No matter which Star Wars trilogy is being debated, there’s almost always something contentious at hand. Debate among Star Wars fans is nothing new. When it comes to Disney’s sequel trilogy, debate reaches a fever pitch.
As things stand, that pitch will probably never really die back down, unless and until Star Wars becomes dormant again, and with Disney pulling the strings, that’s highly unlikely. One of the latest topics is whether the franchise learns from itself, and the answer is still no.
Debate has always been hot in Star Wars
If someone thinks that everybody was happy with the original trilogy, and it wasn’t until the prequel trilogy that things got problematic, they would be mistaken. Debate has always swirled around Star Wars. It’s just that in the heyday of the original trilogy, there was no internet to amplify everyone’s opinions.
When fans saw The Empire Strikes Back, they spent three years debating whether Vader was really telling the truth about Luke’s father. When Return of the Jedi came out, some people said they were cute, funny Ewoks enhanced the story, and some said that was where the rot began to set in. And the less said about Star Wars Special Editions, the better.
It’s fair to say that debate over the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy got more intense, because those trilogies on the whole displeased more people than the original trilogy did. Maybe it’s because it’s the most recent trilogy, but the three sequels seem to prompt the most vociferous debate, with Facebook, Twitter and especially Reddit aflame over contrary opinions.
What bothers fans about the sequel trilogy?
One of the latest debates on Reddit starts off with a compare and contrast of The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker, both directed by JJ Abrams. The still from Force Awakens quotes the line “You cannot deny the truth that is your family. The still from The Rise of Skywalker says ‘Some things are stronger than blood.’ The person who posted it comments, “That’s some interesting inversion you’ve got there.”
The general line on the sequels is that Force Awakens did a nice job setting everything up, even if it was a little too much like A New Hope. Then The Last Jedi either destroyed or rehabilitated the franchise, depending on which camp you believe.
Then, Rise of Skywalker seemed to make a conscious effort to undo Last Jedi, and made no one happy in the end.
One fan wrote, “So… you hate character development? You hate people learning from their mistakes? Even thought the last movie’s primary message was ‘the greatest teacher failure is.’ And Yoda even told Luke that he must get over losing Ben Solo and actually start doing something about it instead of just shutting off, and the challenge in the present is to avoid losing Rey too.”
The discussion ends up the way a lot of Star Wars forums do – a lot of back and forth with no real consensus.
Will Star Wars fans ever truly be happy?
Star Wars fandom has a reputation for being toxic. One could argue that Star Wars fans are never happy unless they’re unhappy. Then last year, along came The Mandalorian, which seemed to please pretty much everyone. That’s more than can be said for Episode IX.
Indeed, the most contentious debate over The Mandalorian seemed to be whether it was really right for Baby Yoda to be called Baby Yoda.
Now, season 2 of The Mandalorian is coming up at the end of October, and with no new Star Wars theatrical movies on the horizon for a little while, perhaps Mando can forge a little détente between fans. That might be an even more impressive feat than finding out where Baby Yoda came from.
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