I’m sick right now. Better than I was on Thursday, when every time I sat/lay down, I had difficulty willing myself to get up again, but still not great, what with a sore throat and sore legs and also Young Justice: Outsiders is intense, man.
But I’ll be okay.
Remember a few weeks ago when I said I didn’t think Disney plotted out their trilogy of Star Wars films? Yeah I’m going to talk some more about that.
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What Happens When You Don’t Plot Your Trilogy
Holy fudge, Lucasfilm and Disney should be ashamed.
I want to clarify that this is not a statement as to the quality of The Rise of Skywalker, or the other two parts of the Sequel Trilogy. I’m not saying it’s a bad movie (which it’s not) or that it’s a bad conclusion to the saga (which it is), or that you’re a bad person if you liked it (you’re not). But I talked about how Lucasfilm didn’t seem like they were plotting out their trilogy beforehand, and the more I think about it the more it becomes clear that they weren’t really plotting this at all.
And that’s a damn shame. Because Disney and Lucasfilm went into a major multimedia project without actually knowing where they were going to end up. That’s almost baffling in how stupid it is. Again, that’s not a statement about the quality of the films, or the directors or anything, but to decide to roll into a full trilogy of one of the most popular and beloved science-fantasy properties to have ever existed, and to not have a plan about how this is going to end is one of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’ve seen my college roommate set his socks on fire for funzies.
I talked at one point about spoiler culture, and about how there’s this discussion about how we can’t figure out what’s going to happen in stories because the makers of shows and movies and such are trying really hard to surprise us, and therefore we get shocking swerves and twists and cover-ups that are so ridiculous that it’s hard to be invested. Fan discussions about what different elements meant or where characters were going were meaningless if the creators didn’t care about what came before in order to make huge unpredictable twists. To be fair, Lucasfilm hasn’t given us that; as far as I know, none of the actors were lied to about what their scenes were about.
But they didn’t plan any of this from the beginning. So I look back at all the discussion that emerged in the wake of The Force Awakens, about what different backstories might be, about what different characters will be doing in the future, and I can’t help but think it was all meaningless. Because none of this was planned! None of those things meant anything! It was just bits and pieces sewn together in the shape of an over-arcing narrative! Kylo Ren’s “WHAT GIRL?!” or hints that Snoke’s existence or Rey’s parentage and Finn’s relationship with her all meant nothing!
This is nothing short of baffling, guys. Lucasfilm under Disney didn’t have a clue! They were so sure that all of us were going to love The Last Jedi, a film deliberately designed to screw with Star Wars fans! Like, have you met Star Wars fans? It’s one of the most notorious fandoms for being upset about new works set in that universe! And yet, before the film was released Lucasfilm announced that because The Last Jedi was soooooo good, Rian Johnson was going to head his own spin-off trilogy. Whether or not it’s still happening is still up in the air, but there hasn’t been much word, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it had been dropped into Development Hell.
They announced Rian Johnson’s trilogy before his movie even came out like what the fudge are you doing why would you do this you foolish fools--
The entire thing just screams that Disney, buying Lucasfilm, thought they’d have easy money. Which doesn’t negate the work that directors or actors or writers put into this at all, but it does seem like the higher-ups just didn’t have a clue what they were getting themselves into, and figured that hey, people like Star Wars? We’ll just give them an infinite amount of Star Wars content! Those fans will just eat it all right up, won’t they?
They promised a Star Wars film per year and apparently didn’t realize that, hey! That might get old! And they promised a film per year without actually planning what those films would all be about what the actual fudge--
And like, I get that some people don’t always have the details of their stories plotted out before they start writing, and I understand that things change. I think Carrie Fisher’s death had a huge effect on how Rise of Skywalker and, sort of, The Last Jedi turned out. But even then, I don’t think they had a clue what they were stepping towards. There wasn’t a roadmap, there was just a vague idea that some things would happen and I just…
Seriously, who the fudge decides to make a movie trilogy and hasn’t actually figured out what the Plot is? I don’t see how Rey’s origin would have changed one way or another if Carrie Fisher had been alive to film this final movie.
Lucasfilm and Disney have tried doing some sort of damage control, by releasing an origin comic for Kylo Ren, and by claiming that The Mandalorian would explain the rise of the First Order, but I don’t care. Because assuming that those things will fill in all the blanks (which I don’t think they will), it’s going back and doing the work they should have had done when they released the bloody movies. I just don’t care anymore, because Lucasfilm didn’t care anymore.
Not plotting this trilogy makes it evident what they were doing when Disney bought Lucasfilm: they’re not doing this to tell a story, they’re doing this to make money. That’s all this was ever about, and if the Sequel Trilogy ever meant more than that, well, that’s because of the cast and crew of individual movies, and not because Lucasfilm was trying to make art. ‘Cause they weren’t. They were hoping to make oodles and oodles of easy money.
I give up on this, guys.
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