i finished the star wars universe: part II

May 11, 2024

read part I of this article series, if you want.

the past is annihilated and the future is not safe

Expanded Universe was a total of half a thousand novels, a lot of comics and some video games of the Star Wars Universe published since 1977. Along with the original and the prequel trilogies, this made up the Star Wars canon. Disney in 2014 declared all EU to be Legends now, and the material to be produced from then on to be the Canon. This move invalidated 37 years of accumulated lore over night. I can’t begin to imagine what this meant for the highly invested fans of the time. After decades-long immersion, reflection, and comprehension over innumerous dynamics, characters, storylines… all was made available to be overruled within 40 minutes of airtime. Murders your Gods, murders your prophets, and suggests that they still co-exist as Legends. What a consolation prize.

The most nerve racking thing about this is the cheap motivation behind it. It is advertised as “creative freedom” without the restrictions of the past, but I think we can all agree that it is an easy way to mass produce the new properties at a higher rate, without requiring the writers to get accustomed/comply with the canon for consistency’s sake.

As a newcomer to SWU, personally I could bear with scrapped old material. But the 2014-onward canon is inconsistent too, only within the 10 years it had to be. And that is just another level of deep in the shit.

The character Ahsoka’s story has been my personal experience, unfortunately, with the hideousness of the situation. Ahsoka Tano, for many, is the best character in SWU. The “Ahsoka” novel (E.K. Johnston, 2016) I read and loved, explores her inner struggles in the aftermath of Order 66; and her organic transition from a regretful pacifist to a rebel of the age. The animation series Star Wars: Tales – (Season 1) Tales of the Jedi (2022), on the other hand, takes away the emotional heaviness of the story, takes away the likeliness of the side characters, deletes a complete section explaining Ahsoka’s white colored light sabers, over-simplifies and ruins a very-well written plot, including Senator Organa’s role.

Shocked by witnessing the above-mentioned episode, I googled what the hell just happened and came across this article from CBR, where someone is telling me to stop worrying about what is canon and that legends (apparently novels are overruled by the screen) can always be the canon in my mind, if it makes me happy. This is the death of consistency as a de facto quality in the art of writing. So, if am consuming a property of Disney’s SWU, discussing it with my friends, fan-theorizing… there should always be this disturbing anxiety that something may be aired in the future that will invalidate everything we just thought and said. Just like killing Palpatine doesn’t mean anything because he can return, “somehow”.

nothing seems to kill me no matter how hard I try

Above title is a Chris Cornell lyric which fits perfectly to the situation. Late 2019, my first months after moving to the Netherlands, I go to this crowded cinema in a rainy, sad day and hear the line “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” and I immediately become disengaged for the rest of my time there.

Not surprisingly, this reappears as a pattern in SWU in the years to follow. You’re watching Obi Wan Kenobi (2022), and Grand Inquisitor Reva survives a saber stab by Darth Vader through her torso. You’re watching Ahsoka (2023), and this time it is Sabine who magically survives a stab through torso.
If a good guy is pushed off a cliff, but no camera down there to film him being smashed, don’t worry, he will probably return the next episode. (Though the mid-air inter-dimensional travel kind of legitimized it for me in case of Ahsoka Tano.)
Surrounded by 25 stormtroopers in open field? No problem, somehow the few good main guys will dodge all the shots while eliminating the troopers.

This ignores the great concept of punishment and reward, and subsequent satisfaction. Your heroes can never be too incapable in this pattern. Mistakes or disadvantages can never cost them a great deal, if your character is the main one the story follows. So, just watch them act imperfect and relatable, but at the end you know that they’ll win with minimal loss and little setbacks here and there along the path.

So, not only SWU is now inconsistent, but it is also straight-forward badly written. Despite being a mediocre adventure story as I said in part I, the original trilogy definitely didn’t suffer from these diseases. In all aspects, Disney’s SWU bares the solidified essence of the age of mediocracy, telling us not to question too much, and only to enjoy the momentary experience without thinking back.