Skallagrim
Well-known member
The underlying issue is that Filoni can just never, ever resist bastardising characters and lore that were created by others, warping everything to orbit around his stories, and making everything about his OC characters. Everything he's ever made would be infinitely improved if he was always told to keep the stories more small-scale, and to keep his hands off big-name characters unless he can provide a really good reason as to why they should be in his series.
As it stands, almost all of Disney SW is a raging dumpster fire, with very few exceptions:
-- The sequels were a disjointed mess, and their most obvious use has been to serve as the basis for several excellent analyses of how not to write a story.
-- Rogue One was pretty okay, but we didn't need it and by design, it couldn't go anywhere.
-- Solo was aggressively mediocre, and we needed this even less than we needed Rogue One. The heist past was the best, everything trying for nostalgia tie-ins surrounding Han's back-story was stupid.
-- The final season of The Clone Wars was welcomed by fans of that series. They harmed it by adding new 'Disney-approved' characters, though. And it could by default be only one season, so again, it couldn't go anywhere.
-- Rebels was meh. Some fun stuff, but as I mentioned: the Filoni-isms should have been excised.
-- Resistance was shit, and nobody even remembers it.
-- The Book of Boba Fett was shit. The few good bits weren't about Boba Fett.
-- Obi-Wan Kenobi was shit. This is an idea everybody wanted, and then they fucked it up.
-- The Bad Batch had a good first season. The series isn't for me, but its first season was presumably fun for many other people. Its second season turned into an unhinged disaster.
-- Andor, against all expectations, was good. But I maintain that it strays too far from the "space adventure" that is Star Wars, so it doesn't work for me. Viewership numbers and audience ngagement reflect that while considered well-made, this series doesn't manage to capture anything close to the audience that it really should.
-- The Mandalorian started out good, but quickly deteriorated & lost focus. If we look at the current season, things are really going down the drain. It's now 5-10 minutes of decent-to-good content per episode. The rest is filler, bullshit, filler bullshit, desperate cameos, and even more desperate 'memberberries.
-- Visions was a mixed bag at best, and totally forgettable. They plan a second season, but that's just going to be the same thing again.
-- Fallen Order was pretty fun. The sequel might be fun, too.
-- The High Republic project is complete shit.
-- Most of the books and comics of the new EU are garbage, and/or inferior rip-offs of stories that were already told way better in the original EU.
And what's coming up next?
-- The Ahsoka trailer promises us a Thrawn Trilogy rip-off, Filoni style. He pilfers lore and plot points others thought up, maims all of it beyond recognition or use, and then inserts his own OCs to take all the starring roles.
-- The Acolyte is helmed by squarehead, whose abilities I trust about as much as those of roundhead.
-- Skeleton Crew, A Droid Story and Young Jedi Adventures are bound to be forgettable kiddie things.
-- The KotOR remake is going to be a "re-imagining". Which, under Disney, can mean nothing good.
-- A "young Lando" series might be cool in theory, but if this is ever made, prior experience tells us that it'll most likely suck.
-- The "Dawn of the Jedi" film helmed by James Mangold might, potentially, be worth watching.
-- Filoni is going to make his ultimate "Filoniverse film", starring all his OCs. I'll pass. But maybe after that, they'll be done with him at last.
-- Then there's the super-duper sequel-sequel film that will bring back Rey Skywalker! (Please spare us this monstrosity.)
-- And that upcoming film by Taika Waititi (who is an over-rated hack, as the latest Thor film ought to have demonstrated to anyone with a brain).
-- Is Kevin Feige still going to helm a film? I doubt it.
-- And of course, we can't forget Rian Johnson's trilogy! It's definitely still being made, folks! Absolutely! Certainly! No doubt about it! And here's how Bernie can still win!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
...The bad very definitely eclipses the good here. We've discussed a billion ways they could've made the sequels less terrible, but there are major mistakes they made across the board. Needless mistakes, that led to most of the above projects either being shit, or being less good than they reasonably ought to have been.
Some points:
-- A "Young Han Solo" project should probably have been a high-budget, one-season mini-series. The Han Solo trilogy in the old EU was well-received, and could easily be the basis for that. If they absolutely wanted to go with this, they could have started their small-screen SW universe with this.
-- If they wanted to satisfy the old EU fans, and the critics of the old EU, and all casual fans, they could have taken the best bits of the old EU's very disjointed "how they stole the Death Star plans" storylines, and turned that whole thing into one more stream-lined story. Remove all the inconsistencies and sillier ideas. Prove to everyone: "Hey, we can do this just as well, and maybe even do it better than before!" This could be a series, too, made instead of Rogue One. Again, steal from the old EU and call it Rebel Dawn. After introducing Bria Tharen in the "Young Han Solo" project, she can be a main character here. And Kyle Katarn in another plot-line. Finally, have a plot centred on Biggs Darklighter and his defection to the Rebels. These three plots ultimately come together in the "first major victory" of the Rebel Alliance, where they make off with the Death Star plans. (This has the added advantage that you're introducing at least a few characters who don't die, so they can come back later.)
