ByCharlotteFinn

A skunk in the hedgehog's dilemma

Award winning writer and critic, accountant, and also skunk furry. I write BRAND ECHO with Ing and I write other things at other places. Mostly SFW, but minor DNI anyways



So I've been thinking about why I've been taking a pass on Andor. I think that it's partially because of overhype and the turnoff of a zealous fanbase, but the other factor is this: I don't need any more Star Wars after TLJ.

I recall a thing that blogger John Seavey said way back in the mists of time, about how he felt that maybe there should have only been one Star Wars movie, because every movie after the first one took the limitless unspoken possibilities of the setting and nailed down the canon, bit by bit. It took his imagination and replaced it with someone else's. https://fraggmented.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-personal-star-wars-canon.html

And I broadly feel the same way. I would draw the line at three movies, but I can sometimes see the case for just the one. Three movies that made the setting and story complete and put it away. And to me, it is complete. Anything new that's been added has rung at least a bit sour, and sometimes a lot more than that.

I didn't bother with the prequels after the first one, on the basis of having seen the first one; I consequently have never fully taken it as canon that the Jedi were emotionally stunted bureaucrats. But I acknowledged the narrative tension there, between the prequel Jedi and the mythical Jedi of the OT, who, being so loosely defined, can be mythic warriors of virtue, in tune with the universe with swords of blazing starlight.

And what The Last Jedi does for me is square the circle between those two readings of the Jedi: it grapples with what the prequels were saying but still sees the Jedi as a thing that can be reshaped and reborn and forged anew by the next generation. And the possibilities inherent in that promise are endless. It restored the feeling that anything could be out there; that the universe was huge and expansive and unmapped, and didn't need to be all written down. Anything could happen next. The old feeling? Was back.

And watching any more Star Wars stuff after that? I'd lose that feeling.

And the feeling is more important to me than whatever new canonicity is being added via a dozen D+ shows.


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