Hey, 3.5 readers.
BQB here.
“Solo” did poorly at the box office, though strangely, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Meanwhile, the latest saga films, “Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi” were commercial successes, but the fans aren’t happy.
“Rogue One” did well commercially and in my opinion, is the best of the four new films.
I do believe this is partly “Star Wars fatigue.” Absence makes the heart grow fonder and when 10-20 years passed between sequels, you really got excited to see a new film. I was 20 when “The Phantom Menace” came out and while today, I think that movie does not hold up, at the time, I was just so excited to see light sabers being whirled around on screen again.
Say what you will about the prequels, but they did, absent an occasional hiccup, at least attempt to follow the pre-established rules of the universe. Plus, the characters were put into peril, so the stakes were high.
Sure, you know faves like Yoda or Obi Wan weren’t going to buy the farm, but faves like Mace Windu or Qui Gon Jinn were kicking the bucket so the peril made you grip the edge of your seat.
Cliffhangers and new threads meant something. When new questions popped up, you’d get answers. Maybe not answers you wanted but you got something.
Here in the new saga films, there’s a lot of jerking us around. Too clever by half writers saying, “Ha! Fooled you!” and not realizing that if there’s no payoff we are losing interest.
So, if we’re getting a new film once a year, plus the films aren’t paying off for the super fans, I don’t know, this doesn’t bode well for the franchise.
I think either they should have cast new actors to play Han, Luke and Leia (younger actors) and start a new three part saga right after the end of “Return of the Jedi.”
Either that, or they should have put it far into the future and just wracked their brains to create all new characters, perhaps some older aliens who live longer coming in from the old films, but a whole new setup with heroes and villains.
Instead, they tried, just as King Solomon once did, to split the proverbial baby and as we all know, babies don’t split well, they are much better off intact in one piece. A future that was just an homage to the past didn’t bode well.
My two cents. What say you, 3.5 Jedis?
Bookshelf Battle 
I haven’t fully enjoyed the films, either. I’m not sure you’ve fully pinned down the reason(s), but do agree that, in true Disney fashion, a main problem is trying to sequel the crap out of the films.
Also, I HATED Episodes 2 and 3. I told my kids they can’t watch them just because Hayden Christensen can’t act.
I do think absence makes the heart grow fonder with Star Wars. I liked 3 but 2 is just rather forgettable. Plus the whole love scenes which I guess they had to do but just didnt seem to fit.
I just think there was a lot of material to mine post Return of the Jedi and the whole First Order vs. Resistance thing was lame.
True. I couldn’t understand why there was a First Order. That point alone made The Rebellion’s fight in the original films pointless. Why would the writers do that?
Empire loyalists might have kept fighting post Return of Jedi and formed a group called First Order, but it makes no sense that the Resistance is independent of the Republic
Either one’s too difficult for me to believably grasp. -Especially, as you observed, in keeping the old characters around. They should be long gone.
It’d be like if a bunch of Nazis got together after WW2 and said, “we don’t care if Hitler’s dead we’re gonna keep fighting!” In that case the allies would have fought them rather than let an outside group of independent citizens form an army to fight them.