Warbler said:
It seems to me you are contradicting yourself. First you say George should have quit while he was ahead. Then you complain that he spent decades miking that same story. If he had quit while he was ahead, that same story is all you'd have. I also wondering if you don't understand what I mean when I say OOT. I mean the original Star Wars trilogy as it was originally seen, not what Lucas did to it years later. .....I also don't understand why you like the NPR when it contains the things you claim to not like anymore(the force, the darkside, a Jedi Master(Yoda), The Empire).
I should have been more clear, my apologies. What I meant by quitting when he was ahead was in reference to the 1977 story and his own writing. The endless backstory\shrinking that followed for decades afterward all centered around the 1977 story, made worse by the fact that Lucas is a mediocre writer at best.
Personally, I would have been much more interested in other people's stories within that universe, not the thinning and weakening of the 1977 story. Brackett, Daley, and Foster all had better (to me) stories. Lucas commissioned Brackett and Foster to write sequels, but then he decided against using them and instead stayed married to that 1977 story.
Those other books and scripts could have been made into very interesting films. The franchise could have had a much broader scope. The dark, mysterious vastness of 1977could have lived on - instead it was shrunk into a children's bed time story.
Regarding The Force, Jedi Knights, The Dark Side, Clones, Sith, et al ; Those were fine in the context of a story (Star Wars 77 & NPR - which I like very much). They are also fine as parts of other stories - which is exactly what they are in the first trilogy. However, they haven't been used that way since. They've become the entire focus of the films, books, and cartoons. Enough already! There are other people and organizations in the universe. It's ok to tell their stories too, and some authors have done a very good job of it. Those are the stories that interest me now.
I still dig the NPR version immensely, just listened to it for the third time this year a couple of weeks ago. However, I need some time away and Daley is providing just that. Plus, I find his original stories more interesting anyway, just as I find his version of Star Wars more interesting than George's.