It’s easy to just bring in the Death of the Author into it all and claim people bastardized George’s vision, but let’s not forget it was George who decided to pass on the torch. He claimed he had already said everything he wanted to say in the universe and had left some guidelines, but that it’s up to the next generation now. The kids, now adults, that he inspired. I think that’s as beautiful an attitude as telling your whole story, if not more.
In the end it seems like George was the one that, following his buddhist - and Jedi - ways, was able to let go, while some were not. Perhaps there’s still things to be learned from him.
I agree in a sense but at the same time part of what Disney bought was George’s treatments for VII, VIII, and IX. The way they handled things was like a snake’s oil salesman. The whole situation reeks of disrespect and having no intentions of respecting him or fans. They merely took shortcuts and did what was easy. It’s no coincidence they shut George up and told him to not make any further comments after The Force Awakens. You only got a passive “It was beautifully well made” with The Last Jedi. He’s said in the past films can be beautifully made but he doesn’t necessarily like them. The same with Rogue One and The Mandalorian. We’re told he likes them but we were also told he liked The Force Awakens initially. Call me cynical if you will but I do tend to believe he probably does enjoy them as it’s not executives shooting the breeze but creatives in Gareth Edwards and Dave Filoni. It’s no coincidence I don’t think either though that Marcia Lucas’s comments got buried by the news outlets within days and no one pays attention to her saying she knows it’s hard for George when Disney drags him to events. It’s no coincidence Mark Hamill had a complete 180 degree turn on The Last Jedi and yet you see him fave tweets disapproving certain things or calling Lucasfilm different from the “indie garage band” they had back in the day. He stopped himself short of being critical of the current way of doing things by calling it a “full symphony orchestra and he’s not complaining” in Howard Kazanjian’s book. It’s not coincidence that Ben Burtt, Nick Gillard, Ahmed Best, the late great Jonathan Rinzler, and countless others from the past feel that Lucasfilm and Star Wars has longer lost a step.
However the biggest thing is you see George tell the children in the speaking gig he had with his wife that the first six films are very much his and his philosophy. He also told Paul Duncan that he thought he’d have more say in the way things would go with the Sequels and yet he also said how sometimes just as in life that things don’t always go the way we want. And that, that is advice I think we can all learn from as the Sequels or even for some the Prequels we got didn’t go as we may have wanted for the same or different contexts but we can let go by moving forward and maybe we’ll find a way to accept that Star Wars is no longer one man’s vision or to our liking but recognise that it is now told from a different prospective told by fans and dare I say a corporation.
Can Star Wars survive this? Only time will tell and all we can do is hope. Hope and wait for something that will give us some joy. There’s no point in being bitter and angry. I may not love the Sequels but I’m finding my peace in accepting them as an alternate universe told by Disney and what Hollywood sees Star Wars as. This is very different from my Star Wars that consists of the first six films and The Clone Wars series but you know sometimes they might make something I enjoy. It’s happened twice in the Disney era with Rogue One and Rebels with some enjoyment in retrospect towards The Last Jedi. Will it happen again? I hope so. I hope for the best from all of these people involved now and those that are added to the picture in the future. I hope to be pleasantly surprised we get something that can bring joy and passion similar to the old way of doing things but if not I will always have what I love and the ability to try giving things a different look as time heals and gives prospective as it’s happened before. We’re always growing and evolving if we desire to.