I was kind of hoping it'd be closer to ROTJ than TFA, or that the series would serve to really kind of fill in the gaps between the two trilogies the way TCW filled in the gap between AOTC and ROTS, and the way Rebels fills in the gaps (some of them) between ROTS and ANH. Maybe they will but if the Resistance is already formed, it makes me wonder.
I feel like this is the show they should have done instead of Rebels, and then maybe done Rebels now. The novel Bloodline takes place roughly five years before TFA. From how things are in it, it seems like the "happily ever after" of ROTJ is still largely intact. Luke is still around, Ben is still training with him, Han and Leia are more together than not, Leia's still a senator, and the First Order has yet to go public. It's toward the end of the book that everything starts to go wrong. Leia's true paternity is revealed, so no one takes her seriously when she warns about the First Order, and so she quits and forms the Resistance.
Even with things like Shattered Empire, the Aftermath trilogy, and Inferno Squad's storyline in BF2, there's still so much yet to be revealed from that quarter-century span, but whatever happens in there, it doesn't seem to permanently affect Our Heroes or the larger galactic setting. So this series, picking up as Leia's forming the Resistance and trying to learn more about the First Order, is perfect for setting up the ST and actually potentially answering all those questions TFA didn't address at all. No the First Order isn't the Empire. So what are they instead? No Snoke isn't Sith. So what is he instead? How did Ben find out about the Vader-Leia revelation and what was his reaction? At what point exactly did he actually turn and become Kylo? How long after did Luke walk away? There was a
lot of needed context that should have set up TFA. If it had started somewhere within the narrative of Bloodline, (with the ending of ROTJ still largely intact), it would have worked better as a transition piece from the OT.
But it didn't, and hopefully this series will.
I am
also still hopeful that there will be another animated or live-action series forthcoming earlier in that quarter-century desert. Rebels, Shattered Empire, Aftermath: Empire's End, and BF2 set things up and tease too well to just leave it for books and comics to fill in. Hera, Jacen, Sabine, Palpatine's Observatories, the founding of Luke's academy, etc. Something that picks up about 8-10 years in. Jacen would be a teenager (and possibly one of Luke's students, possibly also one that goes with Ben and becomes a Knight of Ren), Rey's born 11 years into this period, and I still don't believe her parents were "nobodies", let alone broke scavengers -- that's just what she believes after being forced to confront her abandonment. I don't want her to be a Skywalker..
Maybe distantly a Kenobi... And I know the argument about everything in Star Wars being connected a little too closely (thank you Prequels), but I want her parents to have been involved in the struggle in
some way, and hid her on Jakku for her protection, fully intending to come back for her, but prevented.
So we'll have to just see. About Resistance, about Jon Favreau's live-action series, about standalone films, about another animated series in another 6 years or so, about whether they do more numbered episodes past IX... *sigh* I
do still strongly feel lit's a misstep, first on George's part, now on LFL's in honoring his bad judgment, to have the numbered films be "the Skywalker Saga" instead of "the
Star Wars Saga", of which The Adventures of Luke Skywalker was only a part. Rogue One and Solo fit in the numbered sequence. A Kenobi film would, too. I wish they'd heed their most recent film's advice and uncouple themselves from that notion that the numbered Saga is the Skywalker story. Let the past die -- kill it if you have to. IMO, slavish devotion to the Word of George does more harm to Star Wars than good, long-term. He's a gloriously rich idea mine, but he can't write. LFL has already shown they'll honor his wishes except where they don't. This should be one of those departures...
--Jonah