For me, Han got the worst of it. Leia is leading a Resistance, Luke became like his masters, Han just... went back to smuggling? He's not even like... that good at it? I think he's given the most screentime so you can empathize with him more, but in terms of doing ANYTHING with the character, I think only his attempt to reach out to Ben was substantial.

Not putting all three OG characters onscreen, together, was such a colossally absurd choice it barely warrants a discussion... but that's never stopped fans.

I'm OK with taking characters into the future and showing them not quite where fandom expected them to be, but you have to at least somewhat balance that against who these characters are, what they've meant to generations of audiences, how long it's been since they shared the screen together, and so forth. I get that Luke, Leia, & Han spent most of the original trilogy apart (Luke mostly, with Han & Leia together), but from a meta perspective this was a golden cinematic opportunity that was shot to hell fairly quickly (and irrevocably with Fisher's death).

Personally I've wanted to see Luke Skywalker, Jedi Grand Master in his live-action prime since 1983. Instead, TLJ gave us an old, bitter, broken man who turned his back on the world and his order. That was a BOLD move, and I thought a fascinating one. Maybe it would have paid off better if we had seen Luke in his "Jedi Grand Master live action prime" previously. But fans were cheated of that... at least until the final episode of Mandalorian Season 2.

And that's what fans wanted to see. For decades. And the journey from THAT Luke to the Luke of TLJ makes for some interesting storytelling.

But then the "oh I had a vision that my nephew was an evil dick, so instead of trying to redeem him like I did with my Dad I tried to kill him, and so he went apeshit and destroyed the New Jedi Order, and I felt like a failure and went into hiding forever" backstory happened...

In other words, I didn't mind where Luke was, but the reason why he was there was subpar.

Yeah, the grumpy hermit angle could have worked if they had maybe set up a six film story from the start, maybe even let us see the fall of Kylo Ren and Luke's descent and return being a Jedi Master.

The first sequel trilogy film probably should have started out with the New Jedi Order at its highest, so we could have seen all of what we were looking for. Then I guess end with the Luke/Kylo confrontation and destruction, the rise of the New Order. Then maybe setting the next film like 5 years later and introduce Ray and Finn, show Luke exiled, Han & Leia separated, and sort of proceed from there without any of this Starkiller Base nonsense.

Then maybe end the trilogy somehow with Ray & Kylo abandoning both the Jedi and the Sith and forming a new Force Order, thus truly bringing "balance" or whatever to The Force and fulfilling the Jedi prophecy that started with Anakin.

Good idea, bad idea, whatever, but what we ended up with was ultimately unsatisfying. A lot of potential and intriguing storylines/characters and then... kerplat.

I think I’ve mentioned this before but I can’t help wonder how badass a moment it would have been if Luke, in his return as a Jedi master, was the one to say the line, “…and I am all the Jedi!” as he defeated Palpatine at the end of Rise of Skywalker instead of Rey.

I know, I know, the sequel trilogy was about Rey’s journey. But Rey’s journey was shit. It was a series of dead ends and missteps. In a few more years no one will even remember Rey, Finn, and Poe. Han, Luke, and Leia will stay in the public lexicon for decades.

About half way through force awakens I knew Luke fans were in trouble. Where is he? Is he just going to be a cameo at the end? Yup, sure enough.

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At the midnight showing I went to opening night right when the first credit appeared on screen a dude stood up and yelled "Is that all we get?" loudly. He was visibly pissed.

The real problem is Star Wars is so big that everyone on the planet has an idea of what they want, or how this should have been different here, Rey should have done this, Last Jedi could have taken this route, etc., so nothing will ever meet anyone's expectations.

I think the ONLY thing ALL fans agree on is not reuniting Luke, Leia and Han was a fucking travesty and the biggest failing of the ST.

Feel like Abrams should get a lot of the blame for the ST. He couldn't figure out how to fit Luke in Episode 7 and like all his other projects he starts, just handed it off to others to deal with it and figure it out.