-- Kenobi, on the other hand, should have been a film, not a series. And instead of making it about a "big", galaxy-spanning plot, it should have been a "Tatooine Western" about Obi-Wan in exile, scarred by the horrors of his life, and still finding an opportunity to do good in the world. Keep it small-scale.
-- The final season of The Clone Wars should have been made without re-writes and new "Disney-approved" characters. There were also a bunch of unproduced episodes left, and they could have easily made two more seasons instead of one.
-- Rebels should have been a smaller-scale story about this one Rebel cell, and shouldn't have involved half the galaxy and its more famous inhabitants. They should have told Filoni that he couldn't use Thrawn, and that governor Pryce should be the villain-in-charge. Also, they should have told him that no further stories about his orange OC waifu would be allowed, and that he should focus on the actual main characters.
-- Besides the option of making a high-quality mini-series about young Han, they could have used the heist element of Solo to make a well-written heist film starring (mostly) original characters. If you absolutely need a well-known character, use Lando. Your film concept is "Lando's Eleven". In fact, Zahn already wrote it for the old EU. You can just adapt that as needed.
-- The Mandalorian should have been a small-scale series of bounty hunting adventures using the "lone wolf and cub" template, OR it should have been called The Mandalorians instead, becoming a series about the much larger-scale rebuilding of Mandalorian civilisation. In both cases, Boba Fett could have been a supporting character, instead of getting his own (superfluous) series. And the baby should have either gone to become a Jedi (leaving the series permenently), or he should have chosen to reject that right away, staying in the series without leaving-before-quickly-coming-back.
-- The Bad Batch could have been a one-season thing. Absolutely no filler, you get one season to tell the whole story.
-- Andor would have been way better off as an orginal series not connected to SW at all.
-- All other projects (existing or upcoming) should simply not exist, except maybe that "Dawn of the Jedi" idea.
-- Instead, they should've put all of that budget into one Jedi Academy series. To have Luke in it properly, make it an animated series of some sort. If you introduced Kyle Katarn in an earlier series, you can bring him back for this. Other Jedi (including, if you need to, Ezra and Ahsoka) can also show up here. Don't be afraid to completely ignore and contradict the sequels. Show us a Jedi Order that's way bigger than can be rhymed with the sequel back-story. If people love it (and they will), that's just excellent incentive to de-canonise the sequels eventually. Of course, it would have been best to just make less shitty sequels in the first place...
I think these ideas would probably have worked out a lot better than what they actually did.
As it stands, almost all of Disney SW is a raging dumpster fire, with very few exceptions:
-- The sequels were a disjointed mess, and their most obvious use has been to serve as the basis for several excellent analyses of how not to write a story.
-- Rogue One was pretty okay, but we didn't need it and by design, it couldn't go anywhere.
-- Solo was aggressively mediocre, and we needed this even less than we needed Rogue One. The heist past was the best, everything trying for nostalgia tie-ins surrounding Han's back-story was stupid.
-- The final season of The Clone Wars was welcomed by fans of that series. They harmed it by adding new 'Disney-approved' characters, though. And it could by default be only one season, so again, it couldn't go anywhere.
-- Rebels was meh. Some fun stuff, but as I mentioned: the Filoni-isms should have been excised.
-- Resistance was shit, and nobody even remembers it.
-- The Book of Boba Fett was shit. The few good bits weren't about Boba Fett.
-- Obi-Wan Kenobi was shit. This is an idea everybody wanted, and then they fucked it up.
-- The Bad Batch had a good first season. The series isn't for me, but its first season was presumably fun for many other people. Its second season turned into an unhinged disaster.
-- Andor, against all expectations, was good. But I maintain that it strays too far from the "space adventure" that is Star Wars, so it doesn't work for me. Viewership numbers and audience ngagement reflect that while considered well-made, this series doesn't manage to capture anything close to the audience that it really should.
-- The Mandalorian started out good, but quickly deteriorated & lost focus. If we look at the current season, things are really going down the drain. It's now 5-10 minutes of decent-to-good content per episode. The rest is filler, bullshit, filler bullshit, desperate cameos, and even more desperate 'memberberries.
-- Visions was a mixed bag at best, and totally forgettable. They plan a second season, but that's just going to be the same thing again.
-- Fallen Order was pretty fun. The sequel might be fun, too.
-- The High Republic project is complete shit.
-- Most of the books and comics of the new EU are garbage, and/or inferior rip-offs of stories that were already told way better in the original EU.
And what's coming up next?
-- The Ahsoka trailer promises us a Thrawn Trilogy rip-off, Filoni style. He pilfers lore and plot points others thought up, maims all of it beyond recognition or use, and then inserts his own OCs to take all the starring roles.
