her parents are? Did Luke or Snoke dying matter? Does it matter if 3PO “dies” since he barely interacted with Rey and Finn and Poe? The new characters in ROS were just as empty as TLJ’s. Is anyone going to remember Pryde or Zorii? Reylo was probably the only interesting concept that would’ve made the sequel trilogy interesting (Rey’s romantic love brings the Skywalker line) but they didn’t even bother to try earning that, either.
Neither Rian or JJ was able to write a character arc that actually felt like it mattered. When both directors were spitefully undoing each other’s writing, no one cares about ANY character since the emotional investment isn’t earned. Holdo’s sacrifice was not an emotional moment since she was unlikable–and then Finn’s STOPPED sacrifice is just as unemotional since he does nothing else to the plot. Rey beat Kylo in 7, then she beat Kylo in 8, and then beat Kylo again in 9. That’s not how a hero’s arc grows, and also reduces the audience’s investment in the villain’s role since he wasn’t a threat. The characters don’t grow, they get rewritten by someone different each time.
That’s why I say the sequel trilogy was pointless. In the end, none of the characters mattered. Other than Kylo and possibly Rey, in 10 years people will have forgotten the sequel characters.
And that’s the real tragedy.