Comic for Monday 3/15 (Early High Res)
Last year we started watching Star Wars with the kiddos. The OT, the PT, all seasons of the Clone Wars, all seasons of Rebels, both seasons of the Mandalorian. Eventually we finished everything, and my oldest says "But Dad... what about Rey?"
Big sigh.
It's not that I *hate* the ST. They're not terrible, there's some stuff there I enjoy... I actually like The Last Jedi the most of all three because it's the one movie that tried to stand on its own, and not regurgitate the OT. It didn't succeed in 100% of the things it attempted, but I give it credit for trying.
All in all, though, they're not movies that I get excited about watching. TROS especially... I'd only seen it the once. I walked out the theater and said to my wife "I don't think I will ever feel the need to watch that again for the rest of my life." It was a mess, and just shone a bright light on the fact that Disney had no plan going into that trilogy, and just made it up as they went along.
But it's still Star Wars, and the kiddos wanted to see everything. So we did it. Now I've seen TROS twice. We're done having kids, so thankfully I should never have to do that again.
Comments (6)
For me, that was Frozen
My son is too little as of yet so I had to see TLJ and TRoS alone. I was incredibly disappointed in Skywalker but the teenager sitting next to me in the theater was audibly and authentically enjoying the movie. I think maybe after TLJ, I was just expecting too much from my favorite space wizard pew pew franchise.
I think the Mandalorian shows that it's still totally possible to create some really incredible stuff within the franchise, that there's tons of stuff to tap into. The big problem with the sequel trilogy is that they didn't have someone sit down and write all three movies beforehand. They let Abrams do his thing, then he handed it off to Johnson, who got to decide what happened next, and then back to Abrams to decide how to finish it. So tonally, the trilogy is all over the place, and characters are important, and then they aren't, or we're doing this and oh wait now we're doing this instead... it was just sloppy. The Mandalorian had a ton of different directors, but they were all working from a cohesive narrative for the entire season.
My kids were tiny when TFA came out in 2015. I was excited and went to a 00.01 showing on the night of its release. I remember a comic you put up the day after you saw it and I remember feeling the same hope that perhaps (maybe) the series could be taken forward and a story be told. Sadly the promise faded, very little has gone right in my view save a few bright spots. Rogue 1 and The Mandalorian being those. After I came out of TLJ, I just didn't know if I liked it or not. And with a Star Wars film you should just know.. you should just enjoy it. TROS, I just wanted the story to be wrapped up. But I am now in a similar position to you Tim, my kids are now of an age where they're enjoying Star Wars in all its forms and all its glory. Perhaps that's the point of Star Wars. I grew up with my mum showing me 4/5/6 on video and having the toys. I was a teenager when 1/2/3 came out and enjoyed them like I was a child. Perhaps now the best I can do as a dad is ignore the gaping problems the last few films had and just enjoy my kids enjoying Star Wars. They won't care about plot holes, they want to be entertained. Although I still don't get why they laughed when lukes snowspeeder got stomped on in ESB. Apparently that's hilarious to an 8 year old.
They don't care about that stuff. Not at this age. And that's the most important part. I didn't want to transfer my bias to them. I didn't tell them the ST sucked for this and that reason. I just shut up and enjoyed Star Wars with them. They're viewing and processing this stuff differently at their age, and if it brings them joy, that's far more important than my stupid gripes about "I hate sand" or "Rey Palpatine". Ultimately, Star Wars belongs to a lot of people, of a lot of different ages. I've gotten to the point where I've decided to enjoy Star Wars based on its average as a whole. There are some parts I don't love, but in the grand scheme its provided more fun and entertainment than not, and that makes it easier to let go of the few bits that don't connect with me. On a related note, I am *really* enjoying the High Republic imprint so far.
I still haven’t seen TROS. Just can’t make myself watch it after TLJ. Kudos to you brave sir! I will never doubt that you love your children.