Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (spoilers obviously)

For comparison, practically every single comic made in the current canon before around last year (so over a half dozen unique titles, some of which ran for years of stories) took place in the two years between ANH and TESB.

The span of time isn't an especially present problem.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

And Clone wars that lasted 7 seasons took place in a span of less than 3 years.

Wonder how they'd make the First Order conflict look bigger. Or the Resistance. As it is, sometimes it feels like an Outer Rim dispute with guns way too big.

Wake me up at your own risk.

I imagine by focusing on stuff that isn't strictly the Resistance - the very small scale of the ST works in their favor here, because we know practically nothing about what happened outside of what the heroes themselves experienced. Very little context or implication of context.

Or they could just soft-retcon the Resistance being bigger than the movies indicated it was. Even the movies themselves sometimes invented a larger existence to the organization when they wanted, and then pretended it didn't exist.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Even the rebels from the animated series who at first seemed like an independent group turned out to work for the rebel alliance that we know.

In a new animated series, they can even say that several Jedi survived Kylo's purge.

Edited by JoLuRo075 on Sep 13th 2020 at 7:41:22 AM

That's going to make Luke's exile even more awkward. XD

I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.

People want to play with Jedi. And keep making the character the last remaining Jedi isn't very fun, so might as well ignore that.

Wake me up at your own risk.

I think in one scene it was said that Kylo took several of them alive.

Luke can believe he failed the Jedi and his nephew, let the worst evil the galaxy had ever seen return, etc and so on and exile himself without every Jedi being dead again. Unlike the first Jedi Purge, the non-existence of the any semblance of the Jedi anywhere is arguably not as baked into the premise of the ST as it is the OT (in part, again, because of a lack of context).

If anything, the movies making it so that Kylo entirely purged the Jedi again puts a lot of the other stories in the New Canon that set up future Jedi in the OT era in an awkward position. Hell, it kind of strains credulity that after thirty years the only thing Luke or any of the other surviving Jedi did was create a tiny group of a couple dozen students and nothing else.

I say another soft-retcon. Just say that there were smaller groups or changes brought on by Jedi or former Jedi that weren't big enough to risk going into open war against the First Order, and who had to fend for themselves when Luke got disillusioned. Heck, instead of rebuilding the Jedi, I feel like finding the Jedi out there and reconnecting them all would even make for a better personal mission for Rey post-TROS anyway.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Sep 13th 2020 at 7:58:29 AM

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Also, while the Resistance is small, or medium sized, or whatever, we do see at the very least a few hundred members throughout the trilogy. One of the annoying things about the movies is that each one had a handful of prominent supporting Resistance characters that kept getting replaced each movie.

Poe's X-wing pilots, Rose and her sister, Leia's staff turned mutineers, those two guys who kept delivering messages in TROS. Give them some genuine moments in the spotlight. You can go hog wild with the stories they can bring.

The right idea and writing can make up for the large shortcomings of the sequel trilogy and gaps in their world building. The Clone Wars almost had it easy because they had a really strong premise and were willing to break the mold with the anthology format and spotlighting background characters.

They did shoot themselves in the foot by abandoning the Broad Strokes approach, which required them to do a lot of spin to make the retcons not as obvious. One thing too, by making Finn a former stormtrooper it stunted his potential character arc because that meant anything before his defection would either show him as either willing or ignorant of the atrocities performed by the First Order. That's probably why they made him a janitor to help absolve him, but also imploded all the potential behind his character.

And as far as we know Ezra and Baby Yoda may still be alive.

Ezra may have created his own Jedi academy, far from the control of the First Order.

Yeah, reminds me how there was a a couple of half joking tweets to make the ST non-canon because Kylo Ren would kill Baby Yoda.

I'll teach you a lesson about just how cruel the world can be. That's my job, as an adult.

You can have them off in the Outer Rim fighting the Grysks, then they come back after the end of the ST and collectively go "What the fuck?"

Edited by Beatman1 on Sep 13th 2020 at 11:07:51 AM

I like the idea that there were all sorts of things for Jedi to do in the middle 30 years besides just starting new academies. Rescuing captured force sensitives from the Empire and finding them new homes, helping cultures rebuild - especially ones with connection to the force that Palpatine quashed, recovering lost knowledge or just exploring the galaxy doing good and undoing the Empire's darkness and oppression.

You know, swords to ploughshares and that sort of thing.

They could even establish that some found Luke's decision to make a new Academy too rash and ambitious, and while he had his stable of students there were others who went off to do their own things instead.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Sep 13th 2020 at 8:13:49 AM

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Yeah, Finn as imperial sotmtroper have that problem that he would be pretty much and acomplish of the first order.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

"Heck, instead of rebuilding the Jedi, I feel like finding the Jedi out there and reconnecting them all would even make for a better personal mission for Rey post-TROS anyway."

I very much like the idea of "Gotta Catch 'Em All: Jedi Edition."

Rey: "I need you to join me to rebuild the Jedi!"

Lost Jedi #11: "First you must prove your worth."

-Ignites lightsaber-

Finn: "Why do we have to do this every single time!?"

You forgot the part where boss music randomly starts playing.

Seriously though, I do think that since Rey is a character who is constantly defined by what others chose for her - mostly against her will - a story where she explores a free (but not necessarily peaceful) galaxy, connects with who's out there on her own terms and brings people together that way would be a way better story than "and then Rey sat down and dedicated her life to finishing the job that Luke failed to do."

Hell, even in the old-EU - and into the new one - I always felt that even Luke starting a formal Jedi Academy rather than something less rigid was kind of a waste of the character we met in the OT.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Sep 13th 2020 at 8:19:23 AM

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

You guys do realize you a perpetually keeping the thing that makes people Loathe Rey which is the undervaluing of Luke by doubling down on it in a desperate hope you can dig your way out of the hole

The problem is Daisy Ridley is all but saying she’s not coming back. After what Boyega said I’m pretty sure Finn is going to have a bridge dropped on him.

Rey can’t be the focus because well, they all bailed.

Edited by Beatman1 on Sep 13th 2020 at 11:22:13 AM

Since we were talking about animated series, that's not so much a problem. Practically nobody in The Clone Wars is voiced by their film actor.

Yoda, I guess. But Frank Oz is a VO.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Sep 13th 2020 at 8:23:20 AM

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

None of the OT actors came back until the sequels. Didn't stop Star Wars from producing decades worth of content with them in it.

Heck, popular EU characters like Mara Jade never had an actor at all.

Edited by Parable on Sep 13th 2020 at 8:23:46 AM

I’m mostly saying you can’t make a Rey focused series if the actress isn’t entertain coming back. And one of her friends is assuredly not coming back ever because he scorched that bridge.

Edited by Beatman1 on Sep 13th 2020 at 11:23:51 AM

Luke's academy was very non-traditional - it encouraged the Jedi trained there to follow their own paths (while making them aware of the dangers of the Dark Side) and also created an organisation that was much more loosely organised than the Jedi Order of old.

Sure, Luke had some failures - Desann, Brakiss, that time when Kyp Durron blew up a solar system - but the idea worked, partly because Luke spent a long time figuring out how to proceed. He didn't just copy whatever info he could find about the old order, he basically started from scretch and developed his own ideas.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Sep 13th 2020 at 5:24:56 PM

Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.

I doubt they'd cast Ridley or Boyega in an animated series or anything like that. Although with how he basically carpet bombed bridges, I don't like Finn's odds.

Edited by Blueace on Sep 13th 2020 at 12:25:47 PM

Wake me up at your own risk.