The talk about Tolkien and Grey Jedi makes me realize the biggest problem with modern storytelling is the either emotional or political refusal to have a clear good that isn't a blatant real world parallel.
It depends. With the Jedi Order, they're good, but they're not the wisest. As in, they're flawed good. Grey Jedi are mostly just posers who whine about both sides yet accomplish little on their own. Kreia and Jolee were pretty much just hanging around until Revan and the Exile came along, and they just mooched off those two.
It's the 13 year old idea that everything sucks so nothing is allowed to be called good, except for your mary sue who is allowed to say fuck you to every faction, and is above morality.
That's pretty much the problem some people have with Ahsoka. Although I haven't seen her shit-talk the Rebellion/New Republic, so that's an exception. Especially since she worked for them in the new lore. So maybe she's a Rebellion/New Republic simp now?
Another huge problem is that the original target audience who were kids in the 80s at one point grew up and expected Star Wars to grow up with them in so much as becoming more cynical and downbeat by reality, when a large part of SW is being a story that can resonate with who Lucas calls "young people". Disney's shit is giving the manchildren exactly what they want. Again, don't these manchildren know they make movies for adults? Or do they just wanna soyface about Star Wars for the rest of their lives?
That pretty much is why some parts of the EU and some of the new Disney canon today decided to go for the cynical route. The fans grew up, and having this standard GI Joe storyline of clear-cut good vs. evil just wouldn't cut it for them.
But to be fair, some of the best Star Wars content did draw upon that kind of cynicism and maturity to add flavor to the story. KOTOR 2, for instance, was very pessimistic. You're one of the few remaining Jedi after the war, people are hopeless and depressed, a lot of folks hate your guts and see all Force-users as trouble, the Sith are still out there killing people, many lives were destroyed by the war and those that survived are still struggling to make a living, but it's how you deal with that darkness that counts.
And of course, lots of stories featuring Imperial characters as the POV guys were obviously very dark, as in, you have a villain protagonist as the main character, and they navigate things like power politics and the use of brutality with their usual flair, usually dealing with naive hero-types and crushing the fuck out of them and their dreams. Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader and Darth Vader: The Lost Command deal with this. Garoche Tarkin and Olee Starstone both fight against the titular Dark Lord because they have an idealistic view of the universe (Olee wants to find other Jedi and rebuild the Jedi Order, Garoche wants to run away from daddy with his new alien girlfriend because daddy and his friends are meanies) and Vader crushes their hopes and dreams like crushing a bug.
I believe that if AOTC was shot today with modern cameras and had modern CGI it would be one of the best looking Star Wars films. Instead it looks like a daytime soap opera with PS2 cutscene graphics because the cameras/technology they used were just way too primitive.
I don't remember people complaining about that when it first came out. Sure, they were bored shitless with the soap opera part, but the CGI parts and the battles were well-received. In fact, the duel between Dooku and Yoda had the crowds cheering when they first saw it on opening night. People were bored for a good part of the film, but the final battle had them leaving the theater with huge smiles on their faces and them wanting to see it again.
George's writing can be awkward as shit with moments of greatness. One of the few good things Lawrence Kasdan did for SW was write the dialogue and give it more polish while still feeling like Star Wars, but that guy needs to stay the hell away from the actual story. AOTC also had a co-writer too but it was some guy who's name I can't remember and that no one has heard from before or since.
That's because Kasdan was good at polishing the dialogue, not making the actual story.
One of my problems is that in Disney Wars none of the characters talk the way they do in George's Star Wars, which was in a very specific way. Very much not like modern people on our world do. Now everyone sounds like fucking MCU character.
Well, that's because the modern audience are MCU fans. So no shit, they would tailor these films and shows to appeal to that kind of goomba, because that's where the money is. With Disney, it's a money game, just like almost everything is for most big corporations.
I remember a conversation in the Amazon TV show
The Boys which sums it up well:
Butcher: "So it's just business then, is it?"
Stan Edgar: "When in history, Mr. Butcher, has it ever been about anything else?"
