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• Force Awakens
• Last Jedi
• Rise of Skywalker

Thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker

After the controversial reception of Episode VIII tensions were high in the world of Star Wars. Many fans openly criticized the newest movie by saying that it was a slap to the face of life long fans complaining about the portrayal of original characters, while others complained about new characters being written poorly, and in a way that moreso tried to push an agenda than push the story. The other side of the fanbase said that the only reason people were complaining about the movie was that it showed many female characters in prominent roles, so the upset fans must simply be sexist. Debates and arguments raged online while rumors of a rift between Disney executives and producers began to take hold. In a desperate attempt to please fans, Disney announced that they were bringing back JJ Abrams to write and direct episode IX. This was, in my opinion, the mistake that cemented in the failure of the Sequel Trilogy. Since I need more lists for my assignment, I am going to repeat the series of events that got us here in various lists:

• George Lucas creates Star Wars Episode IV.
1. It is celebrated as a revolutionary success.
• Episodes V and VI follow with national attention and general approval.
1. The Trilogy defines a new genre of media.

• George Lucas, now a famous director begins Prequel Trilogy with Episode I.
1. Acting and writing are criticized as dull.
2. But music and story are loved by fans.
• Episodes II and III are released.
1. Acting and dialogue are again low points.
2. Visual effects are praised and general audiences enjoy the movies.
• Star Wars inspires more stories outside of the movies.
1. Star Wars Extended Universe continue to expand the story.
2. Video Games soar in popularity.
3. Animated TV shows are treated as official additions to the movies.

• Disney acquires Lucasfilm
1. Fans are nervous, lol
• Lucasfilm under the direction of Disney announces new Trilogy.
• Episode VII is given to JJ Abrams.
1. Due to disliking Prequel Trilogy he basically recreates Episode IV
2. All inspiration from George Lucas' plan for the future of Star Wars ignored.
3. All inspiration from the Star Wars Extened Universe is also ignored
• Lucasfilm gives following movie to attention seeking Rian Johnson
1. He writes an intentionally divisive story in order to 'subvert expectations'.
2. The movie actively undoes plot points setup in Episode VII
3. The story spends massive amounts of time contradicting long standing viewpoints from Star Wars
• This would have worked if the last five minutes of the movie didn't quickly reestablish those same good vs evil viewpoints.
4. I know attention seeking is a little harsh, but the man literally made a Murder Mystery movie about a suicide, attention seeking is what he does.
• BTW, that movie is Knives Out and it's quite good.
• Lucasfilm panics at backlash from Episode VIII.
1. The rumors were so juicey about an hours long phone call from Disney CEO Bob Iger to Lucasfilm top producer Kathleen Kennedy, where her job was on the line if the movies were not better received.
• Genuinely I think Kathleen Kennedy killed the name Kathleen for the next generation because she was hated that much by fans.
• In a stunning turn of lack of foresight, Lucasfilm gives Episode IX back to JJ Abrams.

Now that we're all caught back up, I'll come back to my rambling format. JJ Abrams is a very talented and capable movie maker, but giving Episode IX back to him is where we see Disney's absolute failing to understand the complaints and voice of the fanbase. Episode VII wasted time repeating Episode IV. Episode VIII wasted time needlessly undoing the whole gosh darn series. So the last possible chance for Episode IX to succeed would be to scrounge all the mixed up pieces back together and try to stamp a satisfying ending on the disjointed mess by following the path the Rian Johnson set the series on in episode VIII. JJ Abrams had a chance to do this, but he chose to revert the series back to the storyline he put in place from Episode VII and ignore everyone else. He had to spend the first half of Episode IX retroactively putting all the pieces back that Episode VIII broke, so that he could get back to the version that he originally envisioned, being the version that was just a soft reboot of the originals anyways. The movie was rushed, choppy, and felt like we were hyperspace jumping from exposition dump to expostion dump. But we can't jump over the "Somehow, Palpatine returned" line, because, that's right, Rian Johnson killed Snoke, FOR NO REASON, so JJ Abrams had to bring back Palpatine so that there was a big bad to fight in his movie! All of that, just so we could get to an ending that still pooped on the first six movies, when we hear the force ghost of Anakin Freakin Skywalker wisper to Rey, "Bring balance to the force, like I did..". YOU MEAN TO TELL ME, THAT AFTER 6 MOVIES OF INTRIGUE AS TO WHO THE CHOSEN ONE REALLY IS, YOU'RE GOING TO WOMP AROUND FOR 3 MORE MOVIES, NEVER MENTIONING THE CHOSEN ONE PROPHECY, THEN HAVE AN OFF SCREEN VOICE WISPER, CONFIRMING THAT ANAKIN WAS THE ONE TO BRING BALANCE TO THE FORCE, THE ONE THAT HAD BEEN PROPHESIED OF MAYBE THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO, THAT HE BROUGHT BALANCE TO THE FLIPPIN FORCE FOR ALL OF 20 SOME-ODD YEARS, AND IT'S ALREADY BACK OUT OF BALANCE??? AND THEN, to add insult to injury, they advertised this movie as the "End of the Skywalker Saga". Well guess what, YOU KILLED OFF ALL THE FLIPPIN SKYWALKERS BEFORE THE BIG FINALE! They were all gone, done-zo, and the only one left was Rey, WHO WAS A DECENDENT OF PALPATINE. SO GUESS WHAT DISNEY! YOU WROTE A STORY WHERE THE SKYWALKERS DIDN'T DO SQUAT! WITHOUT ANAKIN TO BECOME DARTH VADER, WITHOUT LUKE TO DEFEAT HIM AND TURN HIM BACK, WITHOUT PRINCESS LEIA TO LEAD THE REBELION AND THEN THE RESISTANCE, AND EVEN WITHOUT BEN SOLO TO STRUGGLE WITH THE DARK SIDE AND THEN EVENTUALLY GIVE IT UP BEFORE HIS DEATH, WITHOUT ALL OF THAT, PALPATINE WOULD STILL RISE TO POWER, PRODUCE A SON AND THROUGH HIM A GRAND DAUGHTER, WHO THEN RISES UP TO KILL HIM ONCE AND FOR ALL. PALPATINE PRODUCED HIS OWN DOWNFALL AND THE SKYWALKERS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!!! END OF THE SKYWALKER SAGA MY BUTT! MORE LIKE END OF THE USELESS SAGA! Then at the very end, Rey pronounces herself to be one of them, by saying, "I'm Rey, Rey Skywalker". GOOD FOR YOU, NOW YOU'RE PART OF THE USELESS CLUB TOO!

In all seriousness, there are many truly quality aspects of these movies, even including a quote that almost ironically sums up the whole trilogy, being, "That's not how the Force works!!". But I again go too far. For many who have seen and enjoyed the films, the Sequel Trilogy was a bright addition to fun movies. So there really is no need to shout in all caps as I do, haha. But after all is said and done, the creatives that were a part of the films made enjoyable captivating movies, but the issues came from the executives and producers, who seemingly just threw money and famous directors at the projects thinking that would be enough. So now as the fanbase sits divided, the blame falls on those who, through greed, ignored the fans and pushed money making projects above the quality of the story. George Lucas started the franchise with a dream, and when the dream was taken over by those who only wanted to profit from it, the dream lost what made it worth dreaming about.