Despite Lucasfilm and Disney labeling The Rise of Skywalker the end of the “Skywalker Saga,” we are still seeing those almost-twincest characters popping up in the continuing of the Star Wars universe. Disney+’s The Mandalorian started off as the story of Daddyloarian, Din Djarin, protecting and attacking with The Child/Baby Yoda/Grogu and bringing him to safety. Then, in the final episode of season two, a young Luke Skywalker himself comes blasting in like a champ and takes Grogu to train as a Jedi.
That made everyone nervous, because it was established in The Last Jedi that Kylo “Ben Solo” Ren killed Luke’s other students. Then, they had to take time to explain that. The new Obi-Wan Kenobi series organically ties into the first two trilogies, but then also raises continuity issues. Even one of my favorite installments, Rogue One, doesn’t actually fit in with the beginning of the first proper Star Wars film because they wanted to have a cool Vader moment and a cool Leia moment.
There is no reason why so much of Star Wars needs to keep focusing on the original leads in the series. We had three different stories about them that barely make sense, canonically, as is. We have continuously seen the Star Wars universe struggle under the weight of its legacy—something a lot of sci-fi series share, but Star Wars is unique in the sense that it is owned by one of the biggest media companies in the world and they are determined to get their money’s worth.
Instead of getting to explore the large and interesting world filled with aliens and ambiguously defined space magic, we are deep diving into periods of history that we know have built-in conclusions. Even worse, they keep throwing Easter eggs in our faces, and it’s like, once the endorphins of seeing Daddy Vader murk a bunch of Rebels die down, what is left needs to be worth it.
For me, Rogue One is a good enough movie that it can handle the Easter eggs. A film like Solo? Not so much. I’m enjoying Obi-Wan despite its problems, and I’m happy to see Ewan McGregor back in the role. But I also want more from this galaxy far far away that has been around since 1977.
What’s more is that the fandom very much needs something more to do than nitpick timelines and wonder if characters make sense from film series to film series, written decades apart. I would love to see something from the Golden Age of the Jedi, or one of the older wars between the Jedi and the Sith—just more than the phantom of Palpatine chuckle-fucking his way to being the big bad. I mean, at this point, even the Devil deserves a break.
(featured image: Lucasfilm/Disney)
