You miss the point that Star Wars is a trilogy of trilogies with years between the trilogies. The stuff we see? That’s the most important part. Some people think they need why Ben Solo fall. Others think they need the background of Snoke. I trust the storytellers to tell me what I need to know.
Ben Solo is of the Skywalker lineage. They’re strong in the Force but they have a tendency towards the Dark Side. Ben has an obsession with his grandfather, who was Darth Vader, a man who wreaked havoc on the galaxy. He was seduced by Snoke, an individual who may or may not have a connection to Palpatine, the same man who seduced his grandfather to the dark side.
Honestly, for me? That’s all I need to know.
What, of importance, happened between the PT and the OT?
Pretty much nothing.
What, of importance, happened between the OT and the ST?
Damn near everything.
By modelling the ST on the OT, they inadvertently created a PT shaped hole between the two.
Now...it’s pretty obvious the OT doesn’t need the PT...but once it exists, and we have, as you say, a set of Trilogies, it forms a pattern. We never get to see the New Republic. It’s barely even a presence as it gets wiped out.
We never see a good Ben Solo, and unlike Anakin, we never get the sense that Ben was a good guy before his fall. Obi Wan was in exile to guard Luke, Yoda was in exile because the Empire was actively trying to kill Jedi, wipe out their religion/cast. Luke was in exile because he had an extraordinarily shit day, almost as bad as that time he found his dad wasn’t dead, but was an absentee father who was too busy wiping out Jedi and building superweapons; it turns out he didn’t even know Luke existed, but now he did and wanted him to come and join in....and when Luke didn’t, he got maimed and nearly dropped to his death while his best friend was sent to Captain Birdseye land.
This idea of trusting the storytellers is grand...but people generally don’t even trust the bloke who came up with the original story in the first place, after the PT. I mean, it’s astonishingly obvious George was building up to a sequel trilogy himself, but gave up and sold it on when no-one much bothered with the Phantom Menace 3D Re-release (following the same model he had with the special editions years earlier...he had already popped out the home media special special editions) but these guys can not, by definition be as familiar with SW as Lucas.
And we don’t trust him.
Why would I trust people who clearly didn’t plan this in any way in advance? (Much is made of how Lucas didn’t plan the OT in advance...this isn’t entirely true, it just mutated along the way. Much of Lucas plans from way back are still popping up in different ways.... Whills for instance. Qui Gon. It’s all pretty well known.)
I enjoy the films, but I think the criticisms made are valid, even if some people get carried away growling about it and adding on other silly criticisms like ‘no girls allowed’. I enjoy the films, and support them, but not blindly, and sadly not with the love I would expect. The overt defence of the wobbly bits is just as silly as the overt criticism...the idea that a lack of backstory should be seen as some great refreshing change, in a universe that is predicated on world-building done by at least bits of back-story, is concerning.
There is not a single mysterious thing I would like to know more about but don’t need to introduced in the ST. Maybe the Knights of Ren (except they are starting to sound suspiciously like Kylos Death Eaters, and for an ongoing thing...we sure haven’t seen them yet.)
There is stuff that the previous trilogies would have led to an expectation of seeing, and not the kind you can subvert. Because Jaina Skywalker could sweep in, kill Kylo, Marry Rey, wink at the screen holding her grandfathers purple light sabre (with the words ‘Bad Banthafrakker’ carved in the hilt) say Hi to her dad, Luke, as his flickers in ghost form suggest old TV sets, and it would subvert quite a lot of expectations. It would also be rubbish. Even if she killed Rey and married Kylo, thereby subverting some other expectations, it would still be rubbish. Because it would have come out of no-where. There’s no foundation.
The ST lacks foundation, but the good news is, thanks to SW past, it’s still possible to sure up the quicksand in some manner.
