Studio Respawn is developing a Star Wars video game set, supposedly, within the Mandalorian storyline. Said to be a first person video game, likely a shooter, with its mechanics focused on mobility and speed.
The experience of actively watching each new Star Wars film has, to my joyous mind, evaded me entirely. I say that not to dismiss the entertainment some Star Wars fans might get from the movies, but because it seems to me, much akin to the nature of super hero movies, that the consistent watching of these films begs a viewer to also participate in the shows, and that begs, at least in part, participation in the video games.
At the end of it all, you either have to love being a slave to the franchise or you’re really not using your time wisely at all. This, in principle, is the main argument I can construct with regards to not spending any time on Star Wars. But as it pertains to a pragmatic view anyone can get behind: this stuff is just boring now.
I was never a Star Wars fan growing up. I wasn’t even ten years of age when the prequels came to theaters, and even though I enjoyed watching them at a child, I still knew within a few years that it wasn’t anything to dedicate my life to. And I knew that because I didn’t remember having much love for the prequels despite my enjoyment in watching them.
The idea that anyone could be as big a fan as some people claimed they were confused me until I watched the original trilogy as an adult. The sheer difference in story telling qualities between those three films and everything that came after them is staggering. It became apparent to me after watching them that, yes, people truly did have a reason to cling to the art as much as they did, and it would be fairly ignorant to assume that the prequels were what spawned that much dedication.
As it happens, I have my own piece of art that follows this quality in The Last Airbender. I genuinely believe it is one of the greatest shows ever made, and I watch it at least once a year. It takes no effort to to immerse myself in the writing and character development that’s on display in that show, but there are a few reasons for that beyond quality artistry on the part of everyone involved in ATLA’s making that aren’t immediately obvious.
Since I first watched that show as a child, it has become easy for me to contextualize certain aspects of ATLA that people who watch the show for the first time as adults might write off. This is especially true for the first season, which swung in the direction of “kids show” much harder than the second and third.
Additionally, I can watch ATLA for what it is without anything extra thrown on top. I see a show when I watch the show because that’s what it is. That’s all it is. Star Wars fans are forced to see a Disney-faced money-hungry franchise when they do anything related to Star Wars, because that’s what it is. That’s all it is.
This might change in the future, what with Netflix producing the live action show. We’ll see if it becomes a corpo-nightmare, but for the time being, it’s still relatively untouched, notwithstanding the narrative nightmare that is The Legend of Korra. There’s also that live action movie that tried it’s best (and failed rather miserably) at capturing the essence of what makes the show worthwhile. But we don’t talk about that.
On the subject of Korra, her show actually serves as a pretty good mirror to what I’m talking about with Star Wars. Watching Korra as your first Avatar show instead ATLA is akin to watching the prequels as an introduction to your Star Wars journey instead of watching the original trilogy: You’ll be entertained, but you’ll wonder how anyone can be obsessed with anything related to the series.
Inversely, if you start with ATLA and end with Korra, you’ll be an Avatar lover who wonders how anyone can stomach Korra in the face of ATLA’s quality.
And now we’ve returned to my original question: How are you not bored of Star Wars? The original trilogy is never going to be matched. The audio design, the acting, the inventive storytelling, the lightning in a bottle cast and characters: they’re all gone, and you know they’re all gone. Or, at the very least, they’ve been degraded to the point of being unrecognizable through years of recycling. Either way, you are aware of the lack of quality inherent in the content you’re digesting.
Hell, even with the video games being produced, this rings true. The original Battlefront games, the Jedi games, and Commando: those classic titles aren’t going to be beat no matter how pretty the graphics or snappy the movement systems are, so what’s the deal? What’s the point in slaving away for a franchise that only exists to poke and prod your nostalgia goggles for cash?
TLDR; Respawn may or may not make a decent FPS Star Wars game, but this is besides the point. The point is that you should be bored of Star Wars. Your passion for the original trilogy is being harnessed against you by a corporation who cannot make original art for their lives, and the commitment you have in giving them your money represents borderline mental illness and is entirely embarrassing. Knock it off.
GLHF,
-E