I do understand it emotionally. I don’t exactly enjoy watching the heroes I grew up with fail either, and that’s actually part of why I think continuing the story at all was probably a mistake on some level. Financially, obviously Disney was never going to leave Star Wars alone, but narratively I’m not convinced there really needed to be an Episode VII.
But once you decide to continue the story, I do expect it to challenge me emotionally. That’s something I want from movies in general, but especially from a story as character driven as Star Wars.
And that’s where I struggle with the idea that the old characters should basically be protected from serious failure or painful change. If Luke has to remain the great Jedi Master we imagined, Han and Leia have to remain happily married, and their accomplishments after ROTJ have to stay mostly intact, then at some point I start wondering what the dramatic purpose of bringing them back actually is.
I completely understand wanting that version of these characters. On an emotional level, part of me wants it too. But as storytelling, I have a hard time justifying treating them with kid gloves simply because we love them.
That doesn’t mean I think the sequels handled their failures well, very often they didn’t. But for me, “they shouldn’t have failed” and “their failures should have been written better” are two very different criticisms.
I didn’t say they should be protected from serious failure or painful change. But saying that that necessarily means the ONLY way to do that is to make Luke stop being a Jedi, and break up Han and Leia, is just a failure of imagination.
The stakes can (and should) come from the next generation of characters. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a Kylo Ren kind of story, but the way it was handled was poor. It would be more impactful if we could actually see him turn to the dark side, instead of the story beginning after it already happened. Massacring the Jedi again isn’t a plus to the story because it’s a radical change, because it’s not actually a change, it’s a regression to the status quo and what everyone already just watched in Revenge of the Sith. The Empire returning isn’t a radical change either, it’s a regression to the status quo of the original trilogy. By all means, wreck the New Republic, just do it in a compelling and creative way.
Imagine how much more emotionally compelling it would be if we got to know one or two Jedi characters really well, then had Kylo Ren betray them (or something else really bad happen to them), rather than being told in flashback that like 20-30 people we don’t know got killed.
Of course you’re absolutely right there didn’t have to be an episode 7 and it’s all kind of a big waste. But it’s fun to speculate what could have happened instead.