WTF happened to Star Wars? It’s 2023 and we are now fully in the throes of Disney Star Wars. First there was the terribly disastrous Sequel Trilogy. The Sequel Trilogy, (AKA) The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker; completely destroyed the character arcs of all our favorite Star Wars characters. But that is old news by now.
They gave Star Wars brief glimmers of life with the first two seasons of The Mandalorian. But Disney couldn’t resist destroying that new hope with season three. The best way to describe Season 3 of the Mandalorian is to compare it to a child who does something funny. At first everyone laughs, but because of the positive reinforcement, he does it repeatedly until it’s annoying.
Season Three of The Mandalorian.
The first two seasons of The Mandalorian were good because they had interesting characters and good old Space Opera Sci-Fi. It was like a Sci-Fi/Western. Also, they didn’t make every male character incompetent or evil. They also did fan service by unexpectedly ending the season with a CGI version of Luke Skywalker.
FYI Luke Skywalker was the son of Anakin Skywalker/ Darth Vader. He was the most beloved character in Star Wars until The Last Skywalker defamed his character as grumpy would be padawan killer.
But season 3 of The Mandalorian made the series less about The Mandalorian and more about the She Bosses of the Mandalorians and Grogu, aka baby Yoda. They fired Gina Carano, who was a mixed martial artist with a record of 7-1 from 2006 to 2009. She was let go because she made a joke about “woke” gender pronouns.
In season three, they added a lot of filler episodes with guest stars like Jack Black, Lizzo and Christopher Lloyd. But most of these cameos seemed unnecessary to the story. Overall, season three was disappointing and not as good as the first two seasons.
Obi Wan Kenobi.
WTF happened to Obi Wan Kenobi? The destruction of all the former Star Wars characters by Disney was not complete until they ruined the legacy of Obi Wan Kenobi.
This series was not about Obi Wan, it was about a seven-year-old girl boss, Princess Leia. And Reva, a prominently featured female character played by Moses Ingram.
Reva is another girl-boss who is on the dark side working for Darth Vader to hunt down The Jedi. But she is secretly trying to kill Darth Vader. She wants the Sith Lord dead because she is a surviver of Order 66. As a youngling, she was a Jedi Padawan who survived the massacre at the Jedi temple by Anakin. So in order to get revenge on the Sith Lord, she helps him hunt down and kill the Jedi waiting for her chance to kill Vader. She get’s redemption at the end of the season by not killing Luke Skywalker. So if you kill dozens of good people but spare one, you can start over as a good guy?
Anyway, Obi Wan Kenobi Season one is filled with competent females who spare Kenobi from his own incompetence and blundering. The series brings up more plot holes and is not necessary for the cannon of Star Wars in any way.
But it did give fans of the Prequel Trilogy (Episodes 1-3) some fan service with the return of Hayden Christensen. We get another fight seen between Ewan McGregor and Christensen. Hayden Christensen puts on the Darth Vader suit and there are some bits of dialog that tie into a new hope. Hayden Christensen’s cameos were the peak of the series.
But we see Vader drive a light saber through Reva’s chest. A blow that would kill Qui-Gon Jinn but is barely an inconvenience to an untrained force sensitive Girl-Boss. During Kenobi’s exile in Tatooine, he apparently let his Jedi powers go to shit. He has to be saved by little girl-boss Leia. Then there are also a lot of improbable scenes. Scenes like uncle Lars Owen fighting a force sensitive imperial inquisitor. Or the lousy fight choreography of an imperial officer turned spy named Tarla Durith. She karate chops Storm Troopers, knocking them unconscious with single blows. Yes, Tarla Durith, played by Indira Varma, she is another girl boss more competent than Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Ashoka Disney Star Wars Girl Boss Show…
Meet Ashoka, the newly anointed star of Star Wars. Luke Skywalker had that role before, but they have cancelled him. Let me give a very short description of Ashoka. The series is full of competent women contrasted by either corrupt evil men or incompetent or insignificant male roles.
The series does fan service to The Clone Wars animated series, and the animated series Star Wars Rebels. Star Wars Rebels was obscure series that is set between the timeline of Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith and Episode 4 A New Hope. But the women in these animated series are who they choose to showcase.
Sabine Wren is Ahsoka Tano’s padawan. She’s angsty, and rebellious, but good at everything. Sabine gets stabbed with a light saber as she fights a girl-boss, sith appentice. But fear not, force sensitive girl-bosses can easily survive that.
Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker character returns as a Force Ghost to complete Ashoka’s training. It seems Anakin cared more about Ashoka’s Jedi path than his own son Luke Skywalker. If his son was going to go off the rails in his training of Ben Solo, it would have been great if Anakin’s force ghost could have helped him.
Disney Star Wars is just Star Wars-ish.
When The Force Awakens was released, I was enthusiastically in line to buy my ticket. I was excited as I watched and disappointed, but I thought this was just a one-off mistake. Then I watched The Last Jedi, and I have lost all respect for the franchise since. They destroyed the legacy of all the original characters except Yoda and Chewbacca.
But Disney has done one thing, it has made me appreciate the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy.
What is the best new Star Wars to watch as of 2023?
Not Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Comedian Charlie Hopkinson has created Deep-Fake parody videos. In these hilarious videos, Obi Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn and Anakin Skywalker review current and old Star Wars films and TV series. To me, what Charlie Hopkinson has done for Star Wars is more than what Disney has done for Star Wars in the last ten years.
