Chris Avellone
Arcane
I think the issue was that at some point, the Force became predestination, and I felt it robbed a lot of the drama from the series and made my RPG-heart frown. I still ignore most of what’s said or explained about the Force that isn’t in Yoda’s dialogue in The Empire Strikes Back, which I thought was simply put and it was beautiful for that simplicity.
I wish there was a trope that came to mind remaining in Star Wars but I found that Clone Wars (the 6-season TV show, although I liked the cartoon shorts before that) and Rebels, once you get past the pilot episodes for each series, go much deeper than I was expecting. Also, if that wasn’t enough, many of the ideas in the Dark Horse comics I thought were well done, especially the “Dark Times” series, where they examine what life as a Jedi would be like after they are betrayed – they dig pretty deep into what it must be like trying to survive in a universe where the Jedi are persecuted, and the very difficult moral choices that have to be made to survive. It's a great read (and well-drawn, too).
I didn’t care for it overall, but there were things I did like about it. It would require a lot of spoilers to say exactly why for the pros and cons. I did like Rogue One very much, mostly because of Cassian’s arc – it was really surprising and interesting to see what he was willing to do for the cause, but then they do it one better by making it a motivation for a suicide mission against the odds in a way that made sense to me at the end. I thought Rogue One was pretty solid (the bad guy kinda lacked punch was my only minor complaint).
If curious, a summary of my spoiler critique is below:
Pros: Kylo and Rey turning from the Sith and Jedi, the salt planet aesthetics and feel (the battle made it look like blood in the snow, which was great), Yoda’s lesson/theme on mentoring is great (even if I didn’t think it was 100% carried out). I like Rey as a character very much, and I didn’t hate BB8 as much as I thought I would – I think he’s okay.
Cons: Kylo Ren in about every respect, who the hell is Snoke, Luke is unfairly placed in a scapegoat role to try and give sympathy for Kylo, the use of Force powers in the movie is painful (illusions and Leia-in-space), the comedy was badly paced, the slow chase of the Rebels was boring and made more confusing by a sudden detour to Casablanca planet then salted with moral ambiguity that was so much better done in Rogue One, the technology revealed (especially the hyperdrive ramming speed) is franchise-breaking (why don’t you just make drone ships like that to shred the enemy?), no clue about the Rebel base until it’s too late to save the motivation, Finn’s one chance to do something actually helpful is prevented making you hate both characters even more, Rey goes into a black hole of incomprehension at the bottom of the island and then stands in front of a mirror and… and… I still couldn’t tell you what that was all about. I don’t think there would be a good answer.
Cons: Kylo Ren in about every respect, who the hell is Snoke, Luke is unfairly placed in a scapegoat role to try and give sympathy for Kylo, the use of Force powers in the movie is painful (illusions and Leia-in-space), the comedy was badly paced, the slow chase of the Rebels was boring and made more confusing by a sudden detour to Casablanca planet then salted with moral ambiguity that was so much better done in Rogue One, the technology revealed (especially the hyperdrive ramming speed) is franchise-breaking (why don’t you just make drone ships like that to shred the enemy?), no clue about the Rebel base until it’s too late to save the motivation, Finn’s one chance to do something actually helpful is prevented making you hate both characters even more, Rey goes into a black hole of incomprehension at the bottom of the island and then stands in front of a mirror and… and… I still couldn’t tell you what that was all about. I don’t think there would be a good answer.
), and I will throw as much of my meager resources on it as I'm able, without question – if you would rather rest and recharge – I still wish you all the best.
