I believe you misread my post. I have no problems with putting a limit on the time period associated with ROTJ's "happy ever after ending" and continuing the story by having new challenges and struggles for our heroes. No problems whatsoever. But why not allow them to face these new challenges as themselves, instead of alternate versions of their characters?
When they made Crystal Skull, I had problems with the story. But at least Indy was Indy. Yes, older, slower, but HE WAS STILL INDY. Luke doesn't act like Luke. Han was a washed up shell of a man.
Secondly, I have zero problems with any of the main characters dying. I only regret them doing so in this case because they're dying after their characters were handled so badly, and the deaths mean this can't be corrected in an upcoming episode.
So, here's the thing. I think that the behavior of the characters fits...if you accept the preceding events in their lives and what that would do to them. The tragedy of Ben's fall to the Dark Side is what destroys the characters. This boy who was loved but misserved by his family basically destroyed that family, as each member failed him. His father was absent. His mother sent him away to an uncle who tried to kill him (from his perspective).
Now take each of those characters and spin out what would happen. Each blames themselves and retreats from aspects of their former selves. Luke shuts down the academy, travels to Ach-To, realizes that the Jedi and Sith have been at this same game for 100s of years, and resolves to end it all there, cut off from the galaxy. He views his own failure as the reason for the current state of the galaxy, and thinks the best thing he can do for everyone is to just live out his days on the island until he dies.
Han goes back to the life he knew as a smuggler, because it's familiar. It's comfortable. It may not make him truly happy, but it doesn't make him sad the way being around Leia would. Maybe he blamed Leia for sending Ben away to train, maybe he blamed himself for not stopping it. Maybe it's a mix. Either way, he's back on his own, doing his smuggler thing. Chewie goes with him because of the life debt.
Leia retreats to her world of politics, perhaps believing that's the only thing she's really good at. But she's no longer a princess. Now she's a general. She's
THE general. But "The General" is a mask for her. It's a role, and she hides behind it. She's not Leia. She's The General. Or General Organa, I suppose.
The thing to remember is that all of this is because of a family tragedy involving Ben -- Luke's nephew, Han and Leia's son. Ben's fall broke them utterly. And what we see in TFA/TLJ is where they are after (6? 7? Not sure) years of living with being broken.
Now, it's true, we could've had those characters not change all that much. They could've been basically just older/wiser versions of their ROTJ selves, doing basically the same thing, but facing new crises. I think that would've been....fine. It would've been familiar and comforting, but also it wouldn't have been all that interesting. And I actually think it sets up some real complications for writing the story going forward.
If we're to assume that the main characters from the OT are basically just older/wiser versions of themselves, that would suggest that they hadn't had anything particularly bad happen to them, which in turn would suggest that the First Order was basically unknown. Probably also that there is an entire new generation of Jedi Knights trained by Luke, so figure at least another 10-30 people with Jedi powers at this point. Which in turn raises the question of how they get defeated, how the First Order comes to pose such a threat, etc. You could tell a story about that, with the First Order basically representing an invading force that threatens the New Republic, but now you're getting pretty close to EU territory. Not awful, but basically just more of the same.
Again, I think that would've been...you know, fine. Not objectionable. But it might also have played out like big budget fan fiction. TFA already was accused of playing like that. TLJ goes in a
radically different direction, I think, and ultimately, it's one that I enjoy because I
don't know what's going to happen next. I can guess, sure, but given what happened with TLJ, I have no idea.
I thought with TLJ that Luke's chat about balance between dark and light would lead to "Grey Jedi" of sorts. I was wrong. I thought Rey would be revealed as having some complicated backstory to her parentage (e.g., Kenobi's secret granddaughter). I was wrong. (Well, so far. JJ could retcon Kylo's big reveal, but I don't think he will.) I'm glad for that. I like that the film surprised me, because it means that there's still stories to tell in this universe where I can't guess the ending just through being steeped in the pre-existing material from the universe.
Basically, I think there's two schools of thought about this. Some people really enjoy having a familiar story be told. One where they know how it's gonna play out, where there's a degree of certainty and familiarity. I enjoy that kind of entertainment. (I mean, come on, I'm a Stargate SG-1 fan, and I've been digging Supernatural, now that I'm getting into it.) I enjoy the "mind meld" I get with these kinds of entertainment where I can guess the next line from a character because I just "get" the writers and their voice. That's fun for me. And I think it's fun for other folks, too, probably. I want "new" entertainment, but I want it in a familiar, somewhat predictable form. Show me who the monster is this week, and let me watch the story play out. Maybe throw one or two curve balls, but otherwise, stick to the formula. I don't think any of that is bad. BUT I do think it has a limited appeal. Shows like that tend to either require major "resets" or end up feeling like they're doing the same thing over and over again, or they just "embiggen" what came before. So, ok, Apophis is dead, but now we have ANUBIS! OH NOES!!! And then he's dead and we have...uh....NEW even MORE powerful faux gods! It's still fun, but it's ultimately unsustainable.
The other school of thought is where you try to identify what is truly the
soul of your work, and retain...only that. And you're otherwise willing to destroy the layers of expectation that fans have built upon that soul, in order to keep things fresh and interesting. You make your work unpredictable, but you do it in a way that retains the core of what your story is about. Not necessarily
whom it is about, but
what it is about. What the messages are, what the core beliefs are, and that's what you focus on. I think TLJ did that. But I also think that after 40 years of Star Wars in pop culture, there's a LOT that's been layered overtop the soul of the work, to the point where many people take that layered material and treat it as the soul. I'm sympathetic to that view, although I don't agree with it personally.
From a business perspective, I think if you really want to build a franchise, and one that will last a long time, possibly for multiple generations, you have to take the latter approach. The former ends up with diminished returns, and as the soul is lost (especially in favor of the layered stuff), the franchise becomes unrecognizable.
I think if you took a hardcore Star Trek fan from the 1960s/70s, before there was anything other than TOS, and showed them JJ Trek or any of the nuTrek movies...they would find the new material barely recognizable. Not just because of the f/x and the pacing, but because the
soul of Trek is just...gone, I think. It's fundamentally about something else now. It's no longer exploration and wonder and discovery. It's about something else. That something else isn't necessarily
bad, but it's not the soul of what made Trek what it was.
I think TLJ retains the soul of Star Wars, which is about the struggle between good and evil, the heroism of the every(wo)man, all tinged with a vaguely Eastern-philosophy-influenced version of mysticism. Obviously, you still need the trappings of the series (lightsabres, blasters, space combat that plays out like WWII naval/aerial engagements), but the
core of Star Wars is about the above.
Now, the really interesting thing that
may happen to the franchise is that we might get a divergence where the
saga films become all about the "soul" of Star Wars as I've identified it, whereas the "story" films are allowed to deviate from that and focus on other stuff, but all occurring within the settings of the Star Wars universe. That, I think, would give us the best of both worlds. We'll see how it plays out.
facepalm