I think there's a pretty wide baseline of expectations and just general filmmaking rules that could be agreed upon. Lucasfilm chose to ignore all of that, and still does. Ten years ago when this whole acquisition and sequel trilogy relaunch was announced, nobody would've predicted it would end this poorly, I certainly didn't.

It wouldn't surprise me if Disney chose to make a live action series about the Jedi Order's fall... sure, I'd watch, but ultimately this whole shebang ends with an unsatisfactory defeat of Palpatine... again.

well, in all fairness cocaine killed Leia Organa.

Disney has yet to make a prestige Star Wars TV show.

Andor potentially could be, given the freedom to create fresh storylines, canon, and be darker. Whereas the others are more constrained by existing canon.

The whole "mission for the day" episodic concept has plagued Rebels, Bad Batch, Mandalorian, Boba, and Obi so far. There needs to be a Star Wars show that builds a long over-arching story within itself like the better TV shows do.

Not Marvel-like cameo appearances between the shows, or of well-known SW film characters, and those meandering filler mission episodes. But something that bleeds into each following episode as it builds a meaningful tale.

^^ Disney is too worried about trying to be everything for everyone. Sure, it's SW and that's wonderful. But when you jam children in or social issues or nostalgia just to be nostalgic, it makes me wish they never bought the IP. I loved how gritty Rogue One was... heck, I'll give Obi Wan Ep 3 some credit for going there too. More of that please and less of the foolish kidnappers or bungling slow speed chases by buffoonish caricatures of "bad guys".

And see I thought Disney saved Star Wars after Lucas himself drove it into the ground with three atrocious prequels. They got me excited about it again.

I hated Abrams' Star Trek films as was worried once it was announced that he was directing The Force Awakens. I ended up loving it and was excited for Star Wars for the first time since 1983. I also loved Rogue One...and then The Last Jedi happened. I also hated The Rise Of Skywalker and decided I was done and that I wasn't going to bother anymore with Star Wars. I did end up watching the first three episodes of The Mandalorian and decided I was right the first time. I haven't watched anything since. I have the despecialized versions of the OT on BD that a friend made me so those films will have to do.

The prequels were pretty awful but at least they had a plan and a decent overall storyline across three movies. The stories were told badly, but the plots and characters were mostly solid. I was mostly onboard with Disney Star Wars until Force Awakens was a New Hope rehash. Liked it though, and loved Rogue One. TLJ on though, the cracks started showing, and Rise of Skywalker, oy.

Best thing to do is pull a Next Generation and move Star Wars forward like a thousand years or something.

And I thought that Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker were so far above the prequels in quality they might as well have be from a different movie universe.

That's why I'm liking Obi-Wan so much - they actually did something good with the character after he was truly terrible in the prequels.

After seeing Maverick a second time I got to thinking about what if TFA followed that model. Luke being the central focus, with a dozen students in their 20's who aren't new, but still learning. The New Republic thinks they don't need the Jedi anymore, but a new threat arises.. and they call on them again. Luke would become a supporting character as the trilogy progressed, and some of the students would emerge as our new leads. Trilogy ends, streaming spinoffs of many of those new characters start... 5yrs later you get the next trilogy. It's really great in my own imagined SW universe.

The adventures that I would have with my little brother and the neighbors playing with our action figures in the 1980's were better than what we got with the Sequel Trilogy.

truth. I particularly liked the middle part of my personal trilogy when Luke, Han, and Chewy took a bath together and my penis was a gonk droid.

Still sounds better than The Last Jedi.

I like that a big studio bought SW and is putting out a lot of stuff as opposed to it all ending with George. Just the output has been very hit and miss so far. Either whole shows/movies, or parts therein. Just hoping they hit a groove sooner than later, start exploring other ideas and eras.

It is interesting (without spoiling it) both movies ripped off the original Star Wars. One just did it a little better than the other, I guess, so it gets a pass?