Star Wars is Dead
It’s official: Star Wars has gone the way of the dodo. The substantive, innovative, cross-cultural phenomenon that touched the hearts of billions has been denigrated to the extent that no recovery will be possible in the foreseeable future. This generation has been cheated out of the Star Wars experience that they deserved as a result of Hollywood’s greed, wrecking decades of the previously accepted and true canon produced by fans and approved by George Lucas. Here is how Star Wars died.
Oversaturation VS Originality
To understand the apocalypse of the current Star Wars trilogy, which leaves fans in an epoxy of fury and indignation, we must look into the reason for its decline. A significant contributing factor is George Lucas’ handing the franchise over to Disney.
What we have come to understand about Disney, and the entertainment industry in general, is that it is running out of ideas. This is not caused simply by lack of imagination, but results more because of greed and laziness. Hollywood’s goal, which we see translated in the media, is to make the most money through expending the least amount of effort
Regardless of the form of media, be it television, movies, or music, one needs but to compare the current zeitgeist of American media of the Star Wars era (including the 80’s , 90’s, and early 2000’s) to now.
Music nowadays seems to all sound the same, with the same artificial noises repeated in hundreds of songs. Add this to the fact that the radio and music genres keep pushing the same artists onto the consumers over and over again and again. When you have Taylor Swift and Katy Perry playing some six times within an hour on the radio, the problem of overexposure is evident.
Imitation over Innovation
The entertainment industry works by taking productions and artists that have been successful in the past and creating hackneyed renditions of these works for a large profit. A significant amount of rap music sounds the same. Imitation and not innovation (the likes of which produced hits like Michael Jackson’s Thriller) is the mainstay of the entertainment industry, and this fact is especially relevant with The Star Wars franchise today.
The current Star Wars productions can be compared to a wannabe chef who failed culinary school, eats a five-star restaurant meal, vomits it, puts it on a plate, and tries to pass the mess off as a four-star dinner course.
Everything about the current Star Wars is just a rehashed, watered down, re-iteration of the original trilogy of the 70’s. There’s little to no innovation in the story; mock imitations of characters from both the previous trilogies complete with the same deaths–the travesty of Han Solo’s death and the completely un-Luke Skywalker behavior of Luke Skywalker.
The Last Jedi, or whatever mess they are calling the second movie (which in my opinion isn’t worth seeing) sums up the insidious plot of the heirs of the original Star Wars’ characters in an attempt to pass off their mediocre trash as a diamond…as Han’s son would say, “let the past die.”
Of course the directors would want this because if you compared the previous trilogies, the previous canon material, and the previous direction of the Star Wars universe, anyone would surmise that the current series is feces. Their cookie-cutter rendition, which absconds its worth, plot, and drama from the previous trilogy, can’t hold up. Even the introduction of Jar Jar Binks was preferable to what they have done to the franchise because at least he can be forgotten.
Keep to the Canon
A better venue for true Star Wars fans who are looking to revel in the fantasy world would be to revisit the “true canon” of Star Wars. The sensation that was Star Wars couldn’t be contained by just three movies. It spawned breakfast cereals, commercials, toys; it ignited more relevant and original content in comic books, fiction novels, and video games. This original content was produced by fans who genuinely respected the franchise, a respect that translated into decades’ worth of worthwhile material for fans to enjoy.
These authors, writers, programmers, and artists expounded upon the glory of the Star Wars franchise with unique and (repeat) original content. Luke Skywalker married Mara Jade and had a son called Ben Skywalker who fought in the Second Galactic Civil War. Han and Leia’s true children were twins Jaina and Jacen Solo who later became Darth Caedus and Anakin Solo. The New Jedi Order integrated, warred, or made peace with members of other Force Sensitive Sects like the Jensaarai, Gray Jedi, Aing-Tii, the Knights of Zakuul and others. There were significant conflicts like the Yuuzhan Vong War. Star Wars even has its own Wikipedia called Wookiepedia, which for years represented the true canon of the Star Wars universe before Disney mucked it up.
If you want to truly enjoy Star Wars, go back to the content that came before George Lucas got his hands on it. A read through of the Wookiepedia is considerably better than the mess of the “Disney Star Wars.” The characters and the fans deserve a better movie. The franchise that brought joy to millions deserves better than it’s been given.
