Potroclo
Well-Known Member
You couldn't believe how much if you play it with the right people.
I personally got into SW through the WEG RPG first, more than 20 years ago now. It's not that WEG's work captures perfectly the SW universe, the fact is it created most of its early basis. I was hurling thermal detonators at stormtroopers before I even got to see the movies, believe me when I say I've lived in the SW universe, and the friends I played these adventures with we're still like brothers today. (I have to say we live in different countries and make huge efforts to get together and revive our SW at least once a year, that's how dedicated we are and how much WEG and SW marked our youths). That gave us a very buffet-like aproach to everything SW from the very beginning and we recently came back to playing (after an almost 10 year hiatus) thanks to TFA in particular. Yet the buffet aproach might not save you from the disilusion of seeing the universe you've dedicated so much, take a turn you do not like...
I've developped a personal "canon" over the years, which includes the OT, Zhan's material and a couple old videogames, books and comics (all EU, "Legends" now). But not much else really. Yet I have to say I loved TLJ. True, the feeling I got through the whole film is, very much as Inquisitor Peregrinus just said, that it would have heavily benefited from, say, an early private screening with industry professionals (if not selected fans) who could have recomended better editing, just as ANH did and thanks to what it became the historic masterpiece it is. (Lose the cringey Poe-Hux conversation at the beginning, downsize the canto-bight thing, check out the unnecessary Maz Kanata call, use Ackbar with/instead of Holdo... I don't know, make some cuts here and there for better pacing and most consistent story and for *s sake leave the Luke milking seacows scene for the DVD extras: you know a secluded Luke is going to be controversial, there's no need to overdo it!) With some tweaks TLJ would have had way better of a reception. Yet I personally enjoyed it very much, just as I enjoyed the PT when I was a kid or I enjoy now a fanfic short film for example: to me it's just other fans and creators, like me, keeping the SW flame alive, like me and my friends. There's just more money (even whole corporations) behind some of the material.
Still, this:
I believe is still going to happen no matter what. My friends share my view on SW, we've always taken what we liked and ignored the rest, but it didn't prevent a couple of them to be so utterly revolted by the "new" SW that they've baned it from their lives altogether. To this day they still refuse to see TLJ (they got out of the cinema halfway through it) or anything that may come next from the franchise. If it wasn't for the rest of us, with whom they can still share the SW they like, they would have checked completelly out of the fanbase (in their own words).
And I think that's because it's not even the content that matters, it's the meaning behind it. The one thing that upset my friends the most wasn't at all that Luke had became a sullen loner, or the Canto Bight "nonsense" or the bad pacing or anything. It was the use of hyperspace as a weapon. And I think it represents very well the issue. The fact is that, even if they visually, and even plot-wise, recognize it was astounding and very well done, the idea of kamikaze-ing a ship in hyperspace breaks the logic of the Star Wars universe, because, why not simply use the same tactic with the death stars? Why not use that tactic as a solution to every conflict throughout all the movies? And so what's the point in them, then?
Whether this is important or not, what they mean is you can't ignore the new stuff, because it has a ripple effect in all the rest, the lore and the stories told, especially when you, as a storyteller, are backed by the fact you own the franchise in the most real connotation of the term. When you see a fanmade film, there's respect and admiration for the universe it's set in, and if there's not, at least you can just ignore it because it's a fanmade thing. When seeing the new film, they felt Diseny was using and abusing SW just for profit. They can't ignore the afront made, not to them, but to the franchise, and from their point of view, as you can't unsee what has been seen, it tarniches it all, the old and the new.
And as much as I appreciated the effort made by Johnson, trying to introduce new things and all, I do feel he was just given so much freedom because the people on top of the hierarchy didn't really understood what it's all about, they just figured if they put a fan in charge, the fans would like the result. Which comes to say, the people really in charge have no idea what they're doing, and they're doing it wrong. And that's the grudge right there. They've been given something valuable and they are abusing and breaking it for lack of understanding and love for it. The thing in their favor is they've taken a step back since TLJ and seem now to be advancing way more cautiouslly, yet their primal motivation hasn't changed.
This might be overdramatizing, and in the end there's allways the despecialized edition and the fact you cannot change the good material that's already out there even if it is no longer "canon", but it does close the door a bit to new, better material. Don't get me wrong, I still think considering SW dead is overreacting, and though I now consider my buffet aproach a lie to myself, I'll keep it so I always be able to enjoy both the good ol' stuff and the new thing for what it is. I even maintain the hope that future material, like the Cassian and Mando series will be good and enjoyable. But I've come to respect and even support the angry fanbase because you can argue all you like about details, but overall, they are right. So even though some of us are able to pick what we like and shield ourselves from the rest, it is not for everybody, and the ones that can't do it should be respected and supported. Let not this break the fanbase. You'll see, it will get better in the end.
tl,dr; SW WEG RPG is top notch.