-- The Acolyte is helmed by squarehead, whose abilities I trust about as much as those of roundhead.
-- Skeleton Crew, A Droid Story and Young Jedi Adventures are bound to be forgettable kiddie things.
-- The KotOR remake is going to be a "re-imagining". Which, under Disney, can mean nothing good.
-- A "young Lando" series might be cool in theory, but if this is ever made, prior experience tells us that it'll most likely suck.
-- The "Dawn of the Jedi" film helmed by James Mangold might, potentially, be worth watching.
-- Filoni is going to make his ultimate "Filoniverse film", starring all his OCs. I'll pass. But maybe after that, they'll be done with him at last.
-- Then there's the super-duper sequel-sequel film that will bring back Rey Skywalker! (Please spare us this monstrosity.)
-- And that upcoming film by Taika Waititi (who is an over-rated hack, as the latest Thor film ought to have demonstrated to anyone with a brain).
-- Is Kevin Feige still going to helm a film? I doubt it.
-- And of course, we can't forget Rian Johnson's trilogy! It's definitely still being made, folks! Absolutely! Certainly! No doubt about it! And here's how Bernie can still win!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
...The bad very definitely eclipses the good here. We've discussed a billion ways they could've made the sequels less terrible, but there are major mistakes they made across the board. Needless mistakes, that led to most of the above projects either being shit, or being less good than they reasonably ought to have been.
Some points:
-- A "Young Han Solo" project should probably have been a high-budget, one-season mini-series. The Han Solo trilogy in the old EU was well-received, and could easily be the basis for that. If they absolutely wanted to go with this, they could have started their small-screen SW universe with this.
-- If they wanted to satisfy the old EU fans, and the critics of the old EU, and all casual fans, they could have taken the best bits of the old EU's very disjointed "how they stole the Death Star plans" storylines, and turned that whole thing into one more stream-lined story. Remove all the inconsistencies and sillier ideas. Prove to everyone: "Hey, we can do this just as well, and maybe even do it better than before!" This could be a series, too, made instead of Rogue One. Again, steal from the old EU and call it Rebel Dawn. After introducing Bria Tharen in the "Young Han Solo" project, she can be a main character here. And Kyle Katarn in another plot-line. Finally, have a plot centred on Biggs Darklighter and his defection to the Rebels. These three plots ultimately come together in the "first major victory" of the Rebel Alliance, where they make off with the Death Star plans. (This has the added advantage that you're introducing at least a few characters who don't die, so they can come back later.)
-- Kenobi, on the other hand, should have been a film, not a series. And instead of making it about a "big", galaxy-spanning plot, it should have been a "Tatooine Western" about Obi-Wan in exile, scarred by the horrors of his life, and still finding an opportunity to do good in the world. Keep it small-scale.
-- The final season of The Clone Wars should have been made without re-writes and new "Disney-approved" characters. There were also a bunch of unproduced episodes left, and they could have easily made two more seasons instead of one.
-- Rebels should have been a smaller-scale story about this one Rebel cell, and shouldn't have involved half the galaxy and its more famous inhabitants. They should have told Filoni that he couldn't use Thrawn, and that governor Pryce should be the villain-in-charge. Also, they should have told him that no further stories about his orange OC waifu would be allowed, and that he should focus on the actual main characters.
-- Besides the option of making a high-quality mini-series about young Han, they could have used the heist element of Solo to make a well-written heist film starring (mostly) original characters. If you absolutely need a well-known character, use Lando. Your film concept is "Lando's Eleven". In fact, Zahn already wrote it for the old EU. You can just adapt that as needed.
-- The Mandalorian should have been a small-scale series of bounty hunting adventures using the "lone wolf and cub" template, OR it should have been called The Mandalorians instead, becoming a series about the much larger-scale rebuilding of Mandalorian civilisation. In both cases, Boba Fett could have been a supporting character, instead of getting his own (superfluous) series. And the baby should have either gone to become a Jedi (leaving the series permenently), or he should have chosen to reject that right away, staying in the series without leaving-before-quickly-coming-back.
-- The Bad Batch could have been a one-season thing. Absolutely no filler, you get one season to tell the whole story.
-- Andor would have been way better off as an orginal series not connected to SW at all.
-- All other projects (existing or upcoming) should simply not exist, except maybe that "Dawn of the Jedi" idea.
-- Instead, they should've put all of that budget into one Jedi Academy series. To have Luke in it properly, make it an animated series of some sort. If you introduced Kyle Katarn in an earlier series, you can bring him back for this. Other Jedi (including, if you need to, Ezra and Ahsoka) can also show up here. Don't be afraid to completely ignore and contradict the sequels. Show us a Jedi Order that's way bigger than can be rhymed with the sequel back-story. If people love it (and they will), that's just excellent incentive to de-canonise the sequels eventually. Of course, it would have been best to just make less shitty sequels in the first place...
I think these ideas would probably have worked out a lot better than what they actually did.
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