Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Didn't we have a running Star Wars thread? I just thought that would be easier to find. I keep forgetting to search for Obi-Wan Kenobi.

My feelings on Andor are still mixed. The pacing is still erratic. Sometimes the juxtaposition of the storylines works. Other times, it messes with building tension in one story, which I thought was the case in the latest episode. I hope they are going to wrap up the prison storyline soon. I felt like the set-up to the raid went on too long and I hope they don't do it this time, too. I really like what they have done so far, taking one episode to set things up and another to show just how fucked up the situation is. Now it's time to actually do something about it.

 

I think Andor has been fantastic so far - Easily right there with HEY MANDO! as my favorite of the S'wars tales.

 

I think the running Star Wars thread was the Force Awakens thread.

Enjoyed last episode and agree, need the prison break to happen now. Which it appears it will.

What do we think they’re being forced to build? Components for the Death Star seems like a good bet.

 

It's been great. Such awesome TV and Star Wars addition. I think the acting and characters are fantastic. I like the political element (way better done than the prequels). Just ruthless in a whole other way. It's one of those elements where you almost wish it had been in Star Wars from the start. Yet it provides such a great way to go back and fill in these stories and look at everything differently.

My only concern about all these Star Wars series is they are all prequel stuff. I have really enjoyed most of the stories (oddly enough I find Obi-Wan the weakest of the bunch), but at some point they are going to run out of backstories. If Star Wars continues, and who is to say it even needs to, they are going to have to go past the last movies with new stories.

 

I still believe their best course, from a pure storytelling perspective, would be to throw out the last three movies. They could use The Mandalorian as the starting point for stories set after Return of the Jedi. They won't do it, in part because they don't want to recast Luke, Han, Leia and the other characters from the original trilogy. They are too afraid of the backlash they got from Solo. They told half-baked stories that seem to come from the idea that if anybody's story goes on long enough, everything has to go to shit. We left these characters with a happy ending in Jedi, then find them again at a point when their lives have fallen apart, without even bothering to tell much of those stories beyond a few quick flashbacks. It's as if nobody could figure out how to give these characters conflict without having them all fail and descend into misery. Given the hopeful tone of much of the original trilogy, I think that is part of why those stories left people so frustrated. Sure, they had plot holes you could fly a Star Destroyer through, but so did the original trilogy.

The thing is, you can have stories of conflict and hope with those characters coming out of Return of the Jedi. Just read Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy and many of the novels that followed, the ones Disney threw out. Those stories have their share of conflict and tragedy, but that's not all they have for the original characters. Of course, the problem there goes back to recasting. If the original trilogy had come out today, they would have built on those stories immediately instead of waiting decades to do it.

 

Man, while I didn't love the sequel trilogy, I also didn't think it went SO bad that they need to throw all the shit out, either. I think in 10 to 20 years, there are going to be a shitload of young women clamoring for a Daisy Ridley solo movie - Disney is going to get her on board with a comically large wheel barrel of money. Like I only got 12 trick-or-treaters this year, about half girls, and three of them were Rey. If you want to have Thrawn and use elements of the Thrawn Trilogy, I think you can easily, but with her in the Luke "solo wandering Jedi" role instead.

 

I just feel like The Mandalorian feels more like Star Wars than much of what we've gotten in the sequels. Thrawn already exists in the current continuity, though he has only appeared in the animated Rebels series. He and Ezra Bridger disappeared near the end of the series. I believe Ahsoka Tano mentions Thrawn by name during her appearance in The Mandalorian. Ezra has been cast for at least one episode of the upcoming Ahsoka series, so Thrawn might not still be around for stories set after Rise of Skywalker.

 

The only thing canon now is his existence. I wonder what his fate will be. I doubt Rukh makes an appearance.

 

I have a love, hate relationship with the sequels. The first was OK, and played to the fans very well, I am one who thought The Last Jedi was one of the best there's been (go ahead and roast me, it won't change my mind), and Rise of Skywalker has a steaming pile of awful. The latter is the only movie in the franchise I have never rewatched. Heck, I've seen most of them twice in the theater. I think we've discussed here or in the Force Awakens thread that one huge issue with the sequels is they are all completely disconnected in the end. A crazy mess, really.

That said, Rogue One, the Mandalorian, especially the last half of the last season, and Andor to me are about the best things the franchise has done. And they are all out of the focus of any of the trilogies.

I don't know if you have to scrap the sequels, but you could probably do something to reset them. I agree that you could move forward somehow with Rey. I think she was a great character.

 

That is not accurate. The animated series are canon. Thrawn was the main antagonist in the third and fourth seasons of Star Wars: Rebels. I believe there are also newer Thrawn novels that are canon, though Zahn's original trilogy is not. Rukh also appeared on Rebels, though I didn't really watch much of the series, so I'm not sure if he is very different from the Noghri character created by Zahn.

 

I hate that they did that then. So much good stuff from that trilogy and that's all they kept.

 

Yes, the way that the three sequels were so disconnected has definitely come up before. I agree that they were a mess. There are some very good ideas in The Last Jedi, but that movie also has some massive flaws that really bug me.