Star Wars Sequels Thoughts

[unspeakablehorror]

I really think the sequels need to be given an extensive backstory to explain exactly how we got from point A (the end of Return of the Jedi) to point B (The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi).  I think they really kind of handwave some major plot points that sequels fans tend to wave away as not being that important to the story or somehow being totally unambiguous and clear from the context, and I just don't agree.  I think it's possible to construct a reasonable narrative for these things, but it isn't to be found on-screen. Basically, I want to know a few things--what's Snoke's backstory?  How did the First Order accumulate such vast resources in such a short time-span?  How did the First Order instantly crush an intergalactic republic by taking out a few systems?  What was Luke's Academy like, and what events led up to, and what was the thought process behind, his most pivotal decisions (eg. raising his saber as he contemplated killing Ben Solo and then exiling himself on Ahch-To and cutting himself off from the Force)?  I've seen people say things like Snoke's backstory don't really matter, and I suppose that's true from a narrative standpoint, but I still wanna know. :P I've also seen many people say some of these things seem perfectly clear to them, so obviously not everyone will agree with this, but so far the interpretations I've seen from fans haven't shed any light on the matter for me, either.

Comments

[tobermoriansass]

Funnily enough even though I think the sequels have worldbuilding about on par with the original trilogy (why is there an Empire, what does it do, why are these people fighting it and why does Luke go from wanting to join it to being a rebel - we just don't know), I agree with your commentary about how this kind of stuff is really bewildering to absorb in the sequels. It's one of my major issues with the sequels and I do think it's unfair to expect fans to consume secondary media to "understand" what's happening on their screens. A good story should be able to convey this within the bounds of it's own narrative at least.

One of the big issues for me with the sequels is that I just don't get Rey. Like, I don't understand why she's joined the rebels. With Luke, you could understand okay he's drifted because of Obi-Wan's influence, but Rey is the one who wants to go all the way to the Resistance and seems to look up to them - and there doesn't seem to be any reason why. It's just this kind of disjointed thread between her wanting her family and joining the Resistance and it makes her very difficult to pin down in terms of motivation and interiority. And she's the main lead! You can't have your main lead feel this murky and unclear!

Tl;dr I wish the sequels hadn't hewed so close to the OT nostalgia thing because I feel in some sense it built in weaknesses which worked ok for the OT as a starting point, but don't work for sequels at all.

[unspeakablehorror]

I agree the original trilogy just kind of handwaves a lot of its worldbuilding, which is a similarity that it shares with the sequels. But yeah, it's bewildering when we have this massive setup in the OT and prequels that the current situation doesn't really connect with. With the OT before the prequels came out, I was just like--'I guess that's just how it is for them then' because there was no existing context to contradict most of the narrative devices and one could just imagine a large number of things that didn't fundamentally contradict the narrative. And then the prequels connects *very* closely with the OT.

But for the sequels it's like nothing from the previous movies tells us how the current situation came to be, and in order to understand it you *have* to consume the ancillary media. And even then I guess you have to consume more of it than I have because I am still ??? on so many things despite having read several of the Disney canon novels already. I suspect some of it has never even been addressed at all. I wanted them to actually pull more story threads from the original trilogy and prequels and connect to those to the narrative of the prequels and sequels. It feels very 'now buy these five thousand DLCs to complete the story!' to me.

And that's an interesting criticism of Rey which I haven't heard before but I think I agree with! Her motivations do tend to feel very 'because plot'. She had to try to go back to Jakku to create narrative conflict with co-protagonist Finn, then she decides to join the Resistance and abandon waiting for her family on the word of a random old woman she's just met. Then she does a complete 180 on Kylo in a super-short time period from being tortured by him and trying to kill him to trying to redeem him and just trusting whatever he says with absolutely zero skepticism. All of this advances the plot but it doesn't really come from her character. It would've been nice if her personality and behavior reflected her background and experiences better rather than it feeling like her character just gets yanked into doing whatever whenever it's convenient for the writer. They still could have made the things the wanted to happen occur but made it feel like the narrative had earned that reaction from her. Though I also think it might be interesting if she had made some choices differently.