It’s the time of year again for fans of Star Wars. On this day, I decided to write an op-ed about a once-popular franchise that made an impact in both cinema and pop culture; essentially, what makes it special and how I feel about before the franchise fell from grace.
At the beginning, I was never a fan of the franchise at first until I started watching the prequel trilogy. Sure, the prequel trilogy wasn’t perfect and Hayden Christensen was no James Dean or Marlon Brando playing Anakin, but I’ll rewatch it any day of the week over Disney’s sequel trilogy. Though, my heart goes out to Jake Lloyd, who was bullied and harassed for his performance in The Phantom Menace. It was sickening; Jake was just a kid doing his job and it’s a miracle he’s doing alright now. Aside from that, the original trilogy will forever go down as one of the best space adventure trilogies of all time for a number of reasons. Best performances from Mark Hamil, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and James Earl Jones who brought the characters to life, epic actions that were so cool that it’s hard to believe it was made in the late 70s and early 80s, and inspirational messages about determination, loyalty, sacrifice, and redemption. The six-episode films will always be my favorite and they did help establish what made Star Wars so special to me and a lot of other people. I remember when the franchise was worked by genuine, passionate, and creative minds like Genndy Tartakovsky who developed Star Wars: Clone Wars
Unfortunately, Star Wars is now officially dead. It slowly died when George Lucas sold his films with Disney and the franchise is now a sad, embarrassing trainwreck being mercilessly milked to death by a gigantic money-hungry film studio that never understood what made the franchise special in the first place. Daisy Ridley’s performance is cringey at worst and doesn’t deserve to carry the Skywalker name. I couldn’t care less about John Boyega’s role and don’t understand what makes his character so great. Killing off Han Solo and making Luke Skywalker an embarrassment makes my blood boil with rage. Vice-Admiral Holdo is best described as an “angry toxic space Karen.” Baby Yoda is nothing more than a dumb merchandising product and one of its lowest points was casting Lizzo in a terrible TV show. Activists are posing as filmmakers and writers are retconning and ruining Star Wars with terrible fanfic writing and stupid ideals. For example, getting Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy to direct another Rey “Palpatine” movie and getting Harvey Weinstein’s former personal assistant Leslye Headland to create The Acolyte. The only good Disney Star Wars film and show (yeah, shocking) are Rogue One, with a great story, interesting characters, and it didn’t feel forced, and Andor; the best show that aired in the wrong place and wrong time.
To summarize, Star Wars is officially dead and it’s never going to change for the better. George Lucas isn’t coming back to fix this since he’s living it up with Disney paychecks. The franchise is an embarrassment to anyone (including myself) who is associated with it. If anyone wants to celebrate this day right, I recommend watching the prequels, the Clone Wars shows, Rogue One, the originals, and Andor. Avoid watching the other Disney-related projects and the Holiday Special (if you value your sanity) and for any gamers reading this; Don’t buy Star Wars: Outlaws. Shout to Carrie Fisher and may the force be with you.