A gif set went by, sad that Kanan and Hera didn’t get their happy ending, and I realized that that’s fundamentally what’s wrong with Disney!Star Wars. Not Kanan and Hera, specifically, but that there are no happy endings in Star Wars any more. Inexplicably, the company known for happy endings took a franchise that had happy endings and said: “Nope. Let’s be Joss Whedon instead.”
Of the originally trilogy folks: Han and Leia don’t work out as a couple, and their son [insert whichever canon you prefer here, but it isn’t good no matter how you slice it*], also they all die, not of old age. Luke’s dream of a new Jedi Order is destroyed, so no happy ending for him. And he dies, not of old age. All of this is also pretty horrible for Chewbacca, since that’s a whole bunch of his friends. (Yes, he would have outlived them all anyway, still...) Lando apparently had his child stolen from him at some point. The Empire returned, worse than ever, and in a very short amount of time. Hell, the Emperor wasn’t even dead, so so much for Vader’s sacrifice.
In Rebels, the writers went out of their way to kill Kanan off and leave Hera with a “but pregnant” version of a “happy ending.” Ezra loses his (supposed) new family and ends up in space whale limbo. (Not real sure what’s supposed to have become of Sabine. ... Oh, I guess, Zeb got a happy ending with SIdeburns McGenocide, for some reason.)
The Mandalorian isn’t finished yet, but having even a satisfying ending is looking unlikely there. It’s either going to have a “happy” ending that doesn’t actually fit the character (here’s your consolation prize, Din, you get to be the new Mandalore), or it’s going to have an unhappy ending. (Yes, I realize I could still be wrong, but I am deeply cynical about Disney!Star Wars.)
The sequel trilogy ends with Rey alone, and Finn and Poe aren’t important enough to get endings. I guess Lando gets a possibly happy ending of going off with his possibly daughter. Yay? But how can we have any faith that the Empire is actually gone and the Emperor actually dead. Both were supposed to be true before and weren’t. The New Republic was a bust, anyway, so like the galaxy just goes shittily on, I guess. Yay?
(The Resistance characters are kind of left in limbo, given where the show falls in the time line. Same, really with a lot of the new!EU book characters. At least the ones that aren’t explicitly killed off in the films.)
I know Star Wars has always had a bit of a problem with being stuck in a permanent Empire vs. Republic/ Sith vs. Jedi battle for all eternity, especially if you look at the extended universe stuff, but the movies had a satisfyingly optimistic arc with the state of the galaxy ending up in a better place again. (Even if the story wasn’t necessarily finished.) Hell, there were real time decades of books in the old!EU before the torture aliens from Warhammer 40K showed up and ruined everything. And at least they weren’t the same damn villains who were already supposed to be defeated.
Now, it really does feel like Joss Whedon is running the show. Or rather, someone who really, really wants to be him, but doesn’t have his talent for zippy dialogue. (I may have issues with some aspects of Whedon’s storytelling, but I will give credit where credit is due.) Though, honestly, despite Whedon’s insistence on things sucking mightily if you’re a hero and on destroying any romantic relationships, he generally allows his heroes a greater level of final success than Disney!Star Wars has. So, yeah, somebody at Disney is aping all of Whedon’s worst traits and none of his better ones. Whee.
And I probably wouldn’t care so much if I didn’t want fiction to be optimistic and offer hope that reality doesn’t. When fiction known for optimism starts saying, well, actually, you can’t accomplish anything and things will always suck and the bad guys don’t even stay dead, I get very salty about the whole thing.
*This is also a problem, mind. Unless you’re intentionally aiming for a Rashomon-type story, a character’s story probably shouldn’t be multiple choice.
