I kinda feel like it’s 2 separate entities now- there is the PT, RO, OT which is one story. And then the ST which is something altogether different. It’s own little thing, and we will see in 2 years how this thing holds up. But I’m like you, right now I’m like… is this going to end up being satisfying in any way shape or form.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last couple of days and how I relate to these movies. When I started, there was definitely a feeling of how the ST was separate from the PT, the OT, and RO, yeah. Like, I barely thought that much about it, it wasn’t really connected, other than through the OT characters, who were being thrown under the bus anyway.
But then there’s stuff like the Aftermath novels, that explain how the First Order came from the remnants of the Empire, that the Battle of Jakku happened and then they took off for the Unknown Regions and spent time building themselves up again. Then there’s stuff like Battlefront 2 that fills in a lot of those same gaps, that makes the focus on Jakku have more depth and importance, where it provides another example of whatever’s coming with the Emperor’s Observatories. It shows Han at Maz’s castle during the early years after ROTJ. Then there’s stuff like Legends of Luke Skywalker that shows us those same years just after ROTJ where he’s so Luke, but we’re seeing it from the pov of the kids in Canto Bight.
And suddenly it’s not so easy for me to snip off the ST anymore, because all of those stories above are so good and they do the heavy lifting of connecting everything together into one bigger story. (This definitely got off onto a personal tangent, I know, but I’ve been trying to put this into words and this was the perfect time for it!)
I don’t think anyone has to feel the same as me, regardless of how much or how little of the novels/games/comics/etc. they’ve consumed, but it’s increasingly difficult for me to separate them out and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Because the ST did fuck over our legacy characters to prop up their new characters and I think TLJ, for as much as I’m gonna pull out a lot of stuff I liked, continued that.
So, I’m not sure IX can be satisfying, because it’s still in this direction I’m not sure can be satisfying for me, as a fan of the OT characters. And yet... idk, there’s a lot worth examining in the movie, even as I can see a lot of criticisms in it, too! I guess only time will tell and, hey, in the meantime, we’re probably all (or at least most of us around the parts I hang out in!) just going to go back to talking about the PT or OT centric stuff anyway. ♥ ♥ ♥
