October 30, 2012, will be a day long remembered. It was the day Disney announced a deal to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, which began the death of the Star Wars I knew and loved.
When George Lucas agreed to sell Star Wars for $4.05 billion, with approximately half in cash and the other half in shares of Disney stock, I rejoiced that there would be more Star Wars movies.
I Was Wrong
On April 25, 2014, Disney shot a photon torpedo down the Expand Universe and destroyed it. In that press release, they tried to explain why.
“We have an unprecedented slate of new Star Wars entertainment on the horizon. We’re set to bring Star Wars back to the big screen, and continue the adventure through games, books, comics, and new formats that are just emerging. This future of interconnected storytelling will allow fans to explore this galaxy in deeper ways than ever before.” ~ Kathleen Kennedy
Death of Story, the Birth of Political Agendas
When I first saw the Original Star Wars movies, George Lucas was their creator and storyteller. I was amazed at how strong the original movies were with him at the helm. Disney then took it upon themselves to create more movies about that universe. They thought that they could create movies just as well as George. They were wrong.
What made Star Wars so fun and entertaining were that the movies were like those old fashion Saturday afternoon flicks that adventure and a story to tell since all good movies are strong stories with transformational truths in them.
While Lucas mentioned that the Rebel Alliance was like any number of groups that fight against a tyrannical government (i.e. Americans vs. the British in the American Revolution) there was a story to tell and NOT a political agenda to push.
Then Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) took hold of Star Wars. I should have seen it coming based on other things Disney had been doing, but I thought why pay $4 BILLION for Star Wars only to destroy it?
When you add characters to a film for no other reason than to appease a loud group of politically charged people it is obvious.
Adding Captain Phasma to The Force Awakens was for political reasons. We know from what is now called “Legends” that the Emperor did not like non-male humans. It would only make sense that the First Order, aka the Empire, would continue down that same bias. Yet we have a useless character (at least for the plot) that is introduced and does nothing. She is somewhat of a foil for Finn but when it looks like she died on the Star Killer base, she amazingly shows up again in The Last Jedi to be his foil again and dies yet again.
FN-2187, aka Finn, also was introduced so we could have a character of color. He to would never have been in the Empire’s service as a non-white male. He was born four years after the destruction of the second Death Star. So assuming he was 4 or 5 when he was conscripted, the Empire was shattering but still together.
But the biggest SJW addition to the Star Wars universe has to be Rey, our new main character, and heroine.
Unbelievable Characters
When we first hear Rey speak, she is saving BB8 and uses an alien language. She uses or understands at least four yet we never see any backstory as to why. This is especially troubling since she lives alone. Where did she learn all these languages? It’s possible from the trading post, but we don’t see any Wookies there but she can understand Chewbacca.
She is also one that does not need anyone’s help; to fix things, escape, pilot, etc.
She is also able to fix anything without anyone’s help such as the Millennium Falcon.
For someone that is petrified to leave the planet, she is an amazing pilot.
Her ability to go from zero Force ability to being able to best Kylo Ren screams of “girl power.”
When we meet Luke in the Original Trilogy, we see him getting some training from Obi-Wan. Anakin in The Phantom Menace was shown to be able to podrace and then had his blood tested for midichlorians (yes- a dumb thing done in the Prequels, right up there with Jar Jar).
There is no such hint about Rey.
Then in The Last Jedi, it is revealed that she and Kylo Ren are power ultra-powerful Force users. With Kylo, we can understand since Vader was his grandfather and Luke his uncle. Still nothing about Rey. If we are to believe Kylo, her parents were “filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money.”
New Trilogy Equals The Old
The way The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi steal the plot line and scenes from the Original Trilogy is amazing and sickening. If there any creativity left in Hollywood? They took almost the entire flow of the movies from the Originals, mashed them together, added political correctness and a pro-SJW agenda and served it up to a Star Wars starved population.
We know that when JJ Abrams rebooted Star Trek, he made an updated version of the original movies.
He did the same thing with Star Wars but he didn’t give us the backstory for the characters.
There Still Is Hope
With the backlash against Solo: A Star Wars Story by the core Star Wars fan base, Star Wars spin-off movies have been “put on hold.”
Hopefully, by putting these on hold, it will give them time to create real stories and not another political propaganda film.
I want Star Wars to continue. I have written Bible Studies about the films and will be releasing a daily devotional that pulls quotes from all 10 live action films.
I truly hope and pray that this devotional project gets a divine touch from God. I know Star Wars is changing under Disney’s control, but the story still resonates with people and when that happens, it can become a powerful way to connect with them and share the Gospel.
While I can empathize with the loss of the expanded universe, I feel the need to disagree on a few points.
Star Wars has always been political. The Original Trilogy was about an oppressive government. Darth Vader as “more machine than man” (along with many other symbols) showed the pitfall of a government with too much order and too little flexibility. Decades later, while the United States was fighting two wars and passing laws like the Patriot Act, the Prequel Trilogy showed the folly of war and how we surrender freedom for the perception of safety. The Clone Wars cartoon, also overseen by Lucas, double downed on the political commentary.
I propose that Star Wars has not become political. Rather, the audience (myself included) has become far more sensitive in an increasingly polarized culture. Including more women and people of color is simply normal or should be normal. To exclude them or feel the need to justify including them is also political bias. (I agree the films under-utilized Phasma, and you make a good point saying she’s pretty much just a foil for Finn.)
I understand your concern that their inclusion in the First Order is contrary to Palpatine’s prejudice (per Legends). In the newer material, which Timothy Zahn’s “Thrawn” novel portrays excellently, instead of white privilege, the Empire has a serious human privilege problem (and there is also an elitism related to one’s home planet’s proximity to the galactic core.) Hence, it appears the story group has decided to show the evils of racism and systemic injustice in a symbolic fashion, which is extremely common in science fiction. Like Nathan’s story to David regarding Uriah, we find using allegory can help a person see their faults, so I don’t begrudge Lucasfilm for addressing prejudice in this way.